Tuesday, 12 September 2017

Non-violence strategy and its applicability.



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.

No comments:

Post a Comment

International women's day

  The first International Women’s Day occurred on March 19 in 1911. The inaugural event, which included rallies and organized meetings, was ...