Civil disobedience.

• Author: Davison, Charles B.

Civil Disobedience can be a powerful tool in the hands of the dispossessed and the ignored, as has been demonstrated over the last 100 years in a number of different situations. At the same time, we must be careful not to mistake for civil disobedience what is actually all too often these days, rather uncivil disobedience, in the forms of riots and looting and other forms of criminal conduct that sometimes takes place in the course of large-scale protests and demonstrations that get out of hand. Furthermore, civil disobedience -- which is more of a political concept and philosophy than a legal principle -- is not a defence if one's actions result in a breach of the law. Thus, to understand the true nature of civil disobedience -- and when and how it has been used successfully -- we must also understand what it is not.

The modern fathers of civil disobedience as a method of political expression and change are, of course, Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, Ghandi was able to motivate and lead massive numbers of Indians to independence by employing civil disobedience in an effort to apply pressure upon Great Britain to leave the Indian sub-continent and allow the peoples of that region to rule themselves. Drawing upon the example set and lessons taught by Ghandi, Martin Luther King, in the 1950s and 1960s, convinced hundreds and thousands of black Americans to peacefully agitate towards full legal and political equality in the United States. Both men -- and their followers -- faced police and military might and ruthlessness, and both suffered imprisonment, and worse, for their efforts. Both Ghandi and King, and their followers and supporters, endured tremendous brutality and degradation, but instead of responding in kind, they reacted peacefully, offering themselves as living sacrifices for the causes in which they believed. Rather than supporting armed struggles to achieve their goals, they peacefully broke laws that they considered to be unjust; they organized silent and peaceful protests such as sit-ins and strikes; and they agitated and worked with legislators and government officials willing to support their movements and aims as just and proper in the longer run.

Unfortunately, their efforts and success have been difficult to duplicate. These days, what often begin as peaceful protests -- in Seattle, Milan, and Quebec City over the last few years, for example -- all too frequently turn into...