October 1, 1995
You see that ? [point to the plant]

That is a symbol of the past. The worst of centralized decision making. A blind love for technology no matter how dangerous or expensive. And today it is a symbol of rich countries efforts to fool and rob the east.

If there is a positive future for this region it is in the people who are standing around you now. People who care about more than just money. People who think of things other than just themselves.

I was in England last year, talking to an old friend who is now a professor at a famous University of Economics there. I was telling him about our campaign against Mochovce.

He said we were foolish, that we were fighting giants, like the huge bank called the EBRD and the giant French utility, Electricity de France, that were determined to complete the reactors. He asked me why i did this work.

i told him it was the right thing to do.

He said i was wasting my time.

Today we have won, today we have forced both the EBRD and EdF out of the Mochovce project. Mochovce is dieing for a lack of money, a giant has fallen.

My friends from Bulgaria have stopped the Belene plant since the revolution in 1990 and their continued protests may well insure this plant is never finished.

This year in the US the Watts Barr II nuclear plant was stopped, it was more finished than Temelin, they had spent more money on Watts Bar II than they have on Temelin. But they cancelled the plant anyway, because it did not make economc sense to finish it.

To the south of here lies Austria, where in 1978, before Chernobyl and before the US accident at Three Mile Islands, Austrians voted to never start the 100% completed Zwentendorf reactor. When the government called this popular referendum, they were certain they were going to win it and the reactor would be started up. People just like you stopped that plant. That giant fell also.

In the Ukraine where the nuclear mafia is much more powerful than in the Czech Republic, the current plan is that the Chernobyl reactors will be closed and replaced with gas fired plants. Another giant downed.

My professor friend called me back from England the other day, he said he was wrong. We were not foolish. He wished us luck in our fight.

So when someone asks you why you do this work. Tell them first it is the right thing to do. And then remind them that giants do fall.

[Time 3 minutes without translation]