You Can't Kill the Spirit - Nonviolent Organizing

You Can't Kill the Spirit

Nonviolent Organizing

Prominent leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King Jr. are known all around the world for teaching and practicing nonviolence while fighting for human justice and peace. They are graced throughout history books, not only for their commendable actions but for their effective manner of inducing change around the world. Although these prominent figures leave everlasting footprints on the soil of this earth, there are many more that have contributed and still contribute to the struggle of human survival.

In writing You Can't Kill the Spirit, Pam McAllister attempts to capture the hearts of women around the world. Through the fight for justice, women suffer the risk of being arrested, losing their jobs, homes and even losing their lives. This book illustrates the stories of women who have fought for their right to be recognized and heard. It's about the right to be granted civil liberties not based on laws of the land but based on human dignity that all people should have a right to obtain. Yet through their tribulations the spirits of those who have died and struggled for the cause, live on and are depicted through the actions of those who continue to fight for freedom through nonviolent interventions. By identifying the categories of protest through persuasion, noncooperation and intervention, the contribution in which the dimensions of nonviolent organizing is demonstrated is displayed throughout the book.

Beginning in 1976 mothers, daughters and granddaughters of Argentina started demonstrating in the Plaza de Mayo on behalf of their missing children who seemed to be disappearing with no trace of ever reappearing. Although public demonstration was forbidden in Argentina, the Mothers of the Plaza, in which they were later named, continued to withstand tear gas and constant arrests. This act of nonviolence demonstration later caught the attention of media and many women around the world who were experiencing the same travesties involving their missing children. (McAllister p 24)

Eroseanna Robinson was arrested on January 26, 1960 by governmental authorities for not paying taxes for over ten years. Her act of resistance was based on the fact that a large percentage of the budget is used for war purposes, in which she did not support. Upon fasting and praying for ninety-three days in jail, along with long time supporters and activists, Robinson was unconditionally discharged from prison. Many women would later follow in her footsteps of nonviolent noncooperation. (McAllister p 87)

In the Philippines the people began a massive program of civil disobedience and nonviolent protest. In regards to the new presidency, military personnel's were attempting to shut a radio station down because of the possibility that the truth of the results would be sent through the airways. On February 22, 1986 over two million people decided to barricade the radio station in order that people would hear the truth. This form of nonviolent intervention although risked the lives of millions involved, as a result, set a revolution for change.

Robert Fisher, in his book Let the People Decide, explains that Neighborhood organizing isn't some phenomenon that came about in post-World War II, because even before industrialization, people resisted domination and oppression outside of the factories and out side of the class-conscious movement. (Fisher 219) Fisher states that organizing cuts through the political spectrum. He claims that while it is not inherently reactionary, conservative, liberal, or radical, it is neither inherently democratic and inclusive or authoritarian and parochial. (Fisher 221)

When the women of the Leiserson's garment shop in New York went on strike due to the low wages, they were not fighting because they wanted a movement of sorts to occur; they were fighting for their life. They were fighting in order that they could have enough money at the end of the week to pay their rent, feed their children and take care of the basic human needs in order to survive. After a hard days of work very few women took home more then $6.00 per week and the youngest ones made as little as $1.50. From the wages that were made, workers still had to pay for the equipment and tools that they used as well as the electricity that was providing them the energy for the tools to work. (McAllister p.63)

One woman took action by deciding to pose a walk out. Her actions caused many women to get up as well and strike against this type of injustice. Standing up as an act of courage and deciding that until circumstances get better they will no longer work, these women inspired each other to keep the fight and caused for other women at other factories to take a stand as well.

Fisher relates the idea that the interaction between neighborhood organizing efforts, national politics and nationwide social movements are very effective in contributing to the amount of response that each level of organizing receives. Whether the response is one that leaves an encouraging or repressive reaction it is nonetheless one that is connected in support.

When the women decided to stand up and organize a walk out on the job they had many supporters that were willing to make it a very efficient and effective method towards change. Union organizer Mary Dreier, president of the New York Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) served as one of the witnesses of the picketing and police brutality. Her arrest on the picket line made headlines in the newspaper and caused for a major story in the New York Times. The publicity helped the strikers gain more awareness to their case and aided in granting their rights to freedom of speech. This story led to help from major organizers such as the WTUL, Young Society Debutantes and, Bryn Mawr College students where affluent and middle class workers from New York and Philadelphia volunteered and worked hard to support the workers in New York. (McAllister p.73) These organizations were very successful at supporting workers in New York and other locations in order to establish better wages, work hours and even union recognition.

The very act of organizing a nonviolent demonstration is nothing new. Nonviolent organizing is an act that has been in existence even before the word began.