CITIZEN'S ACTION GROUP sent being carried out in France and which are just beginning in Hamburg. We need to find forms of action which can be carried out directly by everyone, thus avoiding the isolation of the left wing."(14) * * * In contrast to citizen's action groups whose activities aim at preventing harmful influence on their own lives, there are also action groups in Germany which defend purely private interests in the name of environmental protection. An example of a group working for the protection of private and profit-making interests is the "Action Group Against the Construction of the Planned Atomic Power Plant" in Bergkamen-Heil in the Ruhr. As soon as it became known that the construction of a coal plant was planned for that area, a total of 72 citizens formed the group of this name. They did their best to prevent construction by legal appeals in court on the one hand, but they also carried out secret negotiations with the contruction firm. Finally the results of these negotiations became publically known: the construction firm of the planned power station promised payment of DM. 20,000 to each member of the "citizen's" action group if the "citizen's representatives" promised to take back their legal appeal permanently and irrevocably. The three speakers actually received DM 40,000 each. This form of action, in which people think only of their financial interests, understandably led to a diffamation of citizen's action groups in the German press. It must be said, however, that this is one of the very few cases in which citizens reach financial gains out of a pretense of wishing to protect themselves and their environment. * * * To get an even clearer picture of the citizen's action groups in Germany, we must take the opinion of the various parties and (14) Kursbuch 48, H.J. Benedict, "Burger, linke und Gewalt", p. 14 7. (15) Der Spiegel, 9.5.1977, p. 50; Koiner Stadlanzeiger, 5.5.1977. 71
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