In print | Published November 5, 2009

To the Editor:

Recently, while I was leading a seminar in Canada, a labor leader came to me during a break, fixed me with an intense gaze and said, “George, why have your people abandoned your President?”

I had little to say. Her question hit the mark; my people have been remarkably passive.

A group of Swarthmore students on Friday, October 30, however, modeled a possible turn-around. The students were arrested while sitting at the entrance to the Independence Blue Cross headquarters (a company that serves Swarthmore) to underline their demand that Blue Cross stop trying to block health care reform. Eight students and one alum were among the thirteen who committed civil disobedience, supported by a rally that included more Swarthmore students.

It has always been plain to me that President Obama had no chance of getting serious health care reform through a Congress that is already largely bought by the private insurance industry, unless a serious “people power” movement using nonviolent direct action provides a counterweight. I remember some naive liberals in the Sixties imagining that civil rights could be gained simply by voting, lobbying, and signing petitions — and then learning the hard way that it takes direct action to make democracy work.

Now some Swarthmore students and others are showing what truly pragmatic politics looks like — getting in there and fighting for what you want.

We don’t need to abandon our President, who years ago concluded that a single payer system is actually what would deliver healthcare best. Obama doesn’t believe that Americans will fight for the best, so this year is proposing something that, while very inadequate, is at least a reform.

Dr. Martin Luther King said over and over that “freedom is not free.” I personally am not very interested in hearing criticisms of our President from people who voted for him, and then left him twisting in the winds of right wing attack and bought-off Democratic Congress members. Will others in the Swarthmore community follow the lead of the Swarthmore nine and take direct action, on health care, climate change and other issues vital to our future?

George Lakey
Global Nonviolent Action Database Project
Lang Center

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