Désobeir

Author(s): Philippe Gros

Ed. Albin Michel/Flammarion2017, pp. 265

In this essay Gros reconsiders the roots of political obedience in order to understand the different forms of civic and civil disobedience, in so far as they constitute an ethical resistance to promote democracy.

Challenging Empire: People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power

Author(s): Phyllis Bennis

Olive Branch Press, Northampton, MA, 2005, pp. 288 pb

Bennis, a Fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies and expert on Middle East and US foreign policy, examines critically the US doctrine of pre-emptive war and willingness to bypass the UN in the context of  the global mobilization against the US-led 2003 attack on Iraq. 

See also: Bennis, Phyllis, 'February 15, 2003, The Day the World Said No to War', Institute for Policy Studies, 15 Feb 2013. 

https://ips-dc.org/february_15_2003_the_day_the_world_said_no_to_war/

Celebrates the mass global protests, but focuses in particular how opposition of  Germany and France to the war enabled the 'Uncommitted Six' in the UN Security Council - Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, Mexico and Pakistan - to resist pressure from the US and UK and to refuse to endorse the war.

Lesbian/Woman

Author(s): ‘Del’ (Dorothy L. Taliaferro) Martin, and Phyllis Lyon

Volcano Press, Volcano CA, 1993, pp. 384

Originally published: 1972

By two women journalists at forefront of US gay and lesbian rights struggle from the 1950s, founders of Daughters of Bilitis and active in the feminist campaign NOW (National Organization for Women) where they argued that lesbian issues were feminist issues. A couple since the 1950s, they married in San Francisco in February 2004.

Tibet: Survival in Question

Author(s): Pierre-Antoine Donnet

Oxford University Press and Zed Books, Delhi and London, 1994, pp. 267

Examines Tibet from 1950 to early 1990s, including the 1959 uprising, the role of the Dalai Lama and protests in the 1980s (see chapter 4, ‘The revival of nationalism’, pp. 93-107).

La mia obiezione

Author(s): Pietro Pinna

2012

This interview is a message that Pinna sent to the conference marking the 40th Anniversary of the legal recognition of the right to conscientious objection held in Florence on 15th-16th December 2012. He narrates his experience during the Second World War and how this shaped his decision to object to military service on the ground of ‘conscience’. He then explains his position on the co-participation of civil society in war-making and arms production and finally touches upon nonviolent civil disobedience.

Available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOz7PFa180A

Elogio Dell’Obiezione Di Coscienza

Author(s): Pietro Polito

Edizioni Biblion, Miano, 2013, pp. 178

In this book, Polito analyses the philosophical conceptualisation of ‘conscience’, central to the elaboration of the ethical and moral tenets of the practice of objection to military service. Polito pays tribute to the most famous conscientious objectors who shaped the history of the Italian Republic and promoted nonviolent theory and techniques, such as Aldo Capitini – anti-fascist Italian political philosopher; Ada Gobetti – anti-fascist jourbalist; Norberto Bobbio – Italian philosopher, Sereno Regis – peace activist; Danilo Dolci – peace activist; Lorenzo Milani – priest and educator; Rodolfo Venditti – Italian judge and conscientious objection supporter; Goffredo Fofi- Italian author, and literature, drama and movie critic; and Pietro Pinna – Italian nonviolent activist. The book provides a refutation of the belief in the necessity of violence embedded in politics - even where it may seem justified as in preventive wars and humanitarian intervention.  Polito also argues that violence is at the root of the economic and financial global system that is becoming profoundly detrimental to the environment.

The Evolution of Contemporary Maori Protest

Author(s): Poata-Smith, Evan Te Ahu

In: Paul Spoonley, Cluny Macpherson, David Pearce, Nga Patai: Racism and Ethnic Relations in Aotearoa, Palmerston N.Z., Dunmore Press, 1996, pp. 97-116

Account by Maori activist and academic which covers links to other movements, ‘brown power’, the Maori Land Rights movement of 1975-84, cultural campaigns, claims to the Waitangi Tribunal and responses by the Labour Government.

Available online at:

http://maorinews.com/writings/papers/other/protest.html

Eradicating Ecocide: Exposing the Corporate and Political Practices Destroying the Planet and Proposing the Laws to Eradicate Ecocide

2nd ed.

Author(s): Polly Higgins

2015, pp. 204 (pb)

International lawyer and expert on ecocide Polly Higgins sets out the full case for an international ecocide law which would hold corporations and governments to account for actions and policies that result in massive harm to the environment. She also examines how law has operated effectively in other contexts. The book is linked to the international campaign she headed to broaden the remit of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to include ecocide as a crime (alongside genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity). An example of ecocide was the massive oil spill of 134 million gallons by BP in the Mexican Gulf in 2010. Higgins died from cancer in 2019, but an international campaign continues. See: stopecocide.earth

See also: Cooke, Ben, 'Could Ecocide become an International Crime?', New Statesman, 16 Mar. 2020. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/environment/2020/03/could-ecocide-...

Useful overview of possible examples of ecocide, such as the 2019 Amazon forest fires and tar sand oil extraction , and of the goals and current strategy of the campaign, now headed by Jojo Mehta. The campaign now focuses on getting support from states most vulnerable to climate change (any ICC signatory state can propose an amendment to the Rome Statute governing the court, and the votes of all states are equal). The South Pacific island state, Vanuatu, has indicated it might initiate the process - if two thirds of the signatories agree the ecocide law would apply to them. Cooke notes that the idea now has support from Extinction Rebellion activists, and that Pope Francis indicated in 2019 that he was considering making ecocide a sin

The Ni Una Menos Movement in Argentina in 21st Century Argentina: Combating More Than Femicide

Author(s): Polly Terzian

Dickinson College, Carlisle: Pennsylvania, 2017, pp. 90

Polly Terzian did a study on the development of the ‘NiUnaMenos’ movement in Argentina and raises issues about the historical participation of women in politics. Gender violence and femicide are connected to the analysis of legal issues surrounding them. She also considers the mobilisation of women and the visibility of violence against women in the media landscape.

Defensa Popular Noviolenta

Author(s): Proyecto AUPA

Ediciones Mambrú, Zaragoza, 1989, pp. 40

This pamphlet was for a long time the only publication on the history of nonviolent movements, reviewing classical cases such as the resistance to the Kapp Putsch, the Salt March led by Gandhi and the Prague Spring among others.

Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Europe

Report for the Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly, Legal Affairs Committee

Author(s): Quaker Council for European Affairs

Quaker Council for European Affairs, Brussels, 1984, pp. 99

Sets out the legal provision for COs in all the European states at that date. Notes the importance of resolutions in support of making provisions for COs adopted by the Council of Europe in 1967, the UN in 1978 and the European Parliament in 1983.

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