Brian Martin - Technology for Nonviolent Struggle

A transport system highly resilient to attack can be achieved by designing communities so that most travel can be accomplished by walking or cycling, in contrast with systems of roads or rail which can be interrupted by cutting off fuel. Powered vehicles are very useful for shipping goods, so it would be valuable to design vehicles that are simple to build and repair, use fuels that can be easily produced or stored throughout the community and, perhaps, in an emergency could be powered by human muscles. [10] . Ivan Illich, Energy and Equity (London: Calder & Boyars, 1974), argued that in an equitable society, transport speeds should be no greater than about 15 miles per hour. He favourably referred to the example of a slow-but-efficient goods vehicle used in Mexico. Although Illich’s strict limit on speeds can be criticised, his basic analysis is relevant to the task of building a transport system for nonviolent struggle. Arguably, an equitable system, in which no segment of the population obtains transport privileges at the expense of others, is likely to promote the sort of community solidarity so necessary for waging nonviolent struggle. As well as fostering solidarity, is it also the case that “slow is beautiful” when it comes to developing a transport system resilient against attack? There is likely to be a trade-off between the convenience of maintaining some forms of motorised transport and their vulnerability. Thus there is a general challenge to develop motorised transport technologies that cannot be easily disrupted by an aggressor.

Many doctors and health workers have been involved in peace activism over the years, [11] . Nick Lewer, Physicians and the Peace Movement: Prescriptions for Hope (London: Frank Cass, 1992). but only some of this involvement is directly relevant to nonviolent resistance to aggression and repression. One of the ways that health professionals today help to oppose repression is by documenting cases of torture or execution. Governments routinely deny that they are involved in torture and extra-judicial execution; investigations and authoritative pronouncements by medical and forensic experts can help to expose such abuses. Some of the activities of physicians and medical researchers concerned about violations of human rights include:

• assessing cases of alleged torture;

• exhuming bodies (sometimes buried months earlier) and determining the cause of death;

• using genetic tracing to track down relatives of orphans whose parents have disappeared, presumed murdered;

• estimating the number of casualties in wars;

• carrying out psychiatric assessment of torture survivors;

• examining conditions in prisons;

• training health workers in skills related to the topics above and in the ethics of collaborating with regimes using torture. [12] . An excellent compendium of materials is Carola Eisenberg and Susannah Sirkin (directors), Human Rights and Medicine: The Uses of Medical Skills in Documenting Abuses and Treating the Victims (conference proceedings) (Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Physicians for Human Rights (100 Boylston Street, Suite #702, Boston MA 02116, USA), 10-11 April 1992). These proceedings include, among others, copies of the following publications: Clyde Collins Snow, Eric Stover and Kari Hannibal, “Scientists as detectives: investigating human rights,” Technology Review , Februrary/March 1989, pp. 43-51; Paul Wise, Nancy D. Arnison, Gregg Bloche and Jane G. Schaller, “Operation Just Cause : a case study in estimation of casualties after war,” PSR Quarterly , Vol. 1, No. 3, September 1991, pp. 138-144; Anne E. Goldfield, Richard F. Mollica, Barbara H. Pesavento and Stephen V. Faraone, “The physical and psychological sequelae of torture,” Journal of the American Medical Association , Vol. 259, No. 18, 13 May 1988, pp. 2725-2729; Kenneth S. Pope and Rosa E. Garcia-Peltoniemi, “Responding to victims of torture: clinical issues, professional responsibilities, and useful resources,” Professional Psychology: Research and Practice , Vol. 22, No. 4, 1991, pp. 269-276.

Technologies used for torture are mostly familiar: batons for beatings; electricity for shock; cigarettes to cause burns. Occasionally there is some innovation in torture, such as beatings on the soles of feet (falanga) in order to inflict pain without leaving physical traces. In such cases there is a place for research to develop new means of detecting torture. Turkish physician Veli Lök helped develop a method of detecting falanga using bone scintigraphy. Courts have used medical reports based on this method as proof of torture. [13] . Veli Lök, letter to Brian Martin, October 1994.

As well as exposing abuses by repression regimes, another and bigger task for health workers is to promote a healthy society. A society in which people are healthy and self-reliant in health care is undoubtedly better prepared to resist aggression and repression. Maintaining health in the face of attack is a tall order. Aggressors might

• assault nonviolent protesters or bystanders;

• engage in forced labour and torture;

• impose a blockade that cuts off food and medical supplies;

• destroy power supplies or sanitation facilities, increasing the risks of disease;

• lay landmines;

• spread diseases, inadvertently or purposefully;

• launch military attack, including bombing.

When a population uses only nonviolent methods of resistance, full-scale military attack is less likely than when there is violent resistance. Nevertheless, it is important to be prepared for serious health consequences of aggression. In such a situation, it is unlikely that the conventional medical system could cope. A large influx of casualties would overwhelm hospitals. Emergency procedures, familiar to doctors working in theatres of war, are appropriate. [14] . An excellent practical reference is Hans Husum, Swee Chai Ang and Erik Fosse, War Surgery Field Manual (Penang: Third World Network, 1995). The authors provide information for emergency operations in forward clinics and argue that in war zones surgery can be done by people without formal medical qualifications. Disaster planning — usually the province of civil defence managers — is needed for the health sector as well as others.

More generally, many members of the community need to develop skills in diagnosis and treatment. Simple first-aid measures are often sufficient, even for some serious injuries. A society prepared for the adverse health consequences of aggression might:

• make first-aid training a regular part of nearly everyone’s continuing education;

• run medical disaster simulations, analogous to fire drills;

• provide subsidised packages of basic medical materials to every household and building;

• make widely available handbooks describing basic medical procedures;

• set up decentralised production facilities for basic medical items such as anaesthetics and antibiotics;

• promote a simple, nutritious, locally obtainable diet;

• support use of effective alternatives to conventional medicine; [15] . Robert Burrowes suggested the points about diet and alternatives to conventional medicine.

• engage in ongoing discussion and debate about self-help and low cost methods of promoting health.

These sorts of initiatives towards self-reliance in health care often conflict with the priorities of industrialised medicine, with its reliance on expert professionals, expensive technology and drugs provided by transnational corporations. Industrialised medicine is vulnerable in the face of attack, whereas self-reliant health care is resilient.