Green Parties in several states are co-sponsoring and hosting a ‘No Nukes Tour’ of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida from Monday, October 3, to Saturday, October 8.
The No Nukes Tour, with the slogan “Organize the South!”, will feature Green activist and candidate Howie Hawkins. Mr. Hawkins has been an organizer in movements for peace, justice, labor, the environment, and independent politics and against nuclear power since the late 1960s.
The tour will kick off with a press conference at 10 am at the Raleigh Old State House in North Carolina. A schedule of the tour is appended below.
“The outline of environmental injustice overshadows nuclear power. This injustice extends to commercial nuclear plants, uranium mines, fuel enrichment and fabrication plants, and waste sites,” said Lou Zeller of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (http://www.bredl.org). “Most of all, this injustice affects miners, nuclear workers, and families living near radioactive facilities. Recent studies indicate that there is nuclear power-related environmental injustice, particularly in the southeastern United States. Is this ongoing inequality deliberate? Or have the habits and patterns of the past become so much a part of the landscape that the image of a colorblind society can be maintained even while injustice persists? We must force officials to take into account this pernicious, unwanted legacy when and where nuclear power decisions are made. This is why we have organized the No Nukes Tour.”
The Green Party has taken a strong stand against nuclear energy and opposed President Obama’s resurrection of nuclear power with a multi-billion-dollar taxpayer-funded subsidy for a Georgia plant, warning about serious public health threats posed by mining, waste transportation, and waste storage. The Green Party disputes the myths that nuclear power is ‘green energy’ or a solution to the advance of climate change.
Energy companies have successfully lobbied the White House and Congress to fund such facilities with taxpayers’ money, in an attempt to pass the high cost and dangerous liabilities of nuclear power on to the public while the private corporations that own the plants reap the profits. (See “Greens call President Obama’s resurrection of nuclear power and handout for Georgia nuclear reactors ‘his worst idea yet’,” Green Party release, Feb. 18, 2010, http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=297)
Howie Hawkins, has run for a number of local, state and national offices as a Green and is currently a candidate for Common Councilor in Syracuse, New York. His 2010 campaign for Governor of New York achieved ballot status for the Green Party of New York State.
He is an advocate for the Green New Deal, about which he said, “We need a Green New Deal that restores the commitments in the old New Deal including full employment, income security, and the right to health care. And we need to go beyond the old New Deal with a Green New Deal that taxes the rich to fund a public investment program that puts people back to work building a sustainable prosperity based on replacing nuclear and fossils fuels with clean renewable energy, mass transit, organic agriculture, and clean manufacturing “ (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=446)
Mr. Hawkins was a co-founder of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in 1976 and the Green Party in the US in 1984. He is a member of Teamsters Local 317 and loads trucks at UPS.
Co-sponsors of the No Nukes Tour include the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Florida Green Party,
Georgia Green Party (http://www.georgiagreenparty.org),
North Carolina Green Party (http://www.ncgreenparty.org),
North Carolina Waste Awareness Reduction Network (http://www.ncwarn.org),
South Carolina Green Party (http://www.scgreenparty.org),
South Carolina Progressive Network (http://www.scpronet.com),
Southern Anti-Racism Network (http://www.projectsarn.org),
and Nuclear Watch South.
No Nukes Tour: Organize the South!
October 3-8, 2011
Contact: Theresa El-Amin, Green Party co-chair and Southern Anti-Racism Network regional coordinator, 919-824-0659, pssarn@aol.com
Tour Stops
Monday, October 3
Raleigh Old State House, North Carolina, 10 am
Contact: Lou Zeller, bredl@skybest.com or (336) 977-0852
Public Forum, Charlotte, North Carolina, 7 pm
Contact: George Friday, ippn@igc.org or (862) 668-8172
Tuesday, October 4
University of South Carolina, Columbia, 4 pm
Contact: Scott West, slwest@gmail.com or (347) 581-0230
Columbia AFL-CIO/CLC, Mojeska Simkins House, South Carolina, 7 pm
Contact: Jenny Patterson, jennypatterson@knology.net or (843) 270-1308
Wednesday, October 5
Paine College, Augusta, Georgia, 10 am
Contact: Charles Utley, cutley@paine.edu or (706) 592-3987
NRC Regional Office, Atlanta, Georgia, 3 pm
Contact: Theresa El-Amin, pssarn@aol.com or (919) 824-0659
Denny’s, Columbus, Georgia, 7 pm
Contact: Theresa El-Amin, pssarn@aol.com or (919) 824-0659
Thursday, October 6
Atlanta, WAND Luncheon, Georgia, 1 pm
Contact: Amanda Hill, ahill@georgiawand.org or (404) 524-5999
Friday, October 7
Farley Plant, Dothan, Alabama, 9 am
Contact: Theresa El-Amin, pssarn@aol.com or (919) 824-0659
Friends Meeting House, Gainesville, Florida, 7 pm
Contact: Michael Canney, alachuagreen@gmail.com or (352) 213-8885
Saturday, October 8
College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, time to be announced
Contact: Sue Edward, bflosue@earthlink.net or (843) 926-1750
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For More Information Visit:
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http://www.gp.org
