by Roger Hallam and Daniel Shaw, written from HMP Wayland
As some of you may be aware, in July of this year a slightly unhinged judge sentenced Daniel to four years and Roger to five years in prison. This followed our conviction for “conspiring to cause a public nuisance” on the M25, as part of an act of civil disobedience by Just Stop Oil.
At first the sentences came as a bit of a shock, but after a few days of feeling sorry for ourselves, we soon settled into the prison routine. Roger is taking advantage of the time spent at His Majesty’s pleasure to write the books he’s not had time to over the last few years, while Daniel is learning how to brick-lay and reading up on the history of civil disobedience.
Unsurprisingly we’ve also had plenty of time to think about the present state of civil disobedience in the UK and we firmly believe now is not the time to get discouraged. In the face of a government crackdown on groups like Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action, and the worsening state of climate breakdown, people seem more willing than ever to stick their heads in the sand.
Yet history has taught us that the people most successful at creating social change are those that are not outcome focused. They are not put off by the prevailing mood, or their odds of success. They carry on regardless because they are living out their values. Never has this approach been more needed as we face the greatest violation of basic rights in human history: the destruction of billions of lives and livelihoods. What we have just seen in Spain and Florida is only the beginning. So let’s look at the examples of the two most famous, and also most effective, civil resistance leaders in history.
Gandhi, the architect of his own distinctive form of nonviolent resistance, was originally concerned with living out his religious philosophy. It was out of these convictions that the strategy which forced Britain to give India its independence grew.
His spiritual belief in truthfulness, being nonviolent, and treating his adversaries with respect gave his tactics of non-cooperation and rule breaking the power to totally confound the British Raj. During the decades he was active, Gandhi faced prison numerous times, outbreaks of violence amongst his followers and criticism from his closest allies. Anybody who has read about India at this time knows how difficult a task he had taken on, creating an India free from the injustices of British rule, addressing sectarian violence and navigating conflicting views on how to rid India of caste discrimination. Someone who was solely outcome focused wouldn’t have known where to begin.
When Martin Luther King helped initiate the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 the prospects of change in the staunchly racist deep south of the US were bleak. Montgomery was known as the cradle of the confederacy during the American civil war and one hundred years had done little to change the appalling racism of local police and politicians. There was little to suggest a change in the racist policies of the city administration could ever happen. During an intense year-long campaign to desegregate the buses King received repeated death threats and his family home was bombed. If King had been ‘outcomes’ driven he might have given in, but spurred on by his deep religious faith, and the dream of a respectful and equal society he kept going.
This resilient belief in doing the right thing produced a landmark win for the civil rights movement against all the odds. The point here is that the rights we take for granted today wouldn’t exist if people had given up when the going got tough. We need to keep going for one simple reason, because it is absolutely necessary given the horror of what’s going on. Sure prison isn’t a barrel of laughs, but there are much worse things than being in prison in the UK in 2024.
Climate breakdown is now coming whether we like it or not. Just Stop Oil may be considered controversial and unpopular, but sooner or later people are going to face up to the fact that we’re right.
As the climate shocks of the twenty-first century get worse and worse, people will be looking for answers and leadership amidst the suffering and chaos. History tells us that if groups such as Just Stop Oil aren’t there to promote a nonviolent and ethical way forward, fascism and other ideologies of hate will fill the void.
In the run up to the Russian revolution of 1917 the Russian royal family and liberal society had two decades to realise what was brewing and implement the necessary reforms. Instead they vacillated and failed to grasp the gravity of what was happening. The end result was that the Bolsheviks seized power and installed a murderous regime.
In the years that followed the country was subjected to social breakdown and civil war. Millions were killed, hardly a family was left untouched. Mass hunger led to cannibalism; people ate their own children, hunted homeless people in the street or dug up dead bodies for food.
Let’s not deceive ourselves with liberal euphemisms, this is the kind of future the world faces, unless we can build movements which provide a pathway to solidarity rather than a pathway to hell. These movements will only be built when we stop being motivated by short term outcomes and instead realise our responsibility; the absolute necessity to act.
Sources: The section on Gandhi is based on readings of “My Experiments with Truth”, Gandhi’s autobiography and “Gandhi, The Man, His People and the British Empire” by one of his grandsons.The section on Martin Luther King uses information taken from “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King”, put together by Clayborne Carson, specifically chapters 6 and 8. The information about the Russian revolution is taken from “A people’s Tragedy” by Orlando Figes. The conclusion estimates the death toll from 1917-22 at 10 million, towards the end of the book there’s a section of a few pages which specifically covers the cannibalism that occurred during these years.