Pax Americana

198 Sundays: Strike While The Iron's Hot

E forwarded me this link:

In case you missed it, my 850 Portland-area union brothers and sisters in the ILWU honored our troops by refusing to work for 8 hours on May 1 and instead called for an end to the war in Iraq. We were among the 25,000 longshore workers in 29 ports from Washington to California who stood together to call an end to the war and demand that the troops be able to come home to their families.

We keep getting phone calls from people who are thanking us for taking this stand. I knew that this would get the media’s attention, but I had no idea that this would mean so much to so many people. Even the Iraqi dock workers shut down their ports for two hours to say thanks for what we were doing. I would like to share all of these thanks from across the country and across the globe with everyone in Portland and Vancouver and surrounding towns who joined us and supported us in events throughout the day.
...
Many of us are veterans who know the horrors of war. Many of us have brothers and sisters, kids and spouses fighting overseas right now. We believe that when someone decides to put their life at risk to serve their country, their service should be given the highest respect. I mean, however you feel about the military, these people are putting their lives on the line in the best way they know how to serve their country. But that respect seems to be missing in our politicians. Instead of supporting the troops, we see them squabbling over whether to pay for their health care after they get mangled in battle. We see that more than 4,000 American soldiers have been killed, and so many thousands of Iraqi civilians that no one even knows for sure. We have run out of patience with the endless excuses for why this war goes on and on with “goals” that seem to change all the time. It’s time to thank those people for their service by bringing them home so they can raise their kids. Exactly how we do that, and leave the Iraqis in better shape, we need to figure that out. Keeping troops in a war with no end in sight is like throwing bad money after good. Except this time, we are talking about people’s lives.

Also, our economy is suffering. Politicians need to stop throwing $250 million every single day at this war. I can think of a lot of things that we could do with even part of that money. I know plenty of families who do not have health insurance. I myself have gone without health insurance, and it is scary to think that all you’ve worked for can disappear because of an injury. A lot of us longshore workers grew up without insurance and have family and friends who are uninsured. We want to change that. We know we are lucky to be together in a union, because we can bargain to make sure that the companies we work for provide health insurance for our families. That’s only fair; we work hard at a dangerous job to make those companies profitable. But we also believe that every American should be able to have health insurance whether they have a union or not. We work to improve our nation’s health care system for that reason. We see so many families count their nickels and dimes to take their kids to the doctor, but meanwhile the spigot that funds the war in Iraq is on full-blast, day and night, to the tune of $250 million every day. That’s wrong, and it’s gone on for too long.

So today's Method: 97. Protest strike.

In a protest strike, also called a token strike and demonstration strike, work is stopped for a preannounced short period--a minute, an hour, a day, or even a week--in order to make clear the feelings of the workers on a particular issue: economic, political, or other.  No set demands are made.  The aim is to demonstrate that the workers feel deeply about a certain matter and that they possess strength to strike more effectively if necessary, thus warning the officials that they had best take the workers' feelings into consideration. 

An additional aim may be to catch the imagination of workers and the public.  This method may also be used in the early stages of a protracted struggle to accustom the workers to the idea of striking on the issue involved; in instances in which the unions are not prepared for a longer strike; where longer strikes would incur more severe retaliation than the workers are, at that particularly point, prepared to suffer, or where serious damage to the economy is not desired.

The token strike may be varied by combining it with periods of silence, "stay-at-home" days, or other methods.  There may be protest general strikes, protest industry strikes, protest sympathy strikes and the like.

Good on the ILWU for taking a stand.  While I would hope it's not necessary to escalate from May Day's action, I think it demonstrates the willingness to go further to exercise the real power that they, and all of us, possess.

ntodd

198 Sundays: Reward Good Behavior

Well, I'm fried from grading, but here's today's Method all the same: 189. Selective patronage.

This method has been used in order to reward financially businesses which have pursued an approved policy, especially at times when such a policy was regarded by some as an economic risk.

Garrison and a group of abolitionists in 1834 deliberately chose to patronize a steamboat on the Delaware River which was not segregated, as some were; the route was slower and less direct, but they preferred to encourage the integration policy, and told the captain that because of it he had gained twenty-seven dollars worth of business.  The Liberator reported their view that if the refusal to use segregated transportation, and the choice of integrated transportation, were "extensively imitated by anti-slavery men...every barrier of caste will soon be overthrown."
...
Trade unions in the United States have often urged the purcahse of products bearing the union label, as means of supporting higher wages and improved working conditions...One of the departments created in the merged AFL-CIO was a Union Label Department, in Washington, DC, which provides lists of union-label products.  After the grape growers of California began signing union contracts with the United Farm Workers in 1970, the union label on boxes of grapes sold throughout the country became very important in determining which grapes should be purchased by supporters of the grape workers and which should still be boycotted.

So who should we boycott and who should we patronize?  I'm thinking NBC would be a good one to boycott, given GE's manufacturing weapons.  The NYTimes since they were war apologists?  What businesses deserve our support?

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals.
50. Teach-ins
52. Silence

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
91. Refusal of a government's money
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
135. Popular nonobedience
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

158. Self-exposure to the elements
159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
170. Nonviolent
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: Operation Ignore

Today's Method: 135. Popular nonobedience.

There are a large number of instances in which the general population, or part of it, has consciously disregarded and violated laws or regulations, but in ways which do not amount to civil disobedience.  One or more characteristics of either of the types of civil disobedience may be absent--for example, the disobeyed law may not be seen as illegitimate.

Primarily, however, this method involves ignoring or disregarding the law or regulations more than blatant defiance, the resisters choosing not to flaunt their noncompliance.  The acts may be open and unhidden but not advertised, the resisters preferring to remain, as far as possible, personally unknown and unpunished and continue to be part of a larger opposition group.  This method frequently takes the form of ignoring the law or regulation in question, often by large numbers of people, as though it did not exist.
...
Acts of popular disobedience...occurred during World War II.  In the Netherlands, for example, Germans orders that the population turn in metal coins were generally disregarded, and private and illegal listening to broadcasts from Britain was regarded as an act of opposition to the German occupation.  In several sections of Copenhagen during the June 1944 strike and resulting German emergency measures, the populace simply ignored the curfew.

Among Jews deported from Belgium in November 1942 were some who removed the required yellow star from their clothes and in June 1942 there were various types of noncompliance with the decree requiring the wearing of the yellow star in occupied France:

Some of the Jews decided not to wear the star.  Others wore it in the wrong way.  Still others wore several stars instead of one.  Some Jews provided their star with additional inscriptions.  And, finally, a number of non-Jews took to wearing the star or something that looked like it.

What are ways people are engaging in noncompliance today?  What other types of noncompliance should we consider?

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals.
50. Teach-ins
52. Silence

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
91. Refusal of a government's money
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

158. Self-exposure to the elements
159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
170. Nonviolent
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: The Elements

I was a bit pre-occupied this weekend, though E and I discussed a variety of nonviolent Methods and the frustrations of trying to get people to engage more actively.  One tactic that didn't come up but did spring to mind when considering what I should focus on today was a form of psychological intervention: 158. Self-exposure to the elements.

Exposure of one's own body to discomfort or suffering from the elements, such as the heat of the sun, is one form which psychological intervention has taken.  This method is one of the several forms in which self-retribution may be expressed.  Self-retribution involves putting psychological, moral, or emotional pressure on others to induce them to change their attitudes or take certain action, by voluntarily taking discomfort, humiliation, penalties, or suffering upon oneself...
...
A [mild] type of action was used, probably in the 1880s, by temporary farm laborers in the province of Kherson of Imperial Russia, in order to protest the poor diets provided by landowners.  Trotsky records seeing this as a child on his father's farm:

The laborers would leave the fields and collect in the courtyard.  They would lie face downward in the shade of the barns, brandishing their bare, cracked, straw-pricked feet in the air, and wait to see what would happen.  Then my father would give them some clabber, or watermelons, or a half sack of dried fish and they would go back to work again, often singing.

In the summer of 1972 some English and American prisoners protested by staying for long periods, and with danger to themselves, on the slanting roofs of prison buildings, or even on the top of the prison water tower (as at the Federal Correctional Institution of Danbury, Connecticut).

I know, I know...what good would this really do, eh?  Well, I wonder if like the satyagrahic fast we might use something like this to put psychological pressure on certain Congressional figures...

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals.
50. Teach-ins
52. Silence

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
91. Refusal of a government's money
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
170. Nonviolent
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: Funny Paper

I'm sure nobody really miss 198 Sundays last week, but I apologize all the same for not posting: so busy and tired from EschaCon that I took a little break.

Anyway, today's Method is 91. Refusal of a government's money:

This method is the refusal, as a political act, to accept a government's printed money, either completely or in all but minor transactions.  In other situations the motives could be partly economic (in case of high inflation).  Alternatives to printed money might be gold, silver, barter, and the like. 

This method appears to have been deliberately used with the intent of undermining a regime only rarely.  The Financial Manifesto of the St Petersburg Soviet...not only asked that gold be demanded when deposits were withdrawn from banks, but also urged people to demand gold in payment for wages and in all major financial transactions.

I thought of this one because of the recession and financial/housing market meltdown we've seen recently.  In many ways our entire economy is built on a house of cards, with consumerism and greed being the most important and unstable supports.

A number of the war tax resisters I met in December don't make much in terms of legal tender, but survive primarily through alternative economies based on barter and the like.  I wonder what it would look like if more people withdrew from the government run monetary system...

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals.
50. Teach-ins
52. Silence

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
170. Nonviolent
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: Speak Out, Speak In

In a Paxcast just after Thanksgiving I stole some audio from Mario Savio's amazing speech on the Sproul Hall steps on December 2, 1964.  It came during the climax of the sit-ins during Berkeley's Free Speech Movement:

On October 1, former graduate student Jack Weinberg was sitting at the CORE table. He refused to show his identification to the campus police and was arrested. There was a spontaneous movement of students to surround the police car in which he was to be transported. Weinberg did not leave the police car, nor did the car move for 32 hours. At one point, there may have been 3,000 students around the car.

During this period, the car was used as a speaker's podium and a continuous public discussion was held which continued until the charges against Weinberg were dropped. The center of the protest was Sproul Hall, the campus administration building, which protesters took over in a massive sit-in. The sit-in ended on December 3, when police arrested close to 800 students.

I've already covered sit-ins, but I think we can logically go from the Berkeley examples to another Method thanks to Savio: 177. Speak-in.

A special form of nonviolent intervention occurs when actionists interrupt a meeting, church service, or other gathering for the purpose of expressing viewpoints on issues which may or may not be related directly to the occassion.  Since the intervention is primarily intervention with the social form of the meeting, this method can best be classed as one of social intervention, although it includes psychological and physical aspects also.

This form of action was often used by George Fox and other early Quakers...During the antislavery campaign in the United States, actionists at times interrupted church services in order to denounce the lack of effective opposition to slaveholding, and also the refusal of many churches to accommodate antislavery meetings.

I'm sure people of the day decried the "ineffectiveness" of such methods, being so rude and silly.  But that's as may be.

The main point is that we have a message to convey, and sometimes that involves disrupting normal behavior patterns at gatherings where people don't expect to be challenged.  Yup, that might offend and make people uncomfortable.  Isn't war, or civil rights violations, ultimately offensive and uncomfortable?  I don't see why any dissenter should apologize for grabbing a platform whenever and whereever they can to break people out of their habits and routines that prevent them from pausing to consider the moral implications of their complicity...

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals.
50. Teach-ins
52. Silence

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
170. Nonviolent
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: Death And Dissent

Yesterday there was a Fifth Anniversary protest in PDX that we *totally* had meant to attend, but we kinda got sidetracked.  Anywayz, we saw on local media later reporting on it and said it was pretty large and there was nary a counter-demonstrator (the linked clip is not the full thing, sadly).  Some other folks took pictures:

Such displays I find to be very powerful, moving images and today it got me thinking about all the funerals they represent, not just the human beings themselves.  All the grief of friends and family on display as they in many cases publicly say goodbye.

Sometimes hate-filled people demonstrate at such funerals.  Other times people will use the gatherings as a moment for people already bonded in sadness to come together to communicate a larger message.  So today's (brief) Method: 45. Demonstrative funerals.

This isn't about demonstrative funerals per se, but I see the practice in a similar vein:

[T]he Iraqis use [funeral banners] to announce the deaths of loved ones. They include family ties and funeral information. In use before the war, they're now more important than ever. There are no newspaper obituaries, long-distance travel to notify friends and relatives is marred by checkpoints and a curfew, and telephone service hasn't been restored. This is how families spread the news of death.

But the banners have taken on a political tone in the last few months. Iraqis say the banners rarely included details about the cause of death until coalition forces caused those deaths. Now, although many of the people they commemorate have been gone for months, the banners still hang, reminding passers-by that the soldiers occupying their city have Iraqi blood on their hands.

There have been actual funerals with political comment and protest as well in Iraq:

The assassination of Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim came after repeated calls by the influential cleric for the end of US occupation of Iraq. His brother Abd-Azis, who was appointed by the other clerics, told the crowd at the funeral that “the occupation force is primarily responsible for the pure blood that was spilt in holy Najaf, the blood of Al-Hakim and the faithful group that was present near the mosque”

In recent history we saw a pretty demonstrative funeral here at home, which really upset conservatives:

The [Wellstone] memorial service was shameless in its partisanship. It started with emotional remembrances of Wellstone, a politician loved by liberals and respected by conservatives. But then Rick Kahn, a friend of Wellstone, turned the event into a partisan pep rally. Democratic celebrities, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Teddy Kennedy, and Al Gore, were cheered wildly. When Senate GOP Leader Trent Lott and former Republican senator Rod Grams of Minnesota were shown on the TV screen at the service, there were boos. When Mondale was shown on the screen--he didn't give a speech--he was cheered amid chants of "Fritz, Fritz, Fritz."

But I guess humping the corpse of Ronald Reagan is okay...

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals
50. Teach-ins
52. Silence

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
170. Nonviolent
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: Stop The Presses

In The Quiet American, the protagonist Thomas Fowler, an English correspondent:

I'm a reporter.  I'm not engagé...I don't take sides.  I'll be still reporting, whoever wins.

(In the more recent movie version, the always-excellent Michael Caine boils it down a bit differently: "I'm just a reporter.  I offer no point of view.  I take no action. I don't get involved.  I just report what I see.")

The story ends up showing how difficult it is for anybody to remain aloof forever, whether you're a stoic reporter or the titular quiet American, Alden Pyle (played wonderfully by Brendan Frasier), who thinks the indispensible nation must become involved in other nations' internal issues.  The larger question is should one engage, and if so, how and when?

For example, we have a media in the US filled with reporters and a pundit class that pretends to be objective and unbiased as it trashes political candidates implicitly and explicitly with trivialities as though they're still in junior high school and not trying to inform their readers of actual policy positions and statement that just might impact the nation and the world.  That sure must make them titter in the break room and make them feel powerful because they've "asked the hard questions," but this ain't tiddlywinks and they have effectively sided with the people who dismantled our Constitutional system and wreaked death upon sovereign nations.

So I thought they might need an example of real bravery in the face of illegal, dangerous actions.  Today's Method: 10. Newspapers and journals.  Rather than using the usual text, I'm going to steal from Gene Sharp's 2005 book Waging Nonviolent Struggle to provide a small glimpse of what happened in the wake of the Soviet coup against Gorbachev in 1991:

Journalists...played their part in the resistance on the first day of the coup.  One of the first acts of the putschists had been to suspend freedom of the press.  Only one television station in Moscow was allowed to operate, and the printed press was told to print exclusively declarations of the State Committee for the State Emergency.  Nevertheless, Yeltsin's "Appeal to the Citizens of Russia" was printed on page two of a late edition of Izvestia, one of the Soviet Union's largest-circulation newspapers.  The appeal had been printed against the direct order of the editor, but the paper's staff insisted they would burn the presses if it were not included.

Other Russian citizens were informed of Yeltsin's defiance by watching the evening news on the "official" television station.  One segment, titled "Moscow Today," was designed to demonstrate how calm the capital city was after the regime change.  The program showed that, indeed, most of Moscow was calm and operating normally.  But the segment also included footage from the White House and excerpts from Yeltsin's speech on the tank.  The response from the coup leaders in the Interior Ministry was immediate.  "The story on Moscow was treacherous!" the editors of the program were told.  "You have given instructions to the people on where to go and what to do!"

Would our vaunted "free press" do what they could to subvert a coup by Bush after 1/20/2009 in such a fashion, or would they just go along with it so as to retain "access" and get the good cocktail weenies?

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals
50. Teach-ins
52. Silence

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
170. Nonviolent
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: Speak Out

Back to the very basics: 1. Public Speeches.

Some public speeches may become significant acts of nonviolent protest.  They may be spontaneous in some unexpected situation, they may be formal addresses, or they may be sermons delivered during religious services.

This Method has been on my mind because I've heard a common refrain about Obama's opposition to the Iraq war.  While he failed to vote against appropriations after he joined the Senate--something most of the Democrats have done even after the 2006 sweep--he did, in fact, stand against the war as the drum beat was growing louder when it was pretty damned unpopular to do so. 

Some folks have dismissed his now-famous speech at a Chicago anti-war rally as "just a speech." He spoke out and chose the right side, which is a very powerful nonviolent tactic.  Before people get self-righteous and demand that he have "done more to end the war" they might consider what else they themselves might have done beyond going to marches and writing letters.

We're all complicit and all need to do more.

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals
50. Teach-ins
52. Silence

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
170. Nonviolent
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: Teach Your Children Well

It's midterm break this week, but while my college students are relaxing I'll be teaching at the FDIC in Arlington, so I thought this Method was apt: 50. Teach-ins.

A teach-in and a protest meeting have certain features in common.  In each case the topic for discussion is one on which there is considerable controversy. A teach-in, however, differs from a public protest meeting in that various political viewpoints are represented both among the speakers and those attending, and the speakers may be high-level specialists on the subject or otherwise regarded as especially able to provide not only a capable presentation of their own attitude on the issue, but important factual and background information relevant to the issue.  Teach-ins may thus have a larger number of speakers and extend for longer periods of time than ordinary meetings.

Their aim, also, is not simply protest--although the holding of a teach-in on a topic of important public controversy recognizes the existence of differing views on the issue and provides a platform for all of these.  An important aim of a teach-in is to provide the opportunity for people to hear various viewpoints and obtain relevant information in order to be able to make up their own minds.  Confrontation of opposing viewpoints, questioning of the speakers, and discussion from the floor constitute important aspects of a teach-in.

No teach-ins down there this time, though I do often let my colors show in classes...

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals
52. Silence

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
170. Nonviolent
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: I Don't Get Out Much Anyway

A lot of focus on resistance is on direct protests or other actions against governments and governmental institutions, which evokes a lot of fear about repression: arrest, beatings, death, etc.  What's often overlooked are fairly simple forms of social noncooperation that can still allow resisters to dissent and even undermine the government with less risk of the things that keep people from fighting.  So let's look at Method 65. Stay-at-home:

The stay-at-home is often applied in close association with forms of the strike of the hartal, although it may be practiced entirely after work hours.  In this form of noncooperation the population as a whole remains at home for a set period, usually for a political motive.  Normally, the stay-at-home will last a short period, such as one or two days.  It is usually organized, although it may be spontaneous.  In addition to reducing the chances of "incidents," it may serve to demonstrate to the opponent the degree of unity and self-discipline among the population.

This method has been used in South Africa on several occassions...After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was crushed and it was announced that former Premier Imre Nagy and others had been executed, people in Budapest conducted a stay-at-home in the evenings, leaving the streets and places of entertainment deserted.

Could we do this?  Why haven't we yet?  What needs to happen to enabled something like a stay-at-home in the United States like, say...in response to the Iraq war's fifth anniversary?

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals
52. Silence

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
170. Nonviolent
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: There Comes A Time When Silence Is Not Betrayal

Since I'm still fasting for several more hours it might have made sense to cover one of the three related Methods (fast of moral pressure, hunger strike or satyagrahic fast), but I already did!  However, part of Leslie's efforts with Conyers regarding impeachment is making a comparison to Civil Rights, and she notes what MLK said: A time comes when silence is betrayal.

Being a Quaker, loudmouth though I may be, I think about the power of silence quite a bit.  Generally when we are silent when evil is done, we are complicit.  But there's also another component: when vociferous support is expected, silence can be an act of dissent.

So today let's look at 52. Silence:

Corporate silence has...been used as a method of expressing moral condemnation.  The silence may be a main method for expressing the attitude, or it may be an auxiliary method combined with another, for example a march or stay-at-home demonstration...

During the Kapp Putsch in Berlin in 1920, Berliners would have nothing to do with the few apologists for the usurpers.  When one pro-Kapp enthusiast climbed the Potsdamer Bridge and spoke against the legitimate regime, calling the President "King Ebert," icy silence was all he evoked from the crowd.  On September 27, 1938, Berliners who believed that war over Czechoslovakia was imminent received the parade of armored troops down the Wilhelmstrasse for review by Hitler with clear hostility; they either scattered and refused to watch or stood "in utter silence."
...
During the 1964 free speech controversy at the University of California in Berkeley, one night (about October 1) a crowd of students opposed to the free speech movement heckled and molested student demonstrators and threw eggs and lighted cigarette butts at them.  The demonstrators responded with simple silence, and after forty-five minutes of provocations the hecklers left.

Imagine a courageous Democratic majority in Congress refusing to grin and applaud during the State of the Union address. 

OH NOES!  I CAN HAS MEDIA FIRESTORMZ?

You've got that anyway, with headlines blaring about how the Democrats caved in again on Iraq funding (while simultaneously asserting the Democrats want to deprive our troops of bullets to defend themselves).  And, of course, the majority of Americans think Congress isn't doing its job after we gave them a mandate in 2006 to end the war.  Could your media treatment get any worse?  Could your approval numbers go any lower?

Conyers and Pelos want us to be silent when it comes to impeachment, but they won't remain silent in the face of 935 lies that drove us to war or any of the other crimes against our Constitution or humanity that Bush has committed.  Despite what Conyers insists, it's not being "smart."  It really is treating politics like a sporting event and not the matter of life and death it truly is when we're talking about war, rebuilding New Orleans, health care and other issues facing our nation.

Those who applaud evil are enablers of evil.

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
170. Nonviolent
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: Invaders

In light of Karin's recent post, today's Method clearly has to be 170. Nonviolent invasion.

In nonviolent invasion a group of nonviolent volunteers deliberately and openly enter a forbidden area in order to demonstrate their refusal to recognize the right of the controlling regime or agency to exercise sovereignty or control over that area or to use it for a particular purpose.  This method entails civil disobedience and the risk of sever repression.

The mass nonviolent invasion of Goa in 1955 to defy the right of Portugal to exercise sovereignty over that part of India is perhaps a classic example of nonviolent invasion.  Other examples include attempts by pacifists to enter rocket sites near Omaha, Nebraska, in 1959, and attempts to "reclaim" military land in Harrington, England, for peaceful purposes.  The attempt, in January 1960, to halt the French atomic test at Reggan, North Africa, by entering the forbidden area was intended to create nonviolent interjection, but as the volunteers did not come close to the actual test site this case was limited to a nonviolent invasion of French-controlled territory.  American opponents of nuclear weapons sought to halt Pacific nuclear tests by sailing into the prohibited area in 1958 and 1962.

Perhaps it's obvious, but this is an example of nonviolent physical intervention.  There's still clearly a psychological component, as there is with all fighting, but the important difference between this kind of action and, say...giving speeches, is there's a lot more physical commitment and danger on the part of the actionists.

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

Every wall must fall sometime.

I have been watching with great interest this week, as Hamas (apparently, although they have not directly taken responsibility) has been making use of a non-violent method of action-by breaking through the wall, and ending the siege/blockage which has prevented Palestinians in Gaza from obtaining food, medicine, and other necessities of life. In this case, I have to applaud their creativity, and I hope they continue to explore methods of resistance that do not involve blowing people up. Of course, once the wall was breached, the people themselves took things in their hands, and have been streaming into Egypt, and back again. I'm not sure if this falls under Method 170. Nonviolent invasion or Method 184. Defiance of blockades, or something entirely new, but it certainly has been successful. In addition to giving the Gazans a break from the siege they've been under, it has been dramatic enough to capture the attention of the world's news media. The Palestinians in Gaza have been mostly invisible to the rest of the world, especially here in the U.S. The images that we saw of men, women and children, desperately flooding through the wall and toting back all the food they could get their hands on, was probably the first clue a lot of Americans had of the extent of the deprivation they had been living under. The restriction of access to and from Gaza had been going on at various levels for years, but became almost total after Hamas took control and ousted Fatah last summer. The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated spots on earth, and more than half of the 1.5 million population are children.  According to the charity Christian Aid, malnutrition among children, which was widespread to begin with, has doubled since the blockade started. In 2006, Israel blew up a Gaza power plant, making them more dependent on Israel for electricity. Since then, hospitals, water and sewage services have been operating by means of emergency generators. The shipment of goods to the Gaza Strip has been restricted almost totally to basic foods, medicines, medical equipment, cooking gas, gasoline and electricity, but not enough of any of them. Cement imports were restricted by Israel, because it might be used to build tunnels. Most of the industrial plants are closed for lack of raw materials and replacement parts. There is always the chance of disaster, as last year when a cesspool wall burst and five people drowned in a river of sewage. Then Gaza City went completely dark after all fuel shipments and humanitarian supplies were cut off almost two weeks ago. 

In the meantime, Israel may be obliged to resume fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip, due to a case before the Israeli Supreme Court which was brought by several human rights groups. It remains to be seen if Egypt, pressured by Israel or the U.S., will be able to close their border with Gaza. If they do, it will be about as popular as if East Germany tried to re-erect the Berlin Wall after it fell.

(Photo showing graffito on the Berlin Wall says "Every wall must fall sometime", h/t 's to Electronic Intifada, the CIA Factbook, Juan Cole, Nur al-Cubicle and a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot for statistics and background information)

198 Sundays: What Color Is Your Parachute?

A simple Method today with 18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors, one of many possible symbolic public acts:

The display of the flag of a nationl, religious, social or political group, or the colors of such a group, or the flag or colors with some other type of symbolism is a common type of nonviolent protest.  Such displays are often motivated by or arouse deep emotions.

Some examples:

• Flying the US flag upside down as a symbol of distress
• Waving national flags at pro-immigrant demos
• Unfurling the Tibetan flag during a protest
• Draping national colors over a defiant, heroic statue before its unveiling
• Orange banners in Eindhoven during Operation Market Garden
• Wearing orange to protest Gitmo
• Pink clothes, banners and other accoutrement around Capitol Hill.

I was most disappointed to hear this refrain a lot leading up to the anti-Gitmo day this month: I don't think I have any orange clothing.  Um...you think you could go buy a shirt or ribbon or something in the several weeks beforehand?  Is it really so hard to engage in such a simple form of dissent and display of solidarity?

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: Even Stormtroopers Have A Choice

Well, I was going to do Method 180. Alternative communication system and tie it in with Amy Goodman's allowing Dennis Kucinich to "debate" the other day.  But then I had this nagging feeling I'd already done that one and sure enough, I had in an omnibus post about the Holocaust Museum and just forgot to include it in the list of previous Sundays (that oversight has been corrected as of this entry).

So what to do?  Well, I've often asserted that we're all moral actors and have the power to make moral decisions, no matter what our job is, or family status, or anything.  A while back I brought up Mutiny, and maybe today would be a good time to discuss 147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents.

I was thinking of this one particularly in light of Karin's post on the 15th with the picture of Dr King being arrested for "loitering."  As I noted when debriefing some of the Methods used by CodePink, I generally thank cops for their professionalism and doing their jobs as a form of fraternization in the hopes it might give them a little space to actually consider what their jobs entail and how they are participating in the regime's apparatus of control.  What would have happened if the police arresting King had not cooperated with their regimes?

Sometimes it's a good thing to be arrested, as seeking arrest can be a tactic in a strategic struggle.  But when police are actively engaged in enforcing unjust laws or helping to stifle dissent, they really have been given the chance to make a moral stand and refuse to aid in the repression.

Police, soldiers and other enforcement officials may at times deliberately carry out their orders with less than full efficiency, either out of political motivation, sympathy for the resisters, or distaste for the repressive measures.  Or, police and others may selectively refuse certain orders on a scale too limited to be described accurately as mutiny.  To the degree which this method of political noncooperation is practiced, the ruler's ability to implement his will is reduced and the effect of repression lessened.
...
In 1941, in Hanover, former Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels refused the Gauleiter's orders to arrest Jews, and Graf Faber-Castell refused to shoot five hundred Jews in Poland.  Neither was harshly punished.  Lieutenant-General Hans Rauter of the SS Complained in September 1942 that there was almost no cooperation from the Dutch police in the roundup of Jews in the Netherlands.

In occupied Norway both Norwegian police and German soldiers were sometimes deliberately inefficient and either facilitated escapes or did less than was expected of them in making arrests.  In one case a Norwegian policeman sent to arrest a Jew who happened to be out left a message that he would return at twelve noon--which gave the hunted man time to gather his belongings and get away.  During this early roundup, large numbers of Jews were warned in advance of the arrests.

Similar events later took place prior to the arrests of the remaining Jews, including women and children, on November 26, 1942.  Norwegian policement informed resistance people of the impending arrests, and some personally went the night before to warn the Jews.  When many students at the University of Oslo were arrested on November 30, 1943, German soldiers sent to private homes often encouraged escapes by taking the word of someone answering the door that the wanted students was not at home and going away, rather than entering and searching the house, as was expected.

While cops are the easy example, consider all the other "officers" of the apparatus, from administrative assistants to tax collectors.  Thoreau made a simple observation long before Sharp cataloged the 198 Methods:

My civil neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with - for it is, after all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel - and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government. How shall he ever know well that he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he will treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action.
...
If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall I do?" my answer is, "If you really wish to do anything, resign your office." When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned from office, then the revolution is accomplished.

We all have different circumstances, so our decision process and ultimate conclusions will likely be different.  The only thing I want people to recognize is that we do, in fact, have choices and those carry consequences.  Sometimes the consequences are personal, sometimes they impact others.  We might choose to remain silent or passive because we work for the State and can't risk our livelihoods--but consider the millions who are dying in Iraq and the trillions of dollars we're squandering that will haunt us for generations in real, practical terms.  Let that inform your choice a little.

ntodd

PS--I can't help but also think of an amazing debate in the movie Clerks, despite it's frivolous nature.

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

2. Letters of opposition or support
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: Write A Letter

Well, last week's controversy is something I don't have the energy for today since I'm still ailing from a wicked flu (though I am happy to report no longer feeling near death).  It was good for traffic, though, so I'll have to do that again sometime.

It is interesting that people focus on specific tactics and don't consider why somebody might--and actually have done so--take desperate measures like boycotting an election, particularly as a component in a strategic campaign of escalation.  I did get the sense that many people didn't actually read the whole post, saying things for example about wanting a Democratic president in 2008 when I explicitly mentioned I did, too.  Anyway, the discussion was lively and actually ended up moving me from simply musing about the Method to more seriously considering it as a capstone of a two-year campaign to get Democrats to better represent us regarding Iraq and a web of related issues.

Today's Method is way lower on the ladder of intensity and intervention: 2. Letters of opposition or support.  Pretty simple, right?

Letters as a method...may take several forms.  These include primarily private letters to a certain person or body, conveying a particular political viewpoint or declaration of intention.  These letters may be from individuals or from groups; or similar or identical letters may be sent by many people.  At times private letters may deliberately or otherwise become public knowledge.  Or the letter may be published as an "open letter"--written to a particular person but intended equally or primarily to influence the general public which reads it.

Letters usually gain sufficient significance to be classed as a method of nonviolent protest because of the status of the signer or signatories, because of the number of persons signing the letter...or because the political situation has heightened the significance of such an act.

A modern example:

We are lawyers in the United States of America. As such, we have all taken an oath obligating us to defend the Constitution and the rule of law…. We believe the Bush administration has committed numerous offenses against the Constitution and may have violated federal laws…. Moreover, the administration has blatantly defied congressional subpoenas, obstructing constitutional oversight …. Thus, we call on House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy to launch hearings into the possibility that crimes have been committed by this administration in violation of the Constitution…. We call for the investigations to go where they must, including into the offices of the President and the Vice President. -- American Lawyers Defending the Constitution

Over one thousand lawyers – including former Governor Mario Cuomo and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein – have signed onto the above statement demanding wide-ranging investigative hearings into unconstitutional and potentially criminal activity by the Bush administration.

Now I'm obviously no shining light in the legal field or any other for that matter, so a letter I send as an individual carries little weight.  That's why I've been trying to get people to join me in writing letters and sending other things to our government employees on a regular basis to register our dissent and to demonstrate in a small way our resolve, persistence and collective power. 

I've often been ridiculed for that with the usual, "haha, your letters haven't ended the war yet!"  No duh.  Writing letters isn't the be all in resistance.  They are a good way to announce your intention and in lieu of being in somebody's face, something that can still exert moral and psychological pressure, but a single letter by a single, ordinary citizen rarely, if ever, effects great change. 

Yet imagine if instead of 1000 lawyers there were 200,000,000 people who according to the polls want out of Iraq writing a letter just once to their Congressional delegation and the Democratic leadership.  Imagine if they did that every 3rd Friday as part of their participation in the Iraq Moratorium.  Imagine if they did that every day.  That might get somebody's attention, certainly better than a passive poll result would.

ntodd

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
124. Boycott of elections
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws

198 Sundays: Disenfranchising Yourself

Now that the primaries are actually upon us, I thought today's Method should be 124. Boycott of elections:

Where there is reason to believe that an election will not be conducted fairly or where there is refusal to recognize the authority of the regime conducting the election, an opposition movement may refuse to put up candidates and may urge people to refuse to vote.  The aim of such a boycott is usually to protest the use of the election to deceive people as to the degree of democracy present; or it may be an attempt to prevent the "real" issue or issues, as seen by the resistance group, from being overshadowed by "lesser" issues.

While I've always held that one has as much a right to not cast a vote as to cast one, I've also advocated that making your voice heard individually and collectively in the lawful election process is better than to completely withdraw from the system.  However, if a bloc of voters who feel disenfranchised decided en masse to withdraw support for the system, that would be a powerful protest if properly coordinated. 

Right now a lot of progressives are not happy with the Pelosi/Reid leadership nor the current batch of frontrunners for the Democratic nomination in the presidential race.  For pretty much my entire lifetime the Democrats have been able to count on liberals and progressives voting for them instead of the GOP.  What if they lost that base of support?  They'd be slaughtered in elections by Republicans, of course, but they always take our votes for granted because it would be awful if the GOP held all the levers of power, right?

Well, we've seen what that's gained us: an enabling Congress that has yet to challenge Bush even though he no longer enjoys the benefits of single-party rule.  So what would be the harm of showing the Democrats that they cannot assume we will go with them when the chips are down?

Obviously 2008 is a cusp in American electoral politics and history.  I'd rather get a Democrat in the White House right now and build upon the Democratic majorities in Congress before I "go nuclear" like that.  But maybe it would be a good idea to look ahead to 2010 and if we're still in Iraq, after giving the Democrats a second chance, after finally taking control of the entire Federal apparatus, after more direct action like strikes, then perhaps we need to say we will not be party to a system that continues to ignore our will.  Vote by not voting and push Democrats to represent us, or push Democrats of conscience to break away to create a real, progressive third party.

ntodd

 

Covered on previous Sundays:

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION  

5. Declarations of indictment and intention
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
11. Records, radio, and television
15. Group lobbying
19. Wearing of symbols
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
26. Paint as protest
30. Rude gestures
31. "Haunting" officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
35. Humorous skits and pranks
37. Singing
38. Marches
44. Mock funerals

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

57. Lysistratic nonaction
61. Boycott of social affairs
66. Total personal noncooperation

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION

71. Consumers' boycott
90. Revenue refusal
117. General strike

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
148. Mutiny

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

159. The fast: a) Fast of moral pressure; b) Hunger strike; c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
162. Sit-in
164. Ride-in
171. Nonviolent interjection
174. Establishing new social patterns
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
193. Overloading of administrative systems
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws