The following was posted two days ago at the anti-nuclear "abolition-caucus" forum:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/abolition-caucus/message/31949On 23rd December the German affiliate of IPPNW announced that next April they plan to hold an international congress in Berlin entitled: "Time Bomb Nuclear Power: 25 years after Chernobyl". The Greek anti-nuclear movement has every reason to wish to support this congress and the related international campaign. However, in the same newsletter the German IPPNW leadership also announced: " The latest good news are that a new affiliate has been founded in Macedonia and there are promising activities concerning the re-establishing of the Polish and Serbian IPPNW affiliates." This is indeed good news, except that the German regional vice-president of IPPNW Dr. Lars Pohlmeier chose to describe Greece's northern neighbouring state as "Macedonia", in this way provoking both the Greek government and a large majority of the Greek population, including huge numbers of opponents of nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
A campaign should start in Greece to oblige Dr. Pohlmeier, and indeed all of IPPNW, until such times as the Greek government and the government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonian (FYROM) have reached agreement on a mutually acceptable name for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to employ the internationally accepted provisional name of FYROM when referring to the country in question.
Another point: it has been the custom in recent years for the anti-nuclear movement to align with one of the sides in the mainstream debate over climate change between anthropogenic climate change sceptics and their activist opponents. For example, last summer an anti-nuclear festival at Rhodes in Greece featured a "Dance for Climate". That is just one example. Dozens of others could be given.
There is no reason whatsoever to link these issues, particularly in the light of their malicious linkage by supporters of nuclear power, and no reason whatsoever to exclude anthropogenic climate change sceptics from involvement in anti-nuclear-weapons and/or anti-nuclear power action.
