Word: comes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Protesters had come to Seabrook in years past--their goal to stop construction on the giant nuclear plant now one-fifth complete. Last May, the talk-is-cheap part of the anti-nuclear movement began planning a new tack in the fight. Instead of peaceful protests or acts of civil disobedience, they wanted "direct action." Cut down fences, occupy the plant, resist arrest, they said. That tactical change bred other shifts--in decision-making, in the attitude of the authorities, and the mood...
There is little to do but wait until morning, which comes soon enough: 4:30 a.m. You move out en masse along a forest trail lit only by the lights of an occasional T.V. crew and the high intensity bulbs that circle the plant. The sun comes up over the tidal marsh just as you reach it, a moment much too glorious. People joke about it, and the allusions to solar energy come one after another...
...fire captain brings out the water cannon, but there isn't enough pressure for it to be really effective. People get wet, one person gets flipped, and the skirmishes continue, so the police come out from behind the fence, and now what do you do? You can't rush by policemen, you just don't do that, and besides, would it be non-violent? Would everybody follow? So you retreat to a high spot and wait for the tide to come in while you hold some meetings...
...decide to meet at nine the next morning and start from scratch. The basic split is emerging here. Some people want to keep attacking, keep cutting fences. Others don't like Mace, don't like wearing gas masks, fear that real violence may break out. "What did you come here for--to occupy or not?" one man shouts, and people around the circle really wonder...
...hamburger restaurants and Hawaiian motif motels and shopping centers, and that's where you march now. Soon you're at the main gate, and despite the copters, there aren't any police there, just two security guards. After a couple of minutes the state police and the Guard come screaming over, and they don't know for sure that this demonstration is legal and peaceful and what the heck, you seem to be blocking Route 1, so the firehoses get turned on again. But people know by now not to fear the portable hoses, and there is dancing...