International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

A Conversation on Leadership in Civil Resistance

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Presenter: Dr. Deborah Nutter / Senior Associate Dean, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Date: Wednesday, June 27th, 2012
Time: 2:00pm – 3:30pm

Description: To give effective leadership to a civil resistance movement, an organizer must be able to strategically organize and plan, visualize a future that the movement wants to achieve, elicit sustained and value-driven participation, and effectively negotiate with disparate parts of a coalition for action, and with other institutions. The leader must articulate ideas and generate tactical actions that build the movement in order to shift perceived legitimacy from the current system to a new society sought by the people. Dean Deborah Winslow Nutter leads a discussion on leadership, based on these and other ideas, with two leaders of civil resistance: Czeslaw Bielecki of Poland, and Lhadon Tethong on behalf of Tibet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEQKqKIq-4Y

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The Dynamics of Civil Resistance

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Jack DuVall
President
International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

The modern practice of civil resistance sprang from ideas about the underlying nature of political power that began to be framed about 170 years ago. As later developed by Gandhi and adopted by scores of movements and campaigns for rights and justice in recent decades, strategies of civil resistance have exhibited a common dynamic, propelled historic changes, and imparted certain political and social properties to their societies. The record of these strategies in liberating oppressed people, when compared to that of violent insurgency or revolt, has been remarkable – and suggests why political violence may substantially be reduced in the future.

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Ramesh Chandra Sharma

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https://youtu.be/dahGfnZCLA4

Ramesh Chandra Sharma has worked with Ekta Parishad, a nonviolent mass movement in India, as a Campaign Coordinator for the past 12 years. He has been involved in campaigning and training rural youth to lead struggles in villages for the past 40 years. He is also in charge of International Coordination for Ekta Parishad. Ramesh is also a member of various groups such as the Task Force for Land Reforms, the Central Enquiry Committee on Tribal Self Rule, and the National Land Reforms Committee. As a campaigner he has been involved in many foot marches, mass movements and negotiations with concerned groups. Ramesh has also delivered lectures at Cambridge University, the London School of Economics, and Oxford University as well as the British Parliamentary Committee. He has been involved in and offered assistance to many similar international nonviolent movements in Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, Brazil, Bangkok, and Uganda. Currently, he is engaged in building a mass movement in India called Jan Satyagraha 2012 when 100,000 landless and deprived people will walk to claim their land, livelihood, rights and dignity.

“In every nonviolent movement there should be individuals who are part of constructive work while simultaneously strengthening local campaigns. These advocacy efforts lend a transformative, long-term resilience to all stakeholders who are involved with the daily tasks and short-term goals of an organization.”

Tamar Zhvania

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bivdnlAkCYU&feature=youtu.be

Tamar Zhvania received her Sociology MA degree from the Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. She is an Expert/Consultant in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Electoral Assistance Project since November 2007, acting as the Project Manager. During the last three years she has actively worked on public awareness and civic education, supported capacity building of different institutions as well as promoted improved legal framework for effective democratic processes.

From 2004-2007, Tamar worked at a well-known Georgian NGO called the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) as an Executive Director. In 2001-2004, before assigning as an ISFED Executive Director, Tamar worked for ISFED as a Press-Secretary and then was promoted as a PR Director. In 2000, she worked as an ISFED representative in the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia. Tamar has experience of working in Bangladesh as NDI election consultant, in Ukraine under ENEMO observation missions, in Kazakhstan under OSCE observation missions and in Norway under NUPI short-term electoral mission.

“Since 2008 there have been frequent rallies and public meetings in Georgia, especially election related public protests and boycotts. Many political parties, particularly opposition ones, encouraged people to be involved in the public protests to demand government change through snap elections to be conducted in free and fair manner. People also were raising concerns related to social and political problems. Those protests were organized in terms of representing the different parties, social groups and the public in general.”

Natalia Lozano Mancera

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0flzQOw8o1g&feature=youtu.be

Natalia Lozano Mancera was born in Bogotá, Colombia, where she grew up surrounded by her father’s large family who were all at some point of their lives politically active in leftist movements. Inspired by her family she studied Political Science at the National University of Colombia. Her BA degree thesis was called “Musical Consumption and Production in Internally Displaced People in Bogotá.” Some years afterwards she worked for a govermental organization in charge of reparations for victims of paramilitary groups. Being so close to the situations of the different victims she realized she did not want to work in processes of reparations but in processes that allow people to escape from being victimized. In 2007 she became a student in the MA program in Peace Studies at the University of Innsbruck. She graduated last January with a thesis called “Playing Music Performing Resistance, the dynamics of resistance through music in the Colombia south Pacific coast” in which she analyzes little acts of resistance related to the marimba music. Currently, she works for a NGO in Colombia in which she gives workshops on Conflict Transformation and Peace Education to vulnerable populations. She recently enrolled in the PhD program of Media and Communications of the European Graduate School, where she wants to continue working with the concepts of resistance and revolution in relation to arts and creativity.

My interest in nonviolent struggle was first sparked “…by living in a country where violence is so overwhelming. My interest was also sparked by having the conviction that we as creative human beings have the capacity to transform those violent realities. I’ve been personally involved in nonviolent action, when the current Colombian president wanted to reform the National Constitution in order to run for a third term (he already had changed it to run for the second one). I participated in an organization called Civil Alliance for Democracy that worked against that reform, and any other reform that would threaten the principles of freedom and plurality proclaimed by the Constitution. I’ve learned that there is nothing that can justify the use of violence. There are not fair causes in the name of which violence can be used. I hope to take away from the Fletcher Summer Institute shared moments and knowledge about others’ experiences and about resistance theories that will give me the will to keep on studying and acting in nonviolent movements.”

Musa Isah Salmanu

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https://youtu.be/jCdktOLmbUU

Musa Isah Salmanu is a serving Squadron Leader in the Nigerian Air Force, with an MA in Conflict Security and Development from King’s College London and an MSc in Political Science from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria-Nigeria. He is an African Peace and Security Fellow at the African Leadership Center and the Conflict, Security and Development Group, King’s College London. He is presently deployed as a military observer in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.

My interest in nonviolent struggle was first sparked “…by the conviction that the ability to exercise our rights to freedom of expression and association is an important step towards achieving a viable and progressive society. I’ve been personally involved in nonviolent action, when as a high school student I worked with other students to organize and challenge a tuition increment by the government, a move we viewed as anti-poor. I’ve lived or worked in a conflict environment, and have learned that the traditional notion of seeing security personnel as pro-establishment and anti-popular movements is erroneous. There is thus the need for security forces to be carried on board and to be more informed about the logic, principles, and ideals behind nonviolent conflict. Presently in the Eastern part of the DR Congo, I have witnessed firsthand how the denial of basic rights and the curtailing of civil liberty can bring about violent resistance and anarchy. What I hope to take away from the Fletcher Summer Institute is a better understanding of the modes and reasons for actions involving nonviolent conflict as this will enable me to deal with situations in a more professional way. This I believe will engender the spirit of mutual understanding between the practitioners of nonviolence and the security agents sent to maintain law and order. Furthermore, I will be better equipped to explain these issues to my colleagues and thereby beginning a process of change in perception and action.”

Dr. Mohamed Fouad Bergigui

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RJ9OKvTj7A&feature=youtu.be

Dr. Mohamed Fouad Bergigui is the head of rural development for the Moroccan Foundation for Youth, Initiative and Development. He received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at the Agronomic and Veterinary Institute. At the foundation, Bergigui is in charge of conception, achievement and follow-up of socio-economic development programs targeting especially rural areas and underprivileged populations. He has participated in many rural development projects such as the creation of six beekeeping cooperatives in Tiznit and Chtouka in southern Morocco, and two Veterinarian Civic Action Projects for poor farmers rural Morocco.

My interest in nonviolent struggle was first sparked “…when I led a rural development project to ensure better living conditions for destitute Berber populations that have no access to the basic necessities of life in the countryside of Morocco. I was personally involved in nonviolent action when I participated in a COP15 youth climate march in Copenhagen. I hope to learn how to empower youth and underprivileged populations to act for the change they need.

Nathalie Janee D’Othée

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0RQl1jcLqk&feature=youtu.be

Nathalie Janne d’Othée was born in Antwerp, Belgium. She studied History and International Relations at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) in Belgium. During her university years, her interest in the Middle East increased. She studied at the University of Galatasaray in Istanbul for one year. Then she lived for a year in Cairo to learn Arabic. Coming back to Belgium, she decided to begin a PhD on the Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement, which really impressed her. She also works in a research institute on Euro-Arab relations, called MEDEA. In 2008, she participated in a ten-day project called “Samen in Zee” (Dutch for “Together at sea”) with Europeans, Palestinians and Israelis in the Netherlands. The group received training in nonviolent communication. In 2009, Nathalie travelled three weeks around Israel/Palestine. She is also involved in Belgium with a working group of the International Civil Service, which is an NGO. The working group focuses its work on the Mediterranean region, especially Palestine. It organizes conferences, trainings for volunteers leaving for the region, and participates in demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinian people and their nonviolent struggle.

My interest in nonviolent struggle was first sparked “…by visiting the numerous blogs of Palestinians telling about their daily life under occupation, and then by a human chain created around the Gaza Strip in the beginning of 2008. I was personally involved in nonviolent actions in Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2009. For instance, I attended a festival meant to show the settlers that a piece of land called Ush Graib was “occupied” by the local Palestinian population. I’ve visited Palestine and participated in nonviolent actions and have learned that the media coverage of a nonviolent action is fundamental for its effectiveness. What I hope to take away from the Fletcher Summer Institute is a better understanding of nonviolent resistance and the role of the media, and also the importance of foreign support to nonviolence.”

Abebe Gellaw

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https://youtu.be/ZHlZdgXK_sc

Abebe Gellaw is an exiled Ethiopian journalist; he is currently a visiting scholar at the Centre on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. He is working on a book project, “Ethiopia under Meles: Why the transition from military rule to democracy failed.” He is also a steering committee member of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia, an organization that seeks to bring about drastic socio-political changes through nonviolent struggle.

Gellaw holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from the Addis Ababa University and a post-graduate diploma in law from London Metropolitan University. He began his career in journalism in 1993 as a freelance writer focusing on human rights and political issues. He has worked for various print and online publications including the Ethiopian Herald, the only English daily in the country. Most recently he was a recipient of Stanford University’s Knight Journalism Fellowship and Yahoo’s International Fellowship in 2009. His op-eds, stories, articles and interviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, the Far East Review, and Global Integrity’s “The Corruption Notebooks 2008.”

My interest in nonviolent struggle was first sparked “…when I got involved in the student union at the Addis Ababa University that was struggling for academic and political freedom. In 1993, 42 professors were fired from the university and the student union was disbanded. I’ve been personally involved in nonviolent action, when as a student I along with others took part in a number of protest rallies, sit-ins and hunger strikes. I have been particularly successful in using journalism as a vehicle of advocacy, mobilizing for a cause and as a means of exposing the abuse of power. I’ve learned that nonviolence is a powerful means to challenge tyranny and dissolve violence.”

2015 ICNC Monograph Awardees

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 This year’s awardees include:

jonathan_pinckneyJonathan Pinckney is a Ph.D. student at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies in the fields of International Relations and Comparative Politics and a Research Fellow at the Sie Cheou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy, where he supervises the Nonviolent and Violent Campaigns and Outcomes (NAVCO) 3.0 project.  His research interests focus on extra-institutional means of political contention, primarily nonviolent civil resistance and political violence. Jonathan’s work has been published in the Journal of Peace Research, Foreign Policy Magazine’s Democracy Lab, and the Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Jonathan received his BA in International Affairs from Gordon College, graduating summa cum laude with special honors, and his MA from the Korbel School in 2014.  He was a 2012 recipient of the Korbel School’s Sié Fellowship.

Making or Breaking Nonviolent Discipline in Civil Resistance Movements

Abstract: How can we understand when nonviolent movements will stay nonviolent? When are they likely to break down into violence? In this monograph, Jonathan Pinckney analyzes both what promotes and undermines nonviolent discipline in civil resistance movements. Combining quantitative research on thousands of nonviolent and violent actions with a detailed comparison of three influential cases of civil resistance during the “Color Revolutions,” Pinckney’s study provides important lessons for activists and organizers on the front lines, as well as for practitioners whose work may impact the outcomes of nonviolent struggles. We learn how repression consistently induces violence, as do government concessions. On the flip side, we see that structuring a campaign in an inclusive and non-hierarchical way is conducive to greater nonviolent discipline.

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elizabeth_wilsonElizabeth A. Wilson is visiting faculty at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey, USA. She is currently a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, India. Her areas of specialization include public international law and international human rights law. She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

People Power Movements and International Human Rights: Creating a Legal Framework

Abstract: International human rights law did not come into existence top-down, out of the benevolent intentions of states, even though states eventually began to recognize that large-scale human rights abuses could pose a threat to the international order. Rather, it came into existence from the bottom-up efforts of ordinary people in civil society to ally with each other in solidarity and demand their rights, often through organized nonviolent campaigns and movements that pressured elites and powerholders to recognize or grant individual rights (freedom for slaves, women’s rights, labor rights, and children’s rights, to name a few). Unlike international law generally, the real source of international human rights law has been the coordinated, organized and nonviolently forceful efforts of individuals—in other words, what one can refer to as people power.

2014 Ph.D. Fellowship Awardees

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In 2014, we received a total of 65 applications from Ph.D. candidates and awarded 4 stipends (ranging from $3500 up to $10,000) in support of research on civil resistance, including relevant case studies. The goal of the stipend is to assist awardees in expanding their analytical, empirical and methodological tools of inquiry and incorporate into their Ph.D. thesis writing a civil resistance perspective — its literature, as well as theoretical and strategic frameworks.

2014 Ph.D. Fellowship awardees include:

laurencedelinaheadshotLaurence L. Delina is a PhD Candidate at the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of New South Wales in Sydney (UNSW Australia). The focal theme of his research is on the governance of climate mitigation, with particular attention to the strategies for sustainable energy transition. His PhD work on the social, cultural and institutional dimensions of rapid climate mitigation is being supervised by A/Prof Mark Diesendorf, author of Climate Action: A Campaign Manual for Greenhouse Solutions (UNSW Press, 2009). The focus of his PhD project is on the non-technical approaches necessary to push and support urgent, rapid and effective climate action. He is an author of several articles and chapters and a co-author of an Assessment Report on Energy Efficiency Institutions (United Nations, 2010). He received his civil engineering and M.P.A. degrees from Mindanao State University in General Santos City and an M.A. from the University of Auckland. He had consulted for the University of Manchester and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. In Spring 2013, he held a Visiting Fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School. He is currently an Earth System Governance Research Fellow and a Research Associate at the Center for Governance and Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Tentative title: Rapid climate mitigation: what we can learn from rapid socio-economic restructurings

Abstract: Climate science suggests that, to avoid major impacts from climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2020 and be reduced to close to zero by 2040 or 2050. The PhD research project seeks to identify the non-technical measures needed to achieve rapid and effective reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The project commences the process of developing contingency plans for governments, peoples, and the climate action movement. The work falls into two parts. The first part considers a possible scenario in which a sudden major global climate impact galvanizes governments to implement emergency climate mitigation programs. It draws upon historical accounts of socio-economic restructurings in several countries during World War 2. Contingency plans for governments using wartime mobilization as policy blueprint have already been developed and was published in an article in Energy Policy. Since most governments seem unlikely to take rapid and effective action without very strong pressure from their peoples, the second part of the research examines the prospect for strengthening the grass-roots climate action movement. Using recursive assessment and process tracing methods, the historical literature on large-scale nonviolent social movements is distilled to identify panoply of conditions and strategies that led to effective or ineffective campaigns in the past. The identified strategies are then verified and triangulated vis-à-vis their temporal relevance for contemporary civil resistance via an online questionnaire for social action groups of our time. The results are then used to design a basket of strategies that could strengthen the climate action movement.

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deshonay_dozier_photoDeshonay Dozier’s research, organizing, and art is concerned with working and surplus class-based alternative relations to policing, property and land, collective identity, and social and economic development. Dozier holds a B.A. from California State University, Northridge where she studied civil resistance with Reverend James Lawson.  Currently, Dozier is a PhD Student in Environmental Psychology at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She is also a Graduate Teaching Fellow in the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning at Hunter College.

Tentative Title: A Blues Geography: Mapping Conflicting Development in Downtown and South Los Angeles

Abstract: This dissertation conceptually and empirically maps the blues development tradition (alternative development) of working, poor, and surplus class populations practices against hegemonic development practices Los Angeles. In looking at moments of crises/contradiction in regional development, and its effects of movement/displacement and enclosure,  this research applies a cross-scalar analysis centering a social critique, social movements, and the planning and envisioning of alternative development.

Downtown and South Los Angeles maps a corridor of poverty. Adjacent to the now booming transit, real-estate, commercial, and the University of Southern California redevelopment aims, the neighborhoods of Skid Row and Historic South Central are in threat of eviction, displacement, and dispossession. The collective memory of prior displacement aims decades before, along with the lack of jobs, quality housing, and community control of resources, have left residents to resist and rework this socio-spatial landscape through their planning desires.  Currently, in Skid Row, residents of the second largest concentration of housed and unhoused Blacks work to resist punitive policing through claiming property and housing rights. And in Historic South Central, policing as well as blight from subprime lending in the foreclosure crisis, has prompted Latina/o residents to work towards land acquisition to build affordable housing, develop worker-owned cooperatives, and communities spaces. But these efforts are more than just a response to crises but have a legacy, a tradition.  The research landscapes the historical and current traditions of development (both alternative and hegemonic) and the contested dimensions of the making and unmaking of Downtown and South Los Angeles.

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pessoaMarcio Pessôa is a researcher, journalist and a writer whose main area of focus is nonviolent resistance of civil society and governance in Southafrican countries. Currently Pessôa is a PhD Candidate at the Institute of Development Studies in the University of Sussex in Brighton where he researches civil society in Mozambique. He holds a Master Degree in Democratic Governance and Civil Society at the University of Osnabrueck in Germany. His thesis embraced the landscape of nonviolent resistance of civil society in Zimbabwe from 1980 until 2010. Pessôa works for international media company – DW, covering Africa related subjects. Additionally, he is a consultant for developing countries’ organizations where he advises on matters of governance, public security, human rights and media. Marcio Pessôa recently published his first book – “Banguela”, which is a result of six year long journalistic investigation of public security system and organized crime in South of Brazil. In Brazil, Pessoa is a prominent journalist who has been recognized with many national and international prizes in the field of Human Rights. His dedication to media is not only visible in his professional work, but also by being a collaborator for media democratization projects in Brazil.

Tentative title: Defiant Civil Society in Sub-Saharan Africa – a case study of Mozambique

Abstract: This research will examine the existence of ‘defiant civil society’ phenomena in Mozambique. It will focus on civil society organizations’ role in the struggle for a governance system capable of responding to the social justice claims of the popular ‘moral economy.’ Specifically, the study will analyse the defiance and latency of defiance in civil society, considering organizations’ interests, ideology and relationship with the state. This case study is inspired by ‘Moral Economy’, ‘Theory of Power’ and ‘Competitive Authoritarianism’ theories. It examines the role of factors relating to the moral economy and competitive authoritarianism in shaping the actions of ‘defiant civil society,’ examining the extent to which the types of defiance observed in Mozambique exist. The methodological framework is founded on multi-sited ethnography which understands both practice and product. Fieldwork will be conducted in Mozambique over a period of 6 months.

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wilsonMichael S. Wilson is a doctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he focuses on peace and conflict in Latin America. His dissertation project is a comparison of social movements emerging against resource extraction. A Mexico City native, Wilson is a writer, educator, and activist. Some of his academic and journalistic works have appeared in the Human Rights Review, Tikkun Daily, Counterpunch, Windsor Student Movement, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, SCENE Magazine, The Pointer Newspaper, and Socialist Worker, among others.

Tentative title: Persuasive Protest: Discursive Frames, Trans-local Links, and Nonviolent Strategies in Latin American Resource Conflicts

Abstract: Most of human society is subject to a type of ‘growth’ that is increasingly globalized, consumerist, and energy-intensive. An integral part of this paradigm is intensified resource exploitation, which has led many people across the Global South, especially those located near these resources, to experience disruptions to their daily lives. Such threats or opportunities can galvanize communities to form coalitions and contest their rights from the streets to courtrooms, from scientific reports to internet blogs. This dissertation relies on a qualitative comparison of four in-depth cases of recent socioenvironmental conflicts from Latin America—in Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, and Chile—to investigate how groups involved select from a range of strategies and tactics to advance their positions and persuade supporters. It particularly focuses on three aspects of their organizing strategies: their direct actions, their discursive frames and use of different media, and their other work to attract prospective allies, both locally and across long distances. Through this study, I seek to build theory about the configurations that help carry out a transition from violence to nonviolence, and from conflict towards successful reconciliation. Expanding our understandings of how groups frame themselves and seek allies, why project supporters and opponents choose among and respond to strategies, and how various actors can help transform conflicts, will contribute to the fields of sustainable development, nonviolent resistance, and peaceful conflict resolution.