Remember the environmental movement? It actually began quite early with the publication of Silent Spring, in which Rachel Carson publicized the dramatic ecological consequences of the use and misuse of pesticides. But it did not gain any significant momentum until we realized that not only sparrows and condors were...
Tag - activism
It's six a.m. in Cambridgeport, an integrated, basically blue-collar neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the row of triple deckers on Brookline Street, Gwen Woods and her neighbors awaken simultaneously. At that tender hour, Advent Corporation's Emily Street plant is already venting styrene fumes into the...
The movement against nuclear energy in West Germany had its beginnings in Whyl, a small town on the French/Swiss/German border. The protests began on a small scale after the news of the planned atomic energy plant was made public in 1971. The movement was triggered by students and others from the nearby city of...
We represent a group from the academic community of New York City. We have been alarmed for some time with the strong and increasingly symbiotic relationship between our universities and the military complex. Recently we constituted a group to attack this relationship and expose its often inhuman ends, ends which we...
For the past three years Science for the People has held actions at the annual AAAS meetings, questioning the political manner in which science priorities are established and the hierarchical and elitist way in which science is organized. The AAAS finds itself in a curious (maybe not so curious) position in the face...
Contrary to what we would like to believe, there is no such thing as a structureless group. Any group of people of whatever nature that comes together for any length of time for any purpose wiil inevitably structure itself in some fashion. The structure may be flexible; it may vary over time; it may evenly or unevenly...
Herb offered some critical comments on the political implications saying that the pledge-taking in itself is "neither radical political activity nor . . . a threat to the establishment" since (1) it is an individual act requiring no organized social or political effort (2) it removes the critical scientist from the...