As the battles rage on in the Middle East, students and
professors at UCLA continue to engage in heated debates on the
implications and effectiveness of war.
Some instructors are integrating the war with Iraq into the
syllabi of their classes.
“We will give people a chance to talk and we will give
them basic information on the war,” said Rev. Jim Lawson, who
said the war will be a focus of the Nonviolence and Social
Movements class he is teaching this quarter.
Lawson has substantial first-hand experience with nonviolence
and social movements ““ he was one of the key figures who
introduced the philosophy of nonviolence to Martin Luther King, Jr.
and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
Lawson, who said people become “pawns of society”
when they don’t have information, said he wanted to create an
environment were students can learn and freely voice their views on
the war.
Getting information is critical to understanding a situation and
evaluating all the possible options, something Lawson said the
media has not done effectively.
The class will study the effectiveness of nonviolence in
creating social change. Violence is effective in creating a change
of power, but does not create lasting social change, Lawson
said.
“After the bombs have dropped and after the killings in
Palestine and Israel, the problems to be solved remain,”
Lawson said.
He cited the massive sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement,
which he helped organize, as an example of the effectiveness of
nonviolence.
These sit-ins, where police and local residents used violence
against people who were sitting down, raised the question of who
was civilized and who was uncivilized, Lawson said.
“The right tactic turned the political climate on the
right side,” he added.
Some of the lessons from social movements of the past have more
relevance now than ever, according to Labor Center Director Kent
Wong.
“It shows a clear example where nonviolent alternatives
were not considered and cast aside in favor of military
options,” Wong said.
The Labor Center at UCLA is one of the sponsors of the class and
helped to design its curriculum.
Several departments have included the class in their course
list, such as policy studies, African American studies, Chicano
studies and Asian American studies.
As the structure of the class changed, student interest in the
class changed ““ administrators chose to double the enrollment
cap from 50 to 100 students to accommodate students.
Wong attributes the class’ growth to the lessons from
today’s social movements.
“UCLA, as a learning institution, plays a very important
role in providing a forum and opportunity where different
perspectives and views on the war can be heard,” Wong
said.