Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center’s mission for 40 years has been nonviolent direct action against nuclear-powered weapons. Today RMPJC also works to clean up plutonium contamination, prevent fracking, and keep fossil fuels in the ground. RMPJC was founded in 1983 after a landmark action of civil disobedience at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant near Denver, CO. The plant was a US manufacturing complex that produced plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons. After years of effort, the activists were able to draw 17,000 people to join hands on October 15, 1983, and encircle the plant’s 17-mile perimeter. RMPJC’s efforts led to an FBI investigation that shut down the plant permanently. The group continues its work at Rocky Flats, where a national wildlife refuge now sits on land contaminated with plutonium after an inadequate federal cleanup. RMPJC is also currently working with 350 Colorado, training members in nonviolent direct action to stop the climate crisis.
Since its 1983 encirclement of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant near Denver, Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center has developed into a large organization guided by consensus and partnering with many other groups for a peaceful, just, and sustainable world. With 30 other organizations, it is part of the national Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, addressing the production of nuclear weapons and the consequent water, land, and air pollution from radioactive wastes. With ally Rocky Flats Downwinders, it is working to permanently close the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge through its “Keep Kids Off Rocky Flats” campaign. Its Nuclear Guardianship Collective, more broadly, proposes a new ethic to “guide decision-making on the management of radioactive materials.” The group works with 350.org to phase out oil and gas fracking. It coordinates with the University of Colorado Boulder’s Peace, Conflict, and Security Program. And it allies with the United Nations Association of Boulder County.
For more information:
Peace Train: Looking at the degrowth controversy – Colorado Daily, August 2022
The Rocky Flats Grand Jury’s Files Have Gone Missing – Westword, July 2019
Ex-FBI agent charges feds with radioactive coverup at Rocky Flats – Grist, January 2005
Contact
Claire O'Brien
Website
Social Media
Climate Impacts
Air Pollution, Drought, Heat, Water Contamination, Wildfires
Environmental Justice Concerns
Coal/Coke Plants and Emissions, Fracking/Oil and Gas Development/Pipelines, Hazardous/Toxic Sites, Nuclear Power Plants, Superfund Sites
Strategies
Affordable Housing, Art Activism, Direct Relief and Aid, Fighting Industrial Contamination, Halting Bad Development, Policy Reform, Renewable Energy
501c3 Tax Deductible
Yes
Accepting Donations
Yes