Clamshell Alliance

By Winona LaDuke   

I remember the early morning at Seabrook, and my time in Boston. I remember the smell of the ocean and the mist on my face, and I remember faces and smells, and through that the courageous souls who helped me shape my own humanity.  I know that what we all did changed history.

Seabrook was my first anti nuclear demonstration at a nuclear power plant. I knew little about the east coast, New Hampshire seemed far away from my dorm room at Harvard,or for that matter my parents home three thousand miles away,  but I understood fundamentally that the questions being asked by the activists were the same questions we were asking in our own Indigenous territories- Who gave them the right to poison us?  And how will we stop them?  Read the rest of this entry »

Carlene Peruse, Diane Garand, Tony and Louisa Santasucci

Robbie Leppzer, in his film Seabrook 77, interviewed Seabrook residents; following are excerpts.

 Carlene Peruse:

I have lived in Seabrook all of my life and I am all against the nuclear plant. I don’t want it; we don’t need it and we’re in hopes of stopping it.

My first thought, of course, is the radiation. I have children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. It won’t affect me so much, at my age, I’m 62, but the younger ones growing up, I’m afraid it definitely will. We took up a petition and had it put on the ballot. “Should there be a nuclear power plant in Seabrook?” The vote came out 768 “no” and 632 “yes. The selectman called it non-binding. Read the rest of this entry »

How the Clamshell Alliance Got Its Name

By Renny Cushing

 The Clamshell Alliance got its name from the testimony of a SAPL witness, who testified that one of the effects of the cooling system, a total mortality system taking in more than a billion gallons of water a day, could destroy the “neuritic band” of pelagic clam larvae. By the way, the Clams can and do rightly claim a huge impact on the, I hope, permanent demise of nuclear power in this country. They cannot, however, claim one thing that SAPL achieved: the actual cessation of construction of the project – all
over the issue of the environmental impact of the cooling system.

CLAM SELF-DEFENSE AND LAWYERS

By Benjie Hiller

            For me, working with Clamshell, first as a law student and then as a lawyer, was a remarkable experience. I was involved in the planning of actions and with legal training for demonstrators and legal workers. I met with and advised folks who had been arrested, both during and after their arrests. I assisted folks in preparing for court hearings, helped them draft pleadings, and sat with them as an advisor at trial. Thirty years later, nothing has even come close to how Read the rest of this entry »

INSIDE: Manchester Days

Karl Meyer

All did not come together easily.  No food had been stockpiled for prisoners.  Upon arrival Francis Crowe looked around and said to a friend, “Let’s put up a table and share all the food we have in our packs.” The National Guard guards were grand kids compared to the 58 year-old peace activist.   And most were scarcely older than the rest of their charges.  When the guards insisted the men’s and women’s cots be separated, Read the rest of this entry »