In our culture, when a coffin is carried down the street, pedestrians and vehicles must come to a halt to observe a moment of silence in memory of the deceased being carried. In this case, it was our coffin. In the middle of a large, motionless crowd, our activists laid down the coffin and then dispersed in a flash. The street erupted in turmoil! No one had never seen anything like it before! Had a crime been committed? Why would a coffin be placed in the middle of the street? All of these questions aroused emotion, confusion and commotion at the scene of action. […]

Quand des citoyens s’engagent dans la résistance civile pour défendre la démocratie et lutter contre un régime autoritaire, comment les forces de l’ordre, les membres de la sécurité intérieure, les services de renseignement et l’armée du pays peuvent les aider ? En Biélorussie, certains membres des forces de sécurité viennent de jeter publiquement leurs cartes d’identité militaires et leurs uniformes à la poubelle pour protester contre le dictateur au pouvoir depuis plusieurs décennies. […]

We have learned from our international participants that carelessness with regard to terminology—conflating nonviolence (a set of beliefs) with nonviolent action (actual conflict)—is counterproductive at best and dangerous at worst. It plays into the hands of authoritarians, who thrive on confusion, to dismiss as elitist the aspiration to use precise terminology. We owe it to ourselves—and we owe it to nonviolent movements on the front lines of societal change—to talk about their actions in a way that does them justice. […]

Let’s say that you serve in the police, interior security, intelligence services, or the military. A ruler at the helm orders you to repress a pro-democracy movement and its unarmed people who are going out to protest against him. You do not agree with what the ruler and his political sycophants expect from you. Deep down, you know you would be no longer serving the country and its people if you were to follow those orders. You are looking for ideas on how to delay, derail, or go against the ruler’s orders to suppress the nonviolent movement. You are not alone. […]

In activist circles, sooner or later people can become concerned about the possibility of infiltrators in our midst. During intense periods of activity, I know of times when that concern has become nearly overwhelming. People look at others with suspicion, and mistakes, missteps, or miscommunications by a friend can become a source of doubt. It’s important to note that at such times, the fear of infiltrators itself can become a poison of its own. […]

El 8 de noviembre de 2011, estudiantes de la Universidad de California en la ciudad de Davis ocuparon noviolentamente una acera peatonal, como parte de una campaña desplegada en todo el sistema de sedes de la UC, para protestar contra un alza en los costos de matrícula y el corte de fondos a las universidades. Unos días antes, la policía había usado sus bastones contra estudiantes y personal de la facultad en otro campus, la Universidad de California en Berkeley, y había destrozado un campamento similar al desplegado en la UC Davis. […]

People have rushed to reinvent their campaigns since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis. Some shifted their focus to community support, lockdown monitoring, and popular education. Others reassessed methods of conveying their message. One of them was Europe Must Act, a pan-European nonviolent movement calling for the evacuation of refugee camps in Greece. I was fortunate to participate in the organization’s process of rethinking campaign strategy and thereby engineered, introduced, and helped implement the concept of peopleless protests. […]

Religious groups energize movements their resources and influence, bringing with them rich traditions of moral nonviolence and making movements more resilient in the face of opposition. These groups’ moral nonviolence—a belief in the sacredness of nonviolent action and in the impermissibility of violence—advances the goals of broader movements that use nonviolent action as a strategic resistance method. How does this interaction play out in more concrete terms? I can speak on at least one important historical case, which is the subject of my research: Argentina during its 1976-1983 Dirty War. […]

Women’s rights have been on the social agenda in Pakistan for years, but the media largely ignored it until recently. Journalists have become more independent over the past few years, coinciding with the emergence of the Women’s March in the United States and around the world. These marches inspired Pakistani women to finally take action for their rights. Pakistan’s Aurat March (“aurat” means “women” in Urdu) saw its debut on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2018. […]