Reindeer Alliance Actions - Christmas 1978 and 1979 - David Slesinger

We did a Reindeer Alliance action on Christmas Day 1978. 

Four of us dressed as Santa Claus and got arrested at the Pilgrim Nuke in Plymouth, Mass. 

The lesson is that if you get arrested on Christmas, they’ve got to cover it. There’s nothing else happening. One of the 3 (pre-cable) Boston TV stations showed right as I was offering the station manager a huge lollipop with my comment, "In honor of the fact that Boston Edison thinks their ratepayers are a bunch of suckers, I offer you this Christmas present." He refused. 

I then said, "If went to cogeneration and reactivated Edgar Station, we’d have enough capacity to last til 1990 and we wouldn’t need Pilgrim II." The next day a lawyer from the town of Weymouth, the home of Edgar Station, contacted associates of fellow clam Barry Feldman, who gave me the line to say in the first place. 

While on the way over to jail in the police car, the elderly officer said, "You know I’m not in favor of nuclear power, but with you guys doing this, I might just be in favor of it."

I said, "I would hope you would judge the issue on its merits." He replied, "Thing is, most kids like cops; but if they see a cop arresting Santa Claus, they  might not like cops any more." 

I thought of all my friends who would roar with laughter at hearing such a statement, but I was mainly impressed that a policeman would speak from his heart. 

I said, "I’m sorry you have to be the one to have to be embarrassed, but we feel the issue is so important that we need to do this."

While at the jail the photographer remarked, "You guys are the most cooperative subjects I’ve ever had. If you ever decide to get arrested again, please come back to Plymouth."

There was a  matron called in to attend to my girlfriend Linda Kitch, one of the 4 arrestees. She was unhappy she had been called away from her family on Christmas Day. 

I said, "I’m sorry we’ve disrupted your Christmas, but we’re almost done, so I hope you can make the best of it." I was surprised when she actually lightened up.

The next Reindeer Alliance action was at the Somerset Club, the oldest and most elite private social club in Boston at the occasion of their Christmas Party in 1979. 

This was the year of the second 'oil crisis.' At least five of the members of the Somerset Club were on  the boards of directors of major Boston corporations which profited from nuclear power and oil during the previous year. 

I was the lone Santa. We took a refrigerator box from the Cambridge Food Coop and cut it out to resemble a sleigh and spray painted it red. We made antlers out of coat hangers and the most amazing thing is that we arrived on time. 

Two of the three TV stations were there. 

I knocked on the door, a policeman answered and said, "You can’t come in." I said, "I’ll bet you each one of these people makes more money in a day than you make in a year." He said, "You’re probably right and you still can’t come in." 

Harvey Halpern stood in the door yelling, "Dead Babies in South Africa." A couple walked by and one of our group approached them saying, "I’ll bet for the price of that coat we could heat half of Roxbury." The husband grabbed him by the collar and pushed him against the wall, but  it went no further. 

An employee of the club exited the other door.  (This was Beacon Street near Charles St. where there is no back door. The east door was the employee’s entrance).  As they exited they gave the choke sign of their finger from one side of their throat to the other.  

A young woman entered the party with a full length fur coat exclaiming, "It’s rented. It’s rented!"  I offered charcoal briquettes for the stockings of  partygoers because they had been such bad boys and girls that year. 

One elderly woman entering asked the policeman standing near me "Officer, can’t you do something about this?" 

He replied, "Why no ma’am, they’re not breaking the law." He also had a smirk on his face. 

This is the first of two times in my life I’ve been able to achieve what I consider the pinnacle of guerrilla theater, making the police smile.

David Slesinger, Maryland