Throughout history, people have fought against their oppressors, and almost always this has meant turning to the axe.
However, in the 20th century, a man named Mohandas Karamchanda Gandhi proposed another way to fight for freedom and dignity - non-violent resistance ("Satyagraha"). This strategy was not justified by pragmatic considerations (the futility of armed confrontation with the colonial army), but stemmed from the religious and moral convictions of the great Hindu. The main idea is in an effort to influence the prudence and advice of the enemy through: 1) renunciation of violence (ahimsa); 2) willingness to endure pain and suffering. According to Gandhi's theory, violence sooner or later leads to an increase in violence, but non-violence breaks the spiral of evil and makes it possible to turn the enemy into a like-minded person. Gandhi considers satyagraha not as a weapon of the weak, but on the contrary, as a weapon of the strongest in spirit.
Mahatma Gandhi with his granddaughters in 1947:
The tactics of the non-violent struggle for the liberation of India from British colonial rule in two forms: non-cooperation and civil disobedience.
The action began on August 1, 1920. The movement unfolded as a massive violation of the prohibitions of the authorities. English fabrics were solemnly burned in the squares. Shops that continued to sell English goods were picketed. Indian officials submitted their resignations. Detachments of "volunteers" tried to go without the use of force where the police did not let them in, beating and arresting them. The prisons were overcrowded, but the movement did not stop.
At the height of the speech, the campaign of non-violent resistance was stopped by the Mahatma himself. On February 4, 1922, in the village of Chauri-Chaura, participants in a peaceful rally held as part of the non-cooperation campaign were fired upon by the police. The outraged crowd locked the policemen in the building and set them on fire. 21 police officers were killed along with an officer. Gandhi regarded this incident as an indication that the masses were not ripe for non-violent action and insisted on an immediate end to the struggle, contrary to the opinion of most of his associates. Despite this, the British authorities already arrested Gandhi on March 10 and convicted him of inciting anti-government actions to 6 years in prison.
As a result, India achieved independence still peacefully, but only 25 years later, and Gandhi himself was killed in 1948 by Hindu extremists.
Since then, the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi have gained millions of supporters around the world and, as they say, not only live, but also win. The Wikipedia article Nonviolent Resistance claims that between 1966 and 1999, nonviolent civic resistance played a decisive role in 50 out of 67 transitions from authoritarianism to democracy.
The experience of non-violent struggle for freedom and human rights is carefully studied and generalized, and the arsenal of means of peaceful resistance is constantly expanding. In particular, Gene Sharp's book lists "198 Methods of Nonviolent Action". But it was written long before the advent of the Internet and social networks!
symbolic protests. Some also consider blocking transport communications and damaging or destroying property as non-violent means of struggle (see, for example, the article Ecological terrorism).
In the twentieth century, non-violent resistance began to be actively used both in socio-political struggle and in civil (non-military) resistance to a foreign aggressor (for example, in the case of the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany in 1940 and in the case of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries in 1968 .). Between 1966 and 1999, nonviolent civic resistance played a decisive role in 50 of the 67 transitions from authoritarianism to democracy.
Nonviolent resistance is the opposite of both passive acceptance of social injustice, oppression, and armed struggle against them. As historical experience shows, the socio-political practice of non-violent resistance is developing in the presence of civil society.
The peculiarity of nonviolent resistance and conflict resolution lies in the fact that an attempt is made to appeal to the mind and feelings of the opposing side, to force it to recognize the correctness and moral superiority of the participants in the resistance. When confronting external aggression, it is assumed that the use of non-violent resistance should demoralize the enemy soldiers, make them doubt the correctness of the actions of their state.
Non-violent tactics make it possible to conduct such a struggle, which, although based on indignation at injustice and violence, does not nevertheless arouse anger and hatred in the fighters. In cases of intra-national conflicts, it is obvious that irreconcilability, hatred, and the preservation of mutual alienation do not contribute to their solution, since in any outcome of the struggle, people representing the opposing sides will have to live together. The consistent application of non-violence in such conflicts preserves the rule of law and protects human dignity.
Proponents of a normative approach to nonviolence insist on the principled nature of nonviolence. They are convinced that in every case of non-violent resistance it must be inspired not only by the immediate goal, but also by lofty thoughts, religious beliefs, and ethical principles. They believe that the technique of nonviolent struggle can be implemented with the greatest consistency if people profess appropriate principles, and not simply choose the most effective tactics possible for reasons of prudence, practicality. The ideologists of non-violent struggle as a fulfillment of a religious and moral duty associated with spiritual self-improvement were Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the struggle (satyagraha) against discrimination against Hindus in South Africa, and then the struggle against British colonial rule in India, and Martin Luther King, leader of the Movement for Civil black rights in the US. Supporters of this approach are also concerned that nonviolent struggle can be used as an effective means to achieve unworthy goals. Private, selfish interests, protected by means of non-violent struggle, can have a destructive effect on the social organism, be a source of new injustice.
Proponents of the pragmatic approach argue that the principle of non-violence remains only a good wish, if the technical possibilities of its application in large-scale actions are not worked out, if these actions are carried out without appropriate strategic and tactical leadership.
see also
Notes
Links
- Section "Non-violence" in the library of Ya. G. Krotov
- M. Stefan, E. Chenoweth Why does civil resistance work? The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict
- W. Meyers Non-violence and its violent consequences
- M. Auer Strange War
- Thomas Merton Nonviolent Resistance to Fascism
- D. McReynolds Philosophy of non-violence (English)
- Gene Sharp 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
See what "Nonviolent Resistance" is in other dictionaries:
RESISTANCE NON-VIOLENT- - one of the types of social opposition, which consists in limiting or completely blocking the actions of the opposite side, causing damage to the resister, but excluding any. retaliatory violent actions against her. ... ...
The ethical principle, according to which the boundaries of morality (morality) coincide with the denial of violence; post-violent stage of the fight against social injustice. The term N. (similar to German Gewaltlosigkeit, English nonviolence) is a tracing paper ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
- (1869 1948), one of the leaders of the Indian national liberation movement, its ideologist. Lawyer by education. In 1893-1914 he lived in South Africa. Experienced a strong influence of L. N. Tolstoy. In 1915 he returned to India and soon headed the Indian Party ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Nelson Holilala Mandela braid Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ... Wikipedia
Black and white anarcho-pacifist flag. Anarcho-pacifism (also pacifist anarchism or anarchist pacifism) is a direction within the anarchist movement that has rejected ... Wikipedia
INTERACTION CONFLICT- - one of the types of social interaction, which consists in counteracting the conflicting parties and taking place against the background of pronounced negative emotions experienced by them in relation to each other. The essence of V. to. is opposition. It can…… Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy
A social relationship in which some individuals (groups of people), with the help of external coercion, which poses a threat to life up to its destruction, subjugate others, their abilities, productive forces, property; usurpation… … Philosophical Encyclopedia
Satyagraha (Skt. सत्याग्रह, satyāgraha IAST, “striving for truth”, “perseverance in truth”), in India during the period of English colonial rule, the tactics of non-violent struggle for independence in two forms: non-cooperation and ... ... Wikipedia
One gets the feeling that every day there are more and more reasons to protest, and there are less and less accessible and safe ways to do this: you can go to jail even for an unsuccessful like. Fortunately, there are plenty of legal and non-violent ways to express your outrage, most of which we have collected in this material. About the approximate chances to influence the world, sitting at the computer screen, we will tell in the second part of the guide.
Be sure to check if these methods are legal in your country. As they say, Russian is good, German is death. Or vice versa.
missionary
1st century AD e.
Efficiency:
What do you need:
patience, humility
and vehicle
Perhaps the first popularizer of nonviolent protest was Jesus. He responded to the persecution of the authorities with forgiveness and blessing, and his only weapon was the word. And although, by the standards of that time, he lost the confrontation with the authorities, and humility brought him to death, history put everything in its place. A similar fate, literally or figuratively, awaits many of those who choose the path of non-violent protest.
Picket
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
like-minded people
Traditionally, the history of non-violent resistance and protest is usually counted from the beginning of the 20th century and is associated with workers' strikes, the names of Martin Luther King and Gandhi. In fact, the people began to choose peaceful ways of confrontation much earlier, and a politically effective precedent occurred in Judea a little later than Jesus.
The Roman procurator Pontius Pilate offended the religious feelings of the Jews by installing images of Caesar in the city. Outraged people took to the square, demanding to dismantle the portraits. After suffering for several days, the prefect ordered his soldiers to surround the demonstrators and threaten to kill them if they did not disperse. The crowd replied that they would rather die than "create an idol for themselves", and Pilate had to remove the images.
Ban on military action
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
Less fortunate were the Moriori people, who existed in New Zealand until the beginning of the 14th century. The Moriori were hunters and gatherers, and their small population and scarce resources did not allow them to wage war, so they imposed a ban on military action and preferred to resolve all issues peacefully, as a last resort - through rituals. As expected, the world turned out to be too cruel for them: the Maori who arrived on a European ship from the North Island slaughtered their neighbors, and those who were not killed were turned into slaves. More and more interesting about the tragic history of Moriori is written in the novel Cloud Atlas, but we still pay attention to more encouraging stories.
The idea of civil disobedience was formulated by the abolitionist Henry Thoreau. In his work "On Civil Disobedience" (1849), he showed that the refusal to pay taxes can be an important means of counteracting the unjust policies of the state - the basis of a non-violent, peaceful revolution.
Leaflets, pamphlets and books
William Garrison
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
platform
In 1831, in Massachusetts, 26-year-old William Harrison, together with his friend Isaac Knapp, launched the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, in the first issue of which he wrote: “I do not want to think, speak or write about slavery in moderate terms. No and no again! Is it possible to advise a person whose house is on fire to calmly sound the alarm or to persuade a mother whose child is left in the fire, not rushing to save him? .. It is equally useless to incline me to moderation in such a matter as this.
A few years later, he draws up a "Declaration of Feelings", calling for resisting evil by means that exclude violence. In it, Garrison formulated principles of civil disobedience that continued the tradition of Quaker and Perfectionist Christian anarchism: to refuse to support an unrighteous government meant not to vote, not to hold public office, not to go to court, and not to carry out military service. At the end of 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery throughout the country, the newspaper was solemnly closed.
Singing
natives
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
like-minded people
If writing does not appeal to you, you can turn to the experience of those who could not achieve what they wanted with a word and resorted to another talent - singing. In 1833, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland promised to free all slaves in its Trinidad colony by 1840. A year later, during the Governor's State of the Union address, a group of elderly unarmed men of African descent gathered outside the government. The men sang loudly: “No to six years. No six years”, drowning out the voice of the governor. Peaceful protests continued until the resolution to abolish slavery was signed.
Tax waiver
Women's Tax Opposition League
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
income, willingness to go to jail
Beatrice Harraden, a member of the Women's Tax Opposition League, said in 1913: “The least that every woman can do is refuse to pay taxes, especially the tax on her own income. The culmination of the injustice and stupidity of the government is that they ask us to pay tax on income that we have earned with our own mind, but do not consider us smart enough to vote.
The same method was used by the suffragette movement in the United States. The well-known phrase "The government may rob me because it is stronger, but I will not turn my pockets before it" belongs to the American suffragist Anna Howard Shaw.
Symbolic capture of values
Mahatma Gandhi
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
imagination, followers
On April 5, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi with 79 of his followers walked from the city of Ahmedabad to the coast of the Arabian Sea near the village of Dandi. After the end of the 390-kilometer hike, during which more and more followers joined the group of protesters, the participants began defiantly evaporating salt from sea water. At the same time, as a sign of violation of the colonial salt monopoly, the participants of the Salt March did not pay the tax on salt.
After evaporating the salt in Dundee, the group moved south along the coast, continuing the action against the salt tax, intending to take action at the salt pans in Dharasana. A few days before the proposed action, Gandhi was arrested. The events of the Salt March attracted the attention of the media and the public around the world, the satyagraha against the salt monopoly lasted almost a year, ending with the release of Gandhi.
sit-in
workers union
1936–1937
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
conscientious colleagues
In order to avoid the arrogant whims of intrusive unions like decent wages and fixed hours, General Motors directors during the Great Depression shifted most of their work to factories where unions did not exist or were not active. Desperate factory workers in Michigan staged a sit-in, and their colleagues across the country joined them: in two weeks, the number of strikers exceeded 130,000 in 35 cities. As is often the case with the confrontations between the poor and the rich, the strike turned into riots through the efforts of both sides, but an important precedent was set.
group lobby
Danish public
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
conscientious fellow citizens
The easiest way to resist evil is in good company, so if you have the public, the church and the king of Denmark on your side, you can even defeat the Nazis. The largest European countries succumbed to Hitler's pressure and, if they did not contribute to the "solution of the Jewish question" (in other words, the deportation and murder of Jews), then they did not try to prevent it. Powerful resistance to anti-Semitism was shown only by Denmark, in which the Jewish community was not too numerous compared to other countries. The Danish public did not believe the anti-Semitic inflammatory articles in the Nazi press, and King Christian X of Denmark, in solidarity with Danish Jews, visited a synagogue in 1942 and delivered a speech there in defense of Jewish citizens.
From his words “if the Jews of Denmark are forced to wear a symbol that distinguishes them from other fellow citizens, then my family and I will also wear this symbol,” a legend was born that he himself threatened to pin a yellow star on his lapel.
Watches
Berliners
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
time, desperation
The demonstration at Rosenstraße in Berlin 27–28 February 1943 is the largest protest demonstration during the Third Reich condemning the actions of the regime. The demonstration was attended by ethnic German spouses and close relatives of Jews who were intended to be sent to concentration camps when, in February 1943, the SS and Gestapo began to arrest Jews remaining in Berlin and send them to extermination camps. Among those captured, of whom there were more than 8 thousand, there were many spouses from German-Jewish mixed marriages. They were kept in the building of the former Jewish almshouse on Rosenstrasse.
In the evening of the same day, a crowd of wives, husbands and relatives of the detainees spontaneously gathered in front of the building. For several days, several hundred people were constantly near the building, who replaced each other and demanded the release of their relatives. Starting from March 2, the gradual release of the captured began. 25 people from Rosenstrasse were sent to Auschwitz, but after a few weeks they were returned and released. As a result, almost all 2,000 people who were kept in the building were released.
Civil disobedience
Rosa Parks
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
courage
On a December 1, 1955 bus trip in Montgomery, Alabama, black seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in the colored section of the bus after all the seats in the white section were full. Her arrest and conviction "for disturbing the peace" sparked a massive boycott of public transportation by the African-American population of Montgomery. The boycott turned Rosa Parks into an international symbol of resistance to racial segregation and brought fame to boycott leader Martin Luther King. In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in bus service was a violation of the Constitution.
Desacralization of symbols
Hungarian oppositionist
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
flag, scissors
During a demonstration at the beginning of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, one of the protesters cut out the communist sickle and hammer from the center of the Hungarian flag, leaving a gaping hole in its place, and the rest followed suit. The “flag with a hole” has become a symbol of the Hungarian revolution.
Despite the absence of an element of violence, and even if the flag is your property, defacing it is punishable by law in many countries. According to article 329 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, for desecration of the state flag of Russia, you can even go to jail for a whole year.
For improper use of the anthem of the Russian Federation is punishable by a fine of 2 thousand rubles for citizens and up to 150 thousand rubles for legal entities.
Public performance
Martin Luther King
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
persuasive speech
The most famous public speech that became a key moment of the American Civil Rights Movement is Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. King gave a speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which was attended by over 200,000 people. The march was planned as a rally in support of the civil rights bill proposed by President Kennedy, so Martin Luther and other speakers were asked to keep their speeches in a positive tone and not provoke civil disobedience. It worked.
Fraternization with soldiers
anti-war movement
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
flowers, kindness
One of the iconic images of a hippie is a girl who holds out a flower to a soldier, and it almost completely corresponds to reality. The end of the Summer of Love in 1967 was the culmination of anti-war demonstrations to end the Vietnam War. The peaceful confrontation between the good hippies and the National Guard who met them did not last long: part of the crowd tried to enter the building, which led to clashes with the police, but thanks to photographs of flowers, the march on the Pentagon and the movement against the Vietnam War were remembered not just as peaceful, but truly romantic. .
Refusal to leave home
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
apartment
John Lennon and Yoko Ono are not fools - they quickly realized that the only thing better than a sit-in can only be lying down. Especially if you lie in the presidential suite of the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam. The couple lay under the covers and refused to go out, but willingly accepted the press as a guest: in this way they expressed their disagreement with the Vietnam War. The effect of their action on the course of the war was, most likely, zero, but it had a very positive effect on their career and presence in the press.
A more extreme form of strike is a hunger strike. Gandhi's follower Potti Sriramulu lived without food for 58 days, but his demands were never met.
Wearing symbols
Tommy Smith and John Carlos
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
Tommy Smith and John Carlos, African-American athletes who placed first and third in the 1968 Olympics, used their victory to make a political statement. Standing on a pedestal in black socks and black gloves, they raised their fists in a sign of black unity. Australian silver medalist Peter Norman donned the Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in solidarity. For this gesture at home, he was not met as a victorious hero, and Smith and Carlos were completely disqualified.
Symbolic "development" of land
environmental activists
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
survival skills
In 1978, a group of New Zealand activists originally opposed the deforestation of Pureora: they built houses on trees and refused to leave them. The government was forced not only to abandon deforestation, but also to declare it a park and establish the New Zealand Natural Forest Regeneration Fund, which protects the Pureora forest park today. One of the sectors was named after the activist Shirley Guildford, who built herself a reactionary house on one of the Pureora trees - now there are guided tours.
happening
"Orange Alternative"
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
It is easier to talk about happenings when they happen closer - in the same cultural plane, their causes and effects are easy to understand. For example, the Polish underground art group "Orange Alternative" sounds like something radical to the unprepared listener, but everything changes with the context. For example, one of the group's popular happenings was the distribution of toilet paper and pads to passers-by - in Wroclaw in the 1980s, such goods were in short supply. It would be absurd to forbid them to distribute, it is a shame to watch how adults almost squeal with happiness at the sight of toilet paper. The actions of the "Orange Alternative", among other things, sought to show the attachment of the communists to the meaningless and pompous celebrations of this or that date. Open marches organized by an art group with surreal slogans like "There is no freedom without gnomes!" became the progenitors of the Russian Monstration.
The first Monstration in Novosibirsk took place in 2004 and gathered about 80 people, since then it has been held annually. On May 1, 2014 Monstration gathered about 4,000 participants.
Non-violent blocking
own body
unknown hero
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
steel eggs
After the death of China's pro-democracy leader Hu Yaobang in 1989, students gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mourn the loss together. Over the course of seven weeks, the crowd of mourners grew and slowly grew into a demonstration of people who demanded more freedom. The Chinese government decided to crack down on the peaceful demonstration with military tanks and shooting into the crowd. One of the demonstrators went out onto the road and stood directly in front of the tank, blocking their passage. At some point, he even climbed onto the first tank and tried to get inside. His act did not save anyone - more than 200 people were killed on Tiananmen Square, and the great Chinese firewall protects our peers from too deep knowledge about what happened. The identity and further fate of the hero of the photograph remains a mystery, but his silhouette has become a symbol of the strength of despair in the struggle for justice.
A more successful history of non-violent blocking is the action of the ACT UP movement. In 1989, seven members of the group broke into the New York Stock Exchange building and chained themselves to VIP balconies. They demanded a reduction in the exorbitant price of the only medicine for HIV-infected people at that time. The drug's sponsor, the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome, set a price of $10,000 a year, out of reach for most patients. Days after the demonstration, the company reduced the cost of zidovudine to $6,400 per patient per year.
Stripping in protest
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
Despite the wave of indignation and condemnation that the Femen group is subjected to for their protests with public nudity, they did not come up with the method at all. Animal rights organizations often use nudity to draw attention to their concerns - campaigns with photographs of nude models and celebrities with the caption "Better naked than in furs" have not escaped anyone's attention.
In some African countries, a woman who exposes herself is perceived as a curse that can kill a person. The logic is that a woman who gives a man life can take it away, and does this by stripping herself. In Nigeria, this curse is used only in exceptional cases, and the man to whom it is directed is considered dead. No one will ever marry them, cook for them, buy anything for them or contact them in any way. Foreigners are also subject to this curse - Nigerians believe that damned foreigners will become impotent or fall ill with another terrible disease. It was this method of protest and intimidation that Nigerian women used to oppose the oil industry.
Cancellation
marital obligations
women of liberia
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
In 2002, during the second civil war in Liberia, Leyma Gbowee, then a social worker, organized a mass movement of Liberian women to end the war. The movement began with a small group of women who traded in the market in Monrovia, but over time, more and more Christian and Muslim women of Monrovia joined it. In addition to opinion and silent protest, the women of Liberia went on a sex strike, refusing to sleep with their husbands until they stop participating in the war. And they succeeded - in 2003, the second civil war in Liberia was over, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman president in African history, was elected president of the country.
Consumer boycott
American students against slave labor
EFFICIENCY:
WHAT DO YOU NEED:
mercy
Many of us sigh in disappointment when the label of the new clothes of the next H&M reveals a modest inscription "Made in Bangladesh". True, we are more concerned about the low quality, which is usually evidenced by the country of origin. But American students were upset that rich corporations save on salaries and working conditions of their employees. One day, the seamstresses of the Fruit of the Loom factory in Honduras formed a union to demand humane working conditions, and the owners chose to close the factory altogether so as not to waste time.
It so happened that many American universities ordered T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps and other alma mater-branded merchandise from Fruit of the Loom, and the students of these universities were not indifferent. In 2009, they launched a powerful campaign against the manufacturer. Students from 90 American universities and ten British ones managed to persuade the administration to terminate contracts with Fruit of the Loom until the corporation restores the factory and fulfills the demands of the unions. Due to the boycott, the company lost $50 million and was forced to comply with the demands of American and British students. A factory in Honduras has reopened, with 1,200 employees given their jobs back and generous compensation. So if you are concerned about the working conditions of those who make your clothes, you have a real opportunity to improve them. In any case, you can do much more than they can.
Hardly. In the current geopolitical situation, it would seem hard to argue that a violent uprising is a more appropriate way to overthrow a dictator than a non-violent one. Armed rebels backed by NATO put an end to the 40-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. At the same time in the east, in Syria, Bashar al-Assad massacred with impunity some 2,200 participants in a largely non-violent resistance to his family's years of rule. Nevertheless, the Syrian tactics paradoxically prove to be more successful than the Libyan one. As practice shows, from 1900 to 2006, nonviolent resistance to a dictatorship or colonial regime (military occupation does not count) led to success twice as often as violent resistance. Suffice it to recall the very recent past: even before the “Arab Spring”, non-violent campaigns in Serbia (2000), Madagascar (2002), Ukraine (2004), Lebanon (2005) and Nepal (2006) led to the fall of the local modes.
The reason is that nonviolent resistance usually attracts a much wider and more diverse audience. First of all, because the entry threshold is much lower: potential participants need to overcome fear, but not the moral anguish associated with violence. Civil resistance offers a range of not-so-risk tactics - boycotts, strikes, strikes (including Italian ones, when workers begin to strictly follow all official instructions), mass migrations (from strategically important and usually densely populated areas) that allow people to take part in protests without making huge personal sacrifices. The peaceful uprising in Egypt has united men and women, children and old people, students and workers, Islamists and Christians, rich and poor - nothing the country has known in recent decades.
Nima El-Sayed, 26; Lofty herself, 2; Yassin Lofty, 6 months old. The children and widow of one of the protesters who was killed during the unrest in Egypt.
Nonviolent resistance and pacifism are the same
Not at all. When people hear the word "non-violent" they often think of peaceful or passive resistance. Some think of pacifist groups, like the Burmese Buddhist monks, who prefer death to self-defense. Thus, non-violent or civil resistance is associated with the doctrine of non-violence, or pacifism - philosophies that, on moral grounds, reject the use of force as such. However, very few participants in the civil protest of the same "Arab Spring" can be called pacifists. Rather, they were ordinary people who opposed unbearable living conditions, refusing to obey the authorities, and this method of struggle is available to everyone, and it doesn’t matter if you are a pacifist or not. Even the icon of pacifism, Mahatma Gandhi, was a great strategist: he recognized that non-violence would work not because it was highly moral, but because mass disobedience and refusal to cooperate with the authorities would eventually force the British to leave India. “We must endure violence patiently,” he said. “By the very nature of human nature, if we do not pay attention to malice and violence, the person from whom they come will quickly get bored and stop.”
Leading Egyptian internet activists who covered the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square that led to the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (left to right): Mahnut Salim, 29, better known as Sandmonkey ("sand monkey", a derogatory nickname for people from North Africa). During the unrest, he was detained and beaten. Mona Seif, 25, is the daughter of prominent lawyer and human rights activist Ahmed Seif. In her blog, she described in detail the events in Tahrir. Gigi Ibrahim, 24, journalist and popular blogger. Hossam El-Khamalawi, 33, human rights activist, blogger and journalist.
Nonviolent resistance works better in some cultures than others
Not true. Nonviolent movements have emerged and achieved success around the world. The Middle East, often perceived by outsiders as a hopeless seething cauldron of violence, can boast of great achievements in this area - and before any "Arab Spring". The Iranian Revolution, during which the dictator Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was replaced in power by Ayatollah Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini, was essentially a non-violent uprising of more than two million people. The Palestinians advanced most along the path of self-determination and achieving peace with Israel when they practiced mass civil disobedience - staged demonstrations, strikes, boycotts, which were the main point of the first intifada of 1987-1992. It was then that Israel began negotiations with Palestinian leaders, the Oslo agreements were concluded, and a significant part of the world community was convinced that Palestine had the right to self-government. There are examples in the Western Hemisphere as well: peaceful uprisings in Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil toppled military juntas, replacing them with democratically elected presidents. The range of Asian countries is also very wide: India, Maldives, Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan. The non-violent movement against apartheid in South Africa has fundamentally changed the political, social and economic landscape of the country, while all attempts by the African National Congress (the oldest African party in South Africa. - Esquire) to arrange a violent revolution, by and large, have failed. The most iconic examples of non-violent resistance belong to Europe: the velvet revolutions in the countries of the socialist camp, the anti-Nazi movement in Denmark during World War II.
"We are all Khalid Said" Laida Saeed is the mother of 28-year-old Khalid Saeed, whose brutal police murder on June 6, 2010 sparked widespread riots and protests in Tahrir Square. Wail Ghonim, Google's director of marketing for the Middle East, was the first to share a photo of the deceased and set up a memorial page on Facebook called "We are all Khalid Saeeds."
Nonviolent Movements Succeed by Persuasion
Not always. Moral superiority is a necessary but not sufficient condition. To topple a dictator, a movement must be truly disruptive, and strategically. Nonviolent resistance does not always achieve its goals by persuading opponents and converting them to their faith. It succeeds when the main sources of power - the bureaucracy, the economic elite, and, of course, the security forces - refuse to submit to the regime. In this sense, nonviolent resistance is not much different from war, the main thing is to find the weaknesses of the enemy.
Take the recent events in Egypt. In the early days of the uprising, the army and security forces cracked down hard on the protests. But the demonstrators were ready for this: activists, inspired by recent examples of non-violent revolutions, distributed instructions on how to behave during the dispersal of rallies, and tried to put women, children and the elderly in the front ranks. Posters appeared on the streets urging soldiers to join the protesters and strongly discouraged the use of force. The leaders of the uprising were also careful to ensure that any act of aggression by the authorities was carefully captured on video and made public.
In the end, the Egyptian army refused to crack down on the protests, and Hosni Mubarak's regime lost its main source of power. And this is another advantage of peaceful protesters over small groups of armed rebels: it is much more difficult for the latter to win over the security forces to their side. The threat of violence usually unites the security forces in an effort to protect the regime and, by extension, themselves (which is why the Syrian authorities insist that they are confronting armed groups, not civilians).
Union leaders They helped organize the confrontation between the army and the police (from left to right): Kamal Abbas, 57, head of the Center for Trade Unions and Mutual Labor Assistance; Kamal Abi Eita, 58, head of the Real Estate Tax Union; Khalid Ali, 40, founder of the Center for the Protection of Economic and Social Rights, known for winning cases against the Mubarak government: lowering the minimum wage and illegal sale of state property.
Nonviolent resistance only works against weak or weak-willed regimes
Not true. Non-violent campaigns have led to the downfall of many murderous dictators at the height of their power. In fact, the vast majority of the most significant peaceful uprisings of the 20th century were directed against people such as General Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq in Pakistan, Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Suharto in Indonesia, as well as numerous colonial regimes. who seem to hold on tightly to their colonies. The famous demonstration on Rosenstrasse (February 27, 1943, ethnic Germans took to the streets of Berlin, relatives and friends of 8,000 Jews who were going to be sent to concentration camps, as a result of which 2,000 people were released. - Esquire) showed the weakness of the Nazis in the face of non-violent protest. The German women who went up against the SS won a small victory over one of the bloodiest regimes in the history of mankind, and this victory would not have been possible if they had taken up arms.
Almost all significant nonviolent campaigns of the 20th and 21st centuries have faced massive and violent suppression. For example, in Chile under Pinochet, oppositionists were tortured and kidnapped. In such a situation, participation in visible large-scale protests was very risky, so since 1983, opponents of the regime expressed their feelings in rather simple ways: banging pots and pans, walking the streets, singing songs about the imminent collapse of the dictatorship. They infuriated the dictator so much that at one point he even banned public singing. But these desperate steps showed his weakness, not strength. As a result, Pinochet broke down and in 1988 agreed to hold a referendum on whether he needed to remain president for another eight years. Opposition leaders seized the opportunity and organized a series of direct, non-violent actions that aimed to promote the "no" answer, fair vote counting, and Pinochet's accountability for the vote. When it became obvious that the dictator had lost, the military took the side of the Chilean people, and Pinochet left.
Youtube activist Sarra Abdel Rahman, 23, is a popular blogger whose YouTube channel sarrahsworld became popular after a series of reports about what was happening in Tahrir Square. Currently, Sarah's channel, subtitled Walla Eih ("not any"), has more than 2,500 regular subscribers, and Sarah herself declares that she dreams of a career as a television journalist and producer.
Sometimes rebels have no choice but to take up arms.
Not true. Now it is almost forgotten, but the civil war in Libya began with non-violent protests in Benghazi on February 15th. Demonstrations dispersed one after another, and by February 19, the opposition took up arms, killing and capturing hundreds of mercenaries and supporters of Muammar Gaddafi. In his scandalous speech on February 22, Gaddafi said that "peaceful protest is one thing, but an armed uprising is quite another", and promised to go "from house to house" in search of "rats" - the rebels. Few would agree to engage in unarmed resistance after such threats, and what began as a peaceful movement inevitably turned into a violent uprising. In the end, success awaited him, but at what cost! There are no exact figures yet, but at least 13,000 people have died in the Libyan civil war.
Could things have turned out differently? In hindsight, of course, everyone is strong, but if the Libyan rebels could really look back, they should point out a few of their own mistakes. First, the protest movement in Libya rose more or less spontaneously, in contrast to the wonderfully planned and coordinated Egyptian campaign. Secondly, the nonviolent movement has been fixated on one tactic - protests, in which case it becomes very predictable and easy prey for the regime. Successful movements combine rallies and demonstrations with well-calculated strikes, strikes and other methods of struggle that force the regime to disperse its forces. So, during the Iranian revolution, the strike of oil workers brought the country's economy to the brink of collapse. The Shah's security forces were literally dragging workers to the oil rigs, but they were just working half-heartedly, preparing for the next strike. Repressions of this kind, when it is necessary to drastically force large masses of people to work, are unacceptable, first of all, for the regime itself, since they require the coordination of a huge amount of resources and efforts.
Minority rights activist Bossam Bahgat, 31 years old. Head of the Egyptian Society for Personal Rights (EIRP), founded by him in 2002. The main goals that this organization sets for itself are: defending the rights of prisoners, various minorities - ethnic and religious (Copts and Baha'is), sexual ones - as well as attempts to resist the systematic torture used in the Egyptian judicial system, and the abolition of the death penalty.
Experience shows that the violent measures used by Gaddafi against peaceful Protestants are often destructive to the regime in the long run. In addition, the insurgents' sudden turn to violent resistance, which provoked a violent response from Gaddafi, simultaneously narrowed the protest audience, excluding from it people who, in principle, were ready to go to peaceful street demonstrations, but were not ready to get into a fight. Until NATO intervened in Libyan affairs, the opposition achieved its greatest successes precisely through non-violent resistance: mass protests, desertion in the highest echelons of power, the almost bloodless capture of Benghazi. But as soon as the rebels took up arms in response to the repressions of Gaddafi, they could no longer do without the help of NATO.
Or take Syria, where the decision to use force or not seems no less difficult. In August, after many months of peaceful demonstrations, Bashar al-Assad launched a full-scale military operation and bombed Hama and other opposition strongholds. It would seem that it's time to grab the machine gun, right?
But even in such cases, nonviolent movements have a way out. They can respond to the violence of the regime by changing their tactics. Actually, the Syrian opposition quite successfully did this, organizing flash mobs and nightly protests, which are relatively difficult to suppress. Daytime demonstrations are now planned more carefully: different escape routes, mirrors to blind snipers. Syrian activists have so far managed to avoid violence - and this is a fundamentally important decision that not only allows them to maintain the support of the broad masses of the people, but also introduces some confusion into the ranks of law enforcement agencies. The country's authorities have expelled all journalists from the rebellious cities and turned off the electricity, but the rebels charge their laptops with car batteries and make fake identities that allow them to get closer to the military, document human rights violations and spread information on the Internet.
Nonviolent resistance is essentially a form of asymmetric warfare. Dictators, of course, use their obvious advantages in the use of brute force in it. And the opposition needs to fight them, also using its strongest points - the strength of the people, unpredictability, the ability to adapt and creatively approach the situation.
Music activist Rami Essam, 23 years old. Singer, composer and guitarist, who became famous as the "Singer from the Square". Detained and beaten by Mubarak's supporters, shortly after his release, Essam recorded an album, which he called "The Square". In September 2011, Time Out magazine included his song "Irhal" in the list of the most uplifting protest songs in the history of music (Public Enemy's Fight the Power won first place).
Nonviolent uprisings lead to democracy
Not necessary. There is a traditional relationship between non-violent uprisings and subsequent democratization. And this is quite natural: a high level of political involvement and civic consciousness - factors that make non-violent resistance possible - leads to an increase in the level of democratization of society. But there are a number of important exceptions to this rule of thumb. The Iranian Revolution, one of the largest non-violent movements in human history, led to the emergence of a theocratic and authoritarian regime. The Philippines has gone through a series of peaceful uprisings but continues to struggle with corruption and dictatorship. After the Orange Revolution, Ukraine appeared to be entering an era of political liberalization, but subsequent events suggest that the country is turning back.
However, if in all these cases the resistance had been violent, the outcome would hardly have been more favorable. In most countries that have experienced bloody revolutions, the new regimes were no less, and often more brutal than the old ones: the civil war in Afghanistan, the revolutions in Russia, France and Cuba testify to this quite eloquently. As Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the Burmese democracy movement and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said, “Those who have achieved power are hard to convince of the wisdom of peaceful change.”
In summary, we can say the following: nonviolent resistance does not guarantee democracy, but it at least guarantees the lesser of possible evils. The very nature of the struggle for power often indicates how the country will develop in the future. And few people want to live in a state where the only source and means of maintaining power is force.
By Erica Chenoweth. Reproduced with permission from Foreign Policy . 2011 Washington Post. Newsweek Interactive LLC. 2011 Platon for Human Rights Watch.
Mahatma Gandhi needs no introduction. We all know the man who led the people of India to independence in 1947. Throughout history, people have fought against their oppressors, and this has almost always meant turning to the axe. However, in the 20th century, Mohandas Karamchanda Gandhi proposed another way to fight for freedom and dignity - non-violent resistance - Satyagraha.
This strategy was not justified by pragmatic considerations (the futility of armed confrontation with the colonial army), but stemmed from the religious and moral convictions of the great Hindu. The main idea is in an effort to influence the prudence and advice of the enemy through:
1) renunciation of violence (ahimsa);
2) willingness to endure pain and suffering.
According to Gandhi's theory, violence sooner or later leads to an increase in violence, but non-violence breaks the spiral of evil and makes it possible to turn the enemy into a like-minded person. Gandhi considers Satyagraha not as a weapon of the weak, but, on the contrary, as a weapon of the strongest in spirit.
Satyagraha - in India during the period of British colonial rule, the tactics of non-violent struggle for independence in two forms: non-cooperation and civil disobedience.
The purpose of satyagraha is to turn an opponent into an ally and friend - it is believed that appealing to conscience is more effective than threats and violence.
Gandhi offered the people of India a fundamentally new way of reviving the country (not an armed uprising and not the path of petitions to the colonialists). Gandhi proposed a "third way" - the path of Ahimsa, non-violence. Ahimsa means the inner decision of a person, which is based on the recognition of life and love for a person and all living things as the highest values. In the world there is not a struggle between good and bad people, but a struggle between Life and Death, Good and Evil in the soul of every person. Everyone is capable of refusing to support Evil, and Evil is powerless against this decision. At the same time, the refusal to participate in the affairs of evil leads a person to the Path of Building a new world - the World of Good.
The action began on August 1, 1920. The movement unfolded as a massive violation of the prohibitions of the authorities. English fabrics were solemnly burned in the squares. Shops that continued to sell English goods were picketed. Indian officials submitted their resignations. Detachments of "volunteers" tried to go without the use of force where the police did not let them in, beating and arresting them. The prisons were overcrowded, but the movement did not stop.
At the call of Mahatma Gandhi, the whole country is switching to self-sufficiency, refusing to buy British goods, including expensive fabrics. Mahatma himself sits down at the spinning wheel and makes himself clothes and shoes. Indians don't break the law, they just don't cooperate with the authorities. They buy only Indian goods (even if they are worse in quality!), they burn English fabrics that they once bought.
For the whole nation, this was a spiritual breakthrough, an inner discovery. It turns out that their political and economic dependence on England is the result of their cooperation with the colonialists! At first, the British shower Gandhi with ridicule, but soon they begin to experience shock - they are not noticed, their traditions are not revered, their trading companies suffer enormous losses. It comes to the point that the Indians do not notice the Crown Prince of Wales, who comes to India. The streets of cities die out when a distinguished guest appears there, the embodiment of sacred royal power.
At the height of the speech, the campaign of non-violent resistance was stopped by the Mahatma himself. On February 4, 1922, in the village of Chauri-Chaura, participants in a peaceful rally held as part of a non-cooperation campaign were fired upon by the police. The outraged crowd locked the policemen in the building and set them on fire. 21 police officers were killed along with an officer. Gandhi regarded this incident as an indication that the masses were not ripe for non-violent action and insisted on an immediate end to the struggle, contrary to the opinion of most of his associates. Despite this, the British authorities already arrested Gandhi on March 10 and convicted him of inciting anti-government actions to 6 years in prison.
As a result, India achieved independence still peacefully, but only 25 years later, and Gandhi himself was killed in 1948 by Hindu extremists.
Since then, the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi have gained millions of supporters around the world and, as they say, not only live, but also win. The Wikipedia article Nonviolent Resistance claims that between 1966 and 1999, nonviolent civic resistance played a decisive role in 50 out of 67 transitions from authoritarianism to democracy.
The experience of non-violent struggle for freedom and human rights is carefully studied and generalized, and the arsenal of means of peaceful resistance is constantly expanding. Specifically, Gene Sharp's book lists 198 methods of nonviolent action. But it was written long before the advent of the Internet and social networks!
According to Gandhi, satyagraha is a means for the practical and conscious violation of unjust laws: "Adhere to truth, the power of truth, the power of love, the power of the soul" and further: "The triumph of truth, the victory of truth, the victory of truth by the forces of soul and love."
Satyagraha is a peaceful uprising, an implacable struggle without malice or gunshots, in which people have no other weapon than their own lives, and which people fight because they cannot do otherwise.
Gandhi always emphasized that non-violence has nothing to do with weakness and cowardice: “A person who, faced with danger, behaves like a mouse, is rightly called a coward. He cherishes violence and hatred in his heart, and would have killed the enemy if he had not been harmed in doing so. He is a stranger to non-violence." Gandhi was tolerant of human weaknesses, but cowardice is disgusting to him precisely as hidden violence.
For Gandhi, non-violence is a struggle for Man! One can argue about the effectiveness of Satyagraha. However, England (!) voluntarily "left" India, abandoning its colonial claims.
Passive resistance
The Satyagraha limited the concept of "passive resistance", which Gandhi considered the weapon of the weak. Passive resistance avoided violence only because of the lack of weapons, but in principle did not renounce the use of violence.
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience involves the willful violation of morally contrary laws, especially the refusal to pay taxes. In a non-violent way, punishment (arrest, imprisonment) for breaking an unjust law is invoked and then patiently endured. In violation of the laws, one should show the utmost courtesy and friendliness towards the defenders of law and order, try not to provoke them in any way.
non-cooperation
It means the rejection of any agreements and contacts with an unjust ruling system. Makes "Civil Disobedience" in the sense described above unnecessary, so it's a safer way for ordinary people to fight.
Non-cooperation is carried out not with the opponents themselves, but with their unworthy actions. Satyagraha supporters can cooperate with government officials where they see an opportunity for positive development, since they do not hate the authorities. On the contrary, they are friendly towards their opponents. Through cooperation with them in what is not unworthy, the Satyagraha supporters seek to convince the opponent to give up bad, unworthy deeds. A Satyagraha fighter has an unlimited capacity to endure suffering without the desire to avenge it.
Forms of non-cooperation, which Gandhi, however, advised to use with caution, as they could cause anger and repression from the government:
*rejection of titles, titles and awards given by the government;
*exit from public service;
* exit from the police and the army;
* boycott of courts, schools and administrative institutions while creating alternative structures to keep public life functioning;
* refusal to purchase and use English goods, primarily textile products.
In the future, after the implementation of these conditions, a transition to the refusal to pay taxes by the population was supposed. The latter is inherently outside the scope of the non-cooperation movement. The impossibility of implementing disobedience to tax laws in the early stages of the movement, Gandhi explained by the unpreparedness of the masses. According to Gandhi, a "real" follower of Satyagraha should be, if not an ideal person, then at least approach him.
Vow
Taking a vow, according to Gandhi, is a sign of strength, not weakness. By his definition, the vow is: At all costs, do what needs to be done. Saying that he would do something "as far as possible" thus shows, according to Gandhi's convictions, his weakness. To do "as far as possible" means to give in to the first temptation. You cannot stick to the truth "as far as possible."
In 1915, the famous Indian writer Rabindranath Tagore first applied the title "Mahatma" - the Great Soul - to Mohandas Gandhi. However, Gandhi himself did not accept him, considering himself unworthy.
Gandhi actively fought against caste inequality and tried to improve the life of the "untouchables" as much as possible.
Despite the fact that Gandhi occupied a rather high position in society, he himself lived very modestly, wore the robes of a monk and practiced vegetarianism and fruitarianism.
This man changed not only himself, but also the world around him, without violence and cruelty. It seems to me that we would really benefit from wisdom lessons from such a person now. And then, perhaps, we will change first, and then our society. But you have to start with yourself.
