Anti-Nuclear Power Protesters Rally in Memory of Silkwood

More than 250 people gathered at the Karen Silkwood Memorial Rally in Boston last night to demand an end to nuclear weapons and nuclear power, and to protest circumstances surrounding the death of Silkwood.

Anti-nuclear activists, union organizers, feminists, and a Nobel laureate joined in the commemoration of Silkwood, a nuclear lab technician and union organizer who died in a mysterious car accident in November 1974.

Allegations

Her supporters allege she was carrying documents detailing violations of worker safety standards and the production of faulty plutonium rods at the time of her death.

Sam Lovejoy, an anti-nuclear activist and member of the Clamshell Alliance, told the crowd last night, "It's very hard to get union people together with no-nuke supporters, the women's movement, and environmentalists" and because of the wide range of support for Silkwood, her cause is "unique."

Silkwood supporters organized 140 events throughout the country this week, including rallies and teach-ins in support of Silkwood, Lynda Taylor, spokeswoman for the New England Supporters of Silkwood, said yesterday.

Nobel Prize Winner

George Wald '44, professor emeritus of Biology and winner of the Physiology and Medicine Nobel Prize, told the enthusiastic crowd that "Nuclear power and weapons are the most life-threatening thing that has ever come up in the history of the planet."

Florynce Kennedy, attorney and founder of the Feminist Party, told the crowd last night, "We must have a moratorium on all nuclear proliteration and plants, everything. We must escalate the grafitti, we've got to put it on prime time network television."