Hiroshima Memorial: Reflection and Action - 8/6

Monday, August 6, 2007 beginning promptly at 7:30 AM. The commemoration will culminate with an air raid siren and a moment of silence and reflection at 8:15 AM, the exact time of day the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. An “open mike” rally and nonviolent direct action at the Livermore Lab West Gate entrance will follow.

Participants will gather near the West Gate of the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, on Vasco Road in Livermore, California. Driving directions: Take I-580, exit south at Vasco Road. The West Gate is approximately 0.3 mile south of the intersection with Patterson Pass Road.

Through poetry, music and spoken word, we will recall the history of that terrible day and the ongoing effects of nuclear weapons use, production and testing. We will commemorate the victims of nuclear weapons and war at the gate of the government laboratory that is designing the next U.S. nuclear weapon, the so-called “Reliable Replacement Warhead”.

Livermore Lab, managed by the University of California and a consortium of corporations, including Bechtel, is one of two labs that have designed every nuclear weapon in the U.S. stockpile. At present, Livermore Lab is developing a new “replacement” warhead, designed to be launched from submarines, designated as the “Reliable Replacement Warhead-1.” The RRW-1 is first new H-bomb in the Bush Administration “Complex 2030” plan, to re-design and rebuild every nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal.

The Livermore Lab action is among dozens of Hiroshima-Nagasaki commemorations, rallies, film screenings, and vigils being held around the country at nuclear facilities and corporate war profiteers under the umbrella, “No Nukes! No Wars! No Profiteers!” and coordinated by United for Peace and Justice, the largest anti-war coalition in the country.

Keynote speaker, Chizu Iiyama, a former chair of the department of early childhood education at Contra Costa College, co-authored Teacher's Guide: Making Peace: The Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She currently serves as a Board member and writer for Nikkei Heritage, a publication of the National Japanese American Historical Society, and is active with the Asian Pacific Islander Resist! Watada Support Committee. Musicians robert temple and soul singer-songwriter Kaylah Marin will perform. Community leaders and activists are invited to speak at the “open mike” rally.

Sponsors: Tri-Valley CAREs; Western States Legal Foundation; Livermore Conversion Project; American Friends Service Committee; First Congregational Church of Oakland; Ecumenical Peace Institute; Physicians for Social Responsibility-SF Bay Area; Berkeley Friends Church; Communist Party USA, N. Calif. District; Declaration of Peace San Mateo County; Fr. Bill O’Donnell Social Justice Committee; Friends of the People’s Weekly World; Global Action to Prevent War; Grandmothers for Peace International; Northern CA 9/11 Truth Alliance; Orange County Friends; Santa Cruz Weapons Inspection Team, Fresno Center for Nonviolence, Monterey Peace and Justice Center, Grandmothers for Peace, Hayward Chapter, Marin Peace and Justice Coalition, Social Justice Center of Marin, Bay Area United for Peace and Justice.

For more Information please call:

Jedidjah de Vries, Tri-Valley CAREs: 925-443-7148; cell 805-698-3577

Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation: 510-839-5877; cell: 510-306-0119


A downloadable flier is available at: http://www.trivalleycares.org/aug6/aug6livermore.pdf