Nonviolence Speaks to Power
By Petra K. Kelly
Edited by Glenn D. Paige and Sarah Gilliatt
Centre for Global Nonviolence Planning Project
Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace
University of Hawaii
1992. 183pp. No price given.
Reviewed by Frank Noakes
Upon picking up this book one is immediately struck by the tragic irony of the title and the circumstances surrounding Petra Kelly's violent death. Writing a year before her death, she says, "I am rather pessimistic, I admit, but I have not yet given up!"
Nonviolence Speaks to Power is a collection of five speeches and four essays covering the period between August 1987 and July 1991, which have been selected for their exposition of Kelly's thoughts on non-violence. But necessarily they also touch on many other aspects of her political thinking.
The book doesn't begin auspiciously, though. The introduction, written by Glenn D. Paige before her death, is right over the top, almost deifying Kelly. But despite the overexuberance, the editors, who worked with Kelly on this project, have done the green political movement a favour in preserving her thoughts in book form. They claim it is the most complete introduction to her work available in English.
In the book Kelly explains non-violence as follows: "Non-violence is stronger than violence. The means and the ends must be parallel. You cannot reach a peaceful end with violent means and you cannot reach a just end with unjust means. Non-violent struggle does not mean passive acceptance or inaction. Non-violent struggle gains its meaning and impact from massive civil disobedience, creatively planned and carried out without confirming conventional establishment expectations of violence."
The "non-violent revolutions in Prague, East Berlin, Leipzig, Warsaw, Rumania, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union" are examples of non-violence in action, says Kelly. The struggle of Tibet, always close to Kelly's heart, also informed her thoughts on the strategy for fundamental social change. Her mentors were Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
What constitutes non-violence is an ongoing question within the green political movement, and this review is not the place to debate it. But within the book, Kelly's views on those struggling militarily against national and political oppression aren't explained.
Former WA Greens senator Jo Vallentine spelled out her attitude to Third World armed struggles in an interview last year with Green Left Weekly: "I would never criticise people in El Salvador or in South Africa or in the Philippines for doing what they think they've got to do to get the basic democratic rights we take for granted. So I wouldn't be critical, but then I wouldn't actually join in."
Kelly discusses a wide range of questions currently being debated in in this country, including parliament, elections and what form green parties should take. The book also provides a wealth of information ("counterinformation") that still remains powerful. Kelly is never slow to offer an opinion. On green spirituality she argues:
"Those who intentionally keep confusing the spiritual content of green politics with a 'religious movement', as some do on the left, detract attention from, and, in fact ridicule the core of green politics, the ethics of green politics. Green politics has always had a spiritual base. This means respecting all living things and knowing about the interrelatedness and interconnectedness of all living things."
Kelly was of course only human. When reading through these speeches and essays, one senses a certain preoccupation with herself and her own role in events. In the essay, "Morality and Dignity", she uses the word "I" over 100 times and "me/myself" even more often, in the space of 28 pages. Some of this can be put down the eulogising of her by many in the green movement.
But Kelly, in my opinion, places too much stress on the individual rather than the collective. This can be seen in the way she remained apart from, perhaps even above, the German Greens. It is reflected in her decision to refuse to rotate her parliamentary seat in accordance with Green Party practice, thus denying others the opportunity to develop new skills. "I was able to retain my political independence ... among the greens", she wrote.
However, one thing those on the progressive side of politics can all agree on is Kelly's call "to build up a global community without frontiers that will be founded on ecology, non-violence, and social justice with a spiritual base".
Another is recognising the valuable role Petra Kelly played as a great communicator of green ideas.