International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

El camino de la mayor resistencia: Una guía para planificar campañas noviolentas

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Por: Ivan Marovic
Fecha de publicación: 2020
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El camino de la mayor resistencia: Una guía para planificar Campañas noviolentas es una guía práctica para activistas y organizadores de todos los niveles que desean hacer crecer sus actividades de resistencia noviolenta en una Campaña más estratégica y de duración determinada. Es una guía para los lectores a través del proceso de planificación de la Campaña, dividiéndola en varios pasos y proporcionando herramientas y ejercicios para cada paso. Al terminar el libro, los lectores tendrán lo que necesitan para guiar a sus compañeros en el proceso de planificación de una Campaña. Se estima que este proceso, tal y como se describe en la guía, dura unas 12 horas de principio a fin.

La guía está dividida en dos partes. La primera presenta y contextualiza las herramientas de planificación de Campañas y sus objetivos. También explica la lógica detrás de estas herramientas y cómo pueden ser modificadas para adaptarse mejor al contexto de un grupo en particular. La segunda parte proporciona planes de lecciones fácilmente reproducibles y compartibles para el uso de cada una de esas herramientas, y explora cómo integrar las herramientas en el más amplio proceso de planificación.

 

Curriculum Fellowship Awardees 2019

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ICNC launched the Curriculum Fellowship Program in 2014 to support development of courses on nonviolent conflict and promote teaching in the growing field of civil resistance studies. Seven curriculum fellows were selected the inaugural year. In 2016, ICNC added a new component to the program: online courses for our fellows to teach.  That became an integral part of the initiative and, soon, the 2017 fellows were teaching both classroom-based and online courses on civil resistance.

ICNC is excited to continue the Curriculum Fellowship Program by accepting nine fellows for the 2019-2020 cohort.

The 2019 Fellows are:

Alice Borchi
Daniel DiLeo
Ying Hooi Khoo
Andrea Malji
Joám Evans Pim
Ketakandriana Rafitoson
Rajendra Senchurey
Maurício Vieira

Alice Borchi, PhD, is a Lecturer in Creative Industries at the University of Leeds.  Her research interests include the cultural commons, cultural policy and cultural value. She obtained her PhD in Cultural Policy Studies at the University of Warwick in 2018.

Course Title: Arts and Activism

Location: School of Performance and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds, United Kingdom

Course Abstract: This module is designed for future cultural practitioners and arts professionals who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the intersection between arts, activism and civil resistance. It examines the importance of cultural and symbolic resistance in fighting oppressive structures, and the important role that artists and cultural workers have played in social movements for change. Equally, the module analyzes how global struggles for climate justice, human rights and workplace equality are fought within the professional spheres of arts and culture. Students are encouraged to explore the ways arts and culture can communicate important messages, change minds and encourage people to action.

Daniel R. DiLeo, PhD, is assistant professor and director of the Justice and Peace Studies Program at Creighton University. His research focuses on Catholic social teaching and climate change, with particular emphasis on Pope Francis’s ecological encyclical Laudato Si’. Dr. DiLeo is the editor of All Creation is Connected: Voices in Response to Pope Francis’s Encyclical on Ecology (Anselm Academic, 2018) and has been published in the Journal of Moral Theology, Journal of Catholic Social Thought, and Horizons: The Journal of the College Theology Society, among other places. He earned his PhD in theological ethics with a minor in systematic theology from Boston College and his BA in sociology with a minor in inequality studies from Cornell University.

Course Title: Theological Ethics: Social Action and Political Advocacy

Location: Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA

Course Abstract: This course empowers students to catalyze effective faith-based sociopolitical change through the study of fundamental moral theology, applied theological ethics, and nonviolent civil resistance. To this end, the course has two dimensions. First, it introduces students to fundamental terms, principles, and theories in Catholic theological ethics. Second, the course familiarizes students with concepts, models, and methods of nonviolent struggle that can inform faith-based social action and political advocacy. To enhance and enliven students’ content understanding, this is an academic service-learning course through which students serve at a local community partner site for at least 20 hours during the semester.

Ying Hooi Khoo, PhD, is Deputy Head and Senior Lecturer at the Department of International and Strategic Studies, University of Malaya. Her research interests include civil society, social movements, national human rights institutions, human rights, and democratization with a regional focus on Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia and Timor-Leste. She is the author of Seeds of Dissent (2015) and Bersih Movement and Democratization in Malaysia (forthcoming). She also co-edited Social Movements in Malaysia: A Vehicle for Citizen’s Action (with Denison Jayasooria, forthcoming). Currently a columnist in a local newspaper, Ying Hooi is the Editor-in-Chief of the Malaysian Journal of International Relations (MJIR). She has been working with several national and international NGOs related to human rights and democracy.

Course Title: Social Movements and Democratization

Location: Department of International and Strategic Studies, University of Malaya, Malaysia

Course Abstract: This course is designed to introduce students to examine social and civil resistance movements and its relation to the democratization process. The course covers the concepts, theories and impacts of social movements on world politics in transnational context, as well as the civil resistance struggles. The students will be exposed on the interaction between social and civil resistance movements and key political actors and the usage of media as a tool to increase the influence of social movements. This course emphasizes strategic nonviolence with case studies to generate new insights into the strategic interactions between nonviolent movements and states.

Andrea Malji, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and International Studies at Hawai’i Pacific University. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Kentucky in 2015. Her research focuses on political violence, terrorism, and gender with a regional specialization in South Asia. Her current work analyzes female recruitment and involvement in nationalist organizations in South Asia.

Course Title: Civil Resistance and Nonviolent Movements

Location: Department of History and International Studies, Hawai’i Pacific University, USA

Course Abstract: Dr. Malji will be teaching a dual graduate/undergraduate course on Civil Resistance and Nonviolent Movements in Spring 2020. The course will explore key discussions and topics including the history, definitions, types, and responses to civil resistance, challenging colonialism through civil resistance, civil resistance through art, and civil resistance movements throughout the world. Much attention will be devoted to civil resistance in Indigenous communities, especially Hawai’i and the current movement centered around Mauna Kea.  The course will also cover the changing dynamics of civil resistance, such as hacktivism.

Joám Evans Pim, PhD, has served as director of the nonprofit Center for Global Nonkilling, Hawaii, since 2011. He teaches seasonally at Åbo Akademi University’s Master’s Program in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research in Vasa, Finland, and at Jaume I University’s Master’s Program in Peace, Conflicts and Development in Castelló. Joám earned his PhD in Social Sciences at Åbo Akademi University after following graduate and undergraduate studies in Journalism, Social and Cultural Anthropology and Politics (Peace Studies). As an activist, he has been involved with environmental movements and actions over the years, particularly around mining, community-based conservation, and the defense of common lands.

Course Title: New Tendencies in Peace and Conflict Studies

Location: Universitat Jaume I, Cátedra UNESCO de Filosofia para la Paz, Spain

Course Abstract: New Tendencies in Peace and Conflict Studies is an optional course taught in Spanish for the Master’s Degree in International Peace, Conflict and Development Studies, a program established at Jaume I University (Castelló, Spain) in 1996 and acknowledged as a UNESCO Chair of Philosophy for Peace. As part of its explorations of new trends in peace and conflict research, the course will offer a multidisciplinary approach to civil resistance, from the anthropological foundations of human nonviolent potential to the futures perspective on how civil resistance can be guided by the images of preferred futures. The course will unfold over 15 three-hour-long sessions in the Spring semester of 2020 with a group of approximately 15 students.

Ketakandriana Rafitoson, PhD, is a Malagasy political scientist, researcher, and activist who is currently leading the national chapter of Transparency International in Madagascar. Ketakandriana has founded several associations and social movements in Madagascar and aims to spread the spirit of nonviolent civil resistance as a political tool across her country. She believes in people power and strives for a more just world where all would have equal opportunities.

Course Title: Citizens’ Mobilization in the Quest for Social and Political Justice: Theory and Practice

Location: Département de Droit et Science Politique, Université Catholique de Madagascar

Course Abstract: This course aims to teach the philosophy of nonviolent civil resistance through the lens of activism internationally and in Madagascar. The eight sessions of the course cover the legal and historical framework of social and political justice, the trends of civil resistance in Madagascar, the dynamics and practice of civil resistance—including strategies and tactics—and the importance of citizen engagement as a trigger for change. Apart from academic lectures, the course also features discussions with special guests, film screenings, and People Power gaming sessions.

Rajendra Senchurey, MPhil, is a dedicated peace practitioner from Nepal currently working as the Programme Manager at the Nepal Peacebuilding Initiative in Kathmandu. He holds an MPhil in International Peace Studies from Trinity College Dublin in Ireland and a joint master’s degree in Conflict, Peace and Development Studies from Tribhuvan University in Nepal and the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. He has a decade of experiences in the field of interfaith, inter-religious dialogue, nonviolence, conflict resolution, preventing/countering violent extremism, transitional justice, and sustainable peacebuilding. He has worked in these areas under several national and international fellowships including the one from UNESCO, KAICIID and FK Norway. He regularly writes in Nepal’s leading national dailies as a freelance contributor.

As an intellectual from the Dalit community (the so-called “untouchables” that rank at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy), he lives his life with a dual objective: to extirpate caste-based discrimination and to promote sustainable peace in Nepal and beyond. His motto is “Life is too short to discriminate others: Let everyone enjoy freedom and equality.”

Course Title: The Power of Civil Resistance

Location: MICD, Mid Western University, Lalitpur, Nepal

Course Abstract: Nepal experienced a decade-long armed insurgency from 1996-2006 where there was a loss of around 17,000 lives. The conflict ended with the signing of the peace agreement between the warring parties, but the remnants of the violence continued to perpetuate. Several armed political groups emerged in the country, posing an imminent threat against the fragile post-conflict peace. Consequently, people started using violence as the only possible method to achieve the desired political objectives. This course aims to turn this culture of violence to the culture of peace by promoting nonviolence and civil resistance.

This course will bring political leaders, civil society stalwarts, media workers, religious leaders, human rights activists, and others together to teach them about the beauty and power of civil resistance in their native language using the resource materials in Nepali generously produced by ICNC. There will be seven 90-minute modules in total, taught over seven weeks. The course will cover the following topics: Introduction and foundation of civil resistance; civil resistance around the world; the difference between civil resistance revolutionaries and peacebuilding resolutionaries; dos and don’ts of civil resistance; and a practical guide to design a campaign. The sixth module offers a panel discussion with prominent academics and Satyagrahi, and the final module will reflect all the preceding modules as well as evaluate of the course.

Maurício Vieira, MA, is a 2019 PhD Candidate in International Politics and Conflict Resolution at the University of Coimbra in Portugal and a researcher at the Nationalities Observatory, associated to the Ceará State University (UECE), in Brazil. As part of his PhD, Maurício became Visiting Doctoral Researcher at the University for Peace, in Costa Rica; Visiting Doctoral Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), in Oslo, Norway; Junior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Graduate Institute, in Geneva, Switzerland; and adviser at the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations in New York. He also assumed a position at the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations in Geneva. Maurício holds an MA in International Relations with a focus on Peace and Security Studies from the University of Coimbra (2012) and a Specialization Diploma in International Law from the University of Fortaleza, in Brazil (2015), where he also obtained a BA in Journalism (2006). His areas of research focus on peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction policies established by the United Nations.

Course Title: Introduction to Peace & Conflict Studies: Nonviolent Civil Resistance

Course Location: Ceará State University (UECE), Brazil

Course Abstract: This course aims to introduce the debate over the concepts of peace, nonviolent conflict and resistance into the Brazilian academic context as well as to motivate students to develop and improve their skills in this field of research. Secondly, it will promote discussions about what each of these three concepts entails to the perspective on resistance and provide students with the epistemological tools they can apply to analyze and to problematize civil resistance movements around the world, in order to avoid the reproduction of their misconceptions. Since the course will focus on civil resistance as a main actor in the social and state dynamics, students will be capable of identifying which dialogue civil resistance can promote within a bottom-up perspective and top-down approach.

 

Confronting the Caliphate: Nonviolent Resistance in Jihadist Proto-States

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Presented by Isak Svensson on Thursday, October 17, 2019

Webinar Content:

Introduction of Speaker: 00:00 – 04:12
Presentation: 04:13 – 31:24
Questions and Answers: 31:25 – 1:00:29

Webinar Description:

Suad Nofel, one of the leaders of the civil resistance movement against ISIS in Raqqa, Syria (WNV/Nofel).

In this webinar, we explored how people living in jihadist proto-states organized by groups like ISIS have used civil resistance —including acts of popular disobedience, non-cooperation, protests and public defiance—against such regimes to improve their lives and defend their values. These are situations where one might not expect civil resistance efforts to occur at all—when extremist, armed, and very violent Islamist rebel groups take control over a piece of territory, set up institutions resembling state-structures, and proclaim and enforce strict interpretations of sharia religious laws.  Yet, important examples exist. In this webinar, we drew insights from empirical studies looking at experiences of civil resistance in Mali, Syria and Iraq (Mosul).

Presenter:

Isak Svensson is Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden. His research focuses on religious dimensions of armed conflict, international mediation in civil wars, and dynamics of nonviolent civil resistance. He has authored or edited ten books and over 50 articles, book-chapters and books in international academic journals and presses, including Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Conflict Resolution, European Journal of International Relations, International Negotiation, Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. He is project leader of the international research project ‘Resolving Jihadist Conflicts? Religion, Civil Wars and Prospects for Peace’, as well as for the research project ‘Battles without Bullets: Exploring Unarmed Conflicts’. Svensson has written several studies on nonviolent resistance, including on the structural factors that can help enable the onset of nonviolent uprisings (Butcher & Svensson 2016), political jujitsu (Sutton, Butcher & Svensson 2014), strategic substitution (Svensson & Lindgren 2013), the role of mediation in nonviolent uprisings (Svensson & Lundgren 2018), and ethnic cleavages in nonviolent uprisings (Svensson & Lindgren 2011). Currently, Svensson is working on a book project on civil resistance in the context of jihadist proto-states. To read more about Isak’s publications, click here.

Relevant Webinar Readings:

Confronting the Caliphate (Working Paper) – Isak Svensson and Daniel Finnbogason

How Ordinary Iraqis Resisted the Islamic State – Isak Svensson, Jonathan Hall, Dino Krause and Eric Skoog

Can Political Struggle Against ISIL Succeed Where Violence Cannot? – Maciej Bartkowski

Nonviolent Strategies to Defeat Totalitarians such as ISIS – Maciej Bartkowski

Nonviolent Resistance Against the Mafia: Italy (Chapter from Curtailing Corruption: People Power for Accountability & Justice) – Shaazka Beyerle

The Power of Staying Put: Nonviolent Resistance Against Armed Groups in Colombia – Juan Masullo

ISIS: Nonviolent Resistance? – Eli McCarthy

Dissolving Terrorism at its Roots – Hardy Merriman & Jack DuVall

When Terrorists Govern: Protecting Civilians in Conflicts with State-Building Armed Groups – Mara Revkin

Civil Resistance vs. ISIS – Maria Stephan

Defeating ISIS Through Civil Resistance? – Maria Stephan

How to Stop Extremism Before it Starts – Maria Stephan & Shaazka Beyerle

Additional Q & A:

Does Isak have any insights into the relatively high levels of comparability of participation by men and women shown in the chart presented on actions? The levels of participation were noticeably close.

One of the main features of civil resistance campaigns is that they allow for a more broad-based participation than violent insurgencies. In the context of jihadist proto-states, civilians can engage in a diverse set of nonviolent actions, such as protests, not paying taxes, working slowly, or smoking. This variety increases the potential pool of participants, allowing for people with different levels of commitment and backgrounds to engage in civil resistance.

This can explain, to some extent, why we observe similar levels of participation in civil resistance by women and men in Mosul, despite the women facing more restrictions to access the public spaces under the rule of Islamic State. Relatively few participants engaged in public forms of resistance, being the display of anti-Islamic State slogans and banners the most common of these forms. Regarding actions of noncooperation, women avoided to pay taxes to Islamic State to a larger extent than men did, and there were no differences in regards to actions such as quitting the university (or taking their children out of school), or not going to work, which were the most prevalent in this category. In regards to everyday resistance, more men than women engaged in actions such as smoking or drinking alcohol, potentially showing cultural differences.

In sum, the results from the survey show that women and men participated to a similar extent in civil resistance against the rule of Islamic State, and it is likely that the wide set of alternatives available for civil resistance (beyond open, public actions) facilitated this similarity.

I wonder if you could expand on a case where a village has “locally” overthrown a jihadist proto-state by getting them to leave. Are there any such cases under ISIS in particular? What specific types of actions worked and why?

Civilians expelled a jihadist proto-state from their village in several cases. In our study on Syria, out of the 155 protests that demanded a jihadist group to leave their village, 13 of them were successful in forcing the group to abandon the area. That constitutes roughly 8% of them. Most of the successful cases targeted Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), with one case in which the Rahman Corps were forced to leave the territory.

For instance, in March 2015, about 1000 residents of Babella (Syria) demanded HTS to leave the area. Five days later, HTS reached an agreement with Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam and left. In another example, protesters in Atareb demanded HTS to leave the village in January 2017. The same day, after shooting at the protesters, HTS left the village. In September of 2017, about 400 residents in Kafr Batna demanded Jaysh al-Islam and Rahman Corps to leave the Ash’ari farms area, due to damage to crops. They were successful in making Rahman Corps to abandon the place the same day.

We did not find any case in which ISIS was driven out of a village through civil resistance. We are still in process of understanding the conditions that increase the likelihood of success of civil resistance in this context. For instance, it seems that previous repression by the jihadist proto-state increases the chances of success of the activists, supporting the ‘political jiu-jitsu’ explanation.

To what extent are jihadist groups responsive to civilian demands? and do they link these demands to their sustainability of governing?

Three concrete examples from our on-going research in Syria where the jihadist gave in to local protesters demand:

  • In December 2018, in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, the al-Qaeda-associated rebel group Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)1 kidnapped a medical doctor. Informed about this incident, his colleagues reacted immediately. Within hours, doctors, nurses and medical staff across different hospitals and NGOs in the province went on a spontaneous strike and refused to carry out their duties. In response, HTS yielded to the demands, and a few hours later, decided to release the kidnapped doctor.
  • On the 2 of March in Atareb, protesters demand HTS to leave the village of Jeineh, and on the same the HTS convoy withdrew.
  • The protest campaign in the Maarat al-Numan have reached a number of outcomes in terms of making the jihadists to change their policies and withdraw.

Hence, in some cases, the jihadist rebel-rulers seem to accommodate the protesters’ demand. Overall, of the rate at which the local anti-jihadist protests in Syria, that we have coded, were successful was 7% (44 out of 624).

There is variation in terms of how jihadist groups try to adapt to the local demands and culture. For instance, the rule of Ansar Dine, AQIM (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), and MUJAO (Mouvement pour le Tawhîd et du Jihad en Afrique de l’Ouest) in Mali was perceived by the local population as alien, and protests took place against the imposition of a strict implementation of sharia law by these groups. This was also the case for Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in places such as Maarat al-Numan (Syria), whose rule was met with numerous forms of resistance by the civilians.

In the case of Islamic State in Mosul, interviews with refugees who escaped the rule of ISIS show that, initially, many residents in Mosul embraced ISIS fighters as an alternative to what they perceived as a sectarian Iraqi government (Wedeman 2016). However, this gradually changed as the ISIS governance set a priority in regulating the behavior of the populations in the areas it controlled, establishing an oppressive and punitive system based on legal foundations (Wedeman 2016, Revkin 2016).

A different case is, for example, the rule of AQAP (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) in al-Mukalla (Yemen), in 2015-2016. At their arrival to the city, al-Qaeda created civilian institutions, run by locals, to conduct everyday governance, while al-Qaeda remained in charge of the security, military operations and dispute resolution. To adapt to the local norms, they refrained from the strict application of sharia. They introduced measures such as religious courts, and a religious police force. However, AQAP was less strict in that they allowed women to stay outside after dark, interfered little with dress norms, did not force people to pray or pay a religious tax, and made no effort to ban smoking, music, or television.

I noticed from the presentation that everyday resistance is to have the highest participation rates compared to open public protest action and even noncooperation. Can you say more about what everyday resistance entails and to what extent can it achieve changes in jihadist rule?

Everyday resistance is a term coined by James Scott in his 1985 book “Weapons of the Weak”, and it refers to actions of resistance that take place within the daily, cotidian routines of people. In this low-key type of activism, the line between political activism and decision-making in the personal sphere is not always clear. In the context of a jihadist proto-state such as Islamic State, we identified 12 possible actions of everyday resistance. These are:

  • attending funerals of IS victims,
  • playing music instruments,
  • not praying regularly,
  • listening to nonreligious music,
  • practicing forbidden sports,
  • smoking/drinking alcohol,
  • working slowly (shirking),
  • delaying compliance with IS orders,
  • shaving the beard (men),
  • walking in public without a male company (women),
  • attending beauty salons (women),
  • not covering their face in public (women).

In these types of state-formation projects, disobeying the rulers’ dictates, even if done for nonpolitical reasons, can serve to undermine the legitimacy of the jihadist rule. However, it is hard to assess the impact of these subtle forms of resistance on the governance of the jihadist rulers. Future research could investigate more in detail how everyday resistance can weaken a regime and, more specifically, how this type of resistance can undermine the rule of jihadist proto-states.

1Over the course of the war, HTS has been known under different names, such as Jabhat al-Nusra or Al-Nusra Front, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, or Jaysh al-Fateh. The latter was a joint coalition with other jihadist groups that existed until early 2017. For the sake of consistency, we refer to the group as Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) throughout this paper.

Promoting Civil Resistance as Part of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative

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Presented by Marie Dennis, Sharon Erickson Nepstad, and Eli McCarthy on Thursday, September 5, 2019, at 12 pm EDT.

Webinar Content:

  • Introduction of Speaker: 00:00 – 4:40
  • Presentation: 4:41 – 37:54
    • Marie Dennis: 4:41 – 11:32
    • Sharon Erickson Nepstad: 11:33 – 23:19
    • Eli McCarthy: 23:20 – 37:54
  • Questions and Answers: 37:55 – 1:00:49

Webinar Summary:

Photograph by Pete Reyes, The Manila Times.

In this webinar, we heard from a scholar and two members of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative as they described CNI’s efforts to deepen the Catholic Church’s understanding of and commitment to “active nonviolence” with a particular focus on civil resistance as a key tool in promoting social justice. Marie Dennis introduced the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and its engagement through two major conferences with the Vatican. Sharon Nepstad gave more context on the historical role of Catholics in civil resistance movements. Eli McCarthy shared what the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative is doing now to increase the understandings and skills of nonviolent resistance among Catholics.

Presenter Profiles:

Marie Dennis serves on the executive committee of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International. She was on the Board of Pax Christi International for 20 years and served as co-president from 2007 to 2019. She is a Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace. Marie was director for 15 years of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. She is author or co-author of seven books and editor of the award-winning Orbis Book, Choosing Peace: The Catholic Church Returns to Gospel Nonviolence. Marie was named person of the year by the National Catholic Reporter in 2016 and received honorary doctorates from Trinity Washington University and Alvernia University.

Sharon Erickson Nepstad is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of New Mexico. At UNM, she has served as both Chair of Sociology and as Director of Religious Studies. She has been a visiting fellow at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion and at Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. She is the author of five books: Catholic Social Activism: Progressive Movements in the United States (2019, New York University Press), Nonviolent Struggle: Theories, Strategies, and Dynamics (2015, Oxford University Press), Nonviolent Revolutions: Civil Resistance in the Late 20th Century (2011, Oxford University Press), Religion and War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement (2008, Cambridge University Press), and Convictions of the Soul: Religion, Culture, and Agency in the Central America Solidarity Movement (2004, Oxford University Press).

Eli McCarthy teaches at Georgetown University in Washington DC in Justice and Peace Studies.  Eli has published a book called “Becoming Nonviolent Peacemakers: A Virtue Ethic for Catholic Social Teaching and U.S. Policy,” (2012) and has a forthcoming book “A Just Peace Ethic Primer: Breaking Cycles of Violence and Building Sustainable Peace (2020). He has published numerous journal articles and published online in The Hill, Huffington Post, National Catholic Reporter, and America Magazine. He also serves as the Director of Justice and Peace for the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, which is the leadership conference of all the U.S. Catholic men’s religious orders. This enables him direct advocacy experience on influencing U.S. policy and organizing collective actions of strategic nonviolent resistance. He serves on the global steering committee of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and also chairs the CNI educational committee.

Relevant Readings:

Appeal to Catholic Church to Re-Commit to the Centrality of Gospel Nonviolence

Advancing Just Peace through Strategic Nonviolent Action by Dr. Maria J. Stephan

2017 World Day of Peace message by Pope Francis

Peace Movements and Religion in the U.S. by Sharon Erickson Nepstad

Just Peace Ethic Handout

Additional Q & A:

In launching the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, what were some helpful aspects of getting this going and gaining traction among Catholic institutions?  Has there been pushback from the Just War crowd? How did you navigate that?

We have been quite clear that active nonviolence, which includes civil resistance, which we focused the webinar on, is neither passive nor the same as pacifism and have consistently pointed to the importance of countering structural, systemic and cultural violence as well as direct violence and of working for just and sustainable peace. We describe “nonviolence” as a way of life consistent with Catholic spirituality, a powerful way of following the example of Jesus, who actively and nonviolently confronted the injustice and violence of his times, and can be done strategically and effectively. Our emphasis has been on the diversity and proven effectiveness of many nonviolent approaches to transforming conflict, interrupting or preventing violence, protecting vulnerable communities and promoting just peace, as well as civil resistance. That seems to be helping to stretch imaginations about the potential of nonviolent strategies to help us break out of perpetual cycles of violence.

Yes, there has been pushback from those who espouse the just war tradition because they believe it should make war rare or that nonviolent alternatives are not powerful enough.. Beyond what we said in the original Appeal to the Catholic Church to Recommit to the Centrality of Gospel Nonviolence (We believe that there is no “just war”. Too often the “just war theory” has been used to endorse rather than prevent or limit war. Suggesting that a “just war” is possible also undermines the moral imperative to develop tools and capacities for nonviolent transformation of conflict. And the Church should no longer use or teach “just war theory”.), we have spoken about the importance of leaving the language of “just war” behind.  We have also repeatedly emphasized the value and effectiveness of nonviolent action. We invited several of those who were not happy with our Appeal comments about the just war tradition to participate in our roundtable process that attempted to articulate a new moral framework based on active nonviolence for Catholic teaching on war and peace.

We have also worked to develop a new moral framework, i.e. a nonviolent just peace ethic that can better prevent and limit war; but also do a number of other things as mentioned in the webinar. Then we ask them to consider this, if preventing and limiting war is what they also intend. Some people are ready for this discussion, while others are still defensive and often need space or to learn more about nonviolent action strategies.

Are there any other religious traditions,  Christian or otherwise,  that are following the lead of the Catholic Nonviolence initiative to cause such a shift in in orientation, values, knowledge and skills re” “active nonviolence” in general and civil resistance in particular?

Several other religious traditions have been committed to active nonviolence for a long time – the Quakers, Mennonites and Church of the Brethren, the United Church of Christ/Disciples of Christ. The World Council of Churches and others have done significant work on just peace. Many other faith traditions have important teachings on nonviolence as an ethical frame and have experimented with the strategic technique of civil resistance. The CNI is focused on the institutional Catholic Church because of the size and capacity of the Catholic Church to make a difference at a macro level. We are open to collaboration with others, however.

Has there been any progress made towards getting Pope Francis to fully endorse your work within the Catholic Church by issuing an encyclical on “active nonviolence” and civil resistance—as well as rethink Just War thinking?

Following our first conference in April 2016, Pope Francis wrote his 2017 World Day of Peace message on Nonviolence: A Style of Politics for Peace, a first major document on nonviolent action strategies for positive change. He has frequently referred to nonviolent action in his speeches and writing since then. We have a positive working relationship with the Vatican through the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and other offices. Only the Pope decides when to write an encyclical.

Since Vatican II, the Popes have been questioning and de-emphasizing just war thinking. The broader church still has a way to go in this area, though.

The pacifist/moral witness tradition within the Catholic Church often views civil disobedience as an activity reserved for a saintly few. How is CNI working to get the institutional Church to move a concern with nonviolent resistance as a strategic, mass movement approach from the periphery to the center of the Church. Do you think that Church leaders will participate directly in broad-based acts of civil resistance, as a sign that the church, as a whole institution, will resist injustice as a central part of Church activity?

CNI is working at every level  (global/Vatican, regional and local – with hierarchy/local bishops and bishops conferences, religious communities, Catholic universities, seminaries, peace activists, theologians, etc.) to move the mechanisms of education, theological reflection, diplomacy/policy advocacy, media and communications, prayer and liturgy in the Catholic Church to prioritize nonviolent approaches to promoting just, integral peace.  We are urging the Church to prioritize nonviolent relationships internally as well, changing the power-over clericalism that has too often been dominant. We want the Catholic Church to understand, promote and embrace nonviolent action as central to its way of functioning in the world. We believe that will include a broad spectrum of nonviolent practices and when strategic will include nonviolent resistance involving the whole Catholic community and Church leadership. We also try to model it in particular campaigns, such as the migrant children one in the U.S.

Does Catholic Nonviolence Initiative efforts engage with or address the widespread prejudice against LGBTQIA+ people often propagated in the name of God? Is this something that CNI takes on in any way?

We believe that a Church committed to nonviolence will experience a radical shift in practice from clericalism and exclusion to just and inclusive relationships with all people and all beings.

In some cases nonviolent civil resistance actions turn violent—at least at the margins. How can we help keep these actions focused on civil resistance strategies and tactics to increase movement effectiveness and moral clarity?

Participative decision-making about the context and the nature of an action, good training and accurate information about the effectiveness of nonviolent civil resistance (as well as about the damage done by violence even at the margins), as well as good leadership, are key to the kind of discipline needed to keep actions focused on civil resistance. For people of faith, it also helps to include attention to the virtues of nonviolent action (empathy, mercy, humility, courage, etc.), spiritual disciplines (meditation, discernment, etc.), nonviolent skills, and creating nonviolent communities to stay focused on nonviolent civil resistance.

Do you see any future collaboration or a convergence between sectors of the Catholic Nonviolent Initiative and sectors of the Catholic pro-life movement?

CNI is urging the Catholic Church worldwide to prioritize nonviolent relationships and nonviolent strategies toward just and integral peace. Nonviolent action is not an additional issue in competition with all the issues of concern to the Catholic community; rather, it is a cross-cutting methodology for how we hope the Church and Catholic people will address all issues of social and ecological justice in these times. Nonviolent action should characterize the methodology and the goal of Catholic engagement in support of integral human development, integral ecology, integral peace.

In dictatorship, it is difficult to wage even nonviolent resistance. Any attempt, to stand up to a dictatorship, can be met with a violent, iron-fist response. So, in what way could CNI help in creating nonviolent resistance, help someone agitate, organize and wage civil-resistance in a country where any kind of resistance is repressed, including non-violent one is not seen in good eyes?  

As CNI we believe that nonviolent action, including civil resistance, has to be contextually appropriate. Local people must determine the timing, nature and trajectory of any nonviolent action and carefully assess different strategies. In difficult situations where resistance is repressed, training in effective nonviolent approaches and access to the best available information on nonviolent strategies seem essential. Learning approaches from other situations where repression is common could be helpful. Recognizing the serious risks of any nonviolent action and the likely consequences of repressive violence are extremely important as well.

Civil Resistance and Peacebuilding in Liberia

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Working Tirelessly for Peace and Equality: Civil Resistance and Peacebuilding in Liberia

By Janel B. Galvanek and James Suah Shilue
Date of Publication: May 2021
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From the establishment of the Liberian state in 1848, the Americo-Liberian settlers—descendants of freed slaves from the USA—imposed a form of indirect rule over the indigenous Liberian population that oppressed, marginalized and exploited the majority of the population. This treatment of the native population became increasingly unsustainable, and in 1980 the settler government was overthrown. A 10-year dictatorship was followed by a violent civil war that lasted until 2003. Using the framework developed by Veronique Dudouet in her 2017 ICNC Special Report, Powering to Peace: Integrating Civil Resistance and Peacebuilding Strategies, this case study examines the methodologies and approaches of the various actors involved in civil resistance and peacebuilding throughout the various phases of conflict in Liberia, from a period of latent conflict to the post-settlement phase after 2003. Many different actors in Liberia pursued strategies of peacebuilding and civil resistance simultaneously, which led to the complementarity of their work and increased the impact they had on both political and civic reform, as well as on the ultimate peace process. The case study takes an in-depth look at the impact that the strategies had on each other in their common pursuit of peace and justice in Liberia.

 

About the Authors:

Janel B. Galvanek is a Senior Project Manager at the Berghof Foundation and Director of Growing Tree Liberia, both based in Berlin, Germany. At the Berghof Foundation for 10 years, she is currently managing the Foundation’s projects in Somalia, which support mediation and reconciliation initiatives with local communities in the country. Janel’s professional focus includes engaging local actors and communities in peacebuilding and conflict transformation processes, as well as the interaction and coexistence between state-based conflict resolution mechanisms on one hand and community-based, traditional conflict resolution mechanisms on the other. She has done extensive research in Liberia on this topic as well as on the reintegration of former child combatants. In the past, Janel has also managed dialogue projects involving the High Peace Council and Ulema Council of Afghanistan. Janel’s work with Growing Tree Liberia supports the construction of a home designated for street children in Liberia and awards school scholarships for disadvantaged children in the downtown Monrovia area. She holds a Master’s degree in Peace Research and Security Policy from Hamburg University and an MA from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

James Suah Shilue is the Executive Director of Platform for Dialogue and Peace (P4DP), a Liberian peacebuilding NGO involved in research and participatory action activities aimed at strengthening the capacities of state and non-state actors to prevent, manage and transform conflict through collaborative action. James also lectures at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Liberia. He has been serving as Executive Director for P4DP since June 2012. Prior to occupying this position, James served as Liberia Programme Coordinator for Interpeace and was responsible for the day-to-day management and overall direction of the programme. Mr. Shilue has been working on issues of development, research, Ebola, resilience, peacebuilding and conflict prevention, including land disputes and their resolution, for more than 15 years. In addition to overseeing the overall programme of Interpeace in Liberia, he has collaborated and provided consultancy services for various international projects, including the Geneva Graduate School Small Arms Survey, a Bentley University research project, the European Union Fragility and Resilience project, the USIP and George Washington University Rule of Law projects, the World Bank, the George Washington IDRC Liberian Diaspora Research project, the Carter Centre Urban Justice project and the International Center for Migration Policy Development. James has a Master’s Degree in Social and Community Studies (De Montfort University, UK) and an MA in Development Studies (Institute of Social Studies, The Hague). Mr. Shilue has extensive experience in the management of complex operations and uses this experience to hone his skills in facilitation, partnership development and peace research, including issues on human security, peace and reconciliation, and natural resource management.

Civil Resistance and Peacebuilding: Nepal Case Study

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From the Hills to the Streets to the Table: Civil Resistance and Peacebuilding in the Nepal

By: Ches Thurber and Subindra Bogati
Date of Publication: April 2021
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From 1996 until 2006 Nepal experienced a civil war that resulted in an estimated 17,000 casualties. Remarkably, the conflict ended when the Maoist insurgents forged an agreement with the country’s political parties to jointly launch a civil resistance campaign to oust the King. The civil resistance campaign succeeded in overthrowing the King, the former rebels have been integrated into normal democratic politics—even holding the premiership on multiple occasions—and Nepal has not seen a reversion to large-scale violence. However, many of the social tensions that initiated the conflict still have not been resolved. Protests are a regular occurrence and there has been a proliferation of armed groups in Nepal’s southern plains and Western hills. What caused the Maoists to take arms? How were they convinced to transition to civil resistance? What accounts for the success and failures of the subsequent peace process?

We attempt to analyze these questions by utilizing the framework developed by Veronique Dudouet in her 2017 ICNC Special Report, Powering to Peace: Integrating Civil Resistance and Peacebuilding Strategies. We trace the development of conflict from a period of latent conflict with high levels of horizontal inequalities and structural violence to an outbreak of overt, but initially violent conflict.  We then illustrate how a transition from civil war to civil resistance was made possible and led to a successful conflict settlement. However, flaws in the conflict settlement process have produced a turbulent post-settlement process, one that falls short of the goals of reconciliation, transitional justice, and sustainable peace.

About the Authors:

Ches Thurber is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Northern Illinois University whose research and teaching focus on international security, conflict, and governance. Dr. Thurber has held fellowships at the University of Chicago and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He received his Ph.D. and M.A.L.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and his B.A. from Middlebury College. His book project, Between Gandhi and Mao: The Social Roots of Civil Resistance, investigates how social structures inform movements’ willingness to engage in nonviolent and violent strategies.  Dr. Thurber’s research has been published or is forthcoming in the Journal of Global Security Studies; Conflict Management and Peace Science; and Small Wars and Insurgencies.

Subindra Bogati is the Founder/Chief Executive of the Nepal Peacebuilding Initiative – an organization devoted to evidence based policy and action on peacebuilding and humanitarian issues. He has been working with conflict transformation and peace processes in Nepal through various national and international organizations for the last several years. Until recently, he was one of the principal investigators of the two year long research, dialogue and policy project on “Innovations in Peacebuilding,” which was a partnership between the University of Denver, Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) in Bergen, the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa and the Nepal Peacebuilding Initiative, Nepal.  He holds an M.A. in International Relations from London Metropolitan University and was awarded the FCO Chevening Fellowship in 2009 by the Centre for Studies in Security and Diplomacy at the University of Birmingham. He is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Political Science, Tribhuvan University, Nepal.

Preventing Mass Atrocities:
From a Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) to a Right to Assist (RtoA) Campaigns of Civil Resistance

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By Peter Ackerman and Hardy Merriman, May 2019
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Events of the last decade demand new approaches to atrocity prevention that are adaptable, innovative and independent of a state-centered doctrine. With the aim of reducing risk factors such as civil war, we argue for a new normative framework called The Right to Assist (RtoA), which could strengthen international coordination and support for nonviolent civil resistance campaigns demanding rights, freedom and justice against non-democratic rule.

RtoA would: 1) engage a wide range of stakeholders such as NGOs, states, multilateral institutions and others; 2) bolster various factors of resilience against state fragility; and 3) incentivize opposition groups to sustain commitment to nonviolent strategies of change. The adoption of this doctrine can reduce the probability of violent conflict that significantly heightens atrocity risk, while increasing the prospects for constructive human development.

Peter Ackerman is the Founding Chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) and co-author of the books A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict (Palgrave/St. Martin’s Press, 2001) and Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: The Dynamics of People Power in the Twentieth Century (Praeger, 1994). He was Series Editor and Principal Content Advisor for the two-part Emmy-nominated PBS-TV series, “A Force More Powerful” which charts the history of civilian-based resistance in the 20th century. He was also Executive Producer of several other films on civil resistance, including the PBS-TV documentary, “Bringing Down a Dictator”, on the fall of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, which received a 2003 Peabody Award and the 2002 ABC News VideoSource Award of the International Documentary Association. Dr. Ackerman serves as co-chair of the International Advisory Committee of the United States Institute for Peace and is on the Executive Committee of the Board of the Atlantic Council.

Hardy Merriman is President of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). He has worked in the field of civil resistance since 2002, presenting at workshops for activists and organizers around the world; speaking widely about civil resistance movements with academics, journalists, and members of international organizations; and developing educational resources. His writings have been translated into numerous languages. From 2016-2018 he was also an adjunct lecturer at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University). Mr. Merriman has contributed to the books Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback? (2015), Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East (2010), and Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential (2005) and co-authored two literature reviews on civil resistance. He has also written about the role of nonviolent action in countering terrorism and co-authored A Guide to Effective Nonviolent Struggle, a training curriculum for activists.

The Pro-Democracy Nonviolent Movement in Sudan: Its Strategies, Achievements, and Prospects

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Presented by Quscondy Abdulshafi on Wednesday, May 22, 2019 at 12:00pm EDT.

Webinar Content

Introduction of Speaker: 00:00 – 2:13
Presentation: 2:14 – 32:38
Questions and Answers: 32:39 – 54:32

Webinar Summary

Since its independence from British rule in 1956, Sudan has suffered a protracted civil war–one of the deadliest in Africa–which led to the secession of its southern region in 2011. Despite the separation of the South, Sudan has never tasted peace on both sides. Civil wars, repression, together with international sanctions and isolation led to economic collapse and unbearable living conditions. As a result, in December 2018, Sudanese people stood up against general Bashir’s 30 year old autocratic government. In less than three months the pro-democracy nonviolent movement forced general Bashir to step down, leading to the formation of a Transitional Military Council (TMC) to take power. The protests and sit-ins continued aiming to pressure the TMC to hand over power to civilians and allow the formation of a fully civilian-led transitional government through the interim period.

“Abyei Citizens March in Protest” by Enough Project is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Sudanese people have a long history of leading successful pro-democracy movements against their military dictators. The first was in October 1964 when the Sudanese uprising ousted general Abbouda’s government and restored democracy. A few years after that movement, General Jaffar Numeri made another military coup. After 17 years of autocratic rule, Numeri was again ousted by the April 1985 uprising. In 1989, General Bashir led another military coup, this time under the National Islamic Movement. Bashir’s government was the most stringent, combining the Islamist party and their affiliates into the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). Under the Bashir regime, the Sudanese people endured almost 30 years of Sudan’s darkest political era, leading to the country dividing in two, the indictment of the president by the International Criminal Court (ICC), militarized societies, and a destroyed economy and state apparatus.

Learning from their long-inherited experiences and regional experiences such as the Arab Spring and the Ethiopian Movement, Sudanese revolutionaries managed to overcome the most notorious regime in less than three months. The December 19, 2018, movement led by the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA) and allies now faces a big question. Will the revolution break the prolonged cycle of political failure and establish a lasting democracy in Sudan? This presentation analyzes the Sudanese December 19 movement and discusses the context, actors and their roles, the movement building tactics, strategies achievements, and prospects.

Presenter Profile

Mohamed “Quscondy” Abdulshafi is a human rights activist and independent research consultant working with various organizations in peacebuilding and governance research. He’s a founding member of Darfur Student Movement, a student-led nonviolent movement against the genocide in Darfur. Quscondy is a winner of the Civil Society Leadership Award from the Open Society Foundations. Previously, he was a research fellow at Peace Direct. He was a founding staff the Sudan Democracy First Group, where he worked for several years in Kampala, Uganda. His research interests include inclusive peacebuilding, governance and youth participation.

Quscondy received his Dual MA in Sustainable International Development and Coexistence and Conflict Resolution at Heller School, Brandeis University, and a BA in Development Studies at Kampala International University.

Relevant Online Resources

Quscondy Abdulshafi — US should continue sanctions against Sudan until human rights improve (The Hill)

Quscondy Abdulshafi — Darfur Students protests against discriminatory measures from Bakht Alrida University (Peace Insight)

Stephen Zunes — How Sudan’s Pro-Democracy Uprising Challenges Prevailing Myths about Civil Resistance (Minds of the Movement)

Zoe Marks, Erica Chenoweth, and Jide Okeke — People Power Is Rising in Africa: How Protest Movements Are Succeeding Where Even Global Arrest Warrants Can’t (Foreign Affairs)

Andrew Edward Tchie — How Sudan’s protesters upped the ante and forced al-Bashir from power (Waging Nonviolence)

Additional Q & A

How did you manage that protesters do not feel provoked and fall into violence? How did you handle agents provocateurs?

Since the beginning, the protests in Sudan were well organized to maintain nonviolent discipline. At every nonviolent event, some leaders were tasked with watching the group to monitor and prevent a turn to violence. On several occasions provocateurs tried to provoke violence, but protest monitors were able to identify such incidents.

Do you agree with the exclusion of the NCP and the PCP from the current negotiations?

Yes, I do agree. The ongoing negotiations aim to establish a transitional government with the sole responsibility to reform the damage made in the last 30 years. The NCP and the PCP are the parties that brought Sudan into the current dilemma, and they cannot fix what they damaged. Importantly, the transitional government is responsible for justice, accountability, and reparations. It makes no sense to have the perpetrators administering justice for crimes they themselves committed.

Should the pro-democracy movement place any trust in Hemeti, the architect of the Darfur atrocities?

Hemeti represents the most significant threat to not only the success of the transitional government negotiation but to the awaited democratic transformation. Embracing Hemeti means neglecting justice and accountability, which is dangerous not only for democracy but to national unity itself. The victims of war crimes might not accept taking part in any future arrangements without recognition and justice for the crimes committed in conflict regions.

Do you think there might be an inter-religious conflict in Sudan, given the recent Islamists who have been organizing their protests and calling for the adoption of Sharia? For example, Mohamed Elgizouli, a leader of the radical Movement of the Support of Sharia and the Rule of Law, allegedly threatened war if power is handed to a civilian government.

I think the ultra-right Islamists present a future challenge to peace and democracy. However, the day I saw the Popular Congress Party members beaten by youth chanting no place for religion traders, I came to believe that there is no political future for the Islamists in Sudan. The future Sudan is either democratic and inclusive or there is no Sudan at all. Therefore, I don’t believe that in the near future we’ll see Islamists rallying the public for war using religious rhetoric as in the 1990s.

How was the nonviolent resistance movement in regions such as Darfur and South Kordofan, where violence was systematically used?

The regime’s security system was built on systemic racial and ethnic oppression. As a result, the armed conflict and genocide were in regions with majority African ethnic populations. The nonviolent movement’s success in Sudan was because it was sparked in the constituencies where the regime claimed to represent their interests and identities. This made it hard for the regime to use the same brutal tactics it used in the conflict regions. Another reason is that in Darfur and other conflict regions, there is an active state of emergency which legally justifies the use of excessive force.

Who are the core group of 8 unions that make up the Sudanese Professional Association?

The Central Committee of Physicians initiated the December movement. They were then joined by (2) the Pharmacist’s Union, (3) the Legitimate Doctors Syndicate, (4) the Sudanese Journalists Network, (5) Bar of Democratic Lawyers, (6) the Teachers’ Committee, (7) the Association of Veterinarians, and (8) the Engineers Initiative. It’s important to note that the physicians have two representing bodies. The Alliance of University Professors was the first group to join the 8 SPA alliance.

 

How We Win: Reflections on Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning

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Webinar Content

  1. Introduction of Speaker: 00:00 – 7:17
  2. Presentation: 7:18 – 36:30
  3. Questions and Answers: 36:31 – 1:01:44

Webinar Summary

In this webinar, George Lakey, a long time social movement organizer and the author of How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning, shares some of the key lessons he’s learned about how to organize powerful, strategic, and effective movements. The first half of this one hour webinar is an interview with George by ICNC staffer Steve Chase, which is then followed by an engaged Q & A discussion with participants.

As George notes, the nonviolent direct action campaign is an art form that includes not only strategy and tactics but also the organizational culture of the initiating/leading campaign group, which needs to be a “learning organization.” In many situations the goal is not only the campaign’s own “win,” but also stimulating a social movement and even a movement of movements for fundamental social transformation.

Presented by George Lakey on Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 12 PM (EST- US)

Presenter

Activist: George Lakey’s first arrest was for a nonviolent civil rights sit-in in the 1960s. Since then, he has been active in a number of social movements and campaigns, including co-leading a sailing ship with medical aid to Vietnam in defiance of the U.S. war, campaigning with others in the LGBTQ community, organizing Men Against Patriarchy, and leading a statewide cross-race, cross-class coalition to fight back against Reagan. He has served as an unarmed bodyguard for human rights defenders in Sri Lanka, and recently walked 200 miles in a successful Quaker direct action campaign against mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. In March 2018, he was arrested in the Power Local Green Jobs campaign demanding that the regional energy utility start a community solar program targeting poor neighborhoods.

Educator: George also recently retired from Swarthmore College where he was Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor for Issues in Social Change. He created and managed the Global Nonviolent Action Database research project that includes over 1100 campaigns from nearly 200 countries.  George has also held teaching posts at Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania. In 2010 he was named “Peace Educator of the Year.” As a long-time activist trainer, he has led over 1500 social change workshops on five continents, and he founded and, for fifteen years, directed Training for Change.

Writer: Since the 1960s, when he co-authored Manual for Direct Action, George has published ten books on how to make progressive social change. In 2010, he published his authoritative text on adult education, Facilitating Group Learning (Jossey-Bass). More recently, he wrote Viking Economics (Melville House, 2016) on the Nordic model of political economy, and How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning (Melville House, 2018). In addition, George is a columnist for the online magazine Waging Nonviolence.

Relevant Online Resources

— Order Information for George’s book, How We Win

— George’s columns from Waging Nonviolence

— Swarthmore College’s Global Nonviolent Action Database

— Short Video on the “Power Local Green Jobs” campaign mentioned by George

George’s Answers To Questions Asked, But Not Answered During the Webinar

Q:  How are you able to ensure that people would maintain nonviolent discipline?

A: There are multiple methods that have been effective, and more yet to be invented.  Here are a few:  train peacekeepers/marshals to create presence at likely trouble points (for example (1) where police/soldiers are most tense or attackers likely to launch) and (a) model NV behavior, (b) intervene at the point of rising tension or actual fighting;  (2) ask everyone joining the action to sign a card outlining the discipline, (3) keep in mind tactical moves that make a difference like calling on people to sit down when tension reaches a certain level.  These and more that have been highly effective are described in How We Win.
Q: Isn’t direct action just about putting out fires? How do we get to the source of the fire? 

A: Direct action can be only putting out a fire, which is why I wrote the book – to show how it can be much more.  A local workplace strike can resist reduction of wages, for example, but going on the offensive and striking to increase wages can yield an inspiring victory and spur others to do likewise, as in the current wave of teachers’ strikes in the U.S.  A series of such campaigns turns the struggle of that sector into a movement, and a movement can win larger victories even when some of its constituent campaigns fail to win.

Moreover, a winning movement inspires other sectors of the population (say, environmentalists, women for reproductive rights, gun controllers) to go on the offensive and wage their own campaigns and in that way each create a more dynamic struggle movement, in turn stimulating other sets of campaigns that turn into a movement.  At that point it often becomes possible to join some of the movements together (I explain how in the book) into a movement of movements, which puts us into a very different power position and at last creates the opportunity to go after the source of the fire.  Like pretty much everything else in life, one needs to proceed by steps.  Nobody achieves a big goal by one leap.  The steps become meaningful, however, if there is an understood and dynamic sequence – in short, a plan!!!
Q: What advice does George have for the Animal Justice movement? Specifically given the oppressed demographic don’t have access to direct communication with the public and so the movement relies entirely on advocates. Which changes the dynamics, eg police backlash is against advocates not the affected ones themselves.

A: Even though I’m a vegetarian I haven’t studied this situation in depth, for example done a power analysis that reveals what the points of vulnerability are of the institutions that engage in cruelty to animals.  Developing a sound strategy is helped a lot by doing such an analysis, and also an analysis of what the assets are of the advocates, including the asset of widely-perceived ethical high-mindedness.
Q: What’s the one best book to read about Gandhi’s strategic thinking?

A: Gandhi as a Political Strategist, by the foremost scholar in the field, the late Gene Sharp.
Q: How have interpretations of political strategies changed since the time of Gandhi compared to today?

A: Replying fully to this question requires a book!  I’ll mention two observations that could go in the book:

(a) One way some struggles have lost ground compared with Gandhi’s day is on the question of positive vision:  what is the goal of the struggle?  Gandhi was inspired by the direct action wing of the woman suffrage struggle, for example, where the vision was quite clear: empowerment of half the population through gaining the right to vote.  For India, empowerment of a subcontinent through independence from the British Empire.  (Gandhi had a whole lot more vision than that, as well.)  In contrast, many Americans have become used to direct action as “resistance” to trends they don’t like, and “protest” against evils; a posture that worships reactivity. My book shows what a huge deficit that creates, strategically and in terms of morale.  In short, many Americans have lost ground strategically in that respect.

(b) One way many strategists have gained ground is learned the strategic value of tapping the cultural vein we might call “the merry prankster.”  Watch the film “Bringing Down a Dictator” which reveals that strategy operating in Serbia by Otpor, or read my current article in WagingNonviolence.org that draws current examples from several countries: “How to fight fascism from a position of strength,” Feb 15, 2019.

Tactics reflecting light-heartedness contrast with the typical grimness of direct action tactics in Gandhi’s day.

I hope you’ll write a book on this subject of what we’ve learned (and forgotten) since, say, the 1930’s and ‘40s.
Q: There was a lot of talk about the contributions of Gandhi to India’s independence movement. In your belief, do you think that Gandhi achieved his goal of a “united India”? People point out to Partition… your thoughts?

A: Clearly Gandhi was deeply saddened by this failure.  Nor was it his only failure.  He early on decided to prioritize the struggle for national independence over the need for class struggle, despite his profound commitment to equality.   (He said inequality is the root manifestation of violence.) His stated hope was to live a long time after India became independent so he could lead the class struggle (including the version called Untouchability), and that’s why he, in contrast to other “Fathers of their country” like Mao and Ho Chi Minh and George Washington, refused to take the leadership of India’s new government.  All the more tragic that he didn’t continue to live and endow the equality movement with his charisma, and of course the class struggle remains heavily on the agenda of his beloved India (as it does in my own country).

 

Q: The 2016 election has resulted in many new folks becoming active, and a hunger for nonviolent strategies. Technology tools have also accelerated the speed of organizing. How do you feel we should best leverage this special “movement moment” and avoid some of the movement pitfalls that can burn people out?

A: One reason I’ve been putting so much energy into a campaigning group I co-founded in 2010, Earth Quaker Action Team, is to have a kind of “laboratory” for trying out direct action in a way that doesn’t burn people out.  Not only did we win our first campaign (a small group vs. the seventh-largest-bank in the U.S.!) but also invented specific practices as well as an organizational culture that inoculates against burn-out.  The practices we invented are described in How We Win.  The result: even since 2016 when our comrades have been stressing themselves out over Trump, our group has been moving steadily ahead with high morale and a new campaign.  You can read about the campaign here:  http://www.eqat.org.
Q: I am part of a movement to pressure Wells Fargo and JP Chase to move their money from private prisons which are detaining our immigrants. We are struggling to active this economic leverage in a way that connects to the federal policymaking process and getting direct advocates to use this leverage in their work. Do you have any suggestions?

I do love bank campaigns!  Wells Fargo is especially vulnerable, since it gets huge publicity for behaviors that are revealed to be criminal!  Unless you are a huge movement already, I would focus on one bank instead of two.  Remember, the way the sun becomes most powerful is through focus.  Laying a piece of paper in the sunshine will not burn it, but placing a magnifying glass above the paper that focuses the sun’s rays on the paper will burn the paper, evidence of the potential power of the sun.  Most all of us have the potential of more power than we manifest.

The power of focus is just as important in the lives of the campaigners.  It’s a big opportunity to reduce the lifestyle of typical activist – “scatter” (a little bit on this cause, a little bit on that cause. . .) – and become a focused person, which increases power enormously.

Focused campaigners think of brilliant ideas while showering, they can adopt the cultural norm we have in EQAT of “being on their growing edge” and learning new things, they can generate a degree of solidarity and inclusion among themselves that is attractive to others, and so on.  Most of all, focusing means self-respect, big time; it means acting as if you really are worthy fighters who can take on a giant bank like Wells Fargo.

If I’ve learned anything from Gandhi it is that he dwelt among people who did not respect their own power potential, who did not really believe they could beat the British Empire.  That’s why he even opposed alcohol and drugs: he believed they brought down people’s self-esteem.  He was supporting a belief in their own potential when acting in fully-present association with comrades. Whatever your conclusions are on alcohol and drugs, you get his point:  believe in your inherent capacity for clarity and strength and continue to grow while helping others to build the container for that growth.  A campaign can be that container.
Q: While people are under a curfew, what sort of nonviolent action methods might be applicable?

A: Here again a knowledge of history is amazingly empowering, because we can learn what’s worked for others and often can, perhaps with adaptation, work for us.  Take time to scroll through “methods” in Gene Sharp’s volume two of The Politics of Nonviolent Action, and also – as close as your Internet – the website Global Nonviolent Action Database.  On the home page of the latter you’ll see “Methods,” and you’ll see 199 listed with definitions.  Click on each one that might have potential and you’ll get an array of campaigns (drawn from almost 200 countries) that have used that method in a variety of circumstances, including under dictatorship.

For example, Chileans under Allende’s dictatorship joining together when the clock reached a certain time to stand in their windows banging pots and pans – a deafening sound of defiance that showed enormous unity (and in turn encouraging people to defy in more courageous ways like doing “quickie” street demonstrations).

Another act of defiance I especially like was that practiced by Danish workers under wartime occupation by German Nazi troops. In this tactic, workers, who were supposed to work overtime to support the war machine, left their workplaces and went home early (en masse) because their gardens needed to be watered while it was still light.  Their stated goal (“vegetables!”) was so basic and fundamentally “right,” and the tactic was practiced on such a mass scale, that it was impossible for the German commanders to crack down on it (without causing themselves even more trouble from a resistant population).

Note that the tactic was playing on the psychology of the occupying soldiers who were showing signs to their commanders of weakening morale because of other things the Danish nonviolent campaign was doing.  A lovely thing about our constantly analyzing the power position of the opponent, including their internal considerations of morale and cost (there is always a cost to violent enforcement), is that we get to choose in our repertoire of tactics which one to use when.

The whole point of How We Win is to empower you to know that you can choose, that the better you understand the craft of nonviolent direct action campaigning, the more powerful you are even though your opponent wants you to think you are a powerless object who, at best, can offer a moral gesture.

So knock yourself out reading about the tactics of others under dictatorship, and each time asking: how were they thinking when they did this, in what way were they engaged in what Gandhi called “Experiments in Truth?”

Q: My sister-in-law from Belgium says that Yellow Jackets movement in Europe is disruptive for nothing. Europeans are not like Americans, and to disregard Les Gilets Jaunes. They are disruptive for nothing.  Are they? 

A: She needs to listen to what they are saying, which may be a jumble and self-contradictory but matter so much that they express them with passion.  I constantly ask my fellow progressives in the U.S. when they last listened empathically to a Trump voter, and shame on them if they don’t know any!
Q: Could George speak to the recently announced “Space Force” and the assumption by the President that space is already a hostile space?

A: Adding more hostility to an already hostile space?  This is likely to decrease hostility?????  I’m reminded of thoughts credited to Jesus, a hugely important figure to me:  “Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?”

Q: Do you think that we could say that the emphasis on civil resistance is that we’re trying to establish a moral culture, which is lost in the face of corporate capitalism? Establishing what is just and what is not? 

A: It’s also my observation that corporate capitalism reduces human beings to objects, to mere factors in production, and by taking away our distinct humanness degrades also our culture.  That’s why, as I show in the book that preceded this one, Viking Economics, the “Nordic economic model” (as economists call it) turns upside down the roles of capital and humanity.  Instead of prioritizing capital (the daily or hourly reports from Wall Street, for example), and bending humans to support capital, the Nordic model prioritizes, say, Norwegians, and then uses capital to support Norwegian families and individuals and communities.

The result, surprising to some, is that the Nordic economies do much better than free market-prioritizing economies like the U.S., decade after decade after decade – even though they have had far less wealth and natural resources and have always had to contend with being very small fish in the big pond of globalization and have come from a background of (say, a century ago) being in terrible shape.  Norway now has more entrepreneurs per capita than the U.S., because keeping their highly-regulated market under the tight control of their prioritized humans, they have a better climate for start-ups – since creative humans inclined to business like to do start-ups!  Sweden has more patents per capita than the U.S., for the same reason. Put humans first, and use capital to support humans.

You don’t have to like every aspect of their ancestral or modern Scandinavian cultures to notice vastly different/humane approaches to incarceration, health care, etc.  Google the ratings: “best place the world to be a mom,” “best place to be an elder,” “best place to be a child,” most advanced shifts in view of climate change, and on and on and on.

I’m the only author I know who tells the story of how they made their dramatic shift from a century ago (when free market capitalism ruled) to today:  through nonviolent direct action campaigns.  (They also build a strong cooperative movement and developed a vision of what they were fighting for.)  What Viking Economics shows is the best example in world history of the results, including cultural results, of a nonviolent revolution.  So every time you get discouraged about some of the outcomes of nonviolent overthrows of governments, in Serbia for example or the Arab Awakening, there’s an alternative story that is waiting to be widely told!

‘Planning Nonviolent Campaigns’ – Book Launch and Q&A with Leading Practitioner Ivan Marovic

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Webinar Content

Introduction of Speaker: 00:00 – 4:18
Presentation: 4:19 – 30:55
Questions and Answers: 30:56 – 59:49

Webinar Summary

“If you asked me about the movement I was part of, Otpor, and the campaigns we ran, I could tell you about tactics all day long. I could also talk about the Declaration on the Future of Serbia, Otpor’s strategic document. But I couldn’t name a single campaign from our first year. Why? Because there were none. Campaigns are difficult to plan and implement.”

Ivan Marovic, one of the leading practitioners in the field of strategic civil resistance, shares these reflections in the opening lines of his just-released book, The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns (ICNC Press).

 

Presented by Ivan Marovic
Thursday, January 17, 2019
12:00pm – 1:00pm US-Eastern

Book Description of The Path of Most Resistance

The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning a Nonviolent Campaign is a practical guide for activists and organizers of all levels, who wish to grow their resistance activities into a more strategic, fixed-term campaign. It guides readers through the campaign planning process, breaking it down into several steps and providing tools and exercises for each step. Upon finishing the book, readers will have what they need to guide their peers through the process of planning a campaign. This process, as laid out in the guide, is estimated to take about 12 hours from start to finish.

The guide is divided into two parts. The first lays out and contextualizes campaign planning tools and their objectives. It also explains the logic behind these tools, and how they can be modified to better suit a particular group’s context. The second part provides easily reproducible and shareable lesson plans for using each of those tools, as well as explores how to embed the tools in the wider planning process.

Speaker Biography

Ivan Marovic was one of leaders of Otpor, the student resistance movement that played a significant role in the overthrow of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic on October 5, 2000. After the successful democratic transition in Serbia, Marovic began consulting with various pro-democracy movements around the world and became one of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the field of strategic nonviolent resistance

 

Can Civil Resistance End Civil Wars? Lessons From Nepal On Combining Resistance Struggles and Peacebuilding Efforts

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Webinar Content

Introduction of Speakers: 00:00 – 5:30
Presentation: 5:31 – 37:21
Questions and Answers: 37:22 – 1:07:02

Webinar Summary

From 1996 until 2006 Nepal experienced a civil war that resulted in an estimated 17,000 casualties. Remarkably, the conflict ended when the Maoist insurgents forged an agreement with the country’s political parties to jointly launch a civil resistance campaign to oust the King. The civil resistance campaign succeeded in overthrowing the King, the former rebels have been integrated into normal democratic politics—even holding the premiership on multiple occasions—and Nepal has not seen a reversion to large-scale violence. However, many of the social tensions that initiated the conflict still have not been resolved. Protests are a regular occurrence and there has been a proliferation of armed groups in Nepal’s southern plains and Western hills.

This webinar will, among others, address the following questions:

  • How were armed Maoists convinced to transition to nonviolent civil resistance?
  • How and why did civil resistance succeed where violence could not?
  • What accounts for the successes and failures of the subsequent peace process driven by civil resistance and peacebuilding strategies?

We attempt to analyze these questions by utilizing the framework developed by Veronique Dudouet in her 2017 ICNC Special Report, “Powering to Peace: Integrating Civil Resistance and Peace-building Strategies.” We trace the development of conflict from a period of latent conflict with high levels of horizontal inequalities and structural violence to an outbreak of overt, but initially violent conflict.  We then illustrate how a transition from civil war to civil resistance was made possible and led to a successful conflict settlement. However, flaws in the conflict settlement process have produced a turbulent post-settlement process, one that falls short of the goals of reconciliation, transitional justice, and sustainable peace.

Presented by Ches Thurber & Subindra Bogati
Thursday, December 13, 2018
12 pm to 1 pm (EST-US)

Click here to download the webinar presentation slides

About the Presenters:

Ches Thurber

Ches Thurber is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Northern Illinois University whose research and teaching focus on conflict, security, and contentious politics. His book project, Between Gandhi and Mao: The Social Roots of Civil Resistance, investigates how social structures inform movements’ willingness to engage in nonviolent and violent strategies.  Dr. Thurber’s research has been published or is forthcoming in Journal of Global Security Studies, Conflict Management and Peace Science, and Small Wars and Insurgencies. He received his Ph. D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Subindra Bogati

Subindra Bogati is the Founder / Chief Executive of Nepal Peacebuilding Initiative – an organization devoted to evidence based policy and action on peace-building and humanitarian issues. He has been working for conflict transformation and peace process in Nepal through various national and international organizations for the last several years. Until recently, he was one of the principal investigators of the two yearlong research, dialogue and policy project on “Innovations in Peacebuilding”, which was a partnership between University of Denver, Chr. Michelsen Institue (CMI) in Bergen, and the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa and the Nepal Peacebuilding Initiative, Nepal.  He holds an MA in International Relations from London Metropolitan University and was awarded the FCO Chevening Fellowship in 2009 at the Centre for Studies in Security and Diplomacy, the University of Birmingham. He is a PhD candidate in the department of Political Science, Tribhuvan University, Nepal.

Suggested Readings

Dudouet, Veronique. “Powering to Peace: Integrating Civil Resistance and Peacebuilding Strategies,” ICNC Special Report, 2017.

Routledge, Paul. “Nineteen Days in April: Urban Protest and Democracy in Nepal,” Urban Studies Vol. 47, no. 6, May 2010:1779-1799.

Sisk, Timothy and Subidra Bogati, “Natural Disaster & Peacebuilding in Post-War Nepal: Can Recovery Further Reconciliation?” Denver Dialogues, Political Violence at a Glance, June 2, 2015.

The Paradox of Repression and Nonviolent Movements

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Webinar Content

Introduction of Speakers: 00:00 – 5:19
Presentation: 5:20 – 33:29
Questions and Answers: 33:30 – 1:02:26

Webinar Summary

From Bull Connors’ dogs and fire hoses attacking U.S. civil rights demonstrators to the massacre at Amritsar in colonial India and the shooting of nonviolent demonstrators in Soviet Tblisi in 1990, the use of coercive force often backfires. Rather than undermining resistance, repression often fuels popular movements. When authorities respond to nonviolent people power with intimidation, coercion, and violence, they often undercut their own legitimacy, precipitating significant reforms or regime overthrow.

Activists in a wide range of movements have engaged in nonviolent tactics of “repression management” that can turn the potentially negative consequences of repression to their advantage. The Paradox of Repression and Nonviolent Movements book, edited by our webinar presenters, brings together scholars and activists to address multiple dimensions of this phenomenon, which Gene Sharp called “political jiu jitsu,” including the potential for nonviolent strategy to raise the likelihood that repression will cost those who use it.

In this webinar, we will share some of the key strategic insights and challenges identified by the authors of the book. As editors of the book, Lee and Les hope to share cover some of the ground covered in greater detail in the book. Research for this book was supported by ICNC.

Presented by Lester Kurtz and Lee Smithey
Thursday, November 15, 2018
12 pm to 1 pm (EST-US)

About the Presenters:

Lester R. Kurtz

Lester Kurtz is professor of public sociology at George Mason University, where he teaches peace and conflict studies, comparative sociology of religion, and social theory. He holds a Master’s in Religion from Yale and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. He is the editor of the Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict (3 volumes Elsevier), The Warrior and the Pacifist (Routledge), co-editor of Women, War and Violence (2 volumes, Praeger), Nonviolent Social Movements (Blackwell’s), and The Web of Violence (U. of Illinois Press) as well as author of books and articles including Gods in the Global Village (Pine Forge/Sage), The Politics of Heresy (U. of California Press), Evaluating Chicago Sociology, and The Nuclear Cage (Prentice-Hall). He is currently working on a book on Gandhi and has taught at the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and Tunghai University. He has lectured in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America and served as chair of the Peace Studies Association and the Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section of the American Sociological Association, which awarded him its Robin Williams Distinguished Career Award. He is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Nanjing Massacre History and International Peace.

Lee A. Smithey

Lee Smithey serves as Coordinator of the Peace and Conflict Studies program at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He is an Associate Professor in the college’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, where he studies social conflict and social movements, especially ethnopolitical conflict and nonviolent conflict methods. He has focused much of his work on conflict transformation in Northern Ireland. His book, Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press), was launched at the Northern Ireland Assembly and won the 2012 Donald Murphy Book Prize for Distinguished First Book from the American Conference for Irish Studies. He is a Co-Primary Investigator of the Mural Mapping Project, a longitudinal and geo-spatial study of murals and public art in West Belfast and the Greater Shankill Road area. He has served as Chair of the Peace, War, and Social Conflict section of the American Sociological Association.

Additional Online Resources

Book Wepage: The Paradox of Repression and Nonviolent Movements

Minds of the Movement blog post: May the Excessive force Be With You: How Activists Can Manage Repression To Win

Waging Nonviolence blog post: How Repression Can Fuel A Movement

Global Nonviolent Action Database: Paradox of Repression Cases

Curriculum Fellowship Awardees 2018

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In 2014, ICNC launched the Curriculum Fellowship Program to support development of courses on nonviolent conflict and promote teaching in the growing field of civil resistance studies by selecting seven curriculum fellows. In 2016, ICNC added a new component to the curriculum support program: online courses that interested fellows taught in 2016 and Spring 2017.  Online teaching became an integral part of the initiative and the 2017 cohort of fellows continued teaching both classroom-based and online courses on civil resistance.

ICNC is excited to continue the Curriculum Fellowship Program by accepting four fellows for the 2018 cohort.

The 2018 Fellows are:

Colins Imoh
Laurie Johnston
Lindsay Littrell
Nosheen Raza

Colins Imoh is a doctoral scholar at the Department of Educational Foundations & Leadership at the University of Toledo. His area of interest is nonviolent action, development, diversity,  peace-building and conflict transformation. He was the pioneer coordinator of the Africa Network of Young Peace Builders, working from their International Secretariat in the Netherlands. Professionally, he holds an MA in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University Harrisonburg, Virginia,  and MPhil from the University of Cape Town in Environmental Management. He was project manager for the Partners for Peace, a network whose mission is to build social capital around peacebuilding. He is the recipient of various awards including: Winston fellowship, Open Society Africa Fellowship, MASHAV Award, Philip J. Rusche Emeriti Faculty Award, Robert J and Wrey Warner Barber award, the Those who Inspire Award and the Helen M. Fields Memorial Achievement Award.

Course Title: Introduction to Peace and Justice, Civil Resistance module (Fall 2018)

Location: University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA

Course Abstract: The course is an introduction to peace and justice; international negative peace; justifiable responses to threats to and violations of peace; and justifiable responses to injustices. It provides an exploration of nonviolence as means and reactions to injustice. There is a focus on civil resistance as a strategy for citizens to work for peace and justice. It engages students in the application of practical methods and skills of civil resistance as a tool for change in societies; providing an exploration into nonviolent actions and civil resistance movement. It traces the historic moments in the movement, exploring its success comparatively to other methods of effecting change. The nature and structure of political power in societies is examined, appreciating that power belongs to the people, who give their consent to be governed and can also withdraw that consent. The course explores various strategies for the success of nonviolent actions.

Laurie Johnston, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies and Director of Fellowships and Scholarships at Emmanuel College in Boston. A social ethicist, she holds degrees from Boston College, Harvard Divinity School, and the University of Virginia. She has recently been a Fulbright Scholar at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College. She is editor of several books, including Can War be Just in the 21st  Century (Orbis Press 2015), and The Surprise of Reconciliation in the Catholic Tradition (Paulist Press, 2018).

Course Title: Social Justice and Religious Traditions (Fall 2018)

Location: Emmanuel College, Boston, MA, USA

Course Abstract: Why do religions sometimes uphold the established order, and other times help subvert it? What do religious traditions have to say about social justice and the best ways to pursue it? What is civil resistance, and how have religious communities been involved in recent efforts to pursue justice by means of civil resistance? In this course, we will examine five major world religions and their teachings on social justice. We will investigate the relationship between religious communities and several important movements that have used civil resistance to pursue their visions of social justice.

Lindsay Littrell, a Ph. D. student and educator at the University of Kentucky, comes to the ICNC with Midwest teaching experience, West Coast practice experience, East Coast education, and Southern upbringing. A social work educator with roots in the labor movement, policy and macro social work practice, she is driven by her passion for justice and the building of beloved community. In addition to the honor of educating as a “practice of freedom,” Lindsay keeps her ear to the ground and her feet on the pavement, bringing students along as often as possible, engaging struggles for peace, justice and liberation here in her U.S. back yard and across the world. Ms. Littrell’s research interests and teaching experience includes the intersection of social work practice and education with themes of social justice, collective liberation, intersectional feminism, community organizing, and to postcolonial concerns of local and global theory and practice. She has recently served as the Deputy Director for the South North Cohesion Project’s Gender-Based Violence Programme, working with a team of researchers and practitioners in the U.S. Midwest and across South Africa.

Course Title: Bigger than Protest: The Theory of Civil Resistance and the Ethics of Social Change (Online, October – December 2018)

Location: University of Kentucky. Lexington, KY, USA 

Course Abstract: In this 3-credit interactive online course for graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Kentucky, students will engage the social work ethics and values regarding social, economic and environmental justice as well as human rights while exploring the concept of civil resistance and the “power that underlies people’s actions” (ICNC Rutgers, 2017) to effect change in their communities in the face of oppression. With a substantive emphasis on processes that strengthen both critical thinking and interpersonal skills, students will work together to examine the documented impact of more than a century of civil resistance through the lens of civic mobilization, strategy, tactics, conflict analysis, repression, backfire and violent flanks. Each student will then deepen their learning by analyzing and then presenting on an ongoing civil resistance campaign of their choosing, reflecting on campaign strengths, the manifestation of civil resistance content themes, implications regarding ethics, social justice and human rights, as well as opportunities for skill contribution in the context of their academic disciplines or in light of their future careers.

Nosheen Raza received her Master’s in Sociology from University of Karachi, Pakistan. She is currently a lecturer of Sociology at University of Karachi and a Ph.D. candidate at the same university. She teaches courses on Collective Behavior and Social Change, Industrial Sociology, Demography, Medical Sociology and Sociological Theories. She is also member of different academic and administrative boards at University of Karachi. Her interests and research areas include collective behavior and social change, human rights, demography and Sociology of Education. She was UNFPA’s national observer to monitor population census of Pakistan in 2017. She has been working with national and international NGOs for awareness and promotion of human rights and community development.

Course Title: Collective Behavior and Social Change (July – November 2018)

Location: University of Karachi, Karachi City, Pakistan

Course Abstract: The main purpose of the course is to educate the students about nonviolent struggles and civil resistance which has never been part of the curriculum. The sessions on civil resistance and social change are designed to provide an in-depth knowledge to the students on civilian-based movements and campaigns that defend and obtain basic rights and justice in Pakistan and around the world. The course examines the foundation of civil resistance, determinants of the success or failure of a civil resistance movement, nonviolent tactics, role of external agents; governments, NGOs, media, etc. and the dynamics and history of civil resistance. The students will be introduced to case studies of nonviolent movements in Pakistan, such as Pakistan’s Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, Pakistan’s Lawyers Movement and others. The students will explore the power of nonviolent actions as an effective way to bring about a positive change.

2018 High School Curriculum Fellowship Awardees

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In Fall 2016, ICNC launched a grant program for high school educators from around the world to support development and implementation of educational initiatives on civil resistance movements and nonviolent action for their students. Fall 2018 is our second round of awarding fellows. Four exceptional fellows were selected to develop and teach courses on this topic in different parts of the world during the 2018/2019 academic year.

2018 High School Curriculum Fellowship awardees include:

Tatiana Daré Araújo is a Sociologist and Lawyer, with expertise in Human Rights and Public Security Management. She received a Master’s degree in Social Sciences from the Federal University of Espírito Santo in Brazil as an Espírito Santo Foundation for Research (FAPES) fellow. Since 2007, she has worked with universities, government, research institutes and NGOs in researching public security, democratic governance, criminal justice, human rights, and transitional justice. That work led to consulting for the UNDP-Brazil, producing reports for the government, teaching activities and constructing social networks and partnerships with different state and non-state actors. Tatiana is currently a Ph.D. candidate in International Politics and Conflict Resolution at the University of Coimbra in partnership with the Centre for Social Studies (CES) in Portugal. She is developing research and case studies on local mediation programs as an alternative to solving violent conflicts in favelas and poor Brazilian neighborhoods. In this context, she is developing studies on conflict transformation and peacebuilding, which inspired her to create and coordinate a social intervention in a public school in the community of Manguinhos. The project, named “Manguinhos for peace: Engaging teachers and students in community peacebuilding,” aims to introduce practices of non-violent communication, education for peace, civic education, conflict transformation for a culture of peace, and is financed through a fellowship from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ).

Course Title: Nonviolent Resistance in a Time of Democratic Backsliding:  Rethinking Democracy and Civic Mobilization in Brazil. (March – April 2019)

Course Abstract: The course intends to provide knowledge and critical views through sociological, historical, and political perspectives across two main themes: “nonviolent actions” and “civil resistance,” emphasizing how “people power” can be an important mechanism of both citizenship and social engagement in facing state repression.  This will be done through selected literature, class discussions, and movie debates on civil resistance around the world, combining practical experiences of successful and historical cases of resistance, which include political and non-institutional mobilizations.  Nonviolent action and civil resistance have been considered necessary to strengthen social and civic movements and promote social changes in the current moment of instability in Brazil. Because of the political and economic crisis in Brazil that culminated in the coup d’état in 2015, many forms of violence (structural, institutional, direct, and symbolic) have been increasing. The course will provide students with the tools and techniques of civil resistance and conflict analyses in order to map actors, conflicts and claims and, thus, create new strategies of resistance while strengthening the systems already in place. At the end of the course, students will create and implement a strategy of nonviolent action and civic movement of their choice.

 

Ilaria Zomer is Peace Educator for Centro Studi Sereno Regis. She manages local and transnational projects on the topics of nonviolence and transformation of conflicts especially focusing on young people, teenagers and children target. She used to work abroad in conflict contexts applying peace education principles to situations of direct violence and marginalization and empowering young people as peace builders in conflicts in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, Albania, Northern Ireland and  Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Italy, she developed a model of peer education as a tool of  political change for young people.

Course Title: Nonviolent Action Academy (October 2018 – March 2019)

Course Abstract: Since its recent elections, Italy has seen a growing need to spread a culture of civil resistance, as a viable, achievable and organized action aimed at social change among those boys and girls who find an individual solution in violence, which only traumatizes them, stigmatizes them in the eyes of society and leads them more at the margin of the society itself. Nonviolent Action Academy aims to make the scientific knowledge of civil resistance accessible to Italian students and especially to those who face daily injustices and who are most at risk of resorting to dangerous and violent resistance. The training course is aimed at 25 high school students from Turin, ages 17-18.  These students will come from schools in which the recruitment is greater by the military bodies of the state and those with a significant number of young people who, because of their identity, sexual orientation, origin, religion, still suffer forms of discrimination. The program will involve ten bi-weekly training sessions. Each session will last for two hours. Working groups will support the comprehension of the studying materials in English, and promote cooperative learning, mutual knowledge and help among students.

 

How Civil Resistance Movements Can Foster More Democratic Outcomes

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Webinar Content

Introduction of Speaker: 00:00 – 4:24
Presentation: 4:25 – 37:46
Questions and Answers: 37:47 – 59:34

Webinar Summary

(click picture to download a PDF of Dr. Pinckney’s monograph)

Based on his new ICNC monograph When Civil Resistance Succeeds: Building Democracy After Popular Nonviolent Uprisings, Dr. Jonathan Pinckney will begin his webinar presentation with the observation that, while several existing studies have pointed to a strong connection between successful campaigns of civil resistance and a greater likelihood of democratization, prominent failures of democratization, as in many of the Arab Spring cases, raise challenging questions. Furthermore, there is scant literature on the dynamics of civil resistance campaigns following the initial democratic breakthrough to trace the mechanisms whereby civil resistance movements can encourage or undermine democratic prospects. In this webinar, Jonathan will present a theory of civil resistance transitions, focusing on a series of strategic challenges faced by nonviolent movements after their initial democratic breakthrough. Jonathan supports this argument in both the monograph and this webinar with a quantitative analysis of all transitions from authoritarianism initiated by civil resistance from 1945-2015 and several qualitative case studies.

Presented by Jonathan Pinckney
Thursday, October 25, 2018
12pm to 1pm (Eastern Time-US)

About the Presenter

jonathan_pinckneyJonathan Pinckney, Ph.D., is a Research Fellow at the Norwegian University of Technology and Science; and External Associate at the Peace Research Institute of Oslo. 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 B.A, in International Affairs from Gordon College, graduating summa cum laude with special honors, and his M.A. from the Korbel School in 2014. He was a 2012 recipient of the Korbel School’s Sié Fellowship. He is also the author of two ICNC monographs: When Civil Resistance Succeeds: Building Democracy After Popular Nonviolent Uprisings and Making or Breaking Nonviolent Discipline in Civil Resistance Movements.

 

 

Related Resources

https://youtu.be/_GIzbENVoSo

How Can Resistance Movements Limit Mass Killings By Repressive Governments?

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Webinar Content

Introduction of Speaker: 00:00 – 1:41
Presentation: 1:42 – 28:43
Questions and Answers: 28:44 – 1:00:55

Webinar Summary

Evan Perkoski, is the co-author of ICNC’s recent Special Report Nonviolent Resistance and the Prevention of Mass Killings During Popular Uprisings. His webinar will address how resistance movements can limit or eliminate the use of mass killings by repressive governments during popular uprisings. In particular, Perkoski will explore how—and to what extent—nonviolent resistance movements have historically mitigated the likelihood of mass killings, discussing his research finding that nonviolent uprisings that do not receive significant foreign material aid and manage to gain military defections tend to be the safest. These findings shed light on how both dissidents and their foreign allies can work together to reduce the likelihood of violent confrontations and mass killings as a form of repression.

Presenter

Dr. Evan Perkoski is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on the dynamics of rebel, insurgent, and terrorist groups; strategies of violent and nonviolent resistance; and the behavior of state and non-state actors in cyberspace. His current book manuscript explores the breakdown of armed organizations, focusing particularly on the emergence of splinter groups and how they behave relative to their predecessors. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and has held fellowships at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

Relevant Webinar Reading

Nonviolent Resistance and Prevention of Mass Killings During Popular Uprisings, an ICNC Special Report by Evan Perkoski and Erica Chenoweth. Click here to download the report

 

Glossary of Civil Resistance: A Resource for Study and Translation of Key Terms

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By: Hardy Merriman and Nicola Barrach-Yousefi
Date of Publication: January 2021
Free Download: English
Purchase a Copy
Purchase e-book (Nook | Kindle)

List of translated key terms:
Arabic | Armenian | Bangla | Burmese | Chinese | Farsi | French | Haitian Creole | Hebrew | Hindi | Hungarian | Indonesian | Kannada | Khmer | Kirundi | Korean | Kyrgyz | Malayalam | Pashto | Polish | Portuguese (Brazilian) | Portuguese (Continental) | Russian | Sindhi | Spanish | Swahili | Tagalog | Tamil | Telugu | Thai | Turkish | Urdu | Vietnamese

The field of civil resistance is dedicated to understanding how people can fight for rights, freedom, and justice, without the use of violence. This glossary provides definitions and expansive commentary on civil resistance terminology to support sharing of lessons learned and research across different languages.

It is intended to support translation of materials, but non-translators will also find value in it, as a great deal can be learned about the concepts in the field that underlie each term.

The Glossary features:

  • Over 150 key terms defined.
  • Term usage in a sentence.
  • Extensive commentary and Introduction.
  • Links to translations of civil resistance terminology in 31 languages.
  • See errata (PDF).
  • Read author Hardy Merriman’s blog post announcing the launch of the Glossary.

 

Solidarity with the Poor: Civil Disobedience Against Housing Evictions in Hungary

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Presented by Balint Misetics on March 27, 2018, at 12 pm Eastern Time

Webinar Content

1. Introduction of the Speaker: 00:00 – 2:42
2. Presentation: 2:43 – 33:16
3. Questions and Answers: 33:17 – 1:00:28

Webinar Summary

The eviction of impoverished, indebted families is becoming increasingly common in Hungary—but so too are anti-eviction blockades. Nonviolent direct action has been used in such circumstances for years by the Hungarian grassroots activist group The City Is For All, which brings activists living in homelessness and housing poverty to work together with allies for the right to housing for all.

What lessons can be learned from this, and how can such confrontational tactics be embedded in a broader campaign strategy?  Furthermore, if all evictions can be stopped, why is it important to use nonviolent direct action even in those cases? The webinar provides an insider view on the struggle against evictions and an interpretation of the role that tactics of civil resistance play in that struggle.

 

Presenter

Balint Misetics studied social theory and social policy in Budapest, the United States, and Oxford (UK). He is a founding member of A Város Mindenkié (The City is for All), a Hungarian grassroots activist group in which people living in housing poverty and their allies work together for housing rights. Besides working on his PhD in social policy, he is a regular trainer on nonviolent resistance, and he also edited a Hungarian reader on the topic.

 

Relevant Online Resources

Misetics, Bálint (2017). “Homelessness, citizenship and need interpretation: reflections on organizing with homeless people in Hungary.” Interface: A Journal on Social Movements, 9(1): 389-423.

Homepage of The City is for All – English language content

A 10 minutes long, 2013 video about the group with English subtitles

 

Youth, Civil Resistance, and Elections in Eastern Europe

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Presented by Dr. Olena Nikolayenko on February 28, 2018

 

Webinar Summary:

At the turn of the twenty-first century, a number of nonviolent youth movements were formed to demand political change in repressive political regimes that emerged since the collapse of communism. The Serbian social movement Otpor (Resistance) played a vital role in bringing down Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Inspired by Otpor’s example, similar challenger organizations were formed in the former Soviet republics. The youth movements, however, differed in the extent to which they could mobilize citizens against the authoritarian governments on the eve of national elections. Using data from semi-structured interviews with former movement participants, public opinion polls, government publications, NGO reports, and newspaper articles, this webinar traces state-movement interactions in five post-communist societies: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Serbia, and Ukraine. It is based on the research Olena Nikolayenko conducted for her new book Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe: From Serbia’s Otpor to Azerbaijan’s Maqam.

A central argument in the book–and this webinar–is that tactics adopted by youth movements and incumbent governments influence the level of youth mobilization against the regime. The analysis focuses on three types of movement tactics based upon the target of their action: (1) recruitment tactics targeted at the youth population, (2) tactics vis-à-vis allies, and (3) tactics vis-à-vis opponents. This set of tactics requires a set of capabilities outlined in Peter Ackerman and Hardy Merriman’s “Checklist for Ending Tyranny:” (1) ability to unify people, (2) operational planning, and (3) nonviolent discipline.

Presenter

Olena Nikolayenko is Associate Professor of Political Science at Fordham University. She is also an Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. Nikolayenko received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Toronto and held visiting appointments at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Stanford University; the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, Princeton University; and the Department of Sociology, the National University of Kyiv–Mohyla Academy, Ukraine. Her research interests include comparative democratization, social movements, political behavior, women’s activism, and youth, with a regional focus on Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. In her recent book, Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe (Cambridge University Press 2017), she examines tactical interactions between nonviolent youth movements and incumbent governments in five post-communist states: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Serbia, and Ukraine.

Relevant Webinar Readings

Olena Nikolayenko (2018). “Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe,” on H-Net Book Channel’s website.

Olena Nikolayenko, (2012), ‘Tactical Interactions Between Youth Movements and Incumbent Governments in Postcommunist States,” in Sharon Erickson Nepstad, Lester R. Kurtz (ed.) Nonviolent Conflict and Civil Resistance (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Volume 34) Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 27 – 61.

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Remarks on the passing of Gene Sharp

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Gene Sharp, a pioneering scholar in the field of civil resistance, died Sunday at his home in Boston.  He was 90.  Dr. Sharp’s seminal work, “The Politics of Nonviolent Action,” identified 198 tactics of civil resistance and, since its publication in 1973, has been a lodestar for activists, academics, policymakers and nongovernmental organizations. Both Peter Ackerman, founder of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), and Hardy Merriman, President of ICNC, worked closely with Dr. Sharp.

 

From Peter Ackerman

I began my relationship with Gene as his doctoral student, and over the years he became a dear colleague and friend. In the 40 years that I’ve been committed to advancing humanity’s understanding of nonviolent civil resistance, Gene Sharp’s ideas have been salient to that work every day.

From Hardy Merriman

Gandhi saw nonviolent civil resistance as a series of “experiments” to be investigated and analyzed through scientific inquiry. Gene Sharp took this concept and applied it to civil resistance movements around the world, discerning a social science, and an academic discipline, to explain how these movements work, and why they succeed or fail. Through decades of research and publishing, he established key concepts, terms, and theories in a little-known field that has grown and now flourishes. His work didn’t just touch scholarship—it also reached practitioners, influencing thousands of dissidents around the world. His impact will continue into the future, and humanity’s course is better as a result.

Can People Power Movements Strengthen International Human Rights Law?

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This Academic Webinar took place Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, at 12 p.m. EST

This webinar was presented by Dr. Elizabeth Wilson

Watch the webinar below:

Webinar content

1. Introduction of the Speaker: 00:00 – 1:38
2. Presentation: 1:38 – 36:10
3. Questions and Answers: 36:10 – 54:28

Webinar Summary

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 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. This webinar will discuss the relationship between people power movements and international human rights and how civil resistance campaigns can further strengthen human rights law.

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Presenter

Dr. Elizabeth A. Wilson is visiting faculty at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey. She recently served as 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.

Relevant Reading

Elizabeth A Wilson’s ICNC Monograph People Power Movements and International Human Rights: Creating a Legal Framework

Elizabeth A Wilson, “People Power and the Problem of Sovereignty in International Law.” Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law Vol. 26, No. 3 (Spring 2016): 551-592. This article is available via ICNC’s Academic Online Curriculum. 

Apply for a Participant-Led Online Course on Civil Resistance

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Image credit: Flickr user M.o.B 68, via Creative Commons, Black Lives Matter protest.

ICNC is pleased to announce a call for applications for a free, seven-week, participant-led online course: “Civil Resistance Struggles: How Ordinary People Win Rights, Freedom, and Justice.”

In this course, about 50 highly motivated and collaborative participants from around the world will:

  • Study scheduled modules of selected readings, videos, and pre-recorded experts and practitioners’  input on key aspects of nonviolent resistance campaigns and movements;
  • Participate in online discussion forums by sharing thoughts and ideas about course content that will help deepen individual learning;
  • Share experiences and stories related to course themes to build a collaborative learning community with other learners;
  • Take responsibility for the successful completion of two small-group interactive assignments using interactive communication and online collaboration tools, which are then shared with all other course participants.

This course will take place on ICNC’s new online learning platform starting on February 8, with a live orientation webinar that will guide admitted participants through signing up, logging in, interacting in the online space, and getting the most out of their online learning. Ongoing technical and process questions can be sent to ICNC’s course administrators, but the course will not have faculty moderators. The ultimate responsibility for the success of the course will depend on each participant staying active, working together effectively, and helping each other build a strong and motivated learning community.

Click here to apply

The application deadline is Sunday, February 4, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. EST.
(Candidates will be informed of application status by February 7, 2018)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PROSPECTIVE APPLICANTS

 

WHY WE OFFER THIS PARTICIPANT-LED COURSE

In the last several years, many individuals, groups and organizations in the U.S. and abroad have reached out to us to inquire about civil resistance learning opportunities. In order to respond to these requests, we are providing a variety of online courses so we can achieve greater scale and reach more people in our efforts.

This participant-led course is designed by ICNC as a cohort-based course where the accepted participants work together as a collaborative learning community with some technical assistance from ICNC, but no real-time instructors’ comments or moderation on participant discussions or small group projects.

A participant-led course requires:

  • a great deal of responsiveness toward your fellow learners reflected in your engagement not only with the course material but even more so with other participants’ contributions and posts in various course forums;
  • a strong sense of shared leadership among its participants; as well as
  • a high degree of self-motivation, an  open attitude to learning, a desire to share and interact with others, and some relevant background knowledge or experience.

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course provides an interactive, in-depth, and multidisciplinary perspective on civilian-based movements and campaigns that defend and win fundamental rights and justice around the world. The course explains the nature of civil resistance and its forces, underlying dynamics and effectiveness. Participants will be able to reflect on the skills and agency of ordinary people, their strategies and tactics, how movements can confront repression, the backfire effect, and how movements have caused defections among their adversaries’ supporters. We will look at how entrenched political and social structures and practices shift under the pressure of organized nonviolent campaigns and movements, and the long-term impacts on societies, nations and institutions.  The course also will examine case studies of civil resistance struggles, including movements for democracy and human rights, women-led civil resistance campaigns, movements challenging corruption, abusive corporations, and violent non-state actors. The course will involve a number of activities to be completed within specific time frames, including forum posts and online discussions, readings, viewing videos, and small-group interactive projects.

This course on civil resistance will deepen the participants’ awareness of this widespread social and political phenomenon that defies a long-held belief in the superior power of arms to challenge brutal, violent adversaries. Contrary to the violence-centered narrative that dominates mass media, nonviolent resistance campaigns against repressive states have been on the rise, surpassing violent insurgencies by almost 5 to 1 in the last 15 years.

For the past several years, ICNC has supported work to develop unique data sets of nonviolent campaigns (NAVCO). In 2011, this work led to a ground-breaking quantitative study that showed civil resistance movements often emerge and succeed in challenging environments. It also established that civil resistance struggles are more than twice as effective against violent states as armed resistance groups. This course is deeply informed by these important developments in research and the historic practice of civil resistance.

 

COURSE GOALS

Osai Ojigho Testimonial-01The goals of this course are:

  • To introduce cutting edge thinking and research findings on various topics in civil resistance, as outlined in the course content below.
  • To discuss case studies of nonviolent campaigns and movements.
  • To reflect on the effectiveness of civil resistance and its power to overcome challenging conditions.
  • To provide a platform for peer-to-peer learning and networking.
  • To offer an interactive and structured learning environment for participants to become a more informed observer of nonviolent conflicts and effective conveyor of civil resistance knowledge.

 

COURSE CONTENT AND SCHEDULE

I. Orientation and Getting Started

  • ICNC online course platform is opened for enrollment to admitted participants. February 7, 2018
  • Live orientation webinar. February 8 (a recording will be made available immediately following the webinar for any participant who is unable to join the live webinar)
  • Introduction to the Course, Participant Introductions, and Learning Survey. February 8-12

II. Course Content Modules

  • Module 1. Foundation of Civil Resistance. February 13-19
    What Is Civil Resistance? • The Effectiveness of Civil Resistance.
  • Module 2. First Small Group Project February 20-26
    Civil Resistance in the Media
  • Module 3. Strategies and Tactics of Civil Resistance. February 27- March 5
    Analyzing Nashville Lunch Counter Campaign • Cultural Resistance Tactics • Conflict Analysis Tools
  • Module 4. Repression, Backfire, Defections. March 6-12
    Repression and Backfire • Defections
  • Module 5. Second Small Group Project. March 13-19
    Developing an Anti-Corruption Campaign Strategy
  • Module 6. New Frontiers in Civil Resistance Studies. March 20-26
    Women and Nonviolent Resistance • Democratization and Civil Resistance • Civil Resistance against Abusive Corporate Practices • Civil Resistance Against Violent Non-State Actors •

III. Closing the Course

  • Course Evaluation and Learning Gains Survey. March 27-29

 

WHO SHOULD APPLY

ICNC plans to admit up to 50 participants who commit to reviewing all course content, contributing to discussion forums, and engaging with other participants on the course forums and in small-group interactive learning assignments. For this class, we are looking for participants from all over the world who:

  • have strong personal motivations to learn and apply their knowledge of what makes civil resistance struggles effective;
  • are willing to engage with other participants and share their knowledge and experience about nonviolent movements and campaigns in respectful and collaborative ways, even when they disagree;
  • are comfortable in writing, sharing and talking in English.

We encourage any U.S.- and non-U.S.-based movement activists, organizers, scholars, educators, members of civil society, policy professionals, and journalists to apply to take this course, specifically, if you think the course will help you participate, support, analyze nonviolent peoples’ movements for human rights, political freedom, social justice, and environmental sustainability more effectively.

Anyone who applies must also be willing to commit to the code of conduct and time and activity requirements for the course as outlined below.

 

CODE OF CONDUCT OF THE PARTICIPANT-LED LEARNING COMMUNITY

Because no outside moderation of online discussions is planned for this course, a specific code of conduct has been developed to ensure that participant interactions and knowledge sharing are as meaningful, substantive, and respectful as possible.

Participants will be responsible for following and enforcing the code of conduct of their learning community throughout the duration of the course and anyone who does not follow these guidelines can be removed from the course by ICNC staff at any time. (Learners’ concerns about a participant’s behavior that cannot be resolved through clear communication, active listening, and making requests of other participants can be sent directly to ICNC’s Academic Initiatives staff.)

What participants are expected to do in their online interactions

  • Respect each others’ points of view;
  • Share comments that relate to forum questions;
  • Focus on the phenomenon of civil resistance. If you find your conversations with others going onto other topics that are not directly related to the course, then you should take those conversations outside of the course (i.e. over email, Facebook, phone, etc.) or in the special “Community Conversations” forum;
  • Review assigned material (readings/videos) included in the course chapters before responding to questions raised in the forums;
  • Keep an open mind and maintain a desire to learn from others. People in the community may have strong perspectives, but do not dismiss others simply because they have a different perspective;
  • Focus on debating ideas, and separate people from ideas in the process. If you disagree with an idea, don’t attack the person who posted the idea personally, or make assumptions about their motives;
  • Back up your ideas, criticism and arguments with references to authoritative and verified sources or experience;
  • In addition to the readings in the online course, refer to other source materials to support your statements or as a background information to the point you are making;
  • Read carefully and in their entirety posts made by other people before replying to them;
  • If something is not clear in someone else’s comment, do not hesitate to ask for clarifications and further explanations;
  • Present various possible arguments that might be made around the discussed issue;
  • Write as concisely as possible while still being clear;
  • Post regularly to the required forums and catch up as soon as possible with your comments on the scheduled forums that you have not yet posted;
  • Formulate your thoughts and ideas in clear language. Assume that other participants will not have any knowledge about the case that you are elaborating on;
  • Share first-hand accounts and stories from your personal and professional work, study, or activity that pertain to the discussed subject matter;
  • Humor, encouragement, praise, constructive criticism, and putting yourself in someone else’s shoes are the most effective way to engage with others and facilitate informed discussions that do not exclude anyone;
  • No profanity or personal insults;
  • Do not hesitate to report any inappropriate, offensive or vulgar posts to the course administrators;
  • Unless there is a personal or family emergency, you should not abandon your learning community of fellow participants and go silent for the whole week (an average duration of the module);
  • Do not be tardy with posting during the week as this negatively affects your and other participants’ learning progress;
  • Do not copy and paste from outside sources when you write in forums. Use your own wording and vocabulary, though feel free to cite authoritative and verifiable sources.

Even though we have never had any problems of the following kind during our previous online course interactions, we want to make sure that participants:

  • Do not use ad-hominem attacks or any adverse remarks against a participant’s race, gender, religion, national origin, age, disability, or sexual orientation;
  • Do not use threats or incite any kind of violence.

 

PARTICIPANT TIME AND ACTIVITY COMMITMENT

Shani-Smith-Ruters-01-1024x618All participants are expected to spend between 7 and 10 hours per week in the online classroom, and should average about 1 hour per day for the full duration of the course on reviewing materials, posting comments about the readings and assigned videos, and interacting with/responding to other participants’ posts. Participants also should engage in video conferencing for the small-group projects and contribute to small-group statement writings.

Meeting these requirements is essential to the learning experience for the participants and for the group. Course content released each week builds on past content; therefore learning is interrupted and ineffective when participation is irregular. In addition, we believe that all of our participants have important contributions to make to the learning experience. Lack of participation and irregular or no posting are therefore a disservice to other participants.

Participation in the e-class is not restricted by time zone. Course content, forums and posts are all accessible to participants at any time of day.

 

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION

A certificate of completion will be awarded, upon request, to participants who fulfill all requirements for satisfactory completion of the course. This requires:

  • Reviewing all required materials in each course module;
  • Completing all quizzes and surveys set up in the modules;
  • Posting relevant comments about the readings and assigned videos in all required forums in each course module;
  • Interacting with/responding to other participants’ posts in all required forums in each course module;
  • Engaging in and moving forward the small group projects in the course;
  • Spending at minimum between 7 and 10 hours per week in the online classroom, averaging about 1 hour per day for the duration of the course on reviewing materials, posting comments and interacting with/responding to other participants’ posts.

If requested by a participant and awarded by ICNC, a certificate of completion will be sent by email in PDF format within three weeks after the end of the course.

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. “Is ICNC planning to run another one of these online courses at some point?”

Yes, we have been running it once a year for a couple of years now and we plan to keep offering it (and other online courses) at least once annually into the future. We would love to have you apply for this course now, but if the time is not right for you, you can rest assured that we will offer it again in the future.

2. “Given that there are no faculty moderators for this course, what can we expect from ICNC?”

ICNC has designed a well-structured, participant-tested, curriculum plan for this course that can be self-managed by active and engaged participants. We have organized the topic content, set up the discussion forums, and the small group challenges and provided instructions and tools to move through each of these learning tasks successfully. Participants can write ICNC’s designated course administrator with any technical questions about using the course material, forums, and small-group projects. We will help participants troubleshoot any technical problems. In extreme situations, where a participant repeatedly violates the course code of conduct and refuses to respond to feedback and requests from other participants, our course administrator will respond to concerns and try to improve the situation or drop a disruptive participant from the course.

3. “Should I still apply if I won’t be able to meet all of the participation expectations of the course?”

Preference in admission will be given to those who can commit fully to the stated course requirements, including an average commitment of 1 hour per day. We cannot guarantee an admission for those who cannot commit to the course requirements though they can still submit their online application for our consideration and add a note regarding how much they can commit to if, for various reasons, they cannot take the full course load.

4. “What advice do students from previous participant-led course have for those applying for this course?”

Here is what previous students for this course advise:

  • Go through the course material early in each module;
  • Write about and post your initial responses to the course material before you start reading the comments of others;
  • Scan other participants’ comments, and respond to at least one or two in every forum you are engaged in–and more if you feel grabbed by what people are talking about. If you have expertise and can offer support, wisdom or thoughtful questions, do so;
  • Quote key parts of the posts you are responding too in a different font from the text of your response;
  • Get into a habit of spending an hour or two a day working on this course. Frequent visits to the website and nearly daily work helps with digesting and synthesizing all this new information;
  • It often helps to go back to review the course material toward the end of a module after your initial overview and forum discussions get started;
  • Work hard to keep up with your work—for your sake and the sake of other participants;
  • It is helpful to sign up for daily email digests for discussion topics, especially at the beginning of the course. However, as the course progresses and the responses are spread among many forums, there will be a time when you need to read the forums in context so you know what they are about;
  • Respond quickly to scheduling requests, or take the initiative, to get small-group projects going and completed before the end of the module. Don’t leave your group members hanging;
  • Ask for help from other participants or the course administrator when necessary;
  • Validate other participants and encourage the full participation of others. Reach out to participants you haven’t heard from recently and tell them how much you appreciate their participation;
  • Stay curious and try to learn as much as possible.

 

Click here to apply

The application deadline is Sunday, February 4, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. EST. For information or questions, email academicinitiative@nonviolent-conflict.org

Can People Power Movements Strengthen International Human Rights Law?

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A webinar with Elizabeth A. Wilson, author of the ICNC monograph People Power Movements and International Human Rights: Creating a Legal Framework

This webinar is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018 at 12 p.m. EST

Click here to register for the webinar

Webinar Summary

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 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. This webinar will discuss the relationship between people power movements and international human rights and how civil resistance campaigns can further strengthen human rights law.

Presenter

Elizabeth A. Wilson is visiting faculty at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey. She recently served as 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.

Relevant Reading

Elizabeth A Wilson’s ICNC Monograph People Power Movements and International Human Rights: Creating a Legal Framework

People Power Movements and International Human Rights: ICNC Monograph Launch

Please join us on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, from 4 to 5:15 p.m. EST for a public discussion on people power movements and international human rights. This event will coincide with the release of a new publication in the ICNC Monograph Series, People Power Movements and International Human Rights: Creating a Legal Framework. The event will take place at the Atlantic Council (1030 15th Street NW, 12th floor, Washington, DC 20005). Early evening refreshments will be served.

Click here to learn more and register