CITIZEN'S ACTION GROUP That so many citizen's action groups have sprung up in Germany in such a short period of time (1969-1977), however, is due to a variety of reasons which we should know about if we wish to understand this latest, and most significant, stage in their development. The citizen's action groups (CAG's) began where the extra-parliamentary opposition ("APO") left off, but this should not lead us to the hasty conclusion that the two movements, the APO and the CAG's, are one and the same thing, nor that the one is a direct continuation of the other. "It is clear that the massive development of CAG's since the beginning of the seventies would be unthinkable without the previous APO movement; there are some essential differences, however. The most important is the difference in social background".( 4) The APO protest movement, which had its strongest support among young people and students, was determined by a moral point of view, while today's CAG protest is aimed against direct physical threats to their members' existence. At the height of the Vietnam war, protest was an expression of individual moral concern. "An awareness of being directly concerned, and why, which has been sharpened in daily struggle, provides a basis for the radicals' claim to truth, to education, and to justice in both movements."(5) The extra-parliamentary opposition movement had shown its fellow citizens that it was not only necessary but also possible to fight against totally false planning of human affairs. But this is not the only connecting link to the APO. Student activism of the previous years had increased and widened political sensitivity and self-confidence but had also, on the other hand, caused an increased feeling of powerlessness and victimization in relation to the all-powerful state. The student organizations soon brought forth parent's action groups which began -- and this was a sign of the times - to search out new forms of education allowing for more freedom (4) Kursbuch 48, Th. Kuby/Ch. Marzal, "Lemen in Btirgerinitlativen", p. 161. (5) ibid.,p.160. 63
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTExMDY2NQ==