-Thousands Engage in Nonviolent Civil Disobedience

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

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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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