Sat 30 November 2002
Thessalonica, GREECE

Street activists

They are a loose, highly mobile team. Always scouting, evaluating the possibilities of a site, never missing a chance -- carrying out hundreds of actions simultaneously around the world, setting up operations from city to city.

They are our urban activists, better known as "dialoguers". The Direct Dialogue Campaign, as its name suggests, is a direct way of opening up a dialogue with the public, helping them to understand Greenpeace and why they may consider lending their support to our work. Greenpeace's work relies the contributions of 2.8 million concerned individuals. In order to maintain our independence, we have never accepted money from corporations or governments.

And that makes it necessary to approach people, one by one, asking them to fund our campaigns, keep our ships sailing, our offices operating and our activists trained and equipped. It's not an easy task, talking to strangers on the street and asking them to sign up and give you their money. It means sometimes facing indifference, or downright hostility and verbal abuse from those who disagree with us, but also warmth and appreciation from people who believe in what we do.

Four dialoguers from the Mediterranean share some of their experiences. Anita, Chiara and Alessio, from Rome, came on board the MV Esperanza and worked with us during the Italian leg of the Toxics-Free tour. Thetis lives in Thessalonica and worked as a dialoguer earlier this year.

Anita

Setting out from Rome early evening we hit the worst of the Rome-Naples traffic. The usual 2 hour journey took us 6 so that we arrived just after midnight. Our 2-van convoy was met in Naples by 2 local activists on a scooter. We followed them with difficulty as they sped along the winding cobbled streets of the old city centre until finally and with some relief we arrived at an activist's house. Warm welcome would not do justice to the incredible hospitality we received. After heaps of pasta al forno and red wine we all bedded down on the floor looking forward to meeting up with the ship in the morning.

Hoping to arrive before the ship docked we were up and out early, seven "tartaruge"(or "turtles" as Italians call backpackers ) ambling along bleary eyed dodging the roadsweepers and baggy knickers hanging overhead on washing lines. Arriving at the port we felt a sense of excitement building as we saw the brightly painted rainbow and whale on the portside of the ship that immediately identified L'Esperanza coming into dock.

Faces known and unknown greeted us with big smiles and there were lots of hello's and hugs as activists arrived from all over Italy. After a brief look around the ship we set up an info stand and started organising tours of the ship for when it opened to the public. The activists working for "direct dialogue" had a meeting to brush up on their knowledge of the ship, info on Bhopal and of the med campaign against incinerators, ready to inform the public and get them to support our work. Normally we go out on the street asking people to give to us as Greenpeace relies on individual donations from normal folk to keep it's work going, whereas here people were coming to us-a dream!! It's a completely different experience talking with people and having the ship in the background and various people involved in the campaign being present. Also talking about incinerators and chemical plants becomes more tangible and meaningful after having seen photographic evidence of just what can go wrong as with the Bhopal story exhibited on board.

Chiara

After a long day of work we left the dock...how exciting!! Being on board of one of Greenpeace's ships...it is something I had never thought would happen.... instead here I am ....I give a hand to remove the gangplank....and off we go leaving behind Vesuvio and the city's lights. The experience on board has been special: the crew comes from many different countries, every body sharing the same objective. During the day everyone is busy working and we are glad to have the opportunity to get stuck in with cleaning, general repairs and taking turns on night watches.

While sailing towards Catania, after a spectacular sunset, we had the amazing luck to see a minke whale and some dolphins come along side us, jumping and playing for some unforgettable moments. In the background against the dark night sky we watched the bright red eruptions of Mount Etna.

Alessio

It's great being here on the Esperanza to work on the Direct Dialogue programme. I've been an environmental activist for many years. Though initially I didn't work with Greenpeace I'd wanted to get involved with them for a long time. My first contact was with "direct dialogue" in Rome. Though at first sight it seemed like an easy job, it's a real challenge standing on the street getting people to stop, listen and understand that their contribution is vital to the ongoing work of Greenpeace. I'm still working with direct dialogue and I'm also involved in many other aspects of Greenpeace's work. Being on the ship amongst other activists from all over the world for a week has been an inspiring experience. It has motivated me even more to get back to work, talking to people on the street and helping them understand the importance of what we do.

Thetis

I was a Greenpeace contributor since the beginning of the office in Greece. Since I was young I wanted to do something more active in the organisation, but I hadn't given it much thought. So, when I saw the ad in the newspaper about Direct Dialogue, I called them immediately and asked to participate in the program.

At first it was very difficult to stop people on the street. Some of them shouted at us, some of them were flirting with us, because we were two girls. Some people didn't want to hear anything about protecting the environment. One day two elderly women were laughing at us, and one told me, "I'm not interested in Greenpeace, I like to eat genetically modified potatoes, and I think they taste very good!"

Only a few people seemed to be really interested. But as the days passed, people knew more about us and they started coming to us and asking the questions themselves. One day I approached a very nice, middle-aged man, he looked like a baby, and he stopped immediately, he listened to me very carefully and he agreed to contribute to Greenpeace. As I wrote down his name, it seemed familiar. As we talked, I discovered that he was an old friend of my father who knew me since I was five years old!

What I like best about it is the teamwork. I believe it was a very good first step closer to the organisation, that until then I knew only from being a contributor. I like the people I was working with, as well as the people from the office, and I think I would like to do something more active in the future.

Greek corporation forced to stop dumping at sea

Wed 20 November 2002, Larymna, GREECE

The issue was industrial dumping at sea. The oceans are many times seen either as eternal sources of fish or as bottomless sinks for discharging human and industrial wastes. The Mediterranean Sea is particularly sensitive to pollution, as it is mostly closed and takes some 80 years to renew itself.. More