Tag Archives: nonviolence

Nonviolent Lives. Nonviolent Tactics?–or, 21st Century Common Sense, Part 6

Future Hope, , ,

I’m pretty certain, based on experiences and study, that a very big majority of US Americans who understand the need for progressive, substantive, systemic change—tens of millions of us—believe that we should try to live “nonviolent lives” as much as possible. We should do so when it comes to actions that we organize and the way that we organize and interact with other people. We should do our best, day by day, hour by hour, to treat those in our family, our neighbors, our friends, those we work with, in a loving and nonviolent way.

We should be “nonviolent” in the way we talk with each other, doing our best not to put other people down or hurt them emotionally or spiritually, not just physically.

This kind of nonviolence is really more accurately described as “love.” We should be loving individuals, of ourselves and those we come into contact with, even our enemies. Our interactions with them are likely to be sometimes intense and emotional, even physical, but our intention should be to try to get those we are communicating with to realize the error of their ways and do some serious thinking.

I think of something I learned about decades ago, that in the Cuban civil war in the late 1950’s to overthrow the Batista dictatorship by force of arms, the revolutionaries, after a battle, would take care of wounded enemy soldiers, help them to get on a healing road, and then release them. THIS is a very good example of nonviolence and love for enemies, refusing to allow them to defeat us, standing up and fighting, while appreciating that, ultimately, people can change.

Which brings me to the issue of “nonviolent tactics.”

During the 17 months since Trump and the MAGA’s were elected, I’ve occasionally heard people or seen people write as if what we should be doing to defeat them is to get guns. For some it’s not just that, it’s getting with other people who are doing the same, to be prepared for the worst when it comes to defending ourselves and our peoples.

Fortunately, from what I’ve observed, this is NOT an approach which is widespread within the ranks of the millions of us who are resisting the Trumpfascists. Our actions, from on-the-ground resistance to ICE, to organizing on the many issues we need to fight on, to the national days of coordinated action on the same day organized by 50501, May Day Strong, No Kings and others–all are consciously and openly nonviolent. This has made a difference as far as how they have been covered by mass media and how they have been responded to by our Trumpfascist enemies. The former have been predominantly positive or at least objective; the latter, so far, have been apparently confused and thrown off.

Does this mean that our tactics should always and everywhere be nonviolent, physically unarmed? The more I’ve thought about this in the context of who now runs the federal government, the more I’ve come to answer NO.

The USA is a big and diverse country. In this context, I mean “diverse” mainly as far as ideologically. There are states and/or parts of states where a definite majority of the people are conservative. Some of those people are overtly racist, sexist, heterosexist and militaristic, though some, I’d say a majority, are not. These people may view things pretty much that way but they’re not overt about it.

It’s those racist/sexist/heterosexist/militaristic ones that we have to be concerned about. It’s not that we should hide from them. For progressive white people in particular, we should be willing to take risks to take on these people ideologically. I know from experience, and others’ experiences, that some of these people are reachable, if we go about this work in the right way.

But others aren’t. Others are already organized into armed rightist groups. In areas of the country where these people are relatively strong politically, I am unwilling to take an absolutist position that it is wrong to have a gun or to be organized for community self-defense. It may be the right thing to do so, based upon realities on the ground.

What I will say, however, is that I don’t support “our side”, armed, openly and ostentatiously going public and essentially being provocative. That doesn’t make sense to me practically or politically.

Once again: the United States of America is a big country. Though our overall approach everywhere right now has to be one based on a commitment to nonviolence, to love, in the best sense, tactically and personally, I do not think, tactically, self-defense via guns is necessarily out of the question everywhere and always.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

The Limits of Tyrants

Future Hope, , , ,

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
-Frederick Douglass, August 3, 1857, in Canandaigua, NY

65 years ago today, on February 1, 1960, the first student sit-in at lunch counters throughout the segregated South began in downtown Greensboro at a Woolworth’s store. Young people literally put their bodies on the line, and were beaten and jailed for doing so, to demand an end to racist laws and daily practices prohibiting Black people from using public and private facilities solely because of the color of their skin.

This action sparked similar actions throughout the South, the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the emergence of a national mass movement against segregation and racism. Four years later, in 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed in Congress, followed the next year by the Voting Rights Act.

I’m pretty certain that there were very few people before that sit-in who thought that within five years the South’s racist, essentially fascist, way of life going back almost a century could be successfully overcome, legally, although, of course, it took many years and constant struggle for those laws to finally bring about a civil rights revolution. Despite some weakening of those laws over the last decade or so, they are still, legally and culturally, largely in effect.

After two weeks of the Trump Presidency it is clear that he and the MAGA movement have every intention of using their power to roll back not just decades of the gains of the civil rights movement but of all movements defending and advancing human rights, labor rights, women’s rights, lgbtq+ rights, democracy and social, economic and environmental justice. This is a tyrannical regime.

Resistance to it has already taken place, beginning with the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated in over 300 localities on January 18th. It has continued through the work in communities all over the country helping immigrants at risk of deportation learning their rights and getting organized to defend them. It happened this week when 23 states successfully challenged Trump’s effort to prevent the disbursement of literally trillions of dollars allocated by Congress and signed into law by Biden. The American Federation of Government Employees has called for a massive demonstration in DC on February 11th against the Trumpists’ efforts to get rid of professional civil service workers. And there are many other ways that, on issue after issue, our US resistance movement has refused to bend to the would-be dictator.

What about demonstrations and nonviolent direct action? There have been some voices raised to the effect that, under a Trumpist regime, these are not as important, or are risky, compared to under a Democratic regime.

There’s some validity to the critique. Successful organizing involves much more than demonstrative, visible action: one-on-one conversations with community members or co-workers; calls, emails, texts or meetings with those with some power to correct wrongs or advance positive change; legal action; meetings to come to agreement internally within a group or with coalition partners about strategy and tactics; writing and videoing and taking pictures and circulating them as widely as possible; testifying before government bodies to oppose or support a particular policy or decisions; conscious development of healthy internal organizational cultures which support all those involved; and more.

But absent visible and public actions, as large and/or as creatively risk-taking as possible, victories will be much harder to come by. Here’s how I wrote about this in my 21st Century Revolution book:

“No revolution of any kind has happened without the manifestation of people’s anger at oppression or abuse via public marches, demonstrations, strikes (including hunger strikes) and civil disobedience to express their strong feelings and to spread the word to others about their resistance. Oppressed people need to see that there are others who feel the same way and are willing to take action to change things. Elected officials, even those who are supportive, need to appreciate the strength of people’s feelings via seeing it in action. And clearly, the target(s) of the public demonstrations need to see both sizeable numbers of people involved and the urgency and intensity of their feelings.”

In Frederick Douglass’ Canandaigua speech in 1857 he also said something that is not as widely quoted as the “limits of tyrants” quote at the beginning of this article but is just as important:

“People may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppression and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others.”

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.