[Organize] Revised Aug. 6 - 9 national call

[David Meieran]

looks good - thanks jackie. but i feel very strongly that we should not
lose "stop bechtel"  from the head, as that is the key point of the call,
it connects the four movements, and what distinguishes this call from the
more generic ant-nuke calls of years' past. in addition, the original
point of the "from A to B" slogan was that Bechtel has profited from
Hiroshima, many U.S. sites, and many middle east contracts -- so the
"from" part doesn't make sense without the stop bechtel (or rather, it
changes the meaning of the slogan).

also, i'm not sure Yucca is a good choice, since many folks won't know
what that is and might turned off by the obscurity. if folks' feel like
another location is needed (I don't - it will clutter the masthead), what
about Los Alamos or Nevada...but i could be wrong on this point.

and, i think the three "no's" should be on one line for better
presentation and meter. so my suggested title:

From Hiroshima to the Middle East: STOP BECHTEL
No Nukes, No Wars, No Profiteers!
Support Indigenous Rights!

or 

From Hiroshima to Los Alamos to the Middle East: STOP BECHTEL                                 
No Nukes, No Wars, No Profiteers!                                               
Support Indigenous Rights! 

finally, do we need to say "61st"? why not just "anniversaries"

regarding other stuff:

- Bechtel's profiting from Hiroshima (manhatten project contract and 
nevada test site town), source:

MacCartney. Laton. Friends in High Places (1998: Simon and Schuster) 
pp.101-102 (as cited in the Global Exchange/Corpwatch report, "Bechtel: 
Profiting from Destruction")

- website: once we finalize the call i'm going to need a couple days (and 
a little help from folks on the list for their region's content).

- outreach: is ufpj staff able to reach out to the cities on the list i 
emailed, or are others needed to help with that? i proposed to global call 
iraq that the campaign lend a helping hand -- in conjunction with outreach 
for the DoP.

thanks
dm


On Wed, 21 Jun 2006, Jackie Cabasso wrote:

> Dear all -- Attached in Word and below is my redraft of the Aug. 6 - 9 national call, taking into account the input from our conference call earlier this week, as well specific suggestions/requests from Ralph, Tara and Judith.  I apologize for the delay in turning this around - I had computer problems yesterday.  I'm really jammed for time, so you will see that a few indicated links are missing.  David: Can you verify that Bechtel was directly involved in the Hiroshima and Nagaski bombs?  I understand that Tara has gone out of town for a few days.  I'd like to turn this over to Leslie, David and Ralph to finalize, if that's OK.  I'm off to Vancouver tomorrow morning and will be sporadically available from there.  Thanks everybody. -- Jackie
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> 
> CALL TO ACTION: August 6-9, 2006
> >From Hiroshima to Yucca Mountain to the Middle East
>  
> NO NUKES! NO WARS!
> No profiteers! Support Indigenous Rights!
>  
> >From August 6th - 9th, the 61st anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demand an end to the war in Iraq, no military attacks on Iran or North Korea, and the global abolition of nuclear weapons, starting with our own. 
â>  
> This year, we call on groups to protest at Bechtel’s corporate offices and nuclear facilities everywhere. Our aim is to expose the hypocrisy of the U.S. nuclear double standard and to directly confront the U.S. corporations who are perpetuating and profiting from a worldwide nuclear crisis and the war in Iraq.  August 9th has also been declared by the United Nations as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. Indigenous peoples have borne the brunt of nuclear devastation - from the mining of uranium and the testing of nuclear weapons, to the dumping, storage and transport of nuclear wastes, and the theft of land for nuclear infrastructure.
>  
> The United States is the ONLY country that has used nuclear weapons. As war and occupation continue in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush Administration is fomenting nuclear crises in Iran and North Korea.  At the same time it is pushing for new nuclear weapons and power plants 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! 
>  
> WHY BECHTEL
> 
> Bechtel is the world’s #1 nuclear profiteer. It is 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. 
> [LINK TO MORE ABOUT BECHTEL*]
>  
> Where to protest
> 
> Bechtel has many facilities and offices across the country and around the world.  Plans are underway for protests at most of the major U.S. nuclear weapons facilities, including the Livermore and Los Alamos Labs, the Oak Ridge plant in Tennessee, the Nevada Test Site and the Pantex plant in Texas.  Actions are also planned at Bechtel’s Bettis Atomic Laboratory in Pennsylvania, and Bechtel corporate offices in Houston and San Francisco.  See www.August6.org for a growing list of actions.  
>  
>  
> WHAT TO DO
>  
> At the 2004 World Social Forum, Arundahati Roy called on people to identify and locate the offices of Iraq war profiteers “in every city and every country across the world” and “go after them.” She continued, “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.” 
>  
> Please do whatever is appropriate for your group - marches, civil disobedience, citizen’s inspections, Shadow Projects, events that promote the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Commitments Act (H. Res. 373) [ADD LINK], teach-ins, education and outreach. You might want to organize a bus trip to one of the larger convergences, or a protest at a nuclear power plant that Bechtel built or at another nuclear profiteer’s facility or office, such as BWX Technologies, Lockheed Martin or Raytheon. We especially encourage civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action.  Let’s use our people power to confront key pillars of war and empire - including corporations like Bechtel. 
>  
> we can win
> 
> 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 in their hometown. 
> Recently, the Western Shoshone Nation and its supporters helped to postpone indefinitely the “Divine Strake” simulated nuclear test explosion at the Nevada Test Site, that could have exposed people who live downwind from a dust cloud of radioactive particulates. 
>  
> Who we are
> 
> This call was initiated by the UFPJ Nuclear Disarmament/Redefining Security Working Group in collaboration with an ad hoc coalition of local and regional groups organizing August 6th - 9th actions.  Our efforts are intended to compliment the United Nations’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous People (Aug. 9) www.un.org/depts/dhl/indigenous/. Global Call Iraq’s call for civil resistance to end the Iraq occupation (Aug. 6-9) www.globalcalliraq.org, the War Resister’s League “Stop the Merchants of Death” campaign and its forthcoming 
> conference on war profiteering (Sept. 29-Oct. 2) [ADD LINK], United for Peace and Justice’s Nuclear Disarmament Campaign [ADD LINK] and No War on Iran Campaign [ADD LINK], and growing efforts to link 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,).
€> 
> JOIN THE CALL
>  
> We invite other groups to join in this call. You can sign on at www.August6.org; you can circulate the call among progressive organizations in your community; you can connect with others who are organizing against the war machine. Seek peace, be part of the solution.
> Visit www.August6.org to find more information about Bechtel, our various actions, ideas or tools to organize your own events during August 6th -9th.
> 
> Signed,
> 
> [list of groups]
> 
> *MORE ABOUT BECHTEL
> 
> 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,  Bechtel 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 Iraq). Now  Bechtel is receiving $2.5 billion to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure that it helped to destroy, and it 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, under U.S. President Jimmy Carter. As was the case with Hussein, Iran’s government is still standing in the way of unfettered investment by U.S. corporations. Iran, the only remaining Middle Eastern oil-rich country that isn’t likely to capitulate to the Bush Administration’s plans for a Middle East FreeTrade Area, is now being threatened 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 it’s receiving over $20 billion (est.) to help manage National Nuclear Security Administration facilities, including the Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories, 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, 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 (sometimes violating safety guidelines while doing so). Now it is  “double-dipping” by earning billions of dollars to clean up the radioactive waste its 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 Nation, which rightfully worries that the waste will contaminate their groundwater (which, incidentally, Bechtel earlier polluted through its gold-mining operations 
>  
> Now Bechtel is 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 indigenous peoples.  
>