The New West German Peace Movement: Male Dominance or Feminist Nonviolence

Abstract

Richard L. Johnson The New West German Peace Movement ; Male Dominance or Feminist Nonviolence The NATO decision of 12 December 1979 to station 572 medium range nuclear missiles in Western Europe by 1983-84 would be, if implemented, a major step toward the destruction of Europe. This "Nach"rüstungsbeschluss , an alleged catching up with the Russians in response to their stationing of SS-20 missiles, is in fact much more than that. The missiles to be stationed, the American Pershing II and cruise missiles, far outstrip any Soviet weapons in technical sophistication. Pershing II missiles, for example , can travel 1,800 kilometers with an impact accuracy of 30 meters. Although it is true, I believe, that all nuclear missiles are essentially instruments of aggression, not "defense," these new American missiles are among the most obvious examples of attack weapons, whose primary purpose would be to destroy "enemy" missiles before they are launched. The crucial alteration in the balance of terror they provide is clear: for the first time, NATO would have a first strike capacity against the USSR from Europe, primarily the Federal Republic of Germany. Our major hope for survival is strong national peace movements in NATO and Warsaw Pact countries and international cooperation between them. The new West German peace movement has grown enormously since the NATO "Nach"rüstungsbeschluss. The Krefelder Appell, which calls for a West German decision not to station the Pershing II and cruise missiles, was signed by over 2,500,000 citizens in the FRG by the spring of 1982. The iarge demonstrations in Bonn, thousands of local peace actions and dozens of acts of civil disobedience at military installations are but the most obvious examples of a growing consensus among West Germans that in a nation which already has the highest concentration of atomic warheads in the world, the stationing of even more would be insane . The Reagan administration scenarios of "flexible response" and "limited nuclear war" in Europe, which have been reported much more extensively in the European press than in the United States, have brought the realization to millions of West Germans 135 that high level American officials are actively considering a nuclear holocaust which would destroy Europe forever. All of Europe would be one vast Auschwitz . 1 And yet, precisely at the time when the peace movement is becoming the most potent extra-parliamentary force in the FRG, the victory in March of the CDU/CSU and their coalition partner, the FDP, confirms the power of Helmut Kohl, Reagan's staunchest supporter in Europe. Given the presence of a pronuclear coalition in Bonn, it seems to me that the peace movement must develop two parallel long-term strategies, whether the Pershing II and cruise missiles are stationed or not: an enormous and growing autonomous peace movement and the development of a parliamentary component of that movement. Even though Kohl is as insulated from the peace movement as any political leader could be at present, he is pursuing American and Russian peace talks in large measure because he realizes that stationing the new American missiles would probably cause the largest scale civil disobedience ever in the FRG.3 Now that the Greens have cleared the five percent hurdle in the Bundestag, they will provide a radical presence for peace that cannot be ignored. I also believe that the greater the strength of a Basisbewegung for peace, the greater the chance that the SPD will oppose the stationing of the missiles. This twin strategy of a mounting extraparliamentary pressure for peace and a coordinated parliamentary initiative requires a unity, and an openness to diversity, not yet attained in the West German peace movement. It is the central thesis of this paper that greater unity is only possible with a major shift in the peace movement from its present male dominance toward feminist nonviolence. At present , most male leaders of the peace movement are caught in a horrendous ideological double-think: they are publicly opposed to militarism, which at its core is the most extreme form of patriarchal dominance, but they themselves reinforce patriarchal ideology in the movement by excluding women from positions of power and by a nearly total Totschweigen...