A year of green street protests
Robert Allen predicts a year of increased militancy on
green issues
A year ago, the multinational company Monsanto were
granted a licence to plant genetically engineered sugar
beet on several farms in the 26 Counties. A group
supported by the majority of Irish green and consumer
organisations was formed to highlight the dangers to
health and the environment from genetically engineered
crops and to prevent, using legal means, the planting
of genetically modified seeds. An injunction to stop
Monsanto was sought but the seeds were planted anyway.
A few months later some people who are wise to the ways
of the state and the lies of industry crept onto the
farm in Carlow where Monsanto's genetically modified
sugar beet seeds were planted and dug up the offending
crops.
Throughout the past year non-violent direct action has
replaced polite lobbying in virtually every area of
green and social conflict. The reason is obvious. There
is a place for report writing, lobbying, propaganda,
protest and legal challenges but when it is played by
the rules set down by the state it simply postpones the
inevitable. Direct action, in stark contrast,
challenges the omnipotence of the state and the power
of industry. Tactics that have a direct effect on
profits make industry sit up and take notice.
It seems clear that those who understand this and who
refuse to compromise will become dominant in the green
and social movements in 1998.
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Throughout the past year non-violent direct action has
replaced polite lobbying in virtually every area of
green and social conflict
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We're already beginning to see a change in attitude
among groups who are realising that peaceful,
non-violent direct action is more powerful than expert
testimony and witness. In some instances these
challenges will be illegal; the dismantling of
telecommunication masts in the middle of the night. In
others they will be disruptive; the march of thousands
of horses to the Dail in the middle of the day.
The new eco-activists argue that the mainstream green
and social organisations have failed the people they
are supposed to represent and failed to protect the
environment. It is no longer enough for groups to set
themselves up with a self-appointed mandate to protect
the environment and expect working people to pay their
bills and wages.
So 1998 is likely to see a resurgence of the tactics
that emerged in the last century to overthrow the
ruling elites of a monarchy-ridden Europe. The focus
this time will be social and environmental justice.
Compromise will be a word no longer in common use among
campaigners. People will co-operate and work together,
focused on the issue.
Campaigns against the telecommunication masts that are
sprouting up all over the country will intensify.
Health and safety issues will become prominent,
particularly in the workplace and among industrialised
communities. Social empowerment and self-determination
will galvanise communities into direct action on issues
that affect their health, livelihoods and cultural
well-being.
Although the attempts to forge green networks
centralised from Dublin have continuously failed
throughout the late 80s and the 90s, there are
indications that the last few years of this decade will
see enhanced communication and information sharing
among empowered groups and individuals. While many
people are understandably wary of computer and
telecommunication technology, the green and social
movements now active all over the globe would not be as
effective without the internet and electronic mail
communication. This has allowed campaigners to access
information themselves at a cost that isn't prohibitive
and freed them to devote their energies to direct
action activity.
Ignorance has played a major part in the destruction of
the environment and the disempowerment of communities.
Politicians are corruptible but not all are corrupt.
Profiteers, whether corporate or individual, are also
corruptible and because money and power corrupts many
have become consumed by their greed and avarice. The
desire to accumulate wealth has made the rich richer
and the poor poorer. More and more people are beginning
to realise that this is what drives the corporations
and the entrepreneurs but which also stops them in
their tracks.
Robert `Pino' Harris may own most of Santry Woods, in
north Dublin, but the regeneration of Ballymun will
fail if the state and the local authority do not
provide an area of land for recreational purposes. For
more than a decade now the community has argued for
this land to be brought into common ownership and
revitalised to include a park, an organic farm, an
eco-centre for handicraft work, a stables and a nature
reserve. If Fingal County Council rezone the land for
development it will be lost forever. The battle for
Santry Woods has begun in earnest and will become a
focal issue ultimately bringing the green and social
movements closer together during 1998.
We are a long way from the individualist 80s;
eco-activists are everywhere in the communalistic 90s.
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