TAX RESISTANCE

SOUTH AFRICA:

WTR TO APARTHEIDIn South Africa, workers and churches increasingly see w tr as a tool for with­drawing support from apartheid.

The South African Council of Churches this year urged churches and other employers to support the trades unions' call for wtr, declaring that "the principle that there should be no taxation without representation is one of the basic requirements of a just con­stitutional system".

Local groups are taking action. The following is taken from the "Apartheid and Taxation" factsheet produced this year by the Pieterm aritzburg Agency for Christian Social Awareness (PACSA).

NO TAXATIONWITHOUT REPRESENTATION

"Taxation is not the purely technical subject most people believe it is. It is very much more a tool used by the privileged few with the necessary political clout to redistribute wealth in their favour at the expense of their victims." (Costa Divaris)

Voteless people have no say in the parliament which levies taxes and decides on expenditure. Black people do not enjoy the same benefits as whites, but pay the same taxes.

Some of the items we pay for;* Education (R2746 per white child, R387 per black child in 1985-86).* Pensions (R198 per month per white pensioner, R97 per black, 1985-86).* Aid for "independent" homelands.* Aid for white landowners.* Salaries for tricameral parliament­arians.* Salaries for civil servants and the cost of multiple departments - Health, Education,etc.* Security and military activities.* Prisons (average daily population 114,220 in Dec 1986 at nearly R l l per prisoner).

Implementation of taxation:We pay income tax through the enforcement of the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system, and also general sales tax. Revenue also comes from company tax, provisional tax, licences, duties, tolls, rates (property tax), customs, petrol. Married women are taxed together with their husbands and so pay more tax.

What proportion of taxes do individuals pay?"In seven years, the tax burden on individuals has doubled." (Econometrix)In 1987, 32% of taxes are levied on personal income, compared to 15.6% in 1980.

Penalties for non-paymentThe tax-payer is at first penalised by having interest added onto the amount owing. If this is not paid, his/her possessions are sold and the amount owing for tax is deducted. No opportunity is given to sta te reasons if one should wish to with-hold a portion of one's tax.Finally, one's estate is sequestrated and one can be imprisoned.

An alternative budgetIf this were a just society, more money would go into such needs as healthcare (especially primary healthcare in rural areas), childcare, education, housing, pensions, food subsidies, unemployment assistance and so on.

As the merchant bank Mercabank has said: "events have increasingly diverted resources from productive uses such as infrastructure creation and investment in human capital such as education, towards unproductive expenditure on defence and police actions".

COSATU's callThe Living Wage Campaign of the 710,000- strong Congress of Trade Unions uses the slogan "No Taxation Without Represent­ation" - a phrase coined over 200 years ago as a basis of the American War of Independence. One of COSATU's demands is that PAYE should not be deducted from workers' wages until all workers and their families earn enough to m eet their basic monthly living commitments.

What can we do?1. Call upon the government to use revenue justly rather than to subsidise the apartheid infrastructure with its inbuilt injustices.2. Pay less tax and give the money saved to those who are deprived of basic necessities.

Some ideas for paying less tax:Live more simply - share commodities / equipment to reduce consumerism - buy tax-free basic foods - support the informal sector - have wages paid partly in kind - avoid toll roads - provide home entertainm ent/share video-viewing - share transport - exchange garden produce for dress-making, or seedlings for jam, or whatever! Think up your own ideas!

PACSA, PO Box 2338, 3200/170 Berg Street, Pieterm aritzburg, South Africa.

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

Department ol Finance

INLAND REVENUE

1987 TAX YEAR

General Admin.

Public Debt

HOW STATE FUNDS ARE EXPENDED

nomic Services

Security Services

TAX RESISTANCE

FRGMEETING

15 members of the Friedensssteuer- initiative (FS1, peace tax campaign) met 4-6 December near the Hunsrfick cruise missile base.

NEW WTR BILLDr Paul Tidemann, a judge, is preparing a new bill. His idea is to isolate defence from other forms of government spending, so that everyone could choose whether to pay for defence.

NEW ACTIONSAfter the INF agreement, the FSI aims to raise public awarenes? that specific weapons will always be replaced by others, that a "Europeanisation" of the

military and of conventional weapons is now threatened, and that war preparations cost 25% of the federal budget. Thus taxpayers have a key role in the arms race and the militarisation of their society.

Income tax for employees is deducted at source, so only ten people refuse 25% of that at present, paying it into a central account in Heidelberg.

However, as all taxes are paid into a central fund and then allocated to defence, any tax is a valid target for a campaign, and many more people could be involved. Some ideas discussed were:

* to refuse 25% of general sales tax, eg on bills. A fter three reminders (which you don't have to pay for) you can be taken to court - meanwhile, there are possibilities for dialogue and publicity, even where tiny sums are involved.

* To mark off a quarter of each bank­note, with a slogan explaining that that portion pays for the military. Under FRG law, the banks would still be obliged to accept them.

INTERNATIONAL WORKThe FSI would welcome regular international co-operation, and meetings to cover all aspects of wtr. They don't support setting up a new international structure, nor a world peace tax fund, and would be content to pay money to an existing international fund, eg the Plowshares support fund, or any which supported social defence, nonviolent direct action, arms conversion, peace research, etc.

Friedenssteuerinitiative, c/o Wolfgang Kraup, Hauptstr. 86, 6901 Bam mental.

VISITING F R GERMANYIn October, the WRI executive committee met in Bonn. Chair David McReynolds and staffmember Veronica Kelly took this opportunity to visit Sections and other groups in F R Germany.

Invited first to Bonn by the Greens,David took part in a press conference to outline some ideas for a peace movement response to the impending INF agreements. He then went to the Hasselbach air base, where the cruise missiles are: "if East Berlin is surrounded by a wall to keep its people in, this NATO base is sur­rounded by an almost identical wall to keep out the people it is supposed to defend".

The DFG-VK then took charge, and from Bonn David went on to Niirnberg and Karlsruhe. There he watched a trial of some who had blockaded an air base, and saw the German army put on a special show of weaponry - greeted by young counter- demonstrators dressed as "walking wounded".

"Because Germany is one of those points where East and West face each other across barbed wire and walls, with loaded guns, the work of the German movement to build a non-nuclear zone is good. Even more urgent, I think, is immediate work towards demilitarising a zone in Central Europe... And it is urgent for those of us in the West to ask that the GDR take steps towards demilitarising its own society, first of all by making better provision for COs. (Here, for all its

faults, the FRG has a much better record.)"

Anticipating the INF agreements, France and the FRG are already increasing their military co-operation - joint manoeuvres, the establishment of a Franco-German battalion and talk of a putting French neutron warheads on German missiles. "It is as if some do not see the INF agree­ments as a step away from war, and in fact feel even more helpless without the nuclear weapons. Surely the most logical step now is to press for major, dramatic reductions in conventional weapons on both sides."

Meeting Rosa Link, who survived the war as a pacifist and re-established contact with Harold Bing and the London office, and seeing Uli and Sonnhild Thiel's slow, steady work in Karlsruhe, David reflec t­ed: "resisters age ... but the resistance does not age. It passes from one genera­tion to the next. We are the grass which will eventually crack the stones."

Veronica was the guest of DFG-VK in Bremen, Bad Oldesloe and Bielefeld. She also paid fleeting visits to Dieter Schoffmann of the Co-ordination for Civil Disobedience (KoZU) and the Zentralstelle fur Recht und Schutz der KDV in Bremen, and Graswurzelrevolution magazine in Hamburg.

These DFG-VK groups concentrate mainly on CO to military service and offer a regular counselling service to COs. Of

WRI's work, they were most interested in CO, for example the Prisoners for Peace campaign and the forthcoming European tour of South African COs. The groups involve very few women, but DFG-VK recently held its first women's meeting.

Each group had been involved in the Olof Palme Peace March - or float: Bremen DFG- VK had a slide show of their river trip, which featured poetry readings on board! Through the March, Bad Oldesloe and Flensburg DFG-VK made contact with GDR church people and now plan a trip to the GDR for COs from the FRG.

Discussions also covered the infamous "Berufsverbot", which bars Communists from many jobs in the FRG. Dieter Schoffman spoke of the crisis of the nonviolent movement and of a proposal to provoke a discussion on West Germany's nuclear weapon-free constitution, in view of the threatened Franco-German collab­oration on nuclear weapons - a discussion which could divide the SPD, and also the DFG-VK.

Graswurzelrevolution. FoGA's monthly magazine, is in difficulties, but staff were looking forward to the national meeting on "Nonviolent Politics in the FRG" organised by FoGA to discuss the crisis in the movement.

Sections and Associates are reminded that they are always welcome to invite a WRI representative from another country to their meetings.

WRI SECTIONSAldrig Mere Krig Mellemmollevej 7

5550 Langeskov

Denmark

Christian Pacifist Society

29 McGregors' Avenue

Christchurch 1

New Zealand

Tel: 895 075

DFG/IDK Hamburg Jungfrauenthal 37/2 Et

2000 Hamburg 13 F R Germany

Tel: +49 A0 45 34 33

DFG-VKSchuianenstrafle 16

5620 Velbert 1

F R Germany

Tel: +49 2051 4217

Fellowship of

Reconciliation 40 Harleyford Road

London SE11 5AY

Britain

Tel: +44 1 582 9054

Fellowship of

Reconciliation

Box 271

Nyack, NY 10960

USATel: +1 914 358 4601

FOGA (Federation Gewalt-

freier Aktionsgruppen)

ScharnhorststraBe 6

5000 Koln 60

F R Germany

Tel: +49 221 76 58 42

Folkereisning Not Krig

Rosenkrantzgate 18

0160 Oslo 1

NorwayTel: +47 2 42 58 65

IDK-Berlin

GneisenstraBe 2a

Mehringhof

1000 Berlin 61

F R GermanyTel: +49 30 693 8021

International Movement of

Conscientious War Resisters

P Box 28058

Tel Aviv Jafo

IsraelTel: +972 3 372252

I0T (Internationale van

Oorlogstegenstanders)

35 van Elewijckstraat

1050 Brussel

BelgiumTel: +32 2 640 19 98

Kristna Fredsrorelsen

Gotgatan 3

752 22 Uppsala

Sweden

Tel: +46 18 127505

MIR-IRG (Mouvement Inter­

national de la Reconcil­

iation/Internationale des

Resistants a la Guerre)

35 rue van Elewyck

1050 Bruxelles

Belgium

Tel: +32 2 648 5220

Movimento Nonviolento

CP 201

06100 Perugia

Italy

Tel: +39 75 30471

rnovimiento de Objecion de

Conciencia

c/ San Cosme y San Damian

24, 2f

28012 Madrid

Spain

No More War Movement

c/o S Bandhopadhyaya

2 Rajghat Colony

New Delhi 110002

India

Nonviolent Direct Action

Group

P0 Box 2

Vale Cinema Road

Chavakachcheri

Sri Lanka

Peace Pledge Union

6 Endsleigh Street

London WC1 0DX

England

Tel: +44 1 387 5501

SPAS - Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society Brannkyrkagatan 76

117 23 Stockholm

Sweden

Tel: +46 86 80200

!t kan anders

Postbus 385Amsterdam

Netherlands

Union of Conscientious

Objectors

Peace Station

Veturitori

00520 Helsinki

Finland

Tel: +358 0 140 427

Union Pacifiste de France

4 rue Lazare Hoche

92100 Bologne sur Seine

France

Tel: +33 1 46 03 27 62

Union des Pacifistes du

QuebecCP 805 sue Place du Parc

Montreal

Quebec, Canada H2U 2P3

War Resisters' League

339 Lafayette Street New York NY 10012

USA

Tel: +1 212 228 0450

War Resisters' League

CanberraP0 Box 697

Civic SquareACT 2608

Australia

lilRI Japan

Asahimachi

Abeno-ku

Osaka 545

Japan.

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WAR RESISTERS' INTERNATIONAL XIX TRIENNIAL Background paper

DEMILITARISATION

Laddawan Tantivitayapitak, Coalition for Peace and Development, Thailand

Johan Galtung has shown how imperialism constitutes the fundamental structural violence by means of whichsome groups of people oppress others - economically (exploitation), politically (domination)

T CU“Uially <alie"ation). m Southeast Asia, almost every country is considered a Third World country and, except for Thailand, has experienced centuries of colonisation under the Dutch, French and British. Thailand, although not really undergoing the experience of direct colonial rule, had to sacrifice part of its land to France and Britain.

n F H ’.the tW° Superpowers which emerged from the devastation played an imperialist role in these small countries By means of economic aid and military co-operation, differently named associations, pacts and treaties were made to establish relationships of mother states and client

A s s I s L ^ i ? i Ctiiy^ n- k3’ Vi6tnam Si9ned 3 Treaty °f FriendshiP- Co-operation and MutualkZ h ^ n°Vember 1978’ In February 1979* Vietnam and the People's Republic ofKampuchea signed a bilateral Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Co-operation, followed by Laos in Marchof he same year. The USA has bilateral security treaties with Japan, South Korea anS the Philippines. The US commitment to Thailand has been based since 1962 on the Manila Pact The US also provides military aid to Indonesia and Malaysia. Both the US and the USSR have naval bases and

h ^ h in t0 Pr0t8Ct Wh3t th8y 586 35 th6lr le9itin«te interests in the Pacific. The UShas military bases in S^uth Korea, Yokosuka and Okinawa in Japan, Subic Bay and Clark Field in the hilippines. The USSR has bases in Da Nang and Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam.

afterworld ^ 3 lanttark in the drive f°r peace a"d -ty in AsiafreeS J ' P°WerfUl international force - a group of countries which hadml l V r colonial and semi-colonial dependence. This conference became their biggest

r I b nd 9 " " W°rld 31603 °n 3 C0WTOn anti-war and democratSo, h T ' f v f c C°nference was attended bV 29 countries: Afghanistan, Burma, the-Democratic

China Laos Mheria Lph * ^ ̂ C°aSt’ Indla’ Indonesia> Jordan- ^an, Iraq, Yemen, Cambodia, China, Laos, Liberia, Lebanon, Libya, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Thailand TurkeyPhilippines, Ceylon, Ethiopia, South Vietnam and Japan. * ’

d U f p ^ r ^ v ^ ^ i ' 00'616006 W3S 311 the m°re lmP°rtant beC3USe its Participants represented ThP P° regimes and socio-political systems at different levels of economic developrentThe Declaration on the Promotion of World Peace and Co-operation adopted in Bandung testified to the deep concern of the newly-free nations for the future of the world. They stressed in it Z tdeve!nnSf tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours and

co-operation". In September 1981, the 8th non-alignment movement conference in Harare assembled more than 100 nations.

However, conflicts with their source after World War II are still flowing through deep streams of

er8StS by tw0 suPerP°wers. Ideological differences are used to blur the true interests which lie behind the scene. It is not easy to get out from under the trap that has i^St^ionalised . . c°untries for such a long time. The interlinkages of interest among the ruler elites and dominant superpowers are difficult to break. However, people's movements are getting rong^r and have an impact on political balances in the region. yetting stronger and

People power in the Philippines has shaken US domination over the government of the Philippines especially concerning the presence of military bases. As this study is being J t L n / S T S T t o

, a olish and forbid the entry of nuclear weapons into the Philippines is expected to be passed bv p arliam ent. I t . a s a c tu a lly a lread y in th e c o n s t it u t io n . S u ccess * p a ssin g ^ a . . i n ” “ e th e

f i r s step towards th e v ic to r y o f th e P h iU p p in e people oyer u s dom ination. The r e T a l o f S t e s «

studeni- an0t f . 9°al for the Ph^iPPine people. Thailand successfully had US bases removed by the

S 1 7 7 “ Y ■ bUt ^ US S t i U eXerClSeS stro n 9 dominance o 'e r th e T h a f ^ Z S t

in VMS 7 “ l ° re“ lv e la r 9 e a" °unts ° f " i l i t a r y a id (U S$100 m illio n in 1987 and US$43 m illio nin 1988 excluding other forms of military aid like credits for F-16 fighters or war reserves oc piles under the joint Thai-US agreement to stockpile US arms in Thailand).

To demilitarise is to militarise people's thinking and courage.- People think when they have knowledge. People have courage when their self-confidence in their power is built up.Demilitarisation can be true only when this world is disarmed. The best way is through the initiative of the Superpower countries. The US and the USSR Summit on INF is a good step that should be taken further. However, the build-up of confidence can be firmly cemented only through a people- to-people movement. On the regional level, like in Southeast Asia, a small scope of action can be initiated to disarm and to create an atmosphere that will be able to bring trust and friendship.

The experience in bridging the gaps between people of different ideological systems shows how significant people are in influencing the trend to improve country-to-country relations. For quite a long time, people have been kept in the box of day-to-day problems. To get them out from their daily-life box, they will need a chance to be exposed to the wider world. Foreign matters have been controlled and determined by a few power-holders, who are inevitably dominated by the superpowers.It is undeniable that foreign influences have a strong influence on our daily lives. It is only by bringing this knowledge to the people's minds that we can make them aware and encourage them to voice

their demands.

After World War II, they had the Bandung Conference and started the non-alignment movement. It is the fault of the governing group of people that these were unsuccessful in bringing peace and nonviolence to this world. It must be time now for the people themselves to bring nonviolence and peace. Only people who can disarm the people who arm. There is no threat perception [2] when people of differences meet people of differences. My belief was really confirmed when Laotians, from a socialist country, met Thai people, the question of "communist as damn ghost just dispersed into the air". When people have no fear, they will have trust, and an atmosphere of trust brings friendship. With friendship, there is both giving and receiving in the relationship. There will be no place for arms, for arms sellers, or for the instigation of armed conflicts. Fear is the illusion built up in people's minds by the ruling elite, uniting with external powers to hold on to their interests and status in controlling their world. We fear when we are blind and don't really know what is going on. Buddha teaches that lack of knowledge creates illusions. The conflicts of ideological systems are also illusions, but illusions that are ill-created and are used by the powers to protect themselves

at the expense of the death of peoples.

Whatsoever, must we really spend our time and energy in competition when there are so many real and inescapable problems which affect us all - such as poverty and overpopulation, pollution, and the depletion of non-renewable resources, to mention only three? If the members of the human family of nations approach these problems together, they can be overcome. But if each member of the family is only concerned with his/her interests, the problems will get more severe and the outcome will be

disaster.

"Russia and America are both inspired by a deep sense of mission: an urge to create a world community in which all men and women will live in peace, prosperity and freedom. Both are 'young nations', vigorous but psychologically insecure, and both sense that they belong to the future rather than the past. The view that there is only one method of creating a better world, either through communism or through capitalism, is beginning to be seen as an illusion. It has already been pointed out that, in the Soviet Union, the pressure for civil liberties and political democracy exerted by an increasingly educated public is soon likely to become insistent, a development which will be greatly stimulated by the current micro-electronic revolution which will make it increasingly difficult for the Government of a country to keep its people in ignorance. When the Soviet Union has liberalised its socialism, and the United States has socialised its liberalism, then the illusion of enmity should fall away and the true destiny of both countries become clear: to collaborate in solving the real problems which confront the human race." This was written by the man who is probably the greatest Russian alive today, Andrei Sakharov [3].

Another measure that demilitarisation should take into account is CBMs (confidence-building measures) [4], The concept of CBMs became known as an element of the Final Act of the CSCE, signed in Helsinki by 35 participating States in 1975. The Final Act has a section entitled "Document on confidence- building measures and certain aspects of security and disarmament". This document shows that the participating States had agreed on both the purpose and the specific content of the measures.

According to the preamble of the document, their purpose is to: ■- Eliminate the causes of tension that may exist among them and thus contribute to the

strengthening of peace and security in the worlds- Strengthen confidence among them and thus contribute to increasing stability and security,

- Exclude in their mutual relations, as well as in their international relations in general, the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or

in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations;- Contribute to reducing the dangers of armed conflict and of misunderstanding or miscalculation

of military activities which could give rise to apprehension, particularly in situations where the participating States lack clear and timely information about the nature of such activities.

Confidence-building measures could be effectively complemented by steps to promote the economic independence of Asian nations, for example by creating a regional infrastructure, promoting environmental measures, sponsoring international seminars and symposia, exchanging experts, charting joint economic development plans, sharing scientific and technological information, etc. Coupled with steps towards military detente, such measures would help develop a basis for stable political

and economic ties and hence a peaceful environment in the region.

Gene Sharp [5] has suggested an alternative policy of deterrence and defence called "civilian-based defence". That is a defence policy which utilises prepared civilian struggle - nonviolent action - to preserve the society's freedom, sovereignty and constitutional system against internal usurpations and external invasions and occupations. The aim is to deter in order to defeat such attacks. This is to be done not simply by efforts to alter the will of the attacker, but by the capacity to make effective domination and control impossible, by both massive and selective nonviolent non-co- operation and defiance by the population and its institutions. The aim is to make the populace unrulable by the attackers and to deny them their objectives. A genuine capacity to do that, if accurately perceived, could deter both internal takeovers and foreign invasions.

Thus, demilitarisation can be true when the world is disarmed, resources are equally distributed and people are living in harmony with nature. They will have more exchanges of ideas with more openness. People will have a chance to be more exposed to the differences in cultures, beliefs and ideologies.

Then the world can be in peace.

1. "Bandung and a Search for Ways to Peace and Security", Pacific Ocean Security, an International Peace and Disarmament Series of Scientific Research Council on Peace and Disarmament.

2. see Chandran Jeshurun, Threat Perception and Defence Spending in Southeast Asia: An Assessment,

in Defence Spending in Southeast Asia edited by Chin Kin Wah.

3. D.M.A. Legett and C.M. Waterlow, "Illusion and Reality: From Confrontation to Co-operation", The

War Games that Superpowers Play.

4. Klaus Tornudd, Confidence- and Security-Building Measures: definition and history of the concept, Regional Conference for the World Disarmament Campaign, May 1986/Tbilisi, USSR.

5. Gene Sharp, Making the Abolition of War a Realistic Goal.

Making international connections in our work is very important to us. WRL members have represented us on various international trips and at conferences; places include Libya, USSR, West Germany, Poland, and the Philippines. David McReynolds, WRL staffperson and WRI outgoing Chair, took part in the Palestinian Boat of Return activity in February 1988. And we continue to host and assist international visitors to the U.S.We are currently making plans for a new project, a Resist Third World War Campaign. The campaign will make global connections between the U.S.'s role in the world and threats to global security.

This is brief and gives some idea of our work. Please ask me or any of the other WRL Triennial representatives for more information about any of these activities.

Carol Jahnkow War Resisters LeagueSection Representative 339 Lafayette St.P.O. Box 157 New York, New YorkEncinitas, California 92024 U.S.A. 10012 U.S.A.(619) 753-7518 (212) 228-0450

I I

WAR RESISTERS LEAGUE U.S. Section Report

1906-1988

WHO ARE WE?

The War Resisters League (WRL) is the major non-religious pacifist organization in the United States. Our membership is approximately 12,000. Our national office is based In New York City, with three regional offices in Norwich. Connecticut, San Francisco, California, and Durham, North Carolina. In addition, there are approximately 17 "locals," smaller groupings in communities spread around the country. WRL's National Committee, comprised of representatives from around the U.S., meets twice a year to establish program and policy. Communication with members takes place through WRL's publication, The Nonviolent Activist. published 8 times a year which is mailed to 16.000 people, as well as through "Key Contact List Mailings," sent out every 4 to 6 weeks to approximately 325 activists In our network. The Key Contact mailing contains a page of international news (we welcome receiving information from you that could be used for this page).

WHAT DO WE DO?

WRL works on a variety of issues, among them disarmament, the draft and counter-recruitment, feminism and nonviolence, racism, war tax resistance and U.S. intervention.

WHAT HAVE WE DONE SINCE THE LAST TRIENNIAL?

Some of our work has included:

We sponsored two U.S. tours by End Conscription Campaign activists;Gavin Evans in 1986 and Laurie Nathan in 1987. Both tours went well; both Laurie and Gavin met with many groups and organizations and were interviewed by the media; all of which brought a lot of attention to the situation in South Africa. Along with Laurie's tour, we developed an educational packet, "The Violence of Racism and Militarism: The U.S. and South Africa," which deals with the connections between racism and militarism and with nonviolent opposition to both. This packet continues to be used.

To help reach young people with information on our issues. WRL's Draft and Counter-Recruitment Task Force developed a one-time magazine, SPEW. The format of SPEW is like the "fanzines" or "fan magazines" that young people read about popular music. SPEW contains articles exploring music and politics, student's rights, draft registration, the poverty draft, civil disobedience and direct action, apathy and other topics of interest to young people. Many of the articles were written by young activists. The response to SPEW was very exciting, bringing many requests from young

people for information about WRL. As a follow-up to SPEW, we are developing a small poster/leaflet series also directed at youth. The first two leaflets are completed. One, uses lyrics from popular songs to make political points and the second describes "the malignancy of militarism." WRL also co-sponsored a recent conference in Chicago on "Youth and Militarism."

In 1987, WRL's Feminism and Nonviolence Task Force completed a packet, "Daring to Change: Perspectives on Feminism and Nonviolence." The packet, which contalnes information, ideas and organizing tips for activists focuses on providing background to action, a section for women struggling with nonviolence on a personal level, and explores the role of feminism In the peace movement today. WRL also sent 5 representatives to WRI's Women's Gathering In Ireland in July 1987.

To help organizers for the annual Hiroshima and Nagasaki Commemoration activities, WRL produced a packet of materials, "The Hope of Never Again." One of the key Ideas developed by WRL for Hiroshima Day in 1986 was the "World War III Memorial Wall," patterned after the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. WRL's Memorial Wall consists of movable display panels covered with pages from the New York City Phone Directory— the victims of World War III. WRL played a key role.-in coordinating Hiroshima/Nagasaki Day Information about activities nationwide.

A lot of WRL work is also done out of our regional offices. The New England Office continues to be in the forefront of anti-war toy activity. 1988 was the first year since 1982 that the sale of war toys did not go up. WRL's Stop War Toys materials are used throughout the U.S. by other organizations. Other educational work on this issue has Included a conference in 1987, "Countering Rambomania: A Conference on Children and Violence in Society." leafletting and demonstrations at the annual toy manufacturers conference in New York and at Coleco, manufacturer of the Rambo doll. Work has focused most recently on the G.I. Joe doll line of products. They are doing more and more international war toys work and recently presented a workshop at the International Conference prior to _ SSDIII. Other work includes developing and maintaining a regional network of nonviolence trainers and work against the Trident II submarine.

WRL's Southeast Regional office in North Carolina is active in opposing the military in that state. North Carolina ranks fourth In the U.S. in the size of military payroll, with Fort Bragg being the largest active military base in the country and Camp Lejune the second largest Marine Base in the world. Opposition has included marches and vigils at Camp Lejune. a training ground for Central America exercises. There were demonstrations at both Camp Lejune and Fort Bragg to protest the sending of U.S. troops to Honduras. The Western Region Office has also been active in the war toys issue as well as counter-recruitment work and has just published a packet on "How to Place Counter-Recruitment ads in High School Newspapers."

WRL has also worked on organizing for various demonstrations such as Cape Canaveral Actions in January 1987, Nevada Test Site Protests, SSD-III Actions and so on. WRL members also participated in the Gay and Lesbian March on Washington, D.C. in October 1987; WRL members coordinated the nonviolence training for the civil disobedience action at the Supreme Court.

WRI NEWSLETTER APR/MAY 1988

2

BEL AU: VICTORY IN COURT

Pressure mounts on Greek Government

"Thanassis Makris= five years for co

Judge R obert H efner ruled in Belau on A pril 23 th a t the Constitutional Amend­ment referendum from August last year w as I n v a l id . T h u s th e re fe re n d u m approving a Compact of Free Association b e tw een Belau and the U nited S ta tes failed to be approved since it did not receive the necessary 75% voter approval. B elau 's n u c le a r-fre e C onstitution there­fore remains in full legal effect.

The legal case was reflled March 31 by 22 women plaintiffs whose earlier case on the sam e issue had been withdrawn last September following the murder of Bedor Bins, father of attorney Roman Bedor and p la in tiff B ernle Keldermans, and several firebomblngs and th re a ts ag a in s t plain­tiffs' homes and families.

■ Judge H efner h ea rd argum ents on April 21. He ruled In his 32-page opinion, that th e r e w as no le g a l " In c o n s is te n c y " b e tw e e n th e C o n s t i t u t i o n and th e Com pact and thus the am endm ent was In v a l id . I t w ould h av e re d u c e d the requ ired p e rcen tag e of v o te rs to 50%. A m ending the law has to go through normal ra tif ic a tio n , Including a referen­dum during a Presidential election, as will occur Oils November.

The court did not rule on issues of voter h a ra s sm e n t and in t im id a t io n , on the I l le g a l use o f g o v e rn m e n t funds to cam paign the Compact, or the argument th a t the n u c le a r-fre e provisions of the Constitution cannot be changed except by the 75 % voter approval process.

The G overnm ent o f P alau has appealed th e ru l in g . T h e ir a p p e a l , w h ich Is expec ted to fa ll, w ill be heard by a Belauan three-judge panel In late June or July. A combined Constitutional Amend­m ent and C om pact ratification plebiscite could b e ' held sim ultaneously with the November election.

An ea rlie r Compact referendum could be called If President Salii thinks he can get 75 % - this may be possible if he carries out his th rea ten ed Government employee d ism issa l in Ju ly o r if v io lence and tension continues. However, for the first time in several years, President Salii has publicly acknowledged that Belau's courts have a valid part to play In this process.

The level of overt violence has subsided somewhat, but fear and tensions lurk Just b e n e a th th e s u r f a c e . T he p la in t i f f s re f ra in e d from ce le b ra tin g a f te r the ir court v ictory in o rd e r no t to provoke violent reaction. Although there has been one trfal and conviction for last Septem­b er's shooting Into the home o f House Speaker Santos OUkong, no charges have been brought for the m urder o f Bedor Bins or the numerous other shootings.

In a shock ruling, Thanassis Makris was sentenced to five years In prison on May 26 - even though the Greek Government says it will soon introduce legislation to recognise CO.

Thanassis w as tr ied befo re a m ilita ry court and it seems that the military wish to show what they think of the proposed recogn ition of CO. The prosecutor - a colonel - called for a sentence of seven years.

■ 12 A pril - Greek Easter - Thanassis Makris, visiting his parents in Kavalla, Is arrested and begins a hunger strike.

■ 26 A p ril - M ichalls M aragakls, on h u n g er s t r ik e s in c e 22 F e b ru a ry , is rep o rted to be dangerously weak and is taken into m ilita ry h osp ita l. His pulse r a te has fa llen dramatically and he has lost 30 kg In weight.

■ 30 April - The son of Prime Minister Papandreou, himself a member of parlia­ment, visits Michalls In hospital.

■ 1 May - Greek government promises to introduce new legislation recognising CO. Michalls and Thanassis end hunger strike. The G overnm ent announces that Michalls Is to be released.

■ 10 May - As provisions of the promised law are still not public, Thanassis resumes hunger strike In Kavalla Military Prison.

■ 26 May - Thanassis sentenced to five y e a r s , a lo n g e r s e n te n c e th a n th a t Imposed on any of the 300 or so COs now In p r is o n . M ic h a lls s t i l l In p r iso n , regaining s tren g th but likely to resume hunger strike In support of Thanassis.

The M inistry o f D efence, It seem s, is willing to release Michalls and Thanassis on health grounds, but no t on political grounds.

NEW LAW IN JUNE?

The Greek CO Committee expects the new law to be passed by the end of June. In July Greece will take over the chair In th e EEC and s o c ia l i s t M em bers o f European Parliament have widely protest­ed against G reece's maltreatment of COs. G reece is the only member of the EEC

a ttitu d e . Now the heads o f these two states are however sitting on a treaty of friendship.

WRI has heard that the Greek military is putting sev ere p ressu re on the govern­m ent, demanding that alternative service should only be allowed after two month's conscrip tion and it should be twice the length of m ilitary service which now is 28 months.

C onditions in the Greek army are very bad - many suicides are committed yearly within it and it is common for young men to g e t k il le d In " a c c id e n ts " . During M ichalls' hunger strike the Greek press s ta r te d taking a more positive attitude tow ards COs and this has also changed public opinion.

ECOLOGISTS AND ANARCHISTS IN OPPOSITION

The G reek CO Committee, consisting of 19 COs, w ill not a ccep t an alternative which would be more than one and a half times as long as military service. At the m om ent th e Com m ittee knows of two total resisters in the country.

B abis B ikos (28) from T h e ssa lo n ik i, G reece's third political CO and first total re s ls te r , refused call-up to the (military) Engineers' Education Centre In Nafplio on 7 M arch . He d ec la red to the A thens newspaper 'E lefcerotlpla': "I won't report for se rv ice , nor w ill I w rite a le t te r giving my reasons for refusing military se rv ice ..." He is no t asking for CO sta tu s as: "I do no t Intend to ask for confirmation of what is my natural right".

B abis is supported by the lib e rta rian group "Anarchist proposal". This was the first Greek group to declare Itself against c o n sc r ip tio n in a so lidarity m anifesto when M ichalls M aragakls f irs t took a public stand as a CO. Babis says: "I do no t accep t this soc ie ty which doesn 't In teg ra te everybody equally and margin­a lises everyone who has personality of their own. It is an exploitative society."

T hanassis M akris (22) is a student from A thens and an activist In the ecological

WRI NEWSLETTER APR/MAY 1988

MICHALIS’ APPEALAs M ic h a lls M a ra g a k is Is th e f i r s t po litica l CO In G reece and has even endangered his life for th is cause, his p e rs o n a l in p u t In th e cam p a ig n fo r alternative service has been enormous. To give an idea about him and his demands, WRI Newsletter publishes here extracts of a letter which he wrote in April to his friends.

"Dear friends,

"My only "mistake" is that I believed in establishing real peace by way of personal p a rtic ip a tio n and th a t I love everybody irrespective of racial and national origin and I want to contribute to the people's needs in my country without contradicting my conscience.

"My only persistent claim Is my release and recogn ition o f my Imprisonment as part of my service and that I be allowed to do the re s t of it in civilian service outside the military.

" In d eed In a g re e m e n t w ith the town Mayor of Mytilini in the Island of Lesvos in the Aegean Sea by the Turkish shore,I have offered to serve within the various m unicipal sec to rs to b en e fit the social w e lfa re o f th e Iso lated and deprived p o p u la tio n o f the Island. Our rad ica l propositions and our acts are those that w ill bring a just solution to our case. This Is what I wish.

"D ear friends a t this difficult moment I w an t you to help me by le ttin g the people, the pacifist groups or organisat­ions know about my struggle. It will be q u ite h e lp fu l If p ro te s t cam paigns or happenings take place In Greek embassies In European countries and If people write articles and protest letters to the press.

"It is true that there is a lot of people In G reece who love th is g re a t cause. U n fo r tu n a te ly h o w e v e r th e h is to rica l ex p erien ce o f the Turkish occupation In th e p a s t co m b in ed w ith th e r e c e n t p ro v o c a t io n s a g a in s t G reece and the u naccep tab le b a rb a ric occupation o f a part of the Cypriot coutry have created a climate, a view that hinders an anti-war, a n tl-m llita r ls tlc persp ec tiv e to develop. This p ersp ec tiv e Is heavily fostered by the military, political and religious circles for th e ir own b en efit. N ational "pride" and readiness to wage wars are regarded as factors of security."

Michalls Marqgakls Avlona Military Prison STG 902 D AttlU 19011

Thanassls Makris Kavalla Military Prison 65110 Kavalla

Info from EXO Issavron 10, Dafnomlll Athens 11471 Tel +30 1 364 1266

Protests to

pac ifis t and an ecologist, was sentenced In June last year to four years ' Imprison­m ent but the sen tence was reduced to tw o y e a r s on a p p e a l th is Ja n u a ry . M ichalls Is still w aiting for the final appeal in the Supreme Court. The Greek su p p o r t co m m ittee fo r C O s c o n s is ts la rg e ly of members o f the ecological movement ac tive mostly In Athens and Thessaloniki.

There are about 300 Jehovah's Witnesses In G reek p r iso n s . M ost G re e k s who oppose m ilitary service either leave the country or try to evade conscription on grounds of physical or mental unfitness. An estimated 16 000 young men have left th e c o u n t r y . T he c o n s c r ip t io n law provides for a non-combatant service of four years In the army. Earlier this year

I f you believe that war is a crime against

humanity - i f when you think o f war, violence

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m e

W AR RESISTERS' INTERNATIO NAL XVIII TRIENNIAL

RESISTANCEAND

RECONSTRUCTIONSWARA] ASHRAM VEDCHHI ■ INDIA

. RESISTANCE AND RECONSTRUCTION ^he power o f n o n vio len ceR E S IS T A N C E A N D R E C O N ST R U C T IO N : TH E POWER O F N O N V IO LEN C EY ear b y y ea r h u m a n k in d ’s cap ac ity fo r d es tru c tio n m o u n ts . In te rm s o f th e n u c lea r th re a t a lone , th e w o rld ’s n u c lea r arsenals c o n ta in th e eq u iva len t o f m ore th an 3 to n s o f h igh exp losive fo r each p e rso n in th e w o rld , w hile n u c lea r re ac to rs are p ro d u c in g huge q u an titie s o f w aste w h ich w ill rem ain h igh ly to x ic fo r g enera tions . B ut in m a n y o th e r w ays, to o , th e very m eans to life are in d an g er o f d e s tru c tio n .

F o r som e p a rts o f th e w o rld , c a ta s tro p h e seem s im m i­n e n t; fo r o th e rs , it has a lread y arrived in th e fo rm o f w ar, fam in e , disease an d p o llu tio n .

T he n eed fo r change is u rg e n t. B ut if the scale o f th e p re sen t peril is g rea te r th a n ever, an d if som e hazards are o n ly n ow being id e n tif ie d , th e ro o ts o f th e global crisis are d e e p . T h e change req u ired th e re fo re has to be seen as a fu n d a m e n ta l and far-reach ing p rocess.

W RI’s roleWar R esis te rs’ In te rn a tio n a l is based u p o n its m em b ers’ c o m m itm e n t to seek change: to resist w ar and to strive to e ra d ic a te the causes o f w ar. T h is persona l co m m it­m e n t has to lead to co llec tive ac tio n — b o th to challenge th e sy s tem s o f d o m in a tio n and ex p lo ita tio n w hich im peril o u r p la n e t an d to c rea te societies w hich respec t life.

The Eighteenth TriennialT he T rien n ia l co n fe ren ce in V edchh i w ill p lay a vital p a rt in deve lop ing W R I’s w orld p rog ram m e. I t is w here we ev a lu a te o u r p rogress, re-affirm o u r co m m itm en t an d w o rk o u t h o w to s tren g th en o u r effectiveness. A w are o f th e dangers th e w orld faces, we seek to k ind le th e v ision o f a w o rld w ith o u t w ar and opp ressio n . As w ell as sharing o u r experiences o f resistance and c o n ­s tru c tiv e w o rk , w e seek to p ro p o se stra teg ies o f ac tio n , to d e te rm in e o u r p rio ritie s an d to set rea listic goals.

F o r th is T rien n ia l, W RI is m ak ing a g rea te r e ffo rt than ever to reach o u t b e y o n d E u ro p e and N o rth A m erica to

en co u rag e th e p a rtic ip a tio n o f g rass-roo ts ac tiv is ts from A sia , C en tra l and S o u th A m erica, and A frica .

T h e co n fe ren ce venue is itself a s ta te m e n t. I t is in In d ia , a c o u n try w h ich has th ro u g h o u t th is c e n tu ry p ro v id ed in sp iring ex am p les o f th e p o w er o f n o n v io le n t a c tio n — o f m o v em en ts w h ich b o th resist in ju stice and u n d e rta k e co n s tru c tiv e w o rk to rebuild so c ie ty fro m th e b o tto m . B ut also a c o u n try w hich c o n tin u e s to su ffe r the d ep red a tio n s o f in te rn a tio n a l cap ita l — m o st re cen tly w itn essed in th e po ison ing o f th o u sa n d s o f p eo p le w ho lived n ear th e U n ion C arbide p la n t at B hopal.

B y a tte n d in g th e conference o r su b m ittin g w ork ing papers , w ar resisters have th e o p p o r tu n ity to te ll o f th e ir ow n struggles an d to leam ab o u t th o se in o th e r p a rts o f the w o rld . T h ey can express th e ir view s n o t o n ly on how th e In te rn a tio n a l shou ld develop b u t o n th e d ire c tio n o f th e in te rn a tio n a l peace m ovem ent as a w h o le . By tak ing u p o u r In d ia n h o s ts ’ o ffer to arrange v isits to G an d h ian p ro je c ts — b e fo re and a fter th e T rien n ia l — p a rtic ip a n ts fro m o u ts id e In d ia can gain new insigh ts and con so lid a te re la tio n sh ip s w ith th e Ind ian m o v em en t.

THE T R IE N N IA L THEME AND A G E N D AT he m ain th e m e o f the T rien n ia l is R esis tance and R e c o n s tru c tio n : th e pow er o f nonv io lence . In p a rticu la r, we w ill focus o n : S trategies for D e-m ilita risa tion (e.g. resisting foreign bases, strategies against m ilita ry in te r­v e n tio n , u n d o in g th e m ilitary b loc sy s tem );

R e-bu ild ing a b a lan ced ecology (e.g. a p p ro p r ia te te c h n o l­ogy and n o n v io le n t econom ics, fo o d and d isa rm am en t, co m p e tit io n fo r resources);

H um an righ ts an d se lf-de te rm ina tion (e.g. m ilita rism and rep ression , v io lence against w o m e n /w o m e n against v io lence , racism and cu ltu ral im perialism , co n sc ien tio u s o b jec tio n ) .

E ach d a y , th e T rien n ia l w ill begin w ith a sh o r t re p o r t from a p a rtic u la r cam paign. We will then d iv ide in to som e 20 w o rk sh o p s w hich will each m ee t fo r th e fo u r

m orn ing sessions. T his w ill give p eo p le th e o p p o rtu n ity to exp lo re a subject in d ep th , tak ing it fro m analysis th rough to proposing a stra tegy .

T he a fte rn o o n s will o ffe r a varie ty o f w o rk sh o p s and p re sen ta tio n s , giving peop le th e chance to exchange in ­fo rm ation o r to show m ateria l from th e ir ow n cam paigns. Suggestions fo r a f te rn o o n w o rk sh o p s are w elcom e. We need b ackg round papers fo r w o rk sh o p s, som e o f w hich will be m ailed in S ep tem b er and o th e rs h an d ed o u t at the con ference . We also h o p e th a t m an y p a rtic ip an ts will b ring slideshow s o r p o s te r and lite ra tu re displays to p resen t a t the C onference .

The evenings will m ain ly be u n sch ed u led b u t w e know th a t th e re w ill be m usic and im p ro m p tu m eetings.

Dec 30 — W RI C ouncil m em bers arrive a t V edchh i.Dec 31 - M orning, WRI C ouncil m ee ts , C on ference

p a rtic ip an ts register— A fte rn o o n , O pening session o f con ference

(plenary)— Evening, W estern N ew Y ear’s Eve Party

Jan 1-4 — O pen C onference w orkshopsJan 5-6 — WRI business m eetingJan 7 — M eeting o f new ly-elected W RI C ouncil

A fu l ler agenda f o r the m orn in g sessions will be available with the registration fo rm . Would-be partic ipants should register b y the end o f A ugust, as the con ference is restricted to 3 0 0 people. Child care p ro v id ed during work sessions.The co n ference fe e will be £30, including th e background mailing, p lu s 180 rupees board f o r the O pen Conference , or 240 rupees fr o m D ecem b er 31 — January 7 ( m orn ing).

The venueT he Sw araj A shram is a G andh ian c o m m u n ity in V edchhi, som e 55 km s from S u ra t in G u ja ra t. A cco m m o d a tio n there w ill be in d o rm ito rie s unless yo u have a d isab ility o r any o th e r special need . D etails o f how to get there , advice on w h a t to b ring and hea lth p re c a u tio n s to take in Ind ia , a n d in fo rm a tio n on to u rs b e fo re and a fte r the C o n feren ce w ill all be sen t o u t in o u r p re-C onference m ailing in S ep tem b er.

31 DECEMBER 1985-7JANUARY1986 P f r l SWARAJ ASHRAM VEDCHHI • INDIA

WAR RESISTERS' INTERNATIONAL XIX TRIENNIAL Background Paper

NONVIOLENT TRAINING: A DISSENTING VIEW by David McReynolds, War Resisters League, USA

When the WRI Council originally voted to lay aside a full day for nonviolent training, I was upset because I felt this is a technique, just as voting is a technique, or organising legal demonstrations is a technique, and taking one full day was too much. The later decision to use at least part of this day to discuss the issue - including the problems some of us have with nonviolent training - leaves me satisfied we have reached a more balanced decision that will be helpful to all of us.

As I made notes for this paper, I thought back to my very early days in the movement. And I realised that my objection is rot to nonviolent training in itself, but to the over-emphasis (at times almost a fetish quality) we have given to it. Nonviolent training has come a long way from my first encounter with a Trotskyist version of in 1949 or 1950. I had just joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation and was not yet a member either of the Socialist Party or War Resisters League. Students from my campus (UCLA in Los Angeles) were to take part in a joint demonstration against Franco (remember Franco?) and the main group organising the demonstration was a small Trotskyist organisation. The Socialist Party was co-sponsoring the event and since I had a number of friends in the SP, I was going along, but I said I would not take part in the demonstration, only watch it, because the Trotskyist organisers would not agree to adopt the CORE discipline. (CORE was the Congress On Racial Equality, a pacifist organisation using nonviolent tactics top desegregate restaurants and other public places. CORE was organised along Gandhian lines and its nonviolent discipline was based on absolute nonviolence in its public actions. It did not, however, have extensive "nonviolent training programmes".)

The demonstration in question was one of a series across the United States in support of some anti-Franco actions in Spain at that time. In Los Angeles, we found that the first demonstrations (at Los Angeles City College) had been broken up by a mob stirred up by the college administration. So our demonstration- our "return to the scene of the riot" so to speak - was a risky one. And the organisers (the Trotskyists) had taken steps of their own to provide protection - though it hardly counted as nonviolent training. Yet those instructions stick in my mind, and are worth repeating here, as an effort by a group facing an organised mob and trying to prevent violence.

We were told, first, that if people began to heckle our speakers, then those of us in the support groups should be carefully scattered throughout the crowd and begin random shouts of "Let the guy speak" and "Come on, this is America, everyone has a right to talk". If this didn't keep hecklers to a minimum, then our people were to go over to the most vigorous hecklers and say, "You know, what you are saying makes sense. But I can barely hear you over the noise from the speaker - why not both of us get to the edge of the crowd, so I can hear you better because I think what you are saying is really important and I want to hear it".

If all else failed, if we couldn't "pull" the hecklers to the edge of the crowd for a "one on one" discussion, then the women in our group, counting on the notorious male chauvinism of the right wing, were to go up to anyone about to attack one of us and say "Come on, what do you think you are doing? Shame on you! Leave the guy alone". If all of these tactics failed to prevent an attack on our speakers, then all of us would abandon our various "scattered" positions in the crowd (where we were hoping to act like carbon rods in a radioactive pile, damping down excitement) and would move to the truck where our speaker would be standing, would lock arms and form a human chain around the truck. And, as a final defence - a sort of ultimate weapon - if anyone actually attacked one our people, that person would shout in a loud voice, "Get the goddamn queer away from me - did you see what that queer tried to do - get the queer away". The assumption (a reasonable one) being that any tough guy who had grabbed you and was called a queer was much more likely to run in humiliation than stand and explain that he only wanted to beat you up.

I doubt the anarchists or socialists in Spain ever heard of our demonstrations but the event went well - and despite a mob gathering, and despite efforts by the Administration to stir them into attack, these rudimentary instructions kept the peace, our speakers spoke, and our rally ended without a single fist reaching any of us.

Separating trainira from actionfine of those workina on nonviolent traininq - Joanne Sheehan - is a friend whose work I respect enormously, because her life and work rebut the concept of nonviolence training being academic. She is a grass-roots organiser, who has not separated "training" from "action" and understand the value of (and the links between) vigils, voting, demonstrations, community forums, constructive work, and nonviolent training. So that, when I look at what Joanne does, most of my fears vanish.

But I still have problems. Nonviolence training has, to some extent, always been with us. When I came into the movement in the late 1940s, Bayard Rustin of the Fellowship of Reconciliation was running nonviolent workshops in which discussions about nonviolence were always linked to using it. (After a workshop discussion, the group then go out and do something in the way of a nonviolent action, such as trying to desegregate a restaurant). However, some time in the late 1960s or early 1970s, the Movement for a New Society (MNS), organised in Philadelphia, "rediscovered the wheel and took it off the car" - that is, nonviolence was now taught as role-playing, often with a good deal of action, some of it rough.

Of the MNS training programmes, it must be said not as an attack but as a practical observation, that the mass nonviolent actions of the 1960s and 1970s in the US were not organised by NWS and in some cases there was very sharp reaction to the overly formal structures of "nonviolent training" being imposed on the demonstrations. But this approach - affinity groups, the opposition to any form of leadership, the emphasis on talking things through until consensus was reached, and, particularly, the emphasis on civil disobedience as being the primary tactic - came largely from the anti-nuclear movement, a movement which itself was "new age", hostile to earlier methods of organising, and characterised by being white and middle class.

I don't favour the kind of special "nonviolence training" sessions NWS set up in which people "learned" nonviolence the way one might learn a foreign language. I do not believe one should separate training from action. Because, to take the language analogy further, if I learn Spanish but do not use it, I will lose it. Our to learn is sharpened by our need to know. We pay more attention to lessons which we expect will be used tomorrow, than to lessons which have a distant, abstract quality to them.

However, I also must admit that some of us can forget how much training we ourselves picked up and how useful it was. Those of us who speak in public, who organise demonstrations, who negotiate with police, who get arrested - we may have forgotten our own early, profound terrors. I remember that the first time I tried to speak in public after starting college - it was at an open forum organised by a Communist front student group and I was asking a "hostile" question about the problem of violence as a method of social change - I felt so out of place in an environment where I knew most of the audience was against me, that my throat went dry, my voice rose in pitch as if I were about to cry, and I found to my horror and embarrassment that I simply couldn't speak, my voice squeaked to a pointless conclusion and I had to sit down. (I suspect some reading this will find it hard to believe there was ever a time when I couldn't speak - too freely, too often, too long.) So too with the first arrest, let alone the first legal demonstration, or even the most silent and respectful vigil - the first time is a trauma for any of us.(It is also, in a special way, a liberation, a "point of no return", of discovering strength in ourselves we had not known existed.) Any nonviolence discussion or informal training that can make the fearful seem more possible - I need to remember that I needed this, and others need it, and thus I need to make clear that I am not opposed to nonviolent training in some unconditional sense.

Faith in the masses

But let's look at some of the problems and limits involving nonviolent training. There are aspects of the training movement which are cultish. The extreme stress on consensus, on "affinity groups", on "spokes", "training of trainers", etc. With Rosa Luxemburg, I have faith in the masses - if they perceive the situation clearly. I would stress political education as being primary over training. In this connection, let me list examples of successful actions involving little or no training.

In New York City in 1960 and 1961, War Resisters League organised mass protests to the compulsory civil defence drills. These were drills, begun in 1955, in which everyone in New York State was required to take shelter for 15 minutes or more after a special air raid siren sounded. We faced a possible year in prison if we did not take shelter and remain there until the "all clear" siren started. Starting in 1955, the Catholic Worker and the WRL had challenged the law but the demonstrations remained acts of “witness", involving a handful of people (among whom were Judith Malina and Julian Beck of the Living Theatre). But in 1960, WRL decided to launch a full-scale demonstration against the drills. We did not have any classes

of any kind in nonviolent training. We did not even put "NONVIOLENT ACTION" in capital letters at the top

of our material.

We said the following:1) If you do not believe in civil disobedience, but you also oppose the compulsory civil defence drills as part of preparation for nuclear war, come to City Hall Park on the day of the drill and remain in the Park with us until the siren sounds - then leave, and you will have broken no law but, by being with us, will have demonstrated your opposition to the drills.2) If you do believe in civil disobedience, but cannot do it at this time - for whatever reason, whether a sick member of the family at home, a new job you can't risk losing, or just ordinary cowardice - please stay in the Park with us after the siren sounds, but leave the Park the moment the police arrive and give the order to disperse. We will not feel you have abandoned us - on the contrary, we will gain great strength from you staying with us until you feel you must leave.3) If you feel this is the year you can risk arrest, then remain in the Park with us until we have been

arrested.

We didn't hand out song sheets. We didn't hand out leaflets on how people should behave. And beyond saying it was to be a peaceful and nonviolent demonstration which will lead to arrests, we did not "prepare" people. Perhaps if we had known how large an event it would be, we would have worried more. On the day of the drill, we found that instead of a few dozen people (all we had expected), the Park was filled with over a thousand people. When the sirens blew, everyone who had planned to leave looked around and realised there were over 1,000 people and so everyone stayed. When the police arrived and gave the order to disperse, everyone who had planned to leave when the siren sounded did leave - moving slowly just to the edges of the Park and not really taking shelter. Those who were left looked around and saw there were over 500 people. And so those 500 stayed in place. The police then were totally confused. Nothing had prepared them - or us - for 500 people refusing direct orders. The officer in charge finally announced, "You are all under arrest", and in response the crowd burst into applause. The police then began to move back and forth through the crowd, which kept parting like the Red Sea, not resisting but not going away. Instead, it began to sing all those patriotic songs most of us had grown to hate: "America the Beautiful", "My Country Tis of Thee", until I was moved to tears and the police, in their frustration, arrested about 30 people - most of them women and none of them people who had planned on getting arrested.

A year later we repeated the same scenario and drew 2,000 to the Park; the police arrested about a hundred of us at that time, but New York State abandoned civil defence drills.

About a year later, WRL took the lead In organising a mass response to the resumption of US nuclear testing after a moratorium had broken down. It was a complex event involving co-operation of a range of political groups - nonviolent training would have been impossible even if we had thought of it. We did have, of course, the usual handful of "Marshals", people who were in touch with the leaders of the demonstration and could pass the word along to people quickly. I knew one group wanted to go beyond our general agreement of massing in Times Square - that it planned to stage a sit-down if they could organise it - and if that happened it would put the safety of the whole group in danger, since we had called out everyone (the elderly, women with children, etc) for a "peaceful, legal, nonviolent witness". (I knew if we could get enough out, we could close Times Square just by sheer mass.) My tactic, therefore, was to call for a half hour of total silence once we got into the Square - since I knew that if we could keep total silence, the smaller group would not be able to organise a disruption. Which, by and large, proved true. The only problem - for which nonviolent training could not very well have prepared us - was that the police panicked when one of our people fainted in the only road we hadn't yet blocked, and a genuine police riot started with horses charging our lines, clubs falling on all sides, and it Is a minor miracle no one got seriously hurt. ButA the key point is that without training, working with a diverse group in a short time, close to 10,000 people were pulled out to Times Square and the breakdown of order came from the police, and even then our side did not respond with violence.

We had explained what was needed, what was planned, and people of all ages and political persuasions came out and remained nonviolent, even under police attack.

During the Civil Rights movement, there were nonviolent training programmes, but they were much less important than the Church meetings, the rallies, and the general "line", given again and again, that love and reconciliation were more powerful than hatred, that the problem wasn't the white man but the institution of racism, that the objective wasn't victory over white people, but victory over Jim Crow [the

system of segregation]. The Civil Rights movement didn't have affinity groups or consensus - but it gave clear direction to tens of thousands of ordinary people who were able to make a revolution in the racial patterns of America.

During the Vietnam War, the mass demonstrations were huge coalition events which involved pacifist and Catholics, Communists and Trotskyists and Socialists and the youth culture centering around Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Rennie Davis. We didn't have nonviolent training. We couldn't have done it if we wanted to - the range of political views excluded it. We did have "Marshals", who tended to be pacifists and who had, really, three jobs. One was simply to give people directions. Second was to act as a transmission belt for messages from below to those at the centre, and in turn to pass along instructions from the centre to the line. Third was simply "trouble-shooting" - calming down people who were angry, intervening between hecklers and the demonstrators. In short, they were "Peacekeepers" - a word we eventually gave them in place of "Marshal", which we had borrowed from the military.

In dealing with so vast a crowd, we needed ways to calm people, and the late Barbara Deming suggested special tags. Mark Morris designed a "dove tag" for us, which said on one side "Practise Nonviolence".WRL handed out tens upon tens of thousands of those tags at mass actions, and they were extremely effective. If the police saw people wearing those tags, they relaxed because they knew we were not likely to throw rocks. And it was an effective way, in situations where rumours of violence were always rife, of showing ourselves - by seeing just how many were wearing the tags - that most of us did not belong to the "Off the Pig" faction (the militant youth who saw the police as the primary enemy). WRL - and the left political groups - would hand out carefully worded statements to explain that the police were not the enemy, but only agents of the system. When the Vietnam Veterans came to demonstrate in May 1971, they took a week beforehand for .... what? Nonviolent training? No. They took a week to hand out a carefully worded letter to all police stations with the title "A Letter to Our Brothers in Blue" (blue being the colour of our police uniforms). That letter explained what the veterans would be doing, and why, and that they would be totally nonviolent. In some police stations, the cops put that letter on their bulletin boards - it was decisive factor in keeping the police under control during the major protests in 1971.

This action by the veterans is almost taking a leaf from the old Bolshevik tactic before the Russian Revolution when - after careful campaigns of education with the police, stressing the basic identity of interests between the police and the workers and peasants - the Cossacks at a crucial point refused to fire on the revolutionaries, joining them instead. The result not of nonviolent training, but of political work.

In Prague in 1968, when the Warsaw Pact forces invaded, there was massive opposition organised by the Communist Party, so effective an opposition that the Party paper continued to appear "from underground" for some days. I was, by accident, in Prague at the time and remember seeing young Czechs climbing up on tanks with leaflets in Russian to talk to the troops. I remember the care with which they avoided direct confrontation, the courage with which they engaged In dialogue, the ingenuity with which they continued radio broadcasts. All of this not only without training, but without being pacifists at all!

Turning to Poland, we saw the rise of a working class movement - Solidarity - organised with support from the Polish Catholic Church. Of the profound effectiveness of this movement, I do not need to write - its work has been impressed on the history of our times. What is important for us is a certain humility that so powerful a nonviolent movement occurred without nonviolent training.

►totivation over technique

There are two essential problems I want to focus on in the remaining space. I have already made it clear that while I think training has value, that value is subordinate to generating a sense of why we are doing something. (If I could put this in military terms for a moment, if you gave me a choice between a group of poorly-trained men and women who deeply believed in what they were fighting for, and a very well- trained military force which was unclear on why it was fighting, I would bet the untrained but highly- motivated force would win the contest. Afghanistan is a first rate example of motivation against training.)

But what we haven't looked at yet is the problem that civil disobedience and nonviolent training pose, as I have seen them put into action in the US, as being alien to ordinary working people. The process of consensus, to take on example, is fine if you have infinite time and patience. But when people have all worked all day, when they are no longer students, when they must get to work in the morning, they want to

reach a vote. (In oart the argument over consensus is unreal, since about 90% of our lives are based on consensus. In part, however, the debate about consensus touches on a very serious problem - the almost totalitarian attitudes which can be masked by consensus, thfe extraordinary pressure for "group think". Consensus also becomes a dangerous way to avoid individual responsibility - a way of saying of an unpleasant or unpopular vote that "it was by consensus", which is to say that since all are responsible, no one is.)

What I am suggesting is that people want to be nonviolent, they do not want to have their heads cracked, and if we can help them to see the police not as enemies but as also trapped by the system, we can get masses of people to act in creative and nonviolent ways - without extensive training. I do ask those who now stress nonviolent training, "training for trainers", etc, just what is so different about today than about 20 years ago that the "mass" of people cannot be counted on (except in Czechoslovakia and Poland) to behave nonviolently without special training?

I am further asking that we realise nonviolence is not an answer by itself - that we will find we have made an idol out of a technique, but the social reality will betray us. Iran had a revolution which, while lacking In training, was profoundly nonviolent. Yet because of the values of that revolution, it led to a bloody and repressive regime. Nonviolence did not prevent the rise of violent institutions.

In the Philippines, far too much was made of "people power", and far too little attention paid to the social and class nature of the Aquino forces. The situation there today is not better than under Marcos, but possibly even worse. Why did Cory fail? It was not because the technique wasn't nonviolent enough - but because that technique was completely separated from a serious political approach to social revolution.

The cult of civil disobedience

There are two final points to take up. One concerns the genuine fetish pacifists have developed for "civil disobedience". We are separating this from the real political context. When we confront a problem, we do not ask - as Gandhi did, as King did - "what technique is best for this problem?" Instead we ask (not quite consciously) "how can we organise a civil disobedience project and get arrested?" I wonder if pacifists realise that more than a few of the male pacifists sound extremely "macho" when they "compare the number of their arrests".

Our movement is not in the business of getting arrested but of changing society. We get arrested because that is something that must sometimes happen. It is not what we want to happen. We must return to the concept of a "constructive programme" - what do we want, and how do we get people to join us in moving towards it? I do not know of a single case where Martin Luther King Jr said "let's go out and get arrested". Along with most serious leaders of movement of nonviolent social change, he counted arrest as defeat, as failure. Inevitable, necessary, but not as good as achieving the same result without arrests. If you want to close down a nuclear power plant, then you will first inform yourself of the facts to make sure your concerns are genuine. Then you will gradually win over others, so there is a shared goal in the community to prevent the plant from opening. Then you engage in dialogue with the plant management - and in the process of dialogue, you confront them as human beings, not abstract evils and - equally important- they are forced to see you as unique and individual people, with real concerns, and not simply "protesting for the hell of it". When (_if - one must always say if)) all else fails, you will find you have won the community to your side through the slow process of "going through channels", and that when you now move towards direct action, you will be followed and supported and much of the coronunity will be behind you.

I beg us to build a movement which puts as much value on education, on political work, on dialogue, on negotiations, as we do on getting involved with civil disobedience. I know that CORE (mentioned at the beginning) won about 90% of its test cases without direct action. Which means that about 90% of its time needed to be spent teaching people how to negotiate and relate to opposition.

The tendency of parts of the movement to short-circuit the whole political process of dialogue, of compromise, of looking for answers which meet the needs of both sides - to simply rush forward and "sit down until the police come" isolates us from the broader community whose support we need to win. For our objective is not to prove our courage, but to change society.

WRI/NONVICLE'.Ct TRA‘!~’'G - Mc-eynolds Page “n 6

Civilian-based defence as a technical fixThe last point is on "civilian defence" - which is closely related both to nonviolent training and to civil disobedience. I have mixed feelings about civilian-based defence. Wjch of it has value, much of it

poses problems.

As a swift example, in the US, pacifists talking about civilian-based defence often accept the assumptions of the right-wing, eg "we agree with you that Communists are evil, cannot be trusted and are aggressive - but since war will kill us all, may we demonstrate to you a method by which we can defeat Communism without destroying the planet?" The catch is we are feeding into the hysteria which (at least in America) people have about "Communism". Let's first have a political discussion - how aggressive is the Soviet Union? Is it more aggressive than the United States? Are you afraid of all Communism or just Soviet Communism? Why do you think Russia would want to Invade us? And then - having basically said, "Look, we do not agree with your fears" - we could go on to say "now, we don't agree in our views on the Soviet Union - let's move on to ways of handling the conflict without destroying the planet".

And one of the most impressive ways of defending the concept of civilian-based or "social" defence is to say "let's see if it works on our own government". Who, after all (at least in the case of the US and Great Britain) is the real danger - the Soviets, or Thatcher and Reagan? Who made deals with narcotics bosses - the men around Reagan or Gorbachev? Who caused the mass unemployment in the North of England, Chinese Communists or Thatcher? The answer is clear. And so let us "test" social defence against the problem closest to hand. Our own governments. We don't have to wait until the Soviet Union invades us.It might never do so (in my view there is little chance of the Soviets invading the West). Let's put our skills to use now, while they are fresh, against targets right at home.

The problem of this period of time is not - in my view - the danger of attack by either the NATO or the Warsaw alliances against each other. Too much time spent in arguing the need for civilian-based defence can be counter-productive - can feed the assumptions there is a danger. In reality, during the whole of the past 30 and more years, the alliances have engaged in vertical aggression (that is, downwards, against their own populations) and not outwards. The Soviets we know of - the pressure on Poland, the crackdown on the GDR, the Hungarian events, the tragedy of the Czech spring. Less obvious has been the effective way in which NATO has been able to co-ordinate pressure against forces for social change within NATO - only very rarely, as with the Greek Colonels, does a visible repression show. But the threats, the intimations, the open discussion of what NATO might feel required to do in one case or another - in all these years, on both sides, the dangers of repression have come from those above us, not those "across the line". In fact, those "across the line" or "over the wall" provide an ideal enemy to help keep repressive agencies in their place. Thus, long discussions of civilian-based defence - if they are in isolation - are not useful. The problem we face is more likely to be one of accidental war. The way out is through political dialogue, political engagement (and in my view politics always includes the option of civil disobedience - I do not talk about political engagement instead of nonviolent direct actions, but as including them when required).

So, how can we move the movement in Europe towards disengagement of the Blocs, towards demilitarised zones, towards ultimate dissolution of the Bloc structure and removal of all foreign troops from East and West Europe?

Yes, conscientious objection plays a role. Civil Disobedience plays a role. But we must also - not only in Europe but wherever we can build a base - create political responses and political options and political alternatives to the armed State. The concept of a social or civilian defence is a part of that process - not a substitute for it. Nonviolent action is part of the political process, not an alternative to it or an escape from it, because if it becomes that, then it is a dead end, a fetish.

Collection Number: AG1977

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