Midnight Notes, Strange Victories: The Anti-Nuclear Movement in the US and Europe, 1978.(Reprinted in Midnight Notes Collective, Midnight Oil: Work, Energy, War, 1973-1992, Boston: Autonomedia, 1992, pp. 193- 214.)
The main point
of this article is map out a historical account of how the anti-nuclear
movement took place, the people that were involved, and the chronological
occurrence of the success and failures of the movement against nuclear power.
I. Who is Involved in the Anti-Nuclear Movement
In the opening of this chapter, the initial question that comes to mind is “Who is involved in the anti-nuclear movement?” It is most plausible to assume that such a movement would have arisen from populated, industrialized and polluted environments. This is truly not the case. From studies of these movements, most have rose from urban environments less populated and polluted where nuclear plants reside. The planners of industrialized nuclear power plants have reasons for such areas. 1) Minimizing risk of accidents (rural areas less populated and pose fewer problems in case of evacuation.) 2) Safety distance from dangerous, unreliable class-sector (such as problems of sabotage.) 3) Strategic locations. 4) Political Passivity of the local populations (this is where they were wrong!)
1. An Additional Factor- were the resettlement of urban intellectual workers in rural areas. The resettlement was a form of struggle by intellectual against capital. “Capital has always had problems in controlling its intellectual labor force mainly because the profit returns are indirect and slow, particularly for disciplines like philosophy, literature and art.”
2. Movement in New England- New England and California were the two main areas of resettlement for intellectuals since the mid-60’s. The development of this movement was the fact that a large number of the New England “subsisters” had had experiences in the anti-war movement. The movement also became a source of income in creating jobs for intellectual workers. It is in this regard, the movement was a direct answer to the problem of survival for at least a section of “humankind.”
3. Outside the Movement- The outsiders, those in the working class who were not really a part of such a movement (factory workers, blacks and urban minority people, construction workers, etc.) The reason being is not the problem of education, or lack thereof, but the organization, and finding ways of effective and direct struggle.
4. The European Movement- There was a lack of geographical division in Europe, which favored the class-specific expansion of the movement. “Unlike the US, whole sectors of the urban young or unemployed workers joined it, not particularly because of the anti-nuclear issue, but for its quality as a general social movement expressing insubordination, rebellion, the possibility of violent struggle, etc.)
II. The Ideology (Self-Definition) of the Nuclear Movement in Relation to Capitalist Planning
In dealing with class, it is said that the anti-nuclear and ecological movement has a characteristic that the class interest of the people are never directly expressed in its ideologies. From this point of view, the “classless” people are looked upon as “humankind” or “all living creatures.”
1. The Anti-Planners- The anti-plan: That our energy policy be focused on developing and implementing clean and renewable sources of energy in concert with an efficient system of recycling and conservation.
2. Attack Nuclear Capital- Slime against concrete/refusal of responsibility and command against capital/life against work/wishes against need- these are elements of an ideology and practice which could destroy the planning/anti-planning dead end.
III. Strange Victories- The Anti-Nuclear Movement and the Nuclear Industry
1. The Nuclear Plan- The nuclear industry was planned around the 1950’s to 1960’s as a response to the unreliability of domestic coal miners and oil workers in the Middle East. It was conceived as the source of a new capitalist accumulation, a new model of capitalist command, control and territorial organization. Though planned to be as a profitable single capital, the nuclear industry turned out to be completely unable to function capitalistically.
2. Bad Surprises- In summary of the nuclear plans failure; it is blamed on not its technological future, but the relationship between its technology and labor force, between technology and “humanity.”
IV. The Anti-Nuclear Movement in the Cities
The anti-nuclear issue is a possibility of autonomous organization outside of all types of compromised party, union and ethnic organizations, and open field of creativity for all types of people.
Summary by Zung-Chinh Doan