Mass non-violent civil resistance at White House against dirty energy

Among anti-tar sands activists is Dave Schlesinger, seated in the first row in dark ball cap, also active in Calvert Cliffs 3 and Clamshell activism.Daily waves of about 50 people, protesting against the 1,700 mile long XL Keystone tar sands oil pipeline proposed from Canada to Texas, are being arrested at the White House. Mike Tidwell, founder of Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), has written about his own and hundreds of others' experience in "Jailhouse Rock: Activists Score Victory Over Police in Tar Sands Pipeline Fight -- The Inside Scoop." CCAN is an ally of Beyond Nuclear in the Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition's fight against the proposed new French Areva reactor targeted at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland.

A non-violent civil resistance campaign for the shutdown of Vermont Yankee atomic reactor has been under way for several years already. The Shut It Down Affinity Group has been led by grandmothers and great-grandmothers, such as nonagenarian Francis Crowe. Francis was active with the Clamshell Alliance 35 years ago, when 1,414 people were arrested on a single day in 1977 protesting the Seabrook nuclear power plant. The non-violent direct action campaign is heating up in Vermont.