A native New Yorker born in 1959, Al Giordano was drawn into the antinuclear movement as a teenager, becoming an important organizer for the antinuclear and environmental movements. Giordano sharpened his organizing skills through a close association with Abbie Hoffman, with whom he often collaborated throughout the 1980s. Giordano has worked as a journalist for several decades, primarily with the alternative press, founding his own periodical Narco News in 2000 and the School of Authentic Journalism in 2002. He currently resides in Mexico City.
The Giordano collection contains a miscellaneous assemblage of ephemera, publications and newspapers, reports, and a small quantity of correspondence, relating to antinuclear activism.
Clamshell Alliance poster recruiting to Seabrook Occupation, 1978
The journalist Al Giordano was born in New York City ion Dec. 31, 1959, and was drawn into the antinuclear and environmental movements as a teenager. Living in Rowe, Mass., he became a successful grassroots organizer beginning with his work opposing the twin power plants Yankee Rowe and Vermont Yankee, which straddled the Vermont border.
In 1981, Giordano met the radical and activist Abbie Hoffman, who became a mentor and close collaborator throughout the 1980s.
Working within the political system to effect change. He was a key organizer and campaign director for the successful ballot measure in 1982 that required that proposals to construct new nuclear power plants or disposal facilities for low-level radioactive waste would be first vetted by the legislature and approved by a majority of voters, and worked throughout the country in antinuclear and environmental organizing for most of the decade.
Giordano's journalistic career began in 1989 when he became a staff reporter for the Valley Advocate, moving to work as a political reporter for the Boston Phoenix and The Nation in 1993. He moved to Mexico in 1997 to support the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, leading to formation of his own online periodical, Narco News, in 2000, to focus attention on the so-called War on Drugs, and he founded the School of Authentic Journalism in 2002. Giordano currently resides in Mexico City.
Scope of collection
The Giordano collection contains a miscellaneous assemblage of ephemera, publications and newspapers, reports, and a small quantity of correspondence, relating to antinuclear activism. The collection spans a period of activity primarily between the occupations at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in the late 1970s through the Referendum Campaign of the mid-1980s and the decommissioning efforts at the Yankee Rowe Power Plant in the early 1990s. Among the groups represented in the collection are the Alternative Energy Coalition and Citizens Awareness Network, both from Western Massachusetts, the Clamshell Alliance, and the Mass Alert Referendum Campaign.
Inventory
Abalone Alliance: Labor outreach guide for anti-nuclear activists
1980
Box 1: 1
An act relative to assessing the effects of toxic releases and radionuclide emissions into communities of the Commonwealth and adjacent states
ca.1994
Box 1: 2
Alternative Energy Coalition: Montague nuclear power project fact sheet
ca.1976
Box 1: 3
Alternative Energy Coalition: Alternative Energy Coalition Script: No Nukes in Montague
1977 Aug.
Box 1: 4
Anti-nuclear brochures
1977-1980
7 items
Box 1: 5
Anti-Nuclear Media Fund: Stop Nuclear Waste: Vote Yes on 4 (If Chernobyl happens here, they won't evacuate me)
ca.1986
Flier
Box 1: 6
Beauvais, Dave: Background materials on invitation to discuss issues with Northeast Utilities "Turkey Buzzard"
1980
Box 1: 7
Boston Clamshell Coalition: No Nuclear News
1979-1982
5 issues
Box 1: 8
Boston Edison Company: Presentation to Special Legislative Commission on low-level radioactive waste
1983 Nov. 14
Box 1: 9
Campaign Against Nuclear Waste: Question 4. Vote. Yes.
1989
Brochures
Box 1: 10
Citizens Awareness Network: 1993 legislation: A Massachusetts environmental health campaign
1993
Box 1: 11
Citizens Awareness Network: Adverse effects of radiation: third Thursday meetings
ca.1994
Poster
Box 1: 12
Clamshell Alliance: A call to action! Stop nuclear power at Seabrook, N.H. / Occupation and restoration
