Pride Connects March – Infopaper
“Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless and corrupt.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
March 2022 in Ljubljana, Slovenia brings together lots of fight, lots of political action, it’s a month that lets us hope for lots of changes.
March is a month where the world was fearful looking at Ukraine, wishing to gain any power to stop Putin from attacking the Ukraine, attacking European values of diplomacy and peace.
March was a month where we demonstrated for equality of women and against patriarchal structures of our system.
In March we demonstrate for a sustainable future, against the exploitation of fossil resources – for our planet and against profit!
There are ongoing political fights, there will ever be!
Worldwide issues of oppression, world powers that practice hostility, countries that face war, systems and regimes that oppress parts of their population, politicians that act unjustly, condemn the innocent, endanger the population. There will always be disagreements, and always people fighting for more just standards, be it on an international, national or local level.
A methodologie in the fight for more justice, that people used since the existence of society, is civil disobedience.
Stating with narratives in the bible and in greek mythology, followed by reports from ancient rome – those were the early notes of civil disobedience.
From the Bus Boycott of Rosa Parks, the sit ins of the Civil Rights movement in America, the Stonewall riots in 1969, Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt March, and most recently actions in the back lives matter movement and climate movement – civil disobedience has often played a crucial role in bending unjust and corrupt politics and society toward justice.
What do these acts which we refer to as civil disobedience have in common? What distinguishes them from other forms of conscientious and political action? And how effective are they really?
“There have been instances in human history in which disobedience to law has proved a benefit to law and society.”
- Samuel Freedman, former Chief Justice of the Manitoba Court of Appeal
In theory …
Civil disobedience is one of many forms of political participation. It is a conscious act of violating a legal norm, the so called active law, for reasons of conscience. The goal is always to draw attention to an injustice situation and thus to contribute to its elimination. An individual who chooses civil disobedience as a means of protest consciously accepts punishment, which is sometimes initiated. The act of civil disobedience seeks to enforce more law in an existing system, not to overthrow the system.
Although civil disobedience as a form of protest already appears in ancient writings such as the Bible and Greek mythology, the modern concept only exists through Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862), who wrote the essay “About Civil Disobedience” and thus the theoretical basis laid for all other representatives such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The thoughts of the philosophist John Rawls (1921 – 2002) take a decisive role in the philosophical discourse on Civil Disobedience.
Civil disobedience requires:
- A state entity in which it is exercised
- Legal norms must be presupposed
- Calculated violations of rules of a symbolic character, which, due to their illegality,
indicate the urgency of the concern represented
- The respective action must be morally justified and directed towards the public good
- Actions that serve special, individual, political or economic interests are not considered civil disobedience
You can distinguish two different kinds of civil disobedience:
Direct civil disobedience – direct violation of rules that are perceived as unjust
Indirect Civil Disobedience – Violation of just laws to draw attention to the injustices of other states
What about LGBTIQ+ ?
There are many cases where civil disobedience was the way LGBTIQ+ gained more rights – here are three important examples:
Sip ins 1966, New York
In 1966 serving alcohol to homosexuals was illegal in New York, was not uncommon for bars to put up signs with messages like “If you are gay, please stay away”. On April 21, 1966 members of the Mattachine Sociatty planned to draw attention to this unjust law by publicly identify themselves as gay and demand to be served anyway – they were kicked out of several bars which was widely reported by the press.
“Within a year, New York State courts ended the practice of using gay patronage as an excuse for revoking liquor licences; thus opening the way for licenced gay bars.”
The Stonewall riots are probably the most well-known protests in LGBT history. In the morning of June 28, 1969 nine police officers entered a well-known gay bar, Stonewall In, arrested employees for selling alcohol without a license to gay customers and arrested all whose clothing went against gender norms. Many hundred people protested over 5 days. Stonewall soon became a symbol of resistance to social and political discrimination, inspiring LGBTIQ+ all over the world to resist their oppression. Today, the Pride Parade is mostly held in June to commemorate the happenings in Christopher Street.
Mineral water protest 2001, Ljubljana
The first pride parade in Slovenia followed out of an action of civil disobedience. On 8 June 2001, the poets Brane Mozetič and Jean-Paul Daoust were prevented from entering the café because of their sexual orientation. After the government did not condemn the act, people gathered and started a protest. Over the next few Fridays, they would meet in a cafe, occupy vacant tables, order mineral water and drink it as slowly as possible with the goal of reducing the owner’s profit. A month later, the protest was followed by a demonstration “Bypass against intolerance” organized by LGBT activists and supporters. That 6 July 2001, would later be remembered as the first annual Ljubljana Pride.
Most important actions and movements of civil disobedience to check out:
- Mahatma gandhi’s salt march, India, 1930 https://www.history.com/topics/india/salt-march
- Women’s suffrage, USA, 1848–1917 https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage
- Civil rights movement, Montgomery bus boycott, sit ins etc., USA, 1954 – 1968 https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement
- Stonewall riots, New York, 1969 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/stonewall-uprising-ignited-modern-lgbtq-rights-movement
- Wave Hill Walk Off, Australia 1966 – 1975 https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/wave-hill-walk-off
- The Tree Sitters of Pureora: New Zealand 1978 https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/34834/pureora-forest-protest-1978
- Climate movements, FFF, Extinction rebellion, Ende Gelände, worldwide, 2018 – today https://fridaysforfuture.org
https://rebellion.global
https://www.ende-gelaende.org/en/
- Black lives matter, USA, worldwide, 2013 – today https://blacklivesmatter.com
Civil disobedience is and will remain a means of political participation that we need to defend ourselves against injustice. If obedience is no longer justifiable but unlawful, then disobedience is needed to draw attention, to question undemocratic processes, to fight for changes. Peaceful protests and civil disobedience have shaped us and our social, political and legal landscape!
We can see that it has helped to move us beyond unjust laws and moved us forward in our efforts to protect fundamental rights and freedoms.
Sources and tips:
Article from Extinction Rebellion about 15 important cases of Civil Disobedience: https://rebellion.global/blog/2020/11/03/civil-disobedience-examples/
ARTE Documentary about Hannah Arendt’s work and political theory in relation to today’s conflicts and wars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7AnpetmA0c
“Stonewall Forever” – A Documentary about the Past, Present and Future of Pride: https://youtu.be/GjRv7dJTync
Impressions of the blockade of a coal mine in Germany, carried out by the “Ende Gelände” movement: https://youtu.be/eExgsVt2nMo
Amnesty international petition for the slovene activist Jaša Jenull: https://www.amnesty.si/jenull
Activist Jaša Jenull is facing absurd lawsuits demanding that he pay more than 40,000€ in costs for police protection from a peaceful protest he attended where he read the constitution in front of the Slovenian parliament. Jenull has repeatedly denied that he was the organizer of the protests, but the authorities are targeting him because he is one of the most prominent participants. It is very obvious that the state intends to increase the intimidating effect on other protesters. By signing the petition, you demand from the Prime Minister Janez Janša that the state withdraw the lawsuits and claims and stop punishing peaceful protesters.