People Power
Non-Violent Resistance and New Zealand’s Anti-War Heroes
© Raymond Huber 2010
Peaceful demonstrations in the Middle East are an attempt to bring change through people power instead of by violence. (Summary of this page: newspaper article)
Peace is the only battle worth waging – Albert Camus
Is war necessary?
It is wrong to kill a human being, but ‘right and wrong’ often become lost in wartime. Soldiers kill people because they believe they are fighting evil. This is why people fought in the Second World War – at the time it seemed war was the only way to stop Hitler. But most wars could be avoided and should be when you look at the results:
- First World War: 15 million people killed
- Second World War: 55 million people killed
- Vietnam War: 3.5 million people killed
- Iraq War: 100 000 people killed
Many well-armed countries do not seriously try the alternatives to war. When governments use violence to solve problems it’s innocent civilians who suffer. But there are other possible actions: people can negotiate; countries can use trade and money as ‘weapons’; they can send in peace-keepers; and they can fight poverty instead of people. The United Nations use peace-keeping troops but their budget for peace-keepers is only 0.5% of the world’s military budget.
People Power
Is peace possible? Yes. If countries gave a tiny fraction of their army budgets to the poor, living standards would improve and it would also reduce the likelihood of conflict. The best hope for peace is through people power. The evidence of the last century shows that non-violent action can change the world. Here are a few examples of peaceful change:
- 1930s- Gandhi’s passive resistance movement led to independence.
- 1963– 250 000 march on Washington for equal rights
- 1980s – Poland: Solidarity movement led to a democratic government.
- 1985– Philippines: 50 000 peace protestors bring down a dictator
- 1987-90– Baltic States: The Singing Revolution brings independence.
- 1988- Chile: Peaceful protests help to remove a military dictator.
- 1989 – Czechoslovakia: 100 000 gather to end communist rule.
- 1984-94- South Africa: Peace groups campaign against apartheid and bring civil rights.
- 2010-2010: brave civilian demonstrations bring political change in Egypt and Tunisia.
Listen to one of the most powerful anti-war speeches of all time:
NZ Peace Heroes
Te Whiti-o-Rongomai was a kind of Gandhi figure during the NZ Wars of the 1860s and 70s. He became convinced that ‘no good thing has ever been wrought by force’. He helped establish the village Parihaka and it became one of the largest Maori villages in NZ. Life in the village was based on both Maori and Christian values and a model of subsistence living (alcohol was strictly controlled). Parihaka was an island of peace in a time of war.
Te Whiti taught that people should resist the European land-grab but only with non-violent actions. When the government confiscated land in Taranaki Te Whiti’s people pulled up survey pegs, ploughed the stolen land and blocked roads. Hundreds of Maori protestors were arrested and kept in prison without trial. On November 5th, 1881, 1600 armed troops marched into Parihaka where 2000 unarmed Maori sat in silent protest. Parihaka was destroyed and Te Whiti imprisoned.
Inspired by Parihaka, Maori protested against the land grab for the next hundred years. Finally, after some large, peaceful marches, a tribunal was set up to compensate for land taken illegally. An International Peace Festival is now held annually at the Parihaka site. Te Whiti remains an example of a peaceful warrior.
Archibald Baxter was strongly pacifist when the First World War began and he refused to join the army. He spend months in prison doing hard labour and was eventually shipped to the war front in France. Baxter wrote ‘I believe if enough people in each country stood straight out against war, the governments would pause and be compelled to settle their disputes by other means.’ The army were worried that his anti-war beliefs would spread, so officers tried to ‘convert’ Baxter by starving him, beating him, and exposing him to shell-fire. “It’s your submission we want, Baxter, not your service,” said one officer.
Baxter was tied outside to a post for up to four hours a day – the ropes so tight they cut into his flesh and made his hands turn black. He thought he would go mad with the pain. During his ordeal Baxter received support from many ordinary soldiers who admired his courage in sticking to his convictions. He witnessed the slaughter of many young Kiwi men and later wrote about it in his remarkable memoir We Will Not Cease.
Baxter was active in anti-war protests his whole life. He was never considered a hero by the news media. His son, James K Baxter, was praised as NZ’s finest poet, but now we can also recognise his father’s greatness.
Ormond Burton fought in Gallipoli and France during WW1 and got two medals for bravery. But he returned a changed man, believing that ‘war is just waste and destruction’. In the 1930s Burton helped to form the Christian Pacifist Society and during the Second World War he made public speeches and published anti-war pamphlets. Speaking out against the war was made illegal and Burton was put in prison.
The government must have been worried by a well-known war hero who might talk people out of fighting. The Deputy Prime Minister even visited Burton in prison and asked him to stop speaking. But again and again Burton spoke out and was eventually sentenced to spend the rest of the war in prison for publishing material that could ‘undermine the war effort.’ He had written ‘The war makers talk mostly in terms of tanks and planes and not in terms of human flesh, blood, misery, malnutrition.’ He was one of 800 pacifists locked away during the war.
Peace Resources
Education for Peace website- resources
National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies
A Force More Powerful, Peter Ackerman and Jack Duvall
Archibald Baxter, We Will Not Cease