May-June 2005:
Building Counter-Recruitment
Raytheon, Merchant of Death
Caterpillar in Palestine
Argentina’s Recovered Factories
Elmer Maas, War Resister
Letters

Homepages:
War Resisters League
The Nonviolent Activist

Activist Letters

More Theory, Please

I’m responding to the notice asking for suggestions for articles and authors to feature in the magazine. I have two suggestions.

One is to cover a wider range of nonviolence-related activism, beyond just the peace movement. This would include experiments with nonviolent tactics in other movements (something you do sometimes cover already), nonviolent interventions of the kind done by Peace Brigades International and Nonviolent Peaceforce, restorative justice work and some of the attempts at inter-ethnic conflict resolution and reconciliation going on in places like the Balkans. All of these things are related to the philosophy of nonviolence and it would seem to me coverage of all of them has a place in the magazine of one of the two major U.S. pacifist groups.

My second suggestion is to include more theory in addition to reporting on actions and issues. I’ve noticed in discussion on nonviolence, that people on both sides of the debate don’t actually understand very well what nonviolence is about. There are people writing interesting stuff on the theory of nonviolence today—George Lakey, Staughton Lynd, Starhawk—but I don’t think I’ve ever seen their work in Nonviolent Activist. Knowing the theory behind what it is we’re doing is as important as knowing what’s actually going on out there.

—Matt Williams
Boston, MA

And More History

Thanks for the Radical Quiz and helping to keep our traditions alive. We must never forget our roots and to tell our stories to the next generation.

—Bill Dorfer
West Haven, CT

Ed. note: Bill Dorfer’s answers to the quiz were all correct, but many others found the quiz difficult (see pages 12-13 of the May-June issue).

Nonviolent Hypocrisy

I write to decry the clear hypocrisy of nonviolent action that prevents others from achieving their goals or fulfilling their intentions. I am talking about blocking access, lying down in the street and other such foolishness. Expressing our freedom to oppose war should not mean denying someone else’s freedom to support the war. If we move to other current examples of how “freedom of conscience” operates, we might better understand the dangers of exercising one’s conscience without restraint.

In their opposition to the planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, settlers recently gathered by the hundreds and blocked every major road in Israel by lying down at intersections. Was that action justified because it was nonviolent? The action created hardships for thousands of Israelis who used the roads for work, for shopping, for commuting, etc.

Readers are no doubt aware of the widespread movement among some pharmacists here in the United States, acting on their conscience, not to fill prescriptions for birth control pills and especially “morning after” pills to prevent pregnancy. Do they have a right to deny someone access to necessary pharmaceuticals because their conscience tells them to? These examples are all of one piece. Whatever the rightness of the cause, the tactic is wrong. These examples show that we have no right to deny others their right to pursue their own legitimate interests. We must not take away someone else’s freedom while exercising our own freedom.

—Eugene Vasilew
Summereville, SC