In Letter From a Birmingham Jail, MLK wrote “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action.” It is that last step that is most sticky. What is legitimate direct action?
Sitting in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter may seem rather tame to some of us, but it was incredibly radical in its day. Those who did it were risking arrest and vilification by the status quo. If injustice had not been challenged it would have continued.
Heroes challenged the status quo of Jim Crow through direct action and change was made. Bras and draft cards were burned and slowly, some change was achieved.
Anymore, direct action is the domain of anti choice groups. Is it because the world has become so much more just that we have given up direct confrontation of the status quo? Out of sight, the children killed and maimed by American munitions. Are gulf coast dead zones not worth the risk? The wealthy walking on the backs of the poor, joblessness in the face of deteriorating infrastructure, security bought with the hard earned labor of American workers discounted as mistaken policy. Worth a petition or a protest, but what about direct action?
Protesting and marching, uplifting as they may be, are guaranteed rights, not direct action. Unconfronted by the cost and spectacle of direct action from people who care enough to risk something, deep water pumping, arctic pipelines, pillaging of the poor and domination by the power elite will continue.
The thin veneer of populist protection through the law was ripped away with the Citizens United case. Are we so anesthetized on the blubber of our gluttony that we cannot move?
Lest you think this the ranting and rhetorical questions of someone ready to throw themselves at the barricades, let me assure you otherwise. I am a middle aged father of two, company owner and sitter on community boards and commissions. A malcontent prankster in my youth, I long ago decided that change would come, Trojan style, from within the belly of the beast. But I am feeling a bit digested, not just from the bile of the tea party but also from the acrid upset of failed hope.
Was it a mistake to make good with Big Brother in hopes of capitalist balance and to now blame those who carry the cynicism that was once ours? Is the hope of a guardian government lost in the shadows of Monsanto and BP?
But the question remains: what constitutes legitimate direct action? Is it Hayduke’s (The Monkey Wrench Gang) burning of billboards, the Berrigan Brothers confrontations with missals or the use of Super Glue on locks?
If found at all, is the reason for direct action only domestic? The heroes of the Arab Spring rose up to secure freedom from American supported dictators. Around the world native homes are being spoiled and native people displaced to secure oil that supports our lifestyle. Is another petition from MoveOn.com enough, or is it the justification for inaction when what we really need to do is sit down at the lunch counter?