Reflections on Nonviolence

By Hector Rosario.

    A few hours in jail can change a person's life.  It definitely changed mine.  While in jail, I gained a new perspective on the nonviolent struggle and its consequences.  I had time to re-evaluate my strategies and thoughts.  I finally understood the most important quality of the nonviolent warrior: willingness to die but not to kill.  Nonviolent warriors are not afraid to die, neither are they afraid to kill.  It is not fear that draws them away from killing the opponent but the understanding that if they win nonviolently, they will not have fostered feelings of hatred and resentment that would haunt them in time.  In a violent struggle, the violence of each side goads the other to greater violence.
    Furthermore, each side uses the violence of the other side to justify its own violence.  A nonviolent struggle, on the other hand, does not encourage the violence of the opponent.
    To understand the nonviolent struggle, it is imperative that we deconstruct some widespread myths about nonviolence.  As Mark Shepard put it in his 1990 Annual Gandhi Lecture for the International Association of Gandhian Studies, "Gandhi's nonviolent action was not an evasive strategy nor a defensive one.  Gandhi was always on the offensive.  He believed in confronting his opponents aggressively, in such a way that they could not avoid dealing with him."  He added that, "Gandhi steadfastly avoided violence toward his opponents.  [However,] he did not avoid violence toward himself or his followers."          This is the gist of the struggle, to be  confrontational but nonviolent and civil. The nonviolent struggle demands superior discipline, because an enemy that is prompted to use violence will look for ways of creating a scenario that is favorable to him/her, i.e., a violent confrontation.  In Puerto Rico, even the two armed revolutionary parties have now vowed to adhere to
nonviolent methods.
    This is an important step in our struggle for self-determination, since those who oppose us are forced to abandon their usual position that we are a group of terrorists.  For the sake of fairness though, I must assert that the traditional methods that Los Macheteros have employed are legitimate means to fight colonialism and oppression. Let me present an outline of how Shepard believes the nonviolent struggle works: activists break a law - politely; public leader(s) have them arrested, tried and put in prison; activists accept it; members of the public are impressed by the protest, hence public sympathy is aroused for the protesters and their cause; members of the public put pressure on public leader(s) to negotiate with activists; as cycles of civil disobedience recur, public pressure grows stronger; finally, public leader(s) give in to pressure from their constituency and negotiate with activists.
    The nonviolent struggle might seem naive and romantic to some experienced warriors, but I urge them to fully experiment with it and compare the results to those obtained through violent means.  Our first goal is to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques, then fight for the demilitarization of Puerto Rico and finally to obtain independence for our nation.  This we shall attain through nonviolent means.

Source: The Dartmouth Online, May 24, 2000.  Reprinted in The Nuclear Resister, July 8, 2000. Web site:
www.nonviolence.org/nukeresister/nr120rosario.html


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U.S. Navy Out of Vieques!
Hector Rosario was arrested in early May of this year because he and six friends dashed into the field of Yankee Stadium during the Yankees-Orioles game. They carried Puerto Rican flags and a sign reading "U.S. Navy Out of Vieques."  They interrupted the game in order to publicly condemn the U.S. government's raid of civil disobedience encampments in Vieques. A day before the arrest, approximately 300 U.S Marshals and FBI agents forcibly removed most of the women and men from the island of Vieques off the east coast of Puerto Rico.  Some of these people had been living there in tents and wooden structures for over a year.  They took up residence there shortly after a 500-pound warhead went one and a half miles off
target and killed civilian David Sanes on April 19, 1999.  Their presence, as well as demonstrations in many cities and towns, is an attempt to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques.  The island was expropriated by the U.S. government in 1941 and has been used as a test range for bombing.