4/17 email from Diane D'Arrigo at NIRS:

Hi all – just a quick reminder of our planning call tomorrow night for Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free mobilizations to the People’s Climate March. We are less than two weeks out, and still have a lot of exciting planning to do. I hope you can make it.

Tuesday, April 18 @ 8pm Eastern

(7pm CDT, 6pm MDT, 5pm PDT/MST) 

Call: 712-432-0390

Passcode: 1019692#

One of the most important things is to finalize plans for a national event to promote the PCM and nuclear-free, carbon-free mobilizations. On last week’s call, we decided to hold a national webinar/briefing on Chernobyl Day – Wednesday, April 26.  

And remember to keep checking our PCM hub page for updates and more materials, and use our NFCF facebook page to share info about local marches and your mobilization plans.

And please – if you are organizing a local/regional nuclear-free event/contingent for the People’s Climate March, send me a link and/or contact info that we can share on the hub and facebook pages.

Talk to you tomorrow night!

Tim [Judson, NIRS E.D.]

NOTES from April 11 Planning Call

Please note: 

Next planning call, 8pm Eastern, Tuesday, April 18^th, same call-in numbers: (712) 432-0390; passcode 1019692#.

Wed., April 26, evening (Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe’s 31^st anniversary)—advance event to promote Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free Contingents in DC and nationwide sister climate marches/vigils (see below)

Other opportunities to promote our contingents: at Scientists Marches on Earth Day (4/22).

Background: we’ve got some momentum, thanks to previous Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free Contingents in previous Climate & related marches – Sept. 2014 UN/NYC; July 2016, Philly Democratic Nat’l Convention Anti-Fracking March; August 2016 World Social Forum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; etc.

Questions that NIRS and Beyond Nuclear discussed before the call need to be addressed:

1.       Who all is coming to DC? Who is taking part in sister marches, and where? (see above)

2.       How many people are expected? We have reports from march organizers that more than 100,000 are expected in DC on 4/29 (as compared to 400,000 in NYC in 2014, and 10,000 in Philly last July – the Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free Contingents numbered 2,000 to 3,000, and 200 to 300, respectively, at those previous marches).

3.       What kind of resources do people need in order to mobilize?

4.       Plan event ahead of time, the week leading up to the marches, in order to raise awareness, boost turn out, advance media work, etc. (Will we do a national virtual advance event? See below, re: Chernobyl 31^st anniversary on Wed., 4/26, below)

5.       Logistical—what is the march line-up? Will there be stages? (We don’t know the march line up yet. The march organizers will let us know ASAP, and we will let everyone know right away once we find out. If there are to be stages, we would have to make it happen on our end.) There have not been the same kind of weekly People’s Climate March planning calls as there were for New York City in 2014.

6.       Who will our speakers be? What does our line-up look like? First Nations activists organizing against uranium mining plan to be in D.C. The People’s Climate March website has encouraged advancing the leadership of people of color, women. Also, see more below re: 4/24 advance event, ideas for potential speakers, etc.)

More notes from open discussion on call:

Baltimore-area activists will bring huge banner and its frame to DC, that others may have seen in action before. 2 people minimum, 3 better, are needed to carry it – and help is needed!

One person suggested that the mobilization be dedicated to former NIRS Exec. Director Michael Mariotte.

Idea to build bridges to Women’s March folks, Scientists March folks, etc. To movement build with solidarity between all these marches.

NIRS has an inventory of flags, signs, banners leftover from the Philly march in July 2016, the Women’s march in Jan. 2017. This includes “Nuclear Power? No Thanks!” and “Don’t Nuke the Climate” flags, “Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free” signs, etc. Other NIRS banner(s) may also be available – “Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free,” and also “No Nukes, No Coal, No Fracking Way!”

Nuclear Resister in Tucson, Arizona make the case that we need to put front and center, strongly, that “Nuclear Power Is NOT the Answer” (Helen Caldicott book title, by the way); Women’s March, March for Science on 4/22—ongoing movement building

Nuclear power gets in the way of renewables, a point made in New York City in 2014

Sister marches (and vigils) involving Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free Contingents we know about as of now:

• Chicago
• Port Huron & Detroit, MI
• Syracuse, NY
• Boston, MA
• South Carolina

Boston—New England sister marches: Cape and Boston Downwinders; Entergy Nuclear’s Pilgrim atomic reactor (Plymouth, MA); Vermont Yankee; Western MA – nuclear NEEDS to be included! Diane Turco at Pilgrim, Deb Katz at VY (and Yankee Rowe) as potential speakers.

Camera-ready art, for signage, etc., posted at NIRS website? It was in the NIRS alert about this phone call.

Wed., April 26 is the 31^st anniversary of the beginning of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe—potentially a perfect date to do our advance event. Ideas for speakers:

• Timothy Mousseau (biologist, scores to hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific studies on Chernobyl and Fukushima, showing significant ecological damage)

·         Arjun Makhijani, President, IEER (Institute for Energy and Environmental Research), who coined the phrase Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free in the first place, in 2007 (http://ieer.org/projects/carbon-free-nuclear-free/)

• Helen Caldicott (Beyond Nuclear’s Founding President, by the way! Is she in Australia or North America in late April?!)
• Music in Boston, about Pilgrim

(Who will firm up these plans? Who will contact potential speakers? Who will work on potential 4/26 advance event?

Also, please be clear that the 4/26 speakers, etc. are separate from, in addition to, potential speakers, etc. on day-of 4/29—re: DC on 4/29, we have to check with march organizers to see about stages, amplification, etc. Could we do a 4/29 pre-event somewhere on Capitol Hill? Right where we’re supposed to gather for our bloc spot in the march?)

Teach-in re: Mobile Chernobyl and parking lot dumps, Yucca dump, etc. Nationwide connected events.

Also: 4/22 (Earth Day) Native Community Action Council event in Las Vegas, NV (see for more info: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/yucca-mountain/2017/3/30/native-americans-speak-out-on-radioactive-dumping-in-their-c.html)

ZOOM as a way to connect virtual advance events far flung, from Chicago & Port Huron, to DC and SC, and everywhere in

The Chernobyl anniversary advance event should be in the evening, to maximize accessibility for those who work, Western time zones, etc.

NIRS will record the event, and post it

Use our PCM hub page: www.nuclearfreecarbonfree.peoplesclimate.org

There are posters, graphics, etc. posted there.

Don’t Nuke the Climate flags

How to get on the main stage in DC?  Our best shot might be to talk to one of the indigenous groups who may already be invited to speak. Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN is on the steering committee for this event), and likely will have a role on the main stage at the Washington Monument.

Tim Judson

Executive Director

6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340

Takoma Park, MD  20912

O: 301-270-6477

F: 301-270-4291

E: timj@nirs.org

W: www.nirs.org