...We know that relying solely on argument we wandered for forty years politically in the wilderness. We know that arguments are not enough... and that political force is necessary.
Christable Pankhurst, speech delivered at
Albert Hall, March 18, 1908
Who were those for whom we fought? I seemed to hear them in my cell, the defenseless ones who had no one to speak for their hungry need. The sweated workers, the mothers widowed with little children, the women on the streets, and I saw that their backs were bent, their eyes grown sorrowful, their hearts dead without hope. And they were not a few, but thousands upon thousands.
Lady Constance Lytton, on her conviction for
"disorderly behavior with intent to disturb the peace," 1909
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| Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your Body is a Battledground) 1989 "In the embattled late 1980s, during the censorious 'culture wars' in the US provoked by right-wing politicians in alliance with religious fundamentalists: the worsening AIDs crisis: and retrogressive legislation on women's rights. Kruger showed her solidarity with a number of graphic activist groups, such as Gran Fury, by producing posters and other artefacts for direct action use. This work was used as the rallying poster for the 1989 pro-choice march on Washington and was subsequently adapted for the promotion of women's rights in other countries." - Art and Feminism, Phaidon |
We were never told of the existence of this movement. The existence of this movement was denied to us. We believed we were the first to want to act. We thought we were the first to refuse to submit. I remained there until the Wednesday evening, still being fed by force. I was then taken back to the same hospital cell, and remained there until Saturday, October 2, about dinnertime, I determined on stronger measures by barricading my cell. I piled my bed, table and chair by jamming them together against the door. They had to bring some men warders to get in with iron staves. I kept them at bay about three hours. The denial of this movement was not called a lie. The denial of this movement was never spoken. No one ever spoke of this movement as existing or not existing. I walked quietly onto the stage, took the placard out of the chair and sat down. A great cry went up from the women as they sprang from their seats and stretched their hands toward me. It was some time before I could see them for my tears, or speak to them for the emotion that shook me like a storm. We are told that we are unique in history. That our history has been a history of passivity. We are to be blamed for our passivity, they say, we are our own oppressors. For our sufferings, they blame our passivity. The women were treated with the greatest brutality. They were pushed about in all directions and thrown down by the police. Their arms were twisted until they were almost broken. Their thumbs were forcibly bent back and they were tortured in other nameless ways that makes one feel sick at the sight. We say we have discovered action in ourselves. We say we are determined, even if we are the first. We have been prepared to sacrifice our safety of life and limb. We have been prepared to do these things because we believe in our cause. We say this not to boast of it, but to claim that we have the same spirit that the reformers of all ages have had to show before they could win success. But we say we do not believe we were the first. We say this is not possible. We discover the old papers. We read the old accounts. These have been hidden from us, we see, for a reason. I wrote on the wall:
To defend the oppressed
To fight for the defenseless
Not counting the cost.
pp 211-213, Woman and Nature: The Roaring Insider Her, by Susan Griffin
'It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the
demonstrators. In
this sense they have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. But for what
purpose? To
preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently
preached that
nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have
tried to
make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must
affirm that it is
just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.
Perhaps Mr.
Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was Chief Pritchett in
Albany,
Georgia, but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of
racial
injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do
the right deed for
the wrong reason."'
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 16 April 1963
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