Peace Marks Protest at Livermore Lab

Semiannual Gathering Held To Decry
Nuclear Research At Lawrence Livermore Lab

Nate Tabak / The Californian 7aug01

LIVERMORE, Calif.—Thirty demonstrators were arrested outside the UC-managed Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory yesterday in a planned peaceful protest against the lab's nuclear weapons research and marking the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.

There were no injuries during the protest, an annual event that typically ends in nonviolent arrests.

"(Lawrence Livermore) is the place where new, and much more devastating, Hiroshimas are being planned," said Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment. "This is a place that is still today designing new and modified nuclear weapons and designing exotic space weaponry as well."

Paper cranes lined the fences of the lab and protesters sang "We Shall Overcome" as police made the planned arrests after demonstrators blocked the west entrance of the lab. The protesters were later released.

Highlighting the peaceful nature of the protest, a Berkeley Catholic priest, Bill O'Donnell, from St. Joseph the Worker Parish, was arrested but praised police for using nonviolent tactics.

"(The police) used to hit us, and they broke my arm once. Now the beautiful part is that we have kind of civilized them," he said. "We educated them to the point where we're not a physical threat. That's a major change for the police—they're friends."

Though O'Donnell said the protest was successful, he also said the protest's peaceful nature diminished public awareness.

"If they're not beating up somebody, the media doesn't pay attention to you," he said.

To coordinate the demonstration, the protest organizers communicated with lab officials to prearrange the protest's safety.

"Our primary concern is that we have a safe demonstration on both sides—no demonstrators injured, no peace officers injured," said lab spokesperson David Schwoegler.

Prior to the protest, which involved 83 demonstrators, a rally was held several blocks away where several speakers and musicians performed.

At the rally, Robert Bowman, former director of one of the Air Force's space programs, spoke in opposition to proposed missile defense systems that are researched at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Bowman said the controversial proposal failed to adequately address threats of nuclear terrorism.

"The only possible defensive use for any of these weapons is in the hands of an aggressor," he said.

Bowman suggested that missile defense systems would not protect against nuclear terrorists who could "smuggle (a nuclear weapon) into UC Berkeley wrapped in a bail of marijuana."

Despite criticism, Bowman does not fault the UC system.

"I don't blame the University of California, and I don't think we shouldn't have a lab," Bowman said. "It ought to be support a whole different kind of research to serve the needs of people rather than the policies of war."

Activist Paul Bloom, however, said UC contradicts its mission to educate students by running the lab.

"The University of California should pull out of this lab. The University of California should go back to giving a free tuition," Bloom said. "Schools should be the temples of our society."

Schwoegler said protests generally occur twice annually and typically cost the labs between $10,000 and $20,000 in policing costs. He added that while it is a right to protest, the costs of the demonstrations could be better spent on additional lab research.