Violence & nonviolence
George Lakey
While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They ‘fired’ the top 1% of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something…
George Lakey gets arrested ...
George has stood up for radical nonviolence for decades. He persuaded PN to adopt the slogan ‘for nonviolent revolution’ in 1969. George was a co-founder of two important US radical institutions, the Movement for a New Society and Training for Change, he has led 1,500 workshops around the world.
George will be touring the UK and attending the entire five days of Peace News Summer Camp (26-30 July), where he will lead several sessions.
To be kept…
Gene Sharp. PHOTO: Conor Doherty
Arguably the best-known advocate of nonviolence working today, through books such as 1993’s 'From Dictatorship to Democracy', Gene Sharp has influenced popular revolutions and revolts across the globe. He was interviewed by Ian Sinclair for PN.
Peace News: When and why did you first get interested in the serious study of nonviolent struggle?
Gene Sharp: Well, the world was in a bit of a mess [after the Second World War], and I began to learn…
On 5 January, Peter Flanagan, 59, who killed a man who had broken into his house in Salford, Manchester, gave evidence at the trial of the other three burglars. In a witness statement, Flanagan described how the men threatened him with a machete while they ransacked his house. A member of the gang swung the machete at him, and a struggle ensued. In the course of the struggle, Flanagan jabbed John Bennell, 27, with the machete, before the four burglars ran from the house. Bennell collapsed…
"This book", says Tim Gee at the start of the first chapter, "will make a bold claim. That a single idea helps explain why social movements past and present have succeeded, partially succeeded, or failed. Strategically applied, it has helped win campaigns, secure human rights, stop wars and even bring down governments."
The central idea is Counterpower, which he describes as "the resistance of the oppressed". There are three types of Counterpower: Idea Counterpower which challenges…
Palestinians continue their weekly nonviolent protests against the illegal Israeli separation wall in the occupied West Bank territory. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and sound bombs at villagers and international supporters protesting against the wall in the central West Bank towns of Bilíin, Nilin and al Nabi Saleh.
An anti-wall protest in the southern West Bank village of Ma'ssara was assaulted with rifle butts and batons by the Israel defence force.
On 15 November, six Palestinians took part in an anti-discrimination day of ìFreedom Ridesî called by the Popular Struggle Committee. They were arrested after boarding what are in effect ìJews onlyî buses through the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Two observers were also arrested.
The buses, operated by companies including Veolia, often subsidised by the Israeli state, connect Jewish settlements to each other and to cities in Israel. It is not officially forbidden for…
For seven years the villagers of Bil’in in the Palestinian West Bank have resisted the separation wall that has cut them off from a large part of their lands, in particular holding a weekly march to the wall after Friday prayers .
On 1 July, the villagers marched in celebration. Two days earlier they had regained access to more of their land through the completion of the wall rerouting ordered in 2007 by the Israeli high court which had pronounced that it was “not convinced that it is…
Do you want to remain pure? Is that it?” a black man asked me, during an argument about nonviolence. It is not possible to act at all and to remain pure; and that is not what I want, when I commit myself to the nonviolent discipline. I stand with all who say of present conditions that they do not allow men and women to be fully human and so they must be changed - all who not only say this but are ready to act.
When one is confronted with what Russell Johnson calls accurately “The…
After experiencing my first couple of week-long prison sentences in the 1980`s - when all I did was keep my head down - I started to learn how to continue my actions and resistance from “inside”. I decided that I must be myself and really live, wherever I was, and that I did not stop being a conscious, political person just because the state had incarcerated me.
I now consider nonviolent resistance whilst in prison to be part of our struggle for a better world—a way of confronting…
"A group of eight activists blockaded the entrance to AWE Aldermaston this morning at 6.45am. Using steel lock-on tubes the group have completely blocked the road. Thus stopping all construction traffic entering or leaving the site. This has caused a large tailback and the police turned all traffic away from the site.”
(“Aldermaston shut down”
After several meetings, including one at the European Social Forum in Malmö, Sweden in September last year, the International Coordination Committee No-to-NATO 2009 (ICC) was officially formed at a conference in Stuttgart, Germany over the weekend of 4-5 October 2008. We agreed four main aspects: an international demonstration in Strasbourg on 4 April, a counter-conference, civil disobedience, and a camp (called a “village” by the French).
The French groups participating in the ICC…
For about eight years now, Pt'chang, a small activist organisation based in Melbourne Australia, has been experimenting and learning about how we can apply non-violent principles and approaches to help create safety at the local community level.
Pt'chang is a “Nonviolent Community Safety and Peacekeeping Group” that assists communities and grassroots organisations create safety. Pt'chang provides training workshops, and trained legal observer teams and…
The current bloody struggle between Israel and the Palestinians has continued for about two years. The many hundreds of victims on both sides, and the even greater number of injured, are merely the most conspicuous part of the terrible suffering that the war has brought.
No-one knows whether either side will eventually achieve its aims in the struggle. But we do know that the cost is terrible. Witnessing the appalling suffering and its appalling cost, we need to ask ourselves if it…
Medellín is a city of contrasts, where you find many ways of life. But in parallel, in different neighbourhoods, people live and wage a war that, besides death and prolonged absences, leaves an odd feeling of normality - as if, here, nothing will happen. But it does happen, and increasingly proposals that people should arm themselves to defend life and institutional normality gain strength, proposals that divide the world between goodies and baddies.
Youths tend to see themselves in…
