Social Activism

Lecture #7: Social Activism

Introduction
Our guest speaker today is a seasoned political and social activist. Dean McKay has
organized campaigns of non-violent civil disobedience in the tradition of Martin Luther
King and Mohandas K. Gandhi. Dean is a veteran of social justice movements for peace,
Anti- Apartheid, Native Solidarity and challenging sexism and male violence.
Lecture #6 Notes: Social Activism – Fairness

Social Activism: A personal account by Dean McKay.

At the 1982 United Nations Special Session on Nuclear Disarmament in New York
City, approximately a million people participated in a demonstration against nuclear
weapons. I was 24 years old and this was my first demonstration. I had a general sense of
horror with respect to the consequences of nuclear warfare, and anger that money and
resources were not being directed to social needs.
There was a great deal of political and moral debate in the media about nuclear weapons.
I wrote to Prime Minister Trudeau against United States testing cruse missiles over
Canadian air space. In turn I received a form letter that did not respond to my concerns.
Some time later my brother and I went to a workshop on civil disobedience. We liked the
analysis and commitment of the organizers, so we decided to join a civil disobedience
action at Litton Systems near Toronto, (makers of guidance system of the cruise missile).
The organizers were members of the Alliance for Non-Violent Action (ANVA), a radical,
non-violent, social justice coalition working in the tradition of Martin Luther King and
M.K. Gandhi.
I fell into it. A group in Montreal was formed as a result of the civil disobedience
workshop. I enjoyed working with people of common goals, and I was prepared for
challenge and sacrifice, including time in prison, and at same time, I believe, living fully.
ANVA had member groups in Montreal, and southern Ontario cities from Windsor to
Ottawa. People came and went, with various levels of experience and commitment. A
flux of about 10 people were at the core of ongoing organizing, learning as we went, but
capable of organizing thousands, dependant on the political climate and hard work.
Some campaigns were a response to historical/political events. The major campaigns
included the protest to the Nuclear arms race of the 1980’s, G-7 economic summit (1988
in Toronto), ARMX, arms exhibition, (like a car show for the military, 1989 & 1991),
anti apartheid campaigns (before 1991), native solidarity campaigns (Innu of Nitassinan,
1985-1990, and with the Algonquin of Barrier Lake, 1989-1990), the Gulf War of 1990-
1991. Other campaigns were cultural in nature, the war toy boycott campaign, and Men
Walking against Male Violence.

The ARMX campaign raised questions and exposed the “Real politic” of Canadian
foreign policy. The fundamental question; why are Canadian companies selling weapons
systems to human rights violators? The news media picked up on this, and so did
opposition parties in the House of Commons. The difference in Canadian foreign policy
between: 1, human rights around the world when the violator is an official enemy of
Canada or Canada’s allies, and 2, the same type of human rights violations when there
are not official enemies involved, and there are benefits to the Canadian economy. In
other words, restriction on sales and moral arguments for the former and toned-down
restrictions and moral arguments for the latter. Political analyst Noam Chomsky’s
analogy, “the cancer is malignant” for the former, and “the cancer is benign” for the
latter. Canada is the only country in the world that is part of the U.S. military industrial
complex, tying Canadian foreign policy and economy to the aggressive foreign
interventions of the United States. The war crimes trials in Nuremburg, Germany after
the Second World War stated that it is a war crime to aid and abet war criminals. Selling
weapons and weapons systems to war criminals is a war crime. Civil disobedience
actions, the blocking access to people who wanted to go to ARMX, forced the issue and
undermined the arms exhibitors’ ability to sell their wares. Arrests were made, but
charges were dropped, because we made it known that we were going to reverse the
discussion within the trial from a defense to putting ARMX on trial. The ARMX
organizers tried relocation of the exhibition from Ottawa to a rural location, and engaged
in an aggressive public relations campaign to counter the peace movement. They were
unsuccessful in being able to continue ARMX, and ended up changing into a more
modest format and scale.