An Ex-Greenpeacer Examines the Melchett Affair

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A longtime Greenpeace activist sent the following comments to PR Watch: "The Lord Melchetts of the activist (and now corporate) world are only one symptom of a broader contagion. Is there even a real environmental movement anymore? How accountable are NGOs to their own base? ... Look how little is being accomplished in addressing Global Warming in the U.S. at a time when it's obviously a national security issue and a global security issue. I think this is in part because the environmental groups don't believe in mass movement building like they used to. Most of us are treated like consumer and spectator activists -- expected to pay our membership dues and trust that full-time salaried activists will solve the issue -- without expecting to get involved ourselves. How easy it is to confuse salaried NGO actors with real movement leaders. And when they leave to work for corporations, if they haven't built a base that can carry on the radical push for change, how weak the organizations become that they leave behind. But alas, Lord Melchett hasn't even fully left Greenpeace: Should Greenpeace International allow an employee of Burson Marsteller on their board?" The Melchett affair is receiving major media coverage in Britain from The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, on the BBC and elsewhere.