The Pros and Cons of Civil Disobedience

Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey civil laws in an effort to induce change in governmental policy or legislation, characterized by the use of passive resistance or other nonviolent means. The use of nonviolence runs throughout history however the fusion of organized mass struggle and nonviolence is relatively new.

The militant campaign for women’s suffrage in Britain included a variety of nonviolent tactics such as boycotts, noncooperation, limited property destruction, civil disobedience, mass marches and demonstrations. The Salvadoran people have used nonviolence as one powerful and necessary element of their struggle. There is rich tradition of nonviolent protest in this country as well, including Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad during the civil war and Henry Thoreau’s refusal to pay war taxes.

Nonviolent civil disobedience was a critical factor in gaining women the right to vote in the United States, this changed the face of the South. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) initiated modern nonviolent action for civil rights. I also believe that the gay and lesbian community is the action of direct nonviolent activism and when the ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to unleash Power) was formed it focused not only on AIDS but on the increase of homophobia and attack on lesbians and gays.

I believe governmental power is maintained through oppression and tactic compliance of the majority of the governed struggle and conflict are often necessary to correct injustice.

Our struggle is not easy, and we must not think of nonviolence as a safe way to fight oppression, the strength of nonviolence comes from your willingness to take personal risks in Kohlberg’s moral stage 5 moral rights and social contract is explained in this political analysis on governmental power and the antiapartheid and central America work when they led protest on campuses with hundreds being arrested and 130 campus withdrawals.

Nonviolent civil disobedience has taken place at dozens of nuclear power plants test sites, and military bases in the 70’s there was a mass of civil disobedience from New Hampshire to California. In 1982 there were over 1750 people arrested at the UN missions of the five major nuclear power plants.

Liberals of the Age hold these pieties to be self-evident it states that violence is equal and must be condemned equally; and that non-violent civil disobedience is everywhere and a more effective tactic when it comes to social and political justice. There are two hypocrisies to avoid, one is the hypocrisy of those who fetish violence as a tactic of the oppressed even where it’s ineffective and unjust then they demand support from people.