Civil disobedience
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2008-07-08T18:27:41Z
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/* Early uses of the term */
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[[Image:Rosaparks.jpg|thumb|180px|right|[[Rosa Parks]] in 1955. She became famous for refusing to obey [[racist]] regulations. Her individual action of civil disobedience started the [[Montgomery Bus Boycott]], which is one of the largest movements against [[racial segregation]]. In addition, this launched [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]], who was involved with the boycott, to prominence in the civil rights movement.]]
'''Civil disobedience''' is the active refusal to obey certain [[law]]s, demands and commands of a [[government]], or of an occupying [[power (international)|power]], without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary tactics of [[nonviolent resistance]]. In its most nonviolent form (known as [[ahimsa]] or [[satyagraha]]) it could be said that it is [[compassion]] in the form of respectful disagreement.
Civil disobedience is one of the many ways people have rebelled against unfair laws. It has been used in many well-documented [[nonviolent resistance]] movements in [[British Raj|India]] ([[Mohandas Gandhi|Gandhi]]'s social welfare campaigns and campaigns for [[Indian independence movement|independence]] from the [[British Empire]]), in [[South Africa]] in the fight against [[apartheid]], in the [[American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)|American Civil Rights Movement]], Jehovah's Witnesses' stand against the Nazis (1929-1945), and in [[peace movements]] worldwide. One of its earliest massive implementations was by [[Egyptians]] against the British occupation in the nonviolent [[Egyptian_Revolution_of_1919|1919 Revolution]].
The [[United States|American]] author [[Henry David Thoreau|Henry David Thoreau]] pioneered the modern theory behind this practice in his 1849 essay [[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|''Civil Disobedience'']], originally titled "Resistance to Civil Government". The driving idea behind the essay was that of self-reliance, and how one is in morally good standing as long as one can "get off another man's back"; so one doesn't have to physically fight the government, but one must not support it or have it support one (if one is against it). This essay has had a wide influence on many later practitioners of civil disobedience. In the essay, Thoreau explained his reasons for having [[tax resistance|refused to pay taxes]] as an act of [[protest]] against [[slavery]] and against the [[Mexican-American War]].
==Early uses of the term==
Thoreau did not coin the term "civil disobedience". However, after his landmark 1848 lectures were published in 1849, the term "civil disobedience" began to appear in numerous sermons and lectures relating to slavery in the United States. Early examples of these include:
* The Gospel Applied to the Fugitive Slave Law [1850]: A Sermon, by Oliver Stearns (1851);
* "The Higher Law," in Its Application to the Fugitive Slave Bill:... by John Newell and John Chase Lord (1851);
* The Limits of Civil Disobedience: A Sermon..., by Nathaniel Hall (1851);
* The Duty and Limitations of Civil Disobedience: A Discourse, by Samuel Colcord Bartlett (1853).
Thus, by the time Thoreau's lectures were first published under the title "Civil Disobedience," in 1866, four years after his death, the term had achieved fairly widespread usage.
==Theories and techniques==
[[Image:Midge potts arrested.jpg|thumb|240px|right|Anti-war activist [[Midge Potts]] is arrested for civil disobedience on the steps of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] on 9 February 2005.]]
In seeking an active form of civil disobedience, one may choose to deliberately break certain laws, such as by forming a peaceful blockade or occupying a facility illegally. Protesters practice this non-violent form of [[civil disorder]] with the expectation that they will be arrested, or even attacked or beaten by the authorities. Protesters often undergo training in advance on how to react to arrest or to attack, so that they will do so in a manner that quietly or limply resists without threatening the authorities.
For example, [[Mahatma Gandhi]] outlined the following rules:
#A civil resister (or ''[[Satyagraha|satyagrahi]]'') will harbour no anger.
#He will suffer the anger of the opponent.
#In so doing he will put up with assaults from the opponent, never retaliate; but he will not submit, out of fear of punishment or the like, to any order given in anger.
#When any person in authority seeks to arrest a civil resister, he will voluntarily submit to the arrest, and he will not resist the attachment or removal of his own property, if any, when it is sought to be confiscated by authorities.
#If a civil resister has any property in his possession as a trustee, he will refuse to surrender it, even though in defending it he might lose his life. He will, however, never retaliate.
#Retaliation includes swearing and cursing.
#Therefore a civil resister will never insult his opponent, and therefore also not take part in many of the newly coined cries which are contrary to the spirit of ''[[ahimsa]]''.
#A civil resister will not [[salute]] the [[Union Flag]], nor will he insult it or officials, English or Indian.
#In the course of the struggle if anyone insults an official or commits an assault upon him, a civil resister will protect such official or officials from the insult or attack even at the risk of his life.
==Examples==
[[Image:Blockade_leipzig_2004_10_03.jpg|thumb|Disregarding the instructions of the police a crowd is jamming a street in [[Leipzig]] to prevent [[Neo-Nazism|neonazis]] from marching through town.]]
===India (Indians)===
Civil disobedience has served as a major tactic of [[nationalism|nationalist]] movements in former [[colony|colonies]] in [[Africa]] and [[Asia]] prior to their gaining [[independence]].
Most notably [[Mahatma Gandhi]] developed civil disobedience as an anti-colonialist tool. Gandhi stated "Civil disobedience is the inherent right of a citizen to be civil, implies discipline, thought, care, attention and sacrifice". Gandhi learned of civil disobedience from Thoreau's classic essay, which he incorporated into his non-violent [[Satyagraha]] philosophy. [[Gandhi's work in South Africa]] and in the [[Indian independence movement]] was the first successful application of civil disobedience on a large scale.
===South Africa (Africans of Color)===
This famous movement was started by [[Nelson Mandela]]. Mandela, along with Archbishop [[Desmond Tutu]] and [[Steve Biko]] advocated civil disobedience. The result can be seen in such notable events as the 1989 [[Purple Rain Protest]], and the [[Cape Town Peace March]] which defied [[apartheid]].
===United States===
[[Martin Luther King, Jr.|Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr]], and young activists in the [[United States|American]] civil rights movement of the 1960s also adopted civil disobedience techniques, and [[pacifism|antiwar]] activists both during and after the [[Vietnam War]] have done likewise. Since the 1970s, pro-life or anti-abortion groups have practiced civil disobedience against the U.S. government over the issue of legalized [[abortion]].
===Religious examples===
Many who practice civil disobedience do so out of [[religious faith]], and clergy often participate in or lead actions of civil disobedience. A notable example is [[Philip Berrigan]], a one-time [[Roman Catholic]] priest who was arrested dozens of times in acts of civil disobedience in antiwar protests. Also, groups like [http://www.soulforce.org/ Soulforce], who favor non-discrimination and equal rights for gays and lesbians, have engaged in acts of civil disobedience to change church positions and public policy. "Operation Rescue" was an ecumenical Christian movement exercising civil disobedience to peacefully block access to abortion clinics.
==See also==
*[[Committee of 100 (United Kingdom)]]
*[[Henry David Thoreau]]
**''[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|Civil Disobedience]]''
*[[Mohandas Gandhi]]
**''[[Satyagraha]]''
*[[Martin Luther King, Jr.|Dr Martin Luther King, Jr]]
**''[[Letter from Birmingham Jail]]''
*[[Rosa Parks]], "mother of the civil rights movement"
*[[Dalai Lama]]
*[[Abalone Alliance]] and [[Clamshell Alliance]], anti-nuclear power groups
*[[Christian anarchism]]
*[[Conscientious objection]]
*[[Direct action]]
*[[Draft resistance]]
*[[Righteous Among the Nations|Holocaust rescuers]]
**[[Le Chambon-sur-Lignon]], French town
*[[Insubordination]]
*[[Hunt saboteur|Hunt sabotage]]
*[[Nonconformism]]
*[[Nonviolence]]
*[[Nonviolent resistance]]
*[[Rachel Corrie]]
*[[Sousveillance]], passive campaign against [[surveillance]]
*[[Tax resistance]]
*[[Tree sitting]]
*[[Trident Ploughshares]], anti-nuclear weapons group
*[[Defiance Campaign]], anti-apartheid campaign in South Africa.
==External links==
*[http://www.actfortheearth.org/pensionsforpeace Pensions for Peace ~ ACT for the Earth]
*[http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/civ-dis.htm Civil Disobedience], by Peter Suber. From ''Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia'', edited by Christopher Berry Gray, Garland Pub. Co., 1999, vol. I, pp. 110-113
*[http://sniggle.net/Experiment/index.php?entry=rtcg On Resistance to Civil Government] by [[Henry David Thoreau]]
*[http://home.snafu.de/mkgandhi/manifest.htm Manifesto against conscription and the military system, with an updated list of all signatories from 1993 to 2005]
*[http://www.directaction.org DirectAction.org offers online organizing resources for civil disobedience]
*[http://clamshell-tvs.org] a project of the Traprock Peace Center
*[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/info/nv.htm Nonviolent Resistance] ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans (U.S)
*{{sep entry|civil-disobedience|Civil Disobedience|Kimberley Brownlee}}
[[Category:Civil disobedience|*]]
[[Category:Community organizing]]
[[Category:Nonviolence]]
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