Reply #51: There's a lot of room between passivity and violence -- [View All]

we used to do non-violent civil disobedience. I remember one particularly effective action we took in 1970. We decided that if the government wouldn't stop the war, we'd stop the government. So one fine day, we did things like walk over the bridges going into DC, sit down and get arrested. (Dr. Benjamin Spock led the first group across the 14th Street Bridge for instance.) Right behind the first group to get arrested was a second and a third, etc. Others went out into intersections all over the city. Some of us stopped people going to their government jobs and handed out doughnuts -- I mean everyone stopped and chatted with us over doughnuts. Some people overturned busses and set them on fire or put up other obstructions. I remember one group called the Acid Commandos who had gas masks and baseball mitts and ran into the tear gas to catch tear gas canisters and threw them back at the cops. All sorts of guerrilla tactics. Thousands and thousands got arrested -- had to put them in the RFK stadium there were so many. There we refused to cooperate too -- wouldn't submit to fingerprinting or picture taking, etc. And you better believe the MSM took notice! That's what I mean by trouble. And as far as I remember there was no significant 'violence,' but there was an awful lot of non-compliance with the system!

Like the song from the civil rights song said:

It isn't nice to block the doorway


by Malvina Reynolds



It isn't nice to block the doorway
It isn't nice to go to jail
There are nicer ways to do it
But the nice ways always fail
It isn't nice, it isn't nice
You told us once, you told us twice
But if that is Freedom's price
We don't mind.


It isn't nice to carry banners
Or to sit in on the floor
Or to shout our cry of Freedom
At the hotel and the store
It isn't nice, it isn't nice
You told us once, you told us twice
But if that is Freedom's price
We don't mind.


We have tried negotiations
And the three-man picket line,
Mr. Charlie didn't see us
And he might as well be blind.
Now our new ways aren't nice
When we deal with men of ice,
But if that is Freedom's price
We don't mind.


How about those years of lynchings
And the shot in Evers' back?
Did you say it wasn't proper
Did you stand out on the track?
You were quiet just like mice
Now you say we aren't nice
But if that is Freedom's price
We don't mind.
http://www.ocap.ca/songs/itisntni.html