Starr's Mill - Panther Debate Team
2004 LD Topic #7
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LD Topic 7: Civil Disobedience in a Democracy is Morally Justified.

Areas for Consideration Provided by the Wording Committee:
  • Check on Government
  • Individual Conscience
  • Duty to Act
  • Rule of Law
  • Tacit Consent

Conflict Areas: AFF

  • Abolitionist Movement - William Lloyd Garrison
  • Civil Rights Movement - Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968 Olympics
  • Universal Suffrage - Susan B. Anthony
  • Womens Rights Movement
  • American Revolution - Boston Tea Party
  • Anti-war Demonstrations
  • Ecological Demonstrators - Greenpeace
  • Variations of 1st Amendment Rights
  • Medical Rights - TAC South Africa

 

Conflict Areas: NEG

  • Eco-Terrorism - Earth First
  • Animal Rights Activists - Animal Liberation Front
  • Domestic Terrorism - Timothy McVeigh, Unabomber
  • Citizen Militia Groups - Waco
  • Unlawful Combatants
  • Suicide Bombers - Israel/Palistinian Conflict
  • Abortion Clinic Bombings - Rudolph

 

Literature on Civil Disobedience

The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, Étienne de la Boétie, Black Rose Books; 2nd Revision edition, September 1997.

http://www.doingfreedom.com/readrm/boetie.html

 

"Letter From a Birmingham Jail", Martin Luther King, Jr., April 16, 1963.

http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=40

 

Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau, 1849.

http://eserver.org/thoreau/civil.html

 

 

General Background Civil Disobedience

ActivistCash.com - a site, part of the ConsumerFreedom.com Network, committed to providing detailed and up-to-date information on where anti-consumer organizations and activists get their money. (Good List of Activist Groups)

http://activistcash.com/

 

Civil Disobedience Good/Bad - Thoreaus Civil Disobedience, Its Intellectual Roots, and Its Contribution to the American Radical Tradition, Jonathan Glickstein, University of California, May 6, 2003.

http://www.history.ucsb.edu/syllabi/Spring03materials/Glickstein/Nonresistance%20Thoreau--out-12.pdf

 

Civil Disobedience - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_disobedience

 

Civil Disobedience - "Civil Disobedience", Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia, Peter Suber; Garland: 1999.

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/civ-dis.htm

 

Legal Background - "Philosophy of Law", Kenneth Einar Himma, University of Washington, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2001.

http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/l/law-phil.htm

 

Civil Disobedience - "The Role of Civil Disobedience in Democracy", Kayla Starr, adapted by Bonnie Blackberry. (Good Historical Examples)

http://www.civilliberties.org/sum98role.html

 

Nonviolent Civil Disobedience - The Nonviolent Action Handbook, Sanderson Beck. 2003.

http://san.beck.org/NAH1-Nonviolence.html

 

 

Civil Disobedience - Good

Search and Seizure - "A Businessman Stands Up for His Rights," Timothy Lynch. Cato Institute. September 6, 1994.

http://www.cato.org/research/articles/lynch-940906.html

 

Civil Disobedience and The Patriot Act - "INSATIABLE APPETITE: The Governments Demand for New and Unnecessary Powers After September 11", American Civil Liberties Union, April, 2002.

http://archive.aclu.org/congress/InsatiableAppetite.pdf

 

Criminalizing Dissent - "Suppression of Dissent", New York City Bill Of Rights Defense Campaign, Briefing Papers, January 2003.

http://www.nycbordc.org/docs/NYCBORDC_briefing_papers_030611.pdf

 

Ecological Disobedience - "Boot Camp for Civil Disobedience", CBS News, June 27, 2003.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/27/tech/main560733.shtml

 

English Civil Disobedience - "Land and Freedom: The Seventeenth Century Diggers and Land Rights", and "The Levellers: Seventeenth century democrats in the English Civil War", The Land and Freedom pages: English Civil War History, Civil Disobedience.Org.Uk

http://www.civildisobedience.org.uk/

 

Civil Disobedience Resources - P.L. Duffy Resource Centre, Trinity College, Western Australia.

http://library.trinity.wa.edu.au/issues/disobedience.htm

 

Pro-Life Disobedience - "Civil Disobedience to Save Unborn Children: Is 'Rescuing' Right?", Eternal Perspective Ministries, Randy Alcorn, 1991. (**Note: Kind of Creepy)

http://www.epm.org/rescue6.html

 

Abolitionist Disobedience - "Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, and the Underground Railroad," A Calliope Fact Sheet, Calliope Film Resources, Inc. 2001.

http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thurro/thurro1.html#anchor6745

 

Cyber-Disobedience - "Transforming Luddite Resistance into Virtual Luddite Resistance: Weaving A World Wide Web of Electronic Civil Disobedience", Stefan Wray, 7 April 1998.

http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/elec-act.htm

 

AIDS Activists - ACT UP - a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis. We advise and inform. We demonstrate. We are not silent.

http://www.actupny.org/

 

Disobedience Backlash - "Caught in the Backlash: Stories from Northern California", ACLU.

http://www.aclunc.org/911/backlash.pdf

 

Civil Disobedience Ideology - "On the Importance of Civil Disobedience," Sunni Maravillosa, Doing Freedom Magazine, October 2002.

http://www.doingfreedom.com/gen/1002/

 

AIDS Activists - "Aids Activists Resort To Civil Disobedience", David Beresford, The Guardian, March 16, 2003.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,915205,00.html

 

Agricultural Activists - "We Would Support the Lawbreakers: The Head Of The Countryside Alliance On Civil Disobedience", John Jackson, The Guardian, October 23, 2002.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,817273,00.html

 

Just Dissent - a campaign to support current legislation in California -- and to encourage similar legislation in other states -- to protect the American tradition of non-violent dissent by limiting the parameters of prosecution. (Great links to articles!)

http://www.justdissent.org/pages/4b-articles.html

 

The American Friends Service Committee - an organization that carries out service, development, social justice, and peace programs throughout the world. Founded by Quakers in 1917 to provide conscientious objectors with an opportunity to aid civilian war victims, AFSC's work attracts the support and partnership of people of many races, religions, and cultures.

http://www.afsc.org/iraq/activism/local.shtm

 

Agricultural Disobedience - "Thoreau the Bums Out: Oregon's Farmers Embrace Civil Disobedience. Will It Be So Long, Sucker Fish?", Kimberley A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2001.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/kstrassel/?id=95000803

 

Religion and Civil Disobedience - "Pax Christi Urges Civil Disobedience If U.S. Escalates War On Iraq", Tom Kelly, National Catholic Reporter, August 16, 2002.

http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/081602/081602k.htm

 

Civil Disobedience in Australia - "Why Are We Holding A Forum On Civil Disobedience?", James Goodman, Civil Disobedience Today, October 31, 2002.

http://sydney.indymedia.org/archive/features/2002/10/2002-10.html

 

Civil Disobedience Background -"Why Are You Not Practicing Civil Disobedience?", SARTRE.

http://strike-the-root.com/columns/Sartre/sartre4.html

 

Civil Disobedience - "Hierarchic Democracy And The Necessity Of Mass Civil Disobedience", Ted Honderich, Conway Lecture, University College London.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/ted5.htm

 

Disobedience in Israel - "Civil Disobedience in Nablus", Miami Herald, Adam B. Kushner, Aug. 02, 2002.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/3782126.htm

 

Ecoterrorism - "Blue Planet: Ecoterrorism Redefined", Dan Whipple, UPI Science News, United Press International, Sept. 13, 2002.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20020911-115335-8099r

 

Antiwar Protests -  "Protestors Eye Civil Disobedience", John Ritter, USA Today, March 9, 2003.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-03-09-protests-usat_x.htm

 

Ecoterrorism - "Waging Environmental War", Brooke Pace and Andrea Giallorenzo, EccoNet, 2001.

http://www.ecconet.com/ecconet/CommunityChat/spotlights/Archive/archive_ecocrime.htm

 

Civil Disobedience - Bad

Ecoterrorism - "Saving Earth, One Arson at a Time: Ecoterrorism, Or Act of Love?", Heather Maher. ABC News. Oct. 27, 1999

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/eco_activists.html

 

Ecoterrorism - "The Threat of Ecoterrorism," James F. Jarboe, Domestic Terrorism Section Chief, FBI, Congressional Testimony, February 12, 2002.

http://www.amprogress.org/news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=127&c=20

 

Animal Rights Extremism - "Reilly Announces 43 Indictments Against 12 People In Connection With International Animal Rights Extremist Group", Office of Attorney General Tom Reilly, October 25, 2002.

http://www.ago.state.ma.us/press_rel/shacind.asp

 

Animal Rights Extremism - Animal Rights.Net - organization provides a critical analysis of the animal rights movement and debunks many of their claims.

http://www.animalrights.net/

 

Domestic Terrorism - "EDITORIAL: Just Criminals", Beloit Daily News. September 1, 1998.

http://www.beloitdailynews.com/998/edit1.htm

 

Cyberterrorism - "French Teen A Hacker Extraordinaire", CBS News. , July 9, 2003.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/10/tech/main562582.shtml

 

The Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise - a non-partisan education and research organization which works on free enterprise studies, public policy research, book publishing, conferences, white papers, and media outreach.

http://www.cdfe.org/

 

Citizen Militia Groups - "Paranoia, Patriotism, and the Citizen Militia Movement: Constitutional Right or Criminal Conduct?", R.J. Larizza, Mercer Law Review, Feb. 2, 2002.

http://review.law.mercer.edu/old/20210.htm

 

Ecoterrorism - "Ecoterrorism", Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. (Great articles and resources!)

http://www.cdfe.org/ecoterror.htm

 

Ecoterrorism - "Eco-terrorism-A New Kind of Sabotage", L. Cheryl Runyon, National Conference of State Legislatures, March 6, 2003.

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/press/2001/freedom/ecoterrorism.htm

 

Ecoterrorism - "Environmentalists Blamed for Arizona Wildfire Disaster", Jason Pierce, CNS News, June 25, 2002.

http://www.cdfe.org/arizona_fires.htm

 

Ecoterrorism - "Off the Reservation, Civil Defense Perspectives", Vol. 19, Number 3, Physicians for Civil Defense, March 2003.
http://www.oism.org/cdp/mar2003.html

 

Ecoterrorism - "In US, A Rise Of Violent Environmental Tactics: Arson And Death Threats Have Followed Ecoterrorists' Call For More Use Of Force", Brad Knickerbocker, The Christian Science Monitor, September 26, 2002.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0926/p01s01-ussc.html

 

Domestic Terrorism - "Senate Bill 742", 72nd Oregon Legislative Assembly, Regular Session, Sponsored By Senator MINNIS, 2003.

http://www.riverwestcurrents.org/2003/March/000559.html

 

Domestic Terrorism - "Reflections On The Oklahoma City Bombing, 5 Years Later", Chip Berlet, The Progressive, April 12, 2000.

http://www.progressive.org/mpdvcb00.htm

 

Pro-Life Extremism - "The Propagandist: Neal Horsley, America's leading anti-abortion Webmaster, is the profane voice of the extreme Christian right", Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Report, Spring 2002, Issue 105.

http://www.splcenter.org/cgi-bin/goframe.pl?refname=/intelligenceproject/ip-4u5.html

 

Stop Eco-Violence! - a grassroots advocacy organization committed to raising the awareness of eco-terrorism and the harm it causes others, and to building the unified support necessary for the advancement of legislative and law enforcement efforts to eradicate violence perpetrated in support of environmentally motivated agendas.

http://www.stopecoviolence.org/index.htm

 

Thoreau Criticism - "Henry David Thoreau: Readings of Thoreau's Resistance to Civil Government", Wynn Yarborough, Virginia Commonwealth University (1995).

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/critonrcg.html

 

Panther Debate. © Sean Bennett 2003