[Organize] Aug 6 coalition conference call; draft of call to action; more...

Sun Jun 18 16:36:11 EDT 2006

Dear Friends,           

Sorry for cross postings. Please forward this message to others who you 
think might be interested. -dm

In this message: 

1. Announcement for "August 6 ad hoc coalition" conference call Mon, Jun 
19
2. A note about lists, wiki and website
3. Draft of August 6-9 call to action

***

1. "August 6 ad hoc coalition" Conference Call

Monday, June 19th
2pm EDT / 10 am PDT

Call in number: 619-345-3000                                                    
code: 0358620 #                                                                 

Proposed Agenda:

1. Introductions and action updates                                               
2. Call to Action
3. Website
4. Outreach 
5. Research & materials
6. Media                                                           
7. Next Call--set date and decide on facilitator of next call  

***

2. Lists, Wiki, Website

Per our last conference call, I created a couple lists:

a) August 6th organizers list (you may already have been subscribed):

http://mail.august6.org/mailman/listinfo/organize_august6.org

b) A list to help coordinate Bechtel and related research: 

http://mail.august6.org/mailman/listinfo/research_august6.org

I took the liberty to create a wiki section, for internal purposes only, 
to help with collaboration on research and other needs. (You don't need a 
log in to edit pages, but creating one is preferred.) 

http://august6.heartofdarkness.org/

Finally, here's the link the Pittsburgh August 6 website, which on our 
last call we decided to adapt to suit our collective needs:

http://www.August6.org

(Note that it hasn't been updated for national needs yet...)

3. Call to Action 

Below is a draft of the call to action for the August actions. Please note 
the following:

1) I'm proposing that the call would come from this "ad hoc August 6th 
coaltion." I think that a call which comes directly from groups organizing 
actions on Aug. 6-9 will inspire participation from like-minded groups.

2) The August6.org website, which is currently set up for the Pittsburgh 
actions, would obviously need to be changed to reflect the needs of this 
ad hoc coalition. 

3) Before the call goes out we would need to identify all the major 
actions and players and have those posted to the August6.org website (at 
least the start page).

4) The "Why Bechtel?" section in the call is a little long - hopefully 
folks can think of a way to shorten it while preserving some of the 
important points about Bechtel.

DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT

CALL TO ACTION: August 6-9, 2006
>From Hiroshima to the Middle East: Stop Bechtel!
No Nukes, No Wars, No Profiteers!

This August, as we remember the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and 
Nagasaki, we call on local and regional groups to mark these anniversaries 
and join us in protesting at Bechtel's corporate offices and nuclear 
facilities. Our aim is to expose the hypocrisy of U.S. threats against 
Iran and directly confront the  U.S. corporations who are perpetuating and 
profiting from a worldwide nuclear crisis and the war in Iraq. 

Why Bechtel? 

Bechtel is the world's #1 nuclear profiteer. They are also a leading 
beneficiary of the Iraq war and corporate globalization policies in 
general. 

Bechtel "connects the dots" for the anti-war, anti-nuke and global justice 
movements. Through its sordid corporate history and 100 years of 
revolving-door relationships with government, Bechtel illustrates the 
connections between profiteering and war, between nuclear power and 
nuclear weapons proliferation, between "free trade" and the exploitation 
of indigenous peoples, and between corporate power-brokers and 
decision-makers at the highest levels of government. Here are just a few 
examples:

	1. Bechtel built the petrochemical plants that allowed Iraq to 
make the chemical weapons used against Iran. When Saddam Hussein dashed 
Bechtel's hopes to build an oil pipeline through Iraq, they lobbied for 
war (through the auspices of such figures as George Shultz, former 
president of Bechtel, Reagan's Secretary of State and co-founder of the 
Committee for the Liberation of Irag). Now they're receiving $2.5 billion 
to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure that they helped to destroy and is laying 
the groundwork for more lucrative deals through Iraq's water 
privatization.

	2. Bechtel was originally contracted to build Iran's first nuclear 
power plant before the fall of the Shah's regime. As was the case with 
Hussein, Iran's government is still standing in the way to unfettered 
investment by U.S. corporations. Iran, which happens be the only remaining 
Middle Eastern oil-rich country that isn't likely to capitulate to the 
Bush Administration's plans for a Middle East Free Trade Area, is now 
being threatend by the U.S., just as Iraq was three years ago. 

	3. Bechtel had a hand in developing the atomic bombs dropped on 
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now they're receiving over $20 (?) billion to help 
manage National Nuclear Security Administration facilities, including the 
Nevada Test Site, the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge 
National Laboratory in Tennessee, the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Savannah 
River Site in South Carolina, the Kwajalein missile range off the Marshal 
Islands, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and the Bettis 
Atomic Power Laboratory in Pittsburgh.

	4. Bechtel has built the majority of nuclear power plants in the 
U.S. and around the world (and sometimes violated saftey guidelines while 
doing so). Now they are "double-dipping" by earning billions of dollars to 
clean up the radioactive waste their plants are generating. One example is 
Bechtel's $1.9 billion contract to build the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste 
depository on lands belonging to the Western Shoshone, who rightfully 
worry that the waste will contaminate their groundwater (which, 
incidentally, Bechtel earlier polluted through its gold-mining operations 
in the region). Now they are poised to rake in even more money as the Bush 
administration paves the way for the construction of more nuclear power 
plants at the further expense of the environment and indigidous peoples.

Where to protest?

Bechtel has many facilities and offices scattered across the country: see 
www.August6.org for a list. Plans are underway for protests at most of the 
major nuclear facilities, so one option your group might want to consider 
is organizing a bus trip to one of the larger convergences, such as in the 
Bay Area or Pittsburgh. Others options might be to organize a protest at a 
nuclear power plant that Bechtel built, or simply at another nuclear 
profiteer's facility or office, such as BWX Technlogies, Lockheed Martin 
or Raytheon.  

Please do whatever is appropritate for your group, be it marches, civil 
disobedience, citizen's inspections, Shadow Projects, events that promote 
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Commitments Act, teach-ins, or direct 
education and outreach. We especially encourage civil disobedience and 
non-violent direct action because now is the time to escalate and use our 
people power to confront one of the key pillars of war and empire -- 
corporations like Bechtel. 

At the 2004 World Social Forum, Arunhati Roy called on people to identify 
and locae the offices of Iraq war profiteers "in every city and every 
country across the world" and "go after them." She continues, "We could 
shut them down. It's a question of bringing our collective wisdom and 
experience of past struggles to bear on a single target. It's a question 
of the desire to win." 

Can we win?

Yes! Indigenous resistance in Cochabamba forced the government of Bolivia 
to cancel Bechtel's contract after the company privatized Cochabamba's 
water systems and sent prices skyrocketing. In San Francisco, activists 
helped to defeat Bechtel's plans to privatize water their hometown. 
Recently, members of the Western Shoshone Nation's efforts helped to 
postpone indefinitely the "Divine Strake" explosions at the Nevada Test 
Site that could have exposed people who live downwind from the dust cloud 
to radioactive particulates. 

Who are we?

We are an ad hoc coalition of local and regional groups organizing actions 
on August 6-9th. We have come together to support each others' actions 
through organizational outreach, natiional media coordination, shared 
research and resources, and a website that serves as a clearinghouse of 
information and materials for the August actions.

Our efforts are intended to compliment the United Nations's call for an 
Indigenous Peoples Day (Aug. 9), Global Call Iraq's call for civil 
resistance to end the Iraq occupation (Aug. 6-9), the War Resister's 
League "Stop the Merchants of Death" campaign and its forthcoming 
conference on war profiteering (Sept. 29-Oct. 2), United for Peace and 
Justice's Nuclear Disarmament Campaign, and growing efforts to link 
together the anti-nuclear, anti-war, anti-corporate globalization and 
indigenous rights movements around common themes. We also hope to build 
momentum for the September 21-28 week of resistance to end the occupation 
of Iraq (www.declarationofpeace.org, www.globalcalliraq.org).

The United States is the ONLY country that has used nuclear weapons in 
war. As war and occupation continue in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as the 
Bush Administration foments a nuclear crisis in Iran at the same time it 
pushes for more nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons here at home, we 
say NO to nukes, NO to wars, no to profiteers, and YES to the sovereignty 
of indigenous people around the world. 

Visit www.August6.org to find more information about Bechtel, our various 
actions, ideas or tools to organize your own events during August 6-9th.

Signed,

[list of groups]