Tuesday, August 19, 2014

On the record with… Greenpeace activist Peter Willcox

You can't call what Peter Willcox does country club activism. In his 40 years of environmental work, he's seen a colleague die at the hands of a foreign power, and—a year ago—spent weeks inside a Russian jail for his commitment to his causes. In late July, Willcox, 61, was relaxing on the island with his wife, Maggy, enjoying a few weeks of down time before returning to his work with the international environmental activist group Greenpeace. Willcox captains Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior vessel. A native of Norwalk, Conn., he found himself in 1973 with a draft number as high as they get—No. 1—as the Vietnam War and draft continued, meaning he would get called up in the next round. A registered conscientious objector, he signed on to work on the Clearwater, the famed sloop that raised awareness about pollution on the Hudson River. The late folksinger Pete Seeger often worked and sang on the boat. Willcox and Maggy met on the Clearwater; he became captain in 1975 and she joined as cook. But it was only a few years ago that they married. After six years of sailing up and down the river, he wanted a change and joined Greenpeace in 1981. Rainbow Warrior landed at a Russian oil platform in the Arctic on Sept. 19, 2013 and the crew climbed onto the rig and hung banners. Russian officials arrested them and charged them with piracy, holding them in jail for two months. The Working Waterfront sat down with him in the couple's cozy island home...more

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