Monday, December 3, 2018

Beyond “Me and Mine”


Vandana Shiva, Arun Gandhi Insight


A

run Manilal Gandhi is a South-African born socio-political activist living in the United States since 1987. After his studies at the University of Mississippi he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he established “the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.” 
In 1996, he jointly established “the Season for Nonviolence as a yearly celebration of the philosophies and lives of Mohandas Gandhi and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
               
Gandhi
“First of all we must free ourselves from fear and only then can we begin to fight for justice. We’re afraid—of prison, of suffering, of losing what we have: our jobs, our economic stability. We worry, ‘Who will take care of my family?’ So
“… We continue to accept things as they are…
“… We allow ‘them’ to go on exploiting us.”


V

andana Shiva is a scientist, author and activist; a scholar, environmentalist, food sovereignty advocate, and alter-globalization author based in Delhi, India. She has authored more than twenty books some of which are these: Earth Democracy; Justice, Sustainability, and Peace (2005); Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed (editor, 2007); Democratizing Biology: Reinventing Biology from a Feminist, Ecological and Third World Perspective (2007); Cargill and the Corporate Hijack of India’s Food and Agriculture (2007); Soil Not Oil (2008); Staying Alive (2012); Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature & Knowledge (2011); Monocultures of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity (2011); Making Peace With The Earth (2013). 
Dr. Shiva’s work on agriculture “started in 1984 after the violence in Punjab and the gas leak in Bhopal from Union Carbide’s pesticide manufacturing plant. Her studies for the United Nations University led to the publication of her 1989 book The Violence of the Green Revolution: Ecological degradation and political conflict in Punjab

Shiva
“Resistance means liberating ourselves from what oppresses us. If we continue to collaborate with a destructive, oppressive system, that system will continue to dominate us.
“‘As long as you live under the illusion that you must obey unjust laws and submit to unjust power, slavery will continue to exist.’
“At the beginning of every struggle, the authorities will grant you scant attention; then they will deride (ridicule you contemptuously) and then fight you. But if you continue to struggle for the values that protect the earth, for social justice and human rights, at the end of the day, after they have derided you, attacked you, insulted you and wounded you—at the end—you will be free of them. All the movements will free themselves of them.
Gandhi
“We have to decide what is important for us and once we have decided that we want to build a better world, we have to make sacrifices to create that better world. If we don’t sacrifice ourselves, the world will never change.
One person alone cannot be a protest movement…. If one person becomes thousands, this can make a difference.

R
elated
Excerpt, minor edit of Rivera Sun’s “10 Things to Know about Nonviolent Struggle”
#1
Nonviolent action is used around the world by people of all (kinds) … and political beliefs to accomplish a wide range of goals including changing governmental regimes, ending occupations, expelling foreign invasions, overthrowing dictators, stopping destructive industries, protecting the environment, gaining civil rights, creating economic justice and much more.
#2
Nonviolent action compared with nonviolent means is: twice as successful; three times as time effective; and incurs a tiny fraction of casualties.
#4
Nonviolent action chooses from more than 200 methods: marches, demonstrations, rallies, boycotts, strikes, sit-ins, blockades, noncooperation, civil disobedience, work stoppages and slowdowns, refusal to provide services, and much more.
#5
Nonviolence has two hands: one that says ‘no’ to injustice; one that says ‘yes’ to justice—“obstructive and constructive programs” (Gandhian); “oppose and propose” or “noncooperation with the destructive/cooperation with the beneficial” (e.g., “a movement might work to ban factory farming while simultaneously encouraging the support of local, small farms.”)
#5 links with #6: Nonviolence uses “acts of protest and persuasion such as speeches, fliers, and marches to spread knowledge of (an) issue or cause.” Nonviolence uses “constructive actions such as alternative institutions and parallel governments to build new systems rooted in justice.” Nonviolence uses “acts of noncooperation and intervention such as boycotts, strikes, shut-downs, etc. to disrupt the injustice and remove (or withdraw) cooperation and consent.”
#9
Nonviolent movements—unlike violent conflicts which dehumanize people in order to hurt or kill them—benefit from humanizing everyone involved, including the movement, the opposition, and the bystanders.



“E

arth Democracy,Dr. Shiva wrote, “connects people in circles of care, cooperation, and compassion instead of dividing them through competition and conflict, fear and hatred.”



Sources

Wikipedia
Arun Gandhi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arun_Manilal_Gandhi
Vandana Shiva https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandana_Shiva

The People’s Assembly “Bhopal – Extract from the Documentary ‘I Vajont’” December 3, 2016 Dow-DuPont News “People’s Assembly Dr Vandana Shiva and Arun Gandhi talk about the relentless struggle for justice of the people of Bhopal after the Gas Disaster occurred in 1984.” The Documentary “I Vajont” is directed by Maura Crudeli and Lucia Vastano, produced by ESC.
http://peoplesassembly.net/category/dow-dupont
https://peoplesassembly.net/bhopal-extract-from-the-documentary-i-vajont/?fbclid=IwAR1uxV724EhnrYsWRvitZ2oxGF1UEFzQb6bPlqOL7RdRCrYsS10cnCmFpZ4
https://peoplesassembly.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/i-vajont-724x1024.jpg

“The Punjab is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region … in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northern India. The boundaries of the region are ill-defined and focus on historical accounts.” Conflict in The Punjab began in the late 1970s and escalated into “a secessionist movement” in the 1980s. “The Green revolution” bringing “several socio-economic changes” adding to political factionalism in The Punjab heightened tensions between cultural factions “and the union Government of India.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab_insurgency 

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