
          Blockading the Bomb Plant
          By Bowman, SueSue Bowman
          Vol. 5, No. 6, 1983 pp. 5-7
          
          Demonstrations against the deployment of US Cruise and Pershing
missiles have been mounted all over Europe this fall. In West Germany
the campaign is called "Hot Autumn." Included in the protests are
civilly disobedient blockades of the American bases, scheduled as the
deployment sites for the first-strike missiles.
          In the early morning hours of October 24, the Natural Guard
blockaded the "Bomb Plant" in South_Carolina, the birthplace of every
one of the United_States' nuclear weapons.
          The pre-dawn light revealed about one-hundred people filing down
the shoulder of Highway 125 toward the Jackson gate of the Savannah
River Plant. Cars zipped by, their headlights glancing off the signs
and banners that the protesters carried. The drivers looked straight
ahead and kept moving--it was seven a.m., shift change, and they were
among sixteen hundred workers entering this gate to be at work by 7:45
at SRP, the nation's current producer of bomb-grade plutonium and
tritium.
          At the precise moment it was light enough to distinguish human
forms from shadows, two cars travelling abreast on the highway slowed
and stopped, halting the entire flow of traffic. Occupants of the car,
members of a Natural Guard "affinity group" from Charleston, jumped
out and positioned themselves and their banners in the road. The two
cars pulled away, leaving the determined human roadblock.
          Police, who had expected the protest but were unsure of the form it
would take, immediately moved to arrest the blockaders, but as those
people were dragged away, another group thirty yards back stepped into
the road. This was repeated by three more groups.
          Forty-five minutes later the traffic was still blocked. At one
point the stoppage stretched back to Augusta, Georgia, twelve miles
from the gate. Fifty-four people were arrested at the Jackson gate, as
supporters cheered from the sidelines and chanted, "No Pershing, no
Cruise, either way we all lose!" and "The people united will never be
defeated!"
          At the New Ellenton gate of the three hundred and twelve square
mile facility a group of approximately sixty women who had
participated in a peace camp sponsored by the Women's International
League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) converged on a busy intersection
at a red light. Twenty-five women blocked that entrance for fifteen
minutes.
          Seventy-nine blockaders were charged with refusing to obey police
officers' orders to leave the highway. Bond was set at $110.25. Some
refused to give their names and were denied bond, some chose to stay
in rather than pay bond for financial or moral reasons, and others
bonded out the same day. Trial was initially set for November 8, but
requests for jury trial have pushed the date to January 9.
          The blockade capped a weekend of anti-nuclear actions that began
with a Saturday rally at a site approved by SRP officials. Speakers at
the rally included Anthony Guarisco of the National Association of
Atomic Veterans, who spent sixty-seven days at ground zero in the
Bikini Islands; Rebecca Johnson, a participant in the two-year-old
peace encampment at Greenham Commons, a US base in England and one of
the first deployment sites for the cruise missiles; Kay Camp, former
member of President Carter's Nuclear Disarmament Committee just
returned from meetings with European peace activists; and many
others.
          The events were sponsored by the Natural Guard, a coalition of
peace, environmental and human rights groups. The platform for the
actions called for a halt to the global testing, production and
deployment of all nuclear weapons, the funding of human needs over the
military, and an independent study of the health and economic impacts
of nuclear weapons production at SRP.
          The Savannah River Plant was constructed hastily in the early
1950s, part of the government's anti-communist thrust and the global
powers' race to gain thermonuclear superiority. The federal Atomic
Energy Commission swallowed 312 square miles--two towns, six thousand
people and 6,100 graves--in a rural corner of South_Carolina, taking
chunks out of Barnwell, Aiken and Allendale counties. Displaced
farmers couldn't buy land for what the government paid them, and the
economy quickly shifted from its agricultural base to a dependence on
the Bomb Plant. Today nearly ten thousand people work there. It is
difficult to find a person in the surrounding communities who has no
personal or family connection with the plant.
          SRP is owned by the Department of Energy, direct descendent of the
AEC, and has been operated since the beginning by E.I. duPont de
Nemours. DuPont has so downplayed its connection with the military
that few know of its integral role in nuclear weapons. The company
operates SRP on a cost-plus contract as its "patriotic duty,"
according to a DuPont report entitled "Certain Information About the
Savannah River Plant."
          The facilities include five reactors, three now churning out
plutonium, one inactive, and the L Reactor, scheduled to restart this
year. The L Reactor recently became the subject of a heated
controversy when the state of South_Carolina joined a suit by
environmental groups to prevent the reactor from operating without an
Environmental Impact Statement. The DOE reluctantly agreed under legal
order to do an 

expedited EIS, but other questions remain unresolved
and troublesome. The reactor will dump 176°F. water into Steel
Creek because the reactors, unlike commercial plants, have no cooling
towers; radiation releases are not controlled by containment
structures: and the Tuscaloosa aquifer beneath SRP is threatened with
eventual radioactive contamination (officials are now dealing with
chemical contamination in the aquifer).
          Meanwhile, production is being stepped up, with the possibility of
a new reactor being sited at SRP, although there is increasing
sentiment expressed by experts that the plutonium and tritium are not
needed.
          The Bomb Plant has operated for thirty years under the government's
cloak of mysticism--national security. Consequently, most of the
reports on radioactive releases from the plant have been
classified. Dr. Carl Johnson, former Director of Health for Jefferson
County, Colorado, who has done extensive studies on health effects
around the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility, examined declassified
documents from SRP and found that routine and accidental releases of
radiation have been several times that reported to the
public. Although vital statistics indicate that rates of infant
mortality, cancer and heart disease are higher study done surrounding
counties, there has never been an independent study of the health
effects caused by SRP's operation.
          An unpublished by DuPont has shown that "lung cancer and leukemia
were significantly increased" among workers at the Savannah River
Plant when compared with other DuPont workers and the general public,
according to Bob Alvarez of the Washington based Environmental Policy
Institute. Alvarez was asked to participate in a Center for Disease
Control evaluation of the study.
          Why did the Natural Guard take on the Bomb Plant with civil
disobedience?
          "Six years ago the Natural Guard took the point on opposition to
nuclear waste and reprocessing with eight-hundred arrests in 1978 and
1979," commented Natural Guard organizer Brett Bursey. "We were then
viewed as the lunatic fringe. Now the governor and even Strom Thurmond
have come around on that issue. Direct action is but one of the
factors that change social and political realities--but I believe it
is a dynamic catalyst that can light fire under an issue. The issue of
nuclear disarmament will be resolved when the social and political
costs outweigh the gains. We plan to be a significant cost they will
have to consider."
          Jill Morris of Athens, Georgia, said she blockaded SRP "because the
Bomb Plant is killing us--and if we don't commit civil disobedience at
the Bomb Plant we're commit tiny ourselves to suicide."
          Local farmer Steve McMillan, who has long been a vocal opponent of
SRP in every other forum available to him, said, "To tell you the
truth, I'm putting my money where my mouth has been. I felt kind of
lonesome out there--I knew I would probably get criticized by a lot of
local people who would look down their nose at me and think I'm crazy,
but it was time for me to take a stand for what I been saying."
          Randy Tatel commented, "When I decided that nuclear weapons were a
political and humanistic insanity, I turned to find a legislator who
represented me...and there were none. Consciously, it fell to my
shoulders to be my own representative and take the military machine
head-on. Civil disobedience then was a natural decision."
          Bursey notes that it is not a frivolous decision. "What we're
seeing now is that the government is ready and willing to crack down
on civil liberties to stem mass protests like this." He pointed to a
legal maneuver by the federal_government just before the blockade
which would have drastically altered the character of the
demonstration. "A federal judge virtually declared martial law in
South_Carolina."
          One week before the blockade, a US Attorney, prompted by the
Department of Energy, asked federal judge Charles Simons for an
injunction to prevent the Natural Guard from interfering with the
operation of the Savannah River Plant. The injunction would have
provided criminal contempt of court charges against anyone who
trespassed or blocked access to the plant. Wording of the request went
as far as to request that the injunction prevent anyone from aiding,
abetting or assisting someone in trespassing or blocking access to
SRP. It attempted to certify the Natural Guard as a class, subject to
a class action suit, although it is not a membership organization but
"an ad hoc coalition called together to host a specific event."
          U.S. Attorney Henry Dargan McMaster said the broad nature of the
injunction meant protest organizers could be cited for contempt before
the blockade and jailed without bond for six months and possibly
longer. Bursey asked hypothetically, "Does that mean if a church takes
up a collection to support the blockade, they could be held in
contempt for aiding and abetting the blockaders?"
          It was only the point of interfering with access that actually
concerned the blockade plan. The Natural Guard's stated objective was
to block traffic on state property, never intending to trespass on
federal land. The state misdemeanor carries a maximum penalty of
thirty days and/or one hundred dollars, while trespass on SRP property
would have brought a fine of one thousand dollars.
          Federal officials, frustrated that they would have no jurisdiction
and fearing that the state penalties would not discourage protesters,
sought to extend federal authority onto state property. The idea was
that with the injunction in place, the federal_government would have
the power to deal with anyone who even looked cross-wise at the
Bomb-Plant if they could convince the court that such activity would
irreparably threaten national security.

          Judge Charles Simons was glad to oblige the US Attorney's
request. Simons is used to power. As Strom Thurmond's former law
partner, maneuvered into judgeship by Thurmond under Nixon, he has
long wielded a stern gavel in South_Carolina. In numerous cases before
him Simons has been openly hostile to anti-nuclear protesters. He said
on the record that wherever Brett Bursey goes "violence is likely to
follow". He clearly expresses his view that the Natural Guard is more
than a bunch of pesky demonstrators but a dangerous threat to national
security.
          During the three hour hearing, Simons told Natural Guard attorney
Danny Sheehan, "We do things a little different in South_Carolina,"
and proceeded to talk at though he had already ruled even before he
had heard the defense. When defense attorney Lewis Pitts protested,
"We just feel the ballgame's over," the judge snapped, "I happen to be
in the driver's seat and we will move forward."
          "Regardless of the legal niceties I would be inclined to do
whatever is necessary to protect the operation of the bomb plant,"
Simons said.
          The judge was riled by the suggestion that he may not have the
authority to issue the injunction. "I don't care if they (the
protesters) are up in Columbia. I'd have not hesitancy about issuing
an injunction if the operation of the SRP was in question."
          "If I don't have the authority to enjoin, I'd be surprised," he
growled.
          Natural Guard attorney's argued that the injunction violated
separation of powers because there were already penalties established
by state and federal legislators for the violations protesters
intended to commit. Sheehan noted "They are actually subordinating
fundamental constitutional structures to get at these people."
          "Waving the red flag of national security is used frequently to
blind the court," Sheehan insisted.
          Simons was not impressed and he slapped on the injunction with
apparent relish. The ruling confused many people planning to attend
the legal rally on Saturday, who believed Simons had made even that
exercise illegal.
          The Natural Guard made a mad dash for the Fourth Circuit of
Appeals, racing to get a decision before the rally now only days
away. On Friday night, an expedited hearing before one judge gained a
suspension of Simons' order pending a full hearing. Fourth Circuit
judge Francis D. Murnaghas, Jr., ruled that the proposed actions would
not be a grave threat to national security and that the First
Amendment rights of the protectors would be impermissibly infringed
upon by the injunction.
          The constitutional nature of this case has prompted legal
assistance from national and state organizations of the American Civil
Liberties Union as well as several large firms specializing in
constitutional law. The outcome will have implications for any group
planning to demonstrate at federal facilities linked to national
security.
          The many-faceted international opposition to nuclear weapons,
combined with a growing awareness of "the bomb in our backyard," is
tugging away SRP's cloak of mysticism. The reality behind it is
becoming more frightening. Antinuclear activists in the southeast will
be increasingly called upon in the near future to "Blockade the Bomb
Plant" not only with civil disobedience but with every means available
to sane, intelligent and nonviolent people.
          
            Sue Bowman lives in Columbia, South_Carolina and writes
regularly about Southern disarmament activities for several
publications.
          
        
