Among the best-known of the younger leaders of the Russian environmental movement, SERGEI FOMICHOV is co-president of the League of Green Parties and of the radical environmental group, the Rainbow Keepers. He was interviewed in Moscow by 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly correspondent RENFREY CLARKE.
How did the Green movement arise here?
The movement originated in 1988, as a small initiative of people from various cities of Russia, the Ukraine and other republics. At that stage it was known as the Movement for the Founding of a Party of Greens. As our model we took the Green Party in Germany — not just its environmental positions, but its political ones as well.
As time went on, our movement gradually became broader, and at a conference in 1990 we formed the Party of Greens. At the second congress, in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in 1991, a split took place, and this resulted in the setting up of the League of Green Parties. This united a number of small regional parties. The league is still in existence, and about 20 parties belong to it.
The parties that make up the league don't have a uniform orientation toward other political forces. Every local party tries to find people it can work with. The Chelyabinsk Party of Greens collaborates with Democratic Russia, while the groups from Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod work with anarchists and socialists.
What does the practical activity of the Green parties consist of?
As an organisation, the League of Green Parties doesn't take part in elections. There have been individual members of the Green movement who've become deputies to the Russian parliament, but they haven't established a parliamentary fraction.
The main thrust of our work has been protest action against polluters. We've conducted a number of major campaigns. In the city of Chapayevsk in 1989 we mounted an action against a plant designed to deactivate chemical weapons. This had been built within the city boundaries, along with other dangerous plants, but hadn't yet been started up.
The labour movement supported us. There were 7000 people in a tent encampment we organised. The workers set up environmental strike committees, and the government decided not to put the plant into operation.
In Zaporozhye in the Ukraine we campaigned against a coke and chemical plant, and in particular, against a number of especially harmful 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ within it. This action was organised mainly by anarchists, together with the Rainbow Keepers. This time the local population wasn't as heavily involved as in Chapayevsk.
The city authorities promised to take various steps, but failed to eople then occupied the administrative offices. The police arrested 20 of them, and the rest then declared a hunger strike. After this the people who had been arrested were released, and the 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ were shut down.
In Lipetsk we campaigned against plans for a joint Soviet-Swedish plant. It was going to be built in a dangerous location, and to use outdated technology. The action lasted two months, and as a result the plant was moved to a different site and the plans for several 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ of it were cancelled.
What has the movement against nuclear power amounted to here?
There have been various attempts to mount actions against nuclear power plants, but they haven't always been successful. In Saratov, for example, a group of anarchists together with the Rainbow Keepers protested against the starting up of the fourth, fifth and sixth reactor blocks at the Balakovo nuclear power plant. In Nizhny Novgorod there was a campaign against a nuclear heating plant. But protests against the Leningrad nuclear power plant didn't have any effect at all.
How are you going about developing the activism and raising the consciousness of members of the movement?
We're publishing the magazine Third Path, which is aimed at activists of the Green movement. In the magazine we describe the experience of the German Greens, and of the radical Green movement in Russia and internationally. We're now trying to establish an Institute of Social Ecology through which we can organise educational seminars, conduct conferences and study the history of the Green movement.
What's been the impact on the movement of the economic situation in Russia?
It's having a bad effect. The economic problems will result in Soviet plants being shut down, but polluting Western technologies will be introduced to take their place. It's the same as with the countries of the Third World — they'll try to export their pollution to us. If our economy is now going to be oriented to making profits, the people who run it will set out to make profits at any price, including accepting industrial wastes from other countries.
The difficult economic situation is reducing the level of popular activism. The authorities are turning people against the Greens, claiming that it's environmentalists who are responsible for factories closing down. In Khabarovsk province everyone was at first opposed to a nuclear power plant, but after a rise in fuel prices the mood changed. In circumstances like this it's hard to motivate people.
How is the environmental movement going to survive?
Some organisations are looking for help from Greens in the West, others are collaborating with the government and still others with private firms. A few groups are existing on enthusiasm alone, without not growing.