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International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation |
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"We escaped the Cold War without a nuclear holocaust by some combination of skill, luck and divine intervention, and I suspect the latter in greatest proportion."
General George Lee Butler
No doubt Germany has a strong tradition of obedience to law and authority and she has a rather weak tradition of non-violent resistance and civil disobedience. Therefore it is not natural that the german peace movement during the early eighties stepped forward from protest to non-violent action, from demonstration to civil disobedience. From 1982-1986, when the resistance movement against the deployment of Pershing II and Cruise Missiles was culminating, there were at least three thousand people engaged in blockades of military traffic, go ins in military sites and in "ploughshare actions", i.e. disarming military equipment with tools with reference to the prophesy of Isea and Micah. Teachers, priests, politicians, judges, seniors, artists, scientists etc. engaged in such actions. A group of twenty judges caused a public uproar, when it blocked the military traffic by a sit in at the Pershing II deployment site of Mutlangen. I am proud to say that I trained them for action.
The INF Treaty in 1987 regulated the disarmament of all land based intermediate range nuclear forces (INF) in East and West, except the warheads. It marked the end of the Cold War, led to the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, desintegration of the Sovietunion and the exit of Soviet communism. How much the german peace movement contributed to that development may be judged by future historians, but I am sure it has.
After the end of the Cold War the peace movement began to decline. Nevertheless there were some peace groups determined to continue the struggle for nuclear disarmament. Their immediate objective was to remove the residuant 80 nukes from german soil to achieve a nuclear free Germany as our contribution to a nuclear free world.
Some peace activists are concentrating since 1989 on the USEUCOM near Stuttgart in the south of Germany. The EUCOM is one of four Unified Commands of the US military forces around the planet. Its "primary mission is to provide combat ready forces to support US committment to the NATO alliance. This includes war planning for both conventional and nuclear operations" (quoted from a self-description of the USEUCOM).
The ambitious goal of the group is to achieve the withdrawal of the remaining nukes from Germany followed as soon as possible by the EUCOM itself. The group calls itself EUCOMmunity, because it wants to replace the EUCOM by a "good" community of nations (the prefix eu in ancient greek means good). It should be a place were refugees and asylum seekers can resort, peace researchers can study and peace activists can be trained.
The EUCOMmunity has developed a special mode of action called de-fencing action. It is a sort of non-violent symbolic occupation of the site in order to change this death land in life land.
The action mode which is open to variations is this:
1. A public call for the action.
2. A letter to the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR) asking for a dialogue, announcing the action and explaining our motives and goals.
3. A two days meeting, in which the action is thoroughly planned with all its possible consequences for the participants.
4. We try to get to the fence to remove at least three yards of it to create an easy access to the site, which is rather large (the fence is almost two miles long). The german police tried several times to prevent the action but failed.
5. On the area we celebrate a Festival of Hope. We plant flowers, plough the ground, sow seeds, hang banners and celebrate a short service. Normally US Military Police and german police wait politely until we finish our symbolic action. Than our particulars are obtained.
6. After the action there is an evaluation round.
Since 1989 there were seven de-fencing actions with almost 500 participants, one hundred of them committing civil disobedience. Most of them were convicted to fines. As a whole the group members and supporters "invested" more than 100.000 DM for fines, court fees, fares and organisational costs. But than there was a judge at the Inferior Court of Stuttgart, who considered the actions as justified by international law and acquitted altogether nine defendants. However the acquittals were set aside by a higher court. Obviously the judge was not convinced by the arguments of the higher court, since in the following trial he appealed to the Constitutional Court, unfortunately without success. In March 17th this year the Constitutional Court dismissed his filing.
Nevertheless an eighth de-fencing action is planned. The struggle must go on. There is no choice, if we want mankind to survive.
Since 1996 there is another peace group working on that field. It calls itself Non-violent Action to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and concentrates on the nuclear weapons deployment site Büchel in the midwest of Germany. There are about ten nuclear bombs deployed, to be flown into target by German Tornados in case of war. The group did two actions in April and August 1997 with some hundred participants, 26 committing civil disobedience by cutting the fence or trespassing on the site. The group members call themselves "honorary inspectors of the International Court of Justice". The International Court of Justice published in July 1996 an opinion, which denounced nuclear weapons as generally against international law.
EUCOMmunity and Non-violent Action to Abolish Nuclear Weapons are part of a national coalition of peace organisations called "Abolish Nukes - let's start here", which is again a constituent of the world wide Abolition 2000 Network of NGOs. The goal of Abolition 2000 is to bring about an international convention regulating the abolition and ban of all nuclear weapons worldwide in 2000, if possible. Even if we succeed in achieving such an ambitious goal, it will take years, perhaps decades to implement it.
Yes, the struggle must go on. The statement of the well known protestant theologican Helmut Gollwitzer, made during the resistance against the deployment of Perhing II and Cruise Missiles is still true. It runs: "We cannot live with the bomb for long. Either we abolish it or it will abolish us."
For further reading: EUCOmmunity. Initiative für eine atomwaffenfreie Welt. Eine Dokumentation. Order at: Ohne Rüstung Leben, Sophienstr. 19, 70178 Stuttgart, Germany, tel +49-7111 608396, Fax -608357 (DM 13,80 + mail) W.Sternstein et al: Atomwaffen abschaffen! Idstein 1998, DM 19,80
Authors address: Hauptmannsreute 45, 70192 Stuttgart, Germany, tel +49 711 293847
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