Europe’s Ecology Politics Is Strong Example By John Platt The recent an ti-nuclear peace march on Washington by more than 100,000 people highlighted a growing environmental m ilitance in this country. If this movement is to continue to deepen and flower, it must learn from a more developed and sophisticated movement in Europe. Ten nations in Western Europe have 84 nuclear plants operating and 73 plants under construction. To oppose this proliferation of nuclear energy, Europeans, 50,000 strong, streamed into Hanover, West Germany, and successfully opposed a planned mammoth nuclear-waste reprocessing and storage plant near Gorleben. The plant would have handled hundreds of tons of radioactive waste from reactors in Germany and throughout the world. As a result of this and other protests, the West German government has decided that it cannot proceed with its nuclear program until there is assurance that waste can be safely handled. With the defeat of the Gorleben plant, Germany’s nuclear program has been severely set back. In Chooz, a small town in eastern France where the government is planning to enlarge an atomic power station, the women of the town, as a protest, locked up the mayor in the city hall for several hours. At Creys- Melville, a small town 35 miles east of Lyon, France, and at Itzehoe, Germany, more than 50,000 farmers, housewives, and students stormed plants and fought with police in an attempt to shut reactors down. Recently I had the opportunity to interview Petra Kelly, a leader of the Green Movement in Germany—an ecological party that she sees as neither traditionally left nor right, but something completely new, transcending the usual political labels. The Green Movement is based on 3,000 citizen action groups throughout Europe. Their energy comes from a belief that you can’t keep preaching “that the state must do such, or the government must do such. You must do it and show that you can do it,” Kelly says. “For example, off Ireland there are two islands run solely on wind energy. In Denmark there are many towns run by windmills that were built by citizen action groups and trade unions. Ireland is now going into housing insulation, creating jobs in the process, and building support from the 170,000- member Irish Trade Union that sees qualitative job creation as an excellent alternative to having to choose between jobs and a healthy environment.” For Kelly, “politics cannot be a ‘different politics’ unless you change spiritually. I see a very big spiritual content in this movement. To me, exploitation can be an issue for Communists, radicals, humanists, socialists, or Christians, but it must mean no exploitation.” As to the earth's resources, Kelly says, “it means the earth has no emergency exit. It means that you can’t leave and that you have to learn to treat the earth well. Maybe that’s an ultimately feminist idea—that you do not suppress women, that you do not suppress mother earth or mother nature, because we are, in fact, all one. Males have usually wanted centralization, order, armies, generals, hierarchy and, with all these, suppression. “He has tried to get this last bit of power by raping the earth herself. He is also doing the same thing to women. It’s not very far to go from rape of a woman to rape of the earth, or vice versa .. . . “Yet many men are stepping out of their establishment jobs and looking around. In America, they call such re- evaluation mid-life crisis, but it is much more than that. It’s midcivilization crisis. We must tie planetary control or non-abuse with nonabuse of people. And it starts with children. It starts with how you educate little boys. It means you don’t put the gun under the Christmas tree because your child is a boy or a doll under the Christmas tree because your child is a girl.” How does the European established governments see the Green Movement and other citizen action groups? “ It varies from country to country,” explains Kelly. "France is the worst. The government there is very central- istic. It looks disdainfully upon citizen action groups. I would say the climate is best in Holland, where the government is very tolerant and sometimes helpful. 1 can give you one example. Delft is auto-free and has many free child care centers. Citizen action groups, of which there are over 130, are getting money from the city council to run their newspapers and other publications. So it’s a much different climate there. They go hand in hand. “ In Germany, citizen action is fought by the Socialists. They claim to be the party of the worker. That’s why there are very many trade union leaders on top of their party’s slate. Yet they have had many chances to prove they are really a party that is from below, and they haven’t. “ In Italy, the Partita Practicala and the Partitat Particala, small groupings of very militant, non-violent, feminist, This is the town I ran away to. Out in the valley we thought it was wild Saturday nights to swoop in, drag Bradway in bunches Expose our engines and roar back to the dark With the lights still beating in our throats, bellies dancing. The brave ones came back, perched up on hills to look down On power and light from a safe distance The lavender of it, foggy layers of colored faces Creeping down off porches and up from basement rooms waving Manuscripts, chisels, tubes of waterproof stain and Dancing the green elk in the middle of the street, Dancing the pigeon shit on the central elk, Singing water runs on the core elk and his ragged gut. Portland for Christ’s sake Oregon Split town bridges to jump from I’ll make Dublin of you Sending your lovers into exile One thing about this town is there is always another Fat ass that wants kicking It makes the juice flow It’s so easy to be bad here You’re a stuck locale for Chekhov But dancing with the water. by Katherine Dunn February 1979 anti-militarists, have been able, with only three people in the National Parliament. to bring up the divorce debate, the feminist debate, the debate surrounding the contraceptive issue and many other issues. And if they weren’t, as we say, the ‘flea in the fur,’ many changes would not have come about in Italy. The Green Movement hopes to be like these Italian parties, a radical faction, radical for peace, for a non-nuclear society, for soft energy, and for recognition of Europe's ethnic and natural geographic regions as opposed to the present nation states. “Nation states are very superficial. Problems don 't stop at certain borders. We have seen that in regions between Holland and* Germany, or France and Germany, there have been common problems. For example, a lead plant or asbestos plant that has caused common concern and common action. The border doesn’t mean anything anymore." Letters To The Editor To the Editor: DO NOT send your trash to the attached address again! I consider it an invasion of my privacy and also unfit for my children. I would not want to have to report you to the postal authorities. Duane Peltier 4855 Justice Way S. Salem, OR To the Editor: My God! Signs of consciousness... RAISE HELL!!! You’ve chosen quite a void to fill. And I do mean VOID. Glad to see someone’s looking at Portland, thinking, and producing intelligent, critical commentary about (mostly) local issues. And all that without a single ad for Cuisinart or BMW. Speaking of cars, please say something about the Edsel that the Cadillac Fairview imperialist multi-national is trying to park on four Downtown blocks. A Reader To the Editor: I don’t know from what list you got my name, but I want to be removed from yours immediately. That article about sex in New York is blatantly evil. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed of just such behavior. Not very truly yours, Arlene M. Kelly To the Editor: Please send me no more copies of your magazine. It doesn’t interest me. Thank you. Douglas Lewis To the Editor: Congratulations on the first issue of the Clinton St. Quarterly. It is, by far, the freshest experience in journalism and investigative reporting since the alternative press of the ’60s. In these present times, life is dangerously mediocre, as mediocre as frozen pizza. The cheese is plastic, the crust is stale, the oil costs a fortune, and the sauce is made of the blood of workers who never get a s l ic e . . . . And the company records record profits for the first quarter. It is time for thunder to light the fires * and kindle a new spirit in the soul of America. The Clinton St. Quarterly provides the path leading to the answers. We need the answers and we need them now. Time is running out on America. The dipstick is d r y . . . . 1 support you, congratulate you, and wish you the best of luck through the wilderness. Fight on, Paully D., L.A. To the Editor: Delete us from your mailing list immediately. Such crap! Ruth and John Woodbury 23
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