bcd Press

 

April 1996

 

 

Native Struggles should Include Non-Violence

By Chris Beaton, Turtle Clan, Mohawk Nation

Mental violence has no potency and
injures only the person whose thoughts
are violent. It is otherwise with mental
non-violence. It has potency which the
world does not yet know.

Gandhi spoke these words during a
speech to supporters in 1942 in India.
Martin Luther King Jr., twenty years
later, used this same philosophy to
address the wrongs of inherent racism
in the United States.

The native people of Canada have
been and are currently using methods to
restore self-determination to their culture
which were successfully applied by
Ganhi. However, the use of civil
disobedience by Canadian Natives, and
that advocated by Gandhi differ as
Native acts of civil disobedience have
included violence.

This use of violence has created
additional hostility towards Natives,
internal dissention within Native groups,
and ultimately a weakening of public
support. Gandhi’s words have the ability
to strengthen Native efforts in Canada
by highlighting the double-edged sword
of violent behavior, the startling effect
on the oppressor that non-violent
behavior can create, and the moral
strength that non-violent behavior will
create.

As the debate continues on wheather
moral or legal standards should be
applied to current Native acts of civil
disobedience, there is also a debate on
the value of violence as a form of civil
disobedience.

In Canada, those opposed to violence
find a basis for their position in noting
the decline of public support for native
rights following acts of violence initiated
by Native groups. As an example, the
Oka crisis of 1990 prompted citizens to
call news outlets and the political
representative’s offices in disagreement
with the manner in which Mohawk
Natives were displaying their frustration
with government processes.

Residents near Montreal who were
inconvenienced by the Native blockade
of the Mercier bridge burned effigies of
Natives in protest. Other residents stoned
a Native caravan, injuring several
Mohawk women and children, as it left
the Oka reserve.

 

In 1955 in British Columbia, residents
formed an organization to oppose the
Land-claim process, taxation
priveledges for natives, and the
continuation of the Indian Act.
Organizers cite recent blockades in the
province, specifically at the Apex Ski
Resort near Kelowna, as the primary
reason for the establishment of their
organization. The members believe that
Natives are receiving preferential
treatment by governments in order to
correct historic wrongs which should
remain history and simply forgotten. As
Ghandi stated seventy years ago,
aggression and violence by the
oppressed may bring about quick
attention to their plight, but it may also
allow the oppressor to legitimize the
need for oppression.

In contrast to violerice, non-violence
as a form of civil disobediance confuses
the reaction of the oppressor. Criminal
law outlines sanctioned forms of
behaviour by an authority in order to
ensure rules and norms are upheld. An
act of refusal to work by individuals or
groups who are determined to improve
specific areas in society (such as
introducing as one-man one-vote policy)
yields no similar sanctions. A
government has no legal authority to
force employees to their workstation, yet
the government is ultimately threatened
by this form of civil disobedience.
Consequently, the government must then
decide to ignore the disobedience, wield
force to halt the disobedience, or
negotiate a settlement.

As an example, soon after releasing
Nelson Mandela from a South African
prison, the South African government,
in negotiating the end of apartheid,
wished to maintain a minority veto over
majority decisions in any future
government. After several unsuccessful
attempts to alter the government’s
position, Mandela led his supporters in
national strikes and workstopages.
Considering that Mandela’s supporters
include the majority of black citizens,
who represent the majority of workers
in South Africa, the negative
consequence on the national economy
was immediate.

The protest

compelled the

 

government to abandon its stance. It
could not ignore the effects of the strikes
on the economy and it could not forcibly
halt the strikes as the eyes of the
international community were upon
them, so it negotiated. The non-violent
protests prompted the government to
give blacks the right to vote for the first
time in South African history and to
consequently elect a black man, recently
pardoned of a life sentence, as their
president.

Although obtaining authoritative
leadership is one means of measuring
success, it should not be the ultimate
objective of non-violent civil
disobedience. The objective of non-
violent civil disobedience should be the
creation of certainty by the oppressor
and third-parties that equality has not
been secured,

In order to illustrate the distinction
between leadership and equality,
consider the status of women in Canada.
In 1984, Kim Campbell became the first
female Prime Minister in Canadian
history. In 1995, Prime Minister Jean
Chretien appointed a larger proportion
of women to a federal cabinet than any

 

other Canadian Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, recent studies by the
National Action Committee on the Status
of Women stated that although women
represented a majority of the Canadian
population, they occupied only minimal
numbers of all management positions.

Additionally, the studies found that
women are over-represented as single
parents, as victims of spousal abuse and
as single-parent families living in
poverty. It must be remembered that
many provinces has affirmative action
policies, legislation dealing specifically
with spousal abuse and equal pay for
equal work legislation in place at the
time of the studies.

In short, women have used non-
violent protest to create certainty among
society that the past held great
inequalities for women. What is left to
be done is to create the certainty that the
present does not yet reflect unqualified
equality.

Mohandas Ganghi spoke of equality
in an individual’s mind as being more
critical than equality in legislation.
Efforts by Natives to secure self-
determination should be guided by

 

~ Thanks from the coach

Dear Other Press,

I just want to take this
opportunity to thank all of you for your
coverage this past season of the Men’s

’ Basketball team. I am all to familiar with

the other student newspapers that often
consider the news of the Athletic
Department as a priveledge and not a
necessity. This is obviously no the case
here at Douglas College. Your staff
should be praised for their dedication
and effort in keeping up with the
basketball season. They continually
kjept in touch and closely followed the
team and its progress, attempting to help
us in any way that they could.

We have an extremely young

_ team here at Douglas, so your support:

of our program was greatly appreciated.

__ Eric Milner Photo
Gandhi’s principles, illustrating the
negativity of violent protests, the
effectiveness of non-violence and the
moral fortitude that non-violence
displays.

Marius Barbeau, an Anthropologist
who studied North American Natives for
four decades, stated that violence was
never a defining characteristic in native
cultures prior to European contact.
Native groups in North America
acknowledge the circle as representing
life and all its parts and that respect must
be given to all those who inhabit Mother
Earth because they too constitute the
circle.

The respect that Natives adhere to is
similar to Gandhi’s philosophy of the
“potency” found within acts of non-
violence. The two ideals are similar as
they create a higher moral ground that
politics, self-interest and capitalism. This
higher moral ground has the potential,
as shown by Gandhi and Martin Luther
King Jr., to combat and defeat inequality
in any society. It must be applied by
Natives in their struggle for self-rule in
order to ensure success, as violence has
not convinced anyone.

With all but one player returning next
season, we are looking forward to bigger
and better things in the near future. We
look forward to having your support
along the way.

Thanks Again,
David Munroe,
Basketball Coach