WAR WATCH
WEDNESDAYS #19
NORWAY’S WWII NONVIOLENCE, US Schools, Nonviolence and Climate Denial
Of their 12,000 teachers,
between 8,000 and 10,000 signed a statement opposing the creation of
Nazi-controlled teacher and student organizations. When the government, under the Nazi-imposed
dictatorship of Vidkun Quisling, closed the schools, “tens of thousands of
parents” protested too. Quisling sent a
thousand male teachers to concentration camps, some in the Arctic. But none of the new fascist institutions were
ever created, and the imprisoned teachers were released. The fascist plan for Norway was abandoned,
and “quisling “ became synonymous with anyone who aids an invading, occupying
country. Quisling admitted: “’You
teachers have destroyed everything for me.’”
“If teachers could do that, imagine
what a whole society committed to a better path could do. But our schools teach war, war, war—so many
wars that the years between them fade and war seems normal to the reader of
history texts. And they don’t teach
peace, they don’t inform students of the skills and successes of nonviolent action. It’s a reality denied. We might call it nonviolence denial. In so far as it makes violence seem
inevitable, it may be as dangerous as CLIMATE DENIAL….” (my emphasis). David Swanson, Leaving World War II Behind (142-3).
Suggested Reading from Swanson’s Sources for these pages:
Ackerman and Duvall, A Force More Powerful
Chenoweth and Stephan, Why Civil
Resistance Works
Grimsrud, The Good War That Wasn’t
Johansen and Martin, Social Defence
Sharp, Waging Nonviolent Struggle
Let’s Not Forget the
Warmakers and the Peacemakers
April 20, 1999, Columbine High School shootings, leading to Michael Moore’s
documentary analysis of the psychopathology
of US violence, Bowling for Columbine
April 21, 1989, student protests begin in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square leading
to martial law and killings
April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day, and Immanuel Kant’s birthday: we must see
the whole and strive for the highest good for all
April 23, 1968, students protest VN War, war research, and ROTC at Columbia
Univ.
April 25, 1974, the “Carnation Revolution,” bloodless coup overthrows
Portuguese dictatorship esp. v. its colonial empire.
April 26, 1986, worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl.
April 27, 1973, British forcibly expel indigenous Chagossian people of Diego
Garcia to allow US to build a military base on the island.
April 28, 1915, the International Congress of Women convenes in the Hague,
Netherlands; it created the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
April 30, 1975, Saigon surrenders to NVN and Vietcong, Vietnam War ends.
