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By Will Parrish, May 2006
Speaking at the "Bike to Bechtel" rally at 50 Beale St. in San Francisco, May 4 |
From May 3-14, I conducted an “organizing tour” throughout California. During the tour, I visited five towns and four university campuses, gave five speeches, co-faciliated three workshops, talked to hundreds of people, conducted a series of prearranged meetings with both new and existing allies, passed out hundreds of fliers and other forms of literature, signed up dozens of people for Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Youth Empowerment Initiative mailing lists, and affected the lives of people I met in ways that I will never be able to know nor measure, as they affected mine.
Many of the people I talked to were relatively young, of course. I spent a lot of time “outreaching” to them, transmitting ideas that I consider important and empowering, while trying to get them involved in the activities of the Youth Empowerment Initiative (the “Think Outside the Bomb” conference in October being a major focus of my efforts), as well as the activities of peace organizations in their own communities. I spent a lot of time listening to them, too. As a result, I learned a lot. Here are some impressions, descriptions, and tentative conclusions.
Warm-Up Tour
The week before I set out on the tour, I warmed myself up through three speaking engagements in Santa Barbara County. On April 26, I conducted a workshop at Dos Pueblos High School, hosted by the We Oppose War (WOW) club. Immediately afterward, I biked over to UC Santa Barbara for a presentation in the “Peace, Social Change, and the UC” class. On April 29, I spoke at the long-awaited (and once-postponed) Isla Vista Peace Festival concert.
The workshop at Dos Pueblos was a wide-ranging discussion regarding -- in a nutshell -- the societal function of nuclear weapons. Most of the students had very sharp things to say in that connection, and most seemed to agree with me that nuclear weapons are, fundamentally, “instruments of oppression and domination” (that phrase wasn’t over the students’ heads at all, by the way). I framed many of my remarks in terms of the US’ responsibility to lead the world toward disarmament. These students are great! I anticipate working with them much more in the future, and one of them who is graduating this year, Andrew, will continue to work on these issues when he moves on to UCSB next year.
IV Peace Fest Crowd |
As the class at UCSB is a 10-week overview of nuclear weapons, militarization, and the UC’s role in each, my focus was much more specific: “radioactive colonization and the University of California.” At the beginning, when I asked the students to name three indigenous nations anywhere in the world affected by the nuclear cycle, not one person offered up a hand. Some didn’t seem to know what I meant by the term “indigenous.” I relate this story not as a criticism of the students in the class (these students are great, too!), but rather to underscore our society’s collective lack of understanding of where it – the society and, by extension, all of us -- comes from, or of the foundation of exploitation on which the nuclear arsenals of all countries are built.
Some of the IV Peace Fest organizers, chillin' before the event |
I’ll provide a fuller description of the Isla Vista Peace Festival elsewhere on the Youth Empowerment Initiative site, though I will note here that I thought the most effective aspect of the event, by far, came when several members of the student group Solidarity Against War at UCSB who helped organize the event took turns delivering (very powerful) 30-second to one-minute oratories on how the war in Iraq affects them and why they think it’s important to be involved with opposing it. The students really connected with their peers in the 500-plus person audience here, and a flock of people signed up on the listserve at the NAPF/SAW table immediately afterward.
UC Berkeley
On May 3, I arrived at UC Berkeley for a presentation in the “UC and the Bomb” student-facilitated class. I had the privilege of being one of three presenters that day; the other two were Que Keju, a native of the Marshall Islands and anti-nuclear activist, and Jackie Cabasso of Western States Legal Foundation and United for Peace & Justice. Roughly 30 people were present. The idea was to treat them to three distinct perspectives on the importance of abolishing nuclear weapons -- and how to be a part of said very necessary process.
Sophia, Kamara, and Chelsea (UC Berkeley) |
The class was an interesting mix this semester, as one of the students is signed on to work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) after he graduates, a vocal handful view the US as the protagonist in the history of the Nuclear Age, and those who favor nuclear disarmament seem to be a comparatively-silent majority. Nevertheless, the presentations were extremely enjoyable and well-received. My own presentation focused on my personal journey into becoming a nuclear abolition activist, the “people’s history of UC weapons lab management,” and the unique power of UC students to help turn the tide toward disarmament. Afterward, I talked to several students one-on-one about becoming active in the UC Nuclear Free campaign. One of the students lives in a housing co-op full of students activists and was excited about the prospect of having them all come down to Santa Barbara for the “Think Outside the Bomb” conference in October. The students seemed to be in many different places concerning their relationships to nuclear weapons and activism -- and life, for that matter. But the strength of the presentations seemed to strike a chord with just about all of them.
The challenges of the class are nothing the student facilitators, Kamara and Sophia, couldn’t handle, by the way. At her graduation ceremony later this week, Kamara plans to wear an “I Went to the University of California and All I Got Was This Lousy Thermo-Nuclear Weapon” spray-painted t-shirt, rather than a traditional graduation gown, with ucnuclearfree.org perhaps written on the back. Definitely a strong person, her, as is Sophia.
Jackie speaks to "UC & the Bomb" |
During the remainder of my two-and-a-half day stay in Berkeley, I mainly focused on building key personal relationships. For example, I met with Berkeley Peace & Conflict Studies Program Chairman Jerry Sanders, who will try to outreach to some of his students to attend the UCSB “Think Outside the Bomb” conference and also propose that the Peace & Conflict Studies department co-sponsor the event.
Biking to Bechtel
During the middle of my visit to Berkeley, I took a BART from Berkeley to San Francisco, where I joined in the “Bike to Bechtel” protest at Bechtel Headquarers at 50 Beale St, organized by students at San Francisco State and San Francisco City College.
Bechtel, for those who may not be aware, is the world’s largest nuclear profiteer, with several
"No Wars for Bechtel's $"
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billion dollars in contracts for construction and management of nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons production sites, nuclear weapons research sites, nuclear weapons testing sites, uranium mines, and uranium milling sites worldwide. Bechtel is, of course, also the UC’s new nuclear weapons lab management partner. Nevertheless, this aspect of Bechtel’s portfolio is not often emphasized by those who speak out against the company, so I and my partner in crime, Chelsea Collonge (recent graduate of UC Berkeley and recipient of the 2006 Berkeley Woman of the Year award), used our speaking time at the rally to drive this connection home.
While at the rally, I made some very good personal connections with members of the SF State Students Against War (SAW) group in particular, and I have little doubt that I’ll be working with them in the future. One of the students, Michael, a graduate student in Math, expressed a lot of disappointment and frustration regarding the level of military funding of his department.
Some of the "Bike to Bechtel" Crew |
The rally was small, fun, creative, and served its purpose -- to have a human-scale gathering that allowed people to make personal connections and build community around working for peace. Standing in front of the hulking, multi-story Bechtel building reminded me of this Arundhati Roy quote: “[I]t would be naïve to imagine that we can directly confront Empire. Our strategy must be to isolate Empire’s working parts and disable them one by one.”
“Taking Heart in Tough Times”: Joanna Macy Retreat (May 6-7)
I took time out from May 6-7 for a weekend retreat with long-time anti-nuclear activist, author, and spiritual teacher Joanna Macy. It wasn’t really time “out” for me in any meaningful sense, given how much of it was devoted to making connections with the other nuclear disarmament activists, as well as their teenage children, but be that as it may, the retreat was extremely refreshing, inspiring, and connecting. A lot of the kids were of the rebellious-kids-who-rebel-against-their-parents’-rebelliousness ilk that a lot of parent activists seem to grapple with. Many of the kids, though, were already extremely informed and active.
The retreat was sponsored by the Nevada Desert Experience, a wonderful faith-based disarmament group that focuses on the Nevada Test Site. They are one of the primary organizers of the May 28 day of action to prevent Hellish Strake, which I’ll likely participate in.
I strongly recommend that any activist conduct a retreat with Joanna Macy -- particularly those of us who are nuclear disarmament activists. Joanna has an empowering, enlivening energy and perspective like few other people I’ve ever been around. She is a major proponent of what many deep ecologists call The Great Turning: a “revolution” that is quietly shifting humanity “from the Industrial Growth Society to a life-sustaining civilization.” It’s pretty infectious when she talks about it.
Coming Home: Santa Cruz (May 7-11)
I arrived in my original hometown of Santa Cruz on Sunday night, May 7, where my parents’ house was my base of operations for outreach at both UC Santa Cruz and Santa Clara University. I’ll skip the description of my stay at my parents’ house and focus on the outreach.
Some of the Santa Clara University crew |
At SCU, I conducted a workshop with the Green Club, a relatively new student organization on campus. I’d met one of the club’s founding members, Theresa, at the Joanna Macy Retreat, and she was very interested in helping organize a contingent of her peers to attend the October “Think Outside the Bomb” conference at UCSB. She also wanted help with creating an empowering group structure for the Green Club, one that takes casually interested members and turns them into passionate, committed activists. I’ve facilitated several consensus decision-making and group structure workshops before, so that was the focus of my time with the club at SCU, since that’s what they most seemed to need. As always, I find it’s important to have a variety of tools to offer for assisting potential allies and building mutually-beneficial relationships with other organizations. The workshop went well, and I felt grateful to be able to contribute in a small way to the growth of what is likely one of SCU’s only social change-oriented clubs.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was my presentation in “Sustainability in the Nuclear Age,” another student-facilitated class in the “UC and the Bomb” series, on Wednesday, May 9. I got my start in activism as a student at UCSC, and simply stepping foot on that campus still gives me a strong and immediate sense of confidence and motivation.
Michael Kwan 
Michael Kwan, UCSC class facilitator |
Not surprisingly, then, my half-hour presentation there was among the most enjoyable (and, I think, effective) I’ve ever done. Skipping the details, I’ll just mention that I concluded the presentation by asking everyone to hold hands, close their eyes, manifest inside their bodies the feeling of being one of the “Victims of the Nuclear Age,” and convey, through their voices, an expression of that feeling. A variety of pained moans followed. I then suggested to them that they draw on that place inside them from which that sound emerged as a source of strength and motivation as they move forward in doing this work. This was a powerful exercise, and we all took a few minutes to collect our thoughts and take in our emotions afterward, before continuing the discussion.
Students and facilitators in "Sustainability in the Nuclear Age" |
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the student facilitators of the class – Julia, Michael, Seiko and Kai – are also great organizers, in my experience (I’ve worked with Michael a lot, in particular). They’re members of the “Demilitarize UCSC” sub-group of Students Against War, the student org that made the front page of the New York Times (while also being featured in countless other media outlets) earlier this year for being listed on one of the Pentagon’s surveillance lists. Demilitarize UCSC, with help from the rest of the Coalition to Demilitarize the UC, is organizing the big protest at the UC Regents meeting this week.
My best guess is that most of the students in “Sustainability in the Nuclear Age” will become active members of Demil UCSC and the Coalition to Demilitarize the UC.
Whole Earth Festival – UC Davis (May 12-14)
From Santa Cruz, I made a three-hour trek north, to the sunshine and warm air of UC Davis, where the annual Davis Whole Earth Festival (WEF) takes place. The WEF is one of the largest earth day-style events in the country, with as many as 50,000 people attending in a given year. Before arriving in Davis, I stopped in at the San Francisco home of Tara Dorabji of Tri-Valley CAREs. Tara is always full of awesome ideas, so this one-hour meeting with a friend turned into one of the most productive hours of my trip, activism-wise.
At the Whole Earth Festival, I was joined by Scott Yundt from Tri-Valley CAREs, and Sophia from UC Berkeley (one of the aforementioned facilitators of the “UC and the Bomb” class) for a week of speeches, workshops, and tabling.
Speaking from the Whole Earth Festival main stage (photo by Scott Yundt) |
On Saturday, May 13th (the busiest day), Scott and I were featured speakers, during one of the peak attendance times, on the main stage. Several hundred people hung around between bands to listen to us, though it’s hard to say how many, exactly, since they were scattered across a large area. Scott did a one-minute plug for Tri-Valley CAREs, which left about 19 minutes out of our 20-minute speaking slot for me to try to make a connection with the audience. My speech might as well have been called “Activism for Nuclear Abolition as a Form of Personal Healing.” My main thesis was that, by working for nuclear disarmament, we are aligning ourselves with the natural healing capacity of ourselves and the earth. As a point of departure for this larger topic, I discussed the fact that the land surrounding the area of the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 has undergone a remarkable regeneration in recent years, and people in the Ukraine are even talking about making it into a wilderness preserve. My talk went over very well with the WEF crowd, and several people approached me afterward with compliments.
Tabling at "Whole Earth" |
During the two workshops I co-facilitated (with Scott and Sophia – the workshops were called “Building a Non-Violent Youth Movement – Think Outside the Bomb”), as well as during our tabling during the course of the two and-a-half days, I spent a lot of time thinking about how disempowering the “story” of ordinary people’s relationship to nuclear weapons is. From most people’s perspective in this country, they are completely incapable of doing anything about nuclear weapons, even if they want to. Furthermore, the main “nuclear problem” isn’t at home, it’s somewhere distant and, as a result, not something they have the power to effect.
In reality, the locus of the “nuclear problem” is right here, in the United States. And a big part of that problem is where we were, at UC Davis, where Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has a more active recruitment program than at any other campus in the country, to the best of my knowledge. People don’t look at their connections to the issue through that lens, though, so it’s inevitable that they feel disempowered.
Hence, the importance of the NAPF Youth Empowerment Initiative.
Flier for one of the Whole Earth Festival workshops |
While I was thinking about that – and my thoughts aren’t fully formed yet – I also did lots of very productive outreach, as did Sophia and Scott. Out of the 30,000 people at the Whole Earth Fest, I only talked to about 150, but many of those 150 will be getting involved with this work as a result of our outreach. There’s no better feeling in the world -- for me, anyway -- than helping introduce people to The Great Turning. Ironically, I met two Davis-area high school students who will be attending UCSB as freshmen next year and are very enthusiastic about getting involved in the work of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
Speaking to a local radio station at the Whole Earth Festival |
The tour was an unqualified success for the Youth Empowerment Initiative. It demonstrates the Initiative’s growing ability to engage young people in new and innovative ways that will yield long-term results. Between now and the time that a critical mass of new, empowered generation of “peace leaders” emerges to demand an unequivocal end to the existence of nuclear weapons on earth, many more tours like this will be an inevitable part of the process.
Thanks to everyone who helped make my tour both enjoyable and productive, with special thanks and e-hugs to Chelsea, Sophia, Kamara, Tara, Scott, Kai, Seiko, Michael, Julia, Jackie, Que Ju, Theresa, and my family in Santa Cruz. |
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