[Peace-discuss] Rethinking Oct. 27

[Matt Reichel]

People seem to be conflating two different organizing tactics here.
Firstly, there is the question of legal action vs. civil disobedience. The latter implies breaking the law and risking arrest in protest against an immoral authority, which would most certainly be appropriate now. I believed that students should have walked out of their classes, disrupted classes, and stopped up traffic in campustown to disrupt business as usual in champaign/urbana when the war began in 2003. And I will remind you that we were quite successful in that endeavour for one day. 

Secondly, there is the question of using violence as a means of achieving political ends, which I am 100% opposed to, as were Gandhi and MLK. In the history of the world, violence has NEVER EVER achieved anything admirable, PERIOD. And yes that includes the Red Army. The failure of the USSR to ever realize the "withering away of the state" is probably a result of the fact that the country was founded on the concept of violence . . a violence that continued in unprecedented form.

It's as simple as that. Break the Law? Yes! Use Violence? No!  That is how you rise above injustice. This is why the greatest American peacemakers of our time are people like Kathy Kelly (my personal hero) and Cindy Sheehan. They aren't strapped down by any inane bureaucracies, parties or overarching ideologies. They are motivated by peace and willing to do all in their power outside of violence to achieve that end.

That should motivate us all!

-
mer



> From: tvchick at insightbb.com
> To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> Subject: RE: [Peace-discuss] Rethinking Oct. 27
> Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:05:48 -0500
> 
> >From a strategic angle even Martin Luther King Jr. was willing to break the
> law in order to get a point across. He made the distinction between what he
> considered to be "just" and "unjust" laws. King knew when to play it cool
> and when to engage in actions that people may have considered revolutionary
> back in the 1960's.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
> [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Stuart Levy
> Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 11:35 PM
> To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Rethinking Oct. 27
> 
> On Wed, Oct 10, 2007 at 11:18:27PM -0500, Laurie at advancenet.net wrote:
> 
> > > A peace demonstration should practice what it preaches.
> > 
> > That is a moralistic position and not a practical power political
> position.
> > It typically makes for martyrs but not successful results.
> 
> Oh -- do you mean that India is still a British colony?
> 
> cheers
> 
>    Stuart
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