CITIZEN'S ACTION GROUP just this brought about a change in· the German people's way of thinking: they began to notice that atomic power stations, that is, "progress", were to be constructed at a high cost in security, at the population's cost as a whole. Atomic power plant planning and contruction were based exclusively on economic interests. They were and will be located in industrial areas. When citizens and citizen's groups began to protest against the construction of various atomic power plants, they were almost always ignored. It became clear once again that the legal means of protest available to the population were without use. Developments in Wyhl (Baden), where an atomic power plant was to be built, and the ensuing occupation of the construction site, showed that objections about the location of this_plant and the region's economic situation were the main reasons for resistance against this project at first. "The main goal of the citizen's action groups was to inform the population about the dangers of atomic power plants; they gathered nearly 100,000 signatures and five communities as well as a dozen individuals brought suit at administrative court. Cooperation with students and scientists at near-by Freiburg university was particularly good. But all these protests, objections, and lawsuits were to no avail. The government ignored the administrative court recommendation to wait until judgement was passed and decided to push through its own decision. This is how the dramatic events of the week from February 17 to 23, 1975, in which irate citizens occupied the construction site, which was under police protection, came about. "(9) At first, the action groups against atomic energy consisted mainly of middle-class members, but the Left soon found its way into the citizen's action groups and took part in the struggle against the destruction of the natural and human environment in the name of capitalist economic policy. Initially, most citizen's action groups wanted to improve untenable conditions by small, individual actions, but their members' consciousness soon grew to encompass changing attitudes on the state and its institutions. Many became more alienated from the (9) W. Sternstein, "Das LehrstuckvonWyhl", GewerkschaftlichMe onatshefte 2/76, p. 77. 67
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