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The Committee of 100 was a British anti-war group. It was set up in 1960 with a hundred public signatories by Bertrand Russell, Ralph Schoenman〔(Papers of Mary Ringsleben )〕 and Reverend Michael Scott and others. Its supporters used mass nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience to achieve their aims. ==History== The idea of a mass civil disobedience campaign against nuclear weapons emerged early in 1960 in discussions between Ralph Schoenman (an activist in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)), and Hugh Brock, April Carter (both of the Direct Action Committee against nuclear war), Ralph Miliband, Alan Lovell and Stuart Hall. Schoenman approached Bertrand Russell, the president of CND, with the idea.〔(Carroll, S.J., ''Fill the Jails: Identity, Structure and Method in the Committee of 100, 1960 – 1968'', University of Sussex, 2010 )〕 Russell resigned from the presidency of CND in order to form the Committee of 100, which was launched at a meeting in London on 22 October 1960 with a hundred signatures. Russell was elected as president〔 and Michael Randle of the Direct Action Committee was appointed secretary. Russell explained his reasons for setting up〔(LSE )〕 the Committee of 100 in an article in the ''New Statesman'' in February 1961: Many in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, including some of its founders, supported the Committee of 100's campaign of civil disobedience and in its first year it received more in donations than CND had received in its first year.〔 Several of the early CND's activists, including some members of its executive committee, had been supporters of the Direct Action Committee and in 1958 CND had cautiously accepted direct action as a possible method of campaigning;〔 but, largely under the influence of Canon John Collins, the CND chairman, the CND leadership opposed any sort of unlawful protest, and the Committee of 100 was created as a separate organisation partly for that reason and partly because of personal animosity between Collins and Russell. It has been suggested〔 that this separation weakened the campaign against nuclear weapons. The Committee's campaign tactic was to organise sit-down demonstrations, which were not to be undertaken without at least 2,000 volunteers pledging to take part.〔 Many eminent people participated in the sit-downs but few of the 100 signatories took part in the Committee's activities.〔 Demonstrators were required to adopt a discipline of non-violence. In a briefing document the Committee of 100 said, "We ask you not to shout slogans and to avoid provocation of any sort. The demonstrations must be carried out in a quiet, orderly way. Although we want massive support for these demonstrations, we ask you to come only if you are willing to accept this non-violent discipline."〔''Mass Resistance - Wethersfield - Ruislip'', Committee of 100, 1961〕 Demonstrators were recommended to remain limp if arrested and to refuse to co-operate in any way until inside the police station. At first, the Committee of 100 differed from CND only in its methods, and they had the same objectives. Within the Committee, however, there were different ideas about civil disobedience, direct action and non-violence. Bertrand Russell saw mass civil disobedience merely as a way of getting publicity for the unilateralist cause. Those from the Direct Action Committee were absolute pacifists (some of them Christians)〔 who followed Gandhi, and they regarded direct action as a way of creating a non-violent society. Ralph Schoenman and others, including the anarchists who later led the organisation,〔 saw direct action as a sort of insurrection that could force the state to give up nuclear weapons. These factions argued among themselves about whether non-violence was a matter of principle or just a tactic〔 and whether the Committee should limit itself to demonstrations or adopt a more thoroughgoing anarchist programme.〔 Nicolas Walter, a prominent member of the Committee, said later that it had been an anarchist organisation from its inception and that the hundred signatories were, in effect, a front.〔Walter, Nicolas, ''Damned Fools in Utopia'', PM Press, 2011〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Committee of 100 (United Kingdom)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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