by Rowan Sporte Ehn and Grace Sanford
The fundamental goal of the “Twin Threats/CANDU” campaign is to unite the climate and nuclear disarmament movements within Massachusetts on behalf of a shared goal: saving life on the planet.
Another goal of the CANDU campaign is to engage youth within our movement. For this, we are working to target an upcoming webinar and in-person events towards high school and college students. In order to achieve all of our goals, we apply two basic strategies. Action strategies involve dramatic public actions designed to attract public and media attention to our goals—for example, lie-ins, rallies, demonstrations. Educational strategies include the offering of webinars, printed materials, and social media messages.
Another, more short-term, goal we have been working towards is advocating for relevant state bills to be favorably approved out of committee though lobby days. On March 6th, about 15 people with Massachusetts Peace Action and the Warheads to Windmills Coalition lobbied at the Massachusetts Statehouse on behalf of the Commission bill; a bill to create a citizens commission which would provide research and hold public hearings regarding how Massachusetts can transition away from nuclear weapons manufacturing to green energy and technologies. We met with 10 out of 13 members on the Emergency Preparedness and Management committee (where the bill is currently located), most notably with Representative William Driscoll, the joint chair of the committee. The deadline to vote the House bill out of committee was March 15th and the Senate version’s deadline is April 8th.
On March 14th we received the good news that the House version of the bill to create a Citizens’ Commission was reported out favorably! We are hopeful that the Senate version will also be voted out of committee. Our campaign will continue to work alongside Warheads to Windmills to pass this legislation.