Reading Room


How We Foreclosed on the Bomb in Livermore

Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Posted by Scott Yundt

About 200 participants gathered at 4 PM this past Sunday in Livermore's William Payne Park across from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. At 4:15 PM, Livermore time (8:15 AM August 6 Hiroshima time, the moment the first atomic bomb used in war exploded) sirens sounded and participants observed a moment of silence before Takashi Tanemori, a Hiroshima bomb survivor, spoke.

Altogether, there was a powerful 2-hour program filled with great talks, musicians and Taiko drummers.

This was followed by a march to the West Gate of Livermore Lab - at which point, peace advocates symbolically and literally foreclosed on the bomb by placing FORECLOSURE signs on the gates and stringing multiple strands of paper chains and locks across the 4-lane-wide gate into Livermore Lab.

Many then left chalk outlines of their bodies and peace slogans in multi-colored chalk across the roadway. The Lab had "abandoned" the West Gate on Sunday evening, making it ripe for our "foreclosure" action.

While the foreclosure action ended the day's program, some peace activists continued down to the road to the East Ave. gate, which was open on Sunday evening, and where 4 people chose to nonviolently risk arrest. They were cited and released.

Watch this terrific video made by Haleh Hatami at the Event

Click here to go to our Youtube page where you can view video of all of the speakers at the event...

Click here to see pictures...

Click here to read the program...

Click here to read Tara Dorabji's talk from the event.

Click here to read Natalia Moronova's talk from the event.

Click here to see a webpage from Michael Eisenscher (who spoke at the event) page about the event