Last night, on the anniversary of the worldwide February 15, 2003 antiwar protest in advance of the invasion of Iraq War, a small group of antiwar activists and supporters gathered at Trinity United Methodist Church in Grand Rapids to hear Muskegon resident and activist Faith Regis talk about her various experiences being arrested for civil disobedience against the war in Iraq. Regis began her talk by describing how she “celebrates” February 15 each year as a way of remembering her own participation in the protest held in New York City, her home at the time, where activists were penned in by police and where numerous violations of civil liberties were committed by the police.

Following the February 15, 2003 protests and the violations of civil liberties she saw there, as well as the antiwar consciousness developed after witnessing the 9/11 terrorist attacks firsthand and the way in which the United States government used those attacks as a way to justify the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Regis became convinced of the need to use nonviolent civil disobedience as a way responding to and stopping the war. Since that time, she has been arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience blocking an entrance to a recruiting center in Brooklyn and at actions at the Pentagon and White House held in conjunction with the September 2005 antiwar protests in Washington DC. Regis is perhaps most proud of her participation in the action at the Pentagon, where a group of 40 people was able to shut down two entrances to the Pentagon for two and a half hours and distribute hundreds of flyers to Pentagon employees. As was the case with her comments during a panel discussion at an antiwar teach-in in December, Regis once again encouraged the audience to consider what a group of thousands could do to prevent the effective functioning of the Pentagon. On Friday, Regis will travel to Washington DC for a court day where she expects that her charges will likely be dismissed.

Regis’ three arrests have been for actions conducted within the framework of nonviolence, which she briefly defined during her presentation, citing Dr. Martin Luther King Junior’s six elements of nonviolence as well as the principles laid out by Gandhi and his notion of “speaking truth to power.” As part of this idea of speaking truth to power, Regis talked about the opportunities that participants in nonviolent civil disobedience gain in being face to face with people responsible for the policies that the action is designed against, as well as the opportunities for conducting outreach to the police during the arresting process and the opportunities to outline the justifications for particular acts of civil disobedience while participating in the legal process. She explained that such efforts can convince your “enemies” that they are wrong and cited the participation of a former Pentagon employee in her civil disobedience action and the fact that the police at her first arrest seemed reluctant to arrest her, a sign that she took as being support for her belief that there will be a day when the police lay down their guns and join “the movement.” During her talk Regis outlined the various considerations that those planning nonviolent civil disobedience should take as well as outlining some of the ways in which those who are unable to commit nonviolent civil disobedience can support those that do, despite her contention that anyone “could” get arrested but that is more often a matter of people not wanting to due to very real considerations relating to their families and employment. Regis did briefly touch on the amount of privilege one needs to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience when she mentioned how it was easy to be arrested if you were a black man, but how it was fairly difficult to do so if you were a white woman “wanting” to get arrested for her political views.

In beginning with the February 15, 2003 protests and the need to preserve the memory of such events within the movement since it is clear that history books and the corporate media will not do so, it is appropriate to mention that none of the local corporate media attended the event despite receiving press releases and phone calls to inform them of the event. Consequently, Regis’ talk was all the more important as without corporate media coverage, her actions and those of the countless others who have committed civil disobedience and other forms of direct action would remain largely unknown if it was not for independent media outlets and discussions such as the one hosted last night. Following Regis’ talk, there was a brief question and answer period in which the attendees briefly discussed antiwar organizing in Grand Rapids, including the march and teach-in that will be held on March 18 to coincide with the 3rd anniversary of the start of the war. Both the event last night and the March 18 march were organized by the West Michigan Justice and Peace Coalition.