We don't know who is responsible for the violence

Submitted by David Fisher (Australia), May 15, 2011 at 22:26

In reading the article we can ask who resorted to violence. I know that there have been cases of genuine nonviolent protest (one example being the protests at the AIDEX arms fair in Australia) where agents provocateur committed violent acts to discredit the protests. Pipes assumes that the combination of civil disobedience and low-grade violence comes from the same source. I don't know that. I do know that there are those who try to discredit nonviolent civil disobedience.

David Fisher

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