ABSTRACT
This chapter describes four activist groups: The Arizona Council for Economic Conversion (ACEC); Maine Economic Conversion Project (MECP); St. Louis Economic Conversion Project (SLECP); and San Diego Economic Conversion Council (SDECC). These groups are led by women. They toiled in different defense-dependent environments but shared common experiences. The activist groups described arrived at a different mechanism to achieve their common goal of defense conversion: hands-on help to small defense firms in Arizona; preparing the ground for new state institutions in Maine; community-based industrial policy in St. Louis, and town meetings in San Diego. The women leaders faced some common threads. First, a tiny handful of well-organized citizens succeeded in putting together unlikely coalitions and moving their communities in new directions. Second, local resistance to change and distrust of other groups weakened the efforts to overcome defense dependence. Third, without a modest infusion of federal dollars, the success of these grassroots campaigns would be problematical.
