Activists: At Times, They are A-Changin’
A few weeks ago, former peace protesters of the old Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant outside Denver gathered for a 30-year reunion of their first demonstration at the now-demolished site.
For 10 years following that first protest, anti-nuke activists held vigils, fasts, and other protests outside the facility’s secured, barbed-wire fence. But when the U.S. announced reductions in its nuclear arsenal in 1988, ending Rocky Flats’ mission, the moment was bittersweet. The activists’ goal of halting weapons production at the site had been achieved – but the issue that had been their cause was dead.
Ultimately, the goal of any public interest campaign is to put itself out of business. An interest group can then close up shop or move on to new ventures. Unfortunately for many institutions and corporations, these groups often opt for the latter.
Remember those peace activists outside Rocky Flats? They miraculously transformed themselves into environmentalists, who for the next 10 years railed against the plutonium and chemical contamination that remained at the site.
Corporations must devise agile and flexible communications strategies that take the opposition’s malleability into account and anticipate the next attack. It may be a new headline-grabbing cause célèbre, but it very well may be the same old activists.
