Nuclear Weapons Campaign Update
This past Sunday, Peace Action West staff met with representatives from Tri-Valley CAREs, Western States Legal Foundation, and the Social Justice Center of Marin to talk about how our organizations can help to mobilize the public to attend the upcoming Department of Energy’s Complex Transformation hearing in Livermore. This was the first in a series of three planning meetings being held by Tri-Valley CAREs, Western States Legal Foundation, and Peace Action West that interested groups can attend to hear more about Complex Transformation and how to stop it. A representative from your group can attend either the February 21st or February 26th meeting. Contact me at cbautista [at] peaceactionwest.org for more information.
At the meeting, we discussed contacting other organizations so that they can turn their supporters out to the hearings. Last year about 100 people attended the Livermore hearing. This year, we’re pushing ourselves to turn out 150 people from the Bay Area. We’d like to see not just the nuclear disarmament movement represented, but also groups like the faith community, environmental organizations, the anti-war movement, and more. All of us will be working hard to do outreach to different types of organizations over the next few weeks.
During our meeting, I learned that the DOE considers everyone within a 50-mile radius of the Livermore Labs to be directly affected by Complex Transformation. Communities as far away as San Jose, Marin, and San Francisco all fall within that circle and we’re encouraging everyone to attend the hearings.
The hearings are being held specifically to gather public feedback. We had a great discussion about how to give comments during the hearings. The group came up with ideas for framing the issues and lessons from past experience. Click here to see suggested talking points and tips on how to give an effective comment, as well as the hearing schedule.
Peace Action West is still working to make sure that once the hearings are over, the pressure for a new direction in US nuclear policy increases. Our petition drive asking Rep. Tauscher to take leadership and oppose all new US nuclear weapons research and production is off to a strong start with more than 1,000 signatures. If your organization would like to circulate the petition or your supporters want to volunteer in Rep. Tauscher’s district, please contact Jahsiah Ault, our campaign organizer, at jault (at) peaceactionwest.org.
