Nonviolent action in 1974: No Nukes!

Excerpted by fair use from We the Resistance Documenting a History of Nonviolent Protest in the United States, Michael C. Long (Editor), San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2019.

[Opinion. Do you find this 1974 nonviolent sabotage to be different in any way from Palestine Action’s nonviolent sabotage against Israel’s Elbit Systems?

You may be wondering why oppose nuke plants, “an affordable and environmentally friendly source of power”. We can get into that later, if you like.

If there is even one nuclear reactor, some terrorist govt like the United States will use its component to make a bomb…and keep it secret a la Israel.

And why should we not focus on renewables instead of $30 billion cement behemoths that will only operate for 60 years? And, well, Chernobyl. What happens to the radioactive waste???

That’s what nonviolent action is all about. You see something is just plain wrong. You get up in the morning, get dressed and…fix it!]

Nonviolent action in 1974: No Nukes!

Sam Lovejoy, a twenty-seven-year-old organic farmer living on a Massachusetts commune, picked the morning of George Washington’s birthday to carry out a jolting act of civil disobedience.

On February 22, 1974, Lovejoy grabbed some tools from the commune and headed to a nearby area where Northeast Utilities had erected a 500-foot-high tower to test wind direction. The tower was part of the utility company’s larger plan to build a twin nuclear power plant on the site.

Arriving at the site in early morning, Lovejoy used his farm tools to loosen the turnbuckles that created the tension necessary for the cables to stabilize the tower. When the high-tension cables lost their strength, the top 360 feet of the tower crashed to the ground, causing about $45,000 in damage.

Lovejoy then walked to a nearby road, waved down a police car, and asked to be escorted to the police station, where he described and confessed to his crime. He also gave the arresting officer the statement that appears below. Lovejoy was charged with malicious destruction of property and then released on his own recognizance.

The radical historian Howard Zinn agreed to serve as an expert witness at Lovejoy’s trial. Zinn testified that Lovejoy’s actions followed in the footsteps of the Abolitionists, Thoreau, and Gandhi.

When the presiding judge suggested that civil disobedience required the strict observance of nonviolence, Zinn replied: “Violence has to do with human beings, not property.” The judge eventually voided the charge on a technicality and instructed the jury to render a verdict of “not guilty.”

Northeast Utilities canceled the project.