Los Alamos

Peace Action New Mexico followed up on last year's national Peace Action conference and demonstration at Los Alamos with a second mass rally and action at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on August 9, Nagasaki Day. For several hours through the middle of the day, more than 300 people picnicked, mingled, and listened to a wide variety of speakers and performers at Ashley Pond, the central town park. The rally then moved en masse, with a bus for those who could not walk, nearly two miles to the nuclear weapons lab administration building.

After the crowd reassembled in the parking lot, 60 people defied an arbitrary rope boundary established by the private security force. Each was forcibly escorted to a waiting bus, most with no questions asked but plenty of photos taken to identify just who was crossing the line. Among the chants heard from the bus full of arrestees was "Free Wen Ho Lee", the former Los Alamos scientist and alleged nuclear spy then still in solitary confinement in an Albuquerque jail. After an hour in custody, the bus was driven back to Ashley Pond, and the 60 were free to go.

For more information, contact Peace Action New Mexico, 226 Fiesta St. Ste. F, Santa Fe, NM 87501, (505)989-4812; LANLaction@igc.org