Nonviolent
action is a technique by which people who reject passivity and submission, and
who see struggle as essential, can wage their conflict without violence.
Nonviolent action is not an attempt to avoid or ignore conflict. It is one
response to the problem of how to act effectively in politics, especially how
to wield powers effectively (Sharp, 1973). It consists of acts of protest and
persuasion, noncooperation and nonviolent intervention designed to undermine
the sources of power of the opponent in order to bring about change.
The forms of nonviolence draw
inspiration from both religious or ethical beliefs and political analysis.
Religious or ethically based nonviolence is sometimes referred to as principled, philosophical, or ethical
nonviolence, while nonviolence based on political analysis is often referred to
as tactical, strategic, or pragmatic nonviolent action.
At first glance, violence may appear to be a
superior technique for resolving conflicts or achieving desired ends because it
has obvious and tangible strategies and weapons. Nonviolent techniques are
often more difficult to visualise and there is no shortage of moral and
practical dilemmas that sceptics are able to raise as impediments to taking
nonviolence seriously.
Yet many reasons can be offered for the employment of
nonviolence, it is a
weapon available to all, it is least likely to alienate opponents and third
parties, it breaks the cycle of violence and counter-violence. It leaves open
the possibility of conversion, it ensures that the media focus on the issue at
hand rather than some tangential act of violence and it is the surest way of
achieving public sympathy. Further, it is more likely to produce a constructive
rather than a destructive outcome, it is a method of conflict resolution that
may aim to arrive at the truth of a given situation (rather than mere victory
for one side) and it is the only method of struggle that is consistent with the
teachings of the major religions.
Nonviolent protest and persuasion
It is a class of methods which
are mainly symbolic acts of peaceful opposition or of attempted persuasion,
extending beyond verbal expressions. The goal of this
kind of action is to bring public awareness to an issue, persuade or influence
a particular group of people, or to facilitate future nonviolent action. The
message can be directed toward the public, opponents, or people affected by the
issue. These methods include marches, vigils, pickets, the use of
posters, street theatre, painting and protest meetings.
Noncooperation
This
is the most common form of nonviolent action - involves the deliberate
withdrawal of cooperation with the person, activity, institution or regime with
which the activists have become engaged in conflict. These methods include the
provision of sanctuary (social); strikes, boycotts and war tax resistance
(economic) and boycotts of legislative bodies and elections (political).
Political noncooperation also includes acts of civil disobedience - the
'deliberate, open and peaceful violation of particular laws, decrees,
regulations ... and the like which are believed to be illegitimate for some
reason'.
The goal of noncooperation is to
halt or hinder an industry, political system, or economic process.
Nonviolent intervention
This is a class of methods
involving the disruption or destruction of established behaviour patterns,
policies, relationships or institutions which are considered objectionable, or
the creation of new behaviour patterns, policies, relationships or institutions
which are preferred. The disruption class
of methods includes nonviolent occupations or blockades, fasting, seeking
imprisonment and overloading facilities (such as courts and prisons). The creation class of methods
includes establishing alternative political, economic and social
institutions such as non-hierarchical cooperatives, markets, ethical investment
groups, alternative schools, energy exchange cooperatives as well as parallel
media, communications and transport networks. According to Sharp, (1973) This
class of methods is what the Gandhian literature refers to as the constructive
program. For example, to drastically forward a
nonviolent struggle into the opponent's territory. Another powerful tactic of
nonviolent intervention invokes public scrutiny of the oppressors as a result
of the resisters remaining nonviolent in the face of violent repression. If the
military or police attempt to repress nonviolent resisters violently, the power
to act shifts from the hands of the oppressors to those of the resisters. If
the resisters are persistent, the military or police will be forced to accept
the fact that they no longer have any power over the resisters. Often, the
willingness of the resisters to suffer has a profound effect on the mind and
emotions of the oppressor, leaving them unable to commit such a violent act
again.
TYPES OF NONVIOLENCE
Non-resistance
Non-resistants
reject all physical violence on principle and concentrate on maintaining their
own integrity, e.g. the attitude of the Amish and Mennonite sects of
Christians.
Active Reconciliation
A
Faith-based rejection of coercion and a belief in active goodwill and
reconciliation, for example as practiced by Quakers and other religious
activist groups.
Moral Resistance
Moral
resisters actively resist evil with peaceful and moral means such as education
and persuasion. This has been the basis of much of Western pacifism.
Selective Nonviolence
The
refusal to participate in particular wars or kinds of war, e.g. nuclear war.
Passive Resistance
Nonviolent
tactics are employed because the means for an effective violent campaign are
lacking or are not likely to succeed; e.g. most strikes, boycotts and national
non-cooperation movements belong to this category.
Peaceful Resistance
Peaceful
resisters believe that nonviolent methods are more effective; e.g. some of
Gandhi's campaigns fall into this category because many of his followers did
not fully internalise what he taught.
Nonviolent Direct
Action
Practitioners
may view nonviolence as a moral principle or practical method. The object is
victory rather than conversion. An example is provided by the Greenham Common
actions.
Gandhian Nonviolence
(Satyagraha)
Satyagraha
aims to attain the truth tnrough love and right action; it demands the elimination
of violence from the self and from the social, political and economic
environment. Gandhi's Salt Satyagraha is a classic example.
Satyagraha - The
Nonviolence of Mahatma Gandhi
Satyagraha, Gandhi explained, is literally holding onto Truth and
it means, therefore, Truth-force. Truth is soul or spirit. It is therefore
known as soul force (Young,
1921). The technique of nonviolent struggle that Gandhi evolved in South Africa
to gain rights for Indians was originally described by the English phrase passive
resistance. Gandhi, however felt that the term was too narrowly constructed,
that it was supposed to be a weapon of the weak, that it could be characterized
by hatred and that it could manifest itself as violence (Gandhi, 1966). These
attributes were not applicable to his method of direct action and so he coined
the new word 'satyagraha' (sat: truth,agraha: firmness).
Satyagraha implies working steadily towards a discovery of the
truth and converting the opponent into a friend in the process. In other words,
it is not used against anybody but is done with somebody. 'It is based on the idea that the moral
appeal to the heart or conscience is ... more effective than an appeal based on
threat or bodily pain or violence' (Gandhi, 1961). And for Gandhi it had to be
a creed, a way of life, to be truly effective.
Nonviolent Revolution
Revolutionaries
believe in the need for basic individual and social change and regard the major
problems of existing society as structural, e.g. the campaigns of Jayaprakash
Narayan and Vinoba Bhave in India.
The 1989 "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia
that saw the overthrow of the Communist government
is considered one of the most important of the largely nonviolent Revolutions of 1989.
However, Malcolm X also clashed with civil rights leaders
over the issue of nonviolence, arguing that violence should not be ruled out
where no option remained:
In his book How
Nonviolence Protects the State, anarchist Peter Gelderloos
criticises nonviolence as being ineffective, racist, statist, patriarchal,
tactically and strategically inferior to militant activism, and deluded.
Gelderloos claims that traditional histories whitewash the impact of
nonviolence, ignoring the involvement of militants in such movements as the Indian
independence movement and the Civil Rights movement and falsely showing Gandhi and King as being their
respective movement's most successful activist. He further argues that
nonviolence is generally advocated by privileged white people who expect
"oppressed people, many of whom are people of color, to suffer patiently
under an inconceivably greater violence, until such time as the Great White
Father is swayed by the movement's demands or the pacifists achieve that
legendary 'critical mass.
Nonviolent
Action in Australia: Tactical And Pragmatic
When groups engage in political action, nonviolence is often
chosen as the means for securing the ends sought. It is seen as an effective
means of coercing concessions from the opponent. Pragmatic nonviolence is more
concerned with the potential of individuals to realise their own power, in
order to alter power relationships than with concerns about the arrival at truth. Nonviolent action may be chosen
because no other 'weapons' or levers of power are available, or because it is
deemed to be the most effective means in the circumstances, even if other
weapons are available.
In Australia, as elsewhere, even minor disturbances at
demonstrations tend to become the focus of the attention of the news media,
often to the exclusion of any meaningful discussion about the original reasons
for the protest. Therefore, it is argued, the surest way to garner public
support for the real issues is to remain nonviolent, especially in the face of
State repression.
The Franklin River
Campaign
The most notable campaign in recent years which utilised
nonviolent action in the tactical-pragmatic sense was the Franklin River
campaign. The decision to conduct nonviolent actions at various locations
adjacent to the proposed Gordon River dam site and in the major cities of
Australia reflected the realisation by the (then) Tasmanian Wilderness Society
that lobbying the Tasmanian and Federal Governments was not proving effective.
It was decided to use various nonviolent actions, and most notably the blockade
on the Gordon River (of which the Franklin is a tributary), in order to raise
awareness of the issue and to put more pressure on the federal parliamentary
parties in the runup to the federal election in 1983. In effect, nonviolent
action was seen as the most effective means of coercing concessions from the
Government.
In this campaign there were many different perspectives on the
meamng of nonviolent action (among activists located at the base camps and up
river) reflecting the usual diversity of views regarding such issues as secrecy
and sabotage. Despite these differences there was a broad understanding that the
purpose of the campaign was to pressure the parliamentary parties to 'save the
Frankin'. Campaign direction and activist effort was focussed on this
short-term goal. Even so, it should be noted, some longer term issues were
raised by such factors as the emergent community appreciation of wilderness,
and, in the context of the blockade itself, the utility of mass arrest as a
nonviolent tactic. In the end, the dam was stopped following the election of a
new government and a High Court decision.
References
Gandhi, M. K (1966) An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth,
London,
Jonathan
Cape.
Gandhi, M. K (1961) Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), New York, Schocken.
Gregg, R. B (1966) The Power of Non-Violence, New
York, Schoken.
Sharp, G (1971) A
Study of the Meaning of Nonviolence in G.Ramachandran and
T.K. Mahadesan,
(eds). Gandhi: His Relevance for our Times. Berkeley,
World Without War.
Pp. 21-66.
Sharp, G (1973) The Politics of Nonviolent Action,
Boston, Porter Sargent.
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