Verso’s cutting room floor is cluttered—with statements from strong movements that lacked eloquent leaders, and revolutionaries whose later abuses of power cast a shadow back across their earlier years. To ensure that the Book of Dissent spanned the ages and reached around the world, we limited it to one extract from each writer, leading to many agonizing choices. But there are undoubtedly mistakes, gaps and missed opportunities—please help us to plug these holes in time for the next edition!
In response to The Verso Book of Dissent Edited by Andrew Hsiao and Audrea Lim
8 responses
For all those of you who don't know who John Minto is, he was the leader of HART (Halt All Racist Tours). This was of course that group behind the protests against the 1981 Springbok Tour to New Zealand. Many contempories refer to this event as almost a civil war: the entire country was divided and there was high levels of violence between the riot police and the protestors. In 2009, Minto was offered an award by the South African Government for his work in helping bring down Apartheid. He however, refused stating that they had been fighting for a better South African not for a 'select few blacks to become millionaires'.
On top of that there are all the great Maori dissidents such as Hone Heke, Potatau Te Wherowhero and Te Whiti (who adopted non-violent resistance long before Ghandi), plus all the Australian dissidents. Why are they simply ignored.