Twenty years ago, most of the ministers of the current government were non-violent (and sometimes not so non-violent) anti-nuclear protesters – including SPD members in the cabinet like chancellor Schröder and all the Green ministers. The Greens received up to 30 or 40 % in the elections of this predominately rural area.

In 1996 a mass protest took place against the nuclear and the revelation that radioactivity had moved out of the "secure" trains. The Kohl-government was forced to announce a moratorium on further transports.

It is the current "red-green" government which started them again after a deal was struck with the nuclear industry: the so-called "nuclear consensus" to "phase out nuclear energy production" – over the next 30 years!

This "compromise" allows the capitalists to run the plants till the end of their life-span. On the other hand, pulling out of nuclear energy is not a big deal for them since there is a tremendous overproduction of electricity in Germany and the nuclear power plants are simply less profitable than others (particular gas).

The nuclear compromise allows the capitalists to chose which plants to close, which to run longer according to profitability and to earn profits for their investments.

However, there is even more to Gorleben. Officially an "intermediate" storage site it has de facto become a storage forever, despite the high risks associated with location. Most of the nuclear waste stored there is recycled plutonium for (potential) further use in particularly risky fast breeders or for making nuclear weapons.

Therefore Gorleben is also crucial for a potential "re-entry" into fast breeder techniques and arms industry. Gorleben also has an additional EU-wide importance for the nuclear industry, since it is part of the chain of nuclear recycling industry.

Therefore, securing the transports was an another acid test for the Greens in government. Again they proved that they are loyal party - to the bosses. The SPD-Green government which has promised rapid (if not immediate) end of nuclear energy production before the elections thought it could defuse resistance by the shoddy cynical "consensus".

They failed miserably. A demonstration of up to 20,000 at the weekend before the transportation started revealed how deep the anger was. Flags and banners of the Green party were destroyed, Green party leaders pushed out of the demonstration.

Kerstin Müller and Claudia Roth, two prominent "left" wing leaders of the party, had been greeted with rotten eggs at the so-called "Stunk-Parade", a demonstration of peasants who blockaded the streets with their tractors.

The anti-capitalist youth organisation REVOLUTION (and Gruppe Arbeitermacht) intervened with a leaflet. We had placards denouncing the nuclear "consensus": "Atomkonsens = Nonsens! Sofortiger Atomausstieg! Enteignung der Engergiewirtschaft unter Arbeiterkontrolle!" (nuclear consensus = nonsense! Immediate phasing of nuclear power! Expropriation of the energy industry under workers’ control!)

The arrogance of the Green ministers and party leaders increased the anger. The "consensus" was rightly seen as a betrayal. That however did not stop the Green party leadership from trying to "forbid" party members to join in the protests. After a wave of protests the party congress changed that position, calling for supporting the "compromise" and the protests against it!

Jürgen Trittin, environmental minister and "left winger", had already made clear what this meant: the order the day, he said, is "to govern not to demonstrate" (regieren statt demonstrieren!).

And that is, what the Greens together with the SPD did. In order to secure the Castor transport, they played the "de-escalation" card in their agitation – and deployed a police force of 18.000 to the region to secure "de-escalation". Already during the weeks before protest, the cops had been highly visible and controlled cars and people "who looked like a protestor". Since almost everyone living in the region is against the transportation, they obviously had a lot to do.

During the week, around 10,000 tried to blockade the rails in the 40 kilometres long part from Lüneburg to Danneberg. The police tried to prevent the building of camps along the rail line and issued a ban on all demonstrations and pickets up to 50 meters from the railway track. And they enforced it with water cannons, batons and gas.

Whilst clashes with the police were rare at the weekend before the transports, the cops turned wild during the week. 700 demonstrators were temporarily arrested, hundreds injured. Demonstrations with 100s were attacked by police forces of 1000s as soon as they gathered.

Max, a member of REVOLUTION in Germany, described the scene: "As soon as one of us moved a bit, the police immediately came in with batons. You felt deeply wounded, almost defenceless, when they surrounded you with large forces. You could not move. Whenever they outnumbered a group of demonstrations, they attacked."

But despite the massive and brutal "de-escalators" the protests scored some successes. They came back again and again, supported by the local population. Time and time again, small groups of 50 to 100 got through the police lines and could block the track. Members of "Robin Wood", a rather official environmentalist NGO, managed to stop the processed waste for 24 hours by tying themselves to the track, an action they had prepared well months in advance. Given the balance of forces, the protesters where right to use methods of non-violent direct action and scored some spectacular results.

In the end the armed might of the police and the Bundesgrenzschutz ("border-police" in reality a special police unit designed to secure borders, but also to fight inner uprisings and terrorism) won. It forced the processed waste through to the nuclear waste storage facility in Gorleben.

But it may turn out as a Pyrrhic victory. Most people were clear in advance that it is unlikely to stop the transport itself faced with that massive police presence. But they clearly signalled that the struggle against nuclear industry in Germany is alive, indeed has got some new fresh blood. The Green Party failed to defuse the protests. It may even be one of the victims of its betrayal.

Of course, the activists, being betrayed by the Greens whom many had put false hopes in, are looking and have to look for a new strategy to succeed in their aim to phase out nuclear energy production – an aim the workers across Europe and world-wide have to join in with all those activists. They have to transcend their hopes in the parliamentary rood to phase out nuclear energy and their rather localist focus of the protests.

They have to make the movement against nuclear energy production and their struggle an international one and link it to the working class. This is a political issue of prime importance for the workers as well.

Just a look at the shear size of the transportation to Gorleben demonstrates the problem: 58 tonnes of nuclear waste is only a small proportion of the waste of German nuclear power plants. The whole problem of storage is unresolved. The costs – of course – shall be paid by the public, i.e. primarily the working class.

The nuclear industry is qualitatively more dangerous than any other form of industry and cannot be developed safely under capitalism. Over 50 years of experience has proven that these plants are inherently unsafe and contain the potential for devastating huge regions of the world.

We demand the planned closure of all nuclear plants under workers' control, to ensure they are safely decommissioned and environmentally friendly sources of alternative power are constructed to replace them, and that all workers are transferred to other jobs at equivalent rates of pay. In countries like Germany the closing down can be done immediately, in others it may take some period of time.

However, it has to be linked to the question of expropriation of the whole energy sector under workers’ control. The LRCI’s resolution "Save the planet from capitalist destruction" clearly address that and puts it this way:

"The need for workers’ control in the struggle for planned closure goes hand in hand with the struggle for international planning of energy production. Apart from the elimination of dangers (e.g. nuclear power plants), the rational use of energy will be central. The relation between capitalist production and waste has to be made clear and related to the need of a global economic planning."

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