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Nonviolence

Five Stages Of Movement’s For Revolutionary Change

October 9, 2013 George Lakey, www.trainingforchange.org , , ,
We need to go beyond what has been done plenty of times in history -- to overthrow unjust governments through nonviolent struggle -- and create a strategy that builds at the same time as it destroys. We need a strategy that validates alternatives, supports the experience of freedom, and expands the skills of cooperation. We need a political strategy that is at the same time a community strategy, one that says "yes" to creative innovation in the here and now and links today's creativity to the new society that lies beyond a power shift. With the help and feedback of many activists from a number of countries I've created a strategic framework that aims to support today's activists, something like the way Otpur activists were supported by their strategy. I call it strategy for a living revolution. The strategy not only encourages creating new tactics and more boldness in using the best of the old, but it also helps activists sort out which tactics will be most effective.

The Syrian Resistance: A Tale of Two Struggles

September 24, 2013 Maciej Bartkowski and Mohja Kahf, www.opendemocracy.net ,
It is a tragedy of history when so many people regardless of sect, ethnicity, religion, and gender join in nonviolent resistance to demand freedom for all, and achieve so much with so little during such a brief time, only to have their accomplishments go largely unrecognized, and their struggle devolve into a fight with oppression on its own violent terms - as if these could be complementary to nonviolent resistance, an effective method to protect people, or a proven instrument to defeat a brutal regime. This happened in Syria.

Interventions For An Ever Hotter Planet

August 21, 2013 George Lakey, www.wagingnonviolence.org , ,
On August 1, the journal Science published a new study by a team that reviewed 60 previous climate change studies to get a big picture of what we can expect in the decades to come. The bottom line: more conflict. We’ll see it on many levels, the scientists conclude in the study, from road rage to resource fights to street confrontations to struggles over human rights. How violent will they get? I believe we can influence that by accelerating the already impressive growth in skills and knowledge of nonviolent action.

What Would it Take to Start a Peace Army?

August 10, 2013 Stephanie Van Hook, www.metacenter.org
The Freedom Rides of 1961 saw some of the most iconic moments of the United States’ Civil Rights movement. Courageous, idealistic young people boarded buses to the segregated South to stand up for their ideals of freedom, equality and justice. Like our most fearless armed servicemen/women, they knew that they were risking their lives for their beliefs. What made them different, however, was that they were unarmed and trained in nonviolence. Referring to his participation in the rides, Georgia Congressperson John Lewis said, “I was like a soldier in a nonviolent army.”

Laboratories for Nonviolent Defense

July 23, 2013 George Lakey, www.wagingnonviolence.org
The 1 percent would have us believe that violence must be the answer for meeting our defense and protection needs. That’s because in most places the 1 percent runs the state, which has the big guns. From that point of view it would be silly to fund major research and development programs that advance the frontier of what nonviolent action can do, since nonviolent civil resistance is not a form of power the 1 percent can control. For the 99 percent, then, it has been guesswork: What are the limits of nonviolent community defense? To find out, people have worked to develop new possibilities and try them in the real world. Some very far-fetched ideas get generated that way.

Who was Badshah Khan?

July 19, 2013 Michael Nagler, www.wagingnonviolence.org
If you watched Malala Yousafzai’s much discussed and inspiring speech to the United Nations last week, you may have heard this courageous teenager — who was shot by the Taliban for promoting girls’ education — refer to Badshah Khan as a great inspiration for her determined commitment to nonviolence. You may have also wondered, “Who is this man?” After all, his name is not instantly recognizable like Gandhi or Mother Theresa — the other two luminaries Yousafzai cited. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, later known as Badshah, or King, was born in 1890 in the town of Utmanzai — not far from Peshawar, in what was then the Northwest Frontier Province of India.

Video: Military Police Join Protestors in Brazil!

July 8, 2013 Alexandra Bruce, www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com ,
This video is from mid-June in Brazil It shows a group of police officers joining the protests, sitting down in public space. Research on non-violent resistance movements cited in the book, "Why Civil Resistance Works" indicates that the chances of success increase by 60% when the security forces join the protesters.
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