Yes! The question whether civil disobedience is legal is not really relevant - or is it?<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 3:47 PM, Richard Stallman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rms@gnu.org">rms@gnu.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">In<br>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/24/new-leader-union-alliance-of-resistance-cuts" target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/24/new-leader-union-alliance-of-resistance-cuts</a>,<br>
the leader of a main UK union made a statement that reflects both of<br>
the sides of the issue that people have been arguing:<br>
<br>
Asked if he feared that co-ordinated strikes could be interpreted by the<br>
courts as being political and might fall foul of the law, he said: "Do I<br>
believe the law is sacrosanct? Absolutely I do not. If there are bad<br>
laws not only is it right to oppose them but your duty to do so.<br>
<br>
"[Nelson] Mandela may have taken that position over the laws of<br>
apartheid and [Mahatma] Gandhi may have taken that position over the<br>
laws of colonialism and imperialism, and the Suffragettes might have<br>
said we do not accept the law of the land. So I do not think we should<br>
get hung up in this belief certainly as trade union leaders that the law<br>
is given down from Mount Sinai and we cannot challenge it."<br>
<br>
But he added he was not going to be self-destructive: "I have got no<br>
intention of playing the bosses' game of being dragged into cul-de-sacs<br>
and courts, and having to be fined by courts with our members' money.<br>
<br>
"I am not stupid. We will engage and we will fight in every way we<br>
possibly can without being stupid, and without ruling anything out."<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
Richard Stallman<br>
President, Free Software Foundation<br>
51 Franklin St<br>
Boston MA 02110<br>
USA<br>
<a href="http://www.fsf.org" target="_blank">www.fsf.org</a>, <a href="http://www.gnu.org" target="_blank">www.gnu.org</a><br>
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</blockquote></div><br>