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Read for Peace • Fall Books 2002 War
Plan Iraq: Review by Frida Berrigan In early October, both the House and Senate voted to give the Bush administration broad powers to wage war against Iraq. The majority of representatives voted for war, even though they heard arguments and pleas against war from an overwhelming number of their constituents. Countless Americans wrote letters and made phone calls, vigiled and demonstrated only to feel let down, defeated and double-crossed by Congress. We felt this way despite knowing that many voted to enhance their own political aspirations and not articulate their consciences or the needs of their constituents. By now the disappointment and dismay have likely been replaced by new outrage and action. Congress’ vote against the people and for war should serve to reinforce what pacifists and political activists have known all along—that when we cannot depend on institutions of power to make change, we have to make it ourselves. Milan Rai, a British antiwar activist and founding member of ARROW (Active Resistance to the Roots of War), has written a book aimed at providing arguments, resources and motivation for resisting the march toward war in Iraq. And it could not have come at a better time. With carefully researched and meticulously footnoted information, Rai’s War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Against War in Iraq debunks all the arguments Bush and Blair are using to foment war. An engaging book, designed for activists, it is not just a book to read; it is a resource to use. Rai includes images made for leaflets and fliers: provocative woodcuts by artist Emily Jones and lovely portraits of young Iraqis by photographer Kim Weston-Arnold that evoke the beauty and humanity of the Iraqi “enemy.” The book opens with a compilation of quotes from officials opposed to war in Iraq: a valuable tool for activists who do not have time to track down the voices of reason in and out of power. U.S. luminaries like former President, now Nobel Peace Laureate Jimmy Carter and Bush Sr. adviser Brent Scowcroft, European leaders Gerhard Schroeder and former British Labor Chancellor Denis Healey are among the quoted. The book also includes statements from members of Peaceful Tomorrows, a group of relatives of September 11 victims who speak out for justice instead of vengeance, and oppose pre-emptive violence against Iraq. Noam Chomsky, MIT professor and political analyst, contributes a chapter entitled “Terror and Just Response.” Rai goes on to outline how the United States destroyed the very tools that offer hope for an alternative to war with Iraq, the U.N.’s weapons inspection agency, first known as UNSCOM, and then the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission or UNMOVIC. He argues that disarming Iraq is possible and inspection worked in the past and can work again. “The resolution of the root causes of war, and the removal of the motives for proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, are also options. President Bush says the choices are invasion or inaction, but inspection is also an option.” While all of this is important and useful information, the heart of War Plan Iraq is Rai’s “10 Reasons Against War.” Straightforward and catchy at the same time, the 10 Reasons have titles like Phantom Menace, Unsafe Haven, Crime Time, and GI Joe Says No. Each reason is just a few pages long, and a link to ARROW’s website is provided (www.justicenotvengeance.org), with the promise that the information will be updated on a weekly basis. GI Joe Says No, for example, offers analysis from U.S. and British generals who see the consequences of war in Iraq as much more dire and far reaching than the White House and Downing Street. have been willing to contemplate. Rai even tracked down a quote from 1991’s Gulf War General “Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf describing himself as a “pacifist” and “anti-war.” Rai concludes with motivational words for war resisters, citing the critical role played by activists in ending the war in Vietnam and thwarting Nixon’s plans to use nuclear weapons against Vietnam. We need encouragement, we need information, and we need tools to continue to resist war. Rai provides all three. * * * Revisiting the Classics * * * Prison
Etiquette: Review by Larry Gara This reprint of a war resister classic first published in 1950 in hand-set type with a printing of 2000 is far more than the title suggests. In eight essays, ten poems, one story and two letters, World War II resisters recently released from prison write from the personal experience of their own imprisonment. No more powerful indictment of modem prisons exists in print. Each tells of the ways the isolation of prison, along with the systematic use of humiliation, affects prisoners. The writing is supplemented with a number of powerful pencil drawings by Lowell Naeve. The Forward by Phillip Metres consists of an excellent short overview of conscientious objection and war resistance during World War II. This book, along with other recent publications and the PBS documentary, The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It, should help make more visible the important story of resistance to that war. In addition to the resisters, thousands of others reluctantly accepted military service under pressure of the draft. General Lewis B. Hershey, then head of Selective Service, told a congressional committee that “the conscientious objector, by my theory, is best handled if no one hears of him.” Hershey’s theory has been pretty much followed in the years since the war. Knowledge of the past is essential for any movement to have a future. This volume makes a major contribution to unearthing the story of World War II prison resisters. Many of the incidents make for interesting reading in themselves. There was the time at Danbury prison when the warden had to release all resisters from the hole so that one of them, a first-rate pitcher, could win a baseball game with a visiting team from the outside. There is the meeting in the West Street (New York) Federal Detention Center between resisters and Louis Lepke, head of Murder Incorporated, who was incredulous that the government was jailing young men for refusing to kill. And the amazing story of how resisters used nonviolent action to desegregate the dining hall in Danbury, an action that was duplicated in at least one other prison. These few dining halls, along with a dormitory in Lewisburg, were probably the only desegregated federal facilities in the entire country at that time. A wealth of evidence shows that, despite the pressures, some individuals could maintain their integrity and their individualism. Naeve’s essay, an excerpt from his own book, A Field of Broken Stones, is a gem that reveals his successful struggle to keep alive his own personality and dedication to his art. Clif Bennett contributed an analysis of prison resistance, Howard Schoenfeld related the Danbury story, and Jim Peck described how prison reminded him of his days in the merchant marine, though prison was “The Ship That Never Hit Port.” Curtis Zahn’s essay is more a literary excursion, Don Devault wrote of his experience at McNeil Island, and Bernard Phillips told of the prison community and how resisters became a part of that community. One of the most interesting essays is a chapter on the prison theater by Roy Franklyn, who tells of a prison production of “Pagliacci,” an event that highlighted the amazing ability of some resisters to develop and use creative talent within prison walls. This reminded me of the production “FCI Utopia,” given in Ashland prison with music borrowed from Gilbert and Sullivan. A devastating satire of the prison system, the production starred Bayard Rustin and was viewed by inmates and guards alike. Other improvised prison talent was Naeve’s fashioning a guitar of papier-mâché from oatmeal and newspaper and another, not mentioned in this book, a beautiful flute made from some material by Bill Roberts in Lewisburg. Put this book on your “must read” list. Remember that if anything proved there is no such thing as a “just war” it was World War II, and if there is a “Greatest Generation,” these resisters are very much a part of it. WW II conscientious objector Larry Gara teaches history and is co-editor wth Lenna Mae Gara of A Few Small Candles. Of
Myths and Movements: Review by Chris Ney
The mythic elements of the story are easy to identify (despite Hollywood’s efforts to imprint them on film), but more than the parting of the Red Sea is in doubt. I remember my dismay as a seminary student when I learned that there are no extra-canonical sources for Exodus. Our only record of this remarkable tale is the Bible. It may not be surprising that the Egyptians did not record the event: great empires rarely write about the slaves who escaped. But this event should have been recorded by other ancient people. If written records are our guide, it was neither noticed nor noted. Stories, historical and mythic, shape individual consciousness and human communities. They inspire action, even sacrifice, both noble and brutal. Not surprisingly, social movements are some of the most fertile sources for stories. In our own time, consider the stories that have grown around Rosa Parks — despite activists’ best efforts to recall that her act of defiance was not an individual gesture, but part of a well-planned civil rights campaign. Similarly, it should not surprise us that a movement like Chipko, the effort to save trees in the Himalayan forest by hugging them, should generate stories and even myths. Unfortunately, Hiarpriya Rangan’s book of Myths and Movements: Rewriting Chipko into Himalayan History focuses almost exclusively on the practice of “telling stories about stories” and lacks much analysis of the movement itself. A critical examination of the Chipko movement, its achievements and its failures, its inspiration and its unexpected outcomes, would be very useful, but Rangan’s book only hints at such an evaluation. Rather, the book considers how narratives about Chipko have been produced and used by activists, scholars and writers in the Himalayan region and around the world. While his central thesis is well-taken: “these Chipko narratives are persuasive fictions (legitimate or otherwise), which attempt to invest material and cultural practices occurring within a geographical and political configuration with particular meanings. They have been produced for social and political purposes.” It is largely meaningless without a more probing examination of the Himalayan region and the role of the Chipko movement in it. The book provides interesting historical analysis of the area from pre-colonial (and even ancient) times through British rule to independence. The author tries to debunk several views of the region promulgated by Chipko activists and admirers. Rangan even offers anecdotal evidence that Chipko’s efforts to protect the forests have not alleviated the suffering and deprivation of the people living in communities in and around the forests. At its best, the book argues for more nuanced understandings of economic activity, the interplay of households in communities and regions, sustainable development and environmental protection. Sadly, most of the hard analysis—and any notion of prescriptive action—gets lost in descriptions of narratives and discourse. Nearly thirty years after it began, Chipko has gained worldwide notoriety. No doubt that story has changed as it circled the globe and a critical reassessment of the movement would be useful to activists, academics and anyone concerned about how natural environments and human communities co-exist in a sustainable way. Unfortunately, struck by the fact that this movement has created a mythology, Rangan’s book does not offer that assessment. Moving beyond an examination of the mythology to consider what really happened, what might have happened and what can happen now would be useful to the many activists inspired by Chipko. Unfortunately, Rangan fails to see the forest for the trees. Chris Ney was WRL Disarmament Coordinator. He now works for Christians for Peace in El Salvador RISPAZ) in Boston. |
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he
Exodus story—the legendary flight of Hebrew slaves from oppression in
Egypt and subsequent conquest of the Promised Land—has inspired communities
for thousands of years. Codified and revered as sacred scripture, the
story has inspired people from circumstances so diverse it is difficult
to believe that they all know the same story. Protestants in Ulster, Northern
Ireland, and English puritans in the American colonies, Dutch Afrikaners
in South Africa and African slaves in the Americas, Roman Catholic revolutionaries
in Central America and Zionists in Palestine have all been moved by the
drama of this ancient story. Or is it myth?