A BRIEF HISTORY OF LONDON GREENPEACE The name Greenpeace was used in Britain at least as early as 1971. It appeared in print as the title of a broadsheet published as a supplement in Peace News in 1971. The broadsheet was a compilation of ideas about how individuals could take action in their own lives to preserve the ecosystem. In 1972 "Greenpeace" was used as the name for a coalition of individuals and groups in Britain campaigning against French nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific. At the same time there were other Greenpeace groups both in Britain and in some other countries: the different groups were in touch with one another as an informal network of autonomous groups, in particular around the issue of nuclear testing. The London group, usually known as Greenpeace (London), continued to be in touch with other such groups around the world. In 1977, the biggest of the Greenpeace organisations outside Britain - the Vancouver Greenpeace Foundation in Canada - formalised its links with some of the other Greenpeace organisations around the world, seeing itself as the "lead" group. Shortly before this, in late 1976, members of that organisation came to London and met people from Greenpeace (London). The Vancouver people wanted the London group to "take its orders from" the Board of Directors in Vancouver, but were told that the London group had never had that kind of relationship with other Greenpeace Groups. (The relationship with groups like the Vancouver one had often been close, but never based on any sort of hierarchy.) Subsequently, a letter from Vancouver explicitly recognised the autonomy of the existing London group. Activists in London - including the people who had come from Canada - who DID want to be under the control of the Vancouver Foundation, formed a London Branch of the Vancouver Foundation, which then formed a limited company and became known as Greenpeace Ltd or Greenpeace UK. Since 1977, Greenpeace (London) and Greenpeace Ltd have been quite separate organisations, working on different campaigns - though of course their separate campaigns have had some issues in common, such as anti-nuclear work. The original London Greenpeace Group has deliberately stayed as a small group of activists, without leaders, with decisions taken by consensus of all those involved, and has always encouraged people in other areas to set up their own active groups rather than "joining" London Greenpeace. Greenpeace Ltd, on the other hand, has done exactly the opposite, and has grown large in resources but with absolutely no democratic - let alone libertarian - aspect to its work. For example, although you can give money to them, you can't join the organisation in the sense of having any say whatsoever in what the organisation does. "THE LONDON GREENPEACE GROUP has existed for many years as an independent group of activists with no involvement in any particular political party. The people -not "members"- who come to the weekly open meetings share a concern for the oppression in our lives and the destruction of our environment. Many opposition movements are growing in strength -ecological, anti-war, animal liberation, and anarchist-libertarian movements- and continually learning from each other. We encourage people to think and act independently, without leaders, to try to understand the causes of opression and to aim for its abolition through social revolution. This begins in our own lives now."