[Organize] [ufpj-disarm] Re: Revised Aug. 6 - 9 national call

[Jackie Cabasso]

Dear David -- I'm fine with keeping "Stop Bechtel" in the head.  Yucca
Mountain was Judith's suggestion, in the context of adding a site
associated with native american issues as a transition.  Yucca is also
associated with nuclear power.  Id' like to keep it for those two reasons.
If  people don't know what it is, maybe they'll want to find out!  Finally,
Tara felt equally strongly that "Support Indigineous Rights!" should be
linked with No Nukes! No Wars! on the same line.  I mentioned on the call
the other day, NO NUKES! NO WARS! has some history and recognition (even
internationally) now, starting with the May 1 2005 demo, and even has a
logo - the mushroom cloud turning into at tree. The 61st anniversary is
merely information.  I don't feel strongly about it.  My proposal is that
we split the difference, as indicated here.  Many thanks for documenting
Bechtel's involvement in the Manhattan Project - and for all you great work
on this! -- Jackie

CALL TO ACTION: August 6-9, 2006
>From Hiroshima to Yucca Mountain to the Middle East: STOP BECHTEL
                                 
NO NUKES! NO WARS! 
No Profiteers! Support Indigenous Rights!                            



> [Original Message]
> From: David Meieran <david at heartofdarkness.org>
> To: <organize at august6.org>; ufpj-disarm <ufpj-disarm at yahoogroups.com>
> Cc: L.A. Kauffman <lak at unitedforpeace.org>
> Date: 6/21/2006 4:13:00 PM
> Subject: [ufpj-disarm] Re: [Organize] Revised Aug. 6 - 9 national call
>
> 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.  
> > 
>
>
>
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