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Nonviolent resistance (or nonviolent action) comprises the practice of applying power to achieve socio-political goals through symbolic protests, economic or political noncooperation, civil disobedience and other methods, without the use of violence. It has the guiding principle of nonviolence.

Passive resistance has a similar meaning, implying resistance by inertia or non-energetic compliance, as opposed to resistance by active antagonism.

Like other strategies for social change, nonviolent action can appear in various forms and degrees. It may include, for example, such varied forms as information wars, protest art, lobbying, tax refusal, boycotts or sanctions, legal/diplomatic wrestling, material sabotage, underground railroads, principled refusal of awards/honours, picketing, vigiling, leafletting, and/or general strikes.

Many leftist and socialist movements have hoped to invoke "peaceful revolution" by organizing enough strikers to completely paralyze their targets. With the state and corporate apparatus thus crippled, the workers would be able to re-organize society along radically different lines. This philosophy is favored by the legendary labor union Industrial Workers of the World, whose members are committed to organizing "One Big Union" of all workers who would launch the general strike that would end capitalism forever. There is also a current dedicated to revolutionary nonviolence within the Socialist Party USA.

Some scholars of nonviolence, arguing that many movements have pragmatically adopted the methods of nonviolent action as an effective way to achieve social or political goals, distinguish the methods of nonviolent action from the moral stance of nonviolence or non-harm towards others.

Types of nonviolent resistance

Gene Sharp has identified 198 methods of nonviolent action which practitioners may use to defend against invasions, undermine dictatorships, block coups d'état or challenge unjust social systems. They include:

Examples of nonviolent resistance

A list of current and recent nonviolent resistance organizations

History of nonviolent resistance

By the Jews against the Romans
One of the earliest incidents of nonviolent resistance known to history is found in the works of Flavius Josephus, who relates in both The Wars of the Jews and Antiquities of the Jews (book 18, chapter 3) how Jews demonstrated in Caesarea to try to convince Pilate not to set up Roman standards, with images of the emperor and the eagle of Jupiter, in Jerusalem (both images would be considered idolatrous by religious Jews). Pilate surrounded the Jewish protesters with soldiers and threatened them with death. They replied that they were quite willing to die rather than see the laws of the Torah violated. This protest action was successful in its immediate goal.

Chapter 24 of the Book of Alma, in the Book of Mormon, contains the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehi people, who had forsworn idolatry and violence. According to the Book of Mormon, sometime between 90 BC and 77 BC, people known as Anti-Nephi-Lehi allowed themselves to be slaughtered by their attackers rather than do violence even in self-defense. According to this story, many of the attackers were moved so strongly by the example of these peaceful people that they threw down their weapons and became pacifists themselves.

In the first stage of the American Revolution
Before the War for Independence started with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the American Revolution was mostly nonviolent. There were a few instances of violence against persons (e.g. The Boston Massacre) and against property (e.g. The Boston Tea Party), but for the most part, revolutionary actions during the first ten years (1765 to early 1775) of the Revolution included:
  • Tax Resistance.
  • Boycotts of British imports.
  • Organization of Committees of Correspondence.
  • Petitions to the King and Parliament.
  • Publication of Pamphlets and Newspapers.

In nineteenth-century Trinidad
Trinidad, in the West Indies, was the site of successful nonviolent protest and resistance that accelerated the liberation of slaves there. The United Kingdom, then the colonial power in Trinidad, first announced in 1833 the impending total liberation of slaves by 1840. In the meantime the authorities expected slaves on plantations to remain in situ and work as "apprentices" for the next six years.

On 1 August 1834, at an address by the Governor at Government House about the new laws, an unarmed group of mainly elderly negroes began chanting: Pas de six ans. Point de six ans ("Not six years. No six years"), drowning out the voice of the Governor. Peaceful protests continued until the passing of a resolution to abolish apprenticeship and the achievement of de facto freedom. The authorities finally legally granted full emancipation for all - ahead of schedule - on 1 August 1838.

In colonial India
The story of nonviolent resistance in colonial India is synonymous with the story of the Non-Cooperation Movement and Mahatma Gandhi. Besides bringing about Independence, Gandhi's nonviolence also helped to improve the status of Untouchables in Indian religion and society. In the conflicts that ensued from Independence and Partition, Gandhi is credited with keeping Calcutta and the whole eastern border of India peaceful.

In communist Poland

see Waldemar Frydrych (Orange Alternative), Solidarity

In the United States

see also American Civil Rights Movement

In segregated South Africa
The ANC and allied anti-apartheid groups initially carried out non-violent resistance against pro-segregation and apartheid governments in South Africa, see Defiance Campaign. However, events such as the Sharpeville massacre (21 March 1960) led ANC activists like Nelson Mandela to believe in the necessity of violent (or armed) resistance. Mandela founded Umkhonto we Sizwe (the Spear of the Nation). It initially carried out acts of sabotage but later expanded to guerrilla warfare against the South African security forces, including the use of car bombs. The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and other groups carried out violent acts against the government. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission accused all anti-apartheid groups of killing civilians in violent acts. The PAC's armed wing faced accusations of deliberately killing white civilians and blacks who co-operated with the government. The apartheid government regarded all violent acts by anti-apartheid groups as acts of terrorism.

see also: Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko

In Israel and the Palestinian Territories
While Palestinians have often used stone-throwing, armed action and suicide bombings against Israel, including attacks on civilian targets, non-violent methods have also been used. Palestinian groups have worked with Israelis and foreign citizens to organise civilian monitors of Israel military activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The best-known of these initiatives is perhaps the International Solidarity Movement. Peace camps and non-violent resistance to Israeli construction of settlements and of the West Bank Barrier have also been consistently adopted as tactics by Palestinians. Citizens of the Palestinian village of Beit Sahour also engaged in a tax strike during the First Intifada.

see also: Mubarak Awad

In Israel, protestors against Israel's unilateral disengagement plan of 2004 used nonviolent resistance against the impending evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and some settlements in the West Bank. On May 16, 2005, protesters blocked many traffic intersections at 5:00pm, leading to massive traffic jams and delays throughout the country. Although the police had received advance notification of the action, they had much difficulty in opening the intersections to vehicles, eventually arresting over 400 protesters, many of them juveniles. Organizers of the protests regarded this deed only as an opening volley, with the large protests planned to begin when the Israeli authorities cut off entry into the Gaza Strip in preparation of the disengagement. In the event, large-scale civil disobedience did not occur in Israel proper, although some settlers and their supporters resisted the evacuation non-violently.

see also: Moshe Feiglin

In Denmark during World War II
When the Wehrmacht invaded Denmark in 1940, the Danes soon saw that military confrontation would change little except the number of surviving Danes. The Danish government therefore adopted a policy of official co-operation (and unofficial obstruction) which they called "negotiation under protest."

On the industrial front, Danish workers subtly slowed all production that might feed the German war machine, sometimes to a perfect standstill. On the cultural front, Danes engaged in symbolic defiance by organizing mass celebrations of their own history and traditions.

On the legislative front, the Danish government insisted that since they officially co-operated with Germany, they had an ally's right to negotiate with Germany, and then proceeded to create bureaucratic quagmires which stalled or blocked German orders without having to refuse them outright. Danish authorities also proved conveniently inept at controlling the underground Danish resistance press, which at one point reached circulation numbers equivalent to the entire adult population.

The Danish government also gave room (and even secret assistance) to underground groups involved in sabotage of machinery and railway lines needed to extract Danish resources or to supply the Wehrmacht. The classification of this kind of resistance as "nonviolent" remains debatable, but it certainly proved less "violent" than engaging in or supporting terrorism directed at taking life or health from the occupiers.

Even after the official dissolution of their government, the Danes managed to block German goals without resorting to bloodshed. Underground groups smuggled over 7000 of Denmark's 8000 Jews temporarily into Sweden, at great personal risk. Workers (and even entire cities like Copenhagen) went on mass strikes, refusing to work for the occupier's benefit on the occupier's terms. After an initial response of greatly increased repression, the war-distracted Germans abandoned strike-breaking efforts in exasperation.

The Danish resistance against the Nazis proved highly effective, but it raises characteristic questions about the efficacy of nonviolence. The Danes clearly lost very few lives, while annoying and draining their foreign occupiers. But some people wonder whether the Danish strategy might not have failed abysmally if applied in other countries occupied by Germany and where German forces ruled through naked terror.

It almost certainly would have proved a more painful strategy for Denmark in such a circumstance (as in the case of the successful but agonizing nonviolent resistance to apartheid in South Africa), but as in the case of the Gandhian solution of perfect global surrender to the Nazis followed by perfect global non-cooperation with them, many questions of efficacy remain in the realm of the hypothetical. And due to the decentralized and various nature of nonviolent advocacy, questions about possible compatibility with violent resistance, or even about precise definitions of "nonviolent tactics" have no categorical answers.

In Germany during World War II
main article: German Resistance.

Even in Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Nonviolent Resistance was effectively used to save Jewish lives. In 1943, Frau Israel and other non-Jewish ("Aryan") women protested against the deportation of their Jewish husbands to Auschwitz. The women were in real danger of being massacred themselves. At one point, the SS set up machine guns on Rose Street where the protest was held. In the end, however, the deportations were halted, and some men came back from Auschwitz with their numbers tattooed on their arms. The Nazis planned to exterminate both the Jewish men and their non-Jewish wives after the end of the War, but this was prevented by the victory of the Allies.

The White Rose student group, including Sophie Scholl, distributed leaflets encouraging Germans to stop Hitler.

The Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) was a Christian resistance movement in Nazi Germany.

In Norway during World War II
Norway's teachers, in spite of great suffering, successfully prevented the Nazification of Norway's educational system and society attempted by collaborationist leader Vidkun Quisling.

The British Mandate of Palestine

During the years 1936 to 1947, in spite of severe persecution and even extermination of the Jewish population of Europe, the British authorities severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine. Jewish resistance by a minority was violent, but for the most part it consisted of the smuggling of refugees into the land, evading the British blockade. The most famous incident of such resistance was the voyage of the Exodus 1947. The brave and nonviolent resistance of the Jewish refugees impressed world opinion so much that a majority of the United Nations shortly afterwards voted to establish a Jewish State in Palestine. In the next year, 1948, this became the Nation of Israel.

The farmers of Larzac (France)
In 1971, the French government announced their intention to extend the military camp on the Larzac plateau, an arid area in southern France where they claimed that "almost nobody lived". Local farmers strongly disagreed with this assessment and, inspired by the example of Lanza del Vasto (a philosopher and follower of Mahatma Gandhi who had gone on hunger strike for two weeks in their support), they embarked on a campaign of non-violent resistance.

In 1972 the farmers' struggle attracted world-wide media coverage when they brought 60 sheep to graze on the lawn under the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The issue became a famous cause among many groups, from ecologists to conscientious objectors, and in 1973 100,000 people attended a demonstration in Paris in support of the farmers of Larzac.

The fight lasted until 1981, when the newly-elected socialist French President François Mitterrand abandoned the project.

Now instead of a military camp they have the Millau Viaduct and the A75 autoroute.

Against nuclear weapons

see also Mutlangen, Committee for Non-Violent Action

In the Pacific
  • The Moriori were a branch of the New Zealand Māori that colonized the Chatham Islands. However the Chathams proved too unhospitable for the Māori technology and the Moriori became earth-bound hunter-gatherers. The lack of resources and the scarce population made any kind of war unsustainable. Disputes were resolved nonviolently or with ritual singular combats. When in the 19th century, New Zealand Māoris chartered a ship to invade the Chathams, the Moriori tried to apply their traditional means of resolution, but the Māori enslaved and cannibalized them.
  • In the 1870s through 1890s, the Māori village of Parihaka was subjected to illegal seizure of land by the New Zealand administration. The followers of the prophet Te Whiti o Rongomai carried nonviolent protests.
  • The Mau movement was the name given to the popular nonviolent movement for Samoan independence from colonial rule in the early 20th century. There was a less successful movement in American Samoa.

In the Middle-East

In China
The Mohist philosophical school disapproved war. However, since they lived in a time of warring polities, they cultivated the science of fortification. By making invasion infructuous, the hoped to discourage war.

During the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, an unknown man was famously photographed putting himself in the way of tanks engaged in a government assault on protesters.

In Czechoslovakia
In the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovakian citizens responded to the attack on their sovereignty with passive resistance. Russian troops were frustrated as street signs were painted over, their water supplies mysteriously shut off, and buildings decorated with flowers, flags, and slogans like, "An elephant cannot swallow a hedgehog."

In Ireland
main article: Irish War of Independence, The Troubles

During the Irish War of Independence, 1919-1921 and the recent Troubles in Northern Ireland, nationalists used many non-violent means to resist British rule. Amongst these was abstention from the British parliament, setting up a local government, tax boycotts, setting up a local court system and a local police force. However, the efficacy of these acts is debatable since they occurred in tandem with violent resistance. In Northern Ireland, just as the Civil Rights Movement began to take off, violence also erupted leaving open questions as to what might have been achieved through strictly non-violent means.

See also

Publications

External links

Waiting for the Palestinian Gandhi by john petrovato: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=030106210355

Social justice | Community organizing | Nonviolence

Gewaltfreie Aktion | Đấu tranh bất bạo động

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Nonviolent resistance".

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