Seabrook Protest -- A Victory of Sorts

The fence surrounding Seabrook's one-fifth complete nuclear power plant is intact, construction has begun again, and almost all the protesters have gone home.

But the battle of Seabrook, lost on one tactical front, may have been won on another.

Leisure Time

Demonstrators showed up with one goal in mind--to take over the construction site and halt work on the reactor. But while they didn't occupy the plant, they did occupy the attention of the nation's television viewers and newspaper readers for a few short minutes.

Of Mace and Men

In those few minutes, condensed out of a weekend's worth of meetings and marches, T.V. viewers saw policemen use mace and clubs and dogs and firehoses to disperse protesters, so much violence that many of the demonstrators claimed a moral victory.

"People are going to watch those cops and they're going to get a real good idea of what went on--it can't help but get us sympathy," one protester said as she left Seabrook Monday.

Federal District court judges will hear several suits alleging police brutality--one filed by a group of Harvard students--during the next few weeks. Those suits may also spotlight police tactics during the weekend. "The more times the T.V. shows that film, the better for us," another protester said.

New Hampshire authorities defended the actions of the state troopers and national guard. Police were placed in "difficult, trying, and sometimes even dangerous situations," N.H. Gov. Hugh Gallen said Monday. Other state officials, including Attorney General Thomas Rath, were on hand to watch the police disperse crowds.

More than the feared police, many of the demonstrators however, even worried that their "direct action" tactics might split the growing anti-nuclear movement.

Many of those worries seem to have been quieted, though, despite a noticeable lack of support from movement celebrities. Demonstrators stayed steadfastly nonviolent, and the police response shocked many of the original opponents of the action. Several members of the Coalition for Non-Violence at Seabrook, originally set up to oppose the occupiers tactics, carried their sleeping bags to the demonstrators' camp Saturday night after watching the evening news.

A few "affinity groups" announced they would stay the winter in Seabrook, harassing authorities with repeated forays against the fence.

Others promised to be back in early May for another try at taking over the plant.

"We know the terrain now, and we know exactly what to expect from the police. It could be a different ending in the spring," one affinity group leader declared.