Mass anti-nuclear protests rock Germany

The horrible catastrophe in Fukushima is broadening. Yet along with it the protests against nuclear energy have experienced a new boost, writes Georg, Berlin

In Germany, a stronghold of the anti-nuclear movement ever since 250,000 people took to the streets nationwide on March 26, 2011. Within two weeks it was possible to mobilize huge demonstrations in the four biggest cities in Germany. In Berlin alone 120,000 marched against nuclear energy, in Hamburg 50,000, and in Köln and München each 40,000. With this turnout, those were the biggest protests against nuclear energy ever in Germany.

After the German government, consisting of Liberals (FDP) and Conservatives (CDU), extended the runtime of nuclear-power plants until 2040 last year, a new wave of protests erupted that is still going strong. There was already a central demonstration in Berlin last year with 100,000 people marching, as well as massive protests and blockades against nuclear transports into the Wendland where the intermediate storage facility Gorleben is situated.

What the conscious opponents of nuclear energy knew all along now becomes quite obvious and serious for millions of people. Not only is nuclear energy an unsafe technology, it also gets used by big energy corporations and defended by governments in order to generate massive profits for the capitalists. And even though an overwhelming majority in Germany is against nuclear energy production, it was used for decades and is supposed to continue to get used for 30 more years.

The politics is covered for the nuclear lobby by various so-called expert opinions and bourgeois politicians of every shade. They assure us that nuclear energy is absolutely safe. Chernobyl happened because of human failures and Fukushima because of a natural disaster. In Germany, a design basis accident (DBA) therefore could not happen because the circumstances cannot be compared. However, the reality looks different. Many of the German nuclear reactors have been operated for decades now and the technology is often not up-to-date anymore. Last year alone saw more than one hundred accidents that were subject to report in Germany. The lack of information, as well as the extension of the runtime of reactors, is not a coincidence.

The big energy corporations are not interested in “clean” information politics. Just like maintenance, new security systems, or the introduction of renewable energy production are diminishing profits, a conscious and strong anti-nuclear movement is a threat to the energy conglomerates. These corporations are supported in that by the bourgeois state. Especially on an issue like nuclear energy, where feasible alternatives exist and which is a ticking time-bomb waiting to explode, it becomes obvious which side the bourgeois state and its governments are on. They act in the interests of the capitalists no matter how many millions human lives it may cost. It is against this that we have to form resistance on the streets. But in order for the resistance to be successful, it needs a perspective that reaches beyond the simple demand to “abolish nuclear power.”

The Green Party and the Social Democrats (SPD), which presented themselves as the figureheads of the anti-nuclear protests in the last couple of months, do not offer such a perspective. After all it was them who ensured in 2002 that nuclear-power production would be extended, instead of abolishing it when they theoretically had the chance to do so.

Fukushima has shown it clearly: the atomic crisis is not just a “human failure,” a natural catastrophe, or a mere “technical error.” It is the realization of a society’s ruling class putting its interests above the life of millions of people.

It is against this that we have to organize resistance. Therefore it is of utmost importance to understand the anti-nuclear movement not only as an ecological movement, but also as a social movement and to fight for this consciousness. We can expect more mass mobilizations against nuclear power in Germany in the next months. Let us turn these protests into a resistance against the politics of the Liberals and Conservatives and against the nuclear corporations.

REVOLUTION proposes the following demands to the anti-nuclear movement:

- Complete access to all the documents and accounts of nuclear-power corporations, controlled by peoples’ committees and the unions!

- For the immediate drawing of a plan – put together, controlled, and approved by the workers – to abandon nuclear-power production as soon as possible and to switch to renewable energies!

- For the massive increase of taxes of energy corporations and the immediate start to implement the switch towards renewable energies!

- For the expropriation of all energy corporations who refuse to accept the implementation of these steps! The nuclear-power reactors must be, until they are completely shut down, under the control of committees of the workers and the local population.