Author: Martyn

Here In Contrast

I keep reading stories like the following one in Enenews: – 

Radiation Expert: Horrific health toll from Fukushima

Yet here in contrast is a quote which just about says it all.

‘Although the conservation of nuclear industry buildings presents obvious problems, it may be wondered whether future generations will be pleased at the loss of so many pioneering pieces of technology.’*

Though it is a very different heritage which worries me.

It’s what the nukiller industry now refers to as ‘legacy waste’.


* Taken from the section about Sellafield in

Hyde, M  & Pevsner, N

Cumbria

Cumberland, Westmorland, and Furness.

Continue reading Here In Contrast

What Next For New Build ?

Here is a thought or two about nukiller new build.

Looking at all the companies & countries which want to do it we find: –

– EDF has suspended all work on its planned Hinkley C nukiller plant.

That goes hand in hand with the companies financial crisis.

– The Chinese stock market is falling, and so they might have to re-finance what they are doing.

– While Toshiba has just taken a two to three Billion Dollar loss.

That follows on from the companies earlier financial scandals.

All of which make me wonder just what the future will hold for these companies, and whether they are really willing to chance their money in such investments.

At this stage all we can do is specular upon just how this will play out over the next year to eighteen months.

Have Leaflets – Do Travel.

One of the joys of campaigning is that it does get one out of the house.

Over the last 2 years I have been on anti-nukiller-power demonstrations and leafleting sessions at the following places:-

– Carlisle.

– Capenhurst.

– Chester

– Crewe

– Heysham.

– Kendal.

– Outside of the Japanese Embassy.

– Preston.

– Warrington.

– Whitehaven.

&

– Wigan

That’s aside from various meetings about the issue in Liverpool & Manchester.

Plus the Fukushima day marches – of course.

That list of locations will be growing in the next few months.

Remodelling The Campaigning Model

“I shall continue to be an impossible person so long as those who are now possible remain possible.” ― Mikhail Bakunin

The Current Situation

One of the things I keep repeating is something which seems very obvious to may activists.

We have reached the tipping end of Climate Change, and there is very little we can do except to try to mitigate the most extreme aspects of that change.

The Pacific is dying.

&

We have a major long term problems with nukiller power & nukiller waste.

Yet the number of activists who are campaigning to stop these problems is extremely small.


Countering the campaigning myth.

One of the continual myths that abounds is that we can change things by organising big national demonstrations, lots of nonviolent direct action, and building a mass movement.

I’ve heard the same thing said many a time, and then watched people fall away with burnout, while stating that they need to ‘take a rest for a while’.

Thus campaigning goes in waves of activities, while the latest political crisis diverts a lot of individuals attention from these issues.

Yet the dangers posed by global warning, nukiller power, and radioactive waste grow by the hour.

Having regular rests might be good for the individual activists, but it’s not good for the those activists who keep going hour by day by month by year by decade on end. [ That comes with a financial and emotional cost which I’ll not go in to right now.]

For the long term activists it’s not just a question of keeping up with the issue, as the nukiller industry is multifaceted, but constantly working to share that knowledge.

Thus the best campaigners need have to a wide ranging knowledge of different subjects, be multi-skilled, and possess the ability to keep summing up that knowledge in different ways.

Just doing that while organising very small actions is the very most which most long term activists can hope to achieve.

This is particularly so as there are just not the numbers to sustain anything else.

Thus the line about ‘direct action is the only way’ becomes more of a chant than the reality.

Just keep in mind that:-

– Long term campaigning means we have to transcend both class and culture.

– Long term campaigning means constant self-education.

– Long term campaigning means just that.

– Long term campaigning means constantly campaigning for years on end without a break.

Constantly campaigning is the name of the game.


Just How do we do it?

The reality for most campaigning groups is that everything comes down to a few activists.

So:-

– How do we get away from only ever being able to organise regular pickets or leafleting sessions which just consist of 2,3, or 4 people ?

– How do we get away from meetings or public meetings at which we are only a small group of committed individuals ?

– How do we keep campaigning for years on end with little or no support?

&

Most importantly of all.

– How do we motivate people in to action ?

There are no easy answers to these questions.


A few workable options.

My thinking is that there is just not the money, people, or the resources around to think about any major national events.

Yet we can do the following:-

– Make sure to get to any pickets of demonstrations by other groups which are going on within the area or region one is living in.

– Hold more co-ordinated demonstrations or pickets on set dates.

e.g. During the next DRS open day will be held at their Carlisle depot on July 18th.

– Have more nukiller waste train leafleting sessions which are held at those times when regular commuters go through the effected stations.

That in turn could be used as a pre-requisite to setting up more local anti-nukiller groups.

– Encourage activists from other local groups to come visit & find out more about our own nukiller plants.

This is something which will both widen our knowledge base, and help to build support for each other.

For example: –

It would be very useful for more activists to go see all of those plants which will be effected by rising sea levels, such as Sizewell, Dungeness, & Heysham.

Or

Capenhurst & all those places through which Uranium Hex is transported.

&

– Getting away from thinking about supporting those these groups which have paid fund-raisers.

The real need is to pay for the leaflets which are handed out by activists, and getting people to these protests on a regular basis.

That means making a few small regular donations to cover paper, ink, and train fares.

All of this might not seem like such,

but it is a very basis need if we are ever going to sustain any long term anti-nukiller campaigning.


Re-penning the campaigning manuals.

As a last observation.

Many of these issues are just not covered in most campaigning manuals.

The presumption being that each campaign has an easily defined time scale.

Yet this does not apply to nukiller power, as we need to look at the many year which they will be around, and the long term impact they will make.

Even if we stop new build and close down all the nukiller plants in one go, then there will still be the decommissioning and radioactive waste issue which will need to be addressed.

There is real need for campaigning manuals to examine just how we might support long term campaigning, and thus how best to work in mixed aged groups.

Imagine

Imagine a world in which shops and restaurants have to hold a special licence in order to sell meat or fish for people to eat.

Imagine a world in which there are next to no shops or restaurants which sell meat or fish for people to eat.

Imagine a world in which people regard the raising and killing of animals to eat as being a totally barbaric activity.

Imagine a world in which so few people eat fish, that there are no more fishing fleets, as it has become totally uneconomic for them operate.

Imagine a world in which the manufactures of fishing equipment, and the shops which used to sell such items have become bankrupt, as no one engages in such activities.

Imagine a world in which all forms of hunting do no need to be outlawed, because everyone regards such activities as both totally degenerate and utterly barbaric.

Imagine a world in which photographs of meat, or the preparation of meat, is restricted to films & publications for the over 18s, and only if the covers of these items have a BIG NOTICE warming people that they contain very emotionally upsetting images.

Imagine a world in which no one writes cook books with meat or fish dishes in them.

Imagine all of the above, as it’s the sort of world I would like to live in.

Two More Nukiller Disasters In The Making

Here are two news stories which make me worry that there are a lot more nukiller problems in the making.

Cumbrian nuclear dump ‘virtually certain’ to be eroded by rising sea levels

Although this will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever studied any of the current or historical maps of the area.

Tepco’s frugality rapped after 48,000 PCs found running Windows XP

Within this news story it states that:- ‘Microsoft stopped providing security updates and technical support for Windows XP last year, aggravating concerns about cybersecurity.’

Which leaves me wondering just how many other nukiller reactors are run on this dodgy Mircosoft system ? ? ?

The Political Kipper Season

The Political Kipper Season has now arrived for the British Press.

Yes it’s Election time.

So don’t expect to read much more than what various politicians are trading as insults, one to the other, for the next four weeks.

Yet what’s the point in voting when
We Have No Say in Many of the Decisions Which Effect Our Lives?

So here are six reasons why I don’t vote, have never voted, and will never vote in any government or local government election: –

– The unelected House of Lords.

– The City of London Corperation, or last rotten borough.

This is where any company which operates in the city can get to vote, and vote again.

– The unelected and overpriced monarchy.

– The Greater London Council which was aboblished in 1986.

To misquote the old saying:-
When voting changed the system, then the System was Aboblished.

– The various unaccountable multinations,
such as the banks, and mining companies.

&

– How we now have no say as to just where nukiller waste will be dumped.

To quote Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: –

‘To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue.

… To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under the pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, trained, ransomed, exploited, monopolized, extorted, squeezed, mystified, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, despised, harassed, tracked, abused, clubbed, disarmed, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and, to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, outraged, dishonoured.

That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.’

Energy Co-Operatives For Street Lighting.

I’ve mentioned the idea of powering street lighting by the use of solar and vertical wind turbines before now. There are many different designs to choose from.

What I didn’t mention is just how this might be achieved.

How it might be done.

What I’d also like to encourage are energy workers co-operatives which could operate in our city centres.

The idea being that they would install and run street lighting on behalf of all the local authorities.

This would save us all a lot in terms of local council taxes, provide much needed jobs, and generate wealth via the feed in tariff.

Best of all there would be no power loss over the electricity grid.

Aside from a little imagination all that would be needed is a little start up money, which could be set aside from the amount of money which local authorities currently spend on street lighting, and the political will to do.

It would be really good to know if anyone is interested in developing this idea.

Take No Prisoners

Remember the expression: ‘Take no prisoners’ ?

Well that was the order which came from King Henry V during the Battle of Agincourt.

So several thousand French prisoners were slaughtered. While only those that were ransomable got saved.

During the last British budget One Millions pounds was put to one side for a public celebration of the battle.

Perhaps a few people might like to turn up in chains at these ‘celebrations’, and play dead.

That really would make the point as to just what happened on October 25th 1415.

Yet More Worries From The Pacific

There are three news stories which have just been published in Enenews that everyone should read.

Melted fuel may have “dropped even beyond” the bottom of Fukushima plant

Dam gates ‘shifted’ in Fukushima Unit 3 fuel pool — Damaged by massive piece of falling debris — Concern it could trigger drainage from pool

&

Experts: Pacific food web crashing

They show just why we should all be really worried right now.