Over the years, I've been jailed numerous times. Each such event arose from what is loosely called “civil disobedience.”
The tactical value of arrest and ensuing “court witness” and “prison witness” is that they can generate news helping to bring vital, often neglected, issues to public notice. These mindful acts can boost solidarity and the grassroots campaigns in which they are embedded.
At a personal level, court and trial witness help us keep our “edge,” maintain our focus, clarify our values. Such public stands impede co-optation. Court witness provides the opportunity to craft trial statements articulating why one has taken part in a given direct action. Along with such statements, the testimony of defense witnesses can be used to turn the tables on the prosecutors. They can put militarism (or whatever issue is at stake) “on trial.” And they can be published, reaching well beyond the courtroom.
Those willing to do jail and court witness are often deeply affected. The solidarity and community that may be generated can be transformative. And for privileged folks, and perhaps especially privileged white folks, it's eye opening to expose ourselves to the “justice” system of this overly incarcerating nation. Given the disproportionate numbers of people of color in every jail and prison, any conscious person can't help but become more aware of our society's stark and systemic racism.
Thanks in large part to court and prison witness, one grassroots organization I've long worked with has grown by leaps and bounds. Determined to expose and close the Pentagon's School of the Americas (SOA) – aka the “School of Assassins” – more than 200 SOA Watch activists over the years have willingly endured trial and incarceration. Inspired by them, each November, thousands from all over the country converge on Fort Benning, Georgia to protest the SOA there for fostering large-scale bloodshed and human rights abuse in Latin America. (In response to our persistent pressure, the SOA has undergone a PR makeover: it has changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, WHINSEC.)
Most of us vote. However, merely voting is tokenistic. It's getting a free ride, not paying our fare. It's not doing our part to neutralize the toxic power structure impacting everyone the US imperium touches, i.e. the entire planet. Democracy is far more than voting and elections; democracy must be struggled for. Each nonviolent direct action (“civil disobedience”) is a vote multiplied many times over. If more middle-class citizens would risk arrest and incarceration for nonviolent acts of solidarity and conscience, ours might well be a better nation, a better world.
Many of us have valid reasons not to risk arrest. But some of us are in a position to take the plunge … or we're in a position to make changes in our life style or circumstances so we can risk arrest and its consequences when that imperative calls. In any case we can actively support those nonviolently taking such risk. Bradley Manning, the young soldier who allegedly provided WikiLeaks with secret files exposing – among much else – US military massacres of civilians in Iraq, is deeply at risk. For nearly a year, Bradley – perhaps the premier patriot of our day – has languished in Abu Ghraib-like conditions in the Quantico Marine base brig. For his whistleblowing, he faces possible execution. (Update: In the wake of the March 20 demonstration at Quantico, Bradley has been transferred to Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas.)
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This past winter's events in Tunisia and Egypt have much to teach us. These North Africans embody what Gandhi taught: when enough of us withdraw our cooperation from it, tyranny crumbles. Tyranny can't be sustained if good people refuse to go along. To avoid or remove tyranny, we need to cultivate the will to disobey, the will to defy.
“Civil disobedience” isn't the best term for what's been happening in Cairo and elsewhere throughout the Islamic world – and in Wisconsin. More apt and bracing is “civil defiance.” “Civil” because it involves citizens acting civilly, i.e. nonviolently. That Cairenes may ignore curfew and crowd-control orders (i.e. they disobey) is less relevant than that they have collectively risked life and limb to oust Mubarak – and that they continue to do so in the face of his military successors.
“Civil defiance” is the term embraced by Harvard's Gene Sharp. Sharp's tally of “198 Methods of Nonviolent Action” is reprinted in the appendix of his seminal 93-page “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” fourth US edition, May 2010 (original, 1993). This how-to manual has been translated into many languages – including Arabic – and is downloadable free from the Albert Einstein Institution web site. Sharp isn't just about the grassroots mobilizing to depose a tyrant; Sharp seeks to assure that the tyrant isn't replaced by another tyrannical regime – a common fate of palace coups and violent revolution. Not to mention outside interventions.
Egyptian activists have likely read “From Dictatorship.” We also would do well to study it to understand not only the rise of people power throughout the Middle East … but to better see how together we, too, might counter any moves toward tyranny here.
In March, Ed was arrested – along with over 30 others – at Quantico Marine base protesting – along with hundreds of others – Bradley Manning's captivity. More recently, Ed was arrested at Hancock Air Base – also along with over 30 others – for protesting the Reaper drone operating from there. Reach him at [email protected].
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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