I read this report by Cynthia Cockburn, and was struck at how her blanket denunciation of violence ended up being a polemic not so much against war, as against anti-war protesters.
It is an interesting lesson in how universal standards tend to ignore, and eventually re-inforce inequalities that pre-exist such standards.
Because her group has direct contact with the opposition movement, but only indirect contact with the war-mongers, Cockburn's universal denunciation of 'violence' is directed primarily at the former.
The continuum of violence idea is an interesting one. Here the march is 'overwhelmed' by the 'pre-planned' distribution of placards against the bombing. In fact the demonstration was called to oppose the bombing, so it is hardly surprising that this demand should be uppermost. Furthermore, Britain is bombing Yugoslavia, so it is obvious that this should be uppermost in the minds of the demonstrators in Britain.
But in Cynthia Cockburn's version of events, the adoption of a demand to stop the bombing becomes a violent 'overwhelming' of the demonstration, by Serb nationalists! The democratic protest is equated with the Nato bombing raid, as just one more step on the 'continuum of violence'.
(There used to be a saying about not confusing the violence of the oppressor with the violence of the oppressed. Here we should ask whether the protests of the oppressed are being confused with the violence of the oppressor.)
I agree with Cockburn that there is nothing progressive in Serb nationalism. But I feel that it is clear that the greater threat is the violence of Nato. Greater in fire-power, influence, importance, initiative, money. There is nothing wrong with prioritising the demand to stop the bombing, and certainly nothing violent about it.
>From: "rc-am" <rcollins at netlink.com.au>
>To: "lbo" <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Subject: neither/nor
>Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 17:05:52 +1000
>
>from znet: (http://www.zmag.org)
>
>A Letter about some of the Complexities of Opposition
>
>BEING ABLE TO SAY NEITHER / NOR By Cynthia Cockburn
>But, on April 11, even as the march assembled on the Embankment, I was
>feeling uneasy. Because there was this ocean of pre-planned Socialist
>Worker placards that simply said 'stop the NATO bombing'. Any messages
>opposing the ethnic aggression of the Milosevic regime were overwhelmed by
>this uniform and singular demand.
-- Jim heartfield