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text in English: From October 18: Dodewaard will close.
background: The main poster for the massive blockade which thousands
of people decided to hold in the May camp. On the Saturday (Oct.
18) the camp began at the same location where the May camp took place.
Then it was no problem that it was 7km from the reactor site, but now,
with police holding all cars, and the weather becoming increasingly worse,
the distance became one of the major inconveniences. On Sunday some 15.000
people blocked the roads to the site. But in the afternoon many people
left , but still some 4.000 people spent the night either at the blockades
or at the camp (the blockades were organized in shifts). On Monday, after
a night with heavy rains., more people left and others became increasingly
frustrated because of the non-violent ‘flowerpower’ atmosphere and
the amicable relations with the riot police (singing songs together and
passing flowers). On Monday afternoon, when some 2.000 activists remained,
a decision was made to end the blockades, mainly due to the extremely bad
weather and the distance between the camp and the blockades. Still the
action was seen as a success, because of the enormous positive impact
the actions had on the anti nuclear power movement and because the enormous
pressure on political parties to reconsider their pro-nuclear position.
Just the attempt to organize it with affinity groups and a very horizontal
structure (an experiment in decision-making process involving many people)
made it already very important.
city: Nijmegen
country: The Netherlands
date & year: October 1980
produced by: Secretariaat Dodewaard gaat dicht!