ACTIVIST NEWS

Surrender, NATO!
Exactly a year after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that nuclear weapons are "contrary to the rules of international law," antinuclear activists will inform NATO leaders meeting in Madrid that NATO is in violation of that decision. On July 8 a Spanish bailiff will deliver a summons to the meeting, demanding that NATO change its nuclear policy to abide by the law or face an international campaign of nonviolent direct action.

One component of the international effort Abolition 2000, the Nuclear Weapons Abolition Days campaign has developed plans for an International Peace Camp in Brussels in Aug. The plans include nonviolent direct action at NATO headquarters Aug. 6, Hiroshima Day. On August 9—Nagasaki Day— actions will take place around the globe using the World Court ruling as the legal defense for committing acts of civil resistance.

Activists in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland have already committed to actions on that day, and momentum is building. Because groups around the world always hold actions during those days, the international campaign is timely—and gives teeth to a legal decision that might otherwise be filed away.

To add your group’s name to the campaign, contact WRL or For Mother Earth International by e-mail at int@fme.knooppunt.be. For more information on how your group can use the ICJ ruling as a legal defense for civil resistance, contact Lawyers Committee for Nuclear Policy, 666 Broadway, #625, New York, NY 10012.

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He Wasn’t the One Teaching Kids to Shoot
An April 17 visit of the U.S. Army’s "Adventure Van" to the Crystal Mall in Waterford, CT, was marked by the arrest of Rick Gaumer, local peace activist and staff person at the WRL New England office.

The Adventure Van, one facet of the U.S. military’s $1.9 billion annual recruiting effort, features the Weaponeer, an M-16 rifle simulator for children to play with that provides them with a printout showing exactly where each shot they fired tore through their simulated human target. Gaumer had parked his van—festooned with signs and posters promoting nonviolence—near the army’s exhibit in the mall parking lot; inside the van, he displayed literature promoting alternatives to the use of force for resolving conflicts as well as sources other than the armed forces for financing college and getting vocational training.

When mall officials ordered Gaumer to leave the parking lot, he refused, saying he had not been given the same opportunity as the army had to gain permission from the mall for his exhibit. "Why is my van a problem and [the army’s] isn’t?" he asked. "I’m not encouraging kids to shoot at people; you should have a problem with their van, not mine."

Mall officials then called the Waterford police, who arrested Gaumer when he refused for the second time to leave the mall. He was taken to Waterford police headquarters, charged with First Degree Criminal Trespass and released on a Promise to Appear at his May 1 court date.

The exhibit in Gaumer’s van was sponsored by the WRL New England office in Norwich, CT, and the Southeastern Connecticut Coalition for Peace. The day before, the WRL New England office had helped students at a Colchester, CT, school present nonviolent alternatives when the army van visited their school.

—WRL New England Office

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Nobody’s Wasteland

Community tent at Nobody’s Wasteland camp in Ward Valley. Photo: Bernadette Del Chiaro.

Protesters have maintained a camp on the site of a proposed nuclear waste dump in Ward Valley, CA, since October 1995. The waste would be buried in unlined trenches only 18 miles from the Colorado River, above a large aquifer, on land that is sacred to local Indian Tribes, and in the midst of critical habitat for the desert tortoise, which is protected by the Endangered Species Act. The Colorado River is a major source of drinking water for 22 million people in Mexico and in Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Tucson.

Similar radioactive waste landfills in other states have all failed. A sister nuclear waste dump near Beatty, NV, has leaked tritium and carbon-14 to within 10 feet of the underlying aquifer. The Beatty dump operator (US Ecology) would operate the Ward Valley dump.

In February 1996 the U.S. Department of the Interior agreed to investigate the tritium leak at the Beatty dump, then issue a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed Ward Valley dump. But last January the State of California sued the Department of the Interior to stop the impact statement process and force the immediate transfer of federal land in Ward Valley to the State of California for construction of the dump.

California also asked the Department of the Interior to evict the camp, but campers have insisted, "We will nonviolently defend the camp against any eviction attempts."

Ward Valley is sacred aboriginal homeland for the Fort Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Cocopah, and Colorado River Indian Tribes. The Colorado River is the economic base for these Tribes. They use river water to irrigate crops and have built water sports resorts along its shores. A contaminated river would devastate their sole source of livelihood.

For more information, contact Save Ward Valley, 107 F Street, Needles CA 92363; (760)326-6267; fax: (760)326-6268; e-mail: savewardvalley@bbs.rippers.com.

--Tori Woodard

The Nonviolent Activist is published bi-monthly by:
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