Difference between revisions of "Civil disobedience" - New World Encyclopedia

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===South Africa===
 
===South Africa===
 
Both Archbishop [[Desmond Tutu]] and [[Steve Biko]] advocated civil disobedience. The result can be seen in such notable events as the 1989 [[Purple Rain Protest|Purple Rain Revolt]], and the [[Cape Town Peace March]] which defied apartheid laws.
 
Both Archbishop [[Desmond Tutu]] and [[Steve Biko]] advocated civil disobedience. The result can be seen in such notable events as the 1989 [[Purple Rain Protest|Purple Rain Revolt]], and the [[Cape Town Peace March]] which defied apartheid laws.
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====Purple Rain Protest====
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On September 2, 1989, four days before [[South Africa]]'s racially segregated parliament held its elections, Burg Street in [[Cape Town]] ran '''purple'''. A police water cannon with purple dye was turned on thousands of [[Mass Democratic Movement]] supporters who poured into the city in an attempt to march on South Africa's Parliament. Office blocks off Greenmarket Square were sprayed purple four stories high as a protester leapt onto the roof of the water cannon vehicle, seized the nozzle and attempted to turn the jet away from the crowds. <ref> Weekend Argus, "Purple Rain halts city demo", front page, Saturday, September 2, 1989</ref>
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The historic Town House, a national monument, was sprayed purple and the force of the jet smashed windows in the Central Methodist Church.
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[[Teargas]] was fired and the crowd that had knelt defiantly in the purple jet fled. Adderley Street was closed to traffic as scores of shops and businesses closed their doors and hundreds of people were arrested, including Dr Allan Boesak, UCT academic Dr Charles Villa-Vincencia, Western Cape Council of Churches official Rev. Pierre van den Heever and lawyer Essa Moosa.
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Journalists including Brenton Geach (''Weekend Argus''), Rehana Rousouw (''South'') and Gaye Davis (''Weekly Mail'') were held.
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Protesters were warned to disperse but instead knelt in the street and the water cannon was turned on them. Some remained kneeling while others fled. Some had their feet knocked out from under them by the force of the jet. In Adderley Street, shoppers ran for cover, their eyes streaming, and a young couple with a baby in a pram were hurriedly ushered into a shop which then locked its doors. A group of about 50 protesters streaming with purple dye, ran from Burg Street, down to the parade. They were followed by another group of clergymen and others who were stopped in Plein Street. Some were then arrested. On the Parade, a large contingent of policemen arrested everyone they could find who had purple dye on them. When they were booed by the crowd, police dispersed them. About 250 people marching under a banner stating "The People Shall Govern" dispersed at the intersection of Darling Street and Sir Lowry Road after being stopped by police. <ref> Weekend Argus, "Purple Rain halts city demo", front page, Saturday, September 2, 1989</ref>
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====Cape Town Peace March====
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On [[September 12]], [[1989]], 30 000 [[Cape Town|Capetonians]] marched in support of peace and the end of [[apartheid]]. The event lead by Mayor [[Gordon Oliver]], [[Desmond Tutu|Archbishop Tutu]], Rev [[Frank Chikane]], [[Moulana Faried Esack]] and other religious leaders was held in defiance of the government's ban on political marches. The demonstration forced President [[de Klerk]] to relinquish the hardline against transformation, and the eventual unbanning of the [[African National Congress|ANC]], and other political parties, and the release of [[Nelson Mandela]] less than six months later.
  
 
=== Civil disobedience in the United States ===
 
=== Civil disobedience in the United States ===
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*[http://www.sikhism.com/articles/origin_non_violence.htm Origin of Non Violence]
 
*[http://www.sikhism.com/articles/origin_non_violence.htm Origin of Non Violence]
  
{{Credit4|Civil_disobedience|86250212|Champaran_and_Kheda_Satyagraha|88174630|History_of_Solidarity|90838856|Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.|90906328|}}
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{{Credit6|Civil_disobedience|86250212|Champaran_and_Kheda_Satyagraha|88174630|History_of_Solidarity|90838856|Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.|90906328|Purple_Rain_Protest|89823373|Cape_Town_Peace_March|81337139|}}

Revision as of 17:08, 29 November 2006


Deifinition

An anti-war activist is arrested for civil disobedience on the steps of the Supreme Court of the United States on February 9, 2005.

Civil disobedience encompasses the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government or of an occupying power without resorting to physical violence. It could be said that it is compassion in the form a respectful disagreement. Civil disobedience has been used in nonviolent resistance movements in India (Gandhi's social welfare campaigns and campaigns to speed up independence from the British Empire), in South Africa in the fight against apartheid, and in the American Civil Rights Movement. The American author Henry David Thoreau pioneered the modern theory behind this practice in his 1849 essay Civil Disobedience (Wikisource Text), originally titled "Resistance to Civil Government". The driving idea behind the essay was that of self-reliance, and how one is in morally good standing as long as one can "get off another man's back"; so one doesn't have to physically fight the government, but one must not support it or have it support one (if one is against it). This essay has had a wide influence on many later practitioners of civil disobedience. In the essay, Thoreau explained his reasons for having refused to pay taxes as an act of protest against slavery and against the Mexican-American War.

Theories and techniques of civil disobedience

In seeking an active form of civil disobedience, one may choose to deliberately break certain laws, such as by forming a peaceful blockade or occupying a facility illegally. Protesters practice this non-violent form of civil disorder with the expectation that they will be arrested, or even attacked or beaten by the authorities. Protesters often undergo training in advance on how to react to arrest or to attack, so that they will do so in a manner that quietly or limply resists without threatening the authorities.

For example, Mahatma Gandhi outlined the following rules:

  1. A civil resister (or satyagrahi) will harbour no anger.
  2. He will suffer the anger of the opponent.
  3. In so doing he will put up with assaults from the opponent, never retaliate; but he will not submit, out of fear of punishment or the like, to any order given in anger.
  4. When any person in authority seeks to arrest a civil resister, he will voluntarily submit to the arrest, and he will not resist the attachment or removal of his own property, if any, when it is sought to be confiscated by authorities.
  5. If a civil resister has any property in his possession as a trustee, he will refuse to surrender it, even though in defending it he might lose his life. He will, however, never retaliate.
  6. Retaliation includes swearing and cursing.
  7. Therefore a civil resister will never insult his opponent, and therefore also not take part in many of the newly coined cries which are contrary to the spirit of ahimsa.
  8. A civil resister will not salute the Union Jack, nor will he insult it or officials, English or Indian.
  9. In the course of the struggle if anyone insults an official or commits an assault upon him, a civil resister will protect such official or officials from the insult or attack even at the risk of his life.

Gandhi distinguished between his idea of satyagraha and the passive resistance of the west.

Examples of Civil Disobedience

Use in independence movements

Civil disobedience has served as a major tactic of nationalist movements in former colonies in Africa and Asia prior to their gaining independence. Most notably Mahatma Gandhi developed civil disobedience as an anti-colonialist tool. Gandhi said "Civil disobedience is the inherent right of a citizen to be civil, implies discipline, thought, care, attention and sacrifice". Gandhi learned of Civil Disobedience from Thoreau's classic essay, which caused Gandhi to adopt a non-violent approach.

India

The first Satyagraha revolutions inspired by Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian Independence Movement occurred in Kheda district of Gujarat and the Champaran district of Bihar between the years of 1918 and 1919.

Champaran, Bihar

In Champaran, a district in the then-province, now state of Bihar, tens of thousands of landless serfs, indentured laborers and poor farmers were forced to grow indigo and other cash crops instead of the food crops necessary for their survival. Suppressed by the ruthless militias of the landlords (mostly British), they were given measly compensation, leaving them mired in extreme poverty. The villages were kept extremely dirty and unhygienic, and alcoholism, untouchability and purdah were rampant. Now in the throes of a devastating famine, the British levied an oppressive tax which they insisted on increasing in rate. The situation was desperate.

Kheda, Gujarat

In Kheda, a district of villages and small towns in Gujarat, the peasants mostly owned their own lands, and were economically better-off than their compatriots in Bihar, although on the whole, the district was plagued by poverty, scant resources, the social evils of alcoholism and untouchability, and overall British indifference and hegemony.

However, a terrible famine had struck the district and a large part of Gujarat, and virtually destroyed the agrarian economy. The poor peasants had barely enough to feed themselves, but the British government of the Bombay Presidency insisted that the farmers not only pay full taxes, but also pay the 23 percent increase slated to take effect that very year.

Purdah is not a means of supression as metioned here. it is really a mark of dignity and a procalamation that woman is not commodity.

Gandhi's solution

While many civic groups sent petitions and published editorials, Gandhi proposed satyagraha - non-violent, mass civil disobedience. While it was strictly non-violent, Gandhi was proposing real action, a real revolt that the oppressed peoples of India were dying to undertake.

Gandhi also insisted that neither the protestors in Bihar nor in Gujarat allude to or try to propagate the concept of Swaraj, or Independence. This was not about political freedom, but a revolt against abject tyranny amidst a terrible humanitarian disaster. While accepting participants and help from other parts of India, Gandhi insisted that no other district or province revolt against the Government, and that the Indian National Congress not get involved apart from issuing resolutions of support, to prevent the British from giving it cause to use extensive suppressive measures and brand the revolts as treason.

In Champaran

Gandhi established an ashrama in Champaran, organizing scores of his veteran supporters and fresh volunteers from the region. He organized a detailed study and survey of the villages, accounting the atrocities and terrible episodes of suffering, including the general state of degenerate living. Building on the confidence of villagers, he began leading the clean-up of villages, building of schools and hospitals and encouraging the village leadership to undo purdah, untouchability and the suppression of women. He was joined by many young nationalists from the parts and all over India, including Brajkishore Prasad, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Jawaharlal Nehru.

But his main assault came as he was arrested by police on the charge of creating unrest and was ordered to leave the province. Hundreds of thousands of people protested and rallied outside the jail, police stations and courts demanding his release, which the court unwillingly did. Gandhi led organized protests and strike against the landlords, who with the guidance of the British government, signed an agreement granting more compensation and control over farming for the poor farmers of the region, and cancellation of revenue hikes and collection until the famine ended. It was during this agitation, that Gandhi was addressed by the people as Bapu (Father) and Mahatma (Great Soul).

In Kheda
Gandhi in 1918, when he led the Kheda Satyagraha against allegedly unjust taxation.

In Gujarat, Gandhi was only the spiritual head of the struggle. His chief lieutenant, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and a close coterie of devoted Gandhians, namely Narhari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya and Ravi Shankar Vyas toured the countryside, organized the villagers and gave them political leadership and direction. Many aroused Gujaratis from the cities of Ahmedabad and Vadodara joined the organizers of the revolt, but Gandhi and Patel resisted the involvement of Indians from other provinces, seeking to keep it a purely Gujarati struggle.

Patel and his colleagues organized a major tax revolt, and all the different ethnic and caste communities of Kheda rallied around it. The peasants of Kheda signed a petition calling for the tax for this year to be scrapped in wake of the famine. The government in Bombay rejected the charter. They warned that if the peasants did not pay, the lands and property would be confiscated and many arrested. And once confiscated, they would not be returned even if most complied. None of the villages flinched.

The tax withheld, the government's collectors and inspectors sent in Pathan thugs to seize property and cattle, while the police forfeited the lands and all agrarian property. The farmers did not resist arrest, nor retaliate to the force employed with violence. Instead, they used their cash and valuables to donate to the Gujarat Sabha which was officially organizing the protest.

The revolt was astounding in terms of discipline and unity. Even when all their personal property, land and livelihood were seized, a vast majority of Kheda's farmers remained firmly united in the support of Patel. Gujaratis sympathetic to the revolt in other parts resisted the government machinery, and helped the shelter the relatives and property of the protesting peasants. Those Indians who sought to buy the confiscated lands were ostracized from society. Although nationalists like Sardul Singh Caveeshar called for sympathetic revolts in other parts, Gandhi and Patel firmly rejected the idea.

The Government finally sought to foster an honorable agreement for both parties. The tax for the year in question, and the next would be suspended, and the increase in rate reduced, while all confiscated property would be returned.

Gujaratis also worked in cohesion to return the confiscated lands to their rightful owners. The ones who had bought the lands seized were influenced to return them, even though the British had officially said it would stand by the buyers.

Success and legacy

Gandhi's resulting fame spread like fire all over the nation. He had become a defining influence on Indian Nationalism. People in Gujarat still revere Gandhi and Sardar Patel, and their role in the freedom struggle. Gujarat is the most industrialized and progressive state in India today. In Bihar, poverty and social conflict pervades what was the founding of the Satyagraha movement. The Naxalite insurgency is centered around the same age-old problem of class struggle between poor farmers and rich landlords, now involving terrorism.


Poland

Main article: Solidarity

Civil disobedience was a tactic used by the Polish in offense to the former communist government.


In the 1970s and 1980s, the initial success of Solidarity in particular, and of dissident movements in general, was fed by a deepening crisis within Soviet-style societies brought about by declining morale, worsening economic conditions (a shortage economy), and the growing stresses of the Cold War.[1]After a brief period of economic boom, from 1975 the policies of the Polish government, led by Party First Secretary Edward Gierek, precipitated a slide into increasing depression, as foreign debt mounted.[2] In June 1976, the first workers' strikes took place, involving violent incidents at factories in Radom and Ursus.[3] When these incidents were quelled by the government, the worker's movement received support from intellectual dissidents, many of them associated with the Committee for Defense of the Workers (Polish: Komitet Obrony Robotników, abbreviated KOR), formed in 1976.[1][4] The following year, KOR was renamed the Committee for Social Self-defence (KSS-KOR).

On October 16, 1978, the Bishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyła, was elected Pope John Paul II. A year later, during his first pilgrimage to Poland, his masses were attended by millions of his countrymen. The Pope called for the respecting of national and religious traditions and advocated for freedom and human rights, while denouncing violence. To many Poles, he represented a spiritual and moral force that could be set against brute material forces; he was a bellwether of change, and became an important symbol—and supporter—of changes to come.[5][6]

Early strikes (1980–81)

Strikes did not occur merely due to problems that had emerged shortly before the labor unrest, but due to governmental and economic difficulties spanning more than a decade. In July 1980, Edward Gierek's government, facing economic crisis, decided to raise prices while slowing the growth of wages. At once there ensued a wave of strikes and factory occupations.[1] Although the strike movement had no coordinating center, the workers had developed an information network to spread news of their struggle. A "dissident" group, the Committee for the Defense of the Workers (KOR), which had originally been set up in 1976 to organize aid for victimized workers, attracted small groups of working-class militants in major industrial centers.[1] At the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, the firing of Anna Walentynowicz, a popular crane operator and activist, galvanized the outraged workers into action.[1][7]

On August 14, the shipyard workers began their strike, organized by the Free Trade Unions of the Coast (Wolne Związki Zawodowe Wybrzeża).[8] The workers were led by electrician Lech Wałęsa, a former shipyard worker who had been dismissed in 1976, and who arrived at the shipyard late in the morning of August 14.[1] The strike committee demanded the rehiring of Walentynowicz and Wałęsa, as well as the according of respect to workers' rights and other social concerns. In addition, they called for the raising of a monument to the shipyard workers who had been killed in 1970 and for the legalization of independent trade unions.[9]

File:Strike Gdansk 1980.jpg
1980 strike at Gdańsk Shipyard, birthplace of Solidarity.

The Polish government enforced censorship, and official media said little about the "sporadic labor disturbances in Gdańsk"; as a further precaution, all phone connections between the coast and the rest of Poland were soon cut.[1] Nonetheless, the government failed to contain the information: a spreading wave of samizdats (Polish: bibuła),[10] including Robotnik (The Worker), and grapevine gossip, along with Radio Free Europe broadcasts that penetrated the Iron Curtain,[11] ensured that the ideas of the emerging Solidarity movement quickly spread.

On August 16, delegations from other strike committees arrived at the shipyard.[1] Delegates (Bogdan Lis, Andrzej Gwiazda and others) together with shipyard strikers agreed to create an Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee (Międzyzakładowy Komitet Strajkowy, or MKS).[1] On August 17 a priest, Henryk Jankowski, performed a mass outside the shipyard's gate, at which 21 demands of the MKS were put forward. The list went beyond purely local matters, beginning with a demand for new, independent trade unions and going on to call for a relaxation of the censorship, a right to strike, new rights for the Church, the freeing of political prisoners, and improvements in the national health service.[1]

File:Lechu.JPG
Lech Wałęsa (left) with Mieczysław Jagielski (1980).

Next day, a delegation of KOR intelligentsia, including Tadeusz Mazowiecki, arrived to offer their assistance with negotiations. A bibuła news-sheet, Solidarność, produced on the shipyard’s printing press with KOR assistance, reached a daily print run of 30,000 copies.[1] Meanwhile, Jacek Kaczmarski's protest song, Mury (Walls), gained popularity with the workers.[12]

On August 18, the Szczecin Shipyard joined the strike, under the leadership of Marian Jurczyk. A tidal wave of strikes swept the coast, closing ports and bringing the economy to a halt. With KOR assistance and support from many intellectuals, workers occupying factories, mines and shipyards across Poland joined forces. Within days, over 200 factories and enterprises had joined the strike committee.[1][7] By August 21, most of Poland was affected by the strikes, from coastal shipyards to the mines of the Upper Silesian Industrial Area. More and more new unions were formed, and joined the federation.

Monument to Shipyard Workers Fallen in 1970, created following the Gdańsk Agreement, and unveiled December 16, 1980.

Thanks to popular support within Poland, as well as to international support and media coverage, the Gdańsk workers held out until the government gave in to their demands. On August 21 a Governmental Commission (Komisja Rządowa) including Mieczysław Jagielski arrived in Gdańsk, and another one with Kazimierz Barcikowski was dispatched to Szczecin. On August 30 and 31, and on September 3, representatives of the workers and the government signed an agreement ratifying many of the workers' demands, including the right to strike.[1] This agreement came to be known as the August or Gdańsk agreement (Porozumienia sierpniowe).[7] Though concerned with labor-union matters, the agreement enabled citizens to introduce democratic changes within the communist political structure and was regarded as a first step toward dismantling the Party's monopoly of power.[13] The workers' main concerns were the establishment of a labor union independent of communist-party control, and recognition of a legal right to strike. Workers’ needs would now receive clear representation.[14] Another consequence of the Gdańsk Agreement was the replacement, in September 1980, of Edward Gierek by Stanisław Kania as Party First Secretary.[15]


Encouraged by the success of the August strikes, on September 17 workers' representatives, including Lech Wałęsa, formed a nationwide labor union, Solidarity (Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy (NSZZ) "Solidarność").[1][7][16] It was the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country.[17] Its name was suggested by Karol Modzelewski, and its famous logo was conceived by Jerzy Janiszewski, designer of many Solidarity-related posters. The new union's supreme powers were vested in a legislative body, the Convention of Delegates (Zjazd Delegatów). The executive branch was the National Coordinating Commission (Krajowa Komisja Porozumiewawcza), later renamed the National Commission (Komisja Krajowa). The Union had a regional structure, comprising 38 regions (region) and two districts (okręg).[16] On December 16, 1980, the Monument to Fallen Shipyard Workers was unveiled. On January 15, 1981, a Solidarity delegation, including Lech Wałęsa, met in Rome with Pope John Paul II. From September 5 to 10, and from September 26 to October 7, Solidarity's first national congress was held, and Lech Wałęsa was elected its president.[18]


Meanwhile Solidarity had been transforming itself from a trade union into a social movement[19] or more specifically, a revolutionary movement.[20] Over the 500 days following the Gdańsk Agreement, 9-10 million workers, intellectuals and students joined it or its suborganizations,[1] such as the Independent Student Union (Niezależne Zrzeszenie Studentów, created in September 1980), the Independent Farmers' Trade Union (NSZZ Rolników Indywidualnych "Solidarność", created in May 1981) and the Independent Craftsmen's Trade Union.[16] It was the only time in recorded history that a quarter of a country's population (some 80% of the total Polish work force) had voluntarily joined a single organization.[1][16] "History has taught us that there is no bread without freedom," the Solidarity program stated a year later. "What we had in mind was not only bread, butter and sausages, but also justice, democracy, truth, legality, human dignity, freedom of convictions, and the repair of the republic."[7]

March 20-21, 1981, issue of Wieczór Wrocławia (The Wrocław Evening). Blank spaces remain after the government censor has pulled articles from page 1 (right, "What happened at Bydgoszcz?") and from the last page (left, "Country-wide strike alert"), leaving only their titles. The printers—Solidarity-trade-union members—have decided to run the newspaper as is, with blank spaces intact. The bottom of page 1 of this master copy bears the hand-written Solidarity confirmation of that decision.

Using strikes and other protest actions, Solidarity sought to force a change in government policies. At the same time, it was careful never to use force or violence, so as to avoid giving the government any excuse to bring security forces into play.[21][22] After 27 Bydgoszcz Solidarity members, including Jan Rulewski, were beaten up on March 19, a 4-hour strike on March 27, involving over half a million people, paralyzed the country.[1] This was the largest strike in the history of the Eastern bloc,[23] and it forced the government to promise an investigation into the beatings.[1] This concession, and Wałęsa's agreement to defer further strikes, proved a setback to the movement, as the euphoria that had swept Polish society subsided.[1] Nonetheless the Polish communist party—the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR)—had lost its total control over society.[13]

Yet while Solidarity was ready to take up negotiations with the government,[24] the Polish communists were unsure what to do, as they issued empty declarations and bid their time.[15] Against the background of a deteriorating communist shortage economy and unwillingness to negotiate seriously with Solidarity, it became increasingly clear that the Communist government would eventually have to suppress the Solidarity movement as the only way out of the impasse, or face a truly revolutionary situation. The atmosphere was increasingly tense, with various local chapters conducting a growing number of uncoordinated strikes in response to the worsening economic situation.[1]On December 3 Solidarity announced that a 24-hour strike would be held if the government were granted additional powers to suppress dissent, and that a general strike would be declared if those powers were used.

Martial law (1981–83)

After the Gdańsk Agreement, the Polish government was under increasing pressure from the Soviet Union to take action and strengthen its position. Stanisław Kania was viewed by Moscow as too independent, and on October 18, 1981, the Party Central Committee put him in the minority. Kania lost his post as First Secretary, and was replaced by Prime Minister (and Minister of Defence) Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, who adopted a strong-arm policy.[24]

On December 13, 1981, Jaruzelski began a crack-down on Solidarity, declaring martial law and creating a Military Council of National Salvation (Wojskowa Rada Ocalenia Narodowego, or WRON). Solidarity's leaders, gathered at Gdańsk, were arrested and isolated in facilities guarded by the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa or SB), and some 5,000 Solidarity supporters were arrested in the middle of the night.[1][16] Censorship was expanded, and military forces appeared on the streets.[24] A couple of hundred strikes and occupations occurred, chiefly at the largest plants and at several Silesian coal mines, but were broken by ZOMO paramilitary riot police. One of the largest demonstrations, on December 16, 1981, took place at the Wujek Coal Mine, where government forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing 9[1] and seriously injuring 22.[18] Next day, during protests at Gdańsk, government forces again fired at demonstrators, killing 1 and injuring 2. By December 28, 1981, strikes had ceased, and Solidarity appeared crippled. On October 8, 1982, the organization was delegalized and banned.[25]


The international community outside the Iron Curtain condemned Jaruzelski's actions and declared support for Solidarity.[16] US President Ronald Reagan imposed economic sanctions on Poland, which eventually would force the Polish government into liberalizing its policies.[26] Meanwhile the CIA[27] together with the Catholic Church and various Western trade unions such as the AFL-CIO provided funds, equipment and advice to the Solidarity underground.[28] The political alliance of Reagan and the Pope would prove important to the future of Solidarity.[28] The Polish public also supported what was left of Solidarity; a major medium for demonstrating support of Solidarity became masses held by priests such as Jerzy Popiełuszko.[29]

In July 1983, martial Law was formally lifted, though many heightened controls on civil liberties and political life, as well as food rationing, remained in place through the mid- to late 1980s.[30]


South Africa

Both Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Steve Biko advocated civil disobedience. The result can be seen in such notable events as the 1989 Purple Rain Revolt, and the Cape Town Peace March which defied apartheid laws.

Purple Rain Protest

On September 2, 1989, four days before South Africa's racially segregated parliament held its elections, Burg Street in Cape Town ran purple. A police water cannon with purple dye was turned on thousands of Mass Democratic Movement supporters who poured into the city in an attempt to march on South Africa's Parliament. Office blocks off Greenmarket Square were sprayed purple four stories high as a protester leapt onto the roof of the water cannon vehicle, seized the nozzle and attempted to turn the jet away from the crowds. [31]

The historic Town House, a national monument, was sprayed purple and the force of the jet smashed windows in the Central Methodist Church.

Teargas was fired and the crowd that had knelt defiantly in the purple jet fled. Adderley Street was closed to traffic as scores of shops and businesses closed their doors and hundreds of people were arrested, including Dr Allan Boesak, UCT academic Dr Charles Villa-Vincencia, Western Cape Council of Churches official Rev. Pierre van den Heever and lawyer Essa Moosa.


Journalists including Brenton Geach (Weekend Argus), Rehana Rousouw (South) and Gaye Davis (Weekly Mail) were held.


Protesters were warned to disperse but instead knelt in the street and the water cannon was turned on them. Some remained kneeling while others fled. Some had their feet knocked out from under them by the force of the jet. In Adderley Street, shoppers ran for cover, their eyes streaming, and a young couple with a baby in a pram were hurriedly ushered into a shop which then locked its doors. A group of about 50 protesters streaming with purple dye, ran from Burg Street, down to the parade. They were followed by another group of clergymen and others who were stopped in Plein Street. Some were then arrested. On the Parade, a large contingent of policemen arrested everyone they could find who had purple dye on them. When they were booed by the crowd, police dispersed them. About 250 people marching under a banner stating "The People Shall Govern" dispersed at the intersection of Darling Street and Sir Lowry Road after being stopped by police. [32]

Cape Town Peace March

On September 12, 1989, 30 000 Capetonians marched in support of peace and the end of apartheid. The event lead by Mayor Gordon Oliver, Archbishop Tutu, Rev Frank Chikane, Moulana Faried Esack and other religious leaders was held in defiance of the government's ban on political marches. The demonstration forced President de Klerk to relinquish the hardline against transformation, and the eventual unbanning of the ANC, and other political parties, and the release of Nelson Mandela less than six months later.

Civil disobedience in the United States

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a leader of the US civil rights movement in the United States in the 1960s also adopted civil disobedience techniques, and antiwar activists both during and after the Vietnam War have done likewise. Since the 1970s, pro-life or anti-abortion groups have practiced civil disobedience against the U.S. government over the issue of legalized abortion.

In 1953, at the age of twenty-four, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, in Montgomery, Alabama. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to comply with the Jim Crow law that required her to give up her seat to a white man. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by King, soon followed. (This, despite the fact that in March of the same year, a 15 year old school girl, Claudette Colvin, suffered the same fate but King refused to become involved, instead preferring to focus on leading his church.[33]) The boycott lasted for 382 days, the situation becoming so tense that King's house was bombed. King was arrested during this campaign, which ended with a United States Supreme Court decision outlawing racial segregation on all public transport.

King was instrumental in the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, a group created to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct nonviolent protests in the service of civil rights reform. King continued to dominate the organization. King was an adherent of the philosophies of nonviolent civil disobedience used successfully in India by Mahatma Gandhi, and he applied this philosophy to the protests organized by the SCLC.


The FBI began wiretapping King in 1961, fearing that communists were trying to infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement, but when no such evidence emerged, the bureau used the incidental details caught on tape over six years in attempts to force King out of the pre-eminent leadership position.

King correctly recognized that organized, nonviolent protest against the racist system of southern segregation known as Jim Crow laws would lead to extensive media coverage of the struggle for black equality and voting rights. Indeed, journalistic accounts and televised footage of the daily deprivation and indignities suffered by southern blacks, and of segregationist violence and harassment of civil rights workers and marchers, produced a wave of sympathetic public opinion that made the Civil Rights Movement the single most important issue in American politics in the early-1960s.


King organized and led marches for blacks' right to vote, desegregation, labor rights and other basic civil rights. Most of these rights were successfully enacted into United States law with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

King and the SCLC applied the principles of nonviolent protest with great success by strategically choosing the method of protest and the places in which protests were carried out in often dramatic stand-offs with segregationist authorities. Sometimes these confrontations turned violent. King and the SCLC were instrumental in the unsuccessful protest movement in Albany, in 1961 & 1962, where divisions within the black community and the canny, low-key response by local government defeated efforts; in the Birmingham protests in the summer of 1963; and in the protest in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964. King and the SCLC joined forces with SNCC in Selma, Alabama, in December 1964, where SNCC had been working on voter registration for a number of months. [34] His 1964 book Why We Can't Wait elaborated this idea further, presenting it as an application of the common law regarding settlement of unpaid labor.[35]

The March on Washington
King is perhaps most famous for his "I Have a Dream" speech, given in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

King, representing SCLC, was among the leaders of the so-called "Big Six" civil rights organizations who were instrumental in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. The other leaders and organizations comprising the Big Six were: Roy Wilkins, NAACP; Whitney Young, Jr., Urban League; A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; John Lewis, SNCC; and James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). For King, this role was another which courted controversy, as he was one of the key figures who acceded to the wishes of President John F. Kennedy in changing the focus of the march. Kennedy initially opposed the march outright, because he was concerned it would negatively impact the drive for passage of civil rights legislation, but the organizers were firm that the march would proceed.

The march originally was conceived as an event to dramatize the desperate condition of blacks in the South and a very public opportunity to place organizers' concerns and grievances squarely before the seat of power in the nation's capital. Organizers intended to excoriate and then challenge the federal government for its failure to safeguard the civil rights and physical safety of civil rights workers and blacks, generally, in the South. However, the group acquiesced to presidential pressure and influence, and the event ultimately took on a far less strident tone.

As a result, some civil rights activists felt it presented an inaccurate, sanitized pageant of racial harmony; Malcolm X called it the "Farce on Washington," and members of the Nation of Islam who attended the march faced a temporary suspension.[36]

The march did, however, make specific demands: an end to racial segregation in public school; meaningful civil rights legislation, including a law prohibiting racial discrimination in employment; protection of civil rights workers from police brutality; a $2 minimum wage for all workers; and self-government for the District of Columbia, then governed by congressional committee.

Despite tensions, the march was a resounding success. More than a quarter of a million people of diverse ethnicities attended the event, sprawling from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial onto the National Mall and around the reflecting pool. At the time, it was the largest gathering of protesters in Washington's history. King's I Have a Dream speech electrified the crowd. It is regarded, along with President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, as one of the finest speeches in the history of American oratory. President Kennedy, himself opposed to the march, met King afterwards with enthusiasm - repeating King's line back to him; "I have a dream", while nodding with approval.

Throughout his career of service, King wrote and spoke frequently, drawing on his long experience as a preacher. His "Letter from Birmingham Jail", written in 1963, is a passionate statement of his crusade for justice. On October 14, 1964, King became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States.


Stance on compensation

On several occasions King expressed a view that black Americans, as well as other disadvantaged Americans, should be compensated for historical wrongs. Speaking to Alex Haley in 1965, he said that granting black Americans only equality could not realistically close the economic gap between them and whites. King said that he did not seek a full restitution of wages lost to slavery, which he believed impossible, but proposed a government compensatory program of US$50 billion over ten years to all disadvantaged groups. He posited that "the money spent would be more than amply justified by the benefits that would accrue to the nation through a spectacular decline in school dropouts, family breakups, crime rates, illegitimacy, swollen relief rolls, rioting and other social evils."[37] His 1964 book Why We Can't Wait elaborated this idea further, presenting it as an application of the common law regarding settlement of unpaid labor.[38]

"Bloody Sunday"

King and SCLC, in partial collaboration with SNCC, then attempted to organize a march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery, for March 25, 1965. The first attempt to march on March 7 was aborted due to mob and police violence against the demonstrators. This day has since become known as Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday was a major turning point in the effort to gain public support for the Civil Rights Movement, the clearest demonstration up to that time of the dramatic potential of King's nonviolence strategy. King, however, was not present. After meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson, he attempted to delay the march until March 8, but the march was carried out against his wishes and without his presence by local civil rights workers. Filmed footage of the police brutality against the protesters was broadcast extensively, and aroused national public outrage.

The second attempt at the march on March 9 was ended when King stopped the procession at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the outskirts of Selma, an action which he seemed to have negotiated with city leaders beforehand. This unexpected action aroused the surprise and anger of many within the local movement. The march finally went ahead fully on March 25, and it was during this march that Willie Ricks coined the phrase "Black Power" (widely credited to Stokely Carmichael).

Bayard Rustin

African American civil rights activist Bayard Rustin counseled King to dedicate himself to the principles of non-violence in 1956, and had a leadership role in organizing the 1963 March on Washington. However, Rustin's open homosexuality and support of democratic socialism and (long-abandoned) ties to the Communist Party USA caused many white and African American leaders to demand that King distance himself from Rustin, which he did on several occasions, but not all — such as when he ensured Rustin's role in the March on Washington.[citation needed]

Chicago

In 1966, after several successes in the South, King and other people in the civil rights organizations tried to spread the movement to the North, with Chicago as its first target. King and Ralph Abernathy, both middle class folk, moved into Chicago's slums as an educational experience and to demonstrate their support and empathy for the poor.

Their organization, The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) formed a coalition with CCCO, Coordinating Committee of Community Organizations, an organization itself founded by Albert Raby, Jr., and the combined organizations' efforts were fostered under the aegis of The Chicago Freedom Movement (CFO). During that Spring a number of dual white couple/black couple tests on real estate offices uncovered the practice, now banned by the Real Estate Industry, of "steering"; these tests revealed the racially selective processing of housing requests by couples who were exact matches in income, background, number of children, and other attributes, with the only difference being their race. Without exception, the black couples were rejected and the white couples were accepted at the real estate offices, which were then picketed by CFO.

The needs of the movement for radical change grew and several larger marches were planned and executed, including those in the following neighborhoods: Bogan, Belmont-Cragin, Jefferson Park, Evergreen Park (A Suburb southwest of Chicago), Gage Park and Marquette Park, among others.

In Chicago, Abernathy would later write, they received a worse reception than they had in the South. Their marches were met by thrown bottles and screaming throngs, and they were truly afraid of starting a riot. King's beliefs mitigated against his staging a violent event; if King had intimations that a peaceful march would be put down with violence he would call it off for the safety of others. Nonetheless, he led these marches in the face of death threats to his person. And in Chicago the violence was so formidable it shook the two friends.

Another problem was the duplicitousness of the city leaders. Abernathy and King secured agreements on action to be taken, but this action was subverted after-the-fact by politicians within Mayor Richard J. Daley's corrupt machine. Abernathy could not stand the slums and secretly moved out after a short period. King stayed and wrote of the emotional impact Coretta and his children suffered from the horrid conditions.

When King and his allies returned to the south, they left Jesse Jackson, a seminary student who had previously joined the movement in the south, in charge of their organization. Jackson displayed oratorical skill, and organized the first successful boycotts against what have since become known as "Big Box" stores. One such campaign targeted A&P Stores which refused to hire blacks as clerks; the campaign was so effective that it laid the groundwork for the equal opportunity programs begun in the 1970's. Jackson also initiated the first "Black Expo" under the auspices of SCLC as Operation Breadbasket, and continued free standing as Operation PUSH after a split with SCLC. Black Expo became P.U.S.H. Expo, which continued to showcase the many long-standing and newly formed Black Businesses such as Johnson Publishing, Parker House Sausage, Seaway National Bank, and many businesses that continue today, and which owe their existence to P.U.S.H. EXCEL, the current form of the organization.

Further challenges

Starting in 1965, King began to express doubts about the United States' role in the Vietnam War. On April 4, 1967 — exactly one year before his death — King spoke out strongly against the US's role in the war, insisting that the US was in Vietnam "to occupy it as an American colony" and calling the US government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." But he also argued that the country needed larger and broader moral changes:

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just."[39]

King was long hated by many white southern segregationists, but this speech turned the more mainstream media against him. TIME called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi", and The Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people."

With regards to Vietnam, King often claimed that North Vietnam "did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had arrived in the tens of thousands." (Quoted in Michael Lind, Vietnam: The Necessary War, 1999 p. 182) King also praised North Vietnam's land reform. (Quoted in Lind, 1999) He accused the United States of having killed a million Vietnamese "mostly children." (Guenter Lewey, America in Vietnam, 1978 pp. 444-5) He once even equated U.S. involvement in Vietnam to Nazi Germany's use of concentration camps. (Quoted in Lind, 1999)]]

The speech was a reflection of King's evolving political advocacy in his later years, sparked in part by his affiliation with and training at the progressive Highlander Research and Education Center. King began to speak of the need for fundamental changes in the political and economic life of the nation. Toward the end of his life, King more frequently expressed his opposition to the war and his desire to see a redistribution of resources to correct racial and economic injustice. Though his public language was guarded, so as to avoid being linked to communism by his political enemies, in private he sometimes spoke of his support for democratic socialism:

You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry.... Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong... with capitalism.... There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism. (Frogmore, S.C. November 14, 1966. Speech in front of his staff.)

King also stated in his "Beyond Vietnam" speech that "True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring." From Vietnam to South Africa to Latin America, King said, the U.S. was "on the wrong side of a world revolution." King questioned "our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America," and asked why the U.S. was suppressing revolutions "of the shirtless and barefoot people" in the Third World, instead of supporting them.

In 1968, King and the SCLC organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to address issues of economic justice. However, according to the article "Coalition Building and Mobilization Against Poverty", King and SCLC's Poor People's Campaign was not supported by the other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, including Bayard Rustin. Their opposition incorporated arguments that the goals of Poor People Campaign was too broad, the demands unrealizable, and thought these campaigns would accelerate the backlash and repression on the poor and the black.[40][citation needed]

The campaign culminated in a march on Washington, D.C. demanding economic aid to the poorest communities of the United States. He crisscrossed the country to assemble "a multiracial army of the poor" that would descend on Washington — engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol, if need be — until Congress enacted a poor people's bill of rights. Reader's Digest warned of an "insurrection."

King's economic bill of rights called for massive government jobs programs to rebuild America's cities. He saw a crying need to confront a Congress that had demonstrated its "hostility to the poor" — appropriating "military funds with alacrity and generosity," but providing "poverty funds with miserliness." His vision was for change that was more revolutionary than mere reform: he cited systematic flaws of racism, poverty, militarism and materialism, and that "reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced." Garrow, op.cit. p. 214.

In April 3, 1968, King prophetically told a euphoric crowd during his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech:

It really doesn't matter what happens now.... some began to... talk about the threats that were out — what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers.... Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place, but I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain! And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the Glory of the coming of the Lord!


Civil disobedience and religion

Many who practice civil disobedience do so out of religious faith, and clergy often participate in or lead actions of civil disobedience. A notable example is Philip Berrigan, a Roman Catholic priest who was arrested dozens of times in acts of civil disobedience in antiwar protests. Also, groups like Soulforce, who favor non-discrimination and equal rights for gays and lesbians, have engaged in acts of civil disobedience to change church positions and public policy.


Notes

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 Colin Barker. The rise of Solidarnosc. International Socialism, Issue: 108. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
  2. Lepak, Keith John (1989). Prelude to Solidarity. Columbia University Press, p. 100. ISBN 0-231-06608-2. 
  3. Barbara J. Falk (2003). The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central Europe: Citizen Intellectuals and Philosopher Kings. Central European University Press, p.34. ISBN 963-9241-39-3. 
  4. Falk, op.cit., Google Print, p.35
  5. Weigel, George (May 2003). The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism (ebook), Oxford University Press US, p. 136. ISBN 0-19-516664-7. Retrieved 2006-07-10. 
  6. Weigel, George (2005). Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II. HarperCollins, p. 292. ISBN 0-06-073203-2. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 The birth of Solidarity (1980). BBC News. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
  8. Michael Bernhard (2004). From The Polish Underground. Penn State Press, p. 405. 
  9. William D Perdue, (1995). Paradox of Change: The Rise and Fall of Solidarity in the New Poland. Praeger/Greenwood,, p.39. ISBN 0-275-95295-9,. 
  10. Michael H. Bernhard (1993). The Origins of Democratization in Poland. Columbia University Press, p. 149. ISBN 0-231-08093-X. 
  11. G. R. Urban. Radio Free Europe and the Pursuit of Democracy: My War Within the Cold War. Yale University Press, p. 147. ISBN 0-300-06921-9. 
  12. Yalta 2.0, Warsaw Voice, 31 August 2005, last accessed on 8 October 2006.
  13. 13.0 13.1 Davies, Norman (2005). God's Playground, p. 483. ISBN 0-231-12819-3. 
  14. Seleny, Anna (2006). The Political Economy of State-Society Relations in Hungary and Poland. Cambridge University Press, p.100. ISBN 0-521-83564-X. 
  15. 15.0 15.1 Anna Seleny, op.cit., Google Print, p.115
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 Solidarność NSZZ in WIEM Encyklopedia. Last accessed on 10 October 2006 (Polish)
  17. Solidarity, Encyclopedia Britannica.
  18. 18.0 18.1 KALENDARIUM NSZZ „SOLIDARNOŚĆ” 1980-1989. Noia 64 mimetypes pdf.pngPDF Last accessed on 15 October 2006 (Polish)
  19. Misztal, Bronisław (1985). Poland after Solidarity: Social Movements Vs. the State. Transaction Publishers, p.4. ISBN 0-88738-049-2. 
  20. Jeff Goodwin, No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Chapter 1 and 8.
  21. (Feb 1994) in Paul Wehr, Guy Burgess, Heidi Burgess: Justice Without Violence (ebook), Lynne Rienner Publishers, p 28. ISBN 1-55587-491-6. Retrieved 2006-07-06. 
  22. Cavanaugh-O'Keefe, John (Jan 2001). Emmanuel, Solidarity: God's Act, Our Response (ebook), Xlibris Corporation, p 68. ISBN 0-7388-3864-0. Retrieved 2006-07-06. 
  23. MacEachin, Douglas J (Aug 2004). U.S. Intelligence and the Confrontation in Poland, 1980-1981 (ebook), Penn State Press, p 120. ISBN 0-271-02528-X. Retrieved 2006-07-10. 
  24. 24.0 24.1 24.2 Martial law (1981). BBC News. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
  25. Perdue, William D (Oct 1995). Paradox of Change: The Rise and Fall of Solidarity in the New Poland (ebook), Praeger/Greenwood, p 9. ISBN 0-275-95295-9. Retrieved 2006-07-10. 
  26. Aryeh Neier (2003). Taking Liberties: Four Decades in the Struggle for Rights. Public Affairs, p. 251. ISBN 1-891620-82-7. 
  27. Schweizer, Peter (May 1996). Victory: The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy That Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet... (ebook), Atlantic Monthly Press, p 86. ISBN 0-87113-633-3. Retrieved 2006-07-10. 
  28. 28.0 28.1 Peter D. Hannaford (2000). Remembering Reagan. Regnery Publishing, p. 170, p. 171. ISBN 0-89526-514-1. 
  29. Stefan Auer (2004). Liberal Nationalism in Central Europe. Routledge, p. 70. ISBN 0-415-31479-8. 
  30. Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Jeffrey J. Schott , Kimberly Ann Elliott (1990). Economic Sanctions Reconsidered: History and Current Policy. Institute for International Economics, p. 193. ISBN 0-88132-136-2. 
  31. Weekend Argus, "Purple Rain halts city demo", front page, Saturday, September 2, 1989
  32. Weekend Argus, "Purple Rain halts city demo", front page, Saturday, September 2, 1989
  33. Scott-King, Correta, My life with Martin Luther King Jr. (New York, 1969) p.124-5
  34. Haley, Alex, "Martin Luther King", The Playboy Interview, Playboy, January 1965. Retrieved 2006-09-17.
  35. King, Martin L. (2000). Why We Can't Wait. Signet Classics. ISBN 0-451-52753-4. 
  36. Ross, Shmuel Ross (2006). March on Washington. Features. Infoplease. Retrieved 2006-09-17.
  37. Haley, Alex, "Martin Luther King", The Playboy Interview, Playboy, January 1965. Retrieved 2006-09-17.
  38. King, Martin L. (2000). Why We Can't Wait. Signet Classics. ISBN 0-451-52753-4. 
  39. King, Martin Luther (April 4 1967). Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. Speech. Hartford Web Publishing. Retrieved 2006-09-17.
  40. [1]

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Peasant Nationalists of Gujarat : Kheda District, 1917-1934 by David Hardiman
  • Patel: A Life by Rajmohan Gandhi
  • My Autobiography, Or The Story Of My Experiments With Truth (1929) by M.K. Gandhi

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