Living in the COVID World ... and Beyond #32: A Lesson in Civil Disobedience and Organizational Behavior

“Give me an example of an effective organization?”   I still remember interviewers asking me a question like that when I interviewed for jobs at various levels at GE and then at IBM.  And it always pleased me when I could tell the story of what I learned through my participation in Clamshell Alliance.

I’ll get to the learning in a moment.  First, what is Clamshell Alliance?   Clamshell Alliance is an organization that was founded in the mid-1970’s dedicated solely to trying to prevent the construction of a nuclear power plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire.   Put aside whatever thoughts you have about nuclear power.  And I understand that nuclear is again a lively debate in the discussion of how to reduce our dependence on the fossil fuels that are causing the climate crisis.   I want to focus on the lessons I learned in the Clamshell Alliance about how to organize and lead a large group of people towards a common goal.

OK, so how was Clamshell Alliance organized?   It was highly grassroots-oriented.   People that were interested in participating were encouraged to form “affinity groups” of about 10 people.   This is how I initially got involved.   One of my best friends and I, we were going to graduate school together, pulled together a bunch of our best friends into an affinity group.   We got trained (Thank you Rick G) about how to participate in non-violent civil disobedience.   We met together a number of times, building our relationships with each other and discussing strategy and plans for the upcoming large group action at the site of the proposed nuclear power plant.  

Affinity groups were organized into clusters – 10 affinity groups in a cluster so that a cluster had approximately 100 people.

Separate from this decentralized organization, there was an overall organizing committee that met regularly to develop the plan for the actions that would take place over the course of a weekend at Seabrook.   Given the times, there was a strong suspicion that there were police informants participating in the organizing committee (the meetings, as I recall, were open to anyone to attend).  Plans were formulated … but remained tentative and to be finalized once we had arrived at our campsite near the location of the under-construction nuclear power plant.    

I was chosen to be the leader of my affinity group, and then to be the leader of the cluster, and I attended many of the meetings of the organizing committee.

About 2500 people arrived at the campsite in the evening to participate in an action the next day to protest the construction of the nuclear power plant.   The organizing committee members, including the leader of each cluster, were called into a meeting that started after dinner and continued until daybreak.  Yes, you read that right … we stayed up all night finalizing the plans for the actions the next day.   And then in the morning, we went back to our clusters and then to our affinity groups to deploy the plans.    Why did we finalize the plans so late?   There was a concern about police informants, and we decided that we did not want to tip off anyone outside of our group in advance of the actual action.

My cluster was deployed with another cluster to a side road leading into the power plant.  Our group of approximately 200 people had all agreed that we wanted to do passive civil disobedience.   We sat in rows on the road, maybe 6 or 7 across and 30 rows deep.   And we sang songs that I barely remember like: “No nukes, no nukes, no radioactive waste in my soup s’il vouz plait, I’d rather eat ice cream and cheese.”   It was a pleasant day in late May in New England, and we were outside, sitting with friends, and having a good time. 

We were having a fine time until a yellow school bus arrived and out of it filed helmeted and armed National Guardsmen.   Their leader, through a loudspeaker, ordered us to disperse.   And we kept on singing.   We were thinking: “What are they going to do?  We are just passively sitting here on this road.   We are not really causing any difficulty.”   And again, we were ordered to disperse and told that if we did not, we would be arrested.   My affinity group was sitting in the 3rd and 4th rows, locked arm in arm.   And then the National Guardsmen started marching towards us and swinging their clubs.   We could hear the sounds of crunch as their clubs hit our friends sitting in the front row.

Within my affinity group, we had established a policy that we were only as strong as our weakest link, and that meant that if any one of us wanted to leave, then we would all leave.    One of our group members spoke up and said let’s go.  (5+ years later I married that smart person, but that is a whole other story).   So, we got up and we started running, and the National Guard started chasing us.   We were faster and the adrenalin rush carried us safely away.

Why did the National Guard respond to our passive civil disobedience which such violence?  

Maybe I should have known.  Other clusters, a much larger group of protesters, had decided to do active civil disobedience at the main road to the plant.  I’m not sure if I knew all the details in advance but I knew they planned to scale fences to get into the grounds, that they would try to damage property, and that they even had a jackhammer that they were using on the main road that would make it impassable for heavy trucks.   What I had not anticipated was that the National Guard on our side road would be receiving live communication (this is long before cellphones!) from the Guardsmen at the main road.  

The National Guard at the side road was mad … not at us, but at what was having on the main road … and they reacted by treating us way more violently than called for given the situation immediately in front of them.

What did I learn?  

I loved the way that we were organized – in groups of 10 and groups of 100.   This allowed us to be tightly connected with each other, so that we were in it together.   It allowed a clear path for communication, both “up” to the organizing committee and “down” to the affinity groups.   It was a highly effective organization structure.

I learned about different forms of civil disobedience and how one can inadvertently face the consequences of actions taken by others.

There was a tremendous sense of power that we felt singing on the side road 40+ years ago.   I felt like I was making a difference.  

And the nuclear power plant was built and is still operating today.  

I am reflecting on all of this now because that protest was in late May (as it is now).   And, as you all know, I am very concerned about the climate crisis that the planet is currently experiencing.   What are the best actions to make one’s views known?   What can actually make a difference?   What gives one a sense of agency or power that one can impact positive change?