Word: sftp
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Dates: during 1976-1976
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...activities of the China group, the teaching group, and the occupational health and safety group illustrate an important difference between SftP and other organizations of activist scientists, which are usually single issue lobbying groups. The Union of Concerned Scientists, for example, is essentially a public interest group limited to doing research and providing expert testimony at government hearings investigating hazards in the nuclear energy industry. In contrast, members of SftP say that their primary concern is to develop a mass consciousness, to convince people that the present system must undergo fundamental change...
...Thus, SftP stresses its political analysis of scientific questions, which most often seems to be Marxist in character. King says they are interested in asking basic questions, such as the reason for the original development of nuclear energy as a priority instead of less dangerous alternative forms. On this and other issues, many members consider the best method for understanding social problems to be a recognition of monopoly corporations' dominance over public policy...
...SftP says the capitalist system forces to focus on coercing the individual to fit the system, and that such a society places profit before people. Among the examples cited by SftP are: attempts to cure cancer through recombinant DNA research rather than by eliminating carcinogens from the environment; screening factory workers for genetic susceptibility to tungsten-caused cancer rather than eliminating the hazard; pinning the blame for deviant behavior and widespread social ills on the genes of individuals rather than on the structure of society...
Beckwith and others say SftP's political analyses of the issues are rarely reported adequately in the media, who also, according to some members of SftP, seem to have a "dangerous antagonism" toward reporting the SftP affiliation of prominent scientists in the organization, even though members often make it explicit that they are speaking for the collective and not as individuals...
...rate, the problem of individual vs. collective recognition is a persistant thorn in the side of SftP, one they hope to eliminate by strengthening the national structure of the group. A national organizing committee has been formed, and plans are underway to draw up eventual principles of unity...