Twilly Cannon

Twilly Cannon is a lifelong practitioner and teacher of non-violent direct action. He dates his involvement in the environmental and human rights movement to 1970 when he helped organize the first Earth Day. During his college years at Evergreen he was involved in anti-nuclear and anti-Trident campaigns. He participated in many large-scale occupations of nuclear facilities after college. In 1983 he spent a year doing medical relief in war-torn Nicaragua. Returning to the Seattle, he joined Greenpeace as a volunteer, spent two years captain the Greenpeace ship Vega, and was then named as the national director of Greenpeace’s direct action unit. He went on to work for Greenpeace International, again in its direct action unit. Among his numerous actions he has taken a mini-sub into a Russian nuclear dump, intercepted a secret nuclear dump in the Sea of Japan, hung a 16,000 square foot banner on Sugarloaf at the Earth Summit, and has flown an Earth-shaped balloon over the Taj Mahal to protest nuclear testing. He lives in Missoula, Montana.