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October 28, 2003

In response to some remarks I have heard and read in this past awful, awful week, some thoughts on the need for continued resistance to injustice, and continued courage in the face of intimidation attempts:

These times are indeed frightening. The Patriot Act has picked up our cherished American freedoms and stood them on their heads. Anything is possible. It is desperately important that we continually re-examine our commitment to social justice and non-violence. It is equally important that we gather and share the tools to stand up to the repression and intimidation with which our work is met.

I'm particularly concerned at this time, for I recently have seen calls to new activists, literally, to "not join 'radical' groups", and "don't express inflammatory thoughts [in print]" To that, I say to us all - do not discourage new activists. Don't frighten them into paralysis. Tell them the truth, tell them the dangers, but above all inspire them. Inspire them with our words. Inspire them with our actions, our history, inspire them with our courage.

Violence is fairly easily dealt with eventually . . . with more violence. . . but the forces currently (and always) wreaking havoc on the earth find peaceful resistance far more threatening than violence, for it's peaceful resistance and peaceful change that is effective, and draws more people to its message. Turning away from violence and shunning those who advocate it is very different from not joining social justice groups, who are always labeled "radical" and who often ARE radical. "Radical" is an honorable term - it describes one who works at the "root" of the problem - literally the root of the very word. We can't let others tell us what groups, or even what words, are acceptable, for much of what we do will never be acceptable to those who hold the power - we're resisting the status quo.

I understand how nervous new activists might be - old activists are just as nervous. But if we, activists ourselves, are advising new and old activists not to join "radical" groups, or express "inflammatory thoughts", how in god's name can the work continue? Can you imagine a world in which no White Rose resisted the Nazis in Germany, no Women's Movement in Europe and the US, no opposition to the murderous government of Indonesia? The French and Norwegian Resistance fighters were integral to the defeat of Nazism, resistance ("radicals" and "inflammatory thought") destroyed the Apartheid system, brought down the Berlin Wall, the horrible Tzarist government in Russia and the corrupt and repressive system that replaced it. "Radicals" and the movements they inspired got rid of the Shah, Marcos, Bautista, Somosa, and ended slavery in the U.S. The list goes back thousands of years, and if people had avoided "radicals" or "inflammatory thought" over all that time, there would be no concept of democracy, or "rights" today.

I truly do understand how scary peace and social justice work is, exactly because it is more threatening to the status quo than is violence, But the rest of the picture is that if good people don't work in non-violent movements (that is, with and as "radicals", thinking, speaking and writing "inflammatory thoughts"), it leaves violence as the only response for others further down the road, when the jack boot is no longer bearable and all hope is lost.

The struggle is long, the struggle is hard, but it must be waged. Turning away from struggle because it is frightening gives it all up to the very forces doing such damage in the world right now, and in the future.

Let's encourage people to join our non-violent work, which IS radical. Let's instill them with the knowledge of what has been accomplished by resistance and non-violence over the centuries. And most of all, let's always know that we're not alone, and that we would be diminished, even unto ourselves, if we did less.

in solidarity
Marianne
Spokane

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