(The following article appeared in the April 28 issue of La Brèche, the fortnightly newspaper of the Ligue Marxiste Révolutionnaire, Swiss section of the Fourth International. The editors explained in an introductory note that it is
"the most succinct possible condensation" of a dossier on nuclear energy published in the April 2, June 21, and July 12, 1974, issues of La Brèche. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
The technical means to counteract almost all industrial pollution already exist; in some cases they have existed for a long time. But they are not applied because it is in the capitalists' interests to limit costs of production in order to maintain profits.
Each capitalist keeps his eye on his own profits alone, and not the satisfaction of the real needs of the population.
We seek a socialist society, where the productive forces will be developed to satisfy everyone's needs through democratic planning of production on a world scale.
Within this perspective, extensive industrialization and increased automation are indispensable. Worldwide planning, carried out entirely with a view to the broadest interests of the whole population, will incorporate the research and apply the techniques that are required to do away with pollution.
At the same time, however, there is one technology—nuclear technology-that we must reject for the present, for reasons that we will explain.
Apart from the effects of massive radiation that directly threatens workers in the nuclear industry in the event of an accident, even small doses of radioactivity can eventually induce cancer as well as serious and even fatal genetic and hereditary damage among all living beings.
The full scope of these risks becomes evident when you consider that:
• There is no known cure for cancer, especially leukemia, or for the diseases linked to genetic damage.
• Besides the fact that some new and unknown dangerous genetic mutations are 788
more likely to appear among humans, there is the danger that new stocks of microorganisms, impervious to human antidotes, can arise through genetic mutations.
• Concentrations of radioactive substances build up in some living organisms, creating stronger emissions than in the surrounding environment. This can occur in certain plants and animals, in some natural foods consumed by humans, and in some human organs.
Radioactivity is indestructible, and it declines very slowly, at least in the case of some elements. Safety in the nuclear industry therefore requires absolute confinement of radioactive materials in all nuclear installations so that no artificial radioactivity increases the natural radiation (which is harmful enough!) in an environment inhabited by human beings and other living organisms.
Considering the present state of technology:
• Even if it were possible to isolate all radioactive wastes (which is certainly not the case today, the problem of eliminating these wastes, which will remain active for centuries (!), has not yet been satisfactorily resolved.
• The corrosion and fatigue of material in a nuclear plant limits its life span to twenty or thirty years, and reduces its safety with age. Moreover, the dismantling of a plant will not only necessitate the isolation of large amounts of radioactive waste, but will also involve considerable risks for the workers and the surrounding population.
• The nuclear industry as a whole is far from being completely automated. It is still necessary to periodically open the innermost casings. Thus it is unavoidable that workers in the nuclear industry will be exposed to appreciable amounts of radiation.
• Besides the dangers inherent in the normal functioning of nuclear installations we are still a long way from having the means to eliminate the dangers resulting from possible accidents during transportation of materials or even in the core of the installations.
But in addition to these risks, which are inherent at the present stage of development of the technology, there are the risks associated with its application under capitalism. The profit motive, which leads to cutting corners on safety at all levels, profoundly contradicts the extreme vigilance that the safest management of the nuclear industry would require.
Some energy sources have been generally underutilized, even though their existence has been known for a long time. They include:
• Solar energy in all its forms.
• Geothermal energy-the use of heat from the depths of the earth.
• Tidal energy—using the difference in sea level between high tide and low tide.
Research in techniques whose principles have been known for some time, in order to facilitate their large-scale utilization, is consistently underdeveloped for the simple reason that these techniques offer the capitalists no assurance of profits in the short run.
Also worth noting is that traditional energy sources such as coal, oil, natural gas, and hydroelectric energy are far from having been exhausted.
To mention only one example: In Switzerland, the potential hydroelectric energy that technically could be harnessed amounts to 145 billion kilowatt hours a year. But in 1973, only 27.7 billion kilowatt hours were produced this way! As for oil, natural gas, and coal, it must be repeated over and over that technologies permitting their use without pollution exist, and that if it were not for the requirements of capitalist profits, they could be implemented immediately.
It must be added that the capitalist system wastes enormous quantities of energy in the following ways:
• The production by competing companies of two and three times as many identical commodities as are required.
• The production of commodities such as cars and washing machines with built-in obsolescence, to provide a replacement market.
• Production and activities that are socially useless, such as most pharmaceutical products, advertising, and so forth.
• The priority given to private transportation over public transportation (at a much lauon over pubne transportation (at a much higher cost in energy).
• The use of cheap but shoddy building materials as a substitute for adequate thermal insulation.
• Without collectivized property and economic planning, there is no hope of recycling the large amounts of thermal energy produced by some industrial complexes.
It is profitable for the capitalists to exploit nuclear energy for the following reasons:
• Nuclear technology was first developed at the taxpayers' expense primarily for military objectives. (In the United States, more than $15 billion was allocated to nuclear research between 1947 and 1957.) At a later stage the bourgeois state began to hand it over gradually to certain trusts, such as Westinghouse in the United States, at very profitable terms.
• The massive infrastructure involved in nuclear industry offers important markets for key sectors of heavy industry, such as steel, and electrical and chemical engineering companies.
• The short life span of nuclear plants, about twenty or thirty years, assures the constant renewal of the market.
In face of the waste of energy resulting from the anarchy of the capitalist system, and the fundamental disrespect for the public interest that the laws of private profit involve, we demand:
• A complete and immediate end to the nuclear industry.
• Nationalization under workers control of the whole energy sector.
In addition to these demands, we are fighting for a socialist revolution, that is, for the establishment by the working class of a social system in which the imperatives of private profit will no longer play a role, in which the whole economy and state apparatus will belong to the workers and serve their interests. This is the only kind of social system that will provide for harmonious and coordinated growth of the productive forces on a world scale, so as to meet the material and cultural needs of the whole of humanity.
How's That Again?
"To ask a businessman which comes first, profits or social responsibility, is. like asking an educator which comes first, his pursuit of new knowledge or the sharing of the knowledge he already possesses with others. The two pursuits are inseparable; the attainment of one is impossible without the attainment of the other."-General Motors Chairman Thomas A. Murphy, quoted in the May 17 New York Daily News.
Encouraged by Protests in France and West Germany
Occupiers Block Nuclear
Vida Mundial
More than 15,000 persons participated in a national demonstration in Bern April 26 to protest the Swiss government's plan to build a nuclear plant at Kaiseraugst, a town on the Rhine near Basel.
Protesters had occupied the site of the proposed plant for almost a month, blocking its construction.
Speakers at the Bern rally denounced the government's energy policy, pointing out that a majority of the members of a federal commission studying energy problems are also members of the boards of directors of the major electricity trusts in Switzerland.
The construction site at Kaiseraugst was occupied March 30 by several hundred persons who pitched tents and built giant bonfires to ward off the winter cold. The occupiers said they were encouraged to carry out their action by the massive support for similar antinuclear protests recently held at Marckolsheim, France, and Wyhl, West Germany.* Antinuclear demonstrators from France and Germany went to Kaiseraugst to show solidarity with the Swiss protest.
The action received widespread support within Switzerland. The people of neighboring towns supplied the occupiers with free food and provisions. Cyclists organized races with the occupiers' encampment as a goal. Bürgerinitiativen, or citizens committees, were formed to mobilize support in many towns throughout the area.
On April 6 a rally at the site attracted
*For an account of these protests, see "French and German Antipollution Demonstrators Join 'Watch on the Rhine' to Halt Nuclear Plant," in Intercontinental Press, April 21, p. 531.
Site in Switzerland more than 15,000 supporters of the occupation.
In a resolution adopted at the rally, the protesters demanded that the project be closed down, that there be no reprisals against the occupiers, and that a referendum be held on the construction of the nuclear station.
On April 25 the occupiers offered to end the occupation if the government would agree to open negotiations. They insisted, however, that the federal council promise there would be no reprisals against them, and that all construction work would be suspended during the negotiations.
On May 9, the federal council indicated that it was ready to negotiate beginning May 27, and Motor Columbus, the contractor, made a formal promise not to resume work on the site before the beginning of June. The May 17 issue of La Brèche, the Swiss Trotskyist fortnightly, reported that the occupation was continuing, since the protesters had been unable to obtain sufficient guarantees that their conditions would be met.
Analyzing the protest movement in its April 28 issue, La Brèche emphasized the democratic planning of the mass mobilizations. General assemblies have decided all questions dealing with strategy, the organization of solidarity actions, and the response to repressive attacks.
Mobilizing forces that encompass a wide spectrum of the population, the movement has sometimes lacked a clear political focus, La Brèche said. Some ecology groups, for example, favor "zero growth" and oppose the development of productive forces that alone can provide the foundation for socialist society.
But the Swiss Trotskyists stressed "the promising dynamic of these movements." Because they are reacting against the anarchy of capitalist production, La Brèche said, their mass actions in practice challenge the normal functioning of the system, radicalizing their participants and contributing to political clarification of the issues involved
La Brèche called on the unions and workers parties to throw their support behind the antinuclear movement.
"This is the first time in a long while," it said, "that a direct action, challenging the law itself and directed against the political authorities and the trusts-in this case, Motor Columbus, alias Brown-Boveri and Alusuisse-has aroused such a response among the people."