40 Years of Opposition to Nuclear Power Discussed Tuesday

To the Village Square: 40 years of Nuclear Power Opposition Tuesday December 9 | 6:30 PM Portsmouth Public Library Levenson Room

Join us on Tuesday, Dec. 9, for a 40-year photo history of the anti-nuclear movement by two people deeply involved in that movement.

This FREE event, sponsored by the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, will feature photojournalist Lionel Delevingne sharing images from his new book, To The Village Square: From Montague to Fukushima: 1975-2014. The title is taken from a 1946 quote of Albert Einstein about democracy: “To the village square we must carry the facts of atomic energy; from there must come America’s voice.”

The book captures the grassroots, citizen-driven movement, including Clamshell Alliance occupations of the Seabrook nuclear power plant site in the mid-1970s. But it also documents the aftermath of plant accidents in Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima. Delevingne’s work has appeared in dozens of exhibits, books and publications, including Mother Jones, The New York Times, Le Sauvage, Die Zeit, Newsweek, and The Village Voice.

Environmental activist Anna Gyorgy, who wrote the book’s introduction, will provide an update on the international safe energy/anti-nuclear movement, especially in Germany, where she has spent most of the past two decades. Gyorgy also helped defeat plans for reactors in Montague, MA, and organized the Clamshell Alliance to protest the Seabrook nuke. She was lead author of NO NUKES: Everyone’s Guide to Nuclear Power and a founder and coordinator of Women and Life on Earth, a multilingual website project on women, ecology and peace which can be found at wloe.org.

“The book gives us a way to look at the past while thinking about the present and looking at the future,” says Gyorgy. “In the book, we see these people involved on their own time. We weren’t paid, we’re not from NGOs or Washington organizations. We started really small, small, small. We have to bring this message to the people: that we have the political power if we use it.”

The book may be purchased at the event; additional information: can be found at tothevillagesquare.net.

Submitted text. Courtesy photo.