material in english

8/3/2019 Material in English

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. For you who wants to know more

Nonviolence & Conflict Management

-An abridged training material with basic exercises


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Nonviolence & Conflict Management

An abridged training material with basic exercises


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CONTENTS

Read this first. 7

Introduction 9Nonviolence 10

What is violence ?..........................................................................................10

Physical violence.11Structural violence..13Cultural violence.15

What is nonviolence?....................................................................................16

Nonviolence A positive word!.......................................................16The body of nonviolence Methods principle and strategies ..17

The Flower of nonviolence 21Nonviolence An expounded academic definition..22

Strategic Nonviolence. 26

Understanding Power...28The discipline of Nonviolence...29Political Jujitsu....31Civil Disobedience..32

Gender and Nonviolence..33

Prominent Figures...38

The History of Nonviolence.42The periods of historical development of Nonviolence....42Historical examples of Nonviolence.45

Worldwide Nonviolence..52

The Future belongs to Nonviolence.54Large Scale Nonviolence..55The Philippines 1986...55East Germany 1989.55Serbia 2000.56Small scale Nonviolence....58


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Colombia.61Guatemala ..62Some organisations working for peaceful change..63

The KAOS Model . 64

Peacekeeping Pairs.66Conflict Management.68

Introduction to the Conflict Management section.68

General Knowledge about Conflict....69

What is a conflict69Conflict Terminology.70

Conflicts, good or bad for us? ............................................. ...............72The Accordion theory conflicts on different levels..73Fear of conflict and conflict avoidance74

Understanding and analysing conflict.75The dynamics of conflict, Galtungs ABC model.75Glasls Nine stage model of Conflict Escalation... .76To think Needs......83

Managing conflicts in a creative manner.85

The unconditional constructive strategy...86GRIT, or the art of starting a positive spiral..87The zoo of conflicts, conflict managements five dimensions...88Working with conflict on different levels.91

Conflicts and Communication.92Active/empathetic/controlled listening..92A non-violence strategy for social change93

Exercises..95

To carry out training.95The group..95To contribute to learning...97Evaluation.98Interviewing one another...99Training in values and judgment.....100Examples of presentation....113


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The International Decade of Peace and NonviolenceFor The Children of the World

2001 2010 is the decade to overcome violence. We are The Christian Peace Movement, PeaceQuest , CIVISand Swedens Teachers for Peace. In the co-operation project we have accepted the challenge of the decade. Thebook you have in your hand is a result of several years of development, earlier together with The SwedishChristian Council and The Swedish UN Organisation.

Our purpose is to spread the knowledge, commitment and skills to be able to work for peace, nonviolence andconstructive conflict management. We arrange training programs in peaceful conflict management and non-violence. We also encourage and stimulate local initiative in these subjects. We wish to show the possibilitiesand gains of working constructively and violence-preventively between individuals and groups of peopleirrespective of where they are in the world.

Peace in our Hands is a national project with local activities in over ten places in Sweden. Welcome!

Nonviolence orNon-existence

-Martin Luther King-


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Read this First

Before you, you have a resource, inspiration and training material on nonviolence and conflict management.The idea is that you shall be able to use this material as a resource to learn more, find ways to reach further

or when you yourself lead workshops, courses or training sessions. There are suggestion of books and websiteswhere you can learn more. Discover and use!

Our expectation is that you may be inspired and challenged by the material and that this will lead to reflection,action and perhaps a change of habits or lifestyle. Non-violence and conflict management are of no value if theyare not practised. Only when we allow our insights to move from head to heart and become deep rooted in uscan they be practised.

The starting point for all thought about non-violence and conflict management is that we ourselves - all haveresponsibility for how we choose to live and for what others do in our name. Even if we do not always feel thatwe have time and energy to influence the world to better things, we can at least change how we ourselves live.We can also influence what others do in our name. We are free to choose what we buy, what we do and do notdo and even how we think!The choice is ours, freedom is ours, power is ours.

I am inspired by nonviolence training.At the same time, I ask myself the question,what is it worth if it does not lead to action?

Lior - Israeli peaceactivist

The material is divided into three parts. The first part is about nonviolence. The second part looks at conflictmanagement. The third part is aimed at the teacher and contains a large number of pedagogic suggestions,curriculum, useful and amusing exercises. The material on nonviolence and conflict management is divided intoa basic course in peaceful conflict management and nonviolence (part 1). The section for instructors is handedout first after the step 2 training in peaceful conflict management and nonviolence is completed. To compile agood course it is needed to combine the theoretical models and thought in parts 1 and 2 with the practicalexercises in part 3. Even if you do not wish to hold courses it can be of interest to look at the exercises.

This material has been produced in several steps by Fred i Vra Hander, during two project periods. Initiallyof a working group consisting of Monica Hagbok, Stina Magnuson, Martin Smedjeback, Eva Strmberg and

Ole Rikner who also assembled the material. The group also received good help from Fanny Davidsson andKajsa Svensson. A lot of inspiration has been people working with these questions around the world. In asecond phase a considerably increased and revised edition has been produced by Klaus Engell-Nielsen andPatrik Gruczkun. During the autumn of 2007 a third revision has been done and the chapters Gender and non-violence (Sara Wallentin) and The Worldwide Nonviolence (Pelle Strindlund) have been added. The material issubject to continual development.

We the authors of this material, feel that inclination and satisfaction are among the most important motivators.It is all too easy to see the problem when it comes to commitment, but the fact of the matter is that it is bothgreat fun and meaningful to work for a better world. The challenge is made!


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Introduction

More wars took place during the 20th1 century than at any other time in the history of the world. Between 1990and 2001 there were 57 larger conflicts in the world, the majority in Afrika and Asia. Approximately 3.6 millionpeople have died as a result of war since 1990. Violence is not only direct violence, but indirect, as structuralviolence resulting in starvation and epidemics. Each year 6.3 million children younger than 5 years old die ofstarvation2. Each day 30,000 children die of illnesses which could be prevented3.

In the present situation, wars and armed conflicts are fought within states, rather than between states and are amain cause of stopping development at the same time as they increase poverty. Working for peace and humanrights by preventing armed conflicts and combating injustice with nonviolence methods is all about thinkingabout war, conflicts and violence in a new way. Thoughts and values where democracy, human rights andequality are included, together with the insight that conflicts on all levels international, local and individualcan be solved without weapons and violence. We are all hit by violence in the world and should thereforecontribute to creating a peaceful and non-violent culture, even here in Sweden.

The requirements for a peace and non-violent culture exist already. Methods and models to prevent violenceand manage conflicts have been developed and tested on an ever increasing scale since around 1970. Non-violence4 has under recent decades received a stronger recognition and has been used, for example, as a form ofprotest against economic injustice by Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (SMT- de Jordlsasrrelse) in Brasil .The UN general assembly has declared 2001 2010 as the International Decade for a Cultureof Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World. The UN realises that it is important that the whole ofthe civil society organisations, churches, schools, professions, business and media actively contribute to theinternational work for a peace and non-violent culture.

Four organisations; The Christian Peace Movement, Peace Quest, CIVIS and Swedens Teachers for Peacework together to spread information, knowledge and skills in creative conflict management and nonviolence asa method of actively preventing oppression and injustice. Training in conflict managementand nonviolence is carried out, this book being the basic material. Through training and reflection over our ownattitude and action in the face of injustice and conflicts, a greater credibility is created in preventive work inother countries. Our hope is that the material will give you inspiration and commitment to think about your rolein working for a more peaceful world at home and even internationally. When we include ourselves in a non-violent culture we have dedicated ourselves to an understanding of ourselves and our ability to influencesituations. Conflicts are not avoided without us having learned how to meet, sort and manage them in a creativeand constructive way. Perhaps you can use some of the exercises or examples in your own organisation,workplace or school, and continue the work that Gandhi, Alva Myrdahl, and Martin Luther King among manyother women and men have started. As each of us is influenced by and influences the violent culture around us

contribute to a non-violent culture.

1Source: Human Development Report 20032Source: World Situation 2002, Swedish UN Organisation 2002

3Source Human Development Report 2002

4Non-violence is written as nonviolence to underline the fact that it is not just an absence of violence, but an active nonviolence


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NonviolenceNonviolence is the law of the human race and is infinitely greater than, and superior to,brute force Mohandas K. Gandhi

What is violence?To understand what violence is and can be, we begin with thoughts around the term violence. In the same waythat it is difficult to clearly define what nonviolence means, there are different definitions of violence.

The experience that words can hurt is a phenomenon we all have experience of. Words used with the purposeof doing damage are sometimes used in non-hurtful situations but hurt anyway. Violence exists on differentlevels, both open and hidden. The Norwegian peace researcher Jrgen Johansen has defined violence partly asto consciously reduce another human beings possibilities of a full life. It can be of interest to reflect aroundwhat could be included in that term.

Another definition we will be using here as a complement to Johansens is the Norwegian peace researcherJohan Galtungs division of violence in three categories: Direct violence, Structural violence and Culturalviolence. These types of violence are illustrated in the iceberg below. 5

In a warm and lovingenvironment the icebergof violence melts, in coldsurroundings it remains.

5

Direct Violence

Direct violence is the form of violence in which there are one or more discernible perpetrators who, throughword or action injure one or more individuals. This takes the form of physical violence, such as assault or war,or psychological violence, such as mobbing or degradation. Direct violence is perhaps the most obvious andvisible form of violence. In figure 5) above, direct violence is symbolised by the area of the iceberg abovewater.

5 Model by Martin Smedjeback and Patrik Gruczkun from Galtungs theory

Direct violence

Pysical violencePsycological violence

Structural violence

Cultural

violence


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Violation

On a relations level, the risk is great that in a conflict situation we tend to see one another as a problem.Violation can also occur when we do not even have a subject on which we disagree. Example of violation is:

Talking badly about someone behind their back (rumour spreading and bullshit)Freezing a person out of a group, being condescending, ignoring, harassing and in other ways abusing(mobbing and isolating)

Physically hurting one another.It is important not to blame the injured party, irrespective of events prior to the violation. Bullshit, mobbingand violence should always be stopped. The main responsibility for this lies with the third person (not involvedin the conflict), who can create an intervention. The following passage is about common problems and violationin places of work.

Mobbing

The word mobbing based on the word mob, means crowd. Disobedient slaves in the Southern States of Americawere hanged by lynch mobs. In Sweden the term was introduced by Peter-Paul Heinemann in his bookMobbing: Group violence among children and adults in 1972.

How can mobbing be explained? It is not just those who are particularly cruel who mob, seemingly anyonecan. Mobbing occurs in groups, something which probably the majority of group members dislike. There is adifference between group morals and individual morals. In the group, responsibility is common to all in the

group, whereas individuals behave differently as themselves.Mobbing can comprise of both physical and psychological violence. A British investigation shows that themost dangerous form of mobbing is isolation and neglect, that is to say psychological violence. According tothe investigation those who survive mobbing best are those who are subjected to physical violence only.

An example of mobbing can be a person who is made suspicious, marked as a deviant or continually ridiculed.The victim has great difficulty in escaping from the situation. Should the victim defend her/himself or showsigns of being influenced by the mobbing then this becomes a part of the mobbing. It is therefore the passivemembers of the group who, in the first instance, can act to prevent the mobbing.

In a group with mobbing tendencies, it is often the minority who are the driving force the rest being morepassive. Those who are passive may pity the victim, but dare not take action as this could mean loss of face ormake the situation even worse. It is because of this passive behaviour that mobbing is possible. Violationperpetrated by one or more, becomes representative for the whole group. It is this which gives a mildviolation such a strong effect on the victim. The passive group members have the function of a very loudsilence.

If a person in the group makes her/his voice heard when some is said to be a problem or is ridiculed then thegroup consensus is broken. The perpetrator no longer represents the group. There is no longer a mob and thestrong effects of mobbing disappear. This gives hope. Groups are not predestined to mob. We have thepossibility of intervention. At the same time it is not an easy task. It demands that we overcome our fears andother questions which prevent us from acting.

It has been shown that mobbing is a difficult problem in kind cultures where the ideal is to be kind andloving. The problem is that in such a culture, avoiding conflict is common. It can be taboo to question orcomment on a situation. In such a context, to prevent mobbing becomes very difficult. Mobbing in kindcultures is perhaps more subtle, but achieves the same devastating results.

Most would agree that we should act to stop mobbing. Mobbing is illegal. In can at times be difficult to be surethat what perceive, is mobbing. If someone is insulted, is that person mobbed? Where is the border betweenconflict and mobbing?

As a rule, if someone is repeatedly insulted, ridiculed or said to be a problem there is a high risk of mobbing.The victim does not need to be present. Talking behind a persons back and slander are usual ingredients in

mobbing. The difficulty is that single violations may not be experienced as particularly serious, but thecollective effect is always mobbing.

To just stand and watchis also a way of

agreeingThe Real Group

Structural Violence


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employment. The term race is not used so much today, it has been replaced a new word, culture and culturalbackground.

There are delusions such as a person from a certain culture will behave in a certain way. This way of thinkingtends to strengthen prejudice about different groups. To say that Africans are good at dancing they haverhythm in their blood, even if not in ill-will, is to categorise and is very difficult to escape from. The problem issimilar with sexism. By emphasizing distinguishing features in different cultures a hierarchy can be establishedin which cultures are placed in a certain order.

If you are a white heterosexual man you have a much better chance of attaining power and influence in societythan if you are a lesbian woman with an immigrant background.

Cultural ViolenceCultural violence is symbolised by water and air, in the iceberg model. By this Galtung means that the structuralviolence is legitimised by the culture it exists in. We can for example say that it is structural violence whenworld trade structures press the price of coffee so low that the plantage workers have to live in total poverty.The fact that we prioritise the low price of coffee more than the situation of the plantage workers is culturalviolence; it is the approval of structural violence.

An important aspect of culture is the language we use. How do we address one another and what are theconsequences? When people shout things like bitch or bloody miscarriage at one another one can say itcreates a cold climate and the acceptance of violence increases. It does not have to be such hard words either.How do we behave to ourselves? Which words do we call ourselves if we make a mistake or feel a lot of Imust things growing in ourselves?

The relation of different types of violence

The relationship of cultural violence with the other two types is not one way, for just as cultural acceptancecan legitimise violence so can continual violence increase the social acceptance because we no longer react inthe face of it. Even if it is a long way from solving all the problems it can be a good start to begin with languageand think about which negative and unnecessary words we use.

What is nonviolence?

Imagine three people having a conversation on how they can best work for peace. The first says that hiscontribution to peace is to refuse to carry a weapon. The second says that all dictators must be killed to achieve

peace. The third means that the only way is to break in to military bases and disarm all the weapons. Which ofthe three acted in a non-violent manner and under what conditions? It is not obvious what is meant bynonviolence. Here are examples of different interpretations:

Nonviolence a political method based on peacefuldialogue and distancing itself from violent action.

Nonviolence implies to practise resistance without causingphysical or psychological injury to living individuals

Nonviolence implies actively reacting against violence andoppression in our surroundings.

Nonviolence meets terrorism by demanding a non-terrorist

response.

Nonviolence A positive word

There is a problem with the word non-violence. The word is made up of two parts: Non which is a negation, andviolence. The word non, a negation can be associated with many other words which are about not doing.Nonviolence can be associated with being passive. However if we look at the historical context we can see thatthe meaning is something entirely different.


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The word nonviolence comes from the word ahimsa which is Sanskrit. Ahimsa is the positive opposite of theword himsa which means, desire to injure. Ahimsa is an ancient word, which is found in Bhagavad-Gitawhich was written between 200BC and 200AD. Sanskrit functions in a different way than Swedish and English.In Sanskrit many words receive a positive meaning through placing a negation in the basic word. The word forlove is avera which translated means not hate. The word for brave is abhaya, not afraid. Thus, ahimsanon-violence is not a negative tem, but fundamentally positive.

A way of describing the essence of nonviolence could be using pictures. We will be presenting the picturesThe Body of Nonviolence and The Flower of Nonviolence.

Peace is more than the absence of warNonviolence is more than the absence of violence

Love is more than the absence of hate


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The Body of Nonviolence- principles, strategy, training, methods and lifestyle

Nonviolence is a fantastically rich conception which reaches over many areas of life. This model is an attemptto make clear and simplify this concept. One can, of course, regard nonviolence in many ways. Here is one way.In our model, the body of nonviolence is divided into nonviolence in principles, strategy, methods and lifestyle.

The principles are the heart of the nonviolence body.

The heart is the symbol for our values and our conviction. These principles, or lack of them are what steer ouractions. As with the rest of the body, the heart has the ability to develop continuously. Within the nonviolencemovement a number guiding nonviolence principles have been developed. Some of these are presented below:

A respect for the opponent- to see the whole conflict as afellow human being

To differentiate between subject andperson. We fight the war as an institutionand phenomenon, not as soldiers.

A belief that everyone can change, that thereis something good in everyone.

The means and the goal must tally. That is tosay that if we want peace our actions must bepeaceful.

A refusal to injure or violateanother person violence is rejectedas a way forward and the spiral of violencestays with me

No one person has a monopoly on the truth.We all own bits of the truth puzzle and thechallenge is to be able to see the other personstruth even if that persons puzzle bit does notseem to fit mine

Look for the centre of the conflict non-violencemeans a will to actively fight injustice and violenceNon-violence is a rejection of violence at the sametime as it is an active struggle against violence withnonviolence


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Strategy is the brain of the body of nonviolence.

The brain is needed to analyse the situation work out a good strategy for non-violent action. There has to be aclear picture of what shall and can be done in the course of events. One must also create a careful analysis ofWhat one wishes to change and which method of nonviolence would be most suitable for the action? To

overcome an unjust system one must sometimes deploy a whole series of non-violence methods. It helps towork out what could happen in different scenarios when different methods are used so that you are ready fordifferent reactions and results from your environs.

Training is the backbone of the body of nonviolence

A football player who wants to succeed does not only play in matches. He or she trains all the different skills sothat when they are needed they are ready to use. A player can spend a whole morning just kicking the ball withhis left foot so that he/she know she can. When you practise enough the result comes automatically, straightfrom the spinal chord. It is the same with nonviolence. It is important to train how non-violent methods can beused in violent situations so that they come automatically when needed. This can be achieved by training anaction by simulating it before doing it. Just as important is the need to train nonviolence in everyday life.How do I manage a conflict at my workplace or in school in the most non violent way? How can I expresscriticism without insulting or worsening the situation? One can train all these things in a nonviolence workshop.

Methods are the hands and feet of the body of nonviolence

Methods of nonviolence can be used on a daily basis in our meetings with people giving respect and help evento those we have difficulty relating to. It ca be a question of intervening in a violent situation or mobbing.Methods of nonviolence can be used in political actions. The unjust laws and rules of society are oftenchallenged. Gene Sharp has created three categories in political action: protest and persuasion, noncollaboration and intervention. In the book The Politics of Non-Violent Action he counted 198 methods ofnonviolence. Below, Sharps three categories are presented with examples of each, illustrating what they imply.The book was written in 1973 so the number of nonviolence methods has greatly increased. New methods arealways evolving.

1. Protest and Persuasion

Demonstrate many express what they want by walking together to public places. For example 15th February2003, which was the largest anti-war demonstration ever. In London alone, over 2,000,000 people protested.Protests were held at the same time in over 600 towns all over the world.Protest lists to sign a list to express discontent with a political action. Protest lists against Swedens weaponexport to the UK and USA during the Iraqi war.

2. Non-collaborationBoycott refusing to buy goods or services in order to indicate dissatisfaction with the products or service onoffer.For example, South African products were subject to boycott under the apartheid regime. The boycott wasinitially carried out by individuals and organisations, after which it spread to whole countries.Strike refusing to work. A strike in Poland was the beginning of a non-violence movement which eventuallytoppled the communist regime. Examples of political non-collaboration can be refusing to do military nationalservice or refusing to carry out the expulsion of political refugees.Refusal to collaborate during the Second World War, Norwegian teachers refused to follow the Nazieducational program. They were sent to concentration camps for their crimes, but most were soon returned totheir schools as the Nazis realized that the teachers would not give up.

3. Intervention

Blockades a sit down strike on a road. Israelis did this to prevent bulldozers destroying Palestinian houses.


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Preventive presence International presence for the protection of exposed people in areas of conflict. Thismethod utilizes the fact that the third party, the peace observer, is not a part of the conflict. There are peaceobservers in Mexico, Israel/Palestine and Colombia as examples.Plowshare actions destroying weapons openly and being willing to take the consequences. To startdisarmament yourself, when politicians refuse. To destroy atomic submarines in Scotland

Methods of nonviolence are not just about injustice and oppression in the world. It is about building up thatwhich is good. Gandhi called the Constructive Program. An example of this can be working with fair tradethrough world shops. It can also be buying environment friendly products, starting a nonviolence group orgrowing your own garden products.

These four components; principles, strategy, training and methods can up to a point work independently. Aboycott, a nonviolence method, was affected against Iraq during the decade 1990 in the form of UN sanctions.The sanctions resulted in over a million dead Iraqis. This result shows that obviously, the action did not followthe principle of nonviolence. The hand and feet did not follow the heart. Often, nonviolence methods are usedwithout a strategy and as a result they are much less effective and often cause more suffering than is necessary.In this case hands and feet do not follow the brain. That which is perhaps the most usual scenario is that we arefilled with nonviolence principles and do not act on them. Hands and feet do not listen to the message of theheart. We do the talk but not the walk. If this is the case then the blood which connects the body parts ismissing. This takes us to the last part of the nonviolence body.

A nonviolence lifestyle is the blood of a non-violent body

The blood is the connection between the parts of our body and is life giving. Blood also gives life to the termnonviolence. Non-violent body parts can be independently strong, but the more integrated the non-violent bodyparts are the stronger the nonviolence. When integration of the body parts begins, the process of a lifestyle ofnonviolence becomes a fact which influences our whole life. The motivation to this lifestylemay be religious, philosophical or political or a mixture of all three. For nonviolence leaders such as Gandhi andKing this process grew gradually in their lives. They put together words and actions more and more, makingmistakes along the way and leaving and returning to nonviolence. The body develops at its own rate in the sameway as nonviolence in our lives. Often nonviolence starts as a little seed which has the potential for growth iflooked after properly. Sometimes it has begun to grow without us realising

The threat is not the president who wants war,but the peace movement

that chooses total submission.

Per HerngrenPlowshare activist

and author


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The Flower of nonviolence9- Resistance, struggle and revolution

Every day, people die standing up for their rights. All such brave actions do not leadto positive change. To achieve such change there is a need for many people to act.

We would like to inspire a discussion about methods of nonviolence with theexample below.

In a country not so far from our own a person goes up to another person and offers aflower10.There is nothing violent about that

During the night, a military coup occurs in the country and all forms of public acts of affection are strictlyforbidden, particularly giving flowers to each other. Despite knowledge of the risk the same person goes to hisbeloved to give a flower. When the soldiers see this they beat up the person who gave the flower.Nonviolence resistance has begun

The next day when the soldiers are out on patrol they see a woman hopping along on crutches with a flower in

her mouth. To their surprise the soldiers see that she I about to give it to a man. They run to her and this timethey nearly kill her with the beating. The rest of the day the soldiers are forced to beat people who have followedthe example of the woman. The soldiers beat until they are tired.The nonviolence battle has begun

On the morning of the next day, the soldiers see four people carrying a stretcher with Zoe, (whose name meanslife) in a plaster of Paris cast. Next to her on the stretcher is a flower. The soldiers are dumb with surprise. Herfriends carry the stretcher to the soldiers and with a smile Zoe offers the flower. The soldiers do not know whatto do. The rest of the day people everywhere are giving each other flowers and to the soldiers who put them inthe gun barrels.Nonviolence revolution is a fact.

Questions about the flower of nonviolence

What does the story above tell us about how nonviolence works?What is the difference between what the woman does on different days?What is, according to the story, important in nonviolence?What does the woman need to be able to and dare to do what she does?What would we need?Does the story tell us anything about what nonviolence is not?

9The flower of nonviolence is developed by Klaus Engell-Nielsen10The flower in the story is a symbol for any example of human rights.


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Nonviolence an expounded academic definitionThis text is taken from Stellan Vinthagens thesis The Sociology of Nonviolence and constitutes only certainpassages of his complete text. The article is created for you who have thought or wish to think a little deeperabout nonviolence.Nonviolence can be understood as being built up with the two main dimensions without violence and anti

violence.Nonviolence = Without-violence +Antiviolence( fig. 1 ed. note)

The point is that both of these meanings have to be present at the same time for us to be able to speak aboutnonviolence. Nothing becomes non-violent just because we do not use violence for example to be out for awalk. It is not either non-violent because one rejects violence as with UN soldiers patrolling a border tomonitor a ceasefire. A group of unarmed guards that walk along a border and try to prevent fighting can howeverbe said to practise nonviolence. It is just the combination of a rejection of violence in such a way that one doesnot use violence that is nonviolence

The nonviolence movement as a social and an idea historical phenomenon which combines its groups differentideologies, methods and questions into two general and distinct traits of character of nonviolence.

1: Without -violence as an idea that something else of higher value exists or can be achieved: different formsof violence and oppression are problemised and questioned, both in society and in ones own life, at the sametime as one seeks something else, freedom from violence /oppression for example The Kingdom of God orself fulfilment. This something else is a utopian belief, hidden reality or realistic possibility.

2: Antiviolence as a social antithesis: where violence and oppression are undermined by resistance andcompetition from nonviolence institutions and methods.

Occasionally the basic idea of the nonviolence movement is described with the words there is no road topeace, peace is the road. A more exact summary of the nonviolence project is:

To try to use the nonviolent future in the present as an alternative to and resistance against the present societysviolence and oppression.The one side of the coin, without-violence should be understood as an emphasis of life/action withoutviolence. Here one can imagine that we people have an innate ability to act without violence or that we must

practise or construct this without-violence ability. Without-violence becomes an attempt to achieve liberationoutside the domain of violence, to exceed the bounds of violence.The other side of the coin,anti-violence, should be understood as an emphasis on resistance to violence.

Counteraction is actualised as soon as violence threatens the group one lives in. Seen in the extreme, this meansthat a resistance to violence should be sought out where it is and resisted there, not wait until it comes to you. Inresisting violence, it is the violence which is the problem, not who (for the moment) is affected. Anti-violencebecomes an attempt to undermine the domain of violence.

Both without-violence and anti-violence varies, depending on which phenomenological domains of violenceand oppression are accountable (see fig. 3) and which social domain shall/can be liberated from violence (see fig.4).

Without-violence = Nonviolence construction

Nonviolence

Anti-violence = Nonviolence resistance

Fig. 3: Nonviolence Two concurrent significations. (development of fig. 1)

Without violence is a nonviolence construction (of the increased ability to act without violence) and anti-violence a non-violent resistance (against the violence which occurs despite the nonviolence construction)


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Nonviolence construction is the training, supporting or building of the ability - individually and collectively To act and live without violence. Depending on the view of what violence is and the view of whether peoplehave an inborn capacity to act without violence, the level of ambition varies and the methods of non-violentconstruction.Nonviolence resistance for example civil disobedience is an undermining, transforming, obstructive or

dissolving ofviolence or oppression11 (unjust power conditions) where activists in their action try to avoidusing violence or oppression themselves. What is contained in nonviolence resistance can be seen to vary inaccordance with how strict different individuals regard what violence or oppression is (fig.3). Someactivists, as did Gandhi, see thoughts and feelings as more or less non-violent, while others see as being enough,not to (on purpose) kill people. For some, colonialism or patriarchy is oppression, for others it is eating meat orfree abortion.

Both dimensions without-violence and anti-violence create an opposition between violence and its (oftenindefinite) opposite. Both without-violence and anti-violence therefore influence the meaning one puts intoviolence. Among words suggested as opposites to the word violence are, peace, justice, fairness, lovetruth, basic needs self-fulfilment, Gods Kingdom. The significance of the twin term nonviolence violence is allowed in this way to remain open to discussion within the nonviolence movement. Whether or notone sees violence as coercion, denial, need, manipulation, injurious, killing, evil, threat, or anything else, the twoseparate dimensions of nonviolence relevant.

As we can see below in fig.4, the domains of violence can be more or less all embracing. Even the domains ofnonviolence can be more or less extensive (depending on which violence is accounted as relevant).

Fig. 4: The domains of violence or oppression.

Even if violence is seen in a narrow concept an irreversible and serious physical injury caused by a personsconscious action against the injured partys will nonviolence becomes in an absolute meaning - without andagainst all violence an impossible task to achieve. As soon as someone is attacked by someone else, the non-violence movement should be there, preventing and protecting (if activists are to be non-violent). As humanity

consists of six billion people a clear impossibility arises in fulfilling the radical demand12. Neither without-violence nor anti-violence can free itself completely from violence. This complex problem causes innercontradictions in each of the terms. A minimal significance of without-violence and anti-violence becomeachievable, whereas a maximum significance is not. (See below).

11Different movements naturally have different conceptions of violence and oppression. Nonviolence resistance do not need to break

norms or laws even if resistance to hegemonic violence and oppression is usually illegal. Undermining methods can at least in part be legal12If even animals are to be included as objects for nonviolence activists, as several well-known spokesmen have suggested Gandhi andTolstoy for example then the moral demands become incomprehensible.

Killing

Inhibition of self fulfilment/needs

Physical or Psychological injury


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Strategic NonviolenceUntil now, we have spoken about nonviolence in general, but what constitutes strategic nonviolence? Strategicviolence is, according to Gene Sharp, more than methods and principle of nonviolence. It is the whole way ofthinking, around power, fundamental human psychology and social and political tendencies and change16.

Let us begin at the inspiring end. Historically, nonviolence activists have used strategic non-violence, broughtdown dictators, freed colonies, defended their occupied countries and achieved social justice in a number ofsituations and countries. Look at the chapter about historical examples of nonviolence. It is just the ability of

strategic nonviolence to be flexible and adaptable which makes it a continuous relevant energy in the facilitatingof social change in society.To better be able to understand what strategic nonviolence implies we need to have perspective on the

following questions: How are conflicts won? And what is our goal?

16The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Gene Sharp


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How are conflicts won? Change Adaptability ForceAccording to Gene Sharp, conflicts are won through one of the following mechanisms: change, adaptability orforce. Change implies that the opponent changes and accepts our argument and ceases with his activities.Adaptability implies that our opposite does not agree with us and could still fight us but chooses not to do itbecause some other aspect or question has become more important to them because of our resistance.

Force implies, finally, that the oppositions source of power is so decimated that they could not fight us even ifthey wanted to.

Sharp says that all struggle, including nonviolent struggle, achieves victory through the use of a combination ofthese mechanisms. To retain focus and be effective in our struggle for nonviolence we must thereforeconsciously choose which mechanism is best suited for reaching our goal.

What is our goal?

All competent strategies start with a goal which is well chosen, defined and understood. If, for example, totaldisarmament is our ultimate goal then we must ask ourselves how our struggle to achieve that can give the bestresult. What would work best, change, adaptability or force?

In just this case, adaptability would probably be best, because if a majority of the population are not for total

disarmament then weapon advocates would achieve their policy. Furthermore to achieve permanent change withthe help of adaptability or nonviolent force, many activists would be needed, which we can accomplish byengaging and motivating people, (adaptability). Although adaptability can sound like a complicated, boringand tragically slow process, strategic nonviolence has an ability to accelerate the process of change.

It is not enough to call for freedom,democracy and human rights.

There has to be a united determinationto persevere in the struggle,

to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths,to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear.

- Aung San Suu KyiNobels Peaceprize and

Leader of the nonviolencedemocratic movementin Burma

Understanding power

Power is a part of all conflicts and can often be a part of the cause or the actual problem in the conflict.Understanding power can often contribute to the solution. As power is a permanently present aspect in conflictsthen all peace, justice and solidarity work needs to relate to power. It can be a question of working for peace,justice, food for all, disarmament, participation, human rights, the right to strike, democracy and so on. Thereare never the less many occasions when both economic and political interests obstruct these goals. It is thereforeof vital importance to understand how power functions.

Gene Sharp: Six sources of power;

1. Authority or legitimacy Peoples willingness to voluntarily obey2. Human resources The number of people who obey, cooperate or help those in power3. Knowledge and skills that are available and how well they meet the needs of those in power4. Indeterminable factors Psychological and ideological factors which help and encourage obeyance5. Materiel resources How much natural resources, economical resources or communications possibilities do

those in power have6. Sanctions The ability of those in power to force through their wishes and punish those who disobey.


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These sources of power have similar function to the legs on a table. If we wish to weaken someones power thenwe need to weaken or take away its legs. When we look closer at these power sources, we discover thatultimately they are based on people.

By looking closer at the way action influences our opponents and our own power sources e can estimate theeffectivity of our actions and decide if they are effective or contra productive. That which can start as a goodidea for change, for example economic sabotage, or hostile slogans, can be negative for us. Another perhapseasier way of understanding power is that power is based on obedience. Solely by people obeying someone elseit means that they get power, this is true on all levels; it can be a colleague, a parent or a politician. Disobedienceis therefore the same as power breaking. The Plowshare movement in Sweden a theory has developed aroundpower breaking and dialogue facilitating17. It is by breaking the opponents power and at the same or overlapping,facilitate dialogue to encourage an open and equal meeting, that the power if nonviolence breaks through. Asobedience is voluntary it can be broken.

Power concedesnothing without

demand. It never didand it never will

-Fredrick Douglass,

Anti-slavery activist19th century.Escaped from slavery

The discipline of nonviolence

The human race has trained violence in thousands of years. It has hardly lead to increased democracy, peace orjustice. Perhaps it is now time to give nonviolence a chance? It is a big mistake to believe that nonviolence issomething woolly or fuzzy that does not need any training or discipline as violence does!

To be able to carry out a nonviolence campaign successfully the discipline of nonviolence is needed. Thediscipline of nonviolence is the self-discipline needed to be able to carry out five necessary components instrategic nonviolence:18

Courage and Firmness of Principle

Resistance to unsatisfactory conditions will often lead to punishment and violence. In meeting such difficulties itis courage and steady principle that prevent the nonviolence activist from compromising with his belief, even inthe face of personal danger and suffering. The nonviolence activist attempts instead to turn the opponents showof strength against him/herself so that the opponent loses support, sympathy and power every time he/she usesviolence. Truthfulness is another component of strategic nonviolence which helps to lessen fear, retainnonviolence discipline and expose the opponents violence or hidden agendas. By avoiding lies, exaggerationand disinformation one can stand up for what one does. Gandhi often used to make his mistakes public. If you dothat and your opponent lies then the contrast is strong.

Without being readyto meet oppression

as a consequence ofthe struggle, the

nonviolence movementcannot expect success.

- Gene Sharp

17the theory around power breaking and dialogue facilitating has been developed in discussions between Per Herngren, Stellan Vinthagenand Klaus Engell Nielsen

18Wicklund, Freeman, Strategic Nonviolence


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Endurance and Perseverance

Endurance is what keeps one working even when enthusiasm is low and the situation seems hopeless. Setbacksare to be expected in larger projects involving change or nonviolence struggles. It is important to realise that ingiving up one can only use. Often it is the endurance which brings the campaign or work success. The majorityof nonviolence ventures that fail do so due to a lack of endurance. Endurance and perseverance are interlacedwith the need for support and encouragement. The discipline of nonviolence is needed not only in relation to theopponent but also towards ones nonviolence colleagues, so that a supportive movement based on mutual respect,trust and understanding is created. Such a movement is attractive and retains enthusiasm, strengthens activistsand encourages them to continue the struggle.

Another way of strengthening endurance is to admit ones own role and responsibility for structural and culturalviolence and oppression. By admitting participation the ability and power to stop it is also admitted.

An additional part of endurance is, not giving up when obstacles are put in the way or punishment is used, andthe thought that no more can be done comes. This sends signals that the obstacles or punishment work. Instead,to escalate the efforts is the best strategy.

Unselfishness and Generosity

Nonviolence workers need to be dominated with inclination and happiness. Many experience a world wherepurpose and meaning are missing and increased consumption is not leading to increased happiness. In thissituation it can be unbelievably rewarding to work as an activist, with nonviolence.

Having said that one must be able to place the struggle or work before self and not only do it to feel good. It isalso important to do boring and non-glamorous tasks.

The basic thought is that the world and life are worth working for. If the world was not infinitely valuable andpotentially fantastic, then why struggle?

Humility and nonviolence

To behave in a non-violent and humble manner is extremely important for strategic nonviolence, for severalreasons: it increases sympathy and support, even within the opposition and it attracts maximum participation inthe struggle or work.

One of the basic reasons for violence in the world is the feeling of superiority, which perhaps is grounded infear, low self esteem and the need for security, love and recognition. War, racism, sexism, hetero-sexism,environmental destruction, violence, murder and enmity can often be traced back to individuals or groups that insome way feel superior to others. Ironically one also finds this among those involved in the struggle against

oppression and who believe in strategic non-violence. The struggle against violence and superiority must befought both within and outside ourselves. A humble and nonviolent way of meeting this struggle is needed.

If I may not dancethen it is not my

revolution!

Emma Goldmanfeminist, anarchist,

nonviolence activist.


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Friendliness and Good will

By presenting points of issue in a non-judgemental, humble, truthful, respectful and dignified manner, the workis not distracted by arrogance and enmity, which means that greater focus is placed on the point of issue.

Enmity from non-violence activists hinders the process of change and encourages loyalty in the opposition,which strengthens the opposition to oppose activists and at the same time justify for themselves and thesurroundings an unproportionately strict repression. If ones behaviour expresses self righteousness, enmity andarrogance then the ideas one presents will not be taken seriously, but many will believe that the engagement ispurely for self-profit.

By expressing friendliness and good will to those who represent the structures and actions one strugglesagainst, the strength of argument and process of change receive increased space.

Political jujitsu

Jujitsu is a martial art and uses the strength of the adversary against her/himself. The theory is that the biggerand stronger the adversary the greaterdamageisdoneto her/himself just by attacking.

In political jujitsu the nonviolence activist tries to turn the opponents strongest weapon violent reprisals against the opponent (not physically). It is when this succeeds that nonviolence is perhaps at its strongest.

Political jujitsu means to dramatically swing opinion, accelerate the process of change and strengthen

tendencies of defection within the opposing group. Political jujitsu arises when nonviolence activists bravelysuffer the opponents brutal treatment and at the same time continue with transparency, nonviolence disciplineand bravery to repeat their demands and refuse to give up when confronted the opponents violence. Cruelty andbrutality committed against people who are obviously non-violent is regarded as inhuman and monstrous bymost people. It often leads to opinion withdrawing its support from the violent party and instead giving it tot thenon-violent activist. The American sociologist Edward Alsworth expresses this in the following way: Thescene where humans suffer but do not hit back is touching. This obliges the powers that be to sink to explainingand justifying themselves. The weak receive new possibilities of winning the general opinion, perhaps evenworld opinion (from a free translation in Swedish).

Voluntary suffering?

But is suffering really necessary? Can one not struggle for all that is good without reprisals? Of course! Thereare many things to be done in the nonviolence struggle which effectively help to achieve the alternative society,characterized by peace and nonviolence, without risking being subject to suffering. At the same time there existsa struggle without violence against violence, in relation to violence. An effective strategic nonviolenceresistance will meet with reprisals and cause suffering among activists in the form of ridicule, prison, beatings,economical consequences and so on. The struggle for a better world brings (personal) consequences All thatwork with strategic nonviolence must reckon with and prepare themselves for it. Some nonviolence workershave use voluntary suffering to achieve goals with nonviolence.

Civil Disobedience

Under a government which unjustly imprisons someone, the correct place for a just person likewise in prisonHenry David Thoreau (1848)

Civil disobedience is a nonviolence method. It is an expression of nonviolence. Civil disobedience is, for somenon-violence activists a central issue in nonviolence, but not all nonviolence activists are necessarily inagreement with civil disobedience. That which characterizes a civil disobedience action is to openly andpublicly break a rule or law which one believes to be unjust. Breaking the law is carried out in a nonviolentmanner after which the punishment judged is accepted. Not leaving the scene of the crime shows that fear ofpunishment which can be given is overcome. At this point the punishment loses in function. Civil disobediencecan be carried out in all of Sharps three nonviolence categories, depending on which laws a land has. In somecountries it is illegal to demonstrate and to carry out a demonstration and then take the punishment is an act ofcivil disobedience.


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In the 19th century the American Henry David Thoreau refused to pay tax. This he did because he was againsthis tax money being used to oppress the indigenous population USAs attack on Mexico. He received a prisonsentence for the tax offence. The point in this was not refusing to pay tax, but the fact that the punishment wasan important part of the action of resistance. This insight was used by Mohandas K Gandhi and Martin LutherKing. In openly breaking an unjust law in a non-violent way and being prepares to take the punishment theycarried out the most powerful resistance a human being can. With regard to civil disobedience, language plays acentral role. Is one a terrorist or a freedom fighter, does one demobilize weapons of mass destruction or doesone destroy material or is it sabotage? According to the non-violence principle peace is the way one cannotdifferentiate between the goal and the means. What happens if we destroy a JAS plane? What happens if we donot?


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Gender and nonviolenceIntroduction

Women have through all time fought for peace and justice, with or without violence. It is not always possible toread this history in our history books, where war is focussed upon with typically masculine prototypes and

qualities. In 1997 the Teachers Union in Sweden examined a total of 16 history books written for classes 15 18 years old. All were written by middle aged men. The result showed that women and the feminine produced3% of the text and 10 15% of the pictures. In art and musical history women are hardly represented at all19.

Whose history is it that counts and who writes it? The purpose (in part) of this chapter is to show hownonviolence can be used on an everyday basis connected to particular subjects, in this case gender and whatpeople, women as well as men have to win by working with nonviolence and gender. It is about power, your ownand others. Another purpose with the chapter is to see how different structures belong together and to increaseyour knowledge in a subject makes it easier to discover other power structures connected to age, religion,geographical areas, ethnic groupings, nationality and sexual preference etc20.

Nonviolent direct action aims to create such a crisis and establish such a creative tension that a society which hasconsistently refuses to negotiate is forced to confront the question. It seeks to dramatise The question to the Point where it can

No longer be ignored

Martin Luther King Jr,Nobel Peace Prize 1964Leader of The Citizens Rights

Movement in USA

This chapter has developed during the time I, Sara, participated in a course on gender and nonviolence arrangedby the International Fellowship of Reconciliations program Women Peacemaker Program. It is an attempt toretell and spread the experiences and knowledge I received from all the participants and mentors. An experiencewhich I carry with me is when I had a conversation with an Israeli and Palestinian woman that were working inthe same organisation. The Palestinian woman told the Israeli woman that she could never be her friend if sheintroduced herself as a Jew. The Israeli woman was frustrated and hurt by that. The occurrence describesdominance and power situations in a conflict very clearly, I think. In the first place the difficulty for persondominant is shown to understand the oppressed person. In the second place, how our identity influences us andhow we choose to emphasize ourselves and that part of our identity we cannot choose.

Definition and theory with examples

Gender is defined differently but I have chosen to define it as a social and cultural construction. This meansthat genus creates through an interplay between structural conditions and perceptions related to femininity andmanliness, that is to say, not something we humans are born with but something that can change. Gender as astructure is expression of how sex is bound to power for example privileges in society. Key terms in genderresearch are construction, hierarchy (power order), relation and social situation21. The word gender (genus)comes from the Latin and means extraction, family, lineage, sex and is the grammatical term for feminine andmasculine22. Gender is also time and environment dependant and therewith variable. Society decides what isexpected, allowed and valued of a man or woman23. It varies, depending on where one lives, ones religion, whichclass one is seen to belong to etc.

Equality means men and womens equal responsibilities, rights and possibilities in all essential areas of life.

This includes among other things equal sharing of power and influence, the same possibilities of economicindependence, equal business conditions, work and development possibilities in work, equal access to

19 Lika fr alla: strategier fr en jmstlld skola. Lrarfrbundet, (1998)20In the academic world this is normally called intersectionality, which is the understanding of mechanisms which make for example, sex,class, age poverty level, caste to fundamental principles for superior and subordinate. Different power regulations influence, strengthen andweaken one another.21Vetenskapsrdets genuskommit 200322

Fredsagent 1325 Operation 1325s handbok.23OSAGI, United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues


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education/training, equal possibility to development of persona interests, talent and ambitions, sharedresponsibility for home and children freedom from sex related violence24.

The term we - them in the sense superior inferior is perhaps seen most clearly and intensely through thedivision between men and women in the world. In a discriminations or conflict of justice there is a stronger andweaker part. Power is unequally divided. If we return to the iceberg and Galtungs three forms of violence we cansay that direct violence constitutes violence by men against women in the home, threat of violence, degradationetc25. According to UN, mens violence against women is the most profound form of violation of human rights.It is estimated that every second to every fourth woman has been subject to physical violence of her partner26.The structural violence is the difference in laws and regulations between women and men, such as differentsalaries for the same work, compulsory military service for men (and women in some countries) and access topublic positions and so on. The cultural violence is societys acceptance that it happens and the unfairnessbecoming the norm. Consciously or not.

It is a fact that 70% of the worlds poor are women27and more than 99% of the worlds income goes to men28. Thisis a clear example of structural violence. During a year, circa 30,000people die in wars around the world. Duringthe same amount of time 3.5 million girls and women die in domestic violence.29 Which question does yourgovernment prioritise?

This can be called an invisible global war which exists in all countries, irrespective of whether it is legal or not.It is an obvious structural injustice accepted by both the inferior (in this case women) and superior (men).

Women can be regarded as second class citizens. There is a great demand for their work but less interest in theiropinions and votes. Women are told to do as the man says. Manliness is connected to control of the woman and

24From Operation 1325s handbook25Francis, Diana, Rethinking War and Peace 2004 pp 65 7026Det r bara att lmna honom, ROKS (2007)27Sjyst Konsument, Svenska Kyrkans Unga, 200428Forum Syd29Uppsala Universitet/Vrldsbanken

Direct violence

Maltreatment in the home,rape, ridicule, threat

Structural violence

Unequal salary, access toemployment, inheritancerights, to be inviolate,sexism

Cultural violence

Acceptance


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the home. A man who does not have control over his woman is seen as a joke and is not regarded as a realman.30 This can create serious consequences. In Palestine, domestic violence

has increased explosively due to the Israeli occupation. The increased unemployment and the violation anddegradation Palestinian men are subject to time and time again, by the Israeli border guards, destroys theirmasculinity as they can no longer support or protect their families. Rape and abuse in the home become a way of

regaining their lost masculinity31.In Sweden we have laws against domestic violence, against discrimination on the grounds of which sex one is

and a culture where it is not ok to beat your partner, irrespective of sex. According to a presentation at the WorldEconomic Forum, 2007, Sweden has the highest equality, but despite this there is an imbalance of power inSwedish society. Look at any daily newspaper and see which people are portrayed in the foreign, domestic, sportand culture articles. Who is able to voice their opinion and who decides our role? Here, cultural violence is madevisible. Sweden has despite this come a long way with regard to equality, but non-violence and gender are somuch more that equality and beside this, Sweden is not separated from the rest of the world.

If its natural to kill how come men haveto go into training to learn how?

Joan Baez ( 1941 -),

Singer, peace activist USA

The Gender impact in the world

Half of the worlds population are women. Despite this 85% of the worlds parliamentary places are held bymen32. Women earn ca 75% of what men earn. About 70% of all unpaid labour is done by women33. For youngwomen between the ages of 15 24 in poor countries the risk of HIV infection is three times greater than the riskfor men in the same age group34. In 27% of the countries in the world, women are permitted abortion. In 33% ofthe countries in the world abortion is strongly forbidden under ay circumstances whatsoever35. Three times moremen than women in the age group 15 44, die in accidents and by violence. Even men have a lot to win bystopping violence.

Gender war and conflict management

In war and armed conflicts people suffer greatly, irrespective of sex. The number of civilian deaths has increasedin the last 50 years, even if the number of conflicts has become less since 1990. Women and children are seen asvictims. This is nothing new for us; we see it on a daily basis in the media. What we see less of, is the cost formen of being soldiers and learning to murder.

Militarism

War is gender violence. By law, men are recruited and in some countries even women to do military service.Military service includes learning to kill other human beings. This becomes reality for many soldiers. What

30Francis, Diana, Rethinking War and Peace, pp 65 70

31Ahlsen, Pernilla,Genderperspectiv p skerhet, 2006 sid 11

32Inter Parliamentary Union33Unifem

34Ibid35UNRISD


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damage and cost is incurred by our society? How do we as a nation manage these men and women who returnfrom the from the war zones?

By analysing an armed conflict or war from a perspective of gender, we are able to see people roles before,during and after the outbreak of the conflict. This increases the possibility of creating a lasting peace whichincludes the whole population. Traditional roles are often changed during a war as the men go out to fight thewomen take over the mens`s work in order to keep the household going.

I am only one; but I am one.I cannot do everything

but I can do something.I cannot abstain from

Doing that which I can do.

Helen Keller

Model 1. Women and mens roles before, during and after conflict,

CONFLICT PHASE

BEFORE DURING AFTERVICTIM

Girls are taken outof school. Marriagewith increasinglyyounger women

Women raped andabducted in order todisunite the opponentsidentity

Difficulty in beingaccepted by ones ownsociety

PERPETRATORIncreased unemploymentInsufficient schoolattendance

Combatants,Both men and women

Celebrated as heroesIn their hometowns.Difficulty

in managing daily chores.PARTICIPANT(In a positive mannerfor peacefuldevelopment)

Active in the community,Womens cooperative etc

Buy from one another atthe local market

Mediate and work forA dialogue betweenthe sides.


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Prominent FiguresThis chapter is meant as an example of how one can illustrate a structural problems or injustices in society. Herefollow a few examples of how people have done this.

Swedish prominent figures

Agda stlund, 1870 1942Agda stlund is one of the women who became a Member of Parliament for the Social Democrats when womengot the vote in Sweden. She trained to become a dressmaker and in due course opened her own business. Hermother had been very careful to see that Agdas brothers did as much housework as Agda and she encouragedher daughter to take an interest in politics. Agda became involved in working for votes for women and travelledaround the country on campaign trips. Many working women identified themselves with her. When they askedhow she dared to speak publicly and be involved in politics she answered that When you really want somethingthen courage comes to you. Like many other suffragettes Agda stlund worked against mens sexualisedviolence. She also worked for the right to pensions for women and for better health care for women and children.Agda became the first woman to be elected to the Legislation Committee and was the first woman to speak in theSwedish Lower House.

Alva Myrdal, 1902 1986Alva Myrdal received The Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 and wrote in 1976 the book The Game of Disarmament.Alva involved herself in the debates on womens liberation. She wished to create a society in which womencould take part on equal conditions in working life and where men could take part in housework. An example ofher contributions in the debate on equality is Womens Two Roles 1957

Elin Wgner, 1882 1949Author journalist and member of The Swedish Academy from 1944. Elin was a founder member of RddaBarnen in 1919. Her literature was about womens rights and the right to vote, peace, environment and socialissues. Elin was a member of the so called Fogelstads group. (for more information see Elisabeth Tamm).

Fredrika Bremer, 1801 1865

Author, peace activist and a prominent feministic figure. Fredrika introduced the realistic novel in Sweden. Hernovel, Hertha, (1856) influenced opinion to the extent that after a lively public debate and a bill passed byParliament, women won their rights. She was also the author of An Invitation to Peace (1854) which started aninternational debate as to womens role in public debates.

Elisabeth Tamm, 1880 1958

Elisabeth Tamm played an active role in securing votes for women and became a Member of Parliament. Inassociation with other suffragettes Elisabeth took the initiative of starting a weekly newspaper Tidevarvet 1923.They also stated a Citizens School for Women in Fogelstad. The idea with the school was now women had wontheir rights and could vote they needed to realise what possibilities these new rights gave them. The Fogelstadgroup was political but did not engage in party politics. Elisabeth was even a front figure within ecologicalcultivation. Together with Elin Wgner, Elisabeth Tamm wrote the book Fred med jorden (1940)

For more information see www.kvinnofronten.nu and Kristna Fredsrrelsens pamphlet Ickevld och genus.

International Prominent Figures

Aung San Suu Kyi, (1945 - )

A Burmese politician who, in her absence received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.Aung is struggling fordemocracy in her country and has since 1989 be placed in house arrest. In 1990 the military junta held a generalelection in which Aung San Suu Kyis party won a convincing victory. The junta refused to acknowledge theresult and Aung San Suu Kyi as prime minister, an still do not accept the election result.


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Berit s, (1928 - )

Norwegian Professor of Social Psychology, politician and the first female party leader in Norway. She hasdeveloped the theory of Domination Techniques.

Dorothy Day, (1897 1980)

Journalist and a founder member of the newspaper and later the movement Catholic Worker. In the newspapershe wrote on the importance of taking a personal responsibility for ones fellow human beings an analysed thecauses in society injustice. It is not sufficient to help the needy; it is all about resisting the structures that createinjustice and oppression. Today, there are over a hundred Catholic Worker Communities around the world.

Emma Goldman, (1869 1940)

Emma Goldman is a leading figure within the American radical and feminist movement. An anarchist whoadvocated freedom of speech, equality for women and womens independence. Her criticism of the compulsoryrecruitment of young men to the First World War lead to a two year prison sentence and thereafter, deportation.

Ellen Key, (1849 1926)

Author, debater and speaker. Author of Barnets rhundrade (1900).

Helen Keller, (1880 - !968)

American author and lecturer, completely blind and deaf from the age of two. The first deaf/blind person tograduate from an American university. Helen Keller worked for workers and womens rights.

Mary Wollstonecraft, (1759 1797)

Mary Wollstonecraft lived in England. When she was 19 years old, her mother died, and Mary, together with hersister started a school. Mary Wollstonecraft is best known for two things; that she wrote the book A Vindicationof the Rights of Women, (1792) and that she bore a daughter Mary Shelley who wrote the book FrankensteinsMonster. In Vindication Mary was scornful of the idea that women should be helpless ornaments in the homeand demanded that women should be educated. She also demanded that women have the right to ownership, tomanage a business and to get a divorce.

Rigobertha Mench, (1959 - )

Guatemalan activist for peace who works for the indigenous populations rights and who received the NobelPeace Prize in 1992.

Rosa Parks, (1913 2005)

I was in the town of Montgomery, Alabama, USA that one evening, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to awhite man. She was on her way home from work and her action was no planned. It was only that Rosa was notsitting at the back of the bus where black people were supposed to sit according to the race laws. Rosa Parks gotthrown off the bus. This lead to the non-white population boycotting the bus company. They refused to use thebuses until the apartheid system was removed. Rosa Parks was put in jail. The bus company was eventuallyforced to change the system of different seating for whites and non-whites. This started a series of different civil

disobedience actions and a new wave of civil rights movement emerged in the USA.

Wangari Maathai, (1940 - )

Nobel Peace Prize in winner 2004, Kenyan doctor and environmental activist. Through The National Council ofWomen of Kenya, Wangari started the non-violence Green Belt Movement in 1977. Today this movement existsin more than 30 African countries. The goal is to protect the natural habitat and environment and encouragefeminine leadership. Wangari Maathais struggle has not always been easy. She has, among other things, beenarrested for leading a civil disobedience action with the goal of saving Uhuru Park in central Nairobi. Wangarihas been beaten and the police closed her office.


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The History of Nonviolence

The History of ideas period of nonviolence36

To live in this world or to attempt to change it by neither using nor supporting violence is an old attitude,

perhaps as old as we humans are.37Methods against violence or oppression evil or tyranny as radicalChristians chose to name it earlier, where one attempted to avoid using violence or oppression is documentedsince ancient times.

Nonviolence is often mixed up with protests and non-military opposition. This is a result of insufficientknowledge of non-violence traditions and about the movements nonviolence actions. In contrast to thisconfusion, Stellan Vinthagen asserts a distinct difference. To distinguish nonviolence in the history of themovement is to show that this form of political activity has its own tradition.38Common for both the critics of violence and nonviolence traditions is (the will), to avoid self-use of violence.The difference is the attitude towards resistance against violence. Nonviolence distinguishes itself in two ways.Firstly because there is a greater optimism in the possibility of change here and now with the help of organisedactions. Secondly by emphasizing the necessity - or duty of active intervention on the part of society, to bringabout peace and justice.39

The history of ideas development can be summarized in two separate traditions generation relationship pacifism and nonviolence where non-resistance as resistance is the birth of nonviolence coming from the

source of pacifism in non-resistance. Four rough idea historical periods can easily be perceived.

1. Resist not Evil and Non-resistance2. Non-resistance as Resistance3. Satyagraha and Non-violent Resistance4. Non-violent Direct Action (NVDA) and Civil Disobedience

Table 2: Idea historical ages of nonviolence (central conception)

1. Resist not Evil and Non-resistance

To begin with some world religions come into existence around 500 BC which place a love of fellow humanbeing centrally and are critical of violence. This general criticism of violence becomes clear during the Resist notEvil period (which in effect means without-violence) or You shall not kill which in the Middle East is the

basis of pacifism. Predecessors for this school are initially the Gospels Jesus (especially The Sermon on theMount) and the early Christian Church. Thereafter in history it is the Christian minority groups which representthis movement foremost in Europe and later in the USA. In this tradition, the importance of avoiding violence,(Christian) belief in a life without evil, testimony, prophecy, the power of example in Christian conversion, notconfronting violence with violence but with kindness, creating institutions of nonviolence ( such as associations,utopian communities, collective and cloisters). During the 18th century terminology such as non-resistance isused by movements. Terms such as love, peace, cleanliness, kindness, non-killing, non-injuring,non-action, and justice became central.

2. Non resistance as Resistance

During the second period of non-resistance as Resistance to Evil (without evil) when the nonviolence movementis born in 1830s north eastern USA, there is a re-orientation from without violence to nonviolence during thestruggle against slavery. Representatives are especially Garrison, Ballou, Thoreau and at the end of the period

Tolstoy in Russia. Non-Resistance was given a new meaning of non-injury resistance against evil/violence andtyranny/oppression. Civil Disobedience was formulated and tested during the struggle against slavery

36This chapter is taken from Stellan Vinthagens thesis Ickevldets sociologi and is an extremely abridged potion of a larger text, includingeditorial changes.37

See e.g. Daube (1972), Horsley (1993), or Dear (1994) pp 17 102 The Book of Daniel in the Old Testament describes, according toDear the non-violent struggle against oppression and violence. See also Berrigan on the Book of Daniel.38The question as to if nonviolence comprises a necessary form of action which should replace other forms as the nonviolence movementwould maintain or not is another discussion.39Koontz, Theodore J., p 172in the article Christian Nonviolence An Interpretation, in Nardin (1996) and Brock (1972),pp474-476


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3. Satyagraha and Non-violent resistance

The nonviolence movement develops from 1905 through the Indians peoples movement struggle against racismin South Africa and is established in the struggle against colonialism in India. Here the Leader is Gandhi.Ahimsa/ Nonviolence was politicized and became Non-violent Resistance, Satyagraha was formulated civildisobedience established and nonviolence preparations through the communal village life (in ashrams, a form of

community of belief, or Hindu cloister and work with the constructive program was introduced as the centralelement of non-violent resistance.

4. Non-violent Direct Action (NVDA) and Civil Disobedience

Finally we have the fourth period of tarns-national spreading of Non-violent Direct Action (NVDA) to othermovements, to begin with USAs Civil Rights Movement and the 1950s defiance campaign, later GreatBritains Anti Nuclear Weapons movement. Here, nonviolence spread to so many different movements (studentsrebellion, anti nuclear reactors, the peace movement and so on), and in so many cultures and with so manydifferent names, for example positive action (Ghana) peoples power (Philippines) or civil resistance(Easter Europe) that it is in itself a research activity to show how it has developed and what is a part of thenonviolence tradition or not. In Sweden a network DIVA Direkt Ickevld Aktion was created through SvenskaFreds och Skiljedomsfreningen .40 During the post modern period of nonviolence it seems that action iscentral but certain activities for a cultural institutionalising exist, among other things their explosive

development of nonviolence training since the citizens rights days and in the form of a former collective life.Catholic Workers Communities in USAs poor housing areas, the 1980s different peace camps outside ofmilitary bases, and Lanzo del Vastos Ashram movement in France are examples of such collectives. More nowestablished terms are friend group, consensus (alternative decision making and meeting techniques and forms)and direct action.

If one were to take one central movement text for nonviolence it is Jesus Sermon on the Mount in The NewTestament.41 Bur its importance lessens the more secularised the nonviolence movement becomes during thesecond half of the 20th century. It is in the meeting of religious and political radicalism above all Christianpacifism ( The Law of Love, Resist not Evil, non-resistance), Gandhian Hinduism(ahimsa, satygraha) and statecritical politics (civil disobedience, direct action) that one can say that the nonviolence movement takes on astabile form and ideology as a peoples movement. It is with Gandhi this meeting of ideas happens. Fragments ofnon-violence show themselves during radical and revolutionary periods for example in England during thedecades in the middle of the 17th century, USA at the beginning of the 19th century but did not take fast formuntil the 1830s in north eastern USA and the struggle against slavery. Each of these periods lead to a war and

revolution and prevented growth of the movement beginnings. It is first in Indias liberation that a nationalrevolution is achieved in organised nonviolence. Since then it has happened many times in the world.42

The Nonviolence movement

The nonviolence movement cannot be said to belong to a certain type of movement but is rather a movementamong movements. That is to say an organisation which expresses itself among other organisations that have todo with peace, workers, womens, solidarity, environmental and other organisations.

This is possible as it is not only a question or society one wishes to change which is emphasized , it is just asmuch, if not mot a question of one own form of work, actions, relations. As nonviolence can be turned bothoutwards towards the other part and inwards towards ones organisation can non-violence be understood as bothbroader and narrower than these other organisations. The nonviolence movement is broader in such a way as notto limit itself to a struggle just for a groups particular interest or specialised point of issue. No, it can be used ina variety of ways. It attempts to manage violence and oppression, in both daily life and in the society

something which involves it in a very broad sense in a both public and private context, that is to say in severalother movements contexts. At the same time its advocates seldom achieve a leading position for a whole

40!964 tennis courts were occupied by radical young people wishing to stop the match between Sweden and Rhodesia, (who through theracist regime symbolised tennis as the white sport)The Street theatre group World Circus start nonviolence training and friend groups inSweden while they organise the first house occupation Mullvaden. !983 several hundreds of nonviolence activists are arrested forblockading nuclear state embassies41Thrn (1997) discusses the term movement text as a central part of the movement identity or positioning.42Jrgen Johansson says that since 1980s are a majority of all irregular regime shifts such as revolutions, coups, citizens rebellions withnon-military means .Example are Philippines, Bolivia, South Africa 1994 and Serbia. Some of them characterized by non-violencemovements often parallel with other movements both armed and not.


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Historical examples of nonviolenceThere are many that have thought and practised nonviolence. A way of showing what nonviolence can be is todescribe some examples where it has been used.

The struggle for independence in Southern Asia

During the 19th century large portions of the world were colonised by Great Britain. In the beginning of the 20thcentury the struggle for freedom accelerated in many of the occupied areas. One of the most noted liberationstruggles was that which today is India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The leader of the struggle was MohandasKaramchand Gandhi and his goal was to get rid of the colonial rule by means of nonviolence. He used, togetherwith his countrymen several methods of nonviolence to convince the British to return Indias sovereignty. One ofthe methods was the boycott of British clothing. The industrialised England produced large amounts of clothingwhich was then sold to their colonies. Gandhi urged all Indians to make their own clothes. Gandhi himselfworked 1 2 hours everyday on his spinning wheel. The spinning wheel became a symbol for the strength ofnonviolence. The British lost enormous income due to the boycott as India was such a large market.

One of the methods that the independence movement used most, demonstrations. The greatest of them whichtook place in 1930, was called The Salt march. The British had a monopoly on salt production and placed a taxon salt. Gandhi and his supporters wanted to protest against this. They did so with a long demonstration marchwhich lasted a month. In every village they walked though, more and more people joined the demonstration.

When they reached the sea Gandhi took a handful of water as a symbol for salt which is extracted from the seawater. With them, during the march they had both the Indian and International Press who documented everythingwhich happened and spread the news all over the world. After this thousands of Indians broke the law andproduced their own salt. The Salt Uprising shocked the British rulers who imprisoned 60,000 people that year fortaking part in the demonstration. Disobedience continued, despite this. The salt law was later changed andIndians were allowed to produce salt for private consumption. A small practical change, but the greatest changewas symbolic and of great psychological importance. Through united effort the Indians had dislodged Britishlaw.

Nonviolence actions disturbed the British, above all economically. They lost very much through the boycott onalcoholic spirits and British clothing. Police and prison costs became an enormous burden for the British. Justduring 1930 31, 60,000 were imprisoned for acts of non-violence. Because of these thousands who offeredtheir freedom and those who offered their lives Great Britain rescinded occupation of India in 1947.

After a long nonviolent struggle the Indians achieved independence even if finally, the price was high. Manydied in the process of dividing India into India, Pakistan and East Pakistan (today Bangladesh). Today, few ofGandhis thoughts remain in the region. Both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and large armies andhave been in conflict with one another over Kashmir in more than 50 years. Nonviolence survives among manyordinary people. For example, nonviolence has been used as resistance against the building of dams in Indiawhich force people to move in their thousands. There is also a movement in Northern India for the preservationof trees in the Himalayas, which is called Chipko.

Every movement which works for change in society must expect five stages of response:

1. Indifference2. Ridicule3. Harassment4. Reprisals, and finally5. Respect

Reprisals are a sure sign that victory is near.We shall not surrender, become angry or violent.

Violence is suic

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