Chelsea Collonge
The Power of Nonviolence: Something to Chew On
Reflections on the Fast for a Nuclear-Free UC

(Note: this article will also appear in the student journal, PeacePower)

From May 9-17, 2007, more than 40 individuals at four University of California campuses conducted the “No More Nukes In Our Name!” Hunger Strike. Through this act of civil protest and personal sacrifice, they demanded that the UC Board of Regents withdraw their management of the US government’s two foremost nuclear weapons facilities – the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The UC has nominally overseen these labs since their inception. As the US government’s largest nuclear warhead contractor for over six decades, the university has provided a much-needed veneer of academic legitimacy to the creation of the world’s most destructive weapons. At the time of the hunger strike, this long-salient issue had taken on an added urgency due to Livermore’s design of the Reliable Replacement Warhead, with which the US wants to modernize its entire arsenal.
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For news of the uprising in Burma, and ways to help: Free Burma click here

Articles by Maung Zarni, founder of the Free Burma Coalition in the New Statesman and Opinion Asia

Michael’s op-ed on Common Dreams ; Cynthia Boaz and Schaazke Beyerle also in Common Dreams.

We are proud to announce that Metta’s founder has received the Jamnalal Bajaj international award for “promoting Gandhian values outside India.” For a brief account of this year’s awards click here. Michael joins such distinguished contributors to nonviolence as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and peace scholar and activist Johan Galtung in receiving this honor. To Support the Gandhi tour he will be leading in this connection see “Metta Center Announcements” below.

Michael will take six students (they’re also Metta volunteers) to India to tour Gandhian centers and ashrams and get a first-hand sense of how Gandhi’s work and values are alive in India today. A full report will be posted on this site. To help us defray the expenses for the students, just click on our “donate” button, go to “click here” in the top line, and use “travel expenses” to enter your donation.

Call or email the Center for information about the tour, including how donors can join.