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January 21, 2020 Permalink for this letter. Please forward! Other Letters This letter: Discussion Thursday, Jan. 23, 6 pm, Santa Fe: opposing LANL expansion: what, why, how; more; please write Midtown evaluation committee
Dear New Mexico friends – 1. Practical discussion Thursday, January 23, 6-8 pm in Santa Fe at St. John's United Methodist Church, 1200 Old Pecos Trail (map), Room SB-5: Opposing LANL expansion a) into and b) around Santa Fe, as well as c) in Los Alamos itself: what, why, how. It seems absurd that the United States would want to build nuclear weapons at this time in human -- and earth -- history. But such is the case. The U.S. global empire, now slipping away, requires ceaseless, increasing investment to maintain appearances -- no matter how many people and how much nature must be thrown under the proverbial bus to do so. Successfully building and running an industrial plutonium warhead core ("pit") production operation at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is essential to empire, not to mention essential to new kinds of warheads that can't use any of our 5,000 or so surplus pits. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA, which owns LANL), as well as the Pentagon, knows this production will be very hard to achieve. Many who work at LANL cannot imagine LANL succeeding. At the same time many New Mexico progressives think this transformation will be all but impossible to stop. It will be hard to stop if nobody does anything! There is much to be done, and we hope you will help. If you come on Thursday you will make connections to people, acquire knowledge, and be stronger in that work. The purposes of this meeting are to make sure you have everything you need to act powerfully and to suggest, discuss, and refine possible actions. 2. Update on our congressional delegation's failure to request a Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) and a nation-wide ("programmatic") EIS (PEIS) for pit production. As noted previously, our two senators, Congressman Ben Ray Lujan, and Governor Michele Lujan Grisham had nothing to say when asked by the Associated Press if they support further environmental analysis prior to expanding pit production at LANL. They were waiting for a briefing from NNSA before knowing what to say. That briefing occurred on January 16. The delegation then jointly said that no further EIS was necessary -- a disappointing but expected response. What does this mean? It means that they want all parties to remain in the dark about the environmental impacts of a new Rocky-Flats-type plutonium warhead factory in Los Alamos, in their rush to offer New Mexico's assistance to Trump's nuclear weapons agenda. It means they all want as much dirty warhead manufacturing as possible for Los Alamos, and they don't want anybody to know or discuss the predictable problems and impacts on our communities and environment. It means they don't want environmental science because it is inconvenient to their militaristic agenda. They fear environmental truth. They want ignorance, for the public and officialdom alike. It means that when push comes to shove -- actually, long before this -- they are mouthpieces for the labs. I hope their statement, which will be public soon, clarifies the situation for you. As you will see soon it is worded to give a false impression. What does this mean for citizen action? What can we do? Come on Thursday. 3. Discussions next month We are scheduling other in-depth discussions on NNSA's and LANL's efforts to build a pit production facility in Los Alamos while greatly expanding LANL for the sake of designing (and now building) new nuclear weapons:
LANL has not seen such a huge proposed expansion, involving thousands (net) of new staff and some $13 billion in capital improvements and new buildings, since the early 1950s. 4. Last week's Santa Fe City Hall action We were pleased with the turnout at the press conference ("Citizens Protest Possible Nuclear Weapons Agency Presence in Major Santa Fe Development," Jan 14, 2020) at City Hall on the 15th. Trish counted 55 people there, and a few more came later. The press treated us kindly ("Anti-nuclear protesters oppose LANL’s midtown campus proposal," Santa Fe New Mexican; "Anti-nukers rally against NNSA proposal for Santa Fe campus," Albuquerque Journal, both Jan 15, 2020). Prior to the press conference three of us met with the Mayor. We had a cordial discussion. The Mayor was constrained by law from discussing the procurement process or the merits of the applicants so he didn't, but he did hear us out. We do however have the general idea, from impressions gained on multiple occasions, that the Mayor sees LANL's possible roles more positively than we do. We know some of the developers do as well -- a profound understatement, most likely. We do not like this Midtown project as it is currently conceived. Our more fundamental critique, and possible alternatives, do not fit in this email. We can discuss this further on Thursday. 5. What are these pits for? See the LASG friends ltr of January 13, 2020, item 5. 6. Bring the troops home! Global Day of Protest Saturday, Jan. 25 We know of four locations in New Mexico but there may be others (where is Santa Fe?). Here they are:
Protests such as these are not enough. We all know this. We need to nonviolently escalate our resistance and constructive efforts, organizing our own lives and efforts under different banners as may suit us -- meanwhile discussing, agreeing, disagreeing but agreeing to disagree, respectfully continuing the conversation as we are able, until we find ourselves in a new place of inner and outer freedom, respect, and awareness. We do not think this is utopian at all. 7. Meet Michelle Matisons, Research Associate We are pleased to announce that Dr. Michelle Renee Matisons is working with us full-time, as Research Associate. Michelle brings to us a wide variety of research, teaching, journalism, and organizing experience and is wading into the nuclear swamp with gusto (alligators beware). We will post a short version of Michelle's bio on our web site in the next day or two; her Counterpunch oeuvre is here. Michelle will be with us on Thursday if you come -- so do! In her spare time last week Michelle penned this useful article that bears directly on Santa Fe's Midtown project: "Opportunity zone’ tax breaks shown as duplicitous development schemes across the country," Michelle Matisons, Multi-Briefs, Jan 17, 2020. 8. Billboard coming Stay tuned: we have a new billboard at the printers. We'll have a press release Friday. 9. Don't forget to write the Midtown Project evaluation committee: No LANL in Santa Fe, not as master developer, not as tenant Contact information was provided on Action Sheet 1 for the Midtown Campus Project. You can use these talking points also. On Thursday we will bring up another set of talking points, on a deeper level. Hopefully the horrific prospect of NNSA as Master Developer will be in the rear-view mirror by then, and we can focus on the problem of LANL-as-tenant. There's a lot else to say but this must suffice for tonight. Please do write the committee, and/or write letters to editors (LTEs). Greg Mello , for the Study Group |
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