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https://theconversation.com/is-there-a-right-to-disobey-from-the-vietnam-war-to-todays-climate-protests-193714>
"One of the first moves of the newly elected Whitlam Labour government in
December 1972 was to free seven men imprisoned for their beliefs. Their crime
had been refusal to comply with the National Service Act, a so-called “lottery
of death” that sent some 15,300 young Australians to fight in Vietnam. Two
hundred of them never came home.
The issue of national service – often dubbed “the draft” following American
vernacular – was perhaps the most powerful in the anti-war movement’s arsenal.
“Draft resisters” mobilised public sentiment with their heroic stands,
respectable mothers campaigned to “Save our Sons” and, as I explore in a newly
published book chapter, the Australian wing of Amnesty International classed
these men as “prisoners of conscience”.
Today, Australia grapples again with the question of criminalising conscience.
Laws in several Australian states impose harsh penalties on the use of “direct
action” by climate change activists. Fifty years ago, similar questions of a
right to disobey sparked fierce debates: where should the legal limits of
conscience lie?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
