The "nuclear state" as "security state" (feature)
01 March 1997
Investigation of the anti-nuclear movement by the secret service and police enforcement of the nucleur waste transportation (known as: "Castor-Transport")
In March 1997, the "nuclear state" took a further step in the Wendland (Lower Saxony). Against the long-standing resistance of the region, against the fears of the majority of the population, and against the advice of many experts, radioactive waste has been transported through the Republic for years to be deposited near Gorleben in Lower Saxony. This has been enforced by an expensive police force which was deployed to "protect" the transportation - altogether a 30,000 strong police force (twice that in 1996 at a cost of about 100m DM).
The basic rights on freedom of expression and demonstration have suffered in the process. Meetings have been forbidden in large areas and non-violent sit-ins have - particularly in the latest phase - been brutally removed. Police attacked a television crew, protesters had their noses broken and fingers poked into their eyes in order to force them to stand up, heads were trampled on, and ambulance men behind the police cordon were attacked. High pressure water canons targeted individual protesters, injuring some seriously. Altogether, over hundred people have been injured, thirty of them seriously with concussion, eye injuries, and broken noses, jaws, and cervical vertebrae. One police group from Lower Saxony came out of a helicopter with drawn knives, and dozens of tyres of tractors whose owners had wedged them together to block a road were stabbed and punctured.
The nuclear programme of the German government only appears to work if it is backed by "military" force. The Social Democratic government of Lower Saxony has not protested against the demands by the federal government, although it would have good reasons for doing so. For example, the constitutional argument that such a "Castor-Transport" is in the end only enforceable with disproportionate means and disproportionate use of police violence. This, however, violates the principle that the means have to be proportional to the objectives (Verhältnismäßigkeit) which is laid down in the German constitution. A "nuclear state", predicted Robert Jungk 15 years ago, in the end to leads to a "police state" since governments believe the security of society cannot otherwise be guaranteed.
The secret service's Gorleben dossier
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) was active in Wendland in the run-up to the transportation of the nuclear waste by checking out the local anti-nuclear movement. At the end of last year, the secret service launched a confidential dossier entitled "Left- extreme/militant efforts in the framework of the anti-Castor campaign". The tenor of the 30-page long dossier is that whoever opposes the transport is a violent and a dangerous criminal. Activities of civil disobedience, for example sit-ins, are mixed up with criminal offences and are labelled as "left-extreme militant". Whoever talks about the fight against the nuclear state is termed as "left-extremist". The "tactical objective of the anti-nuclear protestors" to force up the costs is highlighted as a warning - this constitutes "coercion" of the responsible decision makers in politics and economy.
The treatment of groups which allegedly "practice, propagate or tolerate violence" is covered extensively in the report. These groups include "autonomous", "anarchist" and "revolutionary-marxist" groups but also the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and citizen initiatives in the Wendland. Even the "Federation of non-violent action groups" and other non-violent associations are regarded by the BfV as militant. The most sensitive passages of the report deal with so-called "Szeneobjekten in the Wendland" -flat-sharing communities, associations, community centres - including photos, addresses, structural characteristics and activities. In personal dossiers, data on occupants and<