INTRODUCTORY BLURB to be used with every installment:
In April 2020, Concerned Citizens of Allegany County will
celebrate the 30th anniversary of the “Bump the Dump” protest, a multi-year
citizen action that prevented the establishment of a nuclear waste dump. This
extraordinary episode in our history was ultimately argued and won in US
Supreme Court. In taking a stand against the dangers of radioactive
contamination on environmental and human health, thousands of regular folks
have become folk heroes. We invite you to learn more about them.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN ALLEGANY COUNTY
Thomas V. Peterson
Thirty years ago
the people of Allegany County adopted civil disobedience as a major tactic in
our fight against the nuclear dump. Why was it so successful in thwarting the
state’s efforts to site the dump at Allen, West Almond, and Caneadea?
The story begins
on April 10, 1989 when Gary Lloyd and Stuart Campbell went to a CCAC (Concerned
Citizens of Allegany County) meeting to argue that they should begin organizing
for civil disobedience. Both men
believed that the democratic processes of scientific studies, legal challenges,
and peaceful protest rallies would not stop the state from putting the dump in
Allegany County.
Gary, who had
grown up in Allegany County hunting deer, was incensed that the state might
ruin this precious land with nuclear garbage.
He and other avid woodsmen had serious conversations about vandalizing
bulldozers and drilling rigs with explosives.
Although Gary didn’t have moral doubts about sabotage in this particular
case, he worried that violent actions might create a backlash and divide folks
in the County. Far worse, someone could
get seriously hurt. Gary had closely
followed the Civil Rights Movement in the newspapers and wondered whether civil
disobedience might work here.
Stuart, a history
professor at Alfred University, had studied social movements and the ways
economic interests had used brutal means against ordinary people. Civil
disobedience, he believed, was one of the few effective ways that people
without economic and political power might successfully win against the nuclear
industry.
Gary and Stuart
presented their case, but the reception was mixed. David Seeger, CCAC’s lawyer from Buffalo,
warned the leadership not to get involved, because the government could file
lawsuits and seek injunctions that would both derail the legal progress that
they had already made and drain their treasury.
Although some thought civil disobedience might be necessary in the
future, others worried that it could lead to mob violence. In any case, CCAC
was becoming overwhelmed with educational, political, and legal tasks.
After the
meeting, Gary and Stuart realized that for civil disobedience to work in the
county, they would have to begin organizing.
They found folks who had used civil disobedience in labor disputes,
during the Vietnam War, and against despoliation of the environment. Interest grew rapidly and 50-60 women and men
soon formed ACNAG (Allegany County Nonviolent Action Group). They planned their first action: confronting
the Siting Commission when it came to do a “Windshield Tour” of the proposed
sites. Nearly 50 people linked arms and
surrounded the Siting Commission’s car when it pulled into the parking lot at
the county courthouse in Belmont. After
keeping the commissioners locked in their car for over an hour, Sheriff Scholes
arrested the protesters.
The Belmont
protest made civil disobedience respectable in the rural county. Workers in the courthouse hung anti-dump
placards from the windows and cheered the protesters when they were
released. Newspaper articles and letters
to the editor in both the Olean Times Herald and the Wellsville Reporter were
positive about the protests.
Representatives from ACNAG began holding civil disobedience training
sessions around the county.
Between December
13, 1989 and April 4, 1990 nonviolent protesters linked arms on four separate
occasions and stopped the siting commission from getting onto the sites. The
success of each action drew more people to the next action until there were
around 1,000 people at the final showdown in Caneadea. I have detailed this
story in Linked Arms: A Rural Community Resists Nuclear Waste.
Why was civil
disobedience in the county so effective? First, without the incredible
leadership of Steve Meyers and many others in CCAC, the county would not have
been unified enough to make civil disobedience persuasive. CCAC leafleted the county with information
and organized a massive turnout of 5,000 people (10% of the population of the
entire county) to greet the Siting Commissioners when they came into the
county. Local scientists presented a
study to show that Allegany County was unsuitable for a nuclear dump. Women in West Almond worked for many weeks on
an anti-dump quilt. People publicized
the potential spread of nuclear waste by making a canoe trip on the Genesee
River from Belmont to Rochester. The
BANDITS (Band Against Nuclear Dumps in This State) wrote and sang protest songs
at many rallies, the most notable being at the “Night of Rage” in West Almond
in the fall of 1989.
Second, civil
disobedience was successful because the ACNAG leaders meticulously planned the
various actions and worked diligently to maintain nonviolence. ACNAG’s success
in drawing people to protect the sites had a downside, however—large numbers of
people who had not been exposed to ACNAG’s civil disobedience training sessions
began showing up at the later protests, especially during the last action at
Caneadea. Police, who had spent a couple
of hours arresting “grandparents” chained across the Caneadea bridge, tried to
get on the site, well over two miles away, by marching around the farm
equipment blocking the road. In their
apparent frustration, they began arresting people who were merely singing
protest songs on the side of the road.
Although the
leadership of ACNAG sent their most trained members to the Caneadea bridge,
they knew that undisciplined and unpredictable people over whom ACNAG had no
control were at many places on the site.
The leaders finally resorted to using horses to stop the police
advance. Although that is still a
controversial decision, ACNAG’s leadership believed that the horses prevented a
bloodbath between the protesters and police.
Thankfully Governor Mario Cuomo decided to end the Siting Commission’s
attempts to get onto the sites before there was a need for another action.
Thomas V. Peterson is Emeritus Professor of Religious
Studies and Art Theory at Alfred University, where he taught for 36 years. He was active in the nuclear dump fight and
wrote Linked Arms: A Rural Community Resists Nuclear Waste (SUNY Press, 2002)
Follow Concerned Citizens’ FB page or join us at our next
meeting. Phone/text 585-466-4474 or
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