Gandhi

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Gandhis salt march A parable for universal
health care as a national satyagraha

• Carl Nelson
• Northeastern University, Boston MA

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Outline

• Brief Synopsis of Events of 1930
• Choice of Symbol
• Outcomes-Practical and Psychological
• The Salt March, Strategic Nonviolent Conflict
  and Universal Health Care

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A Force More Powerful

• Satyagraha reliance on truth The Gandhian
  method of achieving social and political reform
  by means of tolerance and active goodwill coupled
  with a firmness in ones cause expressed through
  nonviolent passive resistance and noncooperation.
• Websters Third New International
• Dictionary, 1963.
•  

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Importance of Symbol

• Historic
• Economic
• Religious
• Cultural
• Medical

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Psychological Outcomes

• psychological change, almost as if some expert
  in psychoanalytic methods had probed deep into
  the patients past, found out the origins of his
  complexes, exposed them to his view, and thus rid
  him of that burden. Nehru
• what Gandhi ultimately accomplished was to give
  back Indians their Identity . a process
  located in the core of the individual and yet
  also in the core of his communal culture, a
  process which establishes, in fact, the identity
  of those two identities. Erikson
• When a man really wants freedom and to live in
  a democratic Society he may not be able to free
  the whole world...but he can to a large extent at
  least free himself by behaving as a rational and
  moral being, and if he can do this, others around
  him can do the same, and these again will spread
  freedom by their example. Roy

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Classification of Strategic Nonviolent Weapons
Applications to Achieving Universal Health Care

• Essential- indispensable persuasive tactics,
  small or large in scope or scale, guaranteed to
  arouse attention, solidarity, consciousness, and
  reactionbenefits usually easily outweigh costs
  of application
• Useful-often situation specific, costs and
  benefits of application frequently hard to judge
• Avoid-tendency to alienate otherwise supportive
  constituencies
• Not Applicable possibly of use in other protest
  movements but not in the struggle for universal
  health care.

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Canadian Experience

• It wasnt like we sat down over afternoon tea
  and crumpets and said please pass the health care
  bill so we can sign it and get on with the day.
  We fought, we threatened, the doctors went on
  strike, refused patients, people held rallies and
  signed petitions for and against it, burned
  effigies of government leaders, hissed, jeered,
  and booed at the doctors or the Premier depending
  on whose side they were on. In a nutshell, we
  werent the stereotypical nice polite Canadians.
  
• Karen S. Palmer. A Brief History Universal
  Health Care Efforts in the U.S. Late 1800's to
  Medicare) San Francisco, Spring, 1999 PNHP
  Meeting