Week of November 25, 2024

Nonviolence Report begins at 47:06

Stephanie: All right. So, let's turn next to our Nonviolence Report with our reporter at large, Michael Nagler.

Michael: Thank you. Stephanie, I don't feel terribly at large at the moment.

In our last program, we talked a little bit about a local hero, if you look at him that way, I sort of do. A fellow named Wayne Hsiung, who is now under threat of maybe up to 15-16 years in prison for what he did at a local farm, Ridglan Farms, which houses 3000 dogs, actually. And I cited his nonviolent courage. I cited, I think, the similarity to a problem that we call one of the gray areas in nonviolence, which is property destruction.

So, in a theoretical way, this is parallel to going in and banging on a nose cone of a missile. It is not ideal because you are not persuading your opponent. You are simply thwarting your opponent. Though there are times when you don't have the time, you cannot afford the luxury of a long term, educational activity. “You have to stop the worst of the damage,” to use a quotation from Joanna Macy.

So, in connection with what Wayne Hsiung and his group does, which is to liberate animals who they feel are being held under exploitive and cruel conditions, I wanted to mention a bit of history which illustrates something that today we call intersectionality. And was new to me when I learned it, namely that the suffragettes were vegetarian.

Now suffragettes were agitating for women's suffrage in the late part of the 19th century in the UK. Mahatma Gandhi was very much aware of them. And he was often asked, “Is this your model?” And he was at pains to state, no, there's a big difference. The suffragette’s position on violence was that they could not use it because they were in a position of weakness, but they might well consider using violence if they were in a position of strength.

And Gandhi was at pains to point out that this is very different from his idea of accepting and adopting nonviolence as a principle, as a way of life, as our, guest, Kristen Barker, was just saying, and not just as a tactic. You do it because it's the right thing to do and because it resonates with what Kristen was just saying, the flow of life. I thought that was a very good definition of principled nonviolence.

So, the suffragettes, on the other hand, did do something very parallel to Gandhi's efforts and namely, they were vegetarian. They set up meat-free eateries, and these were eventually essential spaces for their socializing and campaigning. And vegetarianism was a key moral touchstone for many radicals in this period.

There was one woman leader named Alexandrine Veigelé, who established the Women's Vegetarian Union in 1895. Only a couple of years after Gandhi got active in South Africa. And the diet was advertised as a cause for progressive women alongside of anti-vivisectional, rational dress, higher education, and so forth. 

And one of the early feminist journals that was set up by Margaret Sibthorp, describing itself as a magazine of progressive thought, frequently published vegetarian recipes and articles in support of the cause. And in one of these articles, a writer by the name of Edith Ward argued for the adoption of a meat free diet on the basis that, quote, “The case for the animal is the case for women.”

Incidentally, one of the very early Greek philosophers named Porphyry, who wrote in Greek, living in Rome, to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude because he systematized the works of Plotinus, a very deeply mystical, philosopher of the time.

They also pointed out that if people are cruel to animals, they will be cruel to one another. In other words, as I would put it, violence is violence. Any form of violence is going to facilitate another form. Contrarily, any form of nonviolence will facilitate nonviolence in many different forms. They said that the exploitation of non-human animals resulted from the same system of power, which included the gender hierarchy. I would say ultimately that's true, but ultimately, it stemmed from the same source of violence, which is the sense of separateness, which is the ego.

So, moving on, with a lot more material than I have time for today, which is good, I wanted to talk about something that take place in my old alma mater, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. They have established, the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. And they are responding to the large number of executions which are taking place in Iran. Well, I'm not going to go into the details about that.

Now moving on. The United Nations biodiversity summit that happened in Columbia, 140 organizations collectively called on government representatives to pursue, quote, “an immediate halt,” unquote, to planned heating oil and gas projects. And what they are advocating for, if you like alliteration, you're going to love this one, is a full, fair, fast-funded and feminist phase out –

Stephanie: Whoa!

Michael: – of all fossil fuels.

Stephanie: On my goodness, I love that. That’s just, that's the best alliteration I've ever heard. Thank you so much for that very short Nonviolence Report. This has been a great show. We want to thank our guests. Kristen Barker, co-director of Co-op Cincy. You can find them at Co-opCincy.org. To Matt and Robin Watrous who helped transcribe and edit the show. Annie Hewitt, Sophia Pechaty, thank you so much, you make the show what it is.

To our stations. Our mother stations KPCA, Petaluma, KWMR, Point Reyes Station, to the Pacifica Network, who helps syndicated shows all over the US.

And to all of those who are getting these on podcast form. It's awesome. To Bryan Farrell over at Waging Nonviolence. Thanks for helping us share the show there, and you're doing great work. You can find the show at, NonviolenceRadio.org. And if you want to learn more about nonviolence, go to the Metta Center. 

And to everybody listening and our supporters and listeners, thank you so much. And until the next time, please take care of one another.