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USA in peril – time to end the warfare state

Step one is to cut off the endless military spending that is the lifeblood of the 1%, and to begin starving out the warfare state.  It’s the only way to a world built on social justice and ecological survival.  So let’s find that fork in the road…and take it!!! SEE YOU IN THE STREETS! 
Our future depends on stopping an attack on Iran,  Harvey Wasserman
November 18, 2011 The global Occupy Movement has come to life just in time.
War is the health of the corporate state. The 1% needs its endless cash flow to stay in power.

As the slaughters in Iraq and Afghanistan transform into something less visible, the 1% war machine must have a new profit center. The pretext for this latest war is the spectre of a nuclear-armed Iran. It’s a tawdry re-run of the lies George W. Bush used to sell the 2003 attack on Iraq. It’s no surprise those “Weapons of Mass Destruction” were never found—or that Bush could later joke about it.

The hypocrisy of the 1% railing against bombs allegedly flowing from Iran’s “Peaceful Atom” program comes in unholy tandem with the corporate push for a “nuclear renaissance” peddling these same reactors all over the world. (It helps to remember that the nuclear industry once tried to sell 36 “peaceful” reactors to the Shah).

STOPPING THE ATTACK ON IRAN IS ABSOLUTELY VITAL TO OUR HOPES FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY. THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT HOLDS THE KEY.  Continue reading →

November 19, 2011 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Japan’s anti nuclear Occupy movement determined to make Japan nuclear free

Tokyo “Occupy Industry Ministry.” The nuclear situation in Japan does have a wealth dimension,
Many of the nuclear plants are in the country’s poorest regions, so the risk they pose to locals is underestimated.
Anti-nuclear protestors sit tight at Japanese ministry, BUSINESS RECORDER NOVEMBER 18, 2011 TAKEHIKO KAMBAYASHA Anti-nuclear activist Tadao Eda says he and other citizens will continue their sit-in at the Industry Ministry for as long as Japan is running nuclear power stations despite the ongoing crisis at a damaged plant in the north-east.

“Japan needs drastic changes in energy policy by scrapping all the nuclear reactors,” Eda says from his tent erected in a corner of the ministry’s grounds two months ago. “We won’t allow the government to restart idled reactors” after they are shut down for maintenance, he says.

All of Japan’s 11 reactors still in operation, are scheduled to be shut down for servicing by April, he says. If the government withholds permission for them to restart, Japan would be free of nuclear power. Continue reading →

November 19, 2011 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | 1 Comment

India’s anti nuclear activists are still patriotic Indians

Anti-nuclear stand is not anti-national: activist, Manorama Online, November 17, 2011  Chennai: “Being anti-nuclear power does not mean one is anti-national,” an anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) activist said Thursday referring to police cases slapped on protesters and the allegations of foreign backing for the stir.

“Police have been registering cases against those who are participating in the anti-nuclear power plant agitation, including the church priests. We request the cases to be withdrawn by the state government,” M. Pushparayan, convener of the Coastal People’s Federation, and a member of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) that is spearheading the anti-KNPP movement said. Continue reading →

November 19, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

India’s Bhopal survivors angry at weakening of Nuclear Liability Law

India angers Bhopal survivors over nuclear decision India has agreed to limit the liability of foreign nuclear power plant suppliers despite protests from campaigners who said its government had ignored the lessons of the Bhopal gas disaster, By , New Delhi   18 Nov 2011

 The liability rules set by the Indian government are aimed at speeding up foreign investment in new nuclear power stations ..

Ministers had been under pressure to insist on strong liability rules to ensure those affected by any future nuclear accident would be properly compensated and the companies responsible take full responsibility.

Campaigners warned of “another Bhopal”, after the tragedy at the Union Carbide chemical plant where a poisonous gas leak killed several thousand people and injured several hundred thousand. They say full compensation was not paid while contamination of the water supply continues to cause birth defects and disabilities.

Under the Rules of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act, published on Thursday, nuclear suppliers can cut deals to restrict the duration of warranties, after which they would not be liable for accidents. “The lessons learnt from the Bhopal tragedy have clearly not made any difference to the government. For them foreign interest is paramount and much above well being of its people,” said Karuna Raina of Greenpeace

November 19, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Opposition to uranium mining in India

Minister opposes uranium mining
Deccan Herald, Bangalore, Nov 16, DHNS:
Yadgir district in-charge minister Raju Gouda on Wednesday said he would appeal to Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda to cancel the permission granted to the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) to take up uranium mining in Gogi village of Yadgir district.
Addressing the media, Gouda said he would take a delegation to meet the chief minister on Thursday, and submit a memo- randum urging the government to drop the project as it would pose serious health hazards to the people of the region. 

The minister said the project was not only hazardous to human beings but would also adversely impact the environment and the wildlife, and fertile land in the radius of over 100 km in and around the project would turn barren.

The government has agreed to allot about 102 hectares of land to UCIL for taking up mining activities in Gogi, where rich deposits of Uranium have been found. UCIL had already dug up a 273-metre deep tunnel.

The effluents generated are being discharged into a nearby water body, which was a water source for the people. Both humans and cattle have been taking ill after consuming this water, he said. ..
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/205245/minister-opposes-uranium-mining.html

November 17, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear, Uranium | Leave a comment

Open anti nuclear activism in Iran

Iran Activists Join Antinuclear Push, WSJ, 14 Nov 11, By FARNAZ FASSIHI, A group of Iranian dissidents for the first time openly called on their government to suspend uranium enrichment, in an open letter published Monday that adds to the momentum of the international effortto convince Tehran to abandon its alleged nuclear weapons program.

“The current deadlock over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and empty power play will set the stage for war and the people of Iran will have to pay the price,” said the letter. Continue reading →

November 15, 2011 Posted by | Iran, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Blockade by protestors delays Kudankulam nuclear plant

Commissioning of India Kudankulam nuclear plant delayed BBC News, 10 Nov 11 Commissioning of a controversial planned nuclear plant in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu has been delayed by a few months, officials have told the BBC. Kudankulam plant Chief Superintendent MK Balaji said that the delay was due to public protests at the site which had disrupted building work.

He said that the site had been subjected to a total blockade by protesters since 13 October. Protesters say the facility is unsafe and in an earthquake area. They fear a repeat of the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima plant…. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15684591

November 11, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Strength and determination of India’s anti nuclear movement

Protests galore expected in Kudankulam  IBN Tamil Nadu |  Nov 10, 2011   Press Trust of India Chennai: Extending support to locals agitating against Kudankulam Nuclear Power project, about 100 anti-nuclear activists will embark on a yatra from Madurai to the site on Thursday.

The activists, under the aegis of Chennai Solidarity Group for Kudankulam Struggle would start their journey from Madurai on November 10 and stop at towns and villages en route to Kudankulam to explain “the terrible environmental and health effects of nuclear energy.”

At Kudankulam, they would conduct a national seminar titled “National Conference on Safety issues at Nuclear installations in India.” The Yatra will culminate in Chennai on November 13, where a seminar for students would also be held. There are also plans to hold a photo-exhibition, depicting the horrors of nuclear energy, a press release from the group said.

The yatra has been organised by National Alliance of Anti-Nuclear Movements. Some of those attending the yatra are nuclear physicist Suvrat Raju, Prof Banwarilal Sharma, mathematician and former president of the International Congress of Mathematics and Thomas Kochery of National Fishworkers Forum, it said. (Watch CNN-IBN live on your iPad. IBN7 and IBN Lokmat too. Download the IBNLive for iPad app. It’s free. Click here to download now) http://ibnlive.in.com/news/tn-protests-galore-expected-in-kudankulam/200859-62-128.html

November 10, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Nuclear crisis as Indian villagers reject bribes

N-plant crisis: Villagers reject Kalam’s proposals, Hindustan Times 8 Nov In a major setback to the central government, which is trying to resolve the Kudankulam nuclear plant crisis, villagers protesting against the plant have dismissed former president APJ Abdul Kalam’s endorsement of the project. They have also refused to accept Kalam’s proposals on the development of Kudankulam and neighbouring areas.

The former president had visited the project site in Tirunelveli district on Sunday. Kalam had also come up with a 10-point development plan, which includes building of four-lane highways, houses, schools, hospitals as well as cold storages, in Kudankulam and surrounding areas.

“If anyone thinks that he or she can bribe the villagers like this, they are sadly mistaken,” said anti-nuclear activist SP Udayakumar on Monday.

Villagers who had been on a relay hunger strike for weeks at Idinthakkari village, continued their protest on Monday.

They said Kalam was speaking for the government. “Is Kalam a president, PM or a minister to come out with a plan? Whose sanction has he got to make such recommendations?” questioned a protester.”The plan does sound great. But why a 500 bed hospital? Do they think that so many people will fall ill,” asked a villager. http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/TamilNadu/N-plant-crisis-Villagers-reject-Kalam-s-proposals/Article1-765800.aspx

November 8, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Anti nuclear fasting continues in Koodankulam

Tamil Nadu Koodankulam relay fast continues IBN Live, 1 Nov 11, CHENNAI: The protest fast against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) continued for the 14th day Monday in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, an activist said.

“Around 400 people from Thomaiarpuram, Idinthakarai and Kudankulam participated in the fast,” S. Sivasubramanian, coordinator of the People’s Rights Movement, an organisation fighting for the plant’s closure, told IANS.

India’s nuclear power plant operator NPCIL is building two 1,000 MW nuclear power reactors with Russian technology and equipment in Koodankulam, around 650 km from here. The first unit is expected to go on stream in December. The project is estimated to cost around Rs.13,000 crore…. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/tn-koodankulam-relay-fast-continues/197977-60-118.html

November 1, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

70 organisations and localities want to keep Virginia’s ban on uranium mining

“They want good quality jobs and they see a uranium mine as a deterrent to economic development,”

The Sierra Club said the NAACP is among 70 organizations and localities that want the ban to remain in place.

NAACP: Keep Va. ban on uranium mining, Canadian Business, By Steve Szkotak  October 31, 2011 RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The state chapter of the NAACP wants Virginia to keep intact a 30-year ban on uranium mining, stating that opening one of the world’s largest known deposits of the radioactive ore is not worth the environmental risk.

The civil rights organization said the resolution is rooted in fears that poor and minority communities would be disproportionately affected if an accident occurred in mining the Southside Virginia deposit.

“This is a human right. The NAACP is about human rights and environmental justice,” said Naomi Hodge-Muse, president of the Martinsville-Henry County NAACP and sponsor of the resolution. Continue reading →

November 1, 2011 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

“Occupy” and anti nuclear- declaration for the future

 ”The future of the human race requires the co-operation of its members.” 

our planet can no longer withstand the assaults of an increasingly destructive industrial civilisation.

Learning To Shine Through The Ruins, By Vincent Di Stefano, 30 October,2011, Countercurrents.org “…….The cultural awakening of the 1960s had made many aware of the presence of deepening flaws within industrial civilisation: Of the rampant militarism that had unleashed two unspeakably destructive World Wars; of the atomic slaying of the inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; of the slash and burn methods of US imperialism that disgorged blistering gifts of napalm and poisonous defoliants into the wasted landscapes of Indo-China;

……..this abundance and the freedoms it has bestowed appear to have benumbed rather than sharpened our capacity to perceive and to interpret the divided reality that underlies our illusions of comfort and prosperity.

Despite the fact that the Chernobyl melt-down 25 years ago has already cost nearly a million lives , and despite the fact that hot Strontium from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has been detected on the rooftops of houses in Yokohama 250 kilometers away, the nuclear industry, together with its marketing arm, the International Atomic Energy Commission continues to aggressively pursue their deadly interests….. Continue reading →

October 31, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, opposition to nuclear, politics international | Leave a comment

Japan – protest by Fukushima women


VIDEO    http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/women-from-fukushima-gather-to-find-hope-in-t/blog/37555/             Women from Fukushima gather to ‘find hope in the despair’ of nuclear disaster  by Laura Kenyon, Greenpeace International – October 28, 2011 Yesterday close to two hundred women from Fukushima began a three-day sit-in outside the Tokyo office of Japan’s Ministry of Economy calling for the evacuation of children from areas with high radiation levels and the permanent shut down of nuclear reactors in Japan currently switched off. Their peaceful protest is a powerful – almost radical – act in a country where standing up for something can often mean ostracism from one’s community. These are not women who regularly participate in civil protest. These are mothers who fear for their children’s safety and future. These are grandmothers separated from their families. The fact that they have put their own lives and families on hold for these three days reflects the harrowing situation these women and their families have found themselves in since the nuclear disaster.  Continue reading →

October 29, 2011 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear, Resources -audiovicual | 1 Comment

Support for India’s Kudankulam anti nuclear protestors

Kudankulam anti-nuclear team hopeful of support of local bodies, Economic Times, 28 OCT, 2011,  JOE A SCARIA,   CHENNAI: The anti-nuclear protests at Kudankulam entered the tenth day on Thursday, with leaders of the rainbow organisations demanding scrapping of the nuclear plant in the village hopeful that the newly-elected local body representatives will support their cause.

AIADMK had scored an emphatic win last week in the local body elections in Tamil Nadu. The nuclear plant at Kudankulam was an election issue across Kanyakumari, Nagercoil and Tirunelveli districts. The polls have also thrown up a number of independent candidates in panchayats like Idinthakarai, where the protests are being staged, and at Kudankulam. “We are speaking to the newly-elected local body representatives and they are in support of our demand,” convenor of the Coastal People’s Federation M Pushparayan, one of the organisations fighting for closure of the Indo-Russian joint ventureKudankulam Nuclear Power Project, told ET.
The Centre had set up a 15-member expert committee to study the issue, but protest leaders say they want a halt to the work at the plant before they can hold discussions with the expert committee.

Roughly 500 people are taking turns each day for the relay fast at Idinthikarai village, close to the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. Pushparayan said villagers from Koottapanai and Kuttuthalai were on fast on Thursday. Among the prominent persons visiting the site on Thursday was the Church of South India’s bishop for Tuticorin, JAD Jebachandran.

Protestors have also expressed disappointment over the composition of the expert committee. “We are not against the committee, but the fact is that the committee was set up without our knowledge and also without taking the state government into confidence,” Pushparayan said.

The Tamil Nadu Cabinet had passed a resolution demanding halt to work at the project, and J Jayalalithaa had assured her support to the local people during the local body poll campaign. .. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/kudankulam-anti-nuclear-team-hopeful-of-support-of-local-bodies/articleshow/10514024.cms

October 28, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | 2 Comments

Work halted at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project as protest hunger strike continues

Anti-nuclear protesters’ relay fast enters day 6 at Kudankulam, Net Indian, United News of India, Tirunelveli, October 23, 2011 The third phase of relay hunger strike being observed by protesters against the Kudankulam Nuclear PowerProject (KKNPP) at Idinthakarai coastal hamlet in this district of Tamil Nadu entered the sixth day today.

Hundreds of people, including women, are observing the relay hunger strike in front of St Lourdes Church, demanding that the Centre scrap the project, fearing possible nuclear radiation leakage once the plant begins power production and their displacement from their native villages.

Due to the peoples’ stir, work on the Indo-Russianproject was affected for the 11th consecutive day as scientists and technocrats were not able to reach the site. http://netindian.in/news/2011/10/23/00016703/anti-nuclear-protesters-relay-fast-enters-day-6-kudankulam

October 24, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

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