A Glossary of Nonviolent Struggle

    Mass movements have in recent years challenged established governments by nonviolent resistance and rebellion - sometimes alongside violence and sometimes to its virtual exclusion.  Similar movements have occurred in the past in Iran (1978-1979), Czechoslovakia (1968-1969), the U.S. Deep South (1950s and 1960s), India (1920s to 1940s) and elsewhere.  
    Journalists have reported on these struggles, and they have usually recognized their nonviolent character.  But they have not always described nonviolent action in clear terms: 
    Powerful, dynamic struggles have been sometimes labeled "passive" simply because no violence was used.  Demonstrations of thousands who were strictly nonviolent have been labeled "violent" as a whole because of a small isolated act by a handful of persons - or even because the disciplined nonviolent demonstrators were violently attacked by police or troops!
    Other terms have also been used to describe nonviolent struggles without attention to clarity of meaning.  Journalists need more precise terms to describe action and ideas in this field. 

Key Terms:

Bloodless coup: A successful coup d'etat in which there is no killing.  Not to be confused with nonviolent struggle, although such a coup sometimes follows nonviolent protest and resistance against the government.  

Boycott: Social, economic or political non-cooperation. 

Civic Strike: A collective suspension of normal activities (economic, social and political) by an entire society to achieve a common political objective. 

Civil disobedience: Deliberate, open and peaceful violation of particular laws, decrees, regulations, military or police orders, or other governmental directives.  The command may be disobeyed because it is seen as itself illegitimate or immoral, or because it is a symbol of other policies that are opposed.  Civil disobedience may be practiced by individuals, groups or masses of people. Civilian-based defense: A national defense policy to deter and defeat aggression, both internal (i.e., coups d'etat) and external (i.e., invasions) by preparing the population and institutions for massive nonviolent resistance and defiance.  The broad strategy is to deny the attackers' objectives, block establishment of their government and subvert their troops.

Civilian or nonviolent insurrection: A nonviolent uprising against a dictatorship, or other unpopular regime, usually involving widespread repudiation of the regime as illegitimate, mass strikes, massive demonstrations, an economic shutdown and widespread political non-cooperation.  Political non-cooperation may include action by government employees and mutiny by police and troops.  In the final stages, a parallel government often emerges.  A civilian insurrection may disintegrate the established regime in days or weeks, as opposed to a long-term struggle of many months or years. Civilian insurrections often end with the departure of the deposed rulers from the country.  (The ousters of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and the Shah of
Iran in 1979 are examples.)

Economic boycott: The withdrawal or withholding of economic cooperation in the form of buying, selling or handling of goods or services, often accompanied by efforts to induce others to do likewise.  It may be practiced on local, regional, national or international levels. 

Economic non-cooperation: The use of economic boycotts and/or strikes. 

Economic sanctions: Usually, the imposition of international economic boycotts and embargoes.  The term can also be used in domestic conflicts to refer to labor strikes and economic boycotts, shutdowns and intervention. 

Economic shutdown: A suspension of the economic activities of a city, area or country, sufficient to produce economic paralysis.  It combines a workers' general strike with closing of businesses by owners and managers. 

Embargo: An economic boycott initiated and enforced by a government. 

Fast: Deliberate abstention from certain or all food.  When applied in a social or political conflict, it may be combined with a moral appeal seeking to change attitudes.  It may also be intended simply to force the opponent to grant certain objections, in which case it is called a hunger strike. 

General Strike: A work stoppage by a majority of workers in the more important industries of an area or country, intended to produce an economic standstill to achieve political or economic objectives.  Certain vital services, as health, food and water, may be exempted.  Such strikes may be symbolic, lasting only an hour, to communicate an opinion, or may be used to produce economic paralysis in order to force concessions from the opponent. 

Mutiny: Refusal by police or troops to obey orders.  It can in extreme cases entail individual or group desertion.  It is a method of nonviolent action unless the mutineers resort to violence. 

Non-cooperation: Acts that deliberately restrict, withhold or discontinue social, economic or political cooperation with an institution, policy or government.  A general class of methods of nonviolent action. 

Nonviolence: Either (1) The behavior of people who in a conflict refrain from violent acts, or (2) Any of several belief systems that reject violence on principle, not just as impractical.  Otherwise, the term is best not used, since it often contributes to ambiguity and confusion.  To describe specific actions or movements, the recommended terms are: "nonviolent action," "nonviolent resistance" or "nonviolent struggle."

Nonviolent action: A technique of action in conflicts in which participants conduct the struggle by doing - or refusing to do - certain acts without using physical violence.  It is an alternative to both passive submission and violence.  The technique includes many specific methods, which are grouped into three main classes: nonviolent protest and persuasion, non-cooperation and nonviolent intervention.  The technique's variables include motives for using it, objectives, the way success is to be accomplished and the relation between nonviolent action and other forms of action. 

Nonviolent discipline: Orderly adherence to the planned strategy and tactics of an action and to nonviolent behavior even in face of repression.  This is a major factor in the success of a nonviolent struggle movement. 

Nonviolent resistance: Nonviolent struggle, conducted largely by noncooperation, in reaction to a disapproved act, policy or government. The broader terms "nonviolent action" and "nonviolent struggle" are preferred to refer to the overall nonviolent technique of action and to action in which the nonviolent group also takes the initiative or intervenes, as in a sit-in. 

Nonviolent sanctions: The methods of the technique of nonviolent action. The term is used especially when one wishes to make clear that these methods are not merely expressive behavior but are ways to wield power, exercise influence, inflict punishments and impose costs.  Nonviolent sanctions are less likely than violent ones to be simple reprisals and more likely to be intended to achieve a given objective.

Nonviolent struggle: A synonym for "nonviolent action."  This term may be used to indicate that the nonviolent action in a conflict is particularly purposeful or aggressive.  The term is especially useful to describe nonviolent action against determined and resourceful opponents who use repressive measures and countermeasures. 

Pacifism: Several types of belief systems of principled rejection of violence.  Pacifism is distinct from nonviolent action, which is usually applied as a practical way to act by people who are not pacifists. Pacifist belief systems, at a minimum, reject participation in all international or civil wars or violent revolutions.  Pacifists may support nonviolent struggle, or may oppose it on ethical grounds as too conflictual. 

Passive resistance: A nineteenth century term once used to describe nonviolent struggle.  The term is now in disfavor and rejected because "passive" is plainly inaccurate to describe nonviolent non-cooperation and  defiance. 

People power: The power capacity of a mobilized population and its institutions using nonviolent forms of struggle.  The term was especially used during the 1986 Philippine nonviolent insurrection. 

Political non-cooperation: The withholding of usual obedience to, or participation in, the political system.  The aim may be to correct a specific grievance or to disintegrate a government.  Political non-cooperation can take many forms, including withholding of allegiance, civil disobedience of "illegitimate" laws and governmental refusal of diplomatic recognition.  A synonym for "political boycott."
 
Satyagraha: Gandhi's version of nonviolent action and also his fuller belief system enjoining nonviolent personal behavior and social responsibility.

Strike: A group's deliberate restriction or suspension of work, usually temporary, to put pressure on employers or sometimes the government. Strikes take many forms and range widely in extent and duration. 

Transarmament: The process of incrementally building a nation's civilian-based defense capacity and gradually phasing out its military defense capacity.  "Transarmament" is contrasted to "disarmament" which involves a simple reduction or abandonment of military capacity without providing a substitute means for national defense. 

For more information, contact: The Albert Einstein Institution, 1430 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA Tel.: 617-876-0311; Email: einstein@igc.apc.org