kim kaos

Well I can’t say I’ve ever been more shocked than the day I heard that Scott Parkin, US peace activist, had been detained by the Department of Immigration for deportation. Everyone who met Parkin during his three months he was in Australia, would agree that he’s just an all round nice guy. Quiet, polite, gentle, not argumentative, intelligent, and likeable guy, totally dedicated to the cause of non-violence. Really not the kind of person who one would expect could be accused of “incitement to violence” even indirectly.

Scott’s visit to Queensland was mostly a camping holiday. He got together with some of us activists as you would whenever you’re on holiday look up like-minded people to hang out with. He did that throughout his journey and made many friends. One of the ideas Scott talks about is the need for activists to tell our own story. And as you do when you meet new people – Scott told his story. Sometimes he did this in a room full of people (at the Brisbane and Sydney Social Forums), sometimes he did this on the radio. His story was pretty darn interesting and informative.

This idea has been developed extensively by NV trainer Starhawk (who incidentally did get a visa and wasn’t deported on her recent visit to Australia despite her involvement as an organizer in many, many actions over the years). Starhawk is very articulate at telling her own story and has a strong support network, perhaps making her a less desirable target for ASIO. This speech she gave at Humbolt State University is an excellent explanation of the concept www.humboldt.edu/~edsummit/starhawk.htm

Scott stories, perhaps unhappily for his continued stay in Australia, included coming up against the very rich and powerful Halliburton Corporation. Halliburton still have US Vice President Dick Cheney on their payroll. They recently won over 4 billion in contracts to the US forces in Iraq, despite a case currently claiming they ripped off the American people for millions. They have branches in every major city in Australia, operating in conjunction with their recruitment company Kellogg, Brown and Root.

We can be scared by what happened to Scott, but if we do that, we miss a very valuable opportunity to tell our stories. Starhawk writes: “You know, that overwhelming spell saying, “You can’t mobilize, you can’t organize at all. You’re terrorists if you do.” In spite of that, millions and millions of people around the world came out and stood up and said “No. We are not going into Iraq.” We are seeing this spell being cast by the Australian government, while at the same time they describe as ‘weak’ any criticism of their policies by opposition parties in order to get their authoritarian ‘security’ powers.

Starhawk writes:

Anyone who stands up for any of the values of things like compassion and education and nurturing and love and care and concern for the next generation (values which have not coincidentally been associated with women throughout history) is considered to be weak and, by extension, woman-like and unmanly and therefore not fit to lead or rule, as the case may be. I think that some of us who have been in the feminist movement for many many years and have been pointing out these little things kind of have fallen away and stopped talking in those terms for awhile, but have kind of been awakened and said, “You know what? We have to actually start contesting the way this spell works on us by constructing a reality in which our only vision of strength is aggression and brute-power and force.” And that’s relegated to men, which really doesn’t do justice to men, because there are plenty of men around who are actually kind, loving, nurturing, and compassionate and care about the next generation

Scott is one of those men.

To mitigate the injustice done to Scott, it’s important that Australian activists keep up the struggle against the war, against the bastards profiteering from it and to continue to tell our own stories in defiance of the threats made by the governments’ persecution of peace activists.

We need to keep the pressure on Halliburton and the ANZ (the target of many successful actions in Australia already). And we need to be prepared. Scott shared his knowledge on Non Violent Direct Action at workshops while he was here and we can continue to train ourselves and be ready for what the government and their agencies is going to throw at us. If we are going to be persecuted for our dedication to peace, then we need to live that peace and capitalize on the opportunity to reach many people with our stories. Think about why you are a peace activist, so you can be prepared to speak when your time comes. The ‘Battle of the Story” has started in earnest.

And finally, from Starhawk a counter-spell:

The counterspell for fear is courage: facing the possibility of the worst and then going ahead with what you know is right. The counterspell for despair is action in service of a vision. The counterspell for paralysis is stubborn, persistent passion.
Even if we’re wrong, if nothing we do makes a difference, courage and passion are a better place to be than hopelessness, cynicism and fear. If the authorities repress us, that’s better than becoming people who repress ourselves. If we see our dreams ripped out of our hands, that’s better than never daring to dream at all.

And if we tell our own stories with enough intensity and focus, we’ll start to believe them, and so will others. We’ll break the spells that bind us. We’ll start to want that other world we say is possible with such intensity that nothing can stop us or deny us. All it takes is our willingness to act from vision, not from fear, to risk hoping, to dare to act for what we love.

There are lots of great NVDA training notes on the net. My personal favorite is the comprehensive work of Starhawk:
www.starhawk.org/activism/trainer-resources/trainer-resources.html

Australian NVDA resources:
http://www.greenpeace.org.au/getactive/happen/run.html
www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/forests/nsw/protlegal2
www.nonviolence.org.au/training.html
www.activistrights.org.au

More info on Scott Parkin’s case see: www.melbourne.indymedia.org

Friends of Scott Parkin