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Peace movement held back by pro-nuke philanthropists

Anti-Nuclear Philanthropy And The US Peace Movement
by Michael Barker
(Swans commentary – September 21, 2009) Nuclear technology presents two clear threats to any emerging form of participatory democracy. Firstly, its destructive capacity threatens all forms of life, now and for millions of years to come; and secondly, its continued use institutionalizes hierarchical technologies of domestic energy production. Neither of these issues is usually challenged by activists intent on moving our societies away from the hands of the insatiable power-hungry elites that profit from the military-industrial complex and its associated energy oligarchies. Yet despite the world’s citizenry having fought valiant and often successful battles against such powerful adversaries, nuclear power still maintains a tight grip over the reins of our political systems.

This article will argue that part of the reason for the persistence of this dangerous state of affairs owes much to the fact that integral parts of the US peace movement have been financed by elitist liberal philanthropists who have little to gain but much to fear from the movement’s success. Thus by a process known as philanthropic colonization, liberal elites have manipulated, but not necessarily controlled, critical parts of the peace movement to ensure that public resistance to nuclear power is constrained within the strict limits of what Sheldon Wolin calls “Democracy Incorporated.”

A major reason why the problem of nuclear philanthropy is not regularly addressed by peace activists is that nearly all the books documenting the history of the peace movement have failed to discuss the insidious influence of liberal foundations. One book that stands out as an exception is Frances McCrea and Gerald Markle’s Minutes to Midnight: Nuclear Weapons Protest in America (Sage, 1989); but problematically little attention has been paid to McCrea and Markle’s groundbreaking analyses. This means that few antiwar and anti-nuclear activists have at their fingertips the type of information that will enable them to undertake actions that will seriously threaten the nuclear establishment. This article seeks to address this important issue by summarizing and updating McCrea and Markle’s account of the co-option of the U.S. peace movement by liberal philanthropists; thereby demonstrating the tight hold that elite, ostensibly progressive, funders currently wield over leading members of the anti-nuclear movement.

Swans Commentary: Anti-Nuclear Philanthropy And The US Peace Movement, by Michael Barker – barker31

September 21, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy