Make America Learn History Again: 111 Karen Silkwoods
It’s real history, force fed to the All American Men in my inbox.
Julian Assange was finally released, but I don’t care to talk much about him. 50 years ago a different whistleblower was in the news. One with no sexual assault allegations against them. One who potentially saved many lives by exposing the truth. Karen Silkwood.
Karen was a whistleblower on the dangers of the nuclear power industry. Her death elevated the issue to public attention and helped force changes.
Karen’s reputation was smeared after her death by those in charge of the plant she worked at. Part of what she was unveiling were the safety regulations failure to keep employees safe from contamination. A contamination of plutonium was found in her system in the weeks prior to her death. The plant defense said she had contaminated herself in an effort to support her claims. They called her mentally ill.
Karen was only 28 and a mom to three children when she died. Her influence never died. She lived in the activists that carried on afterwards. 111 of them to be exact.
Who will be 113?
Approximately 800 women from across Australia marched to the gates of the Pine Gap facility carrying a banner and singing about peace. At 2 meters high and 130 meters long, about 6 1/2 feet high and 426 1/2 feet long if you speak American, the banner was a work of art. It consisted of panels created by women all across Australia, many of which couldn’t make it to the event. By adding their picture to the banner, they were there.
The Pine Gap protest was organized by the group Women for Survival. I feel their description is worth mentioning because I think it is so beautifully sad how 50 years later we could have the same struggles, perhaps about a different industry. It is all one continuous fight we are in. “We are a group of women who have joined together to affirm life and to bring a halt to the madness of the nuclear arms race. Nuclear power and nuclear weapons are the products of a social system in which we also find wife-beating, rape of women, rape of children, pornography, colonization, rape of the earth and despair…. Women are using their compassion, their intuition, their love, their caring, their insight, their anger and power to say NO More to this/ Yes to life.”
Speaking of being intertwined, I came to the story of the Pine Gap protest through learning about one of its organizers Frances Phoenix. You can read her story here:
Sources:
Taking on Pine Gap Lee Rhiannon
Feminist Protest in the Desert: Researching the Pine Gap women’s peace camp, Australia 1983 Alison Bartlett
Waltz in P-flat: the Pine Gap women's peace protest 1983 Megg Kelham
Karen Silkwood PBS
Karen Silkwood Jennifer Latson
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ATTENTION: Calling someone a Karen is now a compliment.
I switched up the tagline to my Make America Learn History Again be more accurate of what is happening. I’ll take suggestions on it if you have one! Previously it was “It’s real history, as told by the “All American Man” in my inbox and me.”