Tuesday 13 March 2012

US bans Free Speech

When Ghandhi composed the rules for Satyagraha (literally "insistence on truth") or civil disobedience they included assertions of individual responsibility including: "do not make your participation conditional on your comrades taking care of your dependants while you are engaging in the campaign or are in prison; do not expect them to provide such support".

It is the techniques developed by Ghandhi and his fellow Satyagrahi which have driven all protest in the hundred years since he began his campaign for racial equality in South Africa before returning to India to protest British rule.
It was his techniques that were employed throughout North Africa in 2011 and in Syria now.
By contrast back in the land of the free and the home of the brave it is now illegal to exercise one's right to free speech in the USA, if the event you are protesting against is 'nationally significant'.


People have been arrested and charged with felonies (serious crimes) simply for posting up advertisements for legal, non-violent protests.

Compare this with the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989 where a single man held up a line of tanks and you may recall that this was a ruthless suppression of protestors.


Of course we should never forget just how far a Western Nation is willing to go to suppress dissent in its own populations.


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