GATHERING FOR A LIVABLE NUCLEAR-FREE WORLD (RMVD).
NO TO NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND NUCLEAR POWER! 


SAINTES 23-25 OCTOBER 2015 
Salles Saintonge, 11 Rue Fernand Chapsal

WHY THIS GATHERING?

Origins

France’s anti-nuclear movement is almost as old as the military and civilian “nuclear adventure” itself. On 8 August 1945, Albert Camus prefigured its birth with his editorial in “Combat” when he said: “mechanical civilisation has reached its last degree of savagery.” From the 1950s, the movement has risen up against the “savagery” of nuclear arms, but also, since the 1970s, against nuclear pwer generation. In 1997 the “Nuclear Phase-Out” network « Sortir du nucléaire » was formed withe the stated ambition of making a federation. However a crisis arose in 2010 wihtin the network, causing deep divisions. On 1 February 2015 the network’s AGM in Dijon opened up the hope of ending the crisis, by electing a new majority and adopting a new line. The plan then was to hold in internal Congress intended to be both decision-making and open to groups outside the network. But since those two objectives proved incompatible and time was too short, the Network postponed its Congress to the start of 2016. So ACDN (founded in 1996), in response to the wishes of several groups inside and outside the Network, agreed to organise this Gathering, in the same spirit as those already organised in Saintes since 2001 – notably the EGMV (States-General for a Livable World) which in 2011 drafted and adopted unanimously the Charter for a Livable World.

We want a livable world, livable for everyone, whether or not you live near a nuclear power-plant or in a nation with nuclear weapons. That is why we want a world without nuclear arms or power-plants. This widely-shared objective should enable us to persuade a growing number of our compatriots that the world must be freed from nuclear technology. Not just from “carbon emissions”. That’s why this gathering is open to all who share this double objective: a livable world, freed from nuclear dangers both military and non-military. Such a world is everyone’s business.

Aims

- To draw the lessons of history. Since the creation in 1945 of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA), all French governments, semi-secretly then openly after 1960, have developed a nuclear arsenal that can today cause a billion deaths, and then, after 1970 imposed the gigantic nuclear power programme which has given France 58 reactors: nearly one for each million citizens, a world record.

- To understand the reasons why France’s anti-nuclear movement, despite moments of strong mobilisation at different levels and despite a national structure, has failed to prevent or even affect the military and civilian nuclear path followed by our political leaders and the ruling technostructure.

- To reflect on ways to reverse the force imbalance possessed by the nuclear lobby, by mobilising public opinion, nationally and internationally, against its noxious and irresponsible decisions, so as to obtain the political decisions that will rid France as soon as possible of these weapons and power-plants — and the world too. For at any moment a catastrophe can result from either kind of nuclear technology. It is a matter of great urgency.

- To tackle difficult and controversial matters with no taboos: the alternatives to nuclear power; the time-frames and scenarios for phase-out; the use of a referendum as a way to counter the nuclear lobby; the dismantling of plants; the handling of toxic waste; the ending of the AREVA Corporation; the future of the “nuclear workforce”; media disinformation and the media pact of silence; actions directed at public opinion, representatives, parties, unions, NGOs, churches, youth ...; the anti-nuclear movement’s forms of organisation and communication, its spirit and practice.

- To draw from that, if possible, a consensual assessment and a “roadmap for the future”.

For more information or a message of support, please write to: contact@acdn.net

PROGRAMME

Friday, 23 October

From 1pm: Welcome for participants - Salle Saintonge
2pm: - Opening of the exhibition « Two worlds are possible »
2.30pm : Panorma of the current struglles
5pm: Press conference and testimonies
6pm : Lighting of the Nuclear Disarmament Flame; Public festive ceremony.
9pm : Film followed by a discussion of nuclear risks (Open to the public)

Saterday, 24 October

8 30 : Welcome for new arrivals
9am : Plenary Session
9.30 – 11am : Workshops Series A : Where are we? (What is the state of play?)
A1. After Hiroshima & Nagasaki : The strategies of terror (State terror and terrorism) / The arsenals and the role of the military-industrial lobbies 

A2. After Chernobyl & Fukushima : The effects – short-term, medium-term, long-term / Irradiation, food, health 

A3. After global warming: water and oceans / air and “geo-engineering” / COP 21

A4. After the cyber-revolution: Big Brother and big data / Surveillance, disinformation, cyber-warfare
11.30am – 12 Plenary Session. Sharing of Workshops Series A.

2pm-3.30: Workshops Series B : How did we get where we are?
B1. The military and civilian nuclear lobby in France, CEA, EDF, AREVA, Ecole des mines, OPECST… How do they make and impose their decisions? How can they be resisted?
B2. Responsibilities of anti-nuclear groups in their successes and failures, in France and elsewhere.
B3. Growth, shrinkage and practical alternatiives. Two models of society.
B4. (Yet to be decided)

4pm- 5.30: Workshops Series C : Finding the exit? Obstacles, opportunities, true and false solutions.
C1. The time-frame question: Can the system collapse without more catastrophes? / « Transition » vs « immediate exit» 
 C2. The question of toxic waste: cursed heritage. What to do with waste? What to do with power-plants?
C3. The question of projects: EPR/ ITER/ ASTRID/ LMJ… How can we set an end-date? 

C4. The question of alternatives : renewable energy/ new energy/ energy saving. Technical solutions, political choices, changing behaviour.
6pm: Plenary Session for synthesis. Sharing from Workshops B and C.

9pm: Roundtable and Public Debate “Atom, Climate, Finance and War: Threats to the world and ways of countering them”

With

Sunday, 25 October

8 30am - 10 (Winter time): Workshops Series D : What do we do? Tactical and strategic aims, means of action.
D1. How to get political decisions? (Instances of decisions, referendum and elections) 

D2. How to win over public opinion? (Media, opinion relays, social networks, demonstrations…) 

D3. How do we organise? (Spirit, methods, means of alliance and coordination) 

D4. Various actions: COP 21 / The role of the CLIs / Legal actions / « Don’t Bank the Bomb »…
10.30 am -12: Plenary Session, synthesis and closure. 


Sharing of workshops Series D.
Discussion and adoption of a resolution on « Atom and climate » and of a « roadmap for the future » as an outcome of this Gathering..
12am Extinguishing the Nuclear Disarmament Flame
12.30: Festive republican meal, to close the Gathering

***

In the ancient city of Saintes the Nuclear Disarmament Flame has been lit several times since the Nuclear Disarmament Days on May 2001. This citizens’ flame, honoured now by elected representatives of all political colours, did burn on 6-9 August 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and will burn again on 23-25 October, during the RMVD.

Saintes is the base of Action des Citoyens pour le Désarmement Nucléaire (ACDN), and hosted in 2004, 2006 and 2008 three international rallies for Disarmament — nuclear, biological and chemical (the RID-NBCs), during which the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Trees were planted and numerous international contacts were made. In 2004 the Hiroshima Mission for World Peace, when two hibakusha (nuclear survivors) brought their testimonies apporter leurs témoignages, relit the Nuclear Disarmament Flame and carried it through the city; in 2009 the World March for Peace and Nonviolence came through, accompanied by the Hiroshima Flame; in 2011, the States-General for a Livable World (EGMV) was held, followed in 2013 by the Gathering for a Livable World (RMV); and in August 2014 there was a collective fast for a world freed from the nuclear danger.

Saintes is the only French town, with Saint Pierre d’Oléron (also in the Charente Maritime region), to belong both to the international network « Abolition 2000 » and to « Mayors for Peace». We work for peace, disarmament, and the ending of nuclear weapons and power-plants in France, Europe and the world, without being dictated to by financial constraints — which too often weigh down the anti-nuclear movement.

Form