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people. This discrimination is even worse when it is based on
racism headded.
Turning directly to Benny Wenda, the West Papuan leader who was
presentat the awards ceremony, Khusta said you must continue to
fight for your right. You shall be free; it is only a matter of
time.
As leader of the United Democratic Front, a coalition of over
500 civilianbased resistance groups aligned with the African
National Congress, MkuseliJack demonstrated how the costs of
apartheid could be transferred from thepeople of black townships to
the commercial business community on whichthe support and revenue
of the government partly depended. It was thisstrategy of
withdrawing peoples buying power that alongside strikes byblack
workers and external sanctions by foreign governments, created
the
context for negotiations between Mandela and President F.W. de
Klerk thatfinally brought the edifice of apartheid tumbling
down.
Rev. Lawson also had some advice for the West Papuans. The key
to anysuccessful civil resistance struggle is fierce discipline,
rigorous planning andstrategy. Exhibiting the qualities of the
respected pastor he is, Rev. Lawsontook Wenda by the hands and told
him that the power of life in you thatmakes you strong is the power
of God, the power of truth. Be strong. Becourageous. Organise the
struggle. You are on the side of history and truth.
In the late 1950s Martin Luther King Jnr. asked Rev. Lawson to
travel to theSouth to help led the nonviolent struggle for basic
rights that were thendenied by the United States government. Rev.
Lawson trained students fromNashville in the strategy and tactics
of civil resistance. Lawson and thestudents successfully
desegregated lunch-counters in the downtown areathrough determined
nonviolent action. They then went on to organise other campaigns of
the civil rights struggle.
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Benny Wenda in the USA meeting Mkhuse li Khusta Jack, former
leader of
Anti Apartheid Movement in South Africa.
After receiving the awards Rev. Lawson spent the remainder of
the eveningtalking with Papuans about their struggle for freedom.
Wenda said that it wasa dream come true meeting Re v. Lawson and
Mkuseli Jack. The civil rightsstruggle in the United States and the
anti-apartheid struggle in South Africaare beacons of hope for me
and my people said Wenda. I know that oneday we will be free.
Besides Mkuseli Jack the other three winners of the James Lawson
Award for Achievement in the Practice of Nonviolent Conflict
are:
Evgenia Chirikova, the young Russian woman who co-foundedDefend
Khimki Forest, which has fought a long and so far
successfulcampaign in the last ten years to prevent the destruction
of anancient-growth forest near Moscow.
Oscar Olivera, one of the key leaders of the campaign
inCochabamba, Bolivia in the 1990s that prevented the
privatizationof water resources and helped spark broad popular
participationin Bo livias democratic transition in the ensuing
years.
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Jenni Williams, the co-founder of Women of Zimbabwe Arise,
whobraved 52 arrests and jailings due to ongoing protests for
genuinepolitical rights for all of the people of her country.
The Lawson Awards are presented annually by the International
Center on
Nonviolent Conflict at The Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy
at TuftsUniversity during the Fletcher Summer Institute. It is
awarded to practitioners,scholars and journalists whose work serves
as a model for how nonviolentchange can be developed, understood
and explained.
