The Loeb-Thomson team had been defeated by New Hampshire citizenry twice before. The town of Durham prevented Aristotle Onassis from building an oil refinery there. Walpole had similarly rejected a proposed paper pulp mill. Last spring the people of Seabrook attempted to stop the nuclear plant by the same meangs. In a town meeting they voted 768 to 632 not to allow construction of the "nuke." But Thomson encouraged the Public Service Company, the private power company that is now building the plant, to go ahead with construction in spite of the vote. He added that an employee who opposed the plan should "resign his state job and go out and oppose it."

This year, just two days before the April occupation, Thomson released a statement calling the planned demonstration a "thinly disguised act of terrorism." He claimed intelligence reports on his desk indicated that "once the demonstrators occupy the site, they do not plan to leave alive." The next day the top half of the front page of Loeb's paper, the Manchester Union Leader, was covered with a banner headline: "Leftist Groups Hope for Violence."

Clamshell publicly reiterated its firm stand for peaceful action and accused Thomson and Loeb of "fostering a climate of violence." Clamshell leader Cathy Wolf went to Thomson's office and told him, "I'm young and I don't want to die." Clamshell's guidelines, training requirements for occupiers, and past record of peaceful action convinced all but a few townspeople that there was nothing to fear.

Some Seabrook residents let demonstrators camp on their land the night before the protest. Many more lined the road along the march route, holding up "No Nuke" signs and cheering the demonstrators. Lobstermen ferried more than 100 occupiers in from the ocean onto the east side of the site.

Thomson modified his position the day after his terrorist speech and the day before the demonstration, when he agreed with the Public Service Company to allow a limited occupation. The Clams could occupy all of the site except a freshly fenced-in 40-acre compound in the center where all the buildings were.

Thomson helicoptered onto the site four hours before the occupation to publicly announce the agreement.

Throughout the first day of the occupation neither the governor's press secretary nor the public gave the press any assurances that they would not be subject to arrest if they entered the site. One television camera crew covered the events with gas masks hanging in sacks from their shoulders. The Real Paper staff--a former vanguard of the counterculture--appeared less concerned. They arrived in a Winnebago mobile home covered inside with thick pile carpeting and empty Budweiser cans.

The second day the press was blocked from re-entering the demonstration site. Those who had stayed overnight were asked to leave. Several who refused were arrested. All of the remaining demonstrators were also placed in custody, after Thomson had flown in to ask demonstrators to leave.

Although he had known about the expected size of the occupation more than a week in advance, Thomson had not made adequate arrangements to deal with the more than 1400 persons who were finally arrested. Hundreds of them spent the night cramped in school buses and National Guard trucks and were given no food or water. Many waited 14 hours to be arraigned. The arraignment process itself was extremely irregular. One judge was setting bail at $100 while in another courtroom nearby a different judge set bail at $250. Thomson again coptered in to survey the scene, but the confusion continued throughout the next week.

Last week over 900 demonstrators began officially serving sentences for convictions that are automatically appealed to another court in New Hampshire. The courts refuse to release those remaining in jail unless they put up bail. Thomson has asked "corporations, labor unions and rank-and-file citizens" across the country to contribute money to defray the cost of the occupiers' incarceration. "Our battle of today can become theirs of tomorrow," Thomson said Friday, advising other states contemplating construction of nuclear plants or already employing them that they too might be "invaded by a mob."

On May 1, the occupiers carried their signs with them as they were escorted to the buses during the arrests. The signs said, "Give Breeder Reactors the Pill," "No Nukes is Good Nukes," "Freebrook," and "Atoms for Peace Eventually Go to War." But as the buses pulled out of the site, a new sign appeared in front of the crowd assembled outside: "We Shall Return."