May/June 1984 RAIN Page 11 ACCESS: Peace Bike for Peace John Dowlin, Linda Knapp PO Box 8194 Philadelphia, PA 19101 215/222-1253 Bike for Peace '83 was a small, magical event involving American, Scandinavian, and Soviet bicyclists who pedaled 1200 miles through five countries, from Moscow to Washington, DC, in July 1983. The "peace champions," as they were called, averaged 55 miles a day for about four weeks, bicycling for an end to the arms race and for friendlier relations among nations. I was one of 10 North Americans who participated. None of us were prepared for the lifetime friendships that developed. Despite language barriers, we became an incredibly close family, determined to meet and ride again. Given the low ebb of U.S.-Soviet relations, the Norwegian organizers hope to initiate a Bike for Peace ride on an annual basis, involving as many participants as possible, particularly Americans and Soviets. Tore Naerland, the "biking Viking" largely responsible for the 1983 peaceride, is tentatively planning Bike for Peace '84, which would begin on May 11 in Malmo, Sweden, and proceed through East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Italy, ending in Rome on June 13. Contact Tore c/o Bike for Peace Norway, Asdalsveien 3A, Oslo 11, Norway. We hope to have a Washington to Moscow return trip in 1985, and Bike for Peace USA has already met with the Soviet Peace Committee to discuss the route (via Toronto, Oslo, Berlin, and Minsk), as well as the planting of peace gardens in Washington, Oslo, and Moscow. Those interested in participating in Bike for Peace '85, as well as in the BFP '83 Slide Show, should contact me at the address above. ■Although Bike for Peace '83 made national television in all five countries and was written up in more than 300 newspapers and magazines, it was still not a "media event." For a sampling of articles, see the Fall 1983 Bicycling News Canada, the November ^983 American Wheelmen, the January 1984 Soviet Life, and the April-May 1984 Bike Report, available at most libraries, if not at your bike shop. —John Dowlin Gandhi as a Political Strategist: With Essays on Ethics and Politics, by Gene Sharp, 1979, 357 pp., $7.95 from: Porter Sargent Publishers 11 Beacon Street Boston, MA 02108 With interest in Gandhi and his creed of nonviolence sparked by the recent biographical movie and by the growing antinuclear movement, this is a timely book. Thirteen essays in two major groupings, plus an extensive appendix, make up this collection. There is much here: the history and theory of Gandhi's works, analyses of his influence, reviews of other scholarly works, recommendations for course usage, and a glossary. As a casual admirer of Gandhi and as one of many who daily struggle to make nonviolence an active part of life, I found these essays interesting and easy to read for background on the man and the movement. But there is much more. Sharp's thesis is that Gandhi was an extraordinary political strategist whose contributions to nonviolent social change need to be considered and taken seriously. He was not a saint, not a unique product of Hindu culture or religion, not a radical who was fortunate to be agitating under a benign colonial power, and not someone "ahead of his time." In fact, Coretta Scott King argues in the introduction that Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., were rare individuals not because they were ahead of but because they caught up with their times. This collection is significant because it deals with the hard questions and issues that surround principled nonviolence today. Both advocates and detractors of this movement fall into the same trap over and over again; One is either a hawk or a dove, an advocate of violence or of cowardice. Gandhi's response to the "pacifism/passivism" debate make members of the peace movement uncomfortable. He codified the principle of satyagraha, which had been used by principled resisters of violence before but had never been made into a movement. Implying "nonviolent direct action," "militant nonviolence," or "war without violence," satyagraha brings to nonviolence the same qualities of self-sacrifice, discipline, and personal bravery that we extol only in the armed services today. It is too easy to immunize ourselves against taking Gandhi seriously by making him either a saint or a naive dreamer. Sharp has given us the antidote in this book, and we in the peace movement need to take it. —Bruce Borquist Bruce Borquist works as a community coordinator for a small-busincss assistance center. "Judy Garland and the Global Death Wish or. How to Stop Worrying and Love Stolichnaya," by Tom Robbins, Felloivship, January/February 1984, $1.25 from; Fellowship of Reconciliation Box 271 Nyack, NY 10960 Let us then dispense with political differences, says Tom Robbins, because "technological advances have rendered our existing political, economic, and social institutions dangerously obsolete." There are delightful quirks in this piece (as you might guess from the title), wherein Robbins tells us to ignore the politicians and love the Russians, "and in so doing escape the pull of the puppet-masters, and quit contributing to their deadly game." What he says rings true. By the way, this entire issue of Fellowship focuses on U.S./USSR relations "in the hope that demythologizing the 'enemy' can strengthen the human connection and lead to reconciliation." As usual, the articles are insightful and convey a sense of how to practice peace in daily life. —TK
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