Clamshell Alliance
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The Clamshell Alliance was an anti-nuclear organization co-founded by Paul Gunter and others in 1976 in order to oppose construction of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station in New Hampshire. It opposed all nuclear power in New England.
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[edit] Activities
The alliance conducted non-violent demonstrations in the late 1970s and 1980s. In April, 1977 over 2,000 protestors occupied the Seabrook construction site. 1,414 of these activists were arrested and held in jails and National Guard armories for up to two weeks after refusing bail. Clamshell activists used this detention for training and networking, and long considered the detention a blunder on the part of Republican Governor Meldrim Thomson, Jr..
Richard Asinof wrote:
- The overwhelming success of the Clamshell Alliance's occupation can be attributed to three factors; the planning and leadership of the Clamshell Alliance itself; the strength of the affinity group and the spirit and discipline of the occupiers; and the strong impact that women in key leadership roles exerted on the events. [1]
In later years, New Hampshire authorities minimized the impact of mass civil disobedience at the Seabrook plant by treating activist trespass as a violation, and allowing community service in lieu of fine. Actions were still media events capable of swaying public opinion, but their larger impact was limited. Clamshell Alliance members attempted to have their actions taken more seriously by the courts, and began staging sit-ins of the office of Republican Governor Judd Gregg. While this action resulted in jail time for criminal trespass, the local courts would not rule on the question of "competing harms" or the "Right of Revolution" granted by the New Hampshire Constitution. Rye activist Guy Chichester eventually sawed down a Seabrook Station emergency warning siren pole, resulting in charges of criminal mischief, a Class B felony. Although there was no doubt that he had cut down the pole, Chichester was acquitted, having argued that Seabrook nuclear power plant represented a greater harm to the community than the action that he had taken against it.
The Clamshell Alliance was an inspiration to other communities who wished to organize opposition to nuclear power plants. Hundreds of groups with similar names, such as the Abalone Alliance in California, adopted similar non-violent organizing techniques to oppose nuclear power and nuclear weapons manufacturing around the country and internationally.
[edit] Aftermath
Public Service Company of New Hampshire, the utility with majority ownership of the Seabrook Station, was bankrupted by the project. Governor Hugh J. Gallen had signed legislation prohibiting the utility from billing consumers for the costs of construction work in progress (CWIP), and the accident at Three Mile Island had increased awareness and added the requirement for an evacuation plan prior to commissioning. In the end, only one of the two planned reactors went on line.
[edit] Popular culture
In the 1997 film Grosse Pointe Blank, a Clamshell Alliance poster hangs on the bedroom wall of Minnie Driver's character.
