Word: seabrooks
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...Seabrook has this moldy strip of 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...
...kind of boring. People have been arrested, and some have been injured, but you know it's really all over. Sure there will be action tomorrow--a march and a rally and some meetings and a little Mace, and some independent fence-cutting. But they'll keep building Seabrook, at least until next spring when you and your affinity group come back to shut it down again. So you talk with friends, for a while and listen to the spokes meeting, and then, in a gusty 45-degree wind you crawl into your sleeping bag. The Guard are down...
When the coalition lost sight of its collective goal, we lost our most powerful weapon--unity. When the goal ceased to be stopping Seabrook and instead became, as it did Monday, more random actions against the fence, we lost our power...
...strength of this weekend's action was the avoidance of violent response by the protesters. We were Maced, beaten, hosed and poked. Each time, we rallied and stood together. People calmed each other, holding those who were hysterical, treating those who were hurt. When our goal to shut down Seabrook appeared unattainable, we adopted a more realistic one--to occupy the storage lot, to cost the state of New Hampshire as much as we could, and to get as much publicity as possible. Just getting arrested hadn't worked. Three Mile Island hadn't made enough people think...
...problem was that decisions could not be made quickly. To gather spokespersons in a confused situation was nearly impossible. One meeting I attended lasted six and a half hours, and we reached no consensus on the next day's approach. The people who came to Seabrook opposed a hierarchical system that has abandoned concern for human life in favor of greater profits. The protesters did not allow their organization to mirror that of the system they condemned. To attempt Seabrook again, or an action like it, a method must be devised to make quick decisions...