The civil disobedience is a concept that determines a form of social action manifested as political protest. This idea brings the sense of a disobedience expressed to a certain law, if it is seen as unfair by a certain group of people. It is an action characterized by non-violence and aims at social transformation.
This idea was initially developed by a 19th century American activist named Henry David Thoreau, who expressed his dissatisfaction with the taxes levied to finance the Mexican-American War . The concept of civil disobedience was applied in some moments of history, as in the protests for the civil rights of blacks led by Martin Luther King, in the United States.
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Definition of civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is a concept that defends the population’s disrespect for a law , if that law is seen as unfair . It is a way that minority groups, or those that are not heard in the political process, find themselves participating in it and, therefore, it is an instrument that can be used by citizens to guarantee their citizenship .
Civil disobedience advocates non-violent protest actions aimed at promoting social justice. [1]
It is important to consider that disrespect for the law is only framed within the concept of civil disobedience when moved by a feeling of seeking equality or justice . Civil disobedience is not merely an individual action, but a collective action of a group that seeks, through it, to achieve social transformation .
Therefore, this type of disobedience is not an act of disorder , since its intention is not to destroy the democratic model in which we are inserted, but to transform it, that is, to reform it so that it guarantees equality and justice to all. Another fundamental element of this idea is that it is applied in a non-violent manner .
Thus, the social transformation sought by civil disobedience is claimed by an act of rebellion carried out in a non-violent manner. Finally, civil disobedience is a publicly transgression , since its purpose is not to disobey the laws with a selfish or destructive purpose, but to highlight the injustices of society as a way to combat them.
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Emergence of civil disobedience
The concept of civil disobedience is thought to have emerged from a writing by a 19th century American activist named Henry David Thoreau. He wrote an essay called Civil disobedience ( Civil disobedience , in English), published in 1849.
In this text, Thoreau affirms that disobedience is the only way to be taken when the existing laws are unjust and when the actions of the State lead the man to commit or to be conniving with inappropriate actions. Thoreau claimed a government in which the conscience, not the will of the majority, determined the direction of things , because, in his view, the will of the majority could still be unjust.
Henry David Thoreau is considered the creator of the concept of civil disobedience through his essay written in the 19th century. [two]
Thoreau questioned the reasons why a citizen should be forced to comply with a law that would hurt his conscience. He questioned institutions as a permanent army , because, in his view, the man who serves the army is serving the state as a machine and, therefore, is giving up his own awareness of his values.
In this essay Thoreau also expressed his reasons for refusing to pay taxes to the American government, claiming that they would be used to finance the Mexican-American War, a conflict between 1846 and 1848, in which the United States took over a series of territories that belonged to Mexico. Thoreau was arrested for this refusal.
Thoreau considered this war unfair, and saw it only as a tool that would lead to the expansion of slavery , another institution that he considered in the same way. He saw that the only way to combat the injustices of the State, be it in the matter of war, or in maintaining slavery, would be to rebel against it.
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Cases of civil disobedience in history
The study of history allows us to identify some examples of civil disobedience. The best known cases were those carried out by Mahatma Gandhi , in the context of the struggle for independence in India, and the actions carried out by figures such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King , in the context of the civil rights movement of African Americans in the 1950s and 1960.
· Salt March
Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi is considered one of the greatest civil disobedience action makers in history.
Mahatma Gandhi became known as an activist who used non-violence tactics , known as satyagraha , to protest British colonial rule in India. He took a stand against the discriminatory action of the English towards the Indians, and sought to combat the abusive taxes levied and which left millions of Indians in a state of poverty.
One of Gandhi’s best known acts was his leadership in the March of Salt . In 1930, there were a number of limitations imposed on Indians as part of colonization. One of them determined that they were prohibited from producing salt and were forced to buy it from English producers.
Gandhi then decided to start a peaceful protest that would cross hundreds of kilometers in Indian territory so that people could collect salt from the sea. It was a non-violent act aimed at protesting the monopoly on salt and the abusive taxes levied by the English.
The 400-kilometer march lasted for 24 days, from March 12 to April 6, 1930. It had thousands of people who resisted peacefully and did not fight back against the violence of the colonial authorities. It is estimated that about 60,000 people were arrested during the protest, but the message against injustice was clear, and the monopoly on salt was lifted the following year.
· Rosa Parks
In the United States in the 1950s, African Americans were citizens who had no civil rights . Thus, there were places that did not accept blacks to attend them, like some schools, restaurants and shops, in others, white North Americans had priority over blacks.
This situation manifested itself mainly in the south of the country, a place marked by the history of slavery. In the state of Alabama, for example, there was a law that mandated that blacks should sit in the back of public buses, and if there were no more seats on the bus, they should give up their own place to a white citizen.
On December 1, 1955, the 42-year-old seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her place to a white man when the bus driver told her to do so. Rosa Parks was arrested for her act of civil disobedience, but her action was the spark that started a large protest movement against discrimination on buses, and gave the strength that started the movement for the fight for civil rights of this population in the United States .
Rosa Parks’ action and the peaceful protests that began to be held resulted in the prohibition of racial segregation of African-Americans on buses in November 1956, by order of the country’s Supreme Court. The following month, a law banning racial segregation on buses was issued in his city, Montegmory, Alabama. To learn more about this important figure of the black movement in the USA and worldwide, read: Rosa Parks .
