Wet snow blew steadily against the sides of the makeshift tent built with bamboo poles and sheets of plastic. Inside 35 men, women and children sat arm in arm on railroad ties, boxes and sleeping bags. Few in the group had known any of the others for longer than the three days that they had been in the tent, yet they shared their deepest life stories, secrets and dreams. "There seems to be a consensus,” said one young man, “that we were all destined to be here together, as if some greater power is-at work in our lives.”
The weather-battered tent straddled the only railroad line into Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility 16 miles west of Denver, Colorado. The 35 cold, but cheerful people inside had brought a peaceful but firm halt to the shipment of all radioactive materials into or out of the plant. They had come from- as far away as Fayettville, Arkansas; Des Moines, Iowa; and Hancock, Maine. Among them sat past Pentagon weapons analyst Daniel Ellsberg, local Menonite minister Peter Ediger, Jacquee Dickey from the Catholic Worker House in Iowa, Lynne Wright and Cliff Kushler from the Greenpeace office in Lansing, Michigan, Quakers, Buddists, and residents from nearby Boulder and Denver.
The protestors were waiting. Rockwell International, operators of the weapons plant, had indicated that they would be removed on Monday morning. It was now Tuesday afternoon, May 2nd, and the police had yet to make a move. “We are prepared to be arrested, " said Ellen Klaver of Boulder, a spokesperson for the group, “We will continue to peacefully block the plutonium path, stopping the flow of the most toxic, dangerous, deadly materials known on this earth.”
Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant has had a stormy, controversial 27 year history. (See Greenpeace Chronicles #5, July, 1977). The Atomic Energy Commission began construction in 1951, announcing the plant as a “research center.” The first spontaneous combustion fire broke out shortly after full weapons production began in 1957. In twenty years over two hundred accidents and fires have spread toxic radioactive contaminants throughout the plant and into the air, water and soil around the plant. In 1973 the local water supply was contaminated with tritium from Rocky Flats. The ground near the plant is contaminated with high levels of radioactive cesium. Plutonium bas been released into the air.
By 1974 citizens from Boulder, Denver and Jefferson County had organized vocal and visible opposition to the plant. Citizens Concerned About Radiation began sponsoring studies of the area, and educational programs. The Rocky Flats Action Group (RFAG) began organizing demonstrations at the plant linking environmental issues with the global issue of nuclear disarmament. In October, 1975 Colorado Governor Richard Lamm and U.S. Representative Tim Wirth published the results of a ten month study of the Rocky Flats operation, concluding: “The certainty that such a plant would not today be located near a densely populated area, as well as our feeling that accidents will continue to occur even under the best circumstances, dictate our belief that such a plant should not be located at Rocky Flats.”
In July of 1976 RFAG released hundreds of tagged, helium filled balloons from the plant sight to demonstrate the range of radioactive contamination by air. According to organizer Judy Hurly, "Tags were returned from as far away as Illinois.” In the summer of 1977 two hundred people marched on the site following announcements by Dr. Carl Johnson, Jefferson County director of Health, that the soil around the plant contained high levels of cesium. The Environmental Protection Agency and Rockwell did independent tests. Rockwell officials denied that the cesium came from the plant, claiming that it was due to “background radiation” from global nuclear testing. It was learned later, and announced in the local media, that although Dr. Johnson and the EPA both took samples from a depth of .1 to .4 inches, the Rockwell samples were taken from two inches below the surface.
“Why?” shouted U.S. Representative Pat Shcroeder from , the bandstand in downtown Denver. "What is the end result of all this poison and pollution? Bombs! Weapons designed to destroy human life. I believe that the jobs at the Rocky Flats plant should be converted to jobs that meet human needs." Two thousand people had gathered at the Colorado Federal Building on April 28th to rally and then caravan out to the Rocky Flats plant. Colorado Bishop William Frey told the crowd, "It is a great pleasure to speak to the converted, to people who understand peace, true peace, the peace that Jesus taught. Peace cannot be won with napalm or nuclear bombs. Peace must be lived. Preparation for war is war.”
Dr. Richard Barnett told the crowd that the United States is now making three nuclear weapons per day to add to the overkill stockpile, and that this protection is based on four myths perpetrated by the military: ' 'The first myth, " he said, “is that of defense. In fact, our weapons production is based on attack. The second myth is deterrence. Our weapons production encourages weapons production around the world. The military establishments, both Russia and the United States use each other to legitimize their existence and their budgets. The third myth is the myth of security. Weapons proliferation around the planet has exactly the opposite effect. The citizens of all countries are less secure, and more vulnerable as nuclear weapons, and therefore power, is concentrated in a few hands. The fourth myth, and the one most important for us to overcome, is that we are powerless to do anything about it.”
Stokley Carmichael delivered a short, impassioned speech insisting that as long as the military was in control of foreign policy, the military's priorities would preclude the people's priorities. “I marched in my first ban-the-bomb demonstration 20 years ago," he said, "and I will be marching twenty years from now if necessary. The people must take control.” Carmichael's enthusiasm had the net effect of taking the crowd slightly out of control, but it was a refreshing frenzy that brought the people together for one last song led by Harry Tuft and the local No-Nuke band.
The car caravan from Denver wound through the streets, onto the highway, and headed west to Rocky Flats where they were to be met by similar caravans from surrounding towns. From Boulder came hikers, joggers and cyclists. Organizers had estimated that 2,000 people would attend the demonstration, but by the time Terry Province from the Mobilization for Survival walked on stage to introduce the speakers 3,000 people were already jammed into an area outside the gates of the bomb factory, and the line of cars, bicycles and marchers coming over the hill seemed endless. Province, who once presented a shocked Rockwell board of directors meeting in New York with a radioactive contaminated soil sample from Rocky Flats, welcomed the crowd and introduced Dr. Helen Caldicott of Boston Children's Hospital. "This facility," she told the crowd, "poses the gravest public health hazard the world has ever known. Plutonium is the most carcinogenic substance we know. Saccharin is nothing in comparison, and babies, infants and children are the most affected. Plutonium in the environment causes cancer, birth defects and an exponential increase in genetic disease. Less than a millionth of a gram can kill you. If you care about your health and the health of your children, and their children, this plant must go.”
A. steady wind blew dark clouds across the sky, occasionally sprinkling the swelling crowd with rain. On stage the band played on, and speakers took their turns. Two survivors of the Hiroshima bomb spoke through translator Judy Hurly, and told of their experiences growing up in the aftermath of a holocaust. Telegrams of support came in from Australia, England and around North America. The scene was somehow both nostalgic and unique. There were enough placards, beads and bright colors to send one’s mind reeling back to 1968, but the presence of so many families, grandmothers, coats and ties seemed to indicate that the public mandate for peace has broadened over the last decade.
As Winona La Duke Westguard of the American Indian Movement spoke the clouds parted, and the crowd was bathed in sunlight once again. She said that because uranium discoveries on Indian land the nuclear industry and the Federal government were moving in "to take the Iand just like they did when oil was discovered in Oklahoma. Eighty per cent of the uranium reserves are on Indian land,” she said, “but as far as we are concerned it will stay right there in the ground where it belongs.”
Daniel Ellsberg had been in the area for two weeks helping organize the protest. Behind the stage he spoke to a small group of people about his experiences as a top level weapons analyst, and about the history of the neutron bomb. “'The neutron bomb was available to Kennedy in 1958,” he said. “It was invented by an old colleague of
mine, Sam Cohen, who, although he has two real human children, likes to be known as the father of the N-bomb. The bomb was designed for mass destruction of life, but has less long-lived radiation. It's what they call ‘prompt radiation’. Kennedy didn't allow the weapon to go into production, a move which alienated the military. You see, the neutron bomb is not designed for use against other countries that have nuclear weapons, because it allows a return strike. It was designed for use in Third World countries. If Kennedy had allowed the bomb to be produced, then Nixon would have had it, and it would have been used in Vietnam.
“Carter calls it a 'deterrant' weapon," Ellsberg continued, "but that is mis-information. Because it doesn't destroy buildings, it would be attractive for countries to use against their own people. South Africa would be interested in the weapon. If Carter allows the neutron bomb to go into production, it would be built right here at Rocky Flats. Now, they are telling the Rocky Flats workers that they are producing weapons components to deter the use of nuclear weapons by other countries, but that is just not true. In my experience the U.S. came very close to using nuclear weapons at least 12 times in the past 25 years.”
On stage Ellsberg told the crowd that he was going to join a group of people who were going to walk past the fence to the nearby railroad tracks. “We are going to sit down on the tracks, and we are going to block the shipment of nuclear materials into or away from the plant. Colorado is a good place for us to say 'No!’ We are asking that Rocky Flats plant be converted from a plant that produced death to a plant that meets the needs of humanity.”
One hundred and thirty people crossed over a cattleguard at the fence line, and walked two hundred yards to the railroad tracks as thousands cheered support from the road leading into the plant. Black clouds began gathering again, and as night fell the protestors huddled together on the tracks to sing.
In nearby Boulder a group of people had spent the entire day in silent meditation as an offering of spiritual support to the protest. That evening Baba Ram Dass spoke to 2,000 people at a C. U. auditorium. “There is suffering on this earth, and although we know that even that suffering is part of God's perfection, still we work to relieve that suffering. It is the only work worth doing. But like Jesus or Gandhi, we must do it without ego or aggression, without creating Karma; or bad vibes, if you will. Compassion and love are the perfect conditions for social change, because when you do your work with compassion you allow the space for people to change. You are working from the basic assumption that everyone has within them all that is necessary for them to totally realize God in themselves and to live in peace.”
That night the rain turned to snow, and by Sunday morning, April 30th, there were 35 shivering demonstrators still on the tracks shoring up their plastic covering with bamboo poles to make a tent. The demonstrators had no idea when they might be arrested. Rocky Flats officials indicated that they would not be allowed to stay past Monday, but Monday had come and gone without incident. Ellsberg said, "The fact that they have delayed arresting us indicates that they are persuaded by the overwhelming public support for our action. To arrest us will not be a popular move.”
And support did come pouring in. Sleeping bags, tents and supplies arrived. Hot food came in daily. Even the local laundromat, Doozy Duds, dried all the wet clothes and sleeping bags for free. Lawyers offered legal advice, doctors offered medical service, musicians brought music, and by Tuesday afternoon the place had the feel of a small town. Each morning David Glynn and Butch Wade of Telluride would get up early enough to wave at the workers as they drove past the encampment. David had a running response poll going. Wednesday morning he reported back to the group: "Today we had 60 waves, 15 birds, one peace sign, three honks, and one guy even stopped to get out and talk with us, but the plant guards made him get back into his car. Too bad.”
By now the little city on the tracks had a mailbox, a library, a cafeteria, a school, a smiling security force and even a few laws of its own: "No liquor, no drugs, no violence.”
At 8: 15 on Friday morning the citizens of this peaceful community were awakened by a police bull horn. "You all have one-half hour to leave this area, or you will face arrest!” shouted the Jefferson County police officer. Twenty-eight people stayed on the tracks, singing and holding hands, and at 9:00 the police moved in. The arrests were peaceful, as the demonstrators hugged police officers and climbed into the vans singing. Deputies began tearing down the tent city.
At the Jefferson County jailhouse the demonstrators were booked, charged with criminal trespass and obstructing a railway, given bail and released. One demonstrator, Jay Dillon, refused bail, and remained in jail. Trial was set for May 27.
That night Scott Alberts of St. Louis, Missouri returned to the site and single-handedly piled thirty railroad ties on the tracks. By Sunday there were twenty more people on the tracks. The St. Thomas Aquinas church in Boulder had given the Rocky Flats Truth Force, as they now called themselves, an office and a telephone. A blizzard blew in Sunday night, and the protestors were sleeping in down bags in the snow.
On Monday morning they were awakened by the sound of a train rumbling down the track toward them. What seemed like a minor victory as the train ground to a halt, turned out to be just the Jefferson County She-riff's office playing the ol' Trojan Horse trick. Deputies leaped from the train, arresting the twenty frozen, startled outlaws. Seven of the twenty had been arrested during the first bust, and they went straight to jail. The others paid their bail and were released.
Like incorrigible army ants, reinforcements poured in from everywhere. Within 24 hours there were fourteen more demonstrators back on the tracks. They were joined now by two of Ellsberg's children: Robert Ellsberg from the Catholic Worker House in New York, and his one year old son Michael. Jon Sargent, Phil Caston and Dennis Delaney had arrived from the Greenpeace office in Los Angeles to join the demonstration. On Friday May 12th, the police came out once again to arrest the intruders, but their sense of humour was wearing thin. “We did not have a very pleasant time in the Jefferson County jail,” said Dennis Delaney. "They made it very clear that they were fed up with going out to Rocky Flats to arrest people. They would make us stand in one spot while they frisked us three times. They didn't allow any calls, and they kept us handcuffed most of the time. At one point we were all chained together. The holding tank there is quite a slum.”
The offenders were brought before a judge who told them: "You must promise not to return to Rocky Flats, or you will be held in contempt of this court.” No one would promise not to return, so they were held in contempt. Third offenders like Ellsberg and Scott Alberts were given $5,000 bail, second offenders were given $2,500 bail, and the new comers were given $500 bail.
As we went to press, ten people were still in jail: Jay Dillon, Stephen Stearns, Robert Ellis, Daniel Ellsberg, Brian Terrell, Mark Carver, Will Riggens, John Jacob, Scott Alberts and Gary Woollen. According to organizer Ellen Klaver new civil disobedience candidates continue to show up. “We had a meeting the other night,” she said, and we were trying to figure out what to do. Some of us who had been involved with this thing for a long time were beginning to feel a bit frustrated and tired. Then this guy who had come to our meeting for the first time stood up and said: ‘Hey, you people shouldn't be feeling down just because a few people are in jail. You should be getting us new people ready to go out to the tracks.’ ”