This is a personal statement by Carol Bragg, a member of Rhode Island Divest, about the group's vigorous, but frustrating, efforts to influence Senator Claiborne Pell, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, concerning strengthening sanctions on South Africa, and the surprising impact that her 19-day fast had on Pell. Bragg announced her fast at the Interfaith Service against Apartheid at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John in Providence in June 1988, and she continued the fast while on a trip to Washington, D.C. the next week. Her fast harkened back to a 64-day fast in which she participated in 1974 in protest of the Vietnam war, a position that Pell shared. Bragg explores why this action...
This is a personal statement by Carol Bragg, a member of Rhode Island Divest, about the group's vigorous, but frustrating, efforts to influence Senator Claiborne Pell, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, concerning strengthening sanctions on South Africa, and the surprising impact that her 19-day fast had on Pell. Bragg announced her fast at the Interfaith Service against Apartheid at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John in Providence in June 1988, and she continued the fast while on a trip to Washington, D.C. the next week. Her fast harkened back to a 64-day fast in which she participated in 1974 in protest of the Vietnam war, a position that Pell shared. Bragg explores why this action using the Gandhian concept of "soul force" was effective.
