Nuclear: more than ever fight against!

To live the present by thinking the future is not to anticipate the catastrophe in an apathy that would liquefy us as a social subject, provoking either the denial of what we know, or the avoidance of what we do not want to know. On the contrary, anticipating means taking a clear look at what we are doing now in order to change it and not end up with what we want to avoid: a major catastrophe. 

However, there is nothing in the everyday context of nuclear power that would help us think this way and help us to link theory to practice: the media and governments appease and misinform us. The incompetence of elected officials makes them servants of the nuclear industry and faithful relays of the official propaganda. The content of the parliamentary discussions and the shameless lies of Minister Marghem prove this more than anything else (page 10), the media relay of Japanese propaganda by the dominant media no less (page 15). 

They don’t know what’s going on« They don’t know, or don’t want to know, because the censorship and political omerta measures indicate that they sense that access to the truth could change the situation (page 16). Who do they work for? Not for the people, that seems obvious. 

Civilian nuclear power is without doubt the worst technical application that Man has made, after the atomic bomb, which are intimately linked. While the dismantling of the power plants will not be possible (page 12), but this truth is not told as it would lead to a brutal stop of the construction of any new reactor, public and citizens’ debates should take place throughout the country, leading to collective decisions (in the form of a referendum of popular initiative) of an informed population this time. This is a major issue. It sounds big, sometimes prophetic, but more than ever we became aware while making this double dossier that the anti-nuclear struggle was one of the places where the future of the species was at stake. 

The communicators⁽¹⁾ being everywhere and repeating over and over again inane phrases like « even if every 20 years a similar accident occurs, nuclear power will always avoid more risks than it creates »⁽²⁾, the solution will not come from above ». This is not a sign of defeatism, if not of lucidity. 

Nothing was more urgent than to recall the state of the nuclear complex. What will it take to avoid another « Fukushima »? And that we, citizens, move; that we go to other sources of information. 

We do not see any other way out, except that we will not be able to do anything else. Because it will be too late. This double file was therefore not too much. 

File coordinated by
Nicolas Bras and Alexandre Penasse

* Continuation of the September-October issue