Three Mile Island Anti Nuclear Protest Materials Organizing Against Reactor Risk and Nuclear Industry Power, 1979

Anti-Nuclear Protest

Ephemera

Three Mile Island anti nuclear protest ephemera archive, 1979, documenting how activists turned reactor accidents, radioactive release fears, and nuclear industry influence into coordinated local and national organizing after the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island. The Three Mile Island Nuclear Station in Pennsylvania had partial meltdown of its Unit 2 reactor on March 28, 1979 , the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear history. The Archive dates from the same year and links Pennsylvania based demands for radiation monitoring, public health oversight, Metropolitan Edison accountability, the closure of TMI, and opposition to the planned Berwick reactors with Washington, D.C. protest logistics and Public Citizen Congress Watch pressure against nuclear industry campaign money. Three Mile Island Alert, the Susquehanna Alliance, and Public Citizen Congress Watch appear here through the practical materials of mobilization: rally maps, bus instructions, neighborhood phone lists, participant guidelines, campaign finance appeals, and the demand that “TMI BE CLOSED FOREVER.”

Circa 1979, Harrisburg, Berwick, Middletown, and Washington D.C. Four handbills and pamphlets, two multi page and two single sheets printed on both sides, ranging from approximately 8.5 x 11 inches to 8.5 x 14 inches.

[1] Public Citizen Congress Watch. Cut the Strings from Campaign Dollars! Washington D.C.: Public Citizen Congress Watch, circa 1979. Folded campaign finance pamphlet with cover graphic of scissors cutting cords between a hand and the Capitol, accompanied by a typed Congress Watch letter urging recipients to support public financing of congressional campaigns and to restrict special interest contributions. The letter links nuclear power politics to “campaign contributions from the nuclear industry,” naming “the nuclear gang from seating pro nuclear candidates in Congress through their tremendous campaign contributions.”

[2] Here’s the May 6th Schedule. Washington D.C., 1979. Double sided march instruction sheet for a national demonstration, with a map from the White House and Ellipse down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, bus drop off and pick up points, medical stations, guides, sanitary facilities, and regional bus parking. The verso, headed “FINDING YOUR BUS…,” instructs participants to record their bus company, bus number, and departure time, warning that “There will be hundreds of buses that look just like the one you came on.”

[3] TMIA May Newsletter. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Three Mile Island Alert, 1979. Double sided newsletter and organizing handbill announcing a “RALLY TO STOP THE BERWICK NUCLEAR PLANT” on June 3 at the construction site, with a crossed out reactor drawing, speakers, entertainment, alternative energy displays, balloon release, and bus ticket information from the TMIA office at 315 Peffer Street in Harrisburg. The verso is a community organizing list giving coordinators and phone numbers for Camp Hill, Carlisle, Chambersburg, Dillsburg, Elizabethtown, Highspire, Hershey, Harrisburg, Lebanon Valley Alliance, Mechanicsburg, Middletown, Newberry Township, Perry County, and other Pennsylvania locations.

[4] Three Mile Island Alert rally packet. Harrisburg and Middletown, Pennsylvania: Three Mile Island Alert, circa 1979. Multi page orange rally packet with “WELCOME TO THE RALLY,” participant guidelines, march maps to Metropolitan Edison, a list of demands, and a program page bearing manuscript notes and edits beside the printed speaker list. The demands call for daily public radiation readings, monitoring of local residents and workers, removal of Energy Secretary James Schlesinger, an end to government subsidies for nuclear power, a halt to future construction and licensing, cleanup priority for the Unit 2 reactor, public notification before radioactive emissions, repeal of the Price Anderson Act, and permanent closure of Three Mile Island.

The archive documents the organizing layer that followed Three Mile Island through the conversion of radioactive release fears, reactor safety demands, and distrust of utility and federal oversight into local meetings, regional rallies, Washington transportation systems, and campaign finance pressure. The Berwick handbill extends the emergency politics of TMI to another Pennsylvania reactor project then under construction, while the Washington schedule places anti nuclear demonstrators inside a national protest geography moving from the Ellipse down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol lawn. The Public Citizen pamphlet adds a legislative front, arguing that nuclear policy could not be separated from PAC money and congressional dependence on industry contributions, while the orange TMIA packet grounds the movement in immediate public health demands, radioactive release notification, women’s health speakers, alternative energy, and nonviolent demonstration rules at Metropolitan Edison. Light to moderate toning, edge wear, fold lines, small stains, staple marks, and several manuscript annotations; some sheets with corner creasing and short marginal tears. Overall good condition. A concentrated record of how post Three Mile Island anti nuclear organizers built protest infrastructure across local, regional, and national arenas through handbills, maps, phone lists, bus instructions, campaign appeals, and public demands.

Item #23542

Price: $550.00