CPTnet
30 November 2006
JONESBOUROUGH, TN: CPT delegation meets with community members living near
DU plants
by Murray Lumley
On 24 November 2006, fifteen people met at the Jackson Park Church of the
Brethren in the eastern Tennessee community of Jonesborough to talk about
plants in the area that manufacture Depleted Uranium (DU.) Eight people were
part of the CPT DU delegation visiting Jonesborough, Tennessee, and Rocket
Center, West Virginia, to conduct prayer vigils with local supporters and
interviews with those concerned about these plants. The other six were
church members and local people knowledgeable about the effects of DU
manufacture on Jonesboro residents as well as internationally. In
particular, participants discussed the small Aerojet Ordnance plant in
Jonesboro that employs 120 people for the manufacture of DU weapons.
Those present at the meeting shared the following:
1. Canada, in its role of mining, refining and supplying 30% of the U.S.'s
uranium needs for WW 2 bombs and, since 1945, nuclear warheads and nuclear
reactors -has supplied a cheap source of DU for weapons.
2. People are in denial about the harm caused by DU. Getting rid of DU will
require the same active dedication needed for the clean up of the Love
Canal, N.Y. toxic dumpsite in the 1980's.
3. Demonization of workers or any citizens involved in the manufacture of DU
is inappropriate since all are complicit in the lack of action and cover-up
of the effects of DU on living things.
4. Activists should not appeal to people's fears, but rather to their
nurturing natures.
5. Aerojet employees must pass security checks to obtain their well-paying
jobs. They are unable to speak to anyone about their job for fear of
dismissal and/or lawsuits. Employees also work in a 'need to know'
environment-they only know their own jobs, not what others in the plant are
doing.
6. Plants like Aerojet which have Defense Department contracts, are
established by the owners in rural areas where voter turnout is
traditionally low, to avoid objection to the presence of these plants. With
few opportunities for alternative employment, the corporation considers
workers expendable and replaceable.
7. Corporations exploit patriotism. For example at another plant Nuclear
Fuel Services--management tells workers, "You are making weapons that will
help our soldiers by killing the enemy more efficiently."
8. New legislation that passed the last session of Congress, though not
perfect, will require the military to test at least some war returnees for
the presence of DU in their bodies.
9. When the U.S. used DU-tipped bombs on Baghdad in March 2003, scientists
detected a radioactive cloud over Britain shortly after. Cliffy Kindy noted,
"We're all downrange!'
10. Britain's DU manufacturer, BAE Systems, has announced an end to its
manufacture and the British military has announced that it will no longer
use DU weapons.
11. How can the transformation of DU plants and the communities that depend
on their jobs be done in a disarming way?
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