Greenpeace at war over strategy and cutbacks

GREENPEACE is being shaken by internal feuding over redundancies, budget cuts and changes in strategy. The global headquarters of the world's best-known environmental organisation is cutting its international budget by 10 per cent and making nearly 100 of its 1,000 staff redundant.

Managers at the Amsterdam headquarters believe too much is being spent on campaigners' salaries and too little on actions and propaganda that grab headlines and shape public opinion.

There is also a row over whether Greenpeace International should dip into its dollars 57m ( pounds 38m) cash reserve to maintain spending, or make harsh cuts to live within its means after a fall in donations from supporters.

Campaigners protesting about the restructuring to Greenpeace International's board and council have been told to stop or face the sack. The struggles, including one over the organisation's basic strategy, are intensifying in the run-up to the council's annual meeting in Tunisia at the end of next week.

Peter Melchett, the executive director of Greenpeace UK, said the international organisation must change. Rather than just sabotaging and protesting about environmental wrong-doings, it had to present solutions to industry and government. 'It's still confrontational, we have to push solutions up their noses,' he said.

Greenpeace International cut staff in 1992 and has halved its fleet of ships. But donations to Greenpeace UK have not been badly affected by the recession.

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