Bearing witness

Three stories over the last week remind us that one of the most important challenges to injustice is to simply ‘bear witness’ to it. We’re fortunate that there are individuals and groups who take considerable risk, and make considerable sacrifice, to bring to our attention things that we might never otherwise find out about.

According to Greenpeace ‘direct action can be spectacular and have immediate results - but bearing witness, while usually less dramatic, can have even more remarkable results.’

Last Friday (17th June), Greenpeace International’s Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo* was arrested after boarding an oil rig in the Arctic, despite an injunction that prevented any Greenpeace activists from doing so. While the actions of Naidoo and his 21 colleagues held up drilling for five days, according to Greenpeace “perhaps more importantly, they have borne witness to the madness of oil drilling in the Arctic - something that would otherwise have gone all but unnoticed. The images of what they saw have been seen by millions.”

But did the international Executive Director really have to go to the Arctic to participate in this action? Surely any number of other intrepid Greenpeace activists could have boarded the rig instead of him? Of course, Greenpeace’s strategy in sending Naidoo to the oil rig was very possibly exactly so that their figurehead would be arrested, an elaborated PR stunt to gain the maximum attention.

Naidoo has been a powerful and articulate campaigning voice for many years, in the Apartheid struggle and on human rights issues, and now as Greenpeace International’s leader.  Whatever your view on whether they should have sent him or not, Greenpeace’s video of Naidoo on the choppy Arctic waters as it approaches the oil rig provides a compelling witness testimony for the very reason that it is such a credible individual making it.

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We have also recently seen witness testimony in an even more dangerous context. There have been few outside witnesses to the Syrian uprising. With international news media banned, and despite attempts to suppress internet activism, we are fortunate that individuals bearing witness to events there are still managing to share their testimony with the world. While the link might be dead by the time you click on it, if you visit the Syrian Revolution page on Facebook, you will find dozens of videos shots on camera phones. Over 212,000 Facebook users have ‘liked’ the page, therefore sharing these videos with millions more people around the world.

Activists have also created a YouTube channel called Freedom 4566 which features over 300 videos, viewed over 280,000 times. Especially in the context of a largely state controlled media, these videos provide a powerful alternative perspective on unfolding events.

In an excellent article in the New York Times one former state television cameraman turned  ‘video activist’ called Muhammed states “Syrian media lies, lies, lies…I had to leave my job to protect the Syrian people”. Muhammed and other activists in Syria are in considerable personal danger and have chosen to take the risks for sharing what they are seeing, in the hope that it can contribute to change.

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Closer to home, last week we lost an activist who made considerable personal sacrifice in bearing witness. Brian Haw, the peace campaigner who spent a decade standing opposite Parliament (figuratively and literally) died of lung cancer on Saturday 18th June. While thousands of miles away from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that he passionately opposed, he “harangued MPs every day with reminders of our responsibility” and “sacrificed his comfort and home life for the past ten years in continuous single-minded witness for peace,” in the words of Paul Flynn MP.

Brian Haw’s Parliament vigil came to represent not only opposition to the wars in the Middle East but also the very right to protest near Parliament. Despite several attempts to remove him, including provisions in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) 2005, Brian remained a thorn in the side of Parliament, becoming an unlikely champion for civil liberties and for peace in the Middle East.

On the one hand Brian was unique, a one-off. But in another way, Brian was no different to many other people all over the world who hold the powerful to account simply by watching them, and giving us the privilege of seeing what they can see.

*Kumi Naidoo delivered the keynote address at People Power 2010. organised by SMK in partnership with the Good Agency.