Spiritual resistance is the ability to stand firm at the center of our convictions when everything around us asks us to concede. Our capacity to face the harsh measures of life comes from the deep quiet of listening to the land, the river and the rocks. There is a resonance of humility that has evolved with the Earth.
Many feel there is no question that both the law and the legal system are used against activists. The laws are said to be made by the privileged HAVES and used against the poorer HAVE NOTS. According to activists the legal system is even run by the rich and the privileged, including many, if not most, of the judges in the justice system.
The HAVE NOTS may not even have access to legal information and the necessary resources to try and protect themselves. Furthermore, laws are created and interpreted at the whims of corporate interests which use lawsuits and the legal system to bankrupt, demoralize and imprison activists.
Now, in the present anti-terrorist environment most any radical non-violent movement may be vulnerable to attack by those in charge of the law and the legal system, which includes legislators, law enforcement, corporate lawyers and judges or THE HAVES. Over-reliance upon lawyers to help the underdog (THE HAVE NOTS) may be a mistake because typical lawyers are part of the current legal system and may be part of the problem because they have to operate inside and survive under the system set up and run by THE HAVES!
Moreover, these same lawyers operate mostly as short-term, action-specific operatives while long-term structures with a wider scope of goals as an agenda may be what is necessary for the HAVE NOTS to actually make the gains they seek. The myth that you need special training to understand the law and the legal system has always been perpetuated to help keep THE HAVES in power.
Essentially, the HAVE NOTS may not need special skills but may just need a group of dedicated people with some time on their hands to help fight a potentially slanted, biased, corruptible system run by the power-hungry and money-hungry HAVES.
SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCE: EARTH FIRST JOURNAL JUNE 2002