20th ANNIVERSARY OF CHERNOBYL
26 April 2006 is the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.
This is no day to celebrate. People are still suffering from the
consequences, and nuclear power in general remains the most dangerous
form of energy. It is high time to remind the public and our governments
that nuclear power should be finally phased out and has no role
to play in Europe's energy mix.
WEEKS OF ACTION
 Hundreds
of local groups will organise street actions around this 20th anniversary,
during the "Weeks of Action" between 15 April and 7 May
2006. the focus of this action period is to collect thousands of
signatures for the European Petition against Nuclear Power. Actions
will take place all over Europe, and we will see all kinds of actions,
from big demonstrations to small fun actions, or simply information
stalls in city centres, where people can sign the petition.
Actions will include large demonstration on 15 April in Cherbourg
(France) against the planned construction of new reactor, an anti-nuclear
march on foot in Belgium from 15th to 26th of April, ot an nternational
activist conference on 23-25th April in Kiev, Ukraine, called "Chernobyl+20
- Remembrance for the Future".
YOUR OWN STREET ACTION
 You
can do your own action! You would join the hundreds of actions that
are already planned. You can do it just by yourself, or with friends
and colleagues, e.g. if you are a member of a local activist organisation,
a workers' union or any other group.
The easiest way is a simple information stand in your city centre
(and we've got a free "Action Pack" for you, see below).
All you need is a table, our action pack with lots of signature
lists and a number of volunteers to run the stall. Go
right to the action ideas.
GET OUR FREE "ACTION PACK"
 We
have lots of campaign material free to order and ready for your
action: flyers, campaign posters, a 4 poster exhibition on nuclear
energy -- and of course the signature lists.
You can either order our free
"Action Pack", or you download
campaign material from the web site -- in various languages!
CONTACTS
If you would like to participate in the "Weeks of Action"
to collect signatures for the European petition, contact us! If
you organise a street action, we would like to know, because that
would allow us to make a huge list of the hundreds of actions taking
place across Europe. Contact details
here.
ACTION IDEAS
Whether you are a long-time, smoothly running organisation, or
a small group of concerned citizens, it's always worthwhile thinking
of new ways to appeal to the audience, attract the media and make
your point - preferably all at the same time! A stall on the market
with your material is very important, but sometimes you just want
to do something more. Here you find some action ideas - big or small,
done or just fantasy, complex or very simple, serious or funny.
Please have a look and hopefully you get inspired to take action!
Offering nuclear waste to government building
When the discussion on a new nuclear power plant in the Baltic
States arose, Friends of the Earth Latvia wanted to pay attention
to the fact that the question of watse storage was completely
ignored by the responsible politicans. So they took a number of
waste barrels to the government building and offered them for
local storage there -of course only temporarily until a better
solution would be found.
Nuclear Powertry Contest
Many people like to express themselves in words: rappers, poets,
writers. Why not organise a contest for the best (anti-)nuclear
power rhyme? Most medium-sized (and bigger) communities have organised
groups of performers who can be actively approached to join or
help. And don't forget school language classes/teachers!
Nuclear power cookies
 In
many countries there are three types of cookies quite easily available,
who together can be combined into a cookie nuclear power plant:
a flat cookie for the ground base, a half round cookie for the
actual power plant, and a thin-rolled cookie for the 'chimney'.
Nice to hand out at stalls! See for example
Disaster rehearsal
In late 1988, the Dutch anti-nuclear movement organised a very
cool action, which required quite some planning, preparation and
people: the imitation of a 'disaster rehearsal'. With the help
of two fire engines, motorbikes, an ambulance and 80 people, the
main highway to and from the province where the Borssele nuclear
power plant is situated, was blocked off for a number of hours.
All traffic was diverted into a parking place, checked for radioactivity
and questioned about their 'contact with the open air' in the
past 24 hours. Kilometres of blocked traffic was the result. Leaflets
were handed out saying one cannot rehearse for a real nuclear
accident, therefore: no nuclear power! The local police, convinced
they were dealing with an official rehearsal, assisted with traffic
control and even loading the material back on afterwards.
Applying for a safety job at a nuclear power plant
When the Borssele nuclear power plant got a negative report from
the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), stating there wasn't
enough skilled personnel and safety measures were insufficient
or malfunctioning, 25 activists went to the power plant and applied
for the clearly needed safety jobs. They were carrying well-documented
information on how to stop and dismantle a nuclear power plant,
by far the safest way to deal with nuclear power.
'Official Letter'
We recommend to only organise actions that do not break any laws.
One hears that official letters, even if they are actually fake
ones, cause a lot of attention, especially if such a letter carries
a message to 'every citizen' about a fact concerning nuclear power.
One example is an urgent request from the owner or developer of
a (new) nuclear power plant, to all people living in an area close
to the site to take part in a survey on testing the 'starting
levels' of radioactivity in their body for legal certainty about
future radiation exposures. Or a letter announcing an upcoming
invoice or an extra tax rise due to the increased safety or dismantling
or waste storage costs that a nearby nuclear power plant is causing.
Some activists have even added an official telephone number of
a directly involved company or the local government, who then
had to deal with hundreds of requests from concerned citizens.
Those letters work best if spread door-to-door to a relatively
large group of people.
And a few more brainstorm ideas
1. Distribution of apples (because of apple-pectin as means against
radioactivity in the body or biomass instead of nuclear) with
a petition sticker on the streets to the people.
2. Distribution of postcards with a petition-tea-bag on it on
the streets to the people.
3. Distribution of nuts (our way of nuclear fission) on the streets
to the people.
4. There is a net of rivers through Europe - and there are many
NPPs situated near rivers. What about a Message in a bottle action
(with the petition text in all of the bottles - and a specific
text for the plants that are in the near of the river)?
5. Demonstration in the front of an embassy of a country which
has concrete plans to build a new nuclear power plant.
6. Exhibition with the posters and blank sheets of papers where
people can paint their own pictures against nuclear.
7. Forming the text "Million Against Nuclear" with
people (needs many people) or with candles, Smiling Sun Stickers
or whatever.
|
