FROM SOUTH MEETING HOUSE, SEABROOK, NH

By Robert Renny Cushing

 Building and operating an atomic plant on an earthquake fault in Seabrook, in a densely populated area just 45 miles from Boston, and requiring ratepayers throughout to New England to pay for it, is an assault on the health, safety and economy of our region. The nuclear industry shattered the very foundation of our democracy, home rule through New England Town Meeting. In 1976, the people of Seabrook voted against having an atomic plant in their town, but it was forced on them. Ten years later, towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire near the plant voted against an emergency evacuation plan that can never work. But with the aid of nuclear industry lapdogs governor John Sununu and other corrupt politicians, the NRC approved a plan that does not protect the people from the nuclear plant. It protects the nuclear owners and financiers from the will of the people. Time and again political intervention violated the integrity of legal licensing proceedings and deprived the people of their right to due process. Read the rest of this entry »

On being a nuclear flak

By Wes Blixt

 I was a nuclear flak.

 From an industry perspective, I was neither well-prepared nor eager to promote the magic of nuclear power . . . and, it certainly was NOT what I had signed on to do when I went to work for the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company – MMWEC – in February, 1977.

 Like my many of my friends and colleagues at MMWEC, my mission was to promote public ownership and community control of a vital service. MMWEC, created by the legislature as a political subdivision of the Commonwealth only months earlier, represented a new model for public ownership through the use of tax-exempt revenue bonds. For young lefties like me, MMWEC offered a glimpse at the future of public ownership. Read the rest of this entry »

How Ya Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm?

By Kristie Conrad

I grew up smack in south central NH, in dairy country, where we would often awaken to find cows had once again broken through the fence and generously left behind evidence of their presence all over our front lawn. I grew up sheltered from the harshness of much of life, though I do remember that day when Ward McAllister’s brother returned home in a pine box from Vietnam. It was an awakening that ended some of my innocence Read the rest of this entry »

GLOUCESTER RESISTANCE

by Jay Gustaferro as told to Sharon Tracy

Gloucester resistance to the Seabrook nuke is amazingly broad-based, from ditch diggers to college professors, and even a disillusioned NRC official. One active group was the Fishermen’s Wives Association, formed because the men were out to sea so much of the time and needed a group to speak for their interests. They were astute and energetic, Read the rest of this entry »

THE WALL STREET ACTION:Taking It to the Next Level

By Cindy Girvani Leerer

            Many of us in the antinuclear movement were not just environmental activists concerned about the health, safety, and environmental effects of nuclear power. The struggle against nuclear power was not just about nuclear technology; it was, and continues to be, about centralized power that places the rights of corporations and the quest for profits above the rights, health, and well-being of people. Read the rest of this entry »