Conscientious Objection, Whistleblowers or Democracy?
I find it interesting that those who actually do embrace their democratic rights get demonised as those ‘not with us’ or ‘against us’ Anytime I hear those types of words I know it is ‘my way or the highway’ mentality. Those who feel threatened by different viewpoints. Unfortunately people sink into wars of their own making. It need not be that way. When we honour diversity and do not fear ‘our interests’ will be affected by difference, when we develop another approach to dissent or difference but simply seeing another teacher showing up. That is the key to living in a democracy and allowing others their view. I see the insecurity and intolerance in those who do not like to be challenged, who call it stability or business as usual.
This article is about conscientious objection New Zealanders and how they were placed on lists and tortured for disagreeing with war. We saw this in the Macarthyism years with Hollywood, They were outed as socialists. The Vietnam war protestors and those against Iraq here in Australia. We saw the environmentalists called ‘greenies’ and put down as feral rather than a divergent voice. The Franklin river dam was another war front. We see words like ‘terrorism’ being used in lots of contexts without an understanding of the dynamics of why dissent is happening and who funds it, who is behind it. That information is essential to be able to assess the source of disruption. Of course governments disrupt in a myriad of ways by interfering in lives unnecessarily and the conflict that we witness overseas in support of specific interests. So it is a case of whose voices are heard and who are not and why?
In addition to this discourse I recall meeting with US soldiers who were refusniks (Iraq), objectors to war (Quakers) and visiting torture places in Chile, Northern Thailand (museum for political prisoners), Killing Fields (Cambodia) where you see how people are tortured for standing up in conscience about some issue. I find the media spin interesting and these days I try to be discerning and not be too ready to believe what is said. A recent experience with lawyers has really changed me, as I saw deception so clearly in service of those that paid them. I realised people will say anything to win. They will often couch terminology in some ‘good’ so others will believe they act out of higher interests but very few do. So disillusionment falls like a blindfold from the face of those in ignorant of a reality.
Perhaps we come to see those who had the courage to stand alone exposed as the real heroes rather than those who hurt others to serve other masters. There is no courage in shooting civilians, it is in truth a war crime disguised as national interest.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/310422/remembering-those-who-refused-to-fight
Names of NZ’s WWI conscientious objectors commemorated
New Zealand’s WWI conscientious objectors were called “conchie” and “coward” and endured beatings, jail and physical punishment on the front line.
‘Field punishment No 1’ by Bob Kerr depicts what Archibald Baxter described going through on the front lines as he fought to avoid fighting in the army. Photo: Bob Kerr / Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has compiled lists of the conscientious objectors and dissenters during World War I.
And, for the first time, the lists of those men who chose to withstand public disapproval – or worse, beatings and jail – have been digitally compiled and publicly released online.
Senior ministry historian Tim Shoebridge led the project, and said the lists – one for imprisoned conscientious objectors, one with convictions for sedition and one of military defaulters – opened up huge new areas of research.
“One of them contains the 286 conscientious objectors who were imprisoned during the war,” he said.
“You’ll get their names and some biographical details as well as information about their sentences and punishment.
“About a quarter were socialists who saw the war as a capitalist-imperialist war. It was something they felt more kinship with the working classes of other countries than with the government of New Zealand.
“About 10 percent were Irish nationalists, who hated the British because they occupied their homeland, with the rest made up of Irish nationalists and 14 men deported overseas to be made an example of.”
Mr Shoebridge said the most famous of the 14 was Archibald Baxter, one of three men subjected to ‘Field Punishment 1’, which involved being tied to a pole or a wagon wheel, and forced to stand where those in the army could laugh and make fun.
“But the way Archibald Baxter described it, you were tied to a pole in such a way that all the pressure went on your hands and wrists and lifted your feet off the ground,” Mr Shoebridge said.
“Your hands turned black and it was extremely painful, so rather than just being a humiliation it was actual physical torture.”
He said the New Zealand and British governments did not want to make the men martyrs, but were keen to deter others from following their example.
“The authorities were worried that, if executed, they would become martyrs and that would strengthen that cause – but news of what had happened to them got back to New Zealand and it caused a major scandal and was a huge embarrassment to the government
“So the whole plan to have these guys be an example completely backfired.”
One of the socialist objectors, Duncan McCormack, told RNZ’s Spectrum in 1979 that some were prepared to go to jail to defend their beliefs.
Listen to the full interview with Duncan McCormack via Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
“I’d definitely made up my mind that I would not go to the war and take any consequences whatever, ’cause we were prepared to pay the price.”
Although they were vilified at the time, history came to view them in a different light.
Katherine Baxter, the granddaughter of Archibald Baxter, works at the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and said the lists were an excellent initiative, humanising those who opposed the war.
“The reasons that people were objective has been amplified, makes it much more interesting so that people can see the kinds of people and the variety of reasons that people decided not to be part of the war,” she said.
Victoria University of Wellington history lecturer Jim McAloon said the objectors were part of the history – of the war and of New Zealand – which should be remembered.
Dr McAloon said there was a sense of irony that the people who were labelled cowards had taken the brave step of standing up for their beliefs.