A project to videotape the recollections and thoughts of old Clams was begun several years ago by three former Clams: Renny Cushing, Steve Thornton and Peter Kellman. To The Village Square plans to greatly expand this project, collecting memories from as many former Clams and fellow-travelers as possible — individually, in small groups and at regional Clam gatherings in the spring. If you want to get involved, contact us. We will be posting excerpts of interviews here. TVS WEB
"From working with the Clamshell, I learned (and passed along) how lawyers should act in political movements — as aides, not spokespersons or people in charge. And I think that has really spread dramatically into other movements, and not just with legal-related issues." — Benji Hiller, lawyer, West Medford, Mass. (Clam lawyer)
"Part of the Clamshell???s" legacy was our successful combining of confrontation, creativity and nonviolence. You don???t see those three elements together very often. But they were evident in the anti-World Trade Organization (WTO) demonstration in Seattle in 1999, where hundreds of people were trained in nonviolent direct action, organized into affinity groups and given a handbook that was a direct descendent of the Clamshell???s. This is a great legacy."— Arnie Alpert, NH program coordinator, American Friends Service Committee (former Clam staff person and member of Cukes affinity group on the site, 1977, and the Walrus and Carpenter affinity group in the Concord, NH, National Guard Armory)
"Mail comes every day from people wanting to join the occupation — from Alaska, Wisconsin, etc. I spent a good half hour today writing to a fellow in Jersey City who says he wants to organize some students to come. His letter was cute in that he had started it ???Dear Sirs,??? but crossed that out and wrote ???Dear People.???" —- Cathy Wolff, freelance writer, Kittery, Maine (excerpt from letter to her parents, April 5, 1977, when she was working in Clam office)
"We lost the battle of Seabrook; they built the plant. But we won the war — there were no nuclear power plants ordered for decades. Now here we are with the recent energy bill giving lots of subsidies to the nuclear industry, and people beginning to believe nuclear power is a clean alternative to global warming, which is depressing. But for many years we won the war. Unfortunately, as with so many people???s movements, you always have to go back and fight it again."
"We trained a generation of activists and organizers. Because of the way we were structured in affinity groups, people really learned how to organize locally. They learned skills in non-violence, decision making, conflict resolution, public education, talking to people, writing, speaking. I think we really made the whole concept of nonviolent CD (civil disobedience) come alive for a generation of people who have gone on and done work in the labor and peace movements, worked in support of El Salvador, just everything." ."— Girvani (Cindy) Leerer, psychologist, Cambridge, Mass. (former Clam staff person)
"I think the smartest thing the Clamshell Alliance ever did was come up with its name. It set a whole tone different from the anti-war movement. If we had been the New England Antinuclear Power, Anti-imperialist League for the Sun???s Future or whatever, it would not have captured the imagination of a lot of people the way it did, and inspire the T-shirts, music and the whole culture around the organization." — Robin Read, researcher, Portsmouth, NH (member of Clam legal and resource committees)
"The experience of occupying changed how I felt about everything and shifted how I live my life, I would say, to this day." — Thea Paneth, artist, Arlington, Mass., (member of Worcester Quahogs affinity group, 1977, Dover, NH, National Guard Armory)
(Thea recently met Walter Locke, a documentary filmmaker, at a meeting of the Arlington (MA) United for Peace and Justice, a group she helped found. She told him that a film he had produced indirectly led to her involvement in the 1977 Seabrook Occupation. He told her he was at the occupation as well.)