People Power: The Building of a New European Home

Author(s): Michael Randle

Hawthorne Press, Stroud, 1991, pp. 224

Chapter 1 discusses the context of the revolutions, ch. 2 the build up of protest (including in Bulgaria) and the role of international pressures. Part II comprises interviews with key participants in 1989, both about the revolutions and future possibilities. Includes interviews on Romania and Slovenia.

Thousands of Arrests: What can Extinction Rebellion learn from the experience of the Committee of 100?

Feb-Mar 2020

Author(s): Michael Randle

In: Peace News, No 2638-2639, 2020

Randle was a full time organizer for the Committee of 100, which was created in 1960 to promote mass nonviolent direct action, such as sit-downs and occupations, as a strategy to promote unilateral nuclear disarmament by Britain. In this article he compares the Committee's experience with the tactics and aims of Extinction Rebellion, noting the greater acceptability of nonviolent direct action today and the differences between the two threats (nuclear war and major climate change). He also notes that the Committee of 100 ceased to exist after eight years, whilst the more conventional CND has lasted over 60 years. 

See also articles by Gabriel Carlyle 'Building the Climate Movement We Need', and Mya-Rose Craig, 'The Point of Striking is to Take Control over Our Futures' in Peace News, 2034-2035, Oct.-Nov. 2019 for further debate about strategy and focus. Carlyle makes a comparison with the US Civil Rights Movement and its localised, focused campaigns combining to create a national movement. Craig stresses the need to prioritize the Global South and when setting out alternatives, to advocate only actions that do not harm communities in poorer countries.

Resistencia Civil

Author(s): Michael Randle

Paidos, Barcelona, 1998, pp. 262

Translation from English of 1994 study of the evolution of the concepts and practice of nonviolent action since the 18th century to 1991, the trends promoting its use, and its dynamics. The second part examines nonviolent civilian defence.

A Time to Speak

Author(s): Michael Scott

Faber, London, 1959, pp. 365

Autobiography of Anglican priest who took the case of the Herero people of South West Africa to the UN, opposing their incorporation into the Union of South Africa. Chapter 8 describes the Indian resistance to discriminatory legislation in 1946.

Obligations: Essays on Disobedience, War and Citizenship

Author(s): Michael Walzer

Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1973

Series of essays discussing issues of obligation and disobedience from a standpoint emphasising citizens’ obligations and with an awareness of the traditions of the labour movement (‘Civil Disobedience and Corporate Authority’ for example discusses the right to strike) and concepts of honour and solidarity.

Hannah Arendt and the Limits of Total Domination: The Holocaust, Plurality, and Resistance

Author(s): Michal Aharony

Routledge, London, 2015, pp. 272

Arendt is one of the most eminent political philosophers often cited by theorists of nonviolent resistance, especially in relation to her 1963 book On Revolution, and also a major theorist of totalitarianism. This book contrasts Arendt's concept of total domination under totalitarianism with the testimonies of both well known and lesser known intellectuals and writers who survived the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, as well as those of unknown survivors of the holocaust. Aharony argues that Nazi domination was less total than Arendt posited (in her 1951 book On Totalitarianism), and that morality and individual choice exist even in the most extreme conditions.

Her Body, Our Laws: On the Front Lines of the Abortion War, from El Salvador to Oklahoma

Author(s): Michelle Oberman

Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts, 2018, pp. 192

Drawing on her years of research in El Salvador, legal scholar Michelle Oberman explores the consequences of criminalizing abortion. She then turns her attention to the United States, where the battle over abortion takes place, in her opinion, almost exclusively in legislatures and courtrooms. Focusing on Oklahoma, she interviews current and former legislators and activists, and shows how Americans voice their moral opposition to abortion by supporting laws that would restrict it. She challenges this approach to the law by highlighting the real life impact of laws and policies on motherhood and abortion on women.

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