The Power of Nonviolence

“On one dramatic occasion even Bull Connor’s men were shaken. It was a Sunday afternoon, when several hundred Birmingham Negroes had determined to hold a prayer meeting near the city jail. They gathered at the New Pilgrim Baptist Church and began an orderly march. Bull Connor ordered out the police dogs and fire hoses. When the marchers approached the border between the white and Negro areas, Connor ordered them to turn back. The Reverend Charles Billups, who was leading the march, politely refused. Enraged Bull Connor whirled on his men and shouted: “Dammit. Turn on the hoses.”

“What happened in the next thirty seconds was one of the most fantastic events of the Birmingham story. Bull Connor’s men stood facing the marchers. The marchers, many of them on their knees, ready to pit nothing but the power of their bodies and souls against Connor’s police dogs, clubs, and fire hoses, stared back, unafraid and unmoving. Slowly the Negroes stood up and began to advance. Connor’s men, as though hypnotized, fell back, their hoses sagging uselessly in their hands while several hundred Negroes marched past them, without further interference, and held their prayer meeting as planned. I felt there, for the first time, the pride and the power of nonviolence.”

-MLK’s autobiography

 

Response to Max Keiser’s criticisms of #OccupyWallStreet

In response to Max Keiser’s post here.

Dear Max,

I can’t speak for everyone, but for my part, it surprises me to hear your belief that “activists [in the U.S.]  believe that they just figured out this ‘Wall St. is killing us narrative.’” Like many other Americans, I’ve been watching and learning from YOU for months now. You are one of the (new media) voices which has opened our eyes and given us confidence in our cause. In fact, the reason for my visit to your site tonight was to see what guidance or encouragement you might have had to offer.

Yes, we know that Wall Street is not the only financial hub in the world, just like we know that most trading is not even done by humans but by algorithms, which aren’t fazed in the least by protests. We know that we live in the richest and most aggressive country in the world, and that the exploitation of average Americans pales in comparison to the injustices caused or permitted worldwide by our own military, economic policies and corporations. We have seen what happens to people abroad who resist our military and economic occupation, and it makes us ill. Please do not liken us to a spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum, for this resistance is not about us alone – It has just taken us a while to get from being complacently bewildered at the inefficacy of our democracy to realizing that this isn’t a real democracy at all.

The ruling elite in this country have spent the last century building societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken our spirit of resistance to domination. Our lives are overcriminalized, we are overmedicated, indoctrinated by an authoritarian educational system, and molded cradle-to-grave by an individualistic, competition-obsessed culture of consumption characterized by fear and indignation of the Other. Our enemy is not a simple dictatorship; it is a web of greed and deceit that relies on its complexity to operate with impunity. Wall Street is its symbol.

It makes it kind of hard to revolt, but god damn it if we won’t try.

(Hat tip to Bruce E. Levine)