Think Outside the Bomb

Report and Photos from Think Outside the Bomb 2008
National Youth Conference on Nuclear Abolition in Boston, MA

The 2008 Think Outside the Bomb national conference in Boston was a huge success. Thanks to everyone who participated, and a special thanks to all of our sponsors and hard-working organizers.

This summer marked Think Outside the Bomb's fourth annual national conference. The first national conference on the east coast, this year's conference took place in Boston, involving nearly 80 participants, almost all under 25 years old. Our impressive speakers list featured Arjun Makhijani of IEER, Joe Gerson, author of Empire and the Bomb, Subrata Ghoshroy, professor at MIT, and Jackie Cabasso of the Western States Legal Foundation. More than simply educating students on nuclear issues, however, the conference set out with a goal to engage every single participant intellectually, emotionally, and personally. We sought to give each participant not only the inspiration to work for a nuclear free future for the coming year, but the tools and skills to do that work and the opportunity and camaraderie to start this organizing. Our other primary goal was to establish genuine personal connections between each participant in order to make the conference last longer than these four days in Boston, in order to help coalesce a lasting, organized youth movement for nuclear abolition. At each of these lofty goals, TOTB ’08 wildly succeeded.

Click here to read a full conference report, including photos, quotes and participant action plan summaries.

Think Outside the Bomb 2008 is a participating event
in declaring August a Nuclear Free Future Month!
Go to http://nuclearfreefuture.org to find an event near you calling
for a nuclear free future this August -- and then get involved!

Noam Chomsky and Think Outside the Bomb Urge Nuclear Disarmament

On Wednesday, April 9th, the Think Outside the Bomb network, along with Tufts University Peace and Justice Studies, presented prominent linguist, author, and social theorist Noam Chomsky for a lecture titled "Youth and Securing a Nuclear Free Future" at Tufts University in Boston, MA. Chomsky compared the overwhelming threat faced by nuclear annihilation to that of catastrophic climate change, although he called the nuclear problem "much easier to fix". Tufts Daily student newspaper reports:

Renowned linguist, philosopher and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Noam Chomsky argued last night that countries possessing nuclear weapons must destroy their warheads if humans are to avoid annihilating each other.

"Humans have developed the capacity to destroy life on earth," he said at one point during his talk in Cabot Auditorium. "The question is 'Will they use it?' And the evidence isn't very comforting." Read more...

For the event's flyer, and a full list of sponsors, click here (PDF)...

Think Outside the Bomb Washington, DC Regional Conference Covered on C-SPAN

In advance of the 2008 annual DC Days disarmament and nuclear abolition summit in Washington, DC, the Think Outside the Bomb network held it's second annual Washington, DC youth regional conference on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at American University. This one-day conference brought youth and students together with experts in the fields of nuclear disarmament, nuclear power, and nuclear waste in order to build an atmosphere of education and resistance towards the nuclear weapons complex. The conference included keynote speaker Zia Mian, Princeton physicist and director of the Project on Peace and Security in South Asia, and a full day of speakers, workshops, and panels on various issues related to nuclear weapons, power, and waste. C-SPAN television news agency filmed much of the conference, with coverage airing on Monday, April 14th at 3:36 PM EST, 12:36 PST. Read more for a full schedule and speaker list...

This conference in Washington, DC was the first of a series of regional conferences throughout the United States in 2008. These one-day regional conferences will bring youth and students in their respective communities together for a general education in nuclear issues and unite them for locally-oriented actions. Bookmark this page and check back regularly for further announcements regarding a spring regional conference in your area.

Think Outside the Bomb Article in Z-Magazine

An article about Think Outside the Bomb's 2007 national conference in Santa Barbara, written by Think Outside the Bomb participant Megan Barnes, was printed in the November 2007 issue of Z Magazine. Inspired by her experience at the conference, Barnes's article, titled "Activists Young and Old Gather to Think Outside the Bomb," wonderfully captures the conference's youthful energy and enthusiasm along with its culture of education, collaboration, and solidarity.

"Leimomi Kamiya explains to a wide-eyed audience that many Marshall Island natives have little knowledge about the effects of massive radiation contamination in their country, deposited by over 100 U.S. and UK nuclear bomb tests. “It’s sad when you personally experience the bomb and you don’t have the knowledge or know what you can do about it,” said the 17-year-old. So much explosive power was dropped on her home country, she explains, that it was like 1.7 Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings every day for 12 years.

Kamiya is one of over 100 activists from across the United States, Marshall Islands, and Puerto Rico who participated in the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Think Outside The Bomb conference, cultivating awareness, dialogue, and action to counter militarism while striving for nuclear abolition. The third annual west coast version of this conference took place from August 16-19 at the University of California, Santa Barbara—which is part of the U.S. government’s primary nuclear weapons design contractor, the University of California..."

Read the full article at Z Magazine Online...

Voices and Images from Think Outside the Bomb 2007 in Santa Barbara
Photos, Conference Notes, and Recap Now Online

The sixth Think Outside the Bomb conference, sponsored by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, took place from August 16-19 at the University of California, Santa Barbara. More than 100 students and youth traveled from across the country to take part. If the responses of the vast majority of them are an accurate indication, the conference not only lived up to its theme of “Inspiring Action for Nuclear Abolition,” but served as a life-changing experience for nearly all who participated. In the words of one attendee, “I learned so much and made so many really amazing connections that I can hardly believe it all happened in only four days.”

Think Outside the Bomb Conference Documentary Now Online!

Former Nuclear Age Peace Foundation intern Gabe Mann created the following documentary regarding the first Think Outside the Bomb conference, in August 2005, that is now on YouTube in four parts:

View part One, Two, Three, or Four.

Here's Part One. Click the big play button twice...

Report and Photos from Think Outside the Bomb 2008 National Youth Conference on Nuclear Abolition in Boston, MA