{news} Fw: [usgp-dx] Guy Chichester, Original Green: 1935-2009

Wed Feb 11 09:44:10 EST 2009

----- Original Message -----

From: "Howie Hawkins"
To: natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org
Subject: [usgp-dx] Guy Chichester, Original Green: 1935-2009
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:22:06 -0500

Guy Chichester, one of the founders of the Green Party in the US, passed
yesterday.

Guy was one of the founders of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in
1976.
Guy
and I were the two Clams who went to the national meeting in St. Paul,
Minnesota to start a Green Party in the US in August 1984.

Guy always looked for ways to bring people together around common ground
and
practical actions when philosophical abstractions were dividing people
who
agreed on 95%. In the Greens' many internal squabbles, Guy made friends
of
people who thought they opposed him. Guy won over several antinuclear and
then
Green Party activists who had been villifying him a few years before when
the
Clamshell Alliance splintered in 1978. Once they began to work directly
with
him, they had a hard time remembering what their beefs with him were a
few
years before.

My most vivid early memory of Guy was picketing Amoskeag Bank in
Manchester
with the People's Energy Project of the Granite State Alliance over its
proposed financing for Seabrook in 1974 or 1975. A picket line with Guy
was a
picket line you wouldn't want to miss. He would make it fun.

Guy played a big role in developing the Green Party in the 1980s and
1990s. He
got the Greens more engaged in anti-nuclear activism, from the big wave
of
post
Chernobyl demonstrations to an anti-nuclear demonstration in conjuction
with
Green national meetings meetings in Minnesota in 1992.

Guy was the only guy to successfully use the New Hampshire Constitution's
200+
years old "right of revolution" clause to convince a jury to find him
innocent
in a civil disobedience action.

Guy's many legacies will live on.

Some testimonies from other Clamshell Alliance members follow below,
concluding, appropriately, with an appeal to remember Guy by fighting the
$50
billion loan guarantees for new nukes in the stimulus bill.

No Nukes!

-- Howie Hawkins

**********************

Dear Friends,

It is with a tremendous sense of sadness and loss that I write to share
the
news that our friend and longtime antinuclear, environmental and social
justice
activist Guy Chichester passed away last night at his home in Rye, New
Hampshire.

As many know, Guy had problems with his heart over the past few years and
had
been living with a pacemaker. He had recently been hospitalized for a
couple of
weeks in Brigham and Woman's hospitol in Boston, and made a decision last
weekend to return to his home.

I find myself at a loss for words. Last night with the full moon of New
Hampshire winter I found myself filled with memories of shared times with
Guy
that stretched back 35 years. This afternoon I sat at the kitchen table
in his
home, a place Guy welcomed many friends and strangers, and smiled and
ached
exchanging Guy stories with his wife and partner of 51 years Maddy, and 4
of
his five children,his children Noelle and Jenny and Blake and Ben.

In springtime there will be a celebration of Guy's life. I look forward
to
smiling and laughing and conspiring with old friends and new friends at
that
event.

love
Renny Cushing

*********************

In Praise of Guy

Let us sing in admiration and praise and love of Guy from Rye, Guy Chi a
man
I've known for three decades and more who lies at home on his death bed
enfolded by family and friends.

Guy Chichester the man who organized me at the Rochester, NH library in
1976,
after showing a film, Lovejoy's Nuclear War, inviting me to a meeting
that
began fourteen years of struggle with the Clamshell Alliance.

Guy whose forthright courage gave me courage.

Guy who blocked off Route 1-A with saw horses. Guy wearing a
multi-colored
African National Congress beret felling a Seabrook warning siren poll,
toppling
as the police drove up. Guy who convinced a jury that his civil
disobedience
was no felony, no crime because of the twenty year history of resistance
to
the
violation of our democratic rights. Afterwards, the jury asked in the
Superior
Court Parking lot what they could do.

Guy who didn¢t suffer fools gladly, who spoke his mind, who stood up and
invited others to come along.

Guy an American tough guy, practicing non-violence and active resistance
to
the
designs of Governor Thomson and the bully Sununu, to Public Service
Company
and
their lackeys in places high and low, to the Judges of the NRC, to
Onassis and
his oil refiner plans.

Guy, co-founder of Clamshell, the U.S. Green Party, on and on.

A Long Island carpenter who moved to the NH Seacoast where the struggle
found
him. A man with a big house, big family, elegantly gracious Maddy at his
side,
a man with open arms, big insights and appetites, open doors and courage.

A man who became my long term friend, an old comrade of many actions from
affinity groups occupying the Board Room of the First National Bank to
Seabrook
occupations with thousands of Clams.

A man who stood up. I man who would leave no one behind. A man I sat next
to in
court as his make believe lawyer arguing with a company judge against a
bogus
injunction.

A man picked from all of us as one of the 100 N.H, notables of the 20th
century
in the newspaper¢s nod to activism.
Guy no plaster saint, a real American hero.

Guy, as a Long Island carpenter facing the repo man in the middle of the
night,
told me he reflexively hurled bricks from his porch at his car. Bricks
that
hit
the car with a loud bang, bang and the repo man screamed, don't shoot,
don't
shoot and disappeared into the night.

The arc of those bricks becomes the path pursued by a champion of
democracy
and
nonviolent resistance to illegitimate authority, a Sam Adams for our
times.

A man that thousands of Clams and history will not forget.

My friend, my brother in years of dedicated action, highs and lows,
triumphs
and defeats, nonviolently fighting the good fight, a life well lived.

Roy Morrison

********************

My heart goes out to Guy and his family in their moment of grief.

I too experienced Guy's great moral character. He helped organize me
into the Granite State Alliance in the summer of 1975, and later into
Clamshell activities.

He was supportive when I went to work for the United Farmworkers
Union--calling me "one of Cesar's boys"; further, he was supportive
of my work in the defense of human rights of farm laborers, of
indigenous peoples, and of press freedom in Central America,
especially El Salvador.

When I returned to the Seacoast a while ago to care for my
terminally ill mother, Guy could be found in the middle of the anti-
war movement and non-violent civil disobedience.

I'm with Roy, that Guy has been a Seacoast consciousness-raiser,
organizer, and speaker of truth-to-power beyond compare.

Let us all cheer for Guy Chichester, and his life-long work on behalf
of all of the people (humankind), not just those only interested in
making profits.

John Kavanagh

***********************

Sad news, indeed.

Guy is a hero of mine - and I don't have too many heroes.

In 1976, as a 23 year old carpenter-turning-activist I felt a lot of
kinship
with Guy. I often drove down from Portland, ME to Rye and spent many
hours
talking & drinking beer with Guy at his picnic table in the early
Clamshell
days of spring 1976. And we stayed in touch over the years.

Last summer my wife, too, was hospitalized for awhile at Brigham and
Woman's in
Boston before coming home to Maine for a few days before passing on a
full
moon
night.

I now edit CommonDreams.org and would like to give our Guy's passing the
attention it deserves. If there are any good
obits/articles/tributes/photos
that anyone knows of could you let me know at editor at commondreams.org.

Thanks,

Craig Brown

********************

Siren-feller. Truth-giant.

Beautiful images. Beautiful man.

Guy always made me feel good when I was around him. It's the first, and
perhaps
most important, quality needed in those who want to transform the world.
Another sorely-needed quality is courage, and Guy sure set the standard.

Bye Guy. I'm smilin' at ya.

Eric Wolfe

***************************

Thinking of that picnic table, that kitchen table
rally stages, construction site, courtrooms
sharing a stage at MIT - Guy tossing out an accordion of paper (remember
that
old computer printer paper?) listing all the "incidents", that is
accidents,
that had occurred at nuclear power plants - the MIT students loved it
shoulder to shoulder at the stock exchange

The earth, the seacoast, NH, the movement, all of us are richer for
having
known Guy
We are all poorer for his passing

He watched over Mother Earth, Panchamama
So fitting that Grandmother Moon, Mamakilla, watched over his passing

Sending him and all of you the power of love and courage that Guy so
embodied
in our work together to change the world,

(Cindy) Girvani Leerer

**************************

Guy was the first to correct me on my mispronunciation of "nu-cu-lar."

Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear

**********************

Guy lived out loud!! He was a character, an actor, passionate for the
planet,
and fearless in front of authority. He also looked good in a
beret...smile. We
all would do well to carry his spirit forward and fight for what we know
to be
right! Blessings to his family...No Nukes! david hills

*************************

> From Harvey Wasserman:

THIS ONE'S FOR GUY....CALL/MEET WITH MARKEY & STOP THIS GODDAM NUKE
STIMULUS/BAILOUT

THIS ONE'S FOR GUY....

WE GOTTA STOP THIS THING. WE ARE WITHIN HOURS OF HAVING A $50 BILLION
LOAN
GUARANTEE

PACKAGE FOR NEW NUKES SLIPPED THROUGH WITH THE STIMULUS BILL.

ED MARKEY IS A KEY PLAYER HERE, AS HE IS THE NEW CHAIR OF THE ENERGY &
ENVIRONMENT SUBCOMMITTEE IN THE HOUSE. HE, PELOSI, WAXMAN AND OBEY IN THE
HOUSE,
PLUS REID AND BOXER IN THE SENATE.

WE WILL BE DECADES SORTING THIS OUT IF IT PASSES....LETS TAKE GUY WITH US
AND
STOP THIS!!! NOW!!!! LOVE & NO NUKES, SLUGGO

(give 'em hell up there, brother; we sure will down here)

************