Occupying Language in NYC

The Committee on Globalization and Social Changeis putting on a very cool event:

Occupying Language

with Dario Azzellini and Marina Sitrin

Friday, September 21: 2:00 pm at the Free University of NYC at Madison Square Park and 7:30 pm at 16 Beaver Street (4th floor)

This is their shpeil about it:

Occupying Language is an open conversation. Through it, we invite you to join us to explore insurgent movements that have been organizing in Latin America over the past twenty years, and to connect key concepts and language from those struggles with what is new and beautiful in the social relations being created by people’s movements in the United States today.

There are of course many similarities with preceding forms of organization and mobilization, especially with the movement for global justice of the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, we are choosing to ground the discussion in movements and groups that arose from and are comprised of ordinary people, rather than activists.

Language is not neutral, and words transport and express concepts and ways of thinking. They can consolidate and perpetuate hierarchies, domination and control just as they can underline equality and strengthen consciousness. Latin American struggles for dignity, freedom and liberation are rooted in more than five hundred years of resistance. Language derived from their struggles comes with historical antecedents.

Among the concepts we explore are Territory, Assembly, Rupture, Popular Power, Horizontalism, Autogestión (self-administration), and Protagonism. Examples of each term are drawn from different Latin American communities of struggle, from the spreading of Horizontalidad with the popular rebellion in Argentina, and the concept of Territory seen in Bolivia and Mexico, to the construction of Popular Power in the Consejos Comunales in Venezuela, and the vision of interconnected human diversity articulated in the call for “one world in which many worlds fit” by the indigenous Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico.

Rachel Corrie

I apologize for the delay in posting this, I have been consumed with organizing the caravan for peace.  As many readers will know, there was recently a ruling on the civil case on Rachel Corrie's death.  Rachel is probably the world's best known accompanier, having been murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces.  Below is a short documentary directed by Najat Jellab about Rachel Corrie.


Her Name was Rachel Corrie by Najat10

The International Solidarity Movement's statement about the ruling is:

"The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is deeply concerned by the verdict of Judge Oded Gershon that absolved Israel’s military and state of the 2003 murder of American ISM activist Rachel Corrie. Rachel was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer while protesting the demolition of a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip.

Despite the American administration stating that the Israeli military investigation had not been "thorough, credible and transparent" and the Israeli government withholding key video and audio evidence, Judge Gershon found no fault in the investigation or in the conclusion that the military and state were not responsible for Rachel’s death. Judge Gershon ruled  that Rachel was to blame for her own murder and classifies her non-violent attempt to prevent war crimes as proof that Rachel was not a “thinking person".

By disregarding international law and granting Israeli war criminals impunity Judge Gershon’s verdict exemplifies the fact that Israel’s legal system cannot be trusted to administer justice according to international standards.The ISM calls on the international community to hold Israel accountable by supporting the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and continuing to join the Palestinian struggle in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Describing the situation in Gaza 2 days before she was killed, Rachel said, “I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive. It's horrifying.”  Rachel’s analysis holds true today, confirmed by the United Nations a day before this ruling, which reported that Gaza would not be "liveable" by 2020 barring urgent action.

The verdict is a green light for Israeli soldiers to use lethal force against human rights defenders and puts Palestinian and International human rights defenders in mortal danger. This will not deter us. As long as our Palestinian sisters and brothers want our presence, the ISM will continue to find ways to break Israel’s siege, and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. As Rachel’s mother Cindy put it, “There were children behind the walls of the home Rachel was trying to protect...We should have all been there”.

Judge Gershon’s verdict is a travesty of justice but it is not exceptional. As a rule the Israeli legal system provides Israeli soldiers impunity to commit murder. The only Israeli soldier convicted of manslaughter since the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000 was Taysir Hayb, a Bedouin citizen of Israel for shooting British ISM volunteer Tom Hurndall in the back of the head with a sniper rifle as Tom was carrying a child to safety. At least 6,444 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces in this period, with no justice for them or their families. "

a new tactic for North-South international solidarity

For years I have helped to organize speaking tours of activists from Colombia, El Salvador, etc who have traveled across the US and Canada sharing their stories and analysis and weaving connections with activists in the North working for justice.  Usually it's just one person traveling, usually for a couple of weeks, sometimes for up to a month.  At most it has been two people at a time. 

I have also helped to organize and participate in many delegations of people from the US who have gone to Colombia, etc, to meet activists there, see their work, hear their stories and make connections.  Those groups are more likely to be from 6 to 12, with some growing up to 20.  They tend to last ten days to a week.

So now I'm excited to be participating in an effort that does not fit either of those standard ways of traveling to build connections across our movements.  The caravan for peace is a group of some 160 people, about half Mexican, half from the US, who are traveling across the US for a month.  Most of the Mexicans have lost family members in the so called war on drugs, and at stops along the way they are sharing their stories and analysis of what it will take to build peace.  They are also building all sorts of connections as they go - I'm sure some of the most meaningful are with folks who are riding the buses with them. 

You are invited to join the caravan - you can follow along in your car for a day, a week - or just go to one of their powerful events.  See the map here for the route and click on your city for details of events there.   There have been all sorts of events - from holding vigil at a gun show to a recent event in El Paso where the names of drug war victims were projected on the wall and scrolled up as classical music played (photo).  If you can't participate please consider donating to support this work (I would be grateful if you could earmark your donation for Spanish interpreting, which I am helping to organize) or at very least sign up to get their moving emails for the next two weeks of the caravan. 

A resource for accompaniers (and others) dealing with trauma exposure

I highly recommend the book
Trauma stewardship: an everyday guide to caring for self while caring for others
by Laura Van Dernoot with Connie Burk
(I was happy to find that the CPT team in Colombia had this on their shelf, though I don't know how often it gets read or practiced!)

They write about some of the
warning signs of trauma exposure response: 
(which many accompaniers may relate to)

• feeling helpless and hopeless
• a sense that one can never do enough
• hypervigilance
• diminished creativity
• inability to embrace complexity
• minimizing
• chronic exhaustion
• inability to listen/deliberate avoidance
• disassociative moments
• sense of persecution
• guilt
• fear
• can’t empathize/numbing
• anger and cynicism
• addictions
• grandiosity: one’s identity becomes solely about work

The book is full of tips for self care in this situation:

• coming in to the present moment
• trauma mastery (read for more on this)
• where am I putting my focus? (+ -)
• creating a microculture
• practicing compassion for myself and others
• finding balance
• gratitude
• daily centering

Of course they say much more about each of those. 

One of their arguments that really resonated with me was that people may come to think that only by suffering themselves can they express solidarity with those who are suffering, that feeling happy is somehow a betrayal. Somewhere between ignorining people in crisis and internalizing an ethic of martyrdom lies balance. It helps to understand our own personal response to trauma exposure, our patterns and how to respond. (page 61).

I also liked their argument that it can be easy to confuse being amped up, attending to crises, a sense of being needed with being awake, living life.  This can make it hard to slow down and we find ourselves keeping very busy even on vacation, or we get sick on vacation from adrenalin crash (page 123).  We can get stuck in fight or flight. Animals shake it off/out afterwards. It can help your parasympathetic nervous system kick in to move energy out like this.  Move. Walk. Breathe.

They recommend that when you start the workday you stop and ask yourself, why am I doing what I am doing? Breathe. Remind yourself making a choice to do this work. Regularly write down why you are doing it, what your intention is. Remind yourself what it is about for you, and what it is not.  This would be a great exercise for accompaniers, if not daily at least once in a while.  Maybe right now?

accompanier getting slapped makes the nightly news in Colombia

One of the basic premises of accompaniment is that a bigger deal will be made if an accompanier is attacked than if the person being accompanied is attacked.  That was dramatically illustrated two days ago when this video made the news (see the bit starting at second 30) of a Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) accompanier being slapped while accompanying the community of Las Pavas, who are defending their land against invasion by an oil palm company.  Yet despite the media coverage, and several government agencies speaking out against it, the invasion continues.  The people of Las Pavas are resisting nonviolently, putting their bodies in front of the palm tree tractors.  Please hold both the CPT team and Las Pavas in your heart as they continue working for peace in a very explosive situation.

new video on accompaniment, and IPO training

Below is a video by IPO, the international peace observatory, about accompaniment.  Unlike other accompaniment groups who often avoid using the term, IPO starts out by saying that accompaniment is a way of doing solidarity.  And this video will give you an honest sense of the kind of transportation accompaniers regularly take! A lot of accompaniment is about being with people while they move from point A to point B, so if you hate bus rides, it's not for you. Love the truck on a truly bad road at around minute 5, which also gives you a sense of the gorgeous mountains these bad condition roads are often going through.

IPO is one of the only organizations that takes accompaniers for short stints.  If the video sparks your interest in IPO, they are doing a training for potential accompaniers on July 14th in NYC, more info here.  Sorry for the short notice, but if you're interested, they will hold another in the fall.

great resources on facilitation and consensus and more

The fabulous British group Seeds for change has a great collection of handouts on consensus and facilitation here.

I have a consensus question for you.  If a group comes to consensus that they want to do something, say, accompany a particular group, but then after some time some of the members no longer want to do this action (say, accompany that organization, or in a different context run a community school, or what have you) - does there need to be consensus about pulling out? Or is the fact that there is no longer consensus for staying in enough to end the project? Certainly those that no longer want to be involved could just leave - but what if they have serious doubts about the viability of the project and want the entire group to pull out? What is the consensus process for that? Any suggestions or comments much appreciated. 

is solidarity even possible in this system?

So asks President Mujica, of Uruguay, at this speech in Rio.  Many thanks to Mariano for pointing me to it (warning, not the best translation).

advocacy as part of accompaniment

Christian Peacemaker Team's site has one of the more detailed descriptions of their work of any of the international organizations doing accompaniment in Colombia. Interestingly their site never uses the word ‘space’. They say:

“By accompaniment we mean both: 1) having a physical presence in the communities and with the organizations we accompany, and 2) doing advocacy work on their behalf.

1) Our physical presence in communities/organizations demonstrates to both members and leaders of organizations as well as armed actors that they are not alone; members of an international organization are present to witnesses and report on whatever is happening, and will non-violently intervene when armed actors abuse the rights of civilians. We ask violators to cease and desist from any behaviour that places civilians at risk or abuses their rights, and make it known that we will report all abuses to local authorities, local, national and North American government representatives, the media, and our international support base. …

2) Advocacy work for the organizations and communities we accompany is based on the understanding that justice must prevail before peace can be attained. It seeks to support our partners’ initiatives in their struggles to end violence and impunity, and to have their rights to life with dignity and territory respected. It also raises the profiles, not only of community/organization leaders, but also of their struggle for justice. Raising their profiles increases the political cost of doing them harm, and thereby diminishes the ability to oppress them with impunity. …"

They go on to list what advocacy work includes, and first on their list is

“1) Doing public actions and participating in demonstrations that promote justice and seek to end violence and impunity in the communities accompanied by CPT.”

CPT is known amongst other accompaniers as the group that engages in public actions in Colombia and considers this to be a form of accompaniment, and that section of their website includes this photo of such an action.

anti-oppression resources

The Colours of Resistance Archive (http://www.coloursofresistance.org), is a collection of anti-oppression resources for movement-building.

As they put it: "Colours of Resistance (COR) was a grassroots network of people in the U.S. and Canada who consciously worked to develop anti-racist, multiracial politics in the movement against global capitalism. This network existed from 2000 until 2006. COR members aimed to help build an anti-racist, anti-imperialist, multiracial, feminist, queer and trans liberationist, anti-authoritarian movement against global capitalism. COR members were also committed to integrating an anti-oppression framework and analysis into all of the work."

I've used the term anti-oppression for years.  When I was organizing with Seattle CISPES we started each meeting with 10 minutes we called, rather ridiculously, DOBS - or 'dismantling oppressive behaviours'.  It was useful to each week think about how to be more aware and respectful of different communities.  I guess I prefer dismantling oppression to anti-oppression as a term, but in general I'd rather our terms focused on what we want in the world rather than what we don't want.  Maybe we're not there yet.  And not sure what the term for this internal work in organizations would be then.  Liberation? Respect? Solidarity?

Judith Butler on solidarity

I survived my dissertation defense! But it was H A R D, so many thanks for your messages of support.  They truly helped. 

The day after my defense I started teaching a very intensive summer course that is new to me, so I've been scrambling to keep my head above water - but last Thursday I got to see Judith Butler speak and it was such a treat! She is clearly thinking alot about solidarity these days, though not necessarily using that term.  She had fascinating things to say about the role of empathy - she seems as dubious about it as I am and talked about being with and through each other in beautifully poetic ways.  She also talked about the importance of personal stories and sharing the stories of others in ethical ways - something I've been passionate about for years and am going to focus on in my postdoc.  I can't wait to listen to her talk again - the CBC is going to broadcast it and I'll link it when they do. 

In response to one of the questions she got here in Vancouver she referenced this recent talk of hers (below) at the European Graduate school, where you can see she's grappling with these issues.  For those who aren't theory geeks, be warned - this is not, ahem, the most accessible of talks.  But it's Butler! She's amazing!

the end is near!

I'm (finally!) defending my dissertation on Monday.  Good vibes welcome!

The final title is:
Making Space for Peace: International Protective Accompaniment in Colombia (2007-2009)

the abstract:
International accompaniment is a strategy used in conflict zones that puts people who are less at risk literally next to people under threat because of their work for peace and justice.  Thousands of human rights workers, grassroots organizations, and communities have been protected in this way since 1983.  There are now international accompaniers working with 24 organizations in ten countries.  Colombia is the country with the largest number of international groups. 

I spent 15 months in Colombia holding ongoing conversations with accompaniers about how accompaniment works, or to use Peace Brigades’ slogan, how it ‘makes space for peace.’  Paradoxically accompaniers use the fact that their lives ‘count’ more (because of passport/economic/racial privilege), to build a world where everyone’s lives ‘count’..  I was hoping that accompaniment was using privilege in such a way that it could ‘use it up’.  I did not find that, but I argue that accompaniment can wear down the structures that grant privilege unequally – but it can also reinforce those, depending on how it is done.  It is easier for accompaniers to fall into colonial patterns and reinforce structures of domination that make some lives worth more than others when they understand themselves as nonpartisan civilian peacekeepers.  It is also easier to fall into those traps when accompaniers see space as abstract and elide how race and other privileges shape their work. To change structures of domination, accompaniment needs not only to leverage difference, but also simultaneously build connections across difference and distance, through chains of solidarity. 

coloniality vs colonialism

sorry for the unusually long silence on this blog, I'm crazy busy, so for now just a brief quote from Ramón Grosfoguel (ethnic studies, Berkeley), who, in his article 'The epistemic decolonial turn' writes:

"'Coloniality of power' refers to a crucial structuring process in the modern/colonial world-system that articulates peripheral locations in the international division of labor with the global racial/ethnic hierarchy and Third World migrants' inscription in the racial/ethnic hierarchy of metropolitan global cities. In this sense, there is a periphery outside and inside the core zones and there is a core inside and outside the peripheral regions."

"I use the word 'colonialism' to refer to 'colonial situations' enforced by the presence of a colonial administration such as the period of classical colonialism, and, following Quijano (1991) Quijano (1993) Quijano (1998), I use 'coloniality' to address 'colonial situations' in the present period in which colonial administrations have almost been eradicated from the capitalist world-system. By 'colonial situations' I mean the cultural, political, sexual, spiritual, epistemic and economic oppression/exploitation of subordinate racialized/ethnic groups by dominant racialized/ethnic groups with or without the existence of colonial administrations."

He goes on to say that "The mythology about the 'decolonization of the world' obscures the continuities between the colonial past and current global colonial/racial hierarchies and contributes to the invisibility of 'coloniality' today."

books on solidarity

I am at the International Studies Association conference in San Diego. I was surprised that there were no presentations with the word solidarity in the title, and I only heard the word mentioned once in a presentation (by the fabulous Catherine Eschle who I was thrilled to get to meet).

But I did see two exciting new books on solidarity at the book fair:

Solidarity Politics for Millennials: A Guide to Ending the Oppression Olympics (The Politics of Intersectionality)
by Ange Marie Hancock (amazon link because it's searchable within and google is not)

and

Solidarity Transformed: Labor Responses to Globalization and Crisis in Latin America by
Mark S. Anner

and I was reminded of the book

Race and the Politics of Solidarity (Transgressing Boundaries: Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities) by Juliet Hooker

all of which I have added to this list of resources on solidarity (which you can add to - please do!)

organize against US militarism in the Americas

wow, a trailer for a movement event? and there's a spanish version too. the camp sounds particularly fun. wish I could go!

Rachel Corrie - Presente!

Rachel was killed nine years ago yesterday, as she stood in front of an Israeli bulldozer, trying to stop it from demolishing a Palestinian home. She is one of three international accompaniers killed while accompanying (the others are Tom Hurndall, also in Palestine, and Tom Fox, in Iraq).

Her parents issued this moving statement:

Dear Friends,

It has been nine years today since our daughter Rachel was crushed to death under an Israeli driven, U.S. funded and built, Caterpillar D9 bulldozer in Gaza. In March 2003, the news was full of talk of war with Iraq – a preemptive war to protect the west, particularly the U.S. and Israel, from the weapons of mass destruction then alleged to have been amassed by Saddam Hussein. When Rachel traveled to Gaza that year, the world was not watching. According to Human Rights Watch, from September 2000 until September 2004, 1,600 Palestinian homes in the city of Rafah were destroyed by the Israeli military as it occupied the Gaza Strip. One-tenth of the population lost their homes. Rachel chose to be in Gaza when the ground attack against Iraq broke out. She feared an escalation of the violence and a tightening of the isolation against people there, as the world looked to the northeast and watched the carnage in Iraq. It did not happen as immediately as some expected, but with the Israeli military attack on Gaza of November 2008 through January 2009, the violence became overwhelming, and the tightening of the seige initiated in 2006 by Israel to remove Hamas, made the isolation nearly complete.

In 2003, Rachel wrote: “I went to a rally a few days ago in Khan Younis in solidarity with the people of Iraq. Many analogies were made about the continuing suffering of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation and the upcoming occupation of Iraq by the United States – not the war itself – but the certain aftermath of the war. If people aren’t already thinking about the consequences of this war for the people of the entire region then I hope they will start.”

Now, in 2012, we listen to similar news – calls for bombing Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. The preemptive war has already begun with the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. Our government tells us sanctions against Iran will pressure their government to abandon any program to develop these weapons, but experience tells us sanctions only increase the defensiveness of repressive regimes and tighten their control over their populations.

The news from our politicians is discouraging and even frightening, but in the meeting places and streets in our communities, we are making the kind of change that Rachel envisioned. It is happening in Olympia with continuing support for the Olympia Food Co-op’s boycott of Israeli products until the rights of Palestinians are addressed. Throughout Puget Sound this week, we have successfully challenged efforts by the Israeli government to use members of the Israeli gay community to distract from the continuing oppression of Palestinian people. Churches in our region are conversing about divestment from corporations like Caterpillar Inc. for their refusal to address their continuing participation in human rights abuses and the illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

In 2002, Rachel wrote, “I think it’s important for people who oppose war and repression to speak about who we are as a community in addition to speaking about war and racism and injustice. We are not outside. I think it’s important that human rights and resistance to oppression be included in the way we define ourselves as a community…”

As the threat of war with Iran, the disintegration of the situation in Afghanistan, and the bombing of Gaza continue, the work we are all doing in our hometowns at the grassroots level is powerful and critical. Today, as we remember Rachel’s stand nine years ago, we encourage our friends across the country and world to strengthen your own communities, educate, educate, educate, support each other in taking action, and walk with peace, love, and forgiveness in your hearts as you work for change.

Cindy and Craig Corrie

March 16, 2012

sudden wave of white saviourism

Unless you've been on the road (like me) I'm sure you've heard about the video about Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony by a group problematically called 'Invisible Children' (to echo Roy, no one is invisible, just unseen). It was released on March 5th and in the past week it has had, astoundingly, 75 *million* views on youtube.

There are some great critiques out there of the video, but this one by Adam Branch particularly spoke to me. As he puts it,

"Which brings up the question that I am constantly asked in the US: "What can we do?", where "we" tends to mean American citizens. In response, I have a few proposals.

The first, perhaps not surprising from a professor, is to learn. The conflict in northern Uganda and central Africa is complicated, but not impossible to understand. For several years, I have taught an undergraduate class on the conflict, and although it takes some time and effort, the students end up being well informed and able to come to their own opinions about what can be done. (I am more than happy to share the syllabus with anyone interested!)

In terms of activism, I think the first thing we need to do is to re-think the question: Instead of asking how the US can intervene in order to solve Africa's conflicts, we need to ask what we are already doing to cause those conflicts in the first place. How are we, as consumers, contributing to land grabbing and to the wars ravaging this region? How are we, as American citizens, allowing our government to militarise Africa in the name of the "War on Terror" and securing oil resources?

That is what we have to ask ourselves, because we are indeed responsible for the conflict in northern Uganda - however, we are not responsible to end it by sending military force, as Invisible Children tells us, but responsible for helping to cause and prolong it. In our desire to ameliorate suffering, we must not be complicit in making it worse."

the full article is here.

golden accompaniment

PBI has done a great series of videos about their .... well, I would call them 'partners', the organizations that they accompany - which PBI, strangely, calls their 'clients'. Not the paradigm I would want to call on, but anyways, this short video focuses on ACVC and their work with artisanal gold mining in the zona campesina - protected small farmer reserve zone.

Bodies, Borders, and Territory

I'm at the AAG (geographer's conference) and looking forward to the Bodies, Borders, and Territory Sessions on Sunday - I'm on the panel at the end. Here's the great description of the sessions:

Feminist geographers are engaging foundational, long-standing geopolitical debates through the lens of the body, both as a scale and a site of study, while also introducing previously neglected questions and perspectives. An attention to bodies has revealed that geopolitical conflicts are felt in a variety of ways at micro-scales, and that these conflicts are often shaped by the everyday experiences of bodies on the ground. At the same time, scholars have effectively demonstrated that bodies themselves are frequently contested in much the same ways as territory: they are treated as frontiers and interiors, they are counted and managed, and they are often invoked to represent the fate or well-being of territory and imagined communities at larger scales.

This session aims to explore the intersections of bodies and territory, with a particular focus on borders and boundaries. Some of the questions we aim to address include: Through what sorts of structures and processes is the body made into territory? How are borders enforced through bodies, and how do bodies themselves become borders? How are bodies mapped onto territory and how are territories mapped or marked onto bodies? In what ways do bodies make borders porous, and how are bodies themselves unbounded? How might bodies expand the possibilities of resistance to uneven power structures and oppressive political projects, and how do people resist being used as objects for geopolitical ends? In the spirit of feminist geopolitics, papers in this session are informed by fieldwork and that engage critically with methodologies and researcher subjectivities.

women only accompaniment team

The International Women’s Peace Service is the only all-women international accompaniment team in the world. It is run entirely by volunteers, who make a 3 year commitment to IWPS, serving a minimum of one 3 month term in the West Bank, Palestine, followed by further terms in Palestine of one to three months in their 2nd and 3rd year.The IWPS original mission statement explains that,

"Having a single-sex living space will make it easier to integrate into the local Moslem culture, but this is not the prime reason for the women-only structure. Nor is it indicative of a view that women any more than men are natural born peace makers. However, the decision does reflect an observation that women often inhabit different cultures than men, are disproportionately involved in caring work and often have greater insight into creative ways of resolving conflicts. Women are often at the receiving end of gendered violence both in peace and war. A feminist view sees masculine cultures as especially prone to violence and so feminist women tend to have a particular perspective on security, safety, violence and war. Women's different and varied voices can often be drowned out in a mixed structure but in women-only spaces their voices can be heard more clearly. Our project will therefore be an experiment in feminist peace and justice work."

A volunteer with IWPS wrote to me that,

“being a women only team actually helps us having a closer relationship with women and women's organizations in the area we work in, while I do not have the impression that it is an obstacle in terms of contact and cooperation with Palestinian institutions or organisations that are male dominated. We do all the work the other mixed international teams in Palestine also do, but we try to have a women's focus in choosing local contacts and partner organizations and in some of our report writing. IWPS has supported the founding of a Salfit area women's organization, Women for Life, that developed out of women from different villages actively taking part in the popular resistance against the Apartheid Wall.”