May Day Recollection:
The Seabrook Occupation today
There are a lot of reasons to celebrate on May Day. For over 100 years it has been known around the world as International Workers Day. Since 2006, the day has become the rallying cry for immigrant rights. But this year, my thoughts turn to thirty years ago at Seabrook, New Hampshire. On May 1, 1977, more than 1400 people were arrested for occupying the Seabrook nuclear power plant construction site, using direct action to defeat a dangerous and expensive technology.
Many activists spent days and weeks in jail (actually, National Guard armories). It was the beginning of a popular movement that spread nationwide, based on democratic decision-making and mass participation. By 1978, there were a dozen groups around Connecticut that had joined Clamshell Alliance, educating themselves and the public, ready to engage in direct action again and again to stop the Seabrook nuke.
The Clam had its problems; every movement does. But it was a powerful, formative period in my life. My outreach work to labor unions began here, as did my understanding of corporate power and my commitment to nonviolent direct action as a tool for change.
I can’t write about this stuff without referring to Millstone 2 and 3, the two nukes that still operate in our back yard. The catastrophic cost of a meltdown at those plants could cause 40,000 early fatalities, 71,000 cancer deaths, cost $300 billion in cleanup and healthcare and leave large parts of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Long Island uninhabitable. A little research goes a long way, so check out the 1996 Time Magazine cover story to read their chilling expose of Millstone dangers and industry cover ups.
For more information about the dangers of nuclear power, go to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). To learn more about what's happening in Connecticut, check out The Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone (CCAM).
Did the anti-nuclear power movement of the 70s and 80s make a difference? You decide: not one new nuke has been licensed since we took over the Seabrook site in 1977. Despite the agenda of George Bush and the energy industry to tout nuclear power as a solution to global warming (!) a new environmental movement is forming at an amazing pace. That makes me very proud and hopeful. I hope they learn from our victories and our mistakes.
To learn more about the Clamshell Alliance, visit the website we have created to collect the stories and lessons of our organization. It’s called To the Village Square, which comes from Albert Einstein’s 1946 quote: “To the village square we must carry the facts of atomic energy. From there must come America’s voice.”
