Ideology, interest-group formation, and protest: the case of the anti-nuclear power movement, the Clamshell Alliance, and the New Left

The thesis analyzes the development of the Clamshell Alliance, the first and most successful anti-nuclear power protest group. The key question the dissertation asks is how did this organization stage such popular and well-attended protests during a period when leftist political activity seemed to have died out, and little mass protest was taking place. The thesis also explores why the Clamshell Alliance disintegrated at the same time as the anti-nuclear power movement's cause was gaining public acceptance in the wake of the Three Mile Island power-plant accident. The thesis finds that the principal resources the Clamshell drew upon to solve the problems of organizational formation were the activists, organizations, and ideology of the surviving New Left. The dissertation studies the struggles of the Clamshell Alliance as an example of the recurrent problems of leftist political activism in the U.S. It is concluded that only under special conditions can protest outside of regular political channels be both popular and effective. It is also proved that a larger organizational and ideological legacy of the sixties remains than is generally recongnized. Leftist beliefs continued to have adherents even after the protests stopped. Further, many individuals who came to political maturity after the sixties also were found to hold leftist beliefs. However, the political potential of this group can only be realized when an organization temporarily overcomes the barriers to mass leftist political action by developing an issue and a set of tactics that can appeal to leftists and nonleftists alike. Between such special acts of innovation the Left remains a political undercurrent outside of mainstream politics and without a means of effective influence because of its unwillingness to engage in conventional politics