NeWSPaPeR 5.16.82

Publication: Ithaca Journal
Date: May 16, 1982

Caption: Women demonstrators mock the military at an anti-nuke demonstration at the Seneca Army Depot near Romulus Saturday.

Photo: Richard Marshall.

Nuke protest at Seneca Depot

   Some 175 women and children from the upstate area protested the possibility that nuclear weapons are being stored at the Seneca Army Depot near Romulus Saturday. More than 50 Ithaca women attended, stopping in Trumansburg, Interlaken, Ovid and Romulus to pass out leaflets and present street theater on the way. 

   The women demanded an end to the secrecy about what is stored at the base and how it is transported there; economic conversion of the depot to provide productive, peacetime employment; and the dismantling of weapons stored there, organizer Gail Terzi said. She is a member of Ithaca Women Against Militarism and Upstate Feminist Peace Alliance. A letter had been sent to the base commander asking him to meet with the women. 

   A public relations officer who met with the protesters would neither confirm nor deny rumors of the presence of nuclear weapons at the base, Terzi said. Themes of the presentations included "bombs for the poor," cuts in social programs accompanied by an increase in the military budget, the arms race and the dangers of nuclear weapons; the inadequacy of civil defense and crisis relocation plans; and the possibility of an accidental nuclear war caused by equipment malfunction or human error, said Terzi. An earlier protest, also against nuclear weapons attracted more than 200 people Thursday to the main gate of the depot.