Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi by Mark Boyle

Author:Mark Boyle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Permanent Publications

RESISTANCE IS FERTILE

Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony.

Noam Chomsky

The idea of resisting or revolting against ideologies as ubiquitous as industrialism and capitalism, both of which physically manifest themselves in every nook and cranny of our lives, is an overwhelming thought. The corporate-state coalition seemingly keeps on getting more powerful and corrupt, and it can sometimes feel as though, with every day that passes, our economies are becoming more monopolised, our cultures more homogenised, and our lives more surveilled through the CCTV on our streets and the World Wide Web in our own homes. On top of that we have got mortgages, bills and rent to pay, families to rear, and our own little dreams to pursue.

Despite this, people across the world, against all odds and powerful forces, are saying ‘enough is enough’. For some, the gross and increasing disparity between the world’s rich and poor has been a rallying cry for their causes, as we have seen in the occupations of the plaza in Madrid to Wall St. in New York. For others, it is the protection of their lands and waterways, where people such as those near Rossport in Ireland and Ogoniland in Nigeria (a campaign that resulted in the execution of nonviolent campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa) have tried to resist the invasion of Royal Dutch Shell who, in partnership with the state, want to destroy their lands, cultures and livelihoods for their own private profit. The people of Balcombe and Barton Moss in the U.K. have been putting their liberty at risk by defending their own habitats from being fracked by corporations such as Cuadrilla.

Each of these cases is inspiring, and it sends out the message that people are not going to lie down whilst their local landbase gets converted into numbers by the corporate-state coalition. That said, what is hampering them all from being more effective in achieving their goals is their insistence on a type of dogmatic, puritanical nonviolence that is nothing short of delusional. As Gelderloos explains:

... people have gone into the streets for the first time thinking that nonviolence is the way, because contrary to the claims of many pacifists, our society teaches us that while violence may be acceptable for governments, people on the bottom who want to change things must always be nonviolent.126

What could be a more violent spectacle than watching your community and lands get ripped apart because of your movement’s stubborn insistence on using an impotent tactic against an invading force? It is worth repeating Mandela’s words in this respect when he said, ‘For me, nonviolence was not a moral principle but a strategy; there is no moral goodness in using an ineffective weapon’.127 This is a sentiment and perspective that agrees with Saul Alinsky when he suggests that we ought to ask ‘of ends only whether they are achievable and

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