Roof of St.Pauls Cathedral occupied to commemorate 9/11

I case you were wondering 9/11 is not just the anniversary of General Pinochett's US backed coup which installed a fascist government and murdered 30,000 people. Nor is it just the day that the people of New York discovered what it is like to be Palestinian.

It is also the day that Gandhi announced his strategy of peaceful non violent direct action. A way of doing things that would eventually see the liberation of an entire continent and inspiration for many of the great civil rights movements of the last 100 years.

Whether or not such tactics could work now is a matter of debate. One of the first things that US troops did when 'liberating' Iraq was to gun down 'peaceful non violent' demonstrators demanding jobs from the 'Coalition' government. Personally I think that if Gandhi was alive now he would be carrying an AK47 and dedicating his spare time to making roadside bombs.

Anyway, yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Gandhi's declaration. So to remember the great man and his work, 3 women occupied the roof of St.Pauls Cathedral and dropped a banner. Below is their press release.

Press Release...
100 years of Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement

11 September 2006 celebrates 100 years of Gandhi’s Non-Violent- Direct
Action movement: Satyagraha. Gandhi has inspired millions; amongst them
some of the World’s best resistors against injustice eg. Nelson Mandela
and Martin Luther King.
On September 11th to mark this event, three people who believe in M L
Kings words that “peace is more than just the absence of tension it is
the presence of justice” scaled the scaffolding of St. Pauls cathedral
and dropped a banner to show another World is possible.
The activists Mel John, Liz Lindon & Sarah Behr from London said “We
are
doing this to call for peace to stop the ‘Errorism’ by the West. We
want
to remind everyone of their individual significance in preventing war,
poverty and environmental destruction in their every day actions. We
are
each significant and can make a difference- anyone who doesn't think
they can make a difference (because they are too small) obviously
haven't been to bed with a mosquito!”. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi
‘Be the change you want to see in the world’.

Background info for editor
September 11th 2006 - Centenary of Satyagraha

On 11 September 2006 South Africa in particular, and the world in
general, will be observing the centenary of the birth of Satyagraha. It
all started at the Empire theatre in Johannesburg when at a meeting
convened by Mahatma Gandhi who lived in South Africa for 21 years, and
it was during this period (when he transformed from a young lawyer to a
Great soul- the Mahatma) that Satyagraha, or non-violent action, was
born.

In opposition to a proposed new legislation in 1906 imposing pass laws
on
the Indian community in South Africa, (some of who had already been in
the country since 1860) Mahatma Gandhi and his colleagues in the
Congress movement mobilised the community to oppose this Bill.
Accordingly a mass meeting was convened at the Empire Theatre in
Johannesburg on 11.9.1906. Gandhi writes about that day, “The old
Empire
Theatre was packed from floor to ceiling. I could read in every face
the
expectation of something strange to be done or happen. ….The most
important among the resolutions passed by the meeting was the famous
Fourth Resolution by which the Indians solemnly determined not to
submit
to the Ordinance in the event of its becoming law in the teeth of their
opposition, and to suffer all the penalties attaching to such
non-submission….all present standing with upraised hands, took an oath
with God as witness not to submit to the Ordinance…. I can never forget
the scene….None of us knew what name to give to our movement,.. a small
prize was therefore offered in the Indian Opinion to be awarded to the
reader who invented the best designation for our struggle.” Thus the
word Satyagraha was coined. Gandhi explains, “Truth (Satya) implies
love, and firmness (agraha) engenders and therefore serves as a synonym
for force….the Force which is born of Truth and love or non-violence.”

Since then the use of Satyagraha as a mode of opposition to oppression
has been utilised by many leaders throughout the length and breadth of
the world. Satyagraha has been recognised as the most formidable and
the
best way of dealing with conflict whether in the home, in society or in
International affairs. Satyagraha was used by Gandhi to win India’s
independence, by Martin Luther King to win civil rights in the United
States, and by Nelson Mandela to win South Africa’s liberation.

Guido
e-mail: guidoreports@riseup.net

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

shameful revisionism

12.09.2006 16:02

It's a pity that what might have been a good action is marred by a revisionist view of Gandhi as sole liberator of India.

For balance:
Gandhi and the Myth of Non-Violent Action

http://www.comcen.com.au/~marcn/redflag/archive/kahn/Ghandi.doc

Charan

Satyagraha - a community response

13.09.2006 15:04

I read the article, and it appears reasonable, though that said, many perspectives are reasonable, from the percievers vantage point.

In the long, sad history of oppression the use of violence has been the key to control - the powers that be are always willing to unleash more violence than any movement or individual could ever hope to mobilise, and those 'behind the scenes' elite banking and business owners more than happy to fund agent provocateurs to stimulate violence which the authorities can then react to with even more repression, justifying it by calling it a response to the 'provoked' violence and it serves to obliterate the message or idea.

I have seen this myself in protests here in the UK, time and time again. History is littered thus.

The key element in Satyagraha is the mobilisation of community. Note I used community, not 'the' community.

Community is the sense that we all belong to one another, and that the work we do for positive change is as much for those who are repressing us, as it is for ourselves, for they too have children whose futures will be impacted by our action or in-action. In Satyagraha one seeks to free all from the illusion of rulers and the ruled. One must seek to harm none, though be quite happy to offend, and be willing to walk that talk. HenceGhandi's salt march and other similar marchs.

The Civil Rights Movement in Northen Ireland, loosely based on Satyagaraha and ML Kings work in the USA, was derailed by the Bloody Sunday Shootings as it drove hoards of young men in to the waiting arms of the IRA (who were in reality, catholic ghetto gangsters .... protection rackets, beatings, drugs and so on.) The political decision to open fire on umarmed marchers was intended to do just that.

This shows how difficult it is to not react, how much 'discipline' is required to respond and that is the lesson of Satyagraha, for the response must be take in consideration of the welfare future generations.

With regard to the many so-called revolutionary 'movements' it is worth bearing in mind the culture, mindset and context of their struggle - those who struggle to replace the leadership with another 'better' leadership merely replicate what has passed before (communism)...(democracy) ...(capitalism) ... whereas those who mobilise community, who seek to empower people by handing the responsibility to self- organise our lives and living systems back to people, at the grassroots level, do actually create new possibilities for co-operative behaviours whose context is unity in diversity..

The current movements in Venuzuela, in Bolivia and in Cuba and elsewhere grew from empowering local grassroots communities to look after themselves, to take responsibilty on.

And that is the message of the three women who climbed St. Pauls and dropped the banner, and it is the core message of genuine change. Take responsibility, and do so in a humane awareness.

Unless of course it's not like that at all! he he heh.

And finally, here's an exercise in logic for you:

For you, An exercise in logic!

1. We can agree that there are adults on Earth.

2. We can agree that there are children on Earth.

3. We can agree that there are things adults do, directly or indirectly, that have a negative or abusive impact upon the welfare of children in the present and in the future.

4. It follows that, as carers, we must immediately cease those behaviours/activities that directly or indirectly have a negative or asbusive impact upon the welfare of children in the present and in the future.

5. We can discuss how we take it form there, having stopped the damaging behaviour/activity......

6. Discussing the issue prior to cessation only allows the abuse to continue.

This is the only way to frame any discussions with those who govern, who run businesses and who wish to facillitate positive change ...... any and all other approaches are subject to the me, me, me insecurities which current conventional wisdoms inculcate in our young - we have all been through the 'education system', we are all looking for our salvation .... forget both.

"On this depends my liberation: to assist others - nothing else." -

from Path Of Hero's

Kindest regards

Corneilius

do what you love, it's your gift to universe (and it gets certain people's backs up .... he he heh!)

Ps. it was a lovely banner ..... and a cool exercise in Satyagraha ........

Corneilius
Homepage: http://www.corneilius.net

Quoting George Orwell

14.09.2006 10:21

Interesting to hear George Orwell being described and quoted as a socialist, when it has long been fashionable in large sections (or should that be sects) of the left, to dismiss him as being less of a socialist than the latter day Blair and anything from the kind of lacky of the system he accuses Gandhi of being, to an MI5 spy.

Personally, and contradictorily perhaps, I've got a great deal of time for GO & MG, while neither man was perfect, both of them displayed uncommon good sense and insight.

Big up the women on the roof, for raising the subject

Dave Gurman

Dave Gurman
mail e-mail: editor@theridersdigest.co.uk
Homepage: http://web.mac.com/davidgurman/iWeb/Site%202/Welcome.html

A Weakness as a Strength

15.09.2006 01:03

In my view Gandhi's genius lay in recognising and exploiting -- at the right time -- a weakness of the Indian masses as a strength to focus the attention of the world’s leaders and journalists on the injustice of the British rule over India. The populations in various regions of India were not very inclined to violent street demonstrations in the face of powerful British-officered riot police forces, which could be very brutal. All Gandhi asked them was to lie down on the urban roads or pathways to block traffic or to have peaceful sit-ins or strikes, knowing that the police officers would be reluctant to shoot at such demonstrators. So Gandhi made a virtue out of a weakness, knowing that he could use the great advantage of “mass” behind these Sattiyagrah protests, because India was a populous country even in the mid-1940s. Biased historians simple-mindedly attributed the non-violence movement’s success directly to the genuine power of its concept and identified it as the single cause of the British decision to quit India. They conveniently forgot that at the end of WWII, Britain was deep in debt, and a decision to de-colonise had already been seen by its parliament as inevitable. Britain owed money to all its allies as well as its dominions. [India and Pakistan continued to receive payments or offsets against what the UK owed to the undivided India, right up to the early 1950s]. Britain could no longer sustain huge administrative expenses and armed forces to control its colonised possessions east of Suez. The inescapable withdrawal from South Asia would have occurred even without the Sattiyagrah movement. Gandhi’s genius lay in choosing the moment rather than a freedom strategy, which Sattiyagrah has failed to prove itself to be, in other parts of the world. By the way Nehru, Patel and other Congress leaders were, in private, not very impressed with the Sattiyagrah movement and did not think of Gandhi as a great leader. They kept him out of state apparatus and all high level decision making after independence. Gandhi knew this and was quite bitter about it.

Noor

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