The Incomplete Turn to Human Rights Dissidence

Abstract

Situated at the boundary between East and West, East German opposition politics was always exposed to conflicting, if not contradictory, influences. The peace movement of the early 1980s obviously followed the Western model of new social movements and its system-indifferent emphasis on “global” and “survival” problems. In the mid-1980s, however, East German opposition politics became more receptive to the Eastern model of human rights dissidence. After their failure to prevent a new round of nuclear rearmament in 1983/4 and in light of the obvious unwillingness of the party state to enter into a “dialogue” with its opposition, East German peace activists looked for new modes and fields of activity. The turn to the East became especially attractive with Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika. This allowed the opposition to confront the regime with a new and unexpected round of claims that the previous “peace first” rhetoric was ineffective to contain.