Nonviolence

An Open Letter To Cecily McMillan

May 26, 2014 Robert J. Burrowes, www.nationofchange.org Strategize! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Nonviolence, Occupy

I found your brief statement at sentencing and your statement to your supporters, both insightful and evocative and it brought to mind the compassionate and powerful statements of the great nonviolent activist—such as Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.—who have gone before you. I write this open letter to you in the hope that it will inspire you and our fellow nonviolent activists to consider one other course of nonviolent action that we can take in our efforts to create the world of peace, justice, sustainability and love for which so many of us strive. . . In asking you to consider this course of action, I also admit that it has taken me the experience of some 30 arrests for nonviolent acts of conscience (with a variety of outcomes including jail terms, imprisonment as a psychiatric patient and forcible injection with 'anti-psychotic' drugs, seizure of my bank account, garnishee of my wages, bankruptcy and seizure of my passport) and I confess that I have been slow to learn and come to the suggestion that I make to you now. But every time I have appeared in court my conscience, principles and love for all that lives have been trashed in favour of laws that, for example, made my swimming in front of a nuclear warship to impede its entry to an Australian port, sitting in front of a bulldozer in defense of old-growth forests or 'trespassing' at a US military base located on land stolen from indigenous people 'illegal'.

Remembering Vincent Harding, An Enduring Veteran Of Hope

May 23, 2014 Ken Butigan, www.wagingnonviolence.org Educate! Civil Rights, History, Nonviolence

Historian by profession and relentless nonviolent advocate by calling, Vincent Gordon Harding died on Monday, May 19, at the age of 83. The author of a series of books on the civil rights movement — which he called the Southern Freedom movement — he not only wrote history, but also played an active part in the struggle to make and remake it. Harding worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Mennonite House in Atlanta, an interracial voluntary service. As part of the Albany, Ga., movement, he was arrested for leading a demonstration at the city hall in 1962. He became a strategist for the movement, and drafted Martin Luther King’s historic 1967 anti-war speech “Beyond Vietnam,” which King delivered at Riverside Church in New York City one year to the day before his assassination. Harding completed his Ph.D. in History at the University of Chicago in 1965 and accepted a teaching position at Spelman College in Atlanta. In 1990 he published Hope and History, a text that stressed the importance of telling and teaching the story of the freedom struggle. Later he became professor of religion and social transformation at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, where he founded Veterans of Hope, a project focused on documenting and learning from struggles for nonviolent change, healing and reconciliation.

An Introduction To Nonviolence

May 20, 2014 Michael N. Nagler, www.opednews.com Strategize! Nonviolence, Organizing

The twentieth century left us a double legacy. On the one hand, it was a time of great cruelty and violence; on the other hand, and perhaps from that very crucible of violence, we saw manifestations of a new kind of power--or rather, new uses of an age--old power--that can lead humanity to a far better future. In the years since Mahatma Gandhi demonstrated the power of nonviolence to free India from colonial rule and Martin Luther King Jr. employed it to liberate people of color from some of their oppression in the United States, countless peoples around the world--from Manila to Moscow, Cape Town to Cairo, and in the Occupy movements worldwide--have had varying degrees of success using one or another aspect of nonviolence to loosen the bonds of exploitation and oppression. The practice of nonviolence touches on something fundamental about human nature, about who we wish to be as individuals or as a people. Gandhi stated simply, "Nonviolence is the law of our species."1 Dr. Vandana Shiva, a renowned leader of rural resistance in India, said in a recent lecture that if we do not adopt nonviolence we risk compromising our humanity. Likewise, Iraqi Kurdish activist Aram Jamal Sabir said that although nonviolence may be harder and may require greater sacrifice than violence, "at least you don't lose your humanity in the process."2

Story Government Doesn’t Want You To Hear

April 27, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.truthout.org Strategize! Activism, Media, Nonviolence

A sea of candles, a street of soft-lit faces, the swell of a thousand voices singing, the unstoppable surge of tears, an ache of yearning in the heart, the possibility of change, and the sense that as all falls into darkness, the people will rise. This is the story of nonviolent struggle . . . a story that has changed the world time and again . . . the story the government doesn't want you to hear. The government and mass media do their best to suppress this story. The cameras swing to the angry kid dressed in black and the provocations he launches at the police. The images flash scenes of chaos during the crackdown. The news does not report the countless hours of quiet boycotts, uneventful sit-ins, or midnight sign-painting sessions in preparation for tomorrow's picket lines. The sudden grace of students taking wing from tyranny, walking out on classes and injustice is rarely mediatized.

Global Nonviolent Action Database

April 14, 2014 George Lakey, www.nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu Strategize! Nonviolence

“Nonviolent action” is one of the names people sometimes give to the conflict behavior reported in this database. Other names are “people power,” “civil resistance,” “satyagraha,” “nonviolent resistance,” “direct action,” “pacifica militancia,” “positive action,” and more. We mean a technique of struggle that goes beyond institutionalized conflict procedures like law courts and voting, procedures common in many countries. We study the methods of protest, noncooperation, and intervention that typically heighten a conflict – and the use of these methods without the threat or use of injurious force to others. Our definition is not located in the discourse of morality and ethics, although some people may choose to use nonviolent action for ethical reasons. Instead, we focus descriptively on what people do when they use this specific “technique of struggle.”

Would Saul Alinsky Break His Own Rules?

April 5, 2014 Mark Engler & Paul Engler, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Nonviolence, Organizing

Although Saul Alinsky, the founding father of modern community organizing in the United States, passed away in 1972, he is still invoked by the right as a dangerous harbinger of looming insurrection. And although his landmark book, Rules for Radicals, is now nearly 45 years old, the principles that emerged from Alinsky’s work have influenced every generation of community organizers that has come since. The most lasting of Alinsky’s prescriptions are not his well-known tactical guidelines — “ridicule is man’s most potent weapon” or “power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Rather, they are embedded in a set of organizational practices and predispositions, a defined approach to building power at the level of local communities. Hang around social movements for a while and you will no doubt be exposed to the laws of Chicago-style community organizing: “Don’t talk ideology, just issues. No electoral politics. Build organizations, not movements… Focus on neighborhoods and on concrete, winnable goals.”

BDS: Nonviolent Resistance To Israeli Occupation

March 25, 2014 Marjorie Cohn, www.commondreams.org Resist! Israel, Nonviolence, Palestine

Thanks to Scarlett Johansson, the American Studies Association (ASA), and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has entered our national discourse. Representatives of Palestinian civil society launched BDS in 2005, calling upon “international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South African in the apartheid era . . . [including] embargoes and sanctions against Israel.”

Occupy Radio: A Roadmap Compass to the New World

March 6, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.popularresistance.org Strategize! Activism, Nonviolence

Those of us engaged in protesting the current failing system sometimes forget to remember the good things happening in our society, such as solar technology, local economies, and small-scale, organic agriculture. As a result, we can become plagued with a sense of hopelessness and despair as we engage in boycotts, strikes, blockades, and protests.

Leading Nonviolent Strategist, Gene Sharp & The CIA

March 1, 2014 Stephen Zunes. Edited John Feffer, fpif.org Strategize! Nonviolence

Gene Sharp, an 80-year-old scholar of strategic nonviolent action and veteran of radical pacifist causes, is under attack by a number of foreign governments that claim that he and his small research institute are key players in a Bush administration plot against them. Though there is no truth to these charges, several leftist web sites and publications have been repeating such claims as fact. This raises disturbing questions regarding the ability of progressives challenging Bush foreign policy to distinguish between the very real manifestations of U.S. imperialism and conspiratorial fantasies. Gene Sharp’s personal history demonstrates the bizarre nature of these charges. He spent two years in prison for draft resistance against the Korean War, was arrested in the early civil rights sit-ins, was an editor of the radical pacifist journal Peace News, and was the personal assistant to the leftist labor organizer A.J. Muste. He named his institute after Albert Einstein, who is not only remembered as the greatest scientist of the 20th century but was also a well-known socialist and pacifist.

Did Nonviolence Fail In Egypt?

February 23, 2014 Mark Engler and Paul Engler, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Egypt, Nonviolence, Revolution

Three years ago this month, the 82-year-old president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, stepped down amid historic protests against his dictatorial rule. News of his resignation on Feb. 11, 2011 marked the climax of an uprising that was quickly recognized as one of the most sudden and significant upheavals of the 21st century. As the New York Times reported, “The announcement, which comes after an 18-day revolt led by the young people of Egypt, shatters three decades of political stasis and overturns the established order of the Arab world.” Activists in Egypt, along with sympathizers throughout the world, rejoiced. “We had tried before. But nothing was like this,” said Ahmed Salah, a veteran youth organizer who had worked for years to drum up resistance to the regime. For months, he had been promoting the audacious and improbable idea of a revolution without arms. “I had hopes, but I never really thought that I’d see it,” he explained. “Tahrir brought tears to my eyes.”

The Witch Hunt For Activists

February 22, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Nonviolence, Occupy, Police abuse

Terrorists are relatively rare. So, every now and then, undercover cops have got to go out and drum up some likely suspects to reassure the public that our money isn't being wasted. The agents go to activist communities, sit around in anarchist cafes, hang out at punk rock concerts, and pop into open air, general assemblies. After getting the lay of the land, they start to advocate violence . . . just to see if there are any violence-prone potential terrorists in the crowd. The agents then arrest the individuals they have actively encouraged to consider violent means. Some would call this entrapment, but, apparently, the courts disagree. Forgive me for being less than grateful to the undercover agents who disrupt meetings, encourage violent tendencies, and even go so far as offer instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails, but this is hardly amusing to those of us in the activist community who take nonviolence - and our work - seriously.

The Limits of Non-Cooperation as a Strategy for Social Change

February 18, 2014 Stephanie Van Hook, http://www.opendemocracy.net Strategize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Nonviolence, Occupy

The application of basic human stubbornness - the capacity to refuse or withhold obedience when faced by a pressing moral choice - is the most widely-researched topic in the field of nonviolence, from explorations of proven methods of civil resistance to the stories of people who have said ‘no’ to taxes or conscription, torture or betrayal. But non-cooperation clearly has its limits in terms of creating social change. As Gene Sharp points out, people’s capacity for this form of action is embedded in human nature, but it is insufficient to achieve the long-term goals of peace and social justice. We have learned how to topple dictators, but not how to replace dysfunctional political systems so that tyranny does not return. We know how to launch new social movements like Occupy and those of the Arab Spring, but not how to sustain their gains by transforming society at large.

The Hidden Potential Of The Greens

February 7, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Climate Change, Democracy, Finance and Economy, Nonviolence

While interviewing Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential Candidate in 2012, for the weekly Occupy Radio show that I co-host (listen here), it seems that she, like many of us, is frustrated by traditional politics. Our conversation revolved not around upcoming election or pieces of legislation, but around building a long overdue mass movement for Peace, People, and Planet over Profit - as the slogan for the upcoming Global Climate Convergence goes. This series of marches, demonstrations, civil disobedience and direct actions being planned for Earth Day to May Day 2014 is intended to set the ground for a global strike in 2015. The time has come to move out of traditional politicking and into the arena of concentrated, coordinated, effective nonviolent struggle. With climate change knocking on our doors, an escalation of nonviolent action is required to match the rapid demise of civil liberties and the disturbing rise of authoritarian, corporate-political collusion that seeks profit over peace, people, and the planet. The countdown for change has begun. If we are to survive on Earth, we, the people, need to become skilled in wielding what Gandhi referred to as "the greatest force at the disposal of mankind."

Building A Movement Of Peace Teams

February 6, 2014 Jessica Anderson, www.mettacenter.org Create! Nonviolence, Police abuse, Wars and Militarism

Meta Peace Team is conceptualized as a way to plan, train, and deploy peace teams where invited both domestically and internationally—again not to take sides or to “fix” problems, but to create space for people to come up with their own solutions to conflicts. The teams are made up of people who are trained in violence de-escalation techniques, committed to the internal work of personal centering so as to be able to overcome fear in the midst of violence, and willing to work collaboratively and with consensus processes. They believe that conflict per se can be constructive but that the use of violence to deal with conflict tends to be destructive—and, accordingly, they see the core of their mission as protecting people from violence no matter where that violence comes from or toward whom it is directed. And, they “walk their talk.”

Man From The North: ‘Blowing Up The Armory’

February 2, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.dandelionsalad.wordpress.com Educate! Nonviolence

We must look starkly at the flailing status of our struggle: these institutions have been invaded by corporate control and extreme greed. We no longer have the option of blowing up these armories – too many innocent civilians are entrenched inside these conquered territories. Nonviolent struggle rejects the notions of “acceptable levels of casualties”. No loss of human life or causing of physical harm can be justified by the worthiness of our cause. We have never had the militaristic luxury of wanton destruction. But neither can we be passive. The tools of our civilization are being forged into weapons of mass destruction. Our responsibility is clear. We must help citizens to safety. We must remove the arsenal from being used to cause harm to ourselves and others.

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