The
Global
Nonviolent Action Database is a treasure chest of knowledge useful to those
of us who are students and practitioners of nonviolent civil society struggle,
particularly if we are more inclined to winning and less interested in
hairshirt actions that might only bring suffering with little chance for policy
success. What you will notice in particular is the interlocking nature of these
elements of a successful movement to affect public, institutional, or corporate
policies.
To illustrate, let’s consider the following aspects of
nonviolent movements and campaigns and take lessons from that database:
Nonviolent discipline
When, on 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her
seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama,
Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr implored participating campaigners to maintain
nonviolent discipline. He said, “Be calm as I and my family are. We are not
hurt and remember that if anything happens to me, there will be others to take
my place.” That struggle pitted a minority against a hostile majority and yet
the year-long strict adherence to King’s code of nonviolence gave the campaign
victory in the majority US public opinion and victories in the courts.
Media work
When the poorly paid janitors at the University of Miami
sought higher pay and benefits, they only
finally
succeeded after a savvy campaign featuring good media work that highlighted
their conditions and the opulent lifestyle of the university officials. Oscar
Wilde was not correct when he claimed, “There is no such thing as bad
publicity.” The best outreach cannot overcome the backfire if nonviolent
discipline is not maintained. Media work can overcome the potentially damaging
effects of violence done by those who claim to be acting in concert with a
nonviolent campaign when the organizers of the nonviolent campaign strenuously
distance their movement from any act of violence. Failure to do so usually
results in the diminution of a campaign.
Coalition building
In the British Virgin Islands it appeared inevitable that
wealthy developers would be building more resorts in places that were renowned
for their natural beauty and environmental sensitivity. One large project
–approved by the Premier and sanctioned by the government for Beef Island
starting in 2007—however, was stopped by
excellent
coalition-building work by the opposition. The cultural heritage activists
joined with environmental activists and other local groups, but even more
impressively, they sought and got external support for their coalition,
including donations and statements of support from thousands of people living
elsewhere, effectively strengthening their coalition. While they believe some
development might still occur, they believe it will be done to state-of-the-art
practices to preserve ecological and cultural resources.
Decision-making
While different campaigns have embraced various forms of
decision-making, the general principle that seems constant is that, once the
irrevocable decision is made by the initial organizers to commit to a behavior
code of nonviolence, it is then important to agree on the method of making
other decisions. Some movements tend to have a small group of deciders who then
pass along those decisions to participants. Others adopt a consensus process,
more time-consuming but more egalitarian and tending toward greater
sustainability if done while respecting the code of nonviolent behavior. The
British women who began their peace camp at the US military base at Greenham
Common on 5 September 1981 committed to nonviolence and to a consensus
decision-making process.
This
campaign continued through the remainder of the Cold War, even past the
point where their stated goal—the elimination of the nuclear-tipped cruise
missiles from Greenham Common USAF base—had been completely achieved.
Creativity
The general public—and many activists—seem at times to have
a very small repertoire of actions—carry signs in the streets to protest, sit
down in blockade and get arrested to resist. Scholar Gene Sharp, however,
listed and categorized 198 methods of nonviolent action in 1973 and many more
methods have been created since. Indeed, the hard-wired human response to
mortal threat is a range from flight to fight to posing to abject surrender and
to the only human quality that gives hope to nonviolent conflict transformation—the
illimitable creativity of the human mind. The GNAD offers many case studies
featuring highly innovative, adaptive methods. One such example is the
1999-2000
effort to save community gardens from demolition in New York City. In 1998,
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani decided to permit removal of gardens that were where
developers wished to build. A network of activists formed the Esperanza Garden
campaign and swung into a highly creative struggle to challenge this, involving
actions by activists in plant, poultry and insect costumes, parades, garden
camp-ins, lawsuits in court, garden parties, bonfires, cookouts, human chains
in lockdown, a 200-person floating party, replanting bulldozed gardens, and
much more. There were setbacks, but good media work, strong nonviolent
discipline even when clubbed by cops, and fresh attention-getting actions
consistently built the ranks of coalitional partners and swelled the people
power vs corporate money struggle to a level that cost the elected officials
increasing losses in legitimacy. Finally, “the Esperanza campaign radicalized a
generation of garden activists and laid the groundwork for the 2002 garden
settlement that allowed for the construction of over 3000 affordable housing
units while preserving almost 500 community gardens.”
Recruitment
Some community organizers simply hold that no decision
should be made without first pondering the impact on recruitment. It is not
enough to assert, “If we do this action in this manner it will tend to attract
this demographic.” It is far more effective to estimate both how many will be
attracted and now many will be repelled. The net number is crucial. If
“punching a Nazi” attracts a few hundred hardcore street brawlers but alienates
the rest of the pool of potential participants, that “movement math” should
help the deliberative process. A
tough
nonviolent campaign in Pakistan from 2007-2009 featured highly effective
participant recruitment to oppose the evisceration of the judiciary and the
decimation of the Constitution. “On March 9, 2007, Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf suspended Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry from his
duties on the Court in response to Chaudhry’s challenges to his Presidency.” Started
by a small group of lawyers and growing to many thousands of them, they were
able to field a half million from many sectors of society to march on Islamabad
in 2008 and when they began another on 12 March 2009 the government caved. “That
night all of the judges, including Chaudhry, were restored to their position
and the lawyers’ movement won its final victory. The judiciary had regained its
autonomy.”
Strategic planning
While there is never a guarantee of success, a seriously
researched and developed strategic plan will increase the chances for a
victory. In January 2014 the
governors
of six New England states announced plans to build a natural gas pipeline
to carry two billion cubic feet of fracked natural gas per day. Opponents
engaged in such effective strategic planning that they were able to direct
simultaneous actions, educational sessions, and mini-campaigns to resist the
fracking even as they promoted clean energy alternatives. They enlisted the
town and county officials in the path of the proposed pipeline to pass
resolutions of opposition and when the route was changed in response, more
municipalities joined in the campaign. By April 2016 the clear majority won and
the plan was ended.
published in Nonviolence: A magazine for practical idealists Winter/Spring 2018
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