To
most people today anarchy is synonymous with chaos, which is the
complete disregard for law and order. Most of what we call anarchy
today is not what our founders had in mind.
To
them anarchy would have been used in contrast to monarchy, or in
other words self-rule versus being ruled over. The founders idea of
anarchy was self-governance (the ability to govern your own life).
It was
also evident to them that the People needed to maintain control of
the election process and that is why they left it up to the the
People. But when the political parties formed the population lost a
small amount of control of the voting process. By infiltrating the
State governments with political party activists, who introduced
party agenda legislation that took control of the election process
from the People and gave control to the States, which in effect gave
the parties control of the State governments and the election
process, and therefore the Federal Government.
When
you had people who were levied with unjust tariffs and/or taxes, and
British soldiers who subjected the people to unjust searches and
seizures of personal property (our Fourth Amendment rights), they had the absolute right to
exercise civil disobedience (our First Amendment rights) against those who imposed such actions
upon them. We have those rights now.
“Throughout
the history of the U.S., civil disobedience has played a significant
role in many of the social reforms that we all take for granted
today. Some of the most well known of these are:
1)
The
Boston Tea Party
-- citizens of the colony of Massachusetts trespassed on a British
ship and threw its cargo (tea from England) overboard, rather than be
forced to pay taxes without representation to Britain. This was one
of the many acts of civil disobedience leading to the War for
Independence, establishing the United States of America as a
sovereign state.
2)
Anti-war
movements have
been a part of U.S. history since Thoreau went to jail for refusing
to participate in the U.S. war against Mexico in 1849. More recent
examples were the nationwide protests against the war in Viet Nam,
U.S. involvement in Nicaragua and Central America, and the Gulf War.
Actions have included refusal to pay for war, refusal to enlist in
the military, occupation of draft centers, sit-ins, blockades, peace
camps, and refusal to allow military recruiters on high school and
college campuses.
3)
The
Women's Suffrage Movement lasted
from 1848 until 1920, when thousands of courageous women marched in
the streets, endured hunger strikes, and submitted to arrest and jail
in order to gain the right to vote.
4)
Abolition
of slavery --
including Harriet Tubman's underground railway, giving sanctuary, and
other actions which helped to end slavery.
5)
The
introduction of labor laws and unions. Sit-down
strikes organized by the IWW, and CIO free speech confrontations led
to the eradication of child labor and improved working conditions,
established the 40-hour work week and improved job security and
benefits.
6)
The
Civil Rights Movement,
led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, included sit-ins and
illegal marches which weakened segregation in the south.
7)
The
Anti-Nuclear Movement,
stimulated by people like Karen Silkwood and the Three Mile Island
nuclear power accident, organized citizens throughout the country
into direct action affinity groups, with consensus decision making
and Gandhian nonviolence as its core. Massive acts of civil
disobedience took place at nuclear power facilities across the
country, followed by worldwide protests against first-strike nuclear
weapons, occupying military bases, maintaining peace camps,
interfering with manufacture and transport of nuclear bombs and
devices, marching, sitting in, blockading and otherwise disrupting
business as usual at nuclear sites.
8)
Environmental
and forest demonstrations,
with acts of civil disobedience such as sit-ins, blockades, tree sits
and forest occupations, have emerged in the last decade, prompted by
the continuing mass clear cuts and destruction of the forest
ecosystem and widespread environmental consequences.
In
all of these struggles, citizens had reached the conclusion that the
legal means for addressing their concerns had not worked. They had
tried petitioning, lobbying, writing letters, going to court, voting
for candidates that represented their interests, legal protest, and
still their views were ignored.
In
each of these movements, the protesters were compelled by deep moral
convictions. Their distress was strong enough to motivate them to go
against the grain, to sacrifice personal comfort, to face unknown
danger, to give up their freedom and risk going to jail. Their love
of truth and justice drove them to action. Many, but not all, of
those committing civil disobedience in the last two decades have been
trained in Gandhian nonviolence philosophy and
tactics.
Non-Cooperation
is
used by some protesters during civil disobedience actions.
Non-cooperation may include going limp, refusal to give information
at booking, fasting and refusal to participate in court proceedings.”
Please
note that 'illegal street demonstrations or protests' are those that
interfere with normal civil activities. Gathering peacefully, with
respect to the civil liberties of the public, is not an illegal
activity according to the Constitution and the natural rights of
humanity.
The
current federal government tyranny is far more pervasive than the
Crown was in the 18th Century. Today with real-time data
acquisition and analysis, and with direct access to your financial
accounts and transactions, the loss of privacy in our personal
affairs by government, far exceeds what our founders were willing to
endure before they said, “Enough!”
U.S. citizens who relinquish their freedoms little by little become, step by step, slaves to the very government created to protect their freedoms. At
what point will U. S. Citizens say, “Enough!”?
