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Smash Pacifism Zine A Critical Analysis of Gandhi and King by Zig Zag 1 Smash Pacifism A Critical Analysis of Gandhi and King ___________________________________________________________________________ Contents Introduction 4 1. Mahatma Gandhi 6 Gandhi in South Africa, 1893-1914 6 Anti-Registration Campaign, 1906-09 7 Gandhi the Racist 7 Gandhi the Betrayer 8 Civil Rights Campaign 1913 8 Gandhi's Rise to Power in India 9 The Indian National Congress 9 Champaran, 1917: Gandhi the Peasant Leader 10 The Rowlatt Campaign, 1919 11 Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movement, 1920-22 12 Salt March, 1930 15 The Untouchables, 1932-34 17 World War 2 18 Quit India Movement, 1942 18 Post-War Apocalypse 19 The Myth of Gandhian Nonviolence 20 Gandhi the Collaborator 21 Class 23 Radicals and Moderates 24 Anti-Colonial Resistance Outside the Congress 27 Gandhi's Religious Pacifism 30 Gandhi the Religious Control Freak 32 Gandhi's Commune Cults 34 Gandhi's Image as a Saint 35 Gandhi and Violence 35 Gandhi's Flawed Concepts of 'Resistance' 38 II. Martin Luther King and Civil Rights 39 The Black Civil Rights Movement 39 Civil Rights Organizations 40 Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1957 41 2 School Desegregation, 1957 41 Student Sit-In Movement, 1960 41 Freedom Rides, 1961 42 School Desegregation, 1962 43 Defeat in Albany, 1961-62 43 SCLC's Birmingham Campaign, 1963 45 Birmingham Riots and 'Black Fury' 46 The 1963 March on Washington 49 Inside the March: The Pacifists and the President 50 Birmingham Bombing, 1963 52 1964: Civil Rights, Riots, and the War on Poverty 53 1965 Selma, Alabama 53 1965: 'Freedom Summer' and Watts Riot 54 Chicago Freedom Movement, 1966 55 1966: Black Power 56 Black Panthers 57 Analysis of King and Civil Rights Movement 59 Pacifism and the Church 59 Role of Church 59 King's Role in SCLC 60 Fellowship on Reconciliation 61 Class 61 Reformism 62 Rebellion in the Ranks: Pacifists with Guns 63 King's Conflict with Militants 65 State Co-optation of the Civil Rights Movement 68 Conclusion 71 Bibliography 72 Published October 2012 Warrior Publications, Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver, BC) WarriorPublications.wordpress.com 3 Introduction ______________________________________________________________________________________ “In India we want no political strikes... We must gain control over all the unruly and disturbing elements or isolate them... We seek not to destroy capital or capitalists, but to regulate the relations between capital and labour.” (Gandhi, quoted in India and the Raj, p. 219) “The American racial revolution has been a revolution to 'get in' rather than overthrow. We want a share in the American economy, the housing market, the educational system and the social opportunities. This goal itself indicates that a social change in America must be nonviolent. “If one is in search of a better job, it does no help to burn down the factory. If one needs more adequate education, shooting the principal will not help, or if housing is the goal, only building and construction will produce that end. To destroy anything, person or property, can't bring us closer to the goal that we seek.” (Martin Luther King, quoted in I Have A Dream, p. 130) “The liberal is so preoccupied with stopping confrontation that he usually finds himself defending and calling for law and order, the law and order of the oppressor. Confrontation would disrupt the smooth functioning of the society and so the politics of the liberal leads him into a position where he finds himself politically aligned with the oppressor rather than with the oppressed. “The reason the liberal seeks to stop confrontation... is that his role, regardless of what he says, is really to maintain the status quo, rather than to change it. He enjoys economic stability from the status quo and if he fights for change he is risking his economic stability...” (Stokely Speaks, 170) Non-violence as an ideology adopted by social Tolstoy, who in 1894 published The Kingdom of God is movements is a relatively new phenomenon. While people Within You, a primer on his own Christian pacifist beliefs. have used both violent and non-violent methods throughout The idea of non-violence did not gain a large history in struggles against oppression, depending on following, however, and indeed the 19th and early 20th circumstances, it was not until the late 19th century that centuries were ones of widespread violence and social non-violence came to be promoted as a philosophy conflict throughout Europe and N. America, as well as in applicable to political action. By the early 20th century, Asia, Africa, and South America. groups began to emerge claiming nonviolence was the only The first significant movement to emerge way to establish a utopian society. proclaiming pacifism as the only way was led by Mahatma Most of these groups and their intellectuals derived Gandhi. It is based on this that the entire pacifist mythology their philosophies from organized religions such as of nonviolent struggle is formed, with Gandhi as its Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Within these figurehead. Yet, Gandhian pacifism would still be seen as a religions were sects that advocated pacifism as a way of strictly 'Third World' peasant phenomenon if it were not for life. Often overlooked in critiques of pacifism, this religious Martin Luther King's promotion of it during the Black civil origin is an important factor in understanding pacifism and rights struggle in the US during the 1950s and '60s. its methods (i.e., missionary-style organizing, claims of moral superiority, appeals to faith and not reason, etc.). Today, there are many well intentioned people who Ironically, considering that the most demonized think they know the history of Gandhi and King. They group by pacifists today are militant anarchists, the leading assume that nonviolence won the struggle for Indian proponents of pacifism in the 19th century also proclaimed independence, and that Blacks in the US are equal citizens themselves as anarchists: Henry David Thoreau and Leo because of the nonviolent protests of the 1950s. Tolstoy (as would Gandhi). Pacifist ideologues promote this version of history In 1849, Thoreau published his book Civil because it reinforces their ideology of nonviolence, and Disobedience, which outlined his anti-government beliefs therefore their control over social movements, based on the and non-violent philosophy. This, in turn, influenced alleged moral, political, and tactical superiority of 4 nonviolence as a form of struggle. The state and ruling class promote this version of history because they prefer to see pacifist movements, which can be seen in the official celebrations of Gandhi (in India) and King (in the US). They prefer pacifist movements because they are reformist by nature, offer greater opportunities for collaboration and co-optation, and are more easily controlled. Even recent history is not immune from this official revisionism. The revolts throughout North Africa and the Middle East in early 2011, referred to as the “Arab Spring,” are commonly understood to have been but the most recent examples of nonviolent struggle. While it was not armed, the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere, saw widespread rioting and attacks against police. In Egypt, where several hundred people were killed in clashes, nearly 200 police stations were arsoned and over 160 cops killed, in the first few months of the revolt. Taking their cue from the “Arab Spring,” many Occupy participants also parroted the official narrative of nonviolent protest and imposed pacifism on the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began in the fall of 2011. But this narrative didn't start with Egypt, it began with Gandhi and was modernized and popularized by King. Although there now exist a number of excellent critiques of pacifism, including Ward Churchill's Pacifism as Pathology, and Gelderloos' How Nonviolence Protects the State, they do not focus directly on the campaigns of Gandhi and King, the foundations and roots of pacifist ideology. In fact, it is their historical practise, and indeed the very actions and words of Gandhi and King themselves, that most discredit pacifism as a viable form of resistance. For this reason they are the focus of this study. Zig Zag, October 2012 Occupied Coast Salish Territory [Vancouver, Canada] One of these is not like the others: Protesters throw Molotov in police van, Egypt 2011 (top), Street fighting & burning barricades in Tunisia 2011 (middle two), cop pepper sprays protesters in Occupy movement in California 2011 (bottom). 5 the colony applied to Blacks and other Indians. He was I. Mahatma Gandhi thrown off a train for being in the first class section, even though he had a ticket for first class, because only Mohandas K. Gandhi was born into politics and Europeans could ride in first class. On his first day in court, privilege in Gujarati province, in north west India, on he was told to remove a turban he wore. October 2, 1869, and died January 30, 1948 (assassinated Some European settlers despised Indians even by a Hindu nationalist). His father was a prime minister in more than the Blacks; the Indians were 'foreigners' and the provincial government, his mother a devout Hindu. practised strange religions (Hindu and Muslim). Like the Gandhi's upbringing was middle-class and he was raised racism directed against Blacks, Indians were portrayed as under Hinduism. Gandhi was married at age 13 as part of a “filthy & dirty,” a source of sickness and disease. traditional Hindu arranged marriage. His wife, Kasturbai, Meanwhile, the government began enacting was the same age, and the two would eventually have four measures to limit Indian immigration, impose stricter children together. controls, and eventually reduce the Indian population. This In 1888, at the age of 19, included restricting the right to vote and the issuing of Gandhi travelled to London, England to licenses, as well as a 3 Pound attend law school.
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