Mr. Nurenberg's Pages - Peace and Nonviolence Resources

Nonviolence has a scholarly field, just like Biology or Literature or any other human endeavor. Some of its foundational theorists include Gene Sharp, Kenneth Boulding, Thich Nhat Hanh, Elise Boulding and Michael Nagler. Nonviolence, as defined by these scholars, is not inaction, passivity, or "playing nice." Instead, it is a series of political and economic maneuvers, with as many tactics as war.

Here are at least 198 methods of nonviolent action.

I will try and synthesize/summarize their theories as follows: The idea of power is more complicated than just someone threatening to shoot or hit you. There are ways to exert and manipulate power that can even triumph over someone who has the ability to inflict violence upon you. Think about money - it has a lot of power, right? But that power only comes from people's belief in it...otherwise, dollars are just green pieces of paper. According to Nonviolence theory, governments, and even the armies they control, work the same way. Nonviolence is the art of using various means and tactics to both establish power for yourself and to rob power from those who would oppose you.

Concurrent with this belief is a challenging of the myth that violence works. Although popular fiction and movies present consequence-free implementations of violence, in real life even the "winner" of a war suffers terrible costs monetarily, structurally, politically and psycho-emotionally. Nonviolence theory demands accountability of the use of force - what goals did it achieve, and at what cost to all involved?

Examples

Popular misconceptions about nonviolence include:

* Nonviolence is the same as appeasement or surrender
* Nonviolence entails just sitting back and doing nothing
* Nonviolence was only tried a few times in history (like Gandhi)
* It only works against "nice" opponents.
* All "real" conflicts were solved by violence.

In fact, nonviolence has been an instrument of change all over the world, in conflicts both within and between nations and groups, has as many tactics as violent conflict, and as many successes and failures. For every war, at least one side loses because of ineffective violent tactics - do we therefore say war never works? Of course not. Nonviolence, just like war, sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. It has worked against opponents as "not nice" as Stalin, Hitler and Milosevic, and it continues to be employed today.

Why haven't I heard about nonviolence, then? Why didn't my history textbook teach me about these incidents? Why didn't major newspapers cover them on the front page? Good questions. Keep asking them.

Some historical and contemporary examples contemporary examples are listed below.

The successful freeing of thousands of political prisoners in Nazi Germany in 1943 thanks to a nonviolent demonstration by German women.
In late 2003, the people of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia overthrew their corrupt government nonviolently.
Where US and UN military force failed to restore order through violence in Somalia, nonviolent efforts from the Somali people were making progress in 1991-1997. A particularly successful movement was the Sixth Clan, one of many women's peacemaking efforts around the world.

The East-West Institute's nonviolent contributions to the downfall of Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic in 1999-2000. A popular misconception is that the NATO bombings played a decisive role in unseating the dictator, but in fact nonviolent resistance eroded his power before and after, including OTPOR's resistance campaign in 1998-2000.
Argentina and Chile almost went to war in 1978-1984, stopped only by nonviolent intermediation. Read about intermediation in this and other conflicts , and at this site as well.
Arms proliferation is out of control, and the powerful nations, including the US, are no exceptions. Read about international think -tank Saferworld's success in arms export control in 1992-2001 where European powers failed. Could it be that nonviolence works better at curtailing WMDs than violence?
COPPED (Committee for the Protection of People's Dignity) played a key role in preventing violence in Nigeria in 2000.

Moral Re-Armament defusing violence in India in 1967-1972. Yes, Indian nonviolence did not begin and end with Gandhi, even though his work has achieved the most international fame.
Russian Orthodox Priest Georgii Gapon persuading 150,000 workers to march in 1905, an incident that led to the country's first popularly elected parliament.
A miner's strike in Germany in 1923 that thwarted the Belgian and French army's attempts to take over their resources.
Gandhi's famous civil disobedience in 1930-1931 that led to the expulsion of the British occupiers, then the most powerful military force in the world.
Danish citizens refusing to aid their Nazi occupiers in 1944, forcing Hitler to end the curfews and blockades in their country.
El Salvadoran students, doctors, and merchants forcing their military dictator out of power and into exile, all without firing a shot, in 1944.
Polish dissidents bringing about the end of Communism under Soviet rule through nonviolent actions.
Argentine mothers forcing their military government out of power through nonviolent marching in the 1980s, just as Filipinos ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
A largely nonviolent rebellion forcing the king of Nepal to give up most of his power and reinstate the legislature in 2006.

Introduction

Examples

Links to Organizations that Study - and Practice - Nonviolence and Peacemaking

(these links and text are taken ver batim from The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict's A Force More Powerful website)