AMHERST, Mass. -- Amherst has become the largest community in the nation to ban municipal investments and contracts with companies involved with nuclear weapons.
'We consider this extremely significant,' Max Obuszewski of the Baltimore-based Nuclear Free America disarmament group said Friday. 'This is of tremendous significance.'
After two hours of angry debate and objections that it might impinge upon academic freedom, residents voted 101-60 Thursday at a town meeting to become one of a growing number of communities to declare itself a 'nuclear-free zone.'
The bylaw barred the research, development, production or transportation of nuclear weapons or any of their components in town.
The article also barred the town from keeping investments or making new investments in, or doing business with, 50 companies listed as the largest firms involved in the production of nuclear weapons.
No current investments would have to be divested, no businesses would have to move out of town and no current research at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College or Hampshire College would have to cease, officials said.
But, the town may be forced to stop its practice of buying electric typewriters from IBM, which is one of the companys on a list provided by Obuszewski's group, he said.
Proponents of the measure, however, hoped the action would spur other communities to follow suit, he said.
Of 57 communities nationwide to approve similar measures, only Takoma Park, Md., barred investments and contracts, he said.
The largest community to declare itself a nuclear-free zone is Madison, Wis., which has a population of more than 170,000, he said. But that community doesn't have the investment prohibition.
Some 19 other communities in Massachusetts have approved similar measures and more than 100 communities nationwide are considering some type of nuclear-free proposal, he said.
Obuszewski said Massachusetts Attorney General Francix X. Bellotti had declared unconstitutional two similar non-binding resolutions in two towns. But Obuszewski said his group might challenge that decision.
