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Coalition to Demilitarize the University of California
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Last updated: November 26, 2007
The Coalition to Demilitarize the UC* was founded in 2002 to provide a framework for collaboration among the campus and community organizations working to challenge the UC’s involvement in the design, research, testing and production of nuclear weapons at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
The Coalition currently consists of students and student organizations at seven UC campuses, as well as six community organizations in California and New Mexico.
Current Coalition to Demilitarize strategies include grassroots education, lobbying & advocacy, non-violent direct action, and the subversive utilization of creativity and humor. Our core group of students and community organizers is working to build a mass movement across California to demilitarize and democratize the UC system, as well as to build momentum within the larger peace and nuclear abolition movements. Care to join us?
- Below, you’ll find an overview of our current campaigns, a list of Coalition organizations and contacts, links to information on past actions, and a short list of other ways to get involved.
* UC Nuclear Free is a member group of the Coalition to Demilitarize, as are all of the other organizations and individuals listed below. The goals, focus, scope, and members of the UC Nuclear Free campaign are extremely similar to those of the Coalition to Demilitarize the UC, although the approaches of each are slightly different.
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Current Campaigns
- Grassroots Education: Relatively few UC students are aware of the UC’s status as one the world’s largest nuclear weapons contractors. Even fewer understand the significance of the UC’s relationship with the Los Alamos and Livermore labs beyond a surface level. The Education campaign seeks to address this gap in student awareness by finding creative ways to reach students with in-depth information and analysis on the UC and the weapons labs. Chief among the campaign’s current focuses is the wildly popular UC-widestudent-facilitated class called “UC and the Bomb” which creates an environment of student-directed learning about issues regarding nuclear weapons, power, waste, and the UC's involvement and culpability in the horrors they cause. This education campaign is also involved with the ongoing tasks of writing original articles and publications, conducting teach-ins and classroom presentations, and more… (More information).
- Reaching Out to Science Students: According to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Director Michael Anastasio, approximately 20 percent of the workforce at LLNL will retire in the next five years. There is a high level of anxiety among Anastasio and his peers regarding who will replace these individuals and essentially become the next generation of bomb-makers. Subsequently, these administrators have made significant investments in recruiting young scholars. The Coalition’s “Reaching Out to Science Students” campaign seeks to provide these potential weapons designers with access to alternative job opportunities, as well as an alternative frame of reference regarding potential employment at the labs… (More information)
- Democratizing the UC/Disempowering the Regents: One of the primary reason the UC has continued to manage the Los Alamos and Livermore labs despite overwhelming opposition from students and faculty is the undemocratic, unaccountable nature of the UC Board of Regents. While the specific tactics of this campaign are still taking shape, its vision is clear: a reformation of the current UC decision-making structure… (More information)
- Student Lab Oversight Committees: The UC Student Department of Energy Lab Oversight Committee (DOELOC) is an officially recognized body of a UC campus student government charged with (1) educating students and the community about UC’s nuclear weapons labs, US nuclear weapons programs, and international law, (2) providing accountability and oversight of UC’s nuclear weapons labs by the UCSB and UC student bodies, and (3) lobbying and advising policymakers, the Regents and US Congress on issues related to nuclear weapons and non-proliferation and build up institutional legitimacy and support for sustained campaigns by UC students to address nuclear weapons and waste issues. DOELOCs exist at UCSB and are soon to follow at more UC campuses... (More information)
- UC Alumni Boycott: Public funding has largely abandoned
education, and as a result, the UC has become increasingly reliant on private donations. This informs and involves alumni, who are common donors to the UC, who may dissent from their alma mater's unlawful and destructive management of the research and design of the most deadly weapons in the world, or may be unaware that such a connection exists, and gives them thethe chance to exert a unique and powerful political voice towards UC lab severance and the delegitimization of nuclear weapons at their source... (More information coming soon)
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Join a Coalition Affiliate Near You
Campus Organizations & Contacts
UC Berkeley
Berkeley Fiat Pax
berkeleyfiatpax[at]riseup.netUC Davis
Davis Students Against War Resource
dsawresource[at]gmail.comUC Los Angeles
UCLA Students for a Democratic Society
Babken DerGrigorian
babken[at]ucla.eduUC San Diego
Amnesty International - UC Nuclear Free
Jennifer Shin
j7shin[at]ucsc.eduUC Santa Barbara
Solidarity Against War
ucsb.saw[at]gmail.comUC Santa Cruz
Demilitarize UCSC/UCSC Students Against War
ucsc_saw_web[at]lists.riseup.net
Community Organizations
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Steve Stormoen (UC Nuclear Free campaign coordinator)
Santa Barbara, CA
(805) 965-3443
E-mail SteveTri-Valley CAREs
Jedidjah DeVries
Livermore, CA
(925) 443-7148
outreach[at]trivalleycares.orgWestern States Legal Foundation
Jackie Cabasso
Oakland, CA
(510) 839-5877
wslf[at]earthlink.netNevada Desert Experience
Chelsea Collonge
Berkeley, CA
(510) 849-1540
chelseavc[at]gmail.com
Los Alamos Study Group
Greg Mello
Albuquerque, NM
(505) 265-1200
gmello[at]lasg.orgSelect Past Coalition Activities
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* UC Student Hunger Strike -- May 9-17, 2007
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* Student Nuclear Weapons Lab Oversight Committee Created!
* Universities Out of Bed with Bombs! - national day of action on November 30, 2005
* We Vote “NO” – Protest at May 25, 2005 Regents’ Meeting
* “UC and the Bomb” class at UC Berkeley, kicked off in Spring ‘05
“100 Letters in 100 Days” To UC President Robert Dynes in late-2003
* Press Conference at University of California Office of the President Office on March 21, 2003
* Citizens Weapons Inspection in Livermore on November 11, 2002
Other Ways to Be Involved
- Sign Up for the UC Nuclear Free Announcements Listserve: Stay informed through announcements issued through our listserve every 2-4 weeks.
- Contribute : Your contributions are most welcome and always appreciated!
- Take a Class on Nuclear Weapons Issues: UC and the Bomb classes are student-directed seminars that offer college credit aimed at promoting a mutual learning environment for investigating nuclear weapons issues and the UC's culpability through its numerous ties with the nuclear weapons complex.
