Source: The High North publication, "The International Harpoon," July 3, 2000, published during the 52nd Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission held in Australia

Greenpeace is not just about confrontation; dialogue is also part of its repertoire. Or so it claimed to the Norwegian press last year on launching a letter-writing campaign aimed at promoting an exchange of views on whaling between its German members and Norwegian citizens.

The High North Alliance welcomed the initiative. “We sent a letter outlining our position and asked for a clarification of the Greenpeace position,” recalls Alliance secretary Rune Frøvik. “We also asked Greenpeace to do like us, and open up their web site for the exchange of views. We never received an answer.”

The letter-writing campaign was organised by Greenpeace Ger-many as follows. A standard letter, written by Greenpeace and pre-addressed to a Norwegian citizen, would be sent to a Ger-man member of the organisation. All the member had to do was “write” his or her signature on the bottom, and drop the letter off at the post office.

One of the arguments shared by every one of the Germans who wrote was that “commercial whaling is against international treaties” and “that all countries should stand by international treaties”. Even though Norway is not formally bound by the IWC moratorium, it is clearly “violating the spirit” of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, claimed all the letter writers.

Believing that a dialogue was now under way, the High North Alliance wrote back to Green-peace, pointing out that “the spirit of the Whaling Convention is clearly to make commercial whaling sustainable, not to for-bid it as a matter of principle.”

The Alliance also refreshed Greenpeace’s memory on statements it had made advocating a whaling ban on the grounds of whale rights, and reminded it that it also does not accept commercial utilisation of other popular species such as seals and kangaroos. “We have repeatedly made inquiries with Greenpeace as to whether the organisation has altered its position and can now accept the commercial utilisation of the abundant stocks of kangaroos and seals, but have so far not received any other reply than ‘we do not have an active campaign’.”

“It is important to have answers to these questions if we are to understand the more general principles behind the Greenpeace standpoint on whaling,” says Frøvik to the Harpoon. “It is not possible to have a meaningful debate without being familiar with each other’s values and priorities.”

Both the Greenpeace letter and the response were posted on the High North Alliance website, and a discussion site was set up in eager anticipation of the forth-coming “dialogue”. “We asked Greenpeace to do the same,” recalls Frøvik. “But our earlier experience was repeated. No reply.”

The Greenpeace letter to Norwegian citizens can be found at:

http://www.highnorth.no/Li-brary/Movements/Greenpeace/gp-no-le.htm

And the High North response at: 

http://www.highnorth.no/Library/Movements/Greenpeace/response.htm

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