I marched several times in my younger days almost always in anti racist demos. I taught at a school with many Asian immigrants back in the 70's. We had several young children roughed up on their way to school and almost the entire staff joined a march leading through the town to a large
park where we had speakers laid on.
Walking in obvious pain was an old lady. She leant on my arm and explained why she was there. She had been in Auswitch she said. She had seen racists in action. These people had to be stopped before what happened to the Jews happened to anyone else. Her determination to finish the march and to stand and be counted filled my eyes with tears and my heart with admiration.
After that I went on several other marches..the local ones through towns were never a problem but the one through Manchester could have been. The organizers knew that some would join in order to start the violence. They had tried it before and had to be stopped. We walked sometimes singing, some times in silence but every so often rioters started to try to engage us. When that happened we just completely surrounded and isolated them though some of us got hurt in the process.
In any one crowd there are going to be people for whom conflict is a way of life. It's up to the rest of us to try to stop it when we can.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
2 comments:
I heartily agree with your last sentence though passive reistance to agression is not always possible.
In my early twenties I too spent many days and most weekends marching against what I perceived to be a threat to a peacefull existence, mainly CND but also anti-apartheid etc., causes which in those days were very much in the forefront of politics.
Our always peacefull demonstrations were often infiltrated by 'agent provocateurs' whose sole aim was to destroy our public image.
Never one to bury my head in the sand I often found myself in conflict with our leaders, but in the end always bowed to their superior knowledge as to the best way to make an impact.
In the end we may not have greatly changed the world, but at least we tried.
cymraeg I too as a girl supported CND and anti apartheid was a way of life. I hope that todays young people feel as passionately as we did then!
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