Thousands Engage in Nonviolent Civil Disobedience

Thousands Engage in Nonviolent Civil Disobedience to Protest Iraq War

Interview with Gordon Clark, coordinator of the Iraq Pledge of Resistance, conducted by Scott Harris

Listen in RealAudio: http://www.btlonline.org/clark041803.ram

Interview with Gordon Clark, coordinator of the Iraq Pledge of Resistance, conducted by Scott Harris

With U.S. and British troops now battling for control of Baghdad and occupying many of Iraq's other major cities, the discussion in American media has largely turned to the issue of post-war occupation. Although it is uncertain how and when this illegal war might end, it is clear that much of the international community, particularly the Arab and Islamic world, is viewing the thousands of civilian casualties and widespread destruction of Iraq with horror and outrage.

Here in the U.S., tens of thousands of opponents of the Bush administration's war continue their campaign of street protests and increasingly, since the war began -- employed in the tactic of nonviolent civil disobedience. In major cities and towns around the U.S., police have arrested thousands of protesters who have engaged in blockades and sit-ins at various symbolic targets including federal buildings and busy intersections. Some protests have targeted major U.S. media outlets for their bias in covering the war, while others have aimed their demonstrations at companies like the Carlyle Group, a Republican Party-connected investment firm and military contractor.

One of the most recent violent confrontations between law enforcement and anti-war protesters took place on April 7th, when Oakland, California police shot wooden dowel bullets, sting balls and beanbag rounds at several hundred picketers outside a shipping company handling U.S. military cargo. Some 20 protesters were injured and 30 arrested in what demonstration organizers described as an unprovoked attack -- denying charges that rock throwing by their members set off police violence.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Gordon Clark, coordinator of the Iraq Pledge of Resistance, who discusses the tactic of nonviolent civil disobedience now being practiced by thousands of opponents of the U.S. war on Iraq.

Gordon Clark: The Iraq Pledge of Resistance is a campaign -- it's not an organization -- but a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience to oppose war in Iraq. Nationally coordinated, but locally organized, we now have groups in 55 cities across the country who have been organizing nonviolent CD actions to oppose the war. It is very much based on nonviolence -- the nonviolence of Gandhi, the nonviolence of King and also takes very much from the Central America Pledge of Resistance, which was a similar group in the 1980s which was organizing nonviolent CD to oppose a U.S. invasion of Central America at the time. But as I say, we are operating in 55 cities and literally dozens and dozens of actions have been happening across the country. Some of them that you hear about are obviously the very big ones in San Francisco and Chicago. But also, actions are taking place in places like Athens, Ohio and Lexington, Ky. and Wichita, Kansas and places that people would consider to be the heartland and not places you would expect to have antiwar protests, let alone acts of nonviolent civil disobedience.

Between The Lines: Gordon, if you could, summarize for us the depth and breadth of the individuals and groups that are engaging currently in nonviolent civil disobedience against the Bush administration's war in Iraq.

Gordon Clark: Sure. Well, in terms of the groups that are leading it, some of them are affiliates of, or offices of some of the national groups that sponsor the Iraq Pledge of Resistance. So that for instance, American Friends Service Committee offices are very influential in the leadership in the CD actions in Springfield, Mass., Austin, Texas and Los Angeles, Calif. There are other places where, for instance, it's a local Peace Action chapter or affiliate that's sort of leading the work on nonviolent CD. Sometimes it's unaffiliated peace groups and what we're finding actually quite often is a lot of the folks now that are coming forward are sort of ad hoc groups, new people, folks who hadn't formally been organized but who are so deeply concerned about what's going on in Iraq and so committed to opposing it in nonviolent ways that they're forming groups and stepping forward and saying you know, we'd like to be part of this network. So right now, for instance, I'm getting calls from groups in Omaha, Neb. and Honolulu, Hawaii, who I have never talked with before, but they found out about our network and saying we want to be part of it.

In terms of the depth of it, what we are seeing (is) a lot of the people who are doing the nonviolent CD now are folks who have never done it before and that is, I think, very significant. It's not only some of the veterans from the Central America stuff or some Quakers who obviously have been involved in this type of antiwar activity and CD for many decades, but folks who have never done this before and whether they are students, or housekeepers or other professionals -- or, as in the case recently out in San Francisco, a former Marine commander and former president of the Pacific Stock Exchange -- did civil disobedience out in San Francisco. A lot of vets, right now, U.S. veterans of the military forces are involved in civil disobedience. So I think that demonstrates the breadth of the movement. And the depth of it is the fact that already there are over, I think its something like 6,000* people nationwide, who have been arrested in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, and folks continue to step forward. Both people who have already done it, who are volunteering to do it again and folks who have seen the example set by their colleagues and are now stepping forward to do it. It is going on, it wasn't just a one-week or a two-week thing that's now gone away. This type of action is going on in cities all across the country. So this is going on and on and it's not something that we're going to see go away simply because the war has gone on longer than anyone expected.

Between The Lines: Why engage in nonviolent civil disobedience? What does sitting down in the middle of the street, or blocking a doorway -- what does that accomplish?

Gordon Clark: I think we engage in nonviolent civil disobedience for a couple of reasons. One of them is to raise the level of our protest to the highest possible level. For a lot of people, they engage in this because they've done everything else they can. They've used all their words, they've spoken to their legislators, they've written, they've talked to people and all of this has been ignored. So now they are taking the next step and literally putting their body on the line, or crossing the line and willing to sacrifice some small part of their liberty or freedom to try and prevent or stop this war now at the earliest possible moment. So I think that's a big part of it, to raise our protest to the highest possible level, for both personal reasons as well as to attract attention to the issue through the media. Obviously, nonviolent civil disobedience are actions which are or can be very attractive to the media and I would argue, can in fact be attractive to the mainstream public when they see them through the media and to encourage the practice of nonviolent resistance.

You know, a lot of people unfortunately in the contemporary peace movement don't realize there's a big difference between simply being peaceful and following nonviolent resistance. You know, obviously, we always want people to be peaceful, we're not looking for violent incidents, we're not looking for destruction of property or anything like that. But nonviolent resistance is a specific theory of resistance to war that's based on what Gandhi taught that's based on what Martin Luther King Jr. taught and it's based on love and compassion and specifically the willingness of people to take on personal risks and to endure personal suffering in an attempt to prevent the suffering of other people. We are really looking to promote the practice of nonviolent resistance, as I would argue ultimately, the only thing that is going to be able to stop a government which is quite openly committed to global military hegemony -- empire, if you will.

As A.J. Muste said, a very famous nonviolent activist, "Only nonviolence can apply therapy to violence." So, I think that that's over the longer term what we're trying to do with these actions.

*Figure quoted on civil disobedience arrestees were current on date of interview 3/31/03.

Contact the Iraq Pledge of Resistance by calling (301) 608-2450 or visit their Web site at www.peacepledge.org

Other related links on our website at http://www.btlonline.org for the week ending 4/18/03

Scott Harris is the executive producer of Between The Lines. This interview excerpt was featured on the award-winning, nationally syndicated weekly radio newsmagazine, Between The Lines (www.btlonline.org), for the week ending April 18, 2003.

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