INTRODUCTION TO NON-VIOLENCE
This introduction includes the following:- What is nonviolence?
- Five reasons for choosing nonviolent actions
- What can we do if we disagree with what those in power are doing?
- Examples of successful nonviolent actions (and revolutions) in modern times
- If we remove we must rebuild
- How can the individual contribute to change?
- What must change?
- Who must change?
- When must it change?
- Finding our niche
- Non violent means: from the politics of action
Nonviolence is a central concept for any peace organisation. Common for all of them is that they work against violence in one form or other. Some work against violence in the school playground or otherwise in the communities where they live. Some work against war and violence on the national or international plan. Others work agains systemic violence: global systems and national politics that kill thousands of humans every day from hunger and unnecessary disease.
"Nonviolence" as a concept has existed for a long time, but not everybody agrees on the content, and there is certainly no universal agreement that nonviolence is an effective form of action. We in the peace movement claim that it is an extremely effective form of action, and we give several good examples below. One thing we can agree on is that violence is extremely ineffective as a change agent in the long term, and that violent conflict, whether a neighbourhood fight or a war, creates far more problems than it solves.
With the help of a lecture of Jørgen Johansen from Transcend University, we bring a summary of the ideas and practice of nonviolence below.
Nonviolence: reasons and actions
What is nonviolence?Solidarnos: Nonviolence is not inflicting serious physical harm on other human beings
Gene Sharp: Nonviolence is not intentionally inflicting pain on other human beings
Jainism: Nonviolence is not doing harm to any living being
Gandhi: Nonviolence means nonviolence in action, speech and mind
Narayan Desai: Nonviolence is Harmony in life. Everything which disturbs the harmony of life is violence.
Five reasons for choosing nonviolent actions:
- We could be wrong, and want the possibility to reverse our actions
- Violent means inflict pain on all ”roles” of a person (you want to destroy the politician, you also destroy the mother, the artist, the doctor and all the other things that one person may be)
- The means influence the ends
- We want to fight ideologies, decisions, policies or problems rather than persons
- It is more effective (see section on recent cases)
- Violence creates new problems
Top leaders may have “power over” but at the grassroots level we have “power to”. We have the power to prevent, and we have the power to act. The “power over” is dependent on cooperation. The Jews were lead to the gas chambers by obedient people. The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by obedient people.
If we disagree with what the people with power are doing, we can remove the pillars of power:
- The bureaucracy can strike
- People can stop being obedient
- Workers can strike
- People can refuse to pay certain taxes
- The police refuse to obey orders when these involve hurting unarmed civilian people.
- Soldiers refuse to obey orders when these involve hurting unarmed civilian people.In the case of the military, expereince shows that it generally takes on average 3 days before the distaste among the soldiers spreads to a point where the suddenly lay down arms in unison. Many lives are lost on the way, but the only way this can actually be prevented is when those in power have the ability to fetch in soldiers from another region with a different ethnic identity. Even then (eg. the British soldiers agains Ghandis followers) normal soldiers do not willingly fire on civilians.
Nonviolence does work:
Cases in recent history:- Iran 1979
- Poland 1980-88 (Solidarnos)
- Bolivia 1980-82
- Philippines 1986 (People Power)
- Eastern Europe 1989: Czechoslovakia, Hungary, DDR, Bulgaria
- Soviet Union 1991: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania etc
- Indonesia 1998-99
- Zambia 1999 (Green Ribbon)
- Serbia 2000
- Philippines 2001 (SMS revolution)
- Madagascar
- Georgia 2003 (The Rose Revolution)
- Ukraine 2004
- Kyrgyzstan 2005
- Lebanon 2005
BUT: many of these have fallen again. It isn’t enough to remove the old regime. One has to build a new. One has to be prepared before the revolution to:
- build a better system
- implement Human rights at all levels in society
- teach conflict handling
- reduce corruption
- secure a peaceful future
- ....
- ....
- see also the United Nations Culture of Peace Action Programme here
How can the individualcontribute to change?
Conflicts are negative only when they are not resolved in a positive fashion. We must be very aware that conflicts in themselves are not negative. Most progress is made through differences in outlook and opinion, and the true potential for progress lies in solving these differences.In a society that is no longer able to resolve its conflicts positively, or in a situation so extreme that people turn to violence, mediation or other forms for intervention from parties that are not caught up in the conflict may help the involved parties to transform their conflict. We use the word transform because we don’t wish to go back to where we were before the conflict. That situation was the cause of the violence and will be again. We wish to find ways of transforming the conflict into a positive direction, where a resolution that leads to progress takes place.
What must change?
Three things must be altered before change is effective:
All three of these must be changed simultaneously:
There is no point in making a law that says that there should be no racial discrimination, when large numbers of people believe that one ethnic group is inferior anyway. The same law is meaningless if there exists systemic discrimination against an ethnic group – that is, they were not allowed to use their own language in schools, or did not have equal access to education. (The word “cause” is put into quotes because many trainers prefer to use the word “contradiction” here. The root of the conflict may lie in perceptions of reality, rather than the reality itself: what one group claims to be true is in contrast to what another group claims to be true.)
This gives us three possible directions for action:
- We can act to change or influence the attitude to be less hostile of hateful
- We can act to change the behaviour to be less violent
- We can act to change the root causes or to help the parties to find new possibilities.
Within each actor in the conflict there are three levels:
This gives us three levels to act on:
- We can seek to contribute to policy making by influencing top leaders
- We can work towards middle level leaders
- We can work with people in local communities, influencing and empowering civil society
Now we have nine ways to act:
| Attitude | Behaviour | Cause/Contradiction | |
| Top leaders | |||
| Middle level leaders | |||
| Grassroots and Civil Society |
When must it change?
There are three phases in a conflict (and these often go in waves)
Before violence During violence After violence
This gives us three more possibilities to act in a conflict:
- We can act before violence occurs, aiming at preventing violence
- We can act during the ciolent phase, aiming to end the violence and to prepare for a more peaceful future
- We can act after the worst of the violence is over, aiming at building peace and preventing the outbreak of violence again.
This gives us 27 ways to act.
There are always more than 2 actors in a conflict In the first place, any conflict has more than two parties – and most conflicts have many parties. There is no point in negotiating with guerilla army leaders, when the people they say they represent actually have a quite different point of view. By the time violence arises both “sides” are probably quite split anyway, but violence tends to disguise this, as once violence has broken out people are forced together to defend themselves.
Therefore an analysis of the situation and the parties is needed before one can decide where to act.
Now we have:
3 directions x 3 phases x 3 levels x unlimited numbers of different actors.
This opens up for a huge amount of good peacework, in many different phases of conflicts, on many different levels, and with many different actors.
Discovering our niche
But BEFORE we act we must analyse the situation, and identify our niche. What are our strengths? Which actors can we have influence over? What can we influence? At what stage in the conflict can we act?To cover maximum ground we need to identify the niches of other organisations or actors for peace, and coordinate our activities with them.
Our conclusion has to be that everyone of us has much we can contribute.
What tactics can we use?
The following is a very short summery of the PhD-thesis by Gene Sharp from 1973.Nonviolent Means: The politics of nonviolent action
Formal statements: Public speeches – Letters of opposition or support – Declarations by organisations and and institutions - Signed public declarations - Declarations of indictment and intention – Group or mass petitions
Communications with a wider audience: Slogans – Caricatures – Symbols – Banners – Posters – Displayed communications - Leaflets - Pamphlets - Books - Newspapers and journals - Records - – Radio – TV – Film -Internet – Massmail (spamming) – Your own website - Skywriting and earthwriting – Film - Internet - Spamming
Group Representation: Deputation – Mock awards – Group lobbying – Picketing - Mock elections -
Symbolic public acts: Displays of flags and symbolic colours – Wearing of symbols - Prayer and worship - Delivering symbolic objects – Protest disrobing - Destruction of own property - Symbolic lights - Displays of portraits - Painting as protest - New signs and names - Symbolic sounds - Symbolic reclamation - Rude gestures
Pressures on individuals: ”Hunting" officials – Taunting officials – Fraternisation - Vigils –
Drama and music: Humorous skits and pranks – Performances of plays and music - Singing -
Processions: Marches - Parades - Religious processions - Pilgrimages - Motorcades
Honouring the dead: Political mourning - Mock funerals - Demonstrative funerals - Homage at burial places
Public assemblies:Assemblies of protest or support - Camouflaged meetings of protest – Teach-ins
Withdrawal and renunciation: Walk-outs - Silence - Renouncing honours - Turning one's back
Ostracism of persons: Social boycott - Selective social boycott - Lysistratic nonaction - Excommunication - Interdict
Noncooperation with social events, customs, and institutions: Suspension of social and sports activities - Boycott of social affairs - Student strike - Social disobedience - Withdrawal from social institutions
Withdrawal from the social system: Stay-at-home - Total personal noncooperation - "Flight" of workers - Sanctuary - Collective disappearance - Protest emigration
Action by consumers: Consumers' boycott - Nonconsumption of boycotted goods - Policy of austerity - Rent withholding - Refusal to rent - National consumers' boycott - International consumers' boycott
Action by workers and producers: Workers' boycott - Producers' boycott
Action by middlemen: Suppliers' and handlers' boycott
Action by owners and management: Traders' boycott - Refusal to let or sell property - Lockout - Refusal of industrial assistance - Merchants' "general strike"
Action by holders of financial resources: Withdrawal of bank deposits - Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assesments - Refusal to pay debts or interest - Severance of funds and credit - Revenue refusal - Refusal of a government's money
Action by government: Domestic embargo - Blacklisting of traders - International sellers' embargo - International byers' embargo - International trade embargo
Symbolic strikes: Protest strike - Quickie walkout (lightning strike)
Agricultural strikes: Smallholder strike - Farm workers'strike
Strikes by special groups: Refusal of impressed labour - Prisoners' strike - Craft strike - Professional strike
Ordinary industrial strikes: Establishment strike - Industry strike - Sympathy strike –
Restricted strikes: Detailed strike - Bumper strike - Slowdown strike - Working-to-rule strike - Reporting "sick" (sick-in) - Strike by resignation - Limited strike - Selective strike
Multi-industry strikes: Generalised strike - General strike
Combination of stikes and economic closures: Hartal - Economic shutdown
Rejection of authority: Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance - Refusal of public support - Litterature and speeches advocating resistance
Citizens' noncooperation with government: Boycott of legislative bodies - Boycott of elections - Boycott of government employment and positions - Boycott of government departments, agencies, and other bodies - Withdrawal from government educational institutions - Boycott of government-supported institutions - Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents - Removal of own signs and placemarks - Refusal to accept appointed officials - Refusal to dissolve existing institutions
Citizens' alternatives to obedience: Reluctance and slow compliance - Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision - Popular nonobedience - Disguised disobedience - Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse - Sitdown - Noncooperation with conscription and deportation - Hiding, escape, and false identities - Civil disobedience of "illegitimate" laws
Action by government personnel: Selective refusal of assistance by government aides - Blocking of lines of command and information - Stalling and obstruction - General administrative noncooperation - Judicial noncooperation - Deliberate ineffeciency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents - Mutiny
Domestic governmental action: Quasi-legal evasions and delays - Noncooperation by constituent governmental units -
International governmental action: Changes in diplomatic and other representation - Delay and cancellation of diplomatic recognition - Severance of diplomatic relations - Withdrawel from international organisations - Refusal of membership in international bodies - Expulsion from international organisations
Psychological intervention: Self-exposure to the elements - Fast - a) Fast of moral pressure b) Hunger strike c) Satyagraphic, Reverse trial, Nonviolent harassment
Physical intervention: Sit-in – Stand-in – Ride-in – Wade-in – Mill-in – Pray-in – Jail-in – Nonviolent raids - Nonviolent air raides - Nonviolent obstruction Nonviolent occupation - "treehugging"
Social intervention: Establishing new social patterns - Overloading of facilities - Stall-in - Speak-in - Guerilla theatre - Alternative communication system
Economic Intervention: Reverse strike - Stay-in strike - Nonviolent land seizure - Defiance of blockades - Politically motivated counterfeiting - Preclusive purchasing - Seizure of assets - Dumping - Selective patronage - Alternative markets - Alternative transportation systems - Alternative economic institutions
Political intervention: Overloading of administrative systems - Disclosing identities of secret agents - Seeking imprisonment - Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws - Work-on without collaboration - Dual sovereignty and parallel government