The Global Spread of Nonviolence
By Richard Deats, Editor of Fellowship magazine, published by the Fellowship of
Reconciliation (FOR).
In the last century Victor Hugo wrote, "An invasion of armies can be
resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." Looking back over the
twentieth century we see the growing influence and impact of nonviolence all
over the world. While "nonviolence is as old as the hills," as
Mohandas Gandhi said, it is our century in which the philosophy and practice of
nonviolence have grasped the human imagination and exploded in amazing and
unexpected ways, as individuals, groups, and movements have developed creative,
life-affirming ways to resolve conflict, overcome oppression, establish justice,
protect the earth, and build democracy. Gandhi pioneered in developing the
philosophy and practice of nonviolence.
On the vast subcontinent of India he led a colonial people to freedom
through satyagraha (soul force) defeating what was at the time the greatest
empire on earth, the British Raj. Not long after Gandhi's death, Martin
Luther King, Jr. found in the Mahatma's philosophy the key he was searching for.
He moved individualistic religion toward a socially dynamic religious philosophy
that propelled the civil rights movement into a nonviolent revolution, thus
changing the course of U.S. history.
The Gandhian and Kingian movements have provided a seedbed for social ferment
and revolutionary change across the planet, providing a mighty impetus for human
and ecological transformation. Many, perhaps most, still do not recognize
the significance of this development and persist in thinking that in the final
analysis it is lethal force, or the threat of it, that is the decisive arbiter
of human affairs. Why else would the U.S. continue to pour hundreds of
billions into weaponry even as we cut foreign aid, refuse to pay our United
Nations dues and send our armed forces abroad on peacekeeping missions without
providing them with training in the way of peace and nonviolence?
We need to do a far better job of bringing into the public consciousness an
awareness of the nonviolent breakthroughs that have been occurring and that
provide an alternative paradigm to the ancient belief in marching armies and
bloody warfare as the stuff of human history. What follows are a few
highlights of how this alternative vision is developing even as it changes
history.
The Philippines
In 1986, millions of unarmed Filipinos surprised the world by nonviolently
overthrowing the brutal dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, who was known at the
time as "the Hitler of Southeast Asia." The movement they called
"People Power" demonstrated in an astounding way the power of active
nonviolence.
Beginning as a reaction to the assassination in 1983 of the popular
opposition leader, Senator Benigno Aquino, the movement against Marcos grew
rapidly. Drawing on Aquino's own advocacy of nonviolence, and aided by
widespread workshops in active nonviolence, the people began to realize that
armed rebellion was not the only way to overthrow the dictator. In late
1985, when Marcos called a snap election, the divided opposition united behind
Corazon Aquino, the widow of the slain senator. Despite fraud,
intimidation and violence employed by Marcos, the Aquino forces brilliantly used
a nonviolent strategy employing marches, petitions, trained poll watchers and an
independent polling commission. When Marcos tried to steal the election
and thwart the people's will, the country came to the brink of civil war.
The Catholic cardinal called upon the contemplative orders of nuns to pray and
fast for the country. Thirty computer operators tabulating the election
results publicly denounced the official counting, exposing the fraud to the
world. Corazon Aquino called for a nonviolent struggle of rallies, vigils
and civil disobedience to undermine the fraudulent claim of Marcos that he had
won the election. Church leaders fully backed her call.
Crucial defections from the government by two key leaders and a few hundred
troops became the occasion for millions of unarmed Filipinos to pour into the
streets of Manila to protect the defectors and demand the resignation of the
discredited government. Troops sent to attack the rebels were met by
citizens massed in the streets, singing and praying, calling on the soldiers to
join them. Clandestine radio broadcasts gave instructions in nonviolent
resistance. When fighter planes were sent to bomb the rebel camp, the
pilots saw it surrounded by the people, and defected. A military man said,
"This is something new. Soldiers are supposed to protect the
civilians. In this particular case, you have civilians protecting the
soldiers." Facing the collapse of his support, Marcos and his family
fled the country. The dictatorship fell in four days. Ending the
dictatorship was only the first step in the long struggle for freedom.
Widespread poverty, unjust distribution of land and an unreformed
military remained, undercutting the completion of the revolution. Challenges to
the further development of effective People Power continue, as a determined
grassroots movement works for the transformation of society.
Chile
The Chileans, who like the Filipinos suffered under a brutal dictatorship,
gained inspiration from the People Power movement as they built their own
movement of nonviolent resistance to General Pinochet. They used the image
of drops of water wearing away the stone of oppression.
In 1986, leftist guerrillas killed five bodyguards of
Pinochet in an
assassination attempt on the general. In retaliation, the military decided
to take revenge by arresting five critics of the regime. A human rights
lawyer alerted his neighbors to the danger of his being abducted and they made
plans to protect him. Cars arrived in the early morning hours carrying
hooded men who tried to enter the house. Unable to break down reinforced
doors and locks, they tried to force barred windows. The lawyer's family
turned on all the lights and banged pots and blew whistles, awakening the
neighbors, who then did the same. The attackers, unexpectedly blocked by
united neighbors, fled the scene.
Groups formed to carefully locate sites of government torture and then, after
prayer and reflection, found ways to expose the evil. Some padlocked
themselves to iron railings near a targeted building; others proceeded to such a
site during rush hour, then unfurled a banner saying, "Here they torture
people." Sometimes they would disappear into the crowd; other times
they would wait until they were arrested.
In October of 1988, the government called on the people to vote "si"
or "no" on continued military rule. Despite widespread
intimidation against Pinochet's critics, the people were determined.
Workshops were held to help them overcome their fear and to work to influence
the election. Voter registration drives and the training of poll watchers
proceeded all over the country. The results exceeded the protesters'
fondest expectations: 91% of all eligible voters registered and the opposition
won 54.7% of all votes cast. Afterwards, over a million people gathered in
a Santiago park to celebrate their victory.
Burma
In Rangoon, Burma's capital, a students' nonviolent movement was launched in
the summer of 1988 against the brutally repressive military rulers. Students
began mass marches that increased week by week, as professionals, the middle
class and working people joined.
During this tumultuous period, Aung San Suu Kyi quickly rose to prominence.
The daughter of Aung San, the father of modern Burma, she had married an Oxford
professor and moved to England. She had returned to Rangoon from abroad
because of her mother's illness. Suu Kyi was drawn into the democracy
movement and fearlessly spoke at mass rallies, once walking through a
contingent of soldiers ready to fire on her.
Finally, the threatened leaders ordered a bloody crackdown, killing thousands
of unarmed demonstrators, with thousands more fleeing into the jungle. In
the May 1990, national elections, the people voted overwhelmingly for Aung San
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), even though she and the other NLD
leaders had been placed under house arrest months earlier. The government
refused to recognize the results of the election and continued to govern,
keeping Suu Kyi under house arrest for five years. Meanwhile she was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In one of her essays she wrote, "The
wellspring of courage and endurance in the face of unbridled power is generally
a firm belief in the sanctity of ethical principles, combined with a historical
sense that despite all setbacks, the condition of man is set on an ultimate
course for both spiritual and material advancement." Her quiet
determination and courage continues as a tower of strength to the Burmese in
their quest for freedom.
Israel/Palestine
Prior to the start of the peace process in the Middle East, the predominant
impression of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, fed by media images, was one of
rock-throwing Palestinian young men fighting well-armed Israeli soldiers.
But since 1967 there have been two parts of Palestinian resistance, the
paramilitary and the civil. The intifada (Arabic for "to shake
off") was from its inception a multidimensional movement containing many
nonviolent aspects:
~ Strikes by schools and businesses called to protest specific policies
and actions of the occupying authorities;
~ Agricultural projects, such as the planting of victory gardens and trees
planted on disputed lands;
~ Visiting committees for prisoners and the families of those who had been
killed;
~ Boycotts of all Israeli-made products;
~ Tax refusal, as in the Palestinian village of Beit Sahour where the VAT and
income taxes were not paid;
~ Solidarity demonstrations, undertaken when villagers were unjustly arrested,
by other residents who went to police stations asking to be arrested as well;
~ Establishment of alternative institutions to build Palestinian
self-sufficiency.
Commenting on such developments, Labor Party leader Schlomo Avineri observed,
"An army can beat an army, but an army cannot beat a people.... Iron can
smash iron, it cannot smash an unarmed fist."
The just demands and nonviolent actions of the Intifada strengthened the
voices of Israelis working to find a just and peaceful resolution of the
conflict. And, despite grave legal risks, covert meetings between
Palestinians and Israelis slowly built growing areas of understanding. In
March 1989, the chairman of the Palestine National Council's political committee
told a New York audience how secret friendships with Jewish leaders helped
Palestinian leaders to publicly adopt a two-state solution. In the fall of 1992,
Norway began hosting fourteen secret meetings between Palestinians and Israelis
out of which the Declaration of Principles was forged that provided the basis of
the Israeli-PLO Accord signed on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993.
Extremists on both sides have been unrelenting in their efforts to undermine
the peace process. The assassination of Prime Minister Rabin and the
defeat of the peace forces in the May 1996 Israeli elections were grave blows to
the Accord.
The forces of fairness and good will have an even more daunting task ahead of
them. To those who say peace is now impossible, Gandhi reminds us,
"Think of all the things that were thought impossible until they
happened."
South Africa
Decades of resistance to apartheid and witness for a multiracial, democratic
society slowly but surely wore away the adamant oppression dominating South
Africa. The brutal policies of the government convinced many that
apartheid would only end in a violent showdown, that nonviolence could not
overcome such a racist regime. Nonetheless, the heart of the resistance
movement was basically nonviolent: education, vigils, rallies, marches,
petitions, boycotts, prayers, fasts and acts of civil disobedience. Governmental attempts to stop the movement with massive
detentions, the banning of organizations and individuals, intimidation and
murder, could not, in the end, stop it.
Even the establishment of emergency rule in 1988 failed: the churches
responded with a nationwide program called "effective nonviolent
action" that trained citizens for grassroots campaigns to break racial
barriers in housing and transportation, defend conscientious objectors, visit
prisoners across racial lines, etc. Emergency rule, rather than
strengthening the government, exposed its desperation and moral bankruptcy in
the face of widespread nonviolent resistance.
An unexpected breakthrough came when President deKlerk began instituting
reforms, eventually legalizing the African National Congress and releasing
Nelson Mandela, who had been in prison twenty-nine years. The dramatic
changes demonstrate a concept from the civil rights movement in the US,
"top down/bottom up" - i.e., pressure for change from the grassroots
is met by reforms accepted by or initiated from the top, creating a dynamic
tension that fosters change.
In the midst of these changes, the government still carried out brutal
policies - but the force for change was not to be denied. When the
first open elections in South Africa's history were held, the world saw an
amazing manifestation: a whole nation peacefully voting for revolutionary
change, moving from a white racist regime to multiracial democratic rule under
the presidency of Nelson Mandela. His passion for freedom and justice for
all was expressed in a greatness of spirit that reached out to his former
enemies. In his inaugural address, he held before the people a unifying
vision "in which all South Africans...will be able to walk tall, without
any fear in their hearts, sure of their inalienable right to human dignity - a
rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world."
Source: Fellowship, July/August 1996. Published by FoR. Updated
for the book, Peace Is The Way (Walter Wink, editor; Orbis
Press, 2000). FoR web site: www.forusa.org/Nonviolence/0900_73Deats.html