In June 2006 a delegation of NWIP students consisting of Lena Wendel from Germany, Thomas Silfverberg and Wenjing Tao from Sweden visited Las Vegas to hold a meeting with the mayor of Las Vegas about nuclear weapon issues and Mayors For Peace network, and visit the Nevada Nuclear Test Site.

Below you will find some impressions and photos

The delegation to Las Vegas had been organised by primarly Inga Blum (who unfortunately couldn’t attend the delegation) together with Peggy Maze Johnson and Tony Guzman from Citizen Alert and Chelsea Collonge from Nevada Desert Experience. Both organisations are based in Las Vegas and have a good network to work for nuclear issues.

The aims

One of the reasons to why a delegation was set to Las Vegas was that it is situated close to the Nevada Test Site, which is the place for most of the land based US nuclear weapon tests. Over 930 tests have been performed there since 1951. The most recent one was in February 2006 and consisted of a sub-critical test (in cooperation with United Kingdom). Las Vegas is therefore a key city in the struggle for disarmament in the USA.

Another main reason was that we chose to work with Tony Guzman from Citizen Alert who has been involved with a project aimed towards young people called Think Outside The Bomb. IPPNW are concerned about getting more students involved in disarmament issues in the US. To establish good contacts with this network was seen as a good opportunity to find new people interested in working for nuclear issues.

28^th of June -   Meeting with Mr Corbin Harney

On Wednesday the 28^th the participants met with Chelsea Collonge from Nevada Desert Experience. She had organised a meeting with Mr Corbin Harney, a Shoshone Indian who had been living on the grounds of the Nevada Test Site outside of Las Vegas. He had dedicated his life to both travelling the world to struggle against nuclear tests and also to keep living in the way his people had done for long.

Mr Harney lived a two hour drive outside of Las Vegas. The discussions with him were very informal and open minded. He explained in a very touching way what had happened to his people and how they had been treated by the US government. He also talked about the nuclear pollution that had made their homeland unliveable. He pointed out the importance of the young generation keeping up this struggle.

The Nevada Test Site

After the meeting with Mr Harney we paid a visit to the gates of the Nevada Test Site. Originally, the idea was that we would have a guided tour of the Nevada Test Site. However, to our big disappointment we learned that this “privilege” is only offered to American citizens during certain parts of the year. Instead we chose to stop at the gates. In the dusk of the desert and the lights from the research facilities in the town of Mercury a small peace reunion was made at the gates. Sister Megan from Catholic Workers, who had joined our visit to Mr Harney, informed us about the test site and the peace activities that had been performed there during the years.

30^th of June  -  Meeting with Mayor Oscar Goodman

Peggy Mason at Citizen Alert had used her contacts and arranged a meeting for the NWIP delegation and Tony Guzman with Mayor Oscar Goodman, the Mayor of Las Vegas (or as he puts it himself – the happiest mayor of the greatest city in the world). Mayor Oscar Goodman has a reputation of being quite a character and he has been working to stop the Yucca Mountain project which aims towards dumping nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain close to the city. But he had also been fighting to get the homeless people away from the city of Las Vegas. He had recently been meeting with other US mayors where he was introduced to the concept of Mayors for Peace. Therefore we thought that our aim with this meeting would be to try to have him signing up for the Mayors for Peace.

A 15 minute appointment with him was set at his office at the City Council on Friday at 1.30 pm. Different parts had been divided up within the group as we tried to have some structure of the meeting on beforehand. Tony would introduce us and then we would explain about IPPNW, the NWIP and the reasons why we care (as medical staff the only cure is prevention) and finally explain to him of the advantages about signing up for the Mayors for Peace.

The meeting went on very well. Mayor Oscar Goodman was very nice to us and he seemed to listen to what we had to say. We pointed out that Mayors for Peace aims to encourage people around the world that something is happening towards peace and disarmament. This would give Las Vegas international credit and also among the population of the city itself. Mayor Oscar Goodman chose to sign up personally as a mayor, but to get Las Vegas on the list of mayors in the Mayors for Peace an agreement from the City Council is also required.

All of us were very happy with the outcome and our performance during this brief but intense meeting. It has to be seen as a success. We are currently working on getting the agreement signed by the City Council.

Target Las Vegas

Later the same day we arranged Target Las Vegas in front of the Statue of Liberty at the New York New York Casino. Liam Brunham had made the flyer and Citizen Alert had printed the copies of them. Except for the white coats and the red X we also had a big inflatable globe trying to draw more attention.

We found it very hard to get people to stay and listen to us. We distributed most of the flyers but the results were not too impressing. In the City of Sin people didn’t seem interested in voluntary work. The action did not completely fail, there were a few who stayed with us a bit longer and asked us more, but all together the Target X went much better in Vancouver.

1^st of July - Atomic Testing Museum

On Saturday 1^st of July we visited the Atomic Testing Museum. Tony Guzman was our personal guide in the very biased museum. The museum was partly financed by Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation which aims to preserve the legacy of the test site. The museum somewhat glorified the test site and its workers. It was educating but terrifying at the same time.

Catholic Workers

During our visit in Las Vegas, our accommodation was arranged by Chelsea Collonge had at the Catholic Workers, a voluntary group working for the poor people in Las Vegas. 4 days a week they cooked and served food to the homeless at a gravel yard in the poorer part of the city. The NWIP delegation attended this work and helped out with distributing the food. The experience was very rewarding and gave a perspective on the difference in how prosperity is distributed in this city. How could you motivate billions of dollars to develop new nuclear weapons when people in the cities can’t find food for the day? Or 17 percent of the population doesn’t have a health insurance?

Conclusion

All in all NWIP has a good contact in Peggy Mason and Tony Guzman at Citizen Alert, especially through Think Outside the Bomb which is a network of individuals and organizations in USA working against nuclear weapons. For future NWIP delegations to USA, this could be a point to start from. Through Tony and the participants at the workshops at World Peace Forum in Vancouver we have come to the conclusion that we might need to change our focus a little bit when approaching young people in the US. It might be more effective to address what could be done with all the money that is spent on nuclear weapons and ABMs if they were spent on social issues like the health system instead. For some of us, the meeting with Mayor Oscar Goodman was the first experience of dialogue with decision-makers, and we learned that time might not always be the most crucial tool to affect them (we only had 15 min) but rather to follow up on earlier meetings. In our case, the mayor was already familiar with the Mayors for Peace but had not signed up. Our meeting with him on this issue finished the deal. Now, it is important for us to follow up on our meeting to get an approval from the City Council of Las Vegas.  

Thomas Silfverberg

Wenjing Tao

Lena Wendel

On behalf of NWIP