This is the first of an ongoing series of article reprints from the Friends Bulletin/Western Friend archives. They are selected at random from the boxes in the editor’s garage. We welcome feedback and suggestions for future excerpts!

Blockade

As Friends Bulletin goes to press, some of its readers from many meetings are witnessing to their conviction of the harmfulness of nuclear power plants by participating in the non-violent Blockade of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in San Luis Obispo, California, an action of protest organized by the Abalone Alliance. In this issue a statement is included written by Redwood Forest Meeting in support of its member Russ Jorgensen who has been arrested for trespassing at Diablo Canyon. I urge Friends to read it and to consider the issues of survival which it raises.

Other Friends arrested at the Blockade are: Dave Hartsough, Finley Peavey, Christopher and Ross MacKinney, Caryn Dasbach, Bede Gey, Willis Good, Earle Reynolds, Deverell Paul. Friends participating as support for those arrested are: Betty Black, Rebecca Hall, Chris Booth, Judith Bishop, Paul Burks, Barbara Graves, Keith Barton, Cindy Norvell, Margaret Mossman, and Bob Jolly. (This is only a partial listing derived from Friends involved.)

The Blockade began September 15 when groups scaled the front gate at the nuclear power plant, or entered by boat from the ocean side, or walked in from other property contiguous. Arrests (the greatest in such a protest) number 1,425 on the seventh day. People are still arriving in San Luis Obispo to join the Blockade which will continue as long as there are those willing to participate in civil disobedience.

Questions have been raised in the media about the purposes of such an action as the Blockade. Is it just a symbolic gesture or did those participating hope to delay the start of the nuclear power plant which will begin test operations later this month? Questions of purpose aside, the Blockade heightens public awareness of the dangers involved in the production of nuclear power: the possibilities of massive release of radiation in nuclear accidents such as Three Mile Island, the lack of safe waste disposal, the production of nuclear materials which can be used for nuclear weapons, our greater vulnerability militarily as nuclear power plants are targeted for attacks. Nuclear is political, as witnessed in the recent Israeli attack on an Iraqi nuclear power plant. The political is also personal, and in this case, threatens our safety and our lives.

What are our remedies, Friends?

Shirley Ruth, Editor