*Breaking Laws: Violence and Civil Disobedience in Protest* questions the complex relationship between social movements and violence through two contrasted lenses; first through the short-lived radical left wing post ’68 revolutionary violence, and secondly in the present diffusion of civil disobedience actions, often at the border between non-violence and violence. This book shows how and why violence occurs or does not, and what different meanings it can take. The short-lived extreme left revolutionary groups that grew out of May ’68 and the opposition to the Vietnam War (such as the German Red Army Faction, the Italian Red Brigades, and the Japanese Red Army) are without any doubt on the violent side. More ambiguous are the burgeoning contemporary forms of "civil" disobedience, breaking the law with the aim of changing it. In theory, these efforts are associated with non-violence and self-restraint. In practice, the line is more difficult to trace, as much depends on how political players define and frame non-violence and political legitimacy.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations, Organizations, and Parties
- Introduction to Breaking Laws
- Part 1. Revolutionary Violence
Experiences of Armed Struggle in France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and the United States
- Isabelle Sommier
Translated by Marina Urquidi
- 1. Introduction to Part 1: Revolutionary Violence in Context
- 2. A Subject Concealed
- Violence and Social Movements: Fragmented Analytic Traditions
- Distinguishing Terrorism and Revolutionary Violence
- The Silence Surrounding 1968
- The ‘1968 Years’: A Cycle of Protest
- 3. A Revolutionary Period?
- The International Context
- The Student Revolts
- The United States
- Japan
- Germany
- France and Italy
- The Generational Dimension of Revolt
- The Growth of the Extreme Left
- The United States
- Japan
- Germany
- France
- Italy
- The Autonomous Movement
- 4. Radicalization Processes
- Repression and Countermovements
- Germany
- Italy
- Japan
- The United States
- Competition and Mutual Influences
- The United States
- Italy
- Japan
- France
- Social Isolation
- High-Risk Commitment and the Logics of Clandestine Action
- 5. Strategies of Violence
- Propaganda of the Deed
- The United States
- Japan
- France
- Resistance and Urban Guerrilla Warfare
- The Insurrectionary Model: Taking the Attack to the Heart of the State
- Anti-Imperialism and the Transnationalization of Actions
- 6. The End of a Cycle
- Anti-Terrorist Policies
- The United States
- Japan
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- A Farewell to Arms
- 7. Conclusion to Part 1
- Part 2. Civil Disobedience
- Graeme Hayes and Sylvie Ollitrault
- 8. Introduction to Part 2: Civil Disobedience in Perspective
- 9. Definitions, Dynamics, Developments
- Theorizing Civil Disobedience
- Conscience and Collective Action, Direct and Indirect Disobedience
- Civil Disobedience as ‘Performative’
- Direct and Indirect Disobedience Reconsidered
- Conceptual Distinctions in Historical Overview
- Quakerism
- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
- Satyagraha According to Gandhi: Resistance of Body and Soul
- The US Civil Rights Movement (1955-1965) and Beyond
- Conclusion
- 10. Genealogies and Justifications in Contemporary Movements
- Civil Disobedience in France
- The Cultural Importance of Manifestos
- Conscientious Objection and Anti-militarism
- From Larzac to Notre Dame des Landes
- Civil Disobedience in a Situation of Urgency
- Action and Emergency
- Urgency and Environmental Disobedience
- Urgency and Undocumented Migrants
- Disobedience and Neo-liberal Globalization
- Disobedience and Global Justice
- Disobedience and Professional Identities
- Conclusion
- 11. Repertoires of Civil Disobedience
- The Constraints of Illegal Action
- Civil Disobedience as Technique
- Civil Disobedience and Media Representation
- Greenpeace, Reporters of Their Own Action
- Civil Disobedience, Criminal Prosecution
- Trials as Political Arenas
- Civil Disobedience and Prosecution: The Case of GANVA
- Networks of Commitment
- Disobedience and Biographical Availability
- Conclusion
- 12. Negotiating the Boundaries of Violence and Non-Violence
- Property Destruction: A Form of Non-civil Disobedience?
- Justifying and Legitimizing Property Destruction
- Staging Action
- The Relational Logic of Harms
- The Semantic Construction of the Civic
- 13. Conclusion to Part 2
- Biographical Notes
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Japan
- The United States
- Bibliography
- Index
- List of Figures and Tables
- Figures
- Figure 1 Different Red Armies in Japan
- Figure 2 Origins of Action Directe
- Figure 3 Red Brigades Scissions
- Tables
- Table 1 Percentage of Americans considering the Vietnam War ‘a mistake’ (1965-1969)
- Table 2 Percentage of American students qualifying themselves as ‘doves’ or ‘hawks’ (1967-1969)
- Table 3 Causes of agitation on US campuses (1967-1968)
- Table 4 SDS membership (1960-1968)
- Table 5 Number of students who were part of the Japanese new left (1967-1974)
- Table 6 Race riots and unrest in the United States from 1965 to 1967
- Table 7 Number of attacks by three Italian organizations
- Table 8 Consequences of uchigeba in Japan (1968-1980)
- Table 9 Types of propaganda actions in Italy (percentage)
- Table 10 Evolution of forms of action in Italy and in West Germany (1970-1983) as a percentage of total actions
- Table 11 Number of victims of the far left in Italy and West Germany (1970-1983)
- Table 12 Types of armed action in Italy and in West Germany
- Table 13 Types of actions committed by Action directe on French territory (1979-1987) (percentage)
- Table 14 Number of victims of Action directe on French territory (1979-1987)
- Table 15 Number of militants imprisoned for membership in the various BRs
- Table 16 Regions in which BR members were charged (percentage)
- Table 17 Italian militants’ profession (percentage)
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