Civil disobedience is a form of not obeying the law as a protest against the laws that do not have any common sense and prevent people from having a comfortable life and freedom. Unfortunately, the authorities often do not think how the adopted laws will affect the ordinary people’s lives and to which consequences this can lead. Sometimes, people decide that breaking the law is the only way to remove it. From the history, we can learn at least five big acts of civil disobediences conducted by the people who were already in despair from the unfairness from the government’s sides.
The first act of civil disobedience was in March 1930, and it took place in India. People called it the salt march because at that time the government imposed massive taxes on the Indian salt and the citizens had to import the salt from the Britain. Finally, the group of the people, headed by Gandhi, started the campaign in which they were gathering the salt and transporting it without paying the taxes. This campaign ended up very tragically, and tens of thousands people were arrested (Seymour 2012).
The second campaign called “Extremadura” took place in Spain in 1936 year during the election campaign. The landlessness was such an acute problem in the country that peasants started to seizure the land lots without waiting for the decision from the new authorities. The government then legalized this occupation post factum to avoid further protests. The third example of civil disobedience is called Flying pickets and sit-ins. It was in the USA, and it was held in coal mines and textile plants. When the number of the working places was reduced, and the salaries were cut, the workers started to rebel by calling everybody to leave their places or occupy the premises to prevent the factories from functioning properly (Seymour 2012).
The fourth protest called “Dismantling unwanted enterprises” was held in France. The people, who were against the genetically modified and junk food, started to demolish the buildings constructed by the company McDonald’s, to prevent its development in the country (Seymour 2012).
The last example is “Poll tax non-payment” in central London started on 31st of March 1990. People refused to register as taxpayers what severely affected the work of the Conservative Party (Seymour 2012).
According to Rawls, the civil disobedience does not carry the danger itself being not a threat but the act of disagreement and admonishment (Moraro 2007).
There are two targets of the civil disobedience. The first one is called “restraining,” when the public wants to prevent the government from taking some actions, and the second is aimed at persuading the society to take some measures (Moraro 2007).
Different types of the civil disobedience are held every day. Among them is sabotaging business activities by not buying and boycotting some products or services. For example, to stop the producers from using animals for testing their goods. Such type can also include ignoring the elections by not voting or refusing to pay taxes being not satisfied with the authorities.
There are some ways the labors use to resist against the laws or terms with which they do not agree. Workers can slow down their working process, can stop working at all, and take sick leaves altogether the same date. They also can provide free services or give away goods without charging for them. Another type of the protest is a trespassing that is common when some authorities privatize the territories that should belong to the citizens. There are such types of the protest as occupations, marches, and blockades as well. They all can be divided into passive and active types. (“History and types of Civil Disobedience”)
All the actions that are aimed at breaking the law have consequences. There are three types of punishment used by the government and the police. The first one is called the deterrence, and it includes the restraining the offender and potential offenders from holding such actions in the future thus showing others that it is better not to get involved in such activities due to the future consequences such as fine or even the incarceration. The second type of punishment is the reform. The person is treated in such way that can make them respect the laws and motivate them to obey them. The third one is retribution. This means that the offenders are exposed to the same action as they committed that make them understand the cruelty of their actions. This is not a wise method and sometimes there is no possibility to punish the offender the same way he/she used to break the law (Cohen 1966).
To sum everything up, we can say that people always protested when they were not comfortable and felt suppressed. They rarely won these fights and often got punished for their braveness. However, the government’s control also was corrupted due to the rebellions, and, sometimes, it even led to some positive changes. The civil disobedience is not an evil act until it is harmful and aggressive. However, as the history shows, people always suffered from the consequences afterward regardless of the means they chose to rebel.
Works cited:
1. Richard Seymour. ”Five examples of civil disobedience to remember”. 2012.Web. 1 July. 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/20/civil-disobedience-sanchez-gordillo
2. Moraro, Piero “Violent Civil Dosobedience and Willingness to Accept Punishment”. Essays in Philosophy: Vol.8:Iss.2, Article 6. 2007. Web. 1 July. 2016
http://commons.pacificu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=eip
3. “History and types of Civil Disobedience”. Compassionate-revolution.net. n.d.Web. 1 July. 2016
https://compassionate-revolution.net/history-and-types-civil-disobedience
4. Carl Cohen. Civil Disobedience and the Law. Reprinted from Rutgers Law Review. 1966. Print.