Grassroots and Gewaltfreie Aktionen: A Study of Mass Mobilization Strategies in the West German Peace Movement
| Author | Joyce Marie Mushaben |
| Published date | 01 June 1986 |
| Date | 01 June 1986 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002234338602300205 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Grassroots
and
Gewaltfreie
Aktionen:
A
Study
of
Mass
Mobilization
Strategies
in
the
West
German
Peace
Movement
JOYCE
MARIE
MUSHABEN
University
of
Missouri,
St.
Louis
The
West
German
peace
movement
of
the
eighties
has
been
subject
to
many
of
the
’ebbs
and
flows’ cha-
racteristic
of
protest
movements
of
the
late
sixties
and
early
seventies,
with
one
important
exception.
In
contrast
to
the
more
doctrinaire
Marxist/socialist
orientations
evinced
by
those
earlier
movements,
the
mobilization
against
the
deployment
of
Pershing
II
and
cruise
missiles
has
been
grounded
in
sincere
ef-
forts
on
the
part
of
core
activists
to
develop
a
German
tradition
of
non-violence
and
civil
disobedience.
The
author
presents
a
catalogue
of
strategies
employed
by
movement
participants
since
the
pro-
mulgation
of
the
1979
NATO
double-track
decision,
divided
into
the
subcategories
of
consciousness-
raising
or
’mobilization’
activities,
and
direct
action
or
’escalation’
activities.
The
extensive
but
by
no
means
comprehensive
list
of
possible
protest
actions
seeks
to
maximize
the
opportunities
for
participa-
tion
and
to
intensify
one’s
personal
identification
with
the
movement
at
the
grassroots
level.
Even
though
they
have
proved
unsuccessful
in
blocking
additional
theater
nuclear
deployments,
peace
pro-
testers
are
judged
to
have
contributed
significantly
to
the
’democratization’
of
postwar
German
society.
1.
New
mass
movements
in
West
Germany
Against
the
backdrop
of
economic
chaos
and
anti-democratic
sentiment
marking
the
twenties,
thirties
and
forties,
the
Federal
Republic
now
stands
as
a
hotbed
of
par-
ticipation,
a
linchpin
in
the
structure
of
At-
lantic
security
relations,
as
well
as
an
anchor
in
the
stormy
seas
of
international
political
economy.
The
dramatic
changes
that
have
been
wrought
in
West
German
political
culture
since
1945
are
reflected
in
the
com-
position
of
the
’new
social
movements’
which
rest
on
a
complex
of
disparate
issues,
conflicting
goals
and
occasionally
even
con-
tradictory
political
strategies.
Nuclear
an-
xieties
and
’quality
of
life’
concerns
have
called
forth
a
new
sensitivity
with
respect
to
environmental
issues,
along
with
new
im-
ages
of
progress
and
reform.
Post-material-
ist
values,
e.g.
the
emphasis
on
self-actu-
alization
and
greater
individual
autonomy,
have
moreover
effected
significant
changes
in
citizen
attitudes
toward
nonconventional
participation
and
protest
(Guggenberger
1980).
In
light
of
the
traumatic
historical
ex-
periences
associated
with
mass
movements,
however,
there
are
likely
to
be
many
Ger-
mans
who
fear
that
such
large-scale
protests
pose
an
existential
threat
to
the
compara-
tively
young
democratic-constitutional
or-
der,
or
that
the
use
of
’direct
action’
tactics
amounts
to
a
form
of
violent
subversion
against
the
State.
Between
1981
and
1983,
West
German
political
leaders
were
forced
to
confront
a
massive
wave
of
anti-nuclear
protests,
remi-
niscent
of
the
turmoil
of
the
late
1960s.
This
recent
mobilization
of
protest
forces
direc-
ted
against
the
deployment
of
additional
theater
nuclear
weapons
on
German
soil
finds
its
roots
in
a
tradition
of
peace
acti-
vism
dating
back
to
the
1950s,
when
the
cats
alyst
to
protest
was
the
decision
to
permit
the
rearmament
of
the
former
Reich.
A
number
of
undeniable
historical
parallels
(Rupp
1980;
Buro
1982;
Mushaben
1984)
could
easily
lead
one
to
assume
that
many
of
the
old
activists
from
the
late
fifties,
late
six-
ties
and
early
seventies
have
reappeared
on
the
protest
scene,
intent
on
renewing
a
movement
based
on
earlier
objectives
and
strategies.
A
closer
examination
of
the
scale
and
the
scope
of
protest
activities
that
have
charged
the
German
political
environment
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