Social control and environmental degradation by the military : the case of Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Social movement analysts often assume that the aggrieved are cognizant of injustices. But recently analysts have documented cases of community contamination by corporate production activities in which the aggrieved remain unaware of their victimization. But what about communities contaminated by state sponsored production activities such as weapons production? Is the real obstacle to mobilization social control through economic and cultural oppression of the citizenry by those in power.

I use case study techniques to analyze the social control efforts by the state to repress mobilization in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a nuclear weapons production site constructed as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II. Today the Oak Ridge Reservation is one of 17 federal sites involved in weapons production. About 680,000 people live within a 50-mile radius of the 37,000 acre site. Various kinds of contamination have been attributed to production at Oak Ridge facilities.

In 1992 a citizens group formed, which operates under great secrecy, not even acknowledging members' names except for the elected officers. I discuss the social control efforts that impeded mobilization until 1992 and which plague activists yet today.