Civil Disobedience

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Tue, 11 Oct 2005 15:02:27 EDT

Civil Disobedience

 

 

 

Sari Gelzer | Reclaiming the American Legacy of Civil Disobedience

 

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101105Y.shtml

 

 

 

 

 

TO's Sari Gelzer offers that one thing all Americans can do about

their desire to see change in America is practice civil disobedience.

This flavor of action is not just for radicals.

 

 

Reclaiming the American Legacy of Civil Disobedience

By Sari Gelzer

t r u t h o u t | Perspective

 

Tuesday 11 October 2005

 

What can all Americans do about their desire to see change in

America? Practice civil disobedience.

 

This flavor of action is not just for radicals. Civil disobedience

is the role of citizens within the political system and has a much

broader legacy than one was taught to think. Civil disobedience,

practiced by various movements of people, has been responsible for

forcing politicians to comply with the demands of its citizens. Civil

disobedience is how " slavery was ended, civil rights were won, it's

how women won the right to vote, and it's how Vietnam ended, " says

Anthony Arnove, a writer, editor and activist based in New York.

 

Arnove believes that it's important to realize that: " Civil

disobedience is how we have won any change that we ever brought about

in this country and it's something that's absolutely needed today if

we want to challenge the course of the Bush administration and the

Democratic Party. "

 

Civil disobedience may sound unappealing. After all, the very term

makes this action seem deviant, and the common image is of protestors

being arrested. But civil disobedience comes in many forms. It is the

active refusal to obey certain laws or demands of government without

resorting to physical violence. By understanding and reframing what

civil disobedience is, it is easy to remove inhibition and see civil

disobedience as a responsibility, rather than as a marginalized act.

 

Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove highlight the ever-present role of

American civil disobedience in their new book, Voices of a People's

History of the United States. Selections from this collection of

first-hand accounts, journal entries, speeches, personal letters, and

published opinion pieces were read dramatically by actors including

Danny Glover, Marissa Tomei, Sandra Oh, and many others at a Los

Angeles event this month.

 

The parallels of history to the current situation were glaring.

The audience could not help making sounds as they recognized this

concordance of past and present.

 

In the first reading, actor Viggo Mortenson read Bartolome de Las

Casas, a contemporary of Columbus in 1542, and reminded the audience

that the founding of America was done under false pretensions of

Christianity and with the ulterior motive for gold. An editorial from

the North Star, an abolitionist newspaper, reveals that citizens of

the past were disgruntled with the two party system, especially in

times of war: " The friends of peace have nothing to hope from either

[party], " says the newspaper in 1848, protesting the lack of political

climate during the war with Mexico.

 

While these readings raise the continued presence of American

maladies, they more importantly reveal the continued struggles of

Americans against them. Arnove comments that so many of the speeches

in the book convey a " spirit of confidence in resisting unjust wars

and a confidence in resisting oppression, " but he believes that this

confidence is something Americans of today need to regain.

 

That is why, at the end of the Los Angeles event, Marisa Tomei

read Cindy Sheehan's speech, which was originally given at the

Veterans for Peace Convention in Dallas, Texas (a speech too recent to

be included in the book). In her speech, Sheehan describes her path

toward civil disobedience. " My son was killed in 2004, so I'm not

paying my taxes, " says Sheehan, following a philosophy pioneered by

Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau chose not to fund the violent government

activities of his time, slavery and the war with Mexico, and Sheehan

does not wish to fund the War in Iraq.

 

Martin Luther King Jr. is also an activist Sheehan follows in the

footsteps of, but she is inspired by an additional connection: her son

was killed on King's death date. A civil rights activist, King

organized and led marches against Jim Crow Laws in the 1960s. Once

media attention was gained, a sympathetic public was aroused, and

Civil Rights became the major political issue of the decade and was

eventually instituted into American Law. Sheehan declares in this

speech her intent to camp at Crawford,Texas. Camping at Crawford

allowed her to connect with the many Americans against the war through

media attention as well. Hopefully, once public sentiment is fully

aroused, the policy of withdrawing from Iraq will be instituted.

 

Sheehan cites 58% of the American population as against the war,

but she qualifies this statistic citing the disconnect between those

that are against the war and those taking action on their belief: " We

are preaching to the choir, but not all are singing. If all were

singing this war would end, " says Sheehan.

 

Since Sheehan's speech in 2004, Americans have been connecting

their beliefs with action, and this Septemeber 24 was the largest

protest against the Iraq war to date. Two days later was a day of

civil disobedience in front of the White House. Arnove suggests that,

in the future, civil disobedience be incorporated into the protest,

because he sees the strategy of mass civil disobedience as most

effective. Arnove says that with mass civil disobedience the goal is

to disrupt " the normal operations of the system so that the ruling

class of this country is forced to retreat from their imperial

adventures. "

 

Voices of a People's History of the United States reveals the

different strategies of civil disobedience practiced by successful

movements throughout American history. Civil disobedience can take

many different forms. It can be done by an individual or in a group,

by speaking or by listening, by writing letters to Congress or letters

to your neighbors.

 

Civil disobedience is about the voices of the American people

shaping the government they live in. It is important that voices of

resistance are heard so that Americans gain knowledge and momentum in

the struggle. Arnove suggests that Americans access voices of

resistance by finding alternative media, whether its source is in the

United States or abroad. Education must incorporate these voices, and

his and Zinn's books are one way that these voices have entered

classrooms. And finally, Arnove says that " building social movements

that create alternative forums for people to exchange ideas, " through

theatre, public meetings and protests, is integral for an organized

movement for change.

 

" Everyone has a turning point in their life when they realize that

action is necessary, " says Arnove. This turning point is reflected in

a speech by Yuri Kochiyama, " Then Came the War. " She says that she

grew up as a Japanese American, very " red, white, and blue. " But once

her family was interned she began to question the American government

and realized this:

 

" If we can see the connections of how often this happens in

history, " Kochiyama says referring to Americans being put behind

walls, " we can stem the tide of these things happening again by

speaking against them. "