Refuse and Resist
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Refuse & Resist! ("R&R!") was a human rights activist group in the United States. It was founded in New York City in 1987 by Emile de Antonio, Dore Ashton, Dennis Brutus, John Gerassi, Abbie Hoffman, William Kunstler, C. Clark Kissinger, Conrad Lynn, Sonia Sanchez, Rev. Fernando Santillana, and other activists who were concerned that the American government under U.S. President Ronald Reagan was moving in a "reactionary" direction against the rights of its people. Artist Keith Haring created R&R!'s logo in 1988. The organization's national office was located in New York City and at various times chapters existed in Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Honolulu, Hawaii; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. The organization officially dissolved in 2006, but activists continue to maintain a website at http://www.refuseandresist.org [1].
Refuse and Resist! opposed censorship, war, and police brutality. The organization worked to expand reproductive freedom and played an active role in the defense of abortion clinics. It also actively supported rights for immigrants. The group engaged in a range of tactics, including direct action in support of their objectives, but it did not endorse candidates for elected public office.
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[edit] Governance and Methods
The organization was made up of affiliated independent organizations, individuals, local chapters, and less formal national 'networks' organized around specific initiatives or interests. The central form of the organization was a National Council which met periodically to "identify new reactionary attacks and to encourage resistance to them"[1]. Individual members and affiliated groups each held one vote at these conferences.
From September 1987 through early 2002, Refuse & Resist! published CounterAttack magazine to alert people to recent incidents and developments and upcoming events concerning their causes. They did the same by republishing relevant news articles (from various sources) online.
In 1988, R&R! organized "Resist in Concert!" at the New York Palladium, with performances by Sinéad O'Connor, Afrika Bambaataa, De La Soul, Ikey C & Easy-Ad, Karen Finley, Lenny Kaye, Shinehead, and others.[2]
Following the Resist in Concert initiative, activists organized the Artist Network, which focused on fostering progressive art and which included many artists who were not dues-paying members. In late 2004, R&R! began to promote "Resistance Book & Film Clubs", which were also independent of the organization, with goals similar to the Artist Network.
R&R! created and presented the Courageous Resister Award to recognize significant acts of resistance and in support of civil rights and civil liberties. Recipients have included obstetricians who perform abortions, less well known acts of protest, and even small towns. The first awards were presented at Resist in Concert! in 1988, by Susan Sarandon, Robbie Conal, and Philip Agee among others.
R&R! actively organized protests, civil disobedience, and other public demonstrations in support of the legality of abortion-on-demand, to oppose alleged mistreatment of immigrants, to support political prisoners, and for other causes. For example, R&R! actiivists were actively involved in the mass demonstrations against the invasion of Iraq and marched with millions in the streets in New York City to protest the 2004 Republican National Convention.
[edit] Campaigns
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R&R! staunchly opposed of all forms of censorship. A member of R&R!, Shawn Eichman, famously burned a flag in public in protest of the Flag Protection Act of 1989 and then defended this violation of the law in federal courts, all of which effectively nullified the law for its supposed violations of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. When the U.S. Congress approved a law, which U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms sponsored, to list types of artistic expressions considered unacceptable when funded with grants from National Endowment for the Arts, R&R! organized both the "Jesse Helms Degenerate Art Show" and the "New Blasphemy Forum" in New York City as outlets for artists to express opposition to the new restrictions. The musicians' activist alliance Rock Out Censorship consider R&R! an ally in standing for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
R&R! also opposed any kind of invasion of privacy, especially surveillance. When the 1990 Census was conducted, R&R! organized public demonstrations across the U.S., in which census forms were burned in protest of what they saw as intrusive questions asked on the forms.
R&R!'s slogan on abortion was "Abortion on Demand & without Apology!" In their fight to defend the legality of abortion, they frequently defended obstetricians and clinics. In response to the judicial opinions in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services and Rust v. Sullivan, R&R! deliberately disrupted two sessions of the U.S. Supreme Court, which was the first time the court had ever experienced such a thing. In acts related to this disruption, R&R! occupied the offices of U.S. Congressman Henry Hyde and the National Right to Life Committee, both whom opposed abortion.
R&R! initiated the FightBack Network in the early 1990s to coordinate themselves with others to act against violence committed against people providing and/or seeking abortions. During the 1990s, R&R! were vocal and uncompromising opponents of Operation Rescue, a group known for staging protests and civil disobedience against abortion clinics. Refuse and Resist! activists kept Operation Rescue out of a meeting at the 1992 Democratic National Convention.
R&R! also organized the first resistance to the annual Right to Life march in Washington, D.C., in 1992 and initiated National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers in 1996, which has since become an annual occasion.
R&R!'s opposition to violence also includes opposition to warfare. One of their members was the first U.S. Marine to refuse orders to fight in the Persian Gulf War.
R&R! supported the defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, an early member, who was accused and convicted of murder in 1982. Citing suppressed and falsified evidence presented against Mumia, R&R! joined with many others in exposing his trial and conviction as political persecution and a vendetta conducted by the Philadelphia Police Department. R&R! was very active in the international "Free Mumia" campaign. In 1995, R&R initiated a series of "Philly Freedom Summers" in which students and other youth converged in Philadelphia, to raise public awarenessand support for Abu-Jamal and for a new trial. It was during the first summer that they spoke out against Pennsylvanian Governor Tom Ridge, who signed a death warrant for Abu-Jamal that June. In August, that execution order was stayed, however Abu-Jamal is still in prison pending the outcome of his appeal.
R&R! echoed Abu-Jamal's view that more needs to be done to crack down on police brutality and other types of misconduct by authorities.
R&R!'s slogan on immigration was "We Are All Illegals!" They frequently protested at the offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and at the United States Coast Guard base in Miami, Florida, in opposition the return of Haitian refugees back to Haiti. In another event, some members of R&R! were arrested after climbing over the fences of a hidden INS detention in Texas, in course of exposing it to the public.
R&R! organized the first National Conference Against the War on Drugs. They used the opportunity to exposed the public to photographs of alleged "boot camps" supposedly being used to incarcerate youths as punishment for what they felt were victimless drug crimes[3].
[edit] Notes
- ^ By-Laws of Refuse & Resist! Last accessed October 5, 2007 at http://refuseandresist.org/contact/072001bylaws.html
- ^ Refuse & Resist. 1988. Resist in Concert! - Special Issue of CounterAttack, the Newsletter of Refuse & Resist!. New York.
- ^ What Refuse & Resist! Has Done. Last accesssed October 5, 2007, at http://refuseandresist.org/contact/done.html
