[gpga-news] PrsRls: Green Party launches 'No Nukes Tour: Organize the South!', Oct. 3-8

Thu Sep 29 08:10:13 PDT 2011

This press release redistributed by: 
http://GeorgiaGreenParty.org/

Bruce Dixon, Press Secretary
	678-298-9463 x3

--------------------------------

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, September 29, 2011

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614,
mclarty at greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene at gp.org
Theresa El-Amin, Green Party Co-Chair, contact for the No Nukes Tour,
919-824-0659, pssarn at aol.com

State Green Parties sponsor and host 'No Nukes Tour: Organize the
South!', October 3 to 8 in southern states

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Parties in several states are co-sponsoring
and hosting a 'No Nukes Tour' of North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, and Florida from Monday, October 3, to Saturday,
October 8.

The No Nukes Tour, with the slogan "Organize the South!", will feature
Green activist and candidate Howie Hawkins.  Mr. Hawkins has been an
organizer in movements for peace, justice, labor, the environment, and
independent politics and against nuclear power since the late 1960s.

The tour will kick off with a press conference at 10 am at the Raleigh
Old State House in North Carolina.  A schedule of the tour is appended
below.

"The outline of environmental injustice overshadows nuclear power.
This injustice extends to commercial nuclear plants, uranium mines,
fuel enrichment and fabrication plants, and waste sites," said Lou
Zeller of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
(http://www.bredl.org).  "Most of all, this injustice affects miners,
nuclear workers, and families living near radioactive facilities.
Recent studies indicate that there is nuclear power-related
environmental injustice, particularly in the southeastern United
States.  Is this ongoing inequality deliberate?  Or have the habits
and patterns of the past become so much a part of the landscape that
the image of a colorblind society can be maintained even while
injustice persists?  We must force officials to take into account this
pernicious, unwanted legacy when and where nuclear power decisions are
made. This is why we have organized the No Nukes Tour."

The Green Party has taken a strong stand against nuclear energy and
opposed President Obama's resurrection of nuclear power with a
multi-billion-dollar taxpayer-funded subsidy for a Georgia plant,
warning about serious public health threats posed by mining, waste
transportation, and waste storage.  The Green Party disputes the myths
that nuclear power is 'green energy' or a solution to the advance of
climate change.

Energy companies have successfully lobbied the White House and
Congress to fund such facilities with taxpayers' money, in an attempt
to pass the high cost and dangerous liabilities of nuclear power on to
the public while the private corporations that own the plants reap the
profits.  (See "Greens call President Obama's resurrection of nuclear
power and handout for Georgia nuclear reactors 'his worst idea yet',"
Green Party release, Feb. 18, 2010,
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=3D297)

Howie Hawkins, has run for a number of local, state and national
offices as a Green and is currently a candidate for Common Councilor
in Syracuse, New York.  His 2010 campaign for Governor of New York
achieved ballot status for the Green Party of New York State.

He is an advocate for the Green New Deal, about which he said, =93We
need a Green New Deal that restores the commitments in the old New
Deal including full employment, income security, and the right to
health care. And we need to go beyond the old New Deal with a Green
New Deal that taxes the rich to fund a public investment program that
puts people back to work building a sustainable prosperity based on
replacing nuclear and fossils fuels with clean renewable energy, mass
transit, organic agriculture, and clean manufacturing =93
(http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=3D446)

Mr. Hawkins was a co-founder of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in
1976 and the Green Party in the US in 1984.  He is a member of
Teamsters Local 317 and loads trucks at UPS.

Co-sponsors of the No Nukes Tour include the Blue Ridge Environmental
Defense League, Florida Green Party, Georgia Green Party
(http://www.georgiagreenparty.org), North Carolina Green Party
(http://www.ncgreenparty.org), North Carolina Waste Awareness
Reduction Network (http://www.ncwarn.org), South Carolina Green Party
(http://www.scgreenparty.org), South Carolina Progressive Network
(http://www.scpronet.com), Southern Anti-Racism Network
(http://www.projectsarn.org), and Nuclear Watch South.

No Nukes Tour: Organize the South!
October 3-8, 2011
Contact: Theresa El-Amin, Green Party co-chair and Southern
Anti-Racism Network regional coordinator, 919-824-0659, pssarn at aol.com

Tour Stops

Monday, October 3
Raleigh Old State House, North Carolina, 10 am
Contact: Lou Zeller, bredl at skybest.com or (336) 977-0852
Public Forum, Charlotte, North Carolina, 7 pm
Contact: George Friday, ippn at igc.org or (862) 668-8172

Tuesday, October 4
University of South Carolina, Columbia, 4 pm
Contact: Scott West, slwest at gmail.com or (347) 581-0230
Columbia AFL-CIO/CLC, Mojeska Simkins House, South Carolina, 7 pm
Contact: Jenny Patterson, jennypatterson at knology.net or (843) 270-1308

Wednesday, October 5
Paine College, Augusta, Georgia, 10 am
Contact: Charles Utley, cutley at paine.edu or (706) 592-3987
NRC Regional Office, Atlanta, Georgia, 3 pm
Contact: Theresa El-Amin, pssarn at aol.com or (919) 824-0659
Denny's, Columbus, Georgia, 7 pm
Contact: Theresa El-Amin, pssarn at aol.com or (919) 824-0659

Thursday, October 6
Atlanta, WAND Luncheon, Georgia, 1 pm
Contact: Amanda Hill, ahill at georgiawand.org or (404) 524-5999

Friday, October 7
Farley Plant, Dothan, Alabama, 9 am
Contact: Theresa El-Amin, pssarn at aol.com or (919) 824-0659
Friends Meeting House, Gainesville, Florida, 7 pm
Contact: Michael Canney, alachuagreen at gmail.com or (352) 213-8885

Saturday, October 8
College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, time to be announced
Contact: Sue Edward, bflosue at earthlink.net or (843) 926-1750

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191
=95 Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
=95 News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
=95 Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
=95 Ballot Access Page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
=95 Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
=95 Video Page http://www.gp.org/video/index.php

Press conferences, forums, and other events at the Green Party's 2011
Annual National Meeting in Alfred, NY, broadcast and archived on the
Green Party's Livestream Channel
http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
=95 2011 Annual National Meeting http://nygreenfest.org

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of
the United States (Summer 2011 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

~ END ~