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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 1978)
Vol. 80, No. 14 r Eugene, Oregon 97403 Tuesday, August 8, 1978 Trojan protestors crowd jails Arrests continue Monday afternoon By CATHERINE SIEGNER Of the Emerald Seven Oregon jails are full of demon strators today after 135 persons were arrested Sunday at the Trojan Nuclear Plant near Rainier, Oregon, during the third occupation organized by the Trojan Decommissioning Alliance (TDA). The occupation began at 11:30 Sun day morning when the demonstrators marched up to the four-foot fence Po.t land General Electric Co. (PGE) recently built near the highway and used homemade stairs to enter the property. As the 135 went over the fence, sev eral Columbia County sheriff s deputies were waiting about 50 feet inside the gate on the main access road leading up to the reactor building. By noon, the demonstrators had been arrested without violence and bussed to seven different jails around the state. “There’s a national guard armory right down the road," said Normon Solomon, TDA spokesperson. “But they’ve been taken to jails in The Dalles, Tillamook, Hood River, St. Helens, Newport, Oregon City and Hillsboro.” “It’s a tactic. They (the police) want to fragment people if they can.” At last report, 45 more demonstrators were entering the site at two different places, and police had confiscated the homemade stairs near the main entrance. A group of demonstrators, preparing to jump onto the property, were told by police not to jump. The group then paused at the top of the fence to discuss nuclear power with the deputies and ex plain why they were occupying before leaping onto the site. This second group of demonstrators is expected to be arrested also. “The police know we have a lot more people ready to continue with the occu pation,” Solomon said. ‘‘So now they’re more uptight.” “There’s only room for about 20 more people in the Columbia County jail,” Solomon added “The other jails are crowded now, and apparently some of those arrested had no mattresses Sun day night. Members of the press were staying outside the four-foot fence after a free lance reporter from Seattle was arrested Sunday when he entered the property. At meetings between PGE officials and TDA representatives prior to the dem onstration, the utility indicated that press people would be treated the same as other demonstrators and arrested along with them. TDA had sought formal permission from PGE to proceed with the occupa tion, planned for Sunday through Wed nesday, but did not succeed. Permission for the Alliance to demonstrate at Trojan was granted, however, by the Tchinouk i Tribe, which has held title to lands along the lower Columbia River (including the Trojan site) for more than 180 years. Tribal Chairperson Karleen McKenzie sent a message to TDA Friday that stated: “The Tchinouk give full permis sion to the Trojan Decommissioning Al liance to be upon tribal lands from Aug ust 6-9 including the area upon which the Trojan Nuclear Plant and its owners are now trespassing.” The Tribe's claim to the lands dates back to the treaties of Tansy Point which were signed in 1851. An accompanying statement from the Tribe stated that .. Tchinouk aboriginal title precedes that of PGE.” The Tribe went on to say: “Trojan sits on the graveyards of our ancestors. All activities should include respect and rev erence for these ancestors. Mother Earth and the Tchinouk Tribe bear the weight of the Trojan unwillingly.” PGE had requested a preliminary in Photo by Greg GawtowsKi junction to prevent the demonstration, but the request was denied last week in Washington County Circuit Court. Judge Albert Musick claimed he could not en join unincorporated voluntary organiza tions from demonstrating because membership was unclear and he could not be sure who, in fact, he would be enjoining. Twenty-seven individuals were named, however, in an injunction, and will be subject to contempt of court cita tions should any of them be arrested at the Trojan site. “No injunctees have been arrested as yet,” according to Rhys Schols, a member of TDA. “But maybe later there might be some of them at the plant.” The occupation will continue as plan ned Tuesday and Wednesday, with more demonstrators going to the Trojan site each day. On the last day, occupiers may approach the plant in more than one group and at different times of the day, according to TDA. ■| Rainier group not alone While protestors were being ar rested at Trojan Nuclear Power Plant in Rainier, Oregon, thousands more enjoined in other U.S. cities to oppose nuclear de velopment. About 1,000 people gathered Sunday at Diablo Canyon nuclear plant near San Luis Obispo. California, planning to enter the facility in groups of 50. A group of about 2.000 peaceful demonstrators, part of a coalition of more than 50 anti-war, ecology and religious groups, marched be fore Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station outside Los Angeles Saturday, chanting "No More Nukes.” The Southern California Al liance for Survival, which or ganized the demonstration, claims the station is a depot for arms for the Navy’s Pacific Fleet. Naval officials never have com mented about whether nuclear weapons are stored there. About 100 persons in white out fits with black armbands gathered in downtown Atlanta Saturday night and then held a candlelight march to the state Capitol several blocks away. They said their dress represented the ghosts of nearly 94,000 people who died because the United States dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima — the first use of nuclear weapons in war — exactly 33 years before the demonstration. Another demonstration against a nuclear power plant occurred Sunday in North Perry, Ohio, where about 300 .persons marched a mile to protest the con struction of the $2 billion facility. The plant, being built for Cleve land Electric Illuminating Co., is about one-fourth complete and is expected to begin operation in 1981. About 60 persons marched three miles through rain Sunday from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, to Pease Air Force Base in Newington, N.H.. to highlight anti-nuclear activities in New England. The 509th Bomb Wing, the unit from which planes left in 1945 to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is stationed at Pease. Other anti-nuclear activities in the Northeast and Canada in cluded a rally in Brattleboro, Vt., near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, and a demonstration at the nearly completed Point Lep reau. New Brunswick, Canada power plant.
