Nonviolence
NONVIOLENCE
424. Nonviolent Direct Action as a Spiritual Path (by Richard K. Taylor; 2013)
About the Author—Richard Taylor grew in Abington Friends Meeting (PA) and attended Quaker schools and colleges. Over the past 50 years, he led or participated in hundreds of nonviolent actions; he worked for 2 years on the national field staff of Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He and his wife Phyllis have worked in nonviolent movements to abolish torture, support civil and human rights, protect the environment, protest the Vietnam War, uproot anti-Semitism, and more. In these movements, he has attempted to be open to the guidance of Christ's spirit and call to express faith in a strong but loving action.
[Introduction]/ What Does Nonviolent Direct Action Mean—If asked to make a list of our spiritual practices, most Friends probably would mention prayer, meditation, meeting for worship or serving others. I would want to be sure that nonviolent direct action is on the list. For me direct action often has gone hand in hand with deep spiritual experience. We would do well not to overlook the richness, depth, power in such action when we are considering the many ways that God's Spirit enriches our lives.
"Nonviolent direct action" conveys different meanings to different people. [Equating it with] simply avoiding violence, conflict resolution, or peacemaking does not do justice to the full meaning of the term. Often it emerges in struggles for social change that are anything but free of conflict. When Mohandas Gandhi mounted his famous "Salt March," it was hardly an act of peacemaking or conflict resolution. When I think of nonviolent direct action, I think of the Salt March, and of Martin Luther King's attempt to walk over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL. Participants are engaging in nonviolent direct action when they stand together and use their unarmed bodies to act directly against injustice or oppression without using violence.
I include in "nonviolent direct action" Solidarity in Poland, Philippine nuns facing soldiers, Estonians facing the Soviets, American women marching for the right to vote. Quakers, of course, should be included in this history. Quakers like Reginald Reynolds, Jim Bristol, Bayard Rustin. Nonviolent action has been used by millions of people around the world in many cultures and historical eras [with remarkable results]. When I refer to nonviolent direct action I am thinking about an active, bold method of social change in which participants nonviolently put forward their unarmed bodies to resist injustice or oppression. Participation in nonviolent direct action is a path to a closer relationship with God. Will further reflection on such experiences be an important source of courage, guidance, and power as we seek to be faithful and in service to our crippled world?
Martin Luther King, Jr./ Marching for Voting Rights in Selma—Spirituality & nonviolent direct action intersected in a stunning way in Martin Luther King's life. [At one time he is] telling God he doesn't think he can go on as leader of the Montgomery movement & have his family face hate mail & threats. He writes: "I deter-mined to take my problem to God ... I prayed aloud: 'I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone.' At that moment, I experienced the Divine as never before. [An inner voice seemed to say], 'Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth. God will be at your side forever.' Almost at once my fears began to pass." Pervading the Montgomery bus boycott was the strength and inspiration that all the participants found in their com-mon church worship that preceded nearly every direct action.
Before the 2nd planned march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge I consulted 2 activist friends to discern whether I should go. We flew to Montgomery & were bussed to the little Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma. The singing, preaching & 1st-march testimonies added to everyone's determination & courage & increased our sense of community & purpose. A young, white Unitarian minister was beaten that night & died later. Ralph Abernathy said: "Let us pray for him ... & for his family, that they may be comforted & strengthened at this most difficult time. & let us pray for those who attacked him, that they might see [their error] & return to their full humanity."
Rarely have I felt God's Spirit so vividly, Still, it was frightening to think that, not far away, furious white segregationists were waiting with their clubs and axe handles, ready to do more beating. As we marched toward the bridge, I was committed, but also scared; my friend Jerry Rardin was "not particularly" sacred. I prayed for help, and my fear receded, at least a little. In spite of my fear, I was disappointed when King decided to end the march at the foot of the bridge. He felt we had made our point, with thousands of people there supporting voting rights for black people. He was reluctant to lead people where they might be badly hurt. Not long after the 3rd march that made it to Montgomery, the U.S. Congress passed the historic Voting Rights Act.
Courage—Others thought I had courage to go to Selma. I will quickly admit that I'm not always courageous. The anticipation of frightening, painful consequences might make me unable or unwilling to act on my beliefs & desire to be courageous. I have been courageous in the past. The roots of my courage comes from Quaker upbringing at Abington. We were told of early Friends & radical commitment to faith. We were frequently challenged whether we would have the courage to stand up for our beliefs. We saw that an important aspect of having courage was to have role models of people who showed courage in spite of intimidating circumstances. As I reflect on the sources of courage in my own life, I see 3 factors: admiration for others, which provided role models; opportunities to test courage; God's help in overcoming fear.
Abington Friends were eager to hear the firsthand stories of Quakers on "freedom rides" (with African Americans on segregated buses into the South). Ralph Rose wrote: "It was scary to pull into the bus stop to see ... incensed crowds of white segregationists ... I prayed really hard and felt the Spirit's peace descend on me. I stepped out of the bus, and a burly man hit me in the face ... He kept swinging [wildly] ... I'd had some training in boxing [and was mentally giving him pointers on how to punch better] ... I was amazed at how peaceful and loving I felt in the midst of his pummeling." Courage does not require fearlessness; it requires the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Under a Collapsed Barn/ Becoming a Conscientious Objector —[In college I volunteered after a wind storm to rescue livestock trapped in collapsed barns. A dairy farmer pulled a leaning barn wall off of his cows that nearly hit me]. I remember crawling into blackness under the beams & splintered flooring, past crushed & injured cows, to find [savable] cows, while the barn threatened to come down farther. The farmer & we students were able to pull away some of the wood, help some cows to their feet, & lead them outside. I said to myself, "Maybe I do have some courage." Gandhi described himself as being a coward for years. He was only able to shed his cowardice as he came to see nonviolence as a courageous way to struggle for justice.
I transferred to Haverford College during the Korean War. It meant having to decide whether to apply for conscientious objector (CO) status. I asked: "Is my pacifism a deep conviction against killing other human beings or a lack of courage to face combat?" I discerned that it really was conviction and not lack of courage. I also had a conviction that I must be willing to take risks comparable to battle risks to live out my own convictions. I chose to work with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Mexico and El Salvador. I encountered life-threatening situations that required courage.
Fighting Housing Discrimination/ Spiritual Experiences during Protests against the Vietnam War/ Quaker Peacekeepers—Phyllis and I supported African American couples who had purchased houses in all-white communities. Protesting neighbors rioted, defacing the houses. We moved in with them for a few days to support them and help clean up the damage. I have manifested courage, but I would hesitate to describe myself as a courageous person; it is not a permanent feature of my personality. Courage is a gift from God to the person who wants to be courageous; it doesn't guarantee that one will be brave in every turn of events.
After a big, Powerful, inspiring, nonviolent demonstration, most of the people who attended would get on their buses and go home. Often, small bands of angry people would stay behind and express their outrage against U.S. policy by smashing store windows and overturning cars. The press coverage would focus on the violence, and the peaceful message was lost or compromised. As we prayerfully tried to discern if we could be a peaceful presence in the chaos following a large antiwar demonstration, a young Friend said, "let's just march peacefully toward the White House and see how the Spirit guides us."
At a corner near the White House we were confronted by a tall, powerfully built policeman, who warned us he would teargas or club us. We sat down on the sidewalk in silent prayer with the cop standing over us, teargas drifting by, searchlights scanning, [rioters and police running]. In deep, deep silent worship God's "still small voice of calm" became present. Some Friends spoke, [feeling led to caution], others felt led to go forward. Some withdrew, others moved forward. We acknowledged the officer's difficult night and job and said, "We feel we've gotten God's guidance to keep going." After repeating his earlier warning, the officer stopped the traffic and allowed us to cross and circle the White House for the rest of the night. Several of the running figures actually joined us, [glad for the alternative to the violence they had planned].
Quakers played key peacekeeping roles in a march of 250,000 peace advocates. After marching toward the White House, the march was to turn a hard left on 15th Street. I was stationed at the corner with a dozen young priests, all of whom had nonviolence training. Behind us was a large police and soldier presence. [Most marchers routinely made the turn]. Soon, a group known for violent disruption came down Pennsylvania Avenue. The police were concerned and asked if we could handle it. I took 4 priests from our line and headed for the rogue marchers. I prayed "God, please help us." Immediately, a powerful, totally unexpected warmth flooded my body. By God, with some arm gestures and admiring comments from us, they made the turn.
Strength to be Hit by a Train—The Philadelphia Life Center turned its attention to the Earle Naval Ammunition Depot near Leonardo, NJ, which shipped ammunition to Vietnam. We planned to walk down the beach and climb boulders to the pier that was 20 feet off the ground. The pier was lined with police and deputized civilians with long billy clubs. Soon, we were a long line of peace activists standing on rocks, clinging onto the dock, and looking up at the barricade of bodies & billy clubs.
I glanced down the line and saw my beloved Phyllis resting her elbows on the dock in an attitude of prayer. I prayed, "God please help us," & felt peace, strength, & energy come over me. I saw that there was some space below the train's undercarriage between the tracks. I jumped up onto the tracks & knelt between the rails. I grabbed a chain hanging down on the front of the train. I was pushed over and dragged a few yards. They carried me to a police wagon, but I felt like I was floating weightlessly. At the trial, it seemed as though there was a sort of "path" of vibrating light between me and the judge. My words seemed to flow out effortlessly.
We were sentenced to 10 days in jail. Phyllis describes her spiritual experience in jail. "We refused to come out of our cells in protest of another inmate being punished and restricted to her cell ... I tried to see "that of God" in the officer on guard ... In a short while, she was sharing with me how important this job was to her, the 1st stable job she ever had ... We went from an "I-It" to an "I-thou" relationship ... I was an RN, and the officer came to me for help. We became allies rather than adversaries."
Blockading for Bangladesh—Not long after MLK's assassination, a group of us organized the Philadelphia Life Center. Seeing it as a way to carry on King's legacy, we also looked for opportunities to engage in direct action. Nixon was secretly sending military equipment by freighter to the dictator of Pakistan, who used it to kill 3,000,000 East Pakistanis and turn a million more into refugees. We hit on the idea of the publicity of using kayaks and canoes to "blockade" Pakistani freighters. [This led to long nights with little sleep, that left exhaustion in their wake]. I would pray "God help me." Instantly, my exhaustion fell away and I was given energy.
We were warned off by a police cutter. We yelled back that freighter was a death ship and we were trying to prevent the deaths of 10's of thousands of Bangladeshis. I guess all of us were ready to take big risks or die to stop the slaughter. Suddenly I "saw" the shimmering face of Jesus Christ, hovering over the water. As expected, we could not block the Padma, but the dramatic sociodrama caught the media's attention. The story literally went around the world. We have been assured that what we did in Baltimore harbor was an important factor in the cutting of US military aid and helping Bangladesh. For me it was also what Jesus did.
What I Owe to Christ—If I am to express honestly and in depth what is to me the spirituality of nonviolent direct action, I need to write about my belief in Jesus. Not all Friends will be comfortable with what I am about to say. Many unprogrammed Friends may ask: "But what about other religions?" What I am writing about the spirituality of nonviolent direct action wouldn't be complete without talking about what I owe to Christ.
In Abington Friends Meeting, I heard about George Fox and a religion of continuing revelation, personal experience, and direct communion with God. This religion of direct experience sounded very appealing to me. I wondered why Friends move so quickly from "Christ language" to "God language." What [I took in more of] was Jesus' ethical teachings, especially those picked up in Quaker testimonies: peace, equality, simplicity, integrity. I stood my ground as a "liberal" Quaker who saw Jesus as a wonderful teacher, but certainly not as divine. Evangelical Friends of the Midwest and West made a deep impression on me.
Moving Closer to Christ—To East Coast Christo-centric Quakers, Christ was God. Just as importantly, he was directly accessible in their daily lives. I was inspired to read Lewis Benson's Christ-centered interpretation of early Quakerism, and Albert Fowler's PHP #112 Two Trends in Modern Quaker Thought. I discovered that, for me at least, the New Testament makes so many extraordinary claims about Jesus' uniqueness and divinity that it was impossible to give it a "humanistic" interpretation.
I recognized within me a deep hole, laced with anxiety, regrets, temptations & "demons." Driving my search was my intellect & hope for finding the "rest" that Jesus promised. I had a growing love for Jesus; he seemed the most loving & lovable person imaginable. For Brian Boyle Jesus "was the distilled essence of the unimaginable Force that created all that is." Imagine! We have that "distilled essence" within us! When I was at last able to confess that "Jesus is lord," I began to glimpse the reality of what Thomas Kelly wrote: "Here is the Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form & action. & He is within us all."
Jesus' Presence in Nonviolent Direct Action—Given who he was, how he acted, and what he taught while on earth, it should not be surprising that we find him by our side when we engage in nonviolent direct action. I am only describing my own experience of God through Christ in nonviolent direct action, and am not saying that Christ is a prerequisite for experiencing God in nonviolent action. God may or may not enter into the calculations of people around the world considering nonviolent action. What attitudes of mind and spirit might we keep in mind if we want to draw on our spirituality while engaging in nonviolent action?
We need to discern whether or not to take part. Do I agree with the action's goals? What will be my choice's impact on family, friends & associates? How will I maintain an attitude of goodwill toward opponents I may meet, especially hostile or aggressive ones? In Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius of Loyola suggests making 2 columns on a piece of paper with the headings: "Why this is a good decision" & "Why this is a bad decision?" Write down reasons in both columns. If one column brings disquiet to your spirit & the other brings peace, follow God's leading in the peace-filled choice. Imagine yourself making a decision. Does one decision make you feel closer to God than the other? What account of this decision would you want to tell to God?
I have felt the God of love respond to "Help me" by removing my fear and gracing me with peace, patience, love, and what the moment demands. We can be talking to God before, during and after the action. Expect God to be present in nonviolent direct action. Why would God not want to be present in the midst of people seeking justice through love? Isaiah celebrates this in Isaiah 58:8-9. God has said more than once to me, sometimes softly, sometimes unmistakably, "Here I am."
Queries: What in your spiritual practices do you find most meaningful? What has your non-violent direct action experience been like? Has prayer given you strength & courage in a situation? Who are people in my life that modeled courage? If I am unwilling to face battle, must I then be willing to take similar risks to live out my convictions? How do you make difficult decisions in your life?
129. Nonviolent action: How it works (by George Lakey; 1963)
About the Author—George Lakey (1938- ) is director of Training for Change & trains activists at the Martin Luther King School for Social Change. He has helped lead several social change movements. He founded Philadelphia Jobs with Peace Campaign, a coalition of labor, civil rights, poverty & peace groups. He directed Quaker Action Group assisting Puerto Rican nationalists. George Lakey has written 6 books, including Grass-roots & Nonprofit Leadership Guide (1996) & Manual for Direct Action (1965). This pamphlet's task is to dis-cover the "how" of nonviolent action, be it "power of God,” or "power of love”; either answer leads to more questions. We aren't content with a nonviolent action "philosophy."
I—[Jesus before Pilate; Quakers facing Puritans in Boston; the French responding to Bismarck’s demands; & civil rights sit-ins are all successful cases of non-violent action. Evidently, non-violent action has some kind of power, even when the action isn't spectacular. This pamphlets task is to discover the how of non-violent action.
II & III—[In looking at the opponents in a campaign, we find that] the opponents react in various ways. Sometimes they change their minds completely; [sometimes they still disagree and yet bow to the campaigners’ demands. In the 5th century B.C. Rome, [when the peasant class was] nearly crushed by debt and imprisonment, they camped on Mons Sacra, and would not return until they were given a share in government and common lands; the patricians had to concede. This [will be called] the coercion mechanism.
In Brazil around 1650, an expedition entered the Chavantes Indians’ territory; it was massacred. In 1910 Colonel Candedo Rondon [ran the Indian Protective Service; he forbade any use of firearms. The first 26 men sent to establish friendly contact were massacred; the 2nd expedition was unmolested. The Chavantes eventually cooperated with maintaining a telegraph system in their territory. This mechanism we will call conversion.
IV—[Sometimes the campaigners achieve their aims, even though their opponents still disagree and could continue to oppose, but choose not to]. During the Salt Satyagraha of 1930-31, some Englishmen felt that the Empire was not worth treating the Gandhians the way the police were forced to treat them. [In the American suffrage movement, public sentiment went from impartial or slight antagonistic, to offense at the lack of patriotism, to sympathy for the harsh prison sentences and conditions that the women endured]. Finally the issue of suffering became stronger than that of suffrage. The women were using the mechanism called persuasion.
V &VI—It now appears that there are coercion, conversion, & persuasion mechanisms. [But, why has the opponent] changed his mind? All men, no matter how debased they seem, treat their own group members well. In history we see that violent persons don't regard their opponents as fully human. E. Franklin Frazier notes that: “where human relationships were established between masters & slaves, both slaves & masters were less likely to engage in barbaric cruelty. It is easy to be violent against those who are seen as inhuman or non-human.
VII & VIII—The Puritans believed that Quakers [were irreverent & that they were] plotting to burn Boston & kill the inhabitants. [Mary Fisher, Ann Austin, Elizabeth Hooton, William Leddra, Wenlock Christison, Edward Wharton, Hored Gardener, Catherine Scott & 8 others were banished from Boston; several returned to Boston after they were banished. Some were whipped instead of being hanged. Mary Dyer & William Leddra were 2 of the 4 Quakers hanged in Boston]. The public didn't go unaffected by all this, & eventually Governor Endicott became alarmed at the people’s attitude. Quakers were regularly meeting undisturbed in Boston by 1675. Through their suffering the Quakers brought the Puritans to perceive their common humanity, & the Puritans reduced their persecutions.
IX & X—How can your theory [of identification by suffering] account for [the extermination of 6 million Jews]? In non-violent action the figure—[the outstanding quality] is suffering; the ground—[context] is the actions of the campaigners which precede and accompany the suffering. The campaigners show bravery, openness, and goodwill. The suffering of the Jews was not voluntary; it built up gradually, and the ground com-posed of their action (and inaction) caused their suffering to be seen as non-human. Suffering so perceived does not have the power to “melt the heart of the evil-doers.”
Identification by suffering in a context of goodwill, openness, and bravery, is the process which persuades and converts. [A change in attitude is necessary to go beyond persuasion to conversion]. People change attitudes most often when criticism of their attitude does not imply criticism of them. In the Gandhi-led South African Satyagraha, Gandhi called off the campaign until a railroad strike was settled; campaigners must show patience.
XI & XII—[Here are 8 policy implications which derive from the theory]:
1. Nonviolent action works on such a fundamental level that cultural differences count for little.
2. What it takes to get through to people will vary, depending on the campaigner’s ability to be recognized as a human being.
3. [When local people are not with us, we must establish new bonds of identification with the persons we are trying to reach, perhaps by self-suffering].
4. A decision should be made before the campaign begins regarding the mechanisms used. [In some situations coercion is not possible, because there is no dependency between opponent and campaigner. This leaves persuasion and conversion; some opponents are persuaded, some are converted].
5. Sitting down on the pavement, paying your fine, and going home is not usually considered suffering.
6. If image is important then quality of participants is more important than quantity.
7. Just appearing to be non-violent isn’t enough; drawing on inner strength to be non-violent is needed.
8. Does the campaign have the staying power to get through the antagonism [necessary for relevance] to the sympathy which lies on the other side?
The problem of “how to combat evil without acting like a devil” will be with us until we better understand how to mobilize the forces of God, within ourselves and within those who differ with us.
About the Author—Professor of Philosophy at Adrian College, Phillips P. Moulton’s teaching centers around “Great Books” & great men, including Socrates, Jesus, Pascal, & Thoreau; he has a special interest in John Woolman. [This led him to spend] a year editing Journal & Major Essays of John Woolman, the aim of which was to reproduce [faithfully] Woolman’s final manuscripts. He now teaches a seminar on Violence & Nonviolence.
Causes of Violence—The assassinations, riots and other forms of bloodshed of the late 1960’s have increased the anxiety of all Americans. Pervasive and intense violence is nothing novel in America. By a violent revolution we became an independent nation. Major social [and political] issues precipitated the savage Civil War. We became engulfed in 2 world wars. A realistic appraisal of contemporary civilization must take account of covert or systemic violence woven into the very fabric of society. [African natives are often] impoverished by controlling the means of production, which is supported by the physical violence of police.
What are the chief causes of violence, the extent & nature of which are so appalling? Largely covert or implicit, it becomes overt or explicit when the power of the rules is threatened. The violence of the oppressed is more complex; its chief underlying cause is frustration. Acute discontent depends on a sense of moral outrage. A significant number of religious leaders & theologians who didn't previously do so have come to sanction violence. The tendency today is to deny its applicability to international war but to apply it to revolutionary struggles. During 2 previous periods of US history [Civil War and the Depression], even sincere pacifists have been tempted to justify violence. When other methods seem ineffectual in achieving justice, the pacifist may waver.
Benefits/Evils of Violence—To some extent violence may achieve the aims, at least as a means of communication, [if not a spur to action & reform]. Violence sometimes gains its immediate end. Witness the American Revolution. When systemic violence [turns people into things,] reacting violently can have a purifying effect & a psychological release through purging themselves of fear and giving vent to repressed rage. In saying “No” to the oppressor he affirms his dignity as a person with free choice. He is saying “Yes” to his essential being.
An assessment of [violence as a] whole indicates harm far outweighs good. Whichever side wins [through violence], many characteristics of a police state are likely to emerge. Any “law & order” achieved is by totalitarianism. Reason becomes a casualty; fear & hostility gain the ascendancy; privilege & identity are threatened. Internationally, lack of control & irrationality of violence are especially evident. Nearly any local war could lead to a major nuclear holocaust. Alternative methods of handling international problems must be adopted.
Violence’s most pernicious evil is that it sets a precedent & example which far outweigh the good it may accomplish. The US Revolution was one of the most tragic catastrophes of human history. A great deal of ruthless torture & slaughter was practiced in liberty's name. It is used to sanction almost every type of violence. [Other countries, beginning with the French Revolution,] cite the American Revolution for justification. Precedent & example cause violence to become acclimated into our mores. This leads to the objection that violence is morally wrong. Many don't take such a stand. They contend that one must do the lesser of 2 evils. If there were a course of action as likely to achieve the goal, which would be good or significantly less evil, it should be pursued.
Violence Acquired, Not Instinctive/Removing Causes/Effective Alternatives to Violence—The evidence is reasonably clear that basically man’s tendency to violence is learned rather than instinctive. Pititim Sorokin in The Ways of Power and Love, stressed the significance of love and cooperation in the evolution of man. Numerous research studies indicate that pre-human primates were basically amiable and that at least some human societies value gentleness and peace more than violence. It is not instinctive, but emerges during socialization and is thus largely a cultural attribute; it is learned not innate. Man has a capacity for violence, but he also has a capacity for friendliness. We can learn to be more cooperative and constructive.
Strife can be diminished by removing its causes to the greatest possible extent. This should be obvious. Yet it is not being adequately accomplished. William James in “The Moral Equivalent of War,” accepted the martial virtues as good, but contended that they could be developed and employed in constructive projects. Effective violence proceeds from a carefully worked out program, which limits the violence. If the same energies and resources were used to support peaceful means, they would be at least equally effective.
In England in 1660, riots were triggered by poverty & labor conditions. [The more force that was used to quell the unrest had the opposite effect] & increased it. Then from about 1790 to 1851 the violence gradually diminished. The 1st factor responsible for transmuting the tradition of violent behavior in England was economic growth. Labor unions were recognized & women and children were protected from exploitation. [By the time of the WWI era], well-established patterns of responsible behaviors enabled employers and workers to effect viable compromises. In the past 40 years in the US a similar process has taken place, as violence in labor disputes has been drastically reduced through appropriate legislation and the National Labor Relations Board. Andre Philip notes that the UN has structures for keeping the peace and for conciliation, but not “for the peaceful change of existing conditions.” An international body should develop a world policy of peaceful economic change.
Man certainly has the talents and resources adequate to reduce drastically the frustrations which generate violence. A very effective nonviolent approach was that of John Woolman, [who worked against the evils of slavery]. His method was primarily one of face-to-face persuasion. His methods alone would not be adequate in the far more complex world of the late 20th century.
Aggressive Nonviolent Resistance/Its Ethical Basis—This is a genuine alternative which hasn’t been considered or used enough; it entails resistance rather than submission. It avoids deliberate destruction of life or property but actively opposes evil. It is revolutionary, but uses nonviolent techniques. Nonviolent action involves careful, disciplined preparation, planning & organization. [Some techniques are]: persuasion; protests; demonstrations; strikes; boycotts; sit-ins. The line between violent & nonviolent action can’t always be sharply drawn.
Most leaders of such a movement believe it must be grounded in a sound philosophy, including faith in the ultimate morality of the universe. Martin Luther King emphasized that the means represents the end in process. Man has the unconditional obligation to do what is right and to refrain from doing what is wrong. Advocates of nonviolence conceive nonviolent resistance to be in accord with such an imperative. Marcus Aurelius (121-180 A.D.) says that nothing can keep us from being “just, great-hearted, chaste, wise, steadfast, truthful, self-respecting, and free.” The real harm that can beset a man is corruption of mind or soul.
Nonviolent resistance doesn’t allow passive acquiescence to exploitation or domination. Advocates of non-violent resistance recognize it won’t always attain its goals, & may, in fact, preclude such attainment. In the final analysis one must be willing to suffer. The goal of every campaign must be the realization of truth. Another conviction of nonviolent resistance advocates is human life & personality are sacred. Simone Weil says that force “turns anybody who is subjected to it into a thing." [That is true of [victim &] agent of violence.
[Any] energizing effect of violence is achieved by the taking of positive action for a definite goal. Vigorous nonviolent action should be just as liberating. Nonviolent direct action proponents share further conviction that humankind is essentially one. Humankind’s unity is a corollary of the Quaker belief in “that of God in every man.” Gandhi & Martin Luther King believed that we are meant to love our fellows. Love is viewed as a dynamic force. When one makes a decision on ethical ground to reject violence, added insight, power & creativity are gained for the employment of appropriate methods. Gandhi said, “I have no ready made plan; it must be purely nonviolent … More will be revealed to me from day to day, as all my plans have always been.”
Its Practical Effectiveness—Nonviolent resistance depends basically upon what might be called ethical power—the sense of being in the right in reference to goals and in the use of means. [Potential supporters are not repelled by violence, and are free to focus on the justice of the cause. [A nonviolent movement has more reasoned and reasonable goals]. The goals of violent moments are prone to reflect emotional factors. Hence they are less likely to be well-defined or subject to judicious modification. Nonviolence clarifies the moral distinction between the oppressor using violence, and the victim, who is not.
The refusal to use violence constitutes an appeal to the conscience of the oppressor, who is more likely to confront his own practice and see its invalidity. The acceptance of the idea depends partly upon prevailing currents of thought, which may shift rather quickly. A favorable factor is that people generally prefer peaceful means. During the mass civil disobedience campaigns of India, participants with little advance preparation remained nonviolent throughout, [even supposedly] “cruel, bloodthirsty, and vindictive” Pathans on the Northwest Frontier despite “wholesale shootings and hangings” by British troops.
The peasants in the Bardoli region sought to force the government to launch an impartial enquiry into the recently enacted raise in taxes which the peasants considered excessive. Acts of protest during a 6 month period were met by attachment of property, arrest, police brutality, false propaganda and threats; the peasants reacted without violence. The enquiry was made, the tax raises were rescinded, and closer cooperation was effected be-tween Hindus and Muslims. Bardoli became a sign and a symbol of hope and strength and victory to the Indian peasant.” Other campaigns opened prohibited roadways to untouchables, secured pay increases for textile workers, and numerous changes in the short and long-term.
A false impression is current that aggressive nonviolent resistance has been tried & found wanting. To be sure, methods other than violence, including: passive submission; attempts at persuasion; negotiation; protests unrelated to a larger plan; & simple appeals to conscience have been ineffectual sometimes. In effecting internal reforms, the nonviolent (satyagraha) campaign led by Gandhi & others produced results not previously considered possible either by its opponents or detached observers. [In civil rights] a great deal was accomplished in a comparatively short time, particularly in regard to education, public facilities, & extending the franchise.
A sufficient background of experience is lacking by which to evaluate definitively the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance against a foreign aggressor. Exactly the same methods could not be expected to succeed under all circumstances. Yet many methods are consistent with the philosophy of nonviolence. It may be assumed that with greater commitment and training nonviolent means would be even more effective. Studies on nonviolent resistance were done by Bondurant, Gregg, and Miller. Specific methods of defending nations were written by AFSC, Kinghall, Roberts, and Seifert. One must conclude not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been surprisingly successful [the few times it has been] tried.
A movement or a nation relying on such methods would involve risks, dangers, & possible suffering. In terms of producing favorable & lasting results, nonviolent action holds greater promise. [Failure of a] nonviolent campaign [leaves] the situation not much worse than it was. Violence usually begets further violence. Failure of a nonviolent campaign defending the nation would be more serious, possibly involving occupation. We would still exist & improvement in the situation would be possible. Violent defense of a nation, [with its probable nuclear response] would inflict the suffering & death of millions, and we would suffer and die in like fashion.
One must consider the number of nations which will eventually have the atom bomb, the emotions of national leaders, the dangers of accidental war, the “1st strike” temptation. We must use all available resources to achieve constructive solutions to our social problems and [respond to conflict] with aggressive nonviolent resistance. A large scale program of research and planning to examine genuine alternatives to military defense is urgently needed. [Planning for nonviolent national defense would bring new insight and release energies here and abroad which could radically improve our national life and relieve the whole world situation].
About the Author—Richard B. Gregg was a lawyer for 3 years before working with trade unions. He did arbitration for the railroad workers’ union after WWI. Laid off in the 1920's, he learned of the work of Mohandas Gandhi, journeyed through India 4 years, & studied nonviolence. He wrote The Economics of Khaddar, The Power of Nonviolence (1934), PHP #3. The Value of Voluntary Simplicity; (1936) & #5. Pacifist Program: In Time of War; Threatened War; or Fascism; (1939). He described nonviolence as a way of changing the world's character. In 1935-36, he served as Pendle Hill's acting director. His work was used by civil rights & social activists.
[The Secret of the Military Method's Power]—The world still has immense respect for the military method's show of firmness & order. What is the secret of the military method’s power? Nowhere is discipline, individual subordination to the general welfare so effectively achieved as in military organization. The power lies in the quality of their habits & their modes of habit formation. If morality is so important in settlement of great conflicts, can we achieve [with nonviolence] a discipline more moral & potent than war's morality?
George Russell and Captain Liddell Hart respectively, doubt the the practicality and the nation's ability to maintain nonviolent discipline. [I maintain] that nonviolent as well as military training requires physical drills and discipline; such training can be obtained through manual work. The program will have economic implications, but it is offered primarily as a physical discipline for nonviolence. The believer in nonviolence uses this discipline even though he acknowledges the quantity of production will be thereby curtailed.
In military training at its best, drilling & other disciplinary activities create instant obedience, self-respect, self-confidence, self-control, self-sacrifice, loyalty, & unity. There is pride in their position as protectors. It is now realized that pacific resistance can't be successful or make effective moral appeals if it is only passive; there is need for deeds. It must be action which works toward winning settlement & achieving enduring order, security, freedom & moral equality, to produce mutual respect, friendliness, & peace. Without exertion pacifism seems & feels too negative. Because of lack of action there are many distinguished former pacifists.
Psychological Reasons for Physical Action—Most people learn by physical action; verbal explanation isn't enough. Habits grow from repetitious actions. I propose the nonviolent resister do manual work that: produces something good for the community, & for the poor & unemployed; is possible for the poor & unemployed to do for self-help & self-respect. This work is useful & brotherly; it furnishes discipline for non-violence.
The hand distinguishes man from beast & enables him to use tools. All through human evolution, the hand & using tools have greatly stimulated & influenced one's mind's development. Prolonged, habitual tool use subtly but powerfully organizes thoughts, emotions, & sentiments, giving a sense of power in dealing with our environment. Frequent repetition, gives faith, self-confidence, imaginative power, dignity, & self-respect. In sanitoriums' occupational therapy, interest & self-respect are enhanced by using articles made by one's own hands.
Initial Doubts—Why aren't farmers & city manual workers ready to use nonviolent resistance? Most individuals are capable of it, as is seen in the mostly non-violent character of industrial strikes. When non-violent leadership is present, manual workers show wonderful self-restraint. Those workers aren't prepared to make prolonged mass nonviolent resistance. There is lack of political skill & of unity with the middle-class. Most don't understand or believe in nonviolence's power. It is helpful for individuals & when practiced on a large scale as part of a [solid] plan with understanding of nonviolent reform, then it becomes an effective group discipline.
[Understanding is key]. One skilled at drawing could copy a diagram. Without understanding the theory behind the diagram, it would produce no effect on one's mind. If one copied & understood it, one might be excited over its applications. Understanding that pencil work may alter one's whole life. Individualistic & unintegrated hand work can't act as discipline for steady nonviolence. Another reason why manual workers aren't disciplined for mass nonviolence is competition in industry, commerce, & agriculture. Competition on a large scale, under modern conditions, amounts to economic warfare, which negates nonviolence. For successful struggle of nonviolent constructive effort, drilling, discipline of hand work, organization & raw material is needed.
The Effects of Manual Work and Military Training—Surprisingly, the same valuable benefits derived from military training are developed by habitual, understood hand work. In nonviolent action, the primary OBEDIENCE will be to one's conscience & ideals, aided by careful thinking & meditation. It helps to have an appreciation of how these principles operate on people's minds & hearts. SELF-RESPECT comes from realizing that one is being industrious & manually competent. SELF-RELIANCE is more needed by the gentle [& some-times out-of-work] resister than the soldier, for work often takes place away from any support. Devoting an hour or more a day to hand work may seem like SELF-SACRIFICE. Sacrifice isn't just giving up something. It is giving up a lesser good in order to secure a greater good. The steady, daily practice of hand work develops TENACITY, through having a clear pattern of feasible action, & ways of inducing action in a particular direction.
The Effects of Manual Work and Military Training: Sense of Unity with Others—One who conscientiously and intelligently works with one's hands daily in a widespread organization will develop a sense of unity. That unity is peculiarly strong if the work is manual, because of the close connection between hand, mind, and self-awareness. [The connecting of the cerebrum (thinking center) to the cerebellum (action center) by many nerve fibers] is evidence of the close connection between mind and physical action. The different kinds of brain imagery include: visual; auditory; muscular movement; sense of touch; and joint motion. The imagery of great numbers of inexpressive people and those of limited education are the last 3 kinds of brain imagery. Any great new step forward in the integration of human minds, such as group nonviolent resistance, will wisely be associated with manual work. This association will give such a movement a deep, firm, bodily basis.
The hand worker will learn about the activities of other hand workers & will appreciate them as persons, members of a social group with common purpose; the bond between farm workers & city hand workers would be strengthened. We must work with people & for them; giving money isn't enough. If diverse people take part in manual labor, it will be a democratic experience. It can unite all kinds of people, communities, & the nation.
I'm not suggesting the formation of separate, self-sufficing, small communities for doing such work. Such a community would consist of over 100 people & need enough expensive farmland to feed them all. It may be better to have believers in non-violence living in the general community, acting as ferments for these ideas. Manual work in small groups & individually will bring cohesion, significance & power to their efforts; part of the significance would be economic. The effect on society would be greater than that from separate communities.
Sense of Order and Cooperation/ Protection of Community/ Energy—Under such conditions of group work, & with the growth in moral factors, there comes increase in happiness & satisfaction & solid group morale. As one sees one's articles used more widely, these realizations gain momentum, impressiveness, enthusiasm, & power. This will make it easier to endure hardship for their cause. The experience of joint work, material & intangible products, & feeling useful creates a sense of order & cooperation. Creating awareness of order & personal usefulness by manual work in a large organization has vast importance for the nation's freedom.
The cumulative effect of little efforts & products would be the closing of chasms between [all sorts of different social, economic, & educational groups]. Hand workers would see that they are creators of property & or-der, protectors & builders of their own state. [Some sure creators] of human energy are hope, faith, conviction, enthusiasm, good will. [Brought together in a large organization], it will create widespread happiness & release immense energy. With an increase in numbers the momentum and power increases in almost geometrical ratio.
Courage/ Equanimity and Moral Strength—How can a quiet, humdrum activity develop courage? Courage has several strands: single-minded devotion; sense of unity; moral & physical energy; inner integration; power to endure. Whatever gives a sense of control over exterior forces of any sort promotes courage. Handwork is a manipulative skill which removes economic danger for individuals & the nation. Hand work & the use of its product promotes simplicity; they reduce one's possessions & thus one's economic fears. Making & using hand work increases personal consistency, so our inner conflicts are reduced, our poise is enhanced, & our courage is increased. Allied with single-minded interest is love; all love gives courage. Love rises above the plane of friend/ enemy separation & conflict & asserts the unity of the 2 parties. Where a nation has built up a vast store of good will, it can afford to take social, economics & political risks that a nation poor in that respect can't take.
The winning of equanimity and moral strength is a problem of an inner organizing of sentiments and thoughts, mobilizing energy, and attaining a unifying ultimate spirit. Each person is a center of physical, emotional, intellectual, moral, and spiritual energy. Each of us grew up with frustrations and some humiliations, which blocked the energy of hope and desire when a plan failed. Continued blockage caused resentment and bitterness. Some of that blocked energy has been expressed; much of it still lies within us like a coiled-up watch-spring, even from our distant childhood, waiting for some trivial occasion to trigger an explosion.
War and riot provide a means of venting accumulated resentments. We generally have the self-control to handle the new frustrations and humiliations. It is that huge reservoir of long-suppressed resentments which is so unmanageable and catches us off guard. The nature of manual work and its organization makes draining off that energy by means of manual activities peculiarly effective and complete. Anger among pacific resisters is the equivalent of cowardice among soldiers. Whatever reduces the tendency to anger promotes success in a non-violent struggle. Some bitter former British soldiers secured little plots of land, raised crops, and kept animals. Physical work, creating something, and partly supporting themselves gradually eased their bitterness and anger, restored their self-respect, and gave them happiness. Wholehearted enlistment in a hand work program would increase positive feelings and make maintaining complete nonviolence easier.
Practice in Handling Moral "Weapons/ Patience & Humility—[In a nonviolent approach to struggle], the nonviolent party must win the respect of its opponent by practicing unity, firmness of will, courage, competence, endurance, & strength. A hand work program powerfully demonstrates at least some of these persuasions. Nonviolent resisters may do shovel-work, sanitary field work, & malaria prevention. The struggle to rid the world of organized violence will be the mightiest task humankind has undertaken. The discipline must be exceptionally thorough. They need an understanding of and firm belief in the power of non-violence and faith in the ultimate possibilities of human nature. A true craftsman's selfless fidelity to work is an important form of humility, and by infection promotes other forms of humility.
Love of Truth/ Faith in Human Nature/ Satisfactions/ Relief from Moral Strain—Prolonged work with tools and physical material creates in the worker directness, respect for accuracy, candor, honesty, and sincerity, all elements in love of truth. In doing manual work with other people we learn their moral quality; we usually respect them more and have more faith in human nature. One is more normal and others around one are happier if one has an outlet via manual work for one's desire and instinct for mastering something or someone. Such work could be seen as character-building, and should interest educators and community leaders.
A new program, if it is to be widely adopted for any length of time, must provide immediate and real satisfactions and future satisfaction. 6 bodily senses are given exercise and experience by manual work: sight, touch, hearing, balance, muscular sensation, joint motion. Hand work provides more room for initiative, creation, co-operation, variety, freedom, sociability, self-respect, and dignity than machine work.
[The deeper the understanding] of the work's wider meaning, the more intellectual, emotional, & esthetic satisfactions arise. The habitual daily practice of manual activities provide stimulus & response that promotes the whole person's growth. The nature of manual work is rhythmic, slow, patient, soothing, routine, & undramatic, affording a contrast to the image of pacifism always staying on moral tiptoe. It is creative of useful & sometimes beautiful things. After a strenuous moral effort, the gentle resister may retire to an artistic & re-creative activity.
The Best Manual Discipline and Reasons for its Superiority—The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Work Camps, international Quaker's and Pierre Cérésole's Service's International Relief and Re-construction work in Europe are examples of work beneficial to the poor and unemployed of the community. The list of health services, building projects, agricultural tasks, and small-scale industries worked on is long.
If one kind of work could be found that provides discipline and can be universally practiced, it would be especially valuable. It would need to provide one of the needs of food, shelter or clothing. Food can be raised only by those with land. Building shelter requires many skills and much expensive material and is mostly heavy work. For clothing, once the raw fibers can be obtained, yarn and thread can be made by spinning, and many articles of clothing by knitting, crocheting, weaving and sewing. [Beginning with raw fibers and creating a supply of thread and yarn would avoid being cut off from factory-made materials during a non-violent struggle].
The product of hand-textile work is standard necessity. It is: transportable, saleable, universally useful, can be combined into a final unit product, and be produced without a large organization. The hand tools of textile-making are inexpensive, small, and transportable. Anyone can do it, anywhere, anytime, in groups of any size. It provides a change and a practical rest. For these reasons the making of yarn and cloth by hand is the best manual work for creating a universal physical disciplinary activity for nonviolence.
Overcoming a Prejudice/ Associated Training Activities/ Superiority Over Military Discipline—Because the household manufacture of textile materials and clothing has for ages been mostly a women's occupation, many men will shy away from it, fearing to appear effeminate and undignified. Courage is not an exclusively male virtue or linked with superior size. The finished product by hand will usually be as cheap financially and perhaps cheaper than mill-made product when the high cost of distribution is factored in.
Pacific resisters should meet together not only for work, but also for study, discussion, singing, folk-dancing, reading nonviolence history, meditation, & social service in order to develop moral & spiritual resources. To be effective we must have all levels of our being employed & working together; there must be a discipline of body, emotion, mind & spirit. Discussion is important in understanding nonviolence & how manual work plays its part therein. This broad program of disciplinary activities would provide a rich sensory content as well as strong & varied intellectual, emotional, social, esthetic, moral & religious satisfactions. Such 4-fold disciplined wouldn't only make strong nonviolent resisters but also the basis for a better civilization and a nonviolent world.
These activities engage a wider range of human faculties and potentialities reach deeper and higher and are more consistent than are military exercises and discipline. The military asks for too narrow a range of loyalty and unity. Its discipline severely limits men's initiative and freedom. It calls on one's courage and plays on one's fear of punishment. Believers in nonviolence must subject themselves to some sort of thorough discipline.
In modern war, the expensive weapons, indiscriminate attacks, extent of destruction, distortion of truth, & resulting totalitarianism make a better peace impossible. Military discipline excludes the unity with the opponent essential to an enduring peace. Because the nonviolent discipline wouldn't interfere with ordinary civilian life & would provide real satisfactions, such training could be embraced without harm or difficulty by an entire nation.
[Conclusion]—If pacifism is ever to become a mass, national movement, it must have a common discipline best found in the realm of manual work. Pierre Cérésole proposed every State should have a nonviolent standing army of good will to help with work in reconstruction, or help with disease, poverty, physical hardship, or lack of education inside the nation and beyond it. The national expenses for such an army & such work would be vastly less than those for present armed forces; taxes would be far less. National egoism would decrease, mutual trust and good will develop between both classes and nations; it would be a permanent conquest by kindness. In Cérésole's Service International and Quakers' AFSC there has been for several years the nucleus of such an army of good will functioning. In all conflicts there are moral and physical factors. For nonviolent resistance the required physical element of discipline is manual labor and the direct social use of its products.
About the Author—Cecil Hinshaw graduated from Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, attended Illiff School of Theology; he did graduate work at Denver & Harvard Universities. He was president of William Penn College for 5 years. He lectures for American Friends Service Committee and the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
[Introduction]—2 contrasting truths dominate our human scene [in this century]: the perhaps record amount of generosity, kindliness, & sympathy expressed, contrasted with unprecedented cruelty & barbarity. No responsible person can dodge the necessity of dealing with the evil one meets; one must do it knowing that God works with one through the eternal forces of goodness. Our 1st responsibility is to deal with the evil in ourselves. The tyranny couldn't fasten itself upon a nation and be maintained were it not mixed with much good.
Answers to Tyranny/Irony of War/Balance of Terror—[2 trends are observed in responding to tyranny: pure evil to be eliminated by any means; mix of good & evil, best left alone for the good to eventually triumph]. Both of these answers are wrong. Underneath all of the questionable motives that support national defense efforts, there remains an inescapable responsibility. [History teaches us] the hard fact that there have been times of terrible, unjustified aggression. The moral necessity of national defense is therefore almost an axiom.
There are very few responsible leaders who believe that successful military defense in an atomic war is possible. [Anyone attempting to prove otherwise] is assuming a terrifying burden of proof. Any [sweeping] change in thought and [method] can only come slowly in society. People will continue to rationalize an old error until a positive and hopeful alternative can be found.
The only real hope left to most people today is the gamble that the threat of terror through massive retaliation will prevent the coming of total war. An uneasy peace can be preserved by a balance of terror while we wait for positive changes in Communist countries. But atomic war may come even though neither side intends for it to happen. [Even] atomic experiments may exact a terrible price from the world. There certainly comes a point beyond which we do not have the right to gamble the lives and sanity of future generations.
The Limitation of Limited Warfare—If the wars of the future can be sharply limited, America faces a strategic problem of immense proportions. Conventional warfare requires tremendous manpower. For all practical purposes America will have to fight such wars alone in the future. The logical consequences of trying to fight such wars with conventional weapons thousands of miles from home, handicapped by logistics across vast distances [and tough guerilla fighters] is to bleed America of its strength.
We can understand why military officials wish to use atomic weapons in such a war. If the enemy did not counter with similar weapons, we might secure military victory, but there seems no particular reason why the enemy could not use such weapons in return. If we were to be the 1st to use atomic weapons, we could lose very heavily in prestige and support, and alienate large numbers of Asian peoples. We have not really considered the moral position we would be in if we should use atomic weapons only to find that an “immoral” enemy capable of using them refused on moral grounds to retaliate with them.
The temptation of the losing side will be very strong to use ever more destructive weapons. Underlying all of these problems is the haunting specter of the condemnation of our own consciences as well as the moral judgment of the world if we dare to begin an atomic conflict. Is the destruction of the enemy in retaliation, justified by any standard of morals and principles we have valued and taught?
Losing Friends and Alienating People—The Communists have inflamed old sores scarcely healed over from the wounds of imperialism; it will keep the US in the minds of millions as the successor to the imperialism they learned to hate in the days of white man domination. The Communists will also use the promise of practical aid in the vast projects and plans to which so many governments now look for relief from the crushing burdens of poverty. Both Russia and China are industrializing rather successfully without any considerable outside help; ] the new countries want to do the same as much as possible].
The really dangerous advantage Communism has is its eager alliance everywhere with the forces of revolution against feudalism & entrenched wealth. [Our “natural” allies end up being] dictators, corrupt political leaders, & possessors of great wealth; it is these groups who will most oppose Communism, since it will destroy them if it triumphs. [The answer to] why our beneficence is often so little appreciated is that our motives are deeply questioned. Wise & understanding aid, given primarily through the UN to help people help themselves, coupled with willingness on our part to trade freely, is essential & promising. If it were freed of the unholy alliances with corrupt military & political elements, it would benefit the countries much more than is the case now.
Positions of Strength—To avoid the errors in present practice and generally accepted theories, we need to begin by a survey of the resources at our command: power of freedom; Religion; Productive capacity and technical knowledge; The limitations of tyranny; The power of passive resistance.
The Power of Freedom, even with our falling short of the theory, stands as beacon lights to our world, the promise of a better future. That people are made for and long for freedom is an article of our faith. Our tradition and principles are in harmony with the fundamental drive in human nature. Our practice has not always been so attractive. America must be reasonably cleansed of racial discrimination before we can hope to exert real leadership in world predominantly composed of colored people.
Religion [is vulnerable] to having its inconsistencies and failures pointed out. It can produce persistent re-births of spiritual power, but we must penitently recognize our present lack of spiritual depth and vitality. Religion answers to a deeply felt need in humans, a need that can never be erased, even in Communist countries. This power of religion to draw people and to hold their loyalty depends in very great measure upon the extent to which religious institutions and leaders truly embody and practice their ideals. Perhaps any really successful defense of our values and ideals can only be [in concert with] a new outburst, [a new surge] of religious life.
Productive Capacity and Technical Knowledge, while in Communist hands, can rapidly industrialize a country [at great human cost], but with a system of more freedom and liberty there is a firmer foundation for material progress and human well-being. If these resources can be used in harmony with our religious and political ideals, they will be like a blood transfusion to the world.
The Limitation of Tyranny [is that totalitarian governments aren't as powerful as they claim to be, & as Americans think they are]. They can cause real damage, so we must strongly oppose the advance of totalitarianism in our world. Russia & China have religion growing, even though the official policy still allows only worship services & choir practices, prohibiting church schools & other such functions. And despite all the government propaganda, threats, & persecutions, the peasants haven't been successfully regimented. There is a limit past which no government, no matter whatever its nature, can go in enforcing laws that are contrary to the people's will.
The Power of Passive Resistance means there is no power that can force the obedience of masses of people to laws and authority they have decided to resist. Gandhi’s contribution at this point to our problem is monumental. There will be those who say that Gandhi’s experience is not applicable to us. And Gandhi’s refusal to sanction military opposition was due to principle and not to any supposition that no other course was open. Other critics will say that the British yielded before they were forced to. This view magnifies the goodness of England beyond what the facts warrant and minimizes the evil in the English rule. The goodness in the British that resulted in yielding so generously may be attributed in part to the validity of the Gandhian method.
Would these methods fail against [the USSR]? Some will say that Communist rule over a long time so changes men that, regardless of how they personally feel, they will obey any order. [There is evidence that that is not universally true]. Genuine and trusted Communists have refused to obey orders, even at the cost of their lives. The result would probably depend on the extent to which the passive resisters were able to persist, regardless of enemy persecution, in maintaining a united stand in a spirit free of hatred and largely imbued with friendship and love. We have at hand a weapon of resistance to evil that can replace the now antiquated, useless, and dangerous atomic warfare upon which we still rely for defense.
The Moral Equivalent of War—William James wrote an essay in which he called for a moral equivalent of warfare. Can power of freedom, Religion, Productive capacity and technical knowledge, The limitation of tyranny, the power of passive resistance be wielded together to form a workable, promising equivalent of war? I am convinced that the development of public opinion in our own country in the direction I am suggesting would release powerful social & political forces in our allies that would move them along with us more rapidly.
This method of defense would require the same opportunity for adequate preparation as military defense. No method of defense is any better than the skill, ability, dedication, faith and courage of those who practice it. We must recognize our limitations. Our work can only be exploratory. It is our obligation to go as far as possible in pointing the way. Such attempts, [whether failure or success], often are the necessary preliminary to later plans much wiser and better. Because there is so little hope in any other plan that can be offered we have a right to assume that our plan will not be ruled out of consideration just because risks are involved.
New Weapons for Old—We now begin putting together power of freedom, religion, productive capacity and technical knowledge, limitations of tyranny, and power of passive resistance into a pattern of national defense which will exclude the element of military power. The growth of such a thought would mean that ultimately it would be embodied in a political program and in an eventual victory at the polls.
The 1st act of this new government would be to issue a proclamation in accordance with the promises it made in the election campaign. While calling on other governments to disarm, this government would proceed to take such action unilaterally. Others would be invited to send official observers of our disarmament process. Our government would have developed a passive resistance program to be used if any attempt were ever made to invade us. As rapidly as savings in manpower & resources were realized, our government would make substantial technical assistance available to underdeveloped countries through the UN without any political restrictions.
On Winning Friends & Influencing People—The nation able & willing to help & guide the momentous change toward industrialization, if it proceeds carefully and wisely, [will create new] relationships with these developing people, [especially since the aid will no longer be] tied to a bankrupt military policy. In spite of past & present limitations, our aid programs have made significant contributions toward helping to save a number of political situations in our world because the welfare of people has been genuinely advanced by the help given.
The possibilities in a truly great technical assistance program are almost unlimited in the results that could be achieved in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, parts of Europe, and South America. A plan aimed at releasing the vast potential of human and material resources yet unrealized, and at helping people help themselves, can pro-duce almost immediate gains and the promise of vastly greater improvements in the future.
The concern that countries would be overrun by the Communists is answered by [observing that] people with hope & faith in their future don’t provide the chaos & disorder that Communism needs in order to take over a country easily. And our passive resistance program [might inspire others to join] a united program of nations in a passive resistance defense program. [In viewing the Communist takeover of China, virtually every authority agrees that no amount of additional aid or even direct action could have prevented Communist victory. Any attempt to protect all the world is foolishly trying to play God. The probable effect of our new policy & defense program would be the winning of new friends & co-workers much more effectively than we are doing now.
Moral Jujitsu—Any Communist attempt to anticipate the results of our actions, & to counter them would mean giving up rigid Communist doctrines about capitalism’s and democracy’s nature. Communism is discovering that not even economic & political programs are sufficient to overcome nationalism. Without the non-Communist world’s military threat, naturally divisive forces between Communist countries would assert themselves.
Within a Communist government, when there is no longer foreign military strength to fear, internal dissensions are much more likely to develop. [With disarmament of non-Communist countries], justification of a military policy would be much more difficult & consequently the trend toward more consumer goods would be extremely hard to resist. Our proposed policy would create confusion in Communist ranks. [If they didn't join us in disarmament], all preceding peace talk would be proven to be hollow & hypocritical. For Russia & China to remain armed when we disarmed would cost the Communist very heavily in the esteem of the world. Would they pay the price? Or would they join us in disarmament in order to compete more favorably for the world’s support.
The Strategy of Passive Resistance—We must now deal with the effect on our country if it adopted this policy, & an attempt were made to [occupy us in] our disarmed state. To be prepared in this case is to lessen the likelihood of having to meet that for which we prepare. [It is unlikely] that enemy would destroy undefended ci-ties. [If they are undefended, there is no advantage, & in fact a disadvantage to bombing them]. Our disarmament would remove any idea that we were a threat to other nations; the attack would be condemned & resented. It is more likely we would be occupied by an army; this is what our defense policy must be directed against.
We who seek to win other people' consent to our view, assume the responsibility of planning a passive resistance defense policy, & the organizing of such a force. Such theoretical planning would never be completely done. [The research studies on it would done with] grants replacing present programs of research for military purposes. By what means would we apply our [passive resistance] principles to the problems of defense?
We would have no right to ask our country to follow such a policy were we not able at the same time to point to a corps of able, dedicated, disciplined people operating in a proven organization structure. In Gandhi’s experience, as many as 400,000 people were organized into such a group. [For our purposes] let us suggest a goal of roughly one million people organized in such a group.
This organization's function would be: teaching & persuading American people, winning them to acceptance of a passive resistance policy; application of principles to American problems; developing a specific plan of operation for the nation when passive resistance is adopted; forming skeletal organization to serve as pilot model of volunteers in a passive resistance defense corps; members’ continued purification & spiritual growth.
With the people’s preparation & education firmly in place, there would be trained, dedicated people ready to volunteer in the new defense plans, somewhat like the National Guard. There must also be a small group of men in full-time service to provide leadership & plans for the larger group. The total organization would be throughout the country, woven into industrial, social, & educational institutions. With the aid of educational & religious leaders, we would teach the outlines of our policy & attempt to build morale necessary to undergird it.
Weapons of Love—There are 2 “weapons of love”: civil disobedience; words & non-violent action. The civil disobedience program would have as its purpose preventing the occupation army from gaining effective control of the nation (e.g refusing to pay taxes, strikes, & filling the prisons). Effectiveness depends on good planning & preparation, & the persistence of the people. Each person in it would know what ones responsibility was in leading others. This would include a long chain through which leadership could be passed in the event of imprisoned or killed leaders. We can have faith such leadership will keep replenishing itself in a time of crisis.
The persistence of the nation in the civil disobedience campaign would be essential and would depend on having a culturally and religiously strong nation. We must assume that an occupation army would find some people willing to cooperate with it in the attempt to rule the country. Such 5th columnists would be a serious problem only if their numbers were considerable. People ultimately value the approval of their friends and neighbors and hesitate to take action that will meet with stern and continuing disapproval.
No greater mistake could be made than to suppose that such a campaign as this could be carried out without loss of life or property. No kind of defense possible to us today can promise safety to the occupants of a nation. The values of freedom cannot be [sacrificed because lives might be lost]. The real question is the calculated judgment as to which method of defense will cost least & be most likely to succeed. Government officials, industrial and labor leaders, communications officials, and religious leaders would thus be imprisoned. If brutality does not accomplish obedience, the danger of its indefinite continuance is not as great as it first appears. [Where] organized resistance took place in the past, little killing took place.
The 1st step in understanding the power of passive resistance is the recognition of the natural aversion of all to suffering, personal or witnessed. Then, there is the understanding that our natural repugnance to suffering is accentuated when we are the cause of that pain. Psychologists say that sadism is explained by inner conflict in a person and not by the unmitigated brutality of man’s nature. We must find justification for causing suffering. When the evil doer is met by [nonviolent], forgiving, suffering love, they are left with no basis for self-justification, and are shaken and psychologically defenseless. If one causes death of an innocent, defenseless, yet spiritually unbeaten opponent, one has posed for one’s self an unanswerable psychological problem.
The strength of passive resistance lies in the fact that victory with even a small minority greatly weakens the morale and power of an enemy by creating internal division in his ranks. No occupation army becomes so depraved or so completely controlled as to be impervious to the power of passive resistance. The time comes when psychological civil war started in the enemy by passive resistance demoralizes his aggressiveness and the machine of cruelty and madness grinds to a halt.
The 2nd weapon is all the means of persuasion at our command in leading the individual members of an occupation to see both the futility and the evil of their policy. We seek their refusal to continue to obey unjust orders. The revelation of what life could be like, both in material abundance and political freedom, coupled with the opportunity among friendly people to escape, would be a powerful motivation to desertion. We have hardly begun to understand what propaganda could mean on our side in such a case.
To those who doubt that our people could sustain such a policy, and overcome their own hate and fear, I would suggest instilling the simple truth that the soldier of the occupation army is a human being under pressure from the dictatorship [who sent him, and is in need of healing]. Once a person sees himself as the doctor in the doctor-patient relationship, it is far easier to practice self-control and follow the Golden Rule. The few pioneers who have broken through the hate and fear barrier are making it increasingly clear that love and goodwill can actually work miracles, that no man is ever totally depraved.
At the worst, the cost of using “weapons of love” would be a long, costly struggle over a generation or two. We should be prepared to suffer ourselves, having the real hope that the enemy would ultimately be conquered. No tyranny is free from laws of change that operate throughout history, upsetting all attempts to perpetuate a static system. At best, the virus of civil disobedience & love of liberty would spread through the occupying troops & spread to their homeland & destroy dictatorship. Even at its worst who can believe that atomic war would be better? It appears more reasonable to conclude that the peaceful change of Communism into a more desirable form of government would be the highly probable result of a policy of disarmament & passive resistance.
“Seek Ye 1st the Kingdom of God”—Passive resistance’s maximum effectiveness rests upon its adoption as a way of life. Our hope is in a revitalized & spiritually strengthened people able to derive full benefits from a reasonably complete program like the one described here. This isn't to say that all the nation’s people must operate on a saintly level, or even a majority. A minority of dedicated & selfless people can carry a heavy part of the nation's load. Such [spiritual] leadership lifts the moral & religious level of the whole nation perceptibly. The application of passive resistance to racial discrimination would advance us in finding a creative solution to it.
History is remolded only by those who dedicate [their whole lives to a vision]. There comes a time when partial goodness is a terrible sin. Personal purification is desirable, but it should never be mistaken for the event we call Pentecost, for history-making epochs when people have seen God’s hand working to redeem a world. The outlines of the work to be done must appear dimly before men can be asked to dedicate their lives to it.
The Art of the Possible—Is there the possibility that such a radical change to a foreign policy of [disarmament & passive resistance] can be accomplished? History has many examples of changes that most people & even experts of the time, have repudiated as not possible. It must also be recorded that the way was beset by doubts, discouragements & ridicule. The alternatives to this method are increasingly so hopeless that more & more people can be expected to join the enlarging ranks of those few [opposing] reliance on atomic weapons.
The next encouraging sign is that the principle of passive resistance & nonviolence is practiced in more & more spheres of life [e.g. mental hygiene, prison reform, race relations]. Gandhi demonstrated masses of people can be won to the use of the principle & accomplish some success. A large percentage of people who studied this principle have accepted it. There is a period of slow growth while a kind of bandwagon movement develops. If this program is based on truth, it will more & more commend itself to thoughtful people. Personal reading, investigation & presentation of this principle throughout America is needed. It is our responsibility to do all that we are able, leaving the issue of our efforts in God’s hands to be worked out in the long history of humankind.
Before the 2nd planned march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge I consulted 2 activist friends to discern whether I should go. We flew to Montgomery & were bussed to the little Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma. The singing, preaching & 1st-march testimonies added to everyone's determination & courage & increased our sense of community & purpose. A young, white Unitarian minister was beaten that night & died later. Ralph Abernathy said: "Let us pray for him ... & for his family, that they may be comforted & strengthened at this most difficult time. & let us pray for those who attacked him, that they might see [their error] & return to their full humanity."
Rarely have I felt God's Spirit so vividly, Still, it was frightening to think that, not far away, furious white segregationists were waiting with their clubs and axe handles, ready to do more beating. As we marched toward the bridge, I was committed, but also scared; my friend Jerry Rardin was "not particularly" sacred. I prayed for help, and my fear receded, at least a little. In spite of my fear, I was disappointed when King decided to end the march at the foot of the bridge. He felt we had made our point, with thousands of people there supporting voting rights for black people. He was reluctant to lead people where they might be badly hurt. Not long after the 3rd march that made it to Montgomery, the U.S. Congress passed the historic Voting Rights Act.
Courage—Others thought I had courage to go to Selma. I will quickly admit that I'm not always courageous. The anticipation of frightening, painful consequences might make me unable or unwilling to act on my beliefs & desire to be courageous. I have been courageous in the past. The roots of my courage comes from Quaker upbringing at Abington. We were told of early Friends & radical commitment to faith. We were frequently challenged whether we would have the courage to stand up for our beliefs. We saw that an important aspect of having courage was to have role models of people who showed courage in spite of intimidating circumstances. As I reflect on the sources of courage in my own life, I see 3 factors: admiration for others, which provided role models; opportunities to test courage; God's help in overcoming fear.
Abington Friends were eager to hear the firsthand stories of Quakers on "freedom rides" (with African Americans on segregated buses into the South). Ralph Rose wrote: "It was scary to pull into the bus stop to see ... incensed crowds of white segregationists ... I prayed really hard and felt the Spirit's peace descend on me. I stepped out of the bus, and a burly man hit me in the face ... He kept swinging [wildly] ... I'd had some training in boxing [and was mentally giving him pointers on how to punch better] ... I was amazed at how peaceful and loving I felt in the midst of his pummeling." Courage does not require fearlessness; it requires the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Under a Collapsed Barn/ Becoming a Conscientious Objector —[In college I volunteered after a wind storm to rescue livestock trapped in collapsed barns. A dairy farmer pulled a leaning barn wall off of his cows that nearly hit me]. I remember crawling into blackness under the beams & splintered flooring, past crushed & injured cows, to find [savable] cows, while the barn threatened to come down farther. The farmer & we students were able to pull away some of the wood, help some cows to their feet, & lead them outside. I said to myself, "Maybe I do have some courage." Gandhi described himself as being a coward for years. He was only able to shed his cowardice as he came to see nonviolence as a courageous way to struggle for justice.
I transferred to Haverford College during the Korean War. It meant having to decide whether to apply for conscientious objector (CO) status. I asked: "Is my pacifism a deep conviction against killing other human beings or a lack of courage to face combat?" I discerned that it really was conviction and not lack of courage. I also had a conviction that I must be willing to take risks comparable to battle risks to live out my own convictions. I chose to work with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Mexico and El Salvador. I encountered life-threatening situations that required courage.
Fighting Housing Discrimination/ Spiritual Experiences during Protests against the Vietnam War/ Quaker Peacekeepers—Phyllis and I supported African American couples who had purchased houses in all-white communities. Protesting neighbors rioted, defacing the houses. We moved in with them for a few days to support them and help clean up the damage. I have manifested courage, but I would hesitate to describe myself as a courageous person; it is not a permanent feature of my personality. Courage is a gift from God to the person who wants to be courageous; it doesn't guarantee that one will be brave in every turn of events.
After a big, Powerful, inspiring, nonviolent demonstration, most of the people who attended would get on their buses and go home. Often, small bands of angry people would stay behind and express their outrage against U.S. policy by smashing store windows and overturning cars. The press coverage would focus on the violence, and the peaceful message was lost or compromised. As we prayerfully tried to discern if we could be a peaceful presence in the chaos following a large antiwar demonstration, a young Friend said, "let's just march peacefully toward the White House and see how the Spirit guides us."
At a corner near the White House we were confronted by a tall, powerfully built policeman, who warned us he would teargas or club us. We sat down on the sidewalk in silent prayer with the cop standing over us, teargas drifting by, searchlights scanning, [rioters and police running]. In deep, deep silent worship God's "still small voice of calm" became present. Some Friends spoke, [feeling led to caution], others felt led to go forward. Some withdrew, others moved forward. We acknowledged the officer's difficult night and job and said, "We feel we've gotten God's guidance to keep going." After repeating his earlier warning, the officer stopped the traffic and allowed us to cross and circle the White House for the rest of the night. Several of the running figures actually joined us, [glad for the alternative to the violence they had planned].
Quakers played key peacekeeping roles in a march of 250,000 peace advocates. After marching toward the White House, the march was to turn a hard left on 15th Street. I was stationed at the corner with a dozen young priests, all of whom had nonviolence training. Behind us was a large police and soldier presence. [Most marchers routinely made the turn]. Soon, a group known for violent disruption came down Pennsylvania Avenue. The police were concerned and asked if we could handle it. I took 4 priests from our line and headed for the rogue marchers. I prayed "God, please help us." Immediately, a powerful, totally unexpected warmth flooded my body. By God, with some arm gestures and admiring comments from us, they made the turn.
Strength to be Hit by a Train—The Philadelphia Life Center turned its attention to the Earle Naval Ammunition Depot near Leonardo, NJ, which shipped ammunition to Vietnam. We planned to walk down the beach and climb boulders to the pier that was 20 feet off the ground. The pier was lined with police and deputized civilians with long billy clubs. Soon, we were a long line of peace activists standing on rocks, clinging onto the dock, and looking up at the barricade of bodies & billy clubs.
I glanced down the line and saw my beloved Phyllis resting her elbows on the dock in an attitude of prayer. I prayed, "God please help us," & felt peace, strength, & energy come over me. I saw that there was some space below the train's undercarriage between the tracks. I jumped up onto the tracks & knelt between the rails. I grabbed a chain hanging down on the front of the train. I was pushed over and dragged a few yards. They carried me to a police wagon, but I felt like I was floating weightlessly. At the trial, it seemed as though there was a sort of "path" of vibrating light between me and the judge. My words seemed to flow out effortlessly.
We were sentenced to 10 days in jail. Phyllis describes her spiritual experience in jail. "We refused to come out of our cells in protest of another inmate being punished and restricted to her cell ... I tried to see "that of God" in the officer on guard ... In a short while, she was sharing with me how important this job was to her, the 1st stable job she ever had ... We went from an "I-It" to an "I-thou" relationship ... I was an RN, and the officer came to me for help. We became allies rather than adversaries."
Blockading for Bangladesh—Not long after MLK's assassination, a group of us organized the Philadelphia Life Center. Seeing it as a way to carry on King's legacy, we also looked for opportunities to engage in direct action. Nixon was secretly sending military equipment by freighter to the dictator of Pakistan, who used it to kill 3,000,000 East Pakistanis and turn a million more into refugees. We hit on the idea of the publicity of using kayaks and canoes to "blockade" Pakistani freighters. [This led to long nights with little sleep, that left exhaustion in their wake]. I would pray "God help me." Instantly, my exhaustion fell away and I was given energy.
We were warned off by a police cutter. We yelled back that freighter was a death ship and we were trying to prevent the deaths of 10's of thousands of Bangladeshis. I guess all of us were ready to take big risks or die to stop the slaughter. Suddenly I "saw" the shimmering face of Jesus Christ, hovering over the water. As expected, we could not block the Padma, but the dramatic sociodrama caught the media's attention. The story literally went around the world. We have been assured that what we did in Baltimore harbor was an important factor in the cutting of US military aid and helping Bangladesh. For me it was also what Jesus did.
What I Owe to Christ—If I am to express honestly and in depth what is to me the spirituality of nonviolent direct action, I need to write about my belief in Jesus. Not all Friends will be comfortable with what I am about to say. Many unprogrammed Friends may ask: "But what about other religions?" What I am writing about the spirituality of nonviolent direct action wouldn't be complete without talking about what I owe to Christ.
In Abington Friends Meeting, I heard about George Fox and a religion of continuing revelation, personal experience, and direct communion with God. This religion of direct experience sounded very appealing to me. I wondered why Friends move so quickly from "Christ language" to "God language." What [I took in more of] was Jesus' ethical teachings, especially those picked up in Quaker testimonies: peace, equality, simplicity, integrity. I stood my ground as a "liberal" Quaker who saw Jesus as a wonderful teacher, but certainly not as divine. Evangelical Friends of the Midwest and West made a deep impression on me.
Moving Closer to Christ—To East Coast Christo-centric Quakers, Christ was God. Just as importantly, he was directly accessible in their daily lives. I was inspired to read Lewis Benson's Christ-centered interpretation of early Quakerism, and Albert Fowler's PHP #112 Two Trends in Modern Quaker Thought. I discovered that, for me at least, the New Testament makes so many extraordinary claims about Jesus' uniqueness and divinity that it was impossible to give it a "humanistic" interpretation.
I recognized within me a deep hole, laced with anxiety, regrets, temptations & "demons." Driving my search was my intellect & hope for finding the "rest" that Jesus promised. I had a growing love for Jesus; he seemed the most loving & lovable person imaginable. For Brian Boyle Jesus "was the distilled essence of the unimaginable Force that created all that is." Imagine! We have that "distilled essence" within us! When I was at last able to confess that "Jesus is lord," I began to glimpse the reality of what Thomas Kelly wrote: "Here is the Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form & action. & He is within us all."
Jesus' Presence in Nonviolent Direct Action—Given who he was, how he acted, and what he taught while on earth, it should not be surprising that we find him by our side when we engage in nonviolent direct action. I am only describing my own experience of God through Christ in nonviolent direct action, and am not saying that Christ is a prerequisite for experiencing God in nonviolent action. God may or may not enter into the calculations of people around the world considering nonviolent action. What attitudes of mind and spirit might we keep in mind if we want to draw on our spirituality while engaging in nonviolent action?
We need to discern whether or not to take part. Do I agree with the action's goals? What will be my choice's impact on family, friends & associates? How will I maintain an attitude of goodwill toward opponents I may meet, especially hostile or aggressive ones? In Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius of Loyola suggests making 2 columns on a piece of paper with the headings: "Why this is a good decision" & "Why this is a bad decision?" Write down reasons in both columns. If one column brings disquiet to your spirit & the other brings peace, follow God's leading in the peace-filled choice. Imagine yourself making a decision. Does one decision make you feel closer to God than the other? What account of this decision would you want to tell to God?
I have felt the God of love respond to "Help me" by removing my fear and gracing me with peace, patience, love, and what the moment demands. We can be talking to God before, during and after the action. Expect God to be present in nonviolent direct action. Why would God not want to be present in the midst of people seeking justice through love? Isaiah celebrates this in Isaiah 58:8-9. God has said more than once to me, sometimes softly, sometimes unmistakably, "Here I am."
Queries: What in your spiritual practices do you find most meaningful? What has your non-violent direct action experience been like? Has prayer given you strength & courage in a situation? Who are people in my life that modeled courage? If I am unwilling to face battle, must I then be willing to take similar risks to live out my convictions? How do you make difficult decisions in your life?
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129. Nonviolent action: How it works (by George Lakey; 1963)
About the Author—George Lakey (1938- ) is director of Training for Change & trains activists at the Martin Luther King School for Social Change. He has helped lead several social change movements. He founded Philadelphia Jobs with Peace Campaign, a coalition of labor, civil rights, poverty & peace groups. He directed Quaker Action Group assisting Puerto Rican nationalists. George Lakey has written 6 books, including Grass-roots & Nonprofit Leadership Guide (1996) & Manual for Direct Action (1965). This pamphlet's task is to dis-cover the "how" of nonviolent action, be it "power of God,” or "power of love”; either answer leads to more questions. We aren't content with a nonviolent action "philosophy."
I—[Jesus before Pilate; Quakers facing Puritans in Boston; the French responding to Bismarck’s demands; & civil rights sit-ins are all successful cases of non-violent action. Evidently, non-violent action has some kind of power, even when the action isn't spectacular. This pamphlets task is to discover the how of non-violent action.
II & III—[In looking at the opponents in a campaign, we find that] the opponents react in various ways. Sometimes they change their minds completely; [sometimes they still disagree and yet bow to the campaigners’ demands. In the 5th century B.C. Rome, [when the peasant class was] nearly crushed by debt and imprisonment, they camped on Mons Sacra, and would not return until they were given a share in government and common lands; the patricians had to concede. This [will be called] the coercion mechanism.
In Brazil around 1650, an expedition entered the Chavantes Indians’ territory; it was massacred. In 1910 Colonel Candedo Rondon [ran the Indian Protective Service; he forbade any use of firearms. The first 26 men sent to establish friendly contact were massacred; the 2nd expedition was unmolested. The Chavantes eventually cooperated with maintaining a telegraph system in their territory. This mechanism we will call conversion.
IV—[Sometimes the campaigners achieve their aims, even though their opponents still disagree and could continue to oppose, but choose not to]. During the Salt Satyagraha of 1930-31, some Englishmen felt that the Empire was not worth treating the Gandhians the way the police were forced to treat them. [In the American suffrage movement, public sentiment went from impartial or slight antagonistic, to offense at the lack of patriotism, to sympathy for the harsh prison sentences and conditions that the women endured]. Finally the issue of suffering became stronger than that of suffrage. The women were using the mechanism called persuasion.
V &VI—It now appears that there are coercion, conversion, & persuasion mechanisms. [But, why has the opponent] changed his mind? All men, no matter how debased they seem, treat their own group members well. In history we see that violent persons don't regard their opponents as fully human. E. Franklin Frazier notes that: “where human relationships were established between masters & slaves, both slaves & masters were less likely to engage in barbaric cruelty. It is easy to be violent against those who are seen as inhuman or non-human.
VII & VIII—The Puritans believed that Quakers [were irreverent & that they were] plotting to burn Boston & kill the inhabitants. [Mary Fisher, Ann Austin, Elizabeth Hooton, William Leddra, Wenlock Christison, Edward Wharton, Hored Gardener, Catherine Scott & 8 others were banished from Boston; several returned to Boston after they were banished. Some were whipped instead of being hanged. Mary Dyer & William Leddra were 2 of the 4 Quakers hanged in Boston]. The public didn't go unaffected by all this, & eventually Governor Endicott became alarmed at the people’s attitude. Quakers were regularly meeting undisturbed in Boston by 1675. Through their suffering the Quakers brought the Puritans to perceive their common humanity, & the Puritans reduced their persecutions.
IX & X—How can your theory [of identification by suffering] account for [the extermination of 6 million Jews]? In non-violent action the figure—[the outstanding quality] is suffering; the ground—[context] is the actions of the campaigners which precede and accompany the suffering. The campaigners show bravery, openness, and goodwill. The suffering of the Jews was not voluntary; it built up gradually, and the ground com-posed of their action (and inaction) caused their suffering to be seen as non-human. Suffering so perceived does not have the power to “melt the heart of the evil-doers.”
Identification by suffering in a context of goodwill, openness, and bravery, is the process which persuades and converts. [A change in attitude is necessary to go beyond persuasion to conversion]. People change attitudes most often when criticism of their attitude does not imply criticism of them. In the Gandhi-led South African Satyagraha, Gandhi called off the campaign until a railroad strike was settled; campaigners must show patience.
XI & XII—[Here are 8 policy implications which derive from the theory]:
1. Nonviolent action works on such a fundamental level that cultural differences count for little.
2. What it takes to get through to people will vary, depending on the campaigner’s ability to be recognized as a human being.
3. [When local people are not with us, we must establish new bonds of identification with the persons we are trying to reach, perhaps by self-suffering].
4. A decision should be made before the campaign begins regarding the mechanisms used. [In some situations coercion is not possible, because there is no dependency between opponent and campaigner. This leaves persuasion and conversion; some opponents are persuaded, some are converted].
5. Sitting down on the pavement, paying your fine, and going home is not usually considered suffering.
6. If image is important then quality of participants is more important than quantity.
7. Just appearing to be non-violent isn’t enough; drawing on inner strength to be non-violent is needed.
8. Does the campaign have the staying power to get through the antagonism [necessary for relevance] to the sympathy which lies on the other side?
The problem of “how to combat evil without acting like a devil” will be with us until we better understand how to mobilize the forces of God, within ourselves and within those who differ with us.
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178. Violence-or Aggressive Nonviolent Resistance (by Phillips P. Moulton; 1971)
Causes of Violence—The assassinations, riots and other forms of bloodshed of the late 1960’s have increased the anxiety of all Americans. Pervasive and intense violence is nothing novel in America. By a violent revolution we became an independent nation. Major social [and political] issues precipitated the savage Civil War. We became engulfed in 2 world wars. A realistic appraisal of contemporary civilization must take account of covert or systemic violence woven into the very fabric of society. [African natives are often] impoverished by controlling the means of production, which is supported by the physical violence of police.
What are the chief causes of violence, the extent & nature of which are so appalling? Largely covert or implicit, it becomes overt or explicit when the power of the rules is threatened. The violence of the oppressed is more complex; its chief underlying cause is frustration. Acute discontent depends on a sense of moral outrage. A significant number of religious leaders & theologians who didn't previously do so have come to sanction violence. The tendency today is to deny its applicability to international war but to apply it to revolutionary struggles. During 2 previous periods of US history [Civil War and the Depression], even sincere pacifists have been tempted to justify violence. When other methods seem ineffectual in achieving justice, the pacifist may waver.
Benefits/Evils of Violence—To some extent violence may achieve the aims, at least as a means of communication, [if not a spur to action & reform]. Violence sometimes gains its immediate end. Witness the American Revolution. When systemic violence [turns people into things,] reacting violently can have a purifying effect & a psychological release through purging themselves of fear and giving vent to repressed rage. In saying “No” to the oppressor he affirms his dignity as a person with free choice. He is saying “Yes” to his essential being.
An assessment of [violence as a] whole indicates harm far outweighs good. Whichever side wins [through violence], many characteristics of a police state are likely to emerge. Any “law & order” achieved is by totalitarianism. Reason becomes a casualty; fear & hostility gain the ascendancy; privilege & identity are threatened. Internationally, lack of control & irrationality of violence are especially evident. Nearly any local war could lead to a major nuclear holocaust. Alternative methods of handling international problems must be adopted.
Violence’s most pernicious evil is that it sets a precedent & example which far outweigh the good it may accomplish. The US Revolution was one of the most tragic catastrophes of human history. A great deal of ruthless torture & slaughter was practiced in liberty's name. It is used to sanction almost every type of violence. [Other countries, beginning with the French Revolution,] cite the American Revolution for justification. Precedent & example cause violence to become acclimated into our mores. This leads to the objection that violence is morally wrong. Many don't take such a stand. They contend that one must do the lesser of 2 evils. If there were a course of action as likely to achieve the goal, which would be good or significantly less evil, it should be pursued.
Violence Acquired, Not Instinctive/Removing Causes/Effective Alternatives to Violence—The evidence is reasonably clear that basically man’s tendency to violence is learned rather than instinctive. Pititim Sorokin in The Ways of Power and Love, stressed the significance of love and cooperation in the evolution of man. Numerous research studies indicate that pre-human primates were basically amiable and that at least some human societies value gentleness and peace more than violence. It is not instinctive, but emerges during socialization and is thus largely a cultural attribute; it is learned not innate. Man has a capacity for violence, but he also has a capacity for friendliness. We can learn to be more cooperative and constructive.
Strife can be diminished by removing its causes to the greatest possible extent. This should be obvious. Yet it is not being adequately accomplished. William James in “The Moral Equivalent of War,” accepted the martial virtues as good, but contended that they could be developed and employed in constructive projects. Effective violence proceeds from a carefully worked out program, which limits the violence. If the same energies and resources were used to support peaceful means, they would be at least equally effective.
In England in 1660, riots were triggered by poverty & labor conditions. [The more force that was used to quell the unrest had the opposite effect] & increased it. Then from about 1790 to 1851 the violence gradually diminished. The 1st factor responsible for transmuting the tradition of violent behavior in England was economic growth. Labor unions were recognized & women and children were protected from exploitation. [By the time of the WWI era], well-established patterns of responsible behaviors enabled employers and workers to effect viable compromises. In the past 40 years in the US a similar process has taken place, as violence in labor disputes has been drastically reduced through appropriate legislation and the National Labor Relations Board. Andre Philip notes that the UN has structures for keeping the peace and for conciliation, but not “for the peaceful change of existing conditions.” An international body should develop a world policy of peaceful economic change.
Man certainly has the talents and resources adequate to reduce drastically the frustrations which generate violence. A very effective nonviolent approach was that of John Woolman, [who worked against the evils of slavery]. His method was primarily one of face-to-face persuasion. His methods alone would not be adequate in the far more complex world of the late 20th century.
Aggressive Nonviolent Resistance/Its Ethical Basis—This is a genuine alternative which hasn’t been considered or used enough; it entails resistance rather than submission. It avoids deliberate destruction of life or property but actively opposes evil. It is revolutionary, but uses nonviolent techniques. Nonviolent action involves careful, disciplined preparation, planning & organization. [Some techniques are]: persuasion; protests; demonstrations; strikes; boycotts; sit-ins. The line between violent & nonviolent action can’t always be sharply drawn.
Most leaders of such a movement believe it must be grounded in a sound philosophy, including faith in the ultimate morality of the universe. Martin Luther King emphasized that the means represents the end in process. Man has the unconditional obligation to do what is right and to refrain from doing what is wrong. Advocates of nonviolence conceive nonviolent resistance to be in accord with such an imperative. Marcus Aurelius (121-180 A.D.) says that nothing can keep us from being “just, great-hearted, chaste, wise, steadfast, truthful, self-respecting, and free.” The real harm that can beset a man is corruption of mind or soul.
Nonviolent resistance doesn’t allow passive acquiescence to exploitation or domination. Advocates of non-violent resistance recognize it won’t always attain its goals, & may, in fact, preclude such attainment. In the final analysis one must be willing to suffer. The goal of every campaign must be the realization of truth. Another conviction of nonviolent resistance advocates is human life & personality are sacred. Simone Weil says that force “turns anybody who is subjected to it into a thing." [That is true of [victim &] agent of violence.
[Any] energizing effect of violence is achieved by the taking of positive action for a definite goal. Vigorous nonviolent action should be just as liberating. Nonviolent direct action proponents share further conviction that humankind is essentially one. Humankind’s unity is a corollary of the Quaker belief in “that of God in every man.” Gandhi & Martin Luther King believed that we are meant to love our fellows. Love is viewed as a dynamic force. When one makes a decision on ethical ground to reject violence, added insight, power & creativity are gained for the employment of appropriate methods. Gandhi said, “I have no ready made plan; it must be purely nonviolent … More will be revealed to me from day to day, as all my plans have always been.”
Its Practical Effectiveness—Nonviolent resistance depends basically upon what might be called ethical power—the sense of being in the right in reference to goals and in the use of means. [Potential supporters are not repelled by violence, and are free to focus on the justice of the cause. [A nonviolent movement has more reasoned and reasonable goals]. The goals of violent moments are prone to reflect emotional factors. Hence they are less likely to be well-defined or subject to judicious modification. Nonviolence clarifies the moral distinction between the oppressor using violence, and the victim, who is not.
The refusal to use violence constitutes an appeal to the conscience of the oppressor, who is more likely to confront his own practice and see its invalidity. The acceptance of the idea depends partly upon prevailing currents of thought, which may shift rather quickly. A favorable factor is that people generally prefer peaceful means. During the mass civil disobedience campaigns of India, participants with little advance preparation remained nonviolent throughout, [even supposedly] “cruel, bloodthirsty, and vindictive” Pathans on the Northwest Frontier despite “wholesale shootings and hangings” by British troops.
The peasants in the Bardoli region sought to force the government to launch an impartial enquiry into the recently enacted raise in taxes which the peasants considered excessive. Acts of protest during a 6 month period were met by attachment of property, arrest, police brutality, false propaganda and threats; the peasants reacted without violence. The enquiry was made, the tax raises were rescinded, and closer cooperation was effected be-tween Hindus and Muslims. Bardoli became a sign and a symbol of hope and strength and victory to the Indian peasant.” Other campaigns opened prohibited roadways to untouchables, secured pay increases for textile workers, and numerous changes in the short and long-term.
A false impression is current that aggressive nonviolent resistance has been tried & found wanting. To be sure, methods other than violence, including: passive submission; attempts at persuasion; negotiation; protests unrelated to a larger plan; & simple appeals to conscience have been ineffectual sometimes. In effecting internal reforms, the nonviolent (satyagraha) campaign led by Gandhi & others produced results not previously considered possible either by its opponents or detached observers. [In civil rights] a great deal was accomplished in a comparatively short time, particularly in regard to education, public facilities, & extending the franchise.
A sufficient background of experience is lacking by which to evaluate definitively the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance against a foreign aggressor. Exactly the same methods could not be expected to succeed under all circumstances. Yet many methods are consistent with the philosophy of nonviolence. It may be assumed that with greater commitment and training nonviolent means would be even more effective. Studies on nonviolent resistance were done by Bondurant, Gregg, and Miller. Specific methods of defending nations were written by AFSC, Kinghall, Roberts, and Seifert. One must conclude not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been surprisingly successful [the few times it has been] tried.
A movement or a nation relying on such methods would involve risks, dangers, & possible suffering. In terms of producing favorable & lasting results, nonviolent action holds greater promise. [Failure of a] nonviolent campaign [leaves] the situation not much worse than it was. Violence usually begets further violence. Failure of a nonviolent campaign defending the nation would be more serious, possibly involving occupation. We would still exist & improvement in the situation would be possible. Violent defense of a nation, [with its probable nuclear response] would inflict the suffering & death of millions, and we would suffer and die in like fashion.
One must consider the number of nations which will eventually have the atom bomb, the emotions of national leaders, the dangers of accidental war, the “1st strike” temptation. We must use all available resources to achieve constructive solutions to our social problems and [respond to conflict] with aggressive nonviolent resistance. A large scale program of research and planning to examine genuine alternatives to military defense is urgently needed. [Planning for nonviolent national defense would bring new insight and release energies here and abroad which could radically improve our national life and relieve the whole world situation].
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11. A Discipline for Non-violence (by Richard Bartlett Gregg; 1941)
[The Secret of the Military Method's Power]—The world still has immense respect for the military method's show of firmness & order. What is the secret of the military method’s power? Nowhere is discipline, individual subordination to the general welfare so effectively achieved as in military organization. The power lies in the quality of their habits & their modes of habit formation. If morality is so important in settlement of great conflicts, can we achieve [with nonviolence] a discipline more moral & potent than war's morality?
George Russell and Captain Liddell Hart respectively, doubt the the practicality and the nation's ability to maintain nonviolent discipline. [I maintain] that nonviolent as well as military training requires physical drills and discipline; such training can be obtained through manual work. The program will have economic implications, but it is offered primarily as a physical discipline for nonviolence. The believer in nonviolence uses this discipline even though he acknowledges the quantity of production will be thereby curtailed.
In military training at its best, drilling & other disciplinary activities create instant obedience, self-respect, self-confidence, self-control, self-sacrifice, loyalty, & unity. There is pride in their position as protectors. It is now realized that pacific resistance can't be successful or make effective moral appeals if it is only passive; there is need for deeds. It must be action which works toward winning settlement & achieving enduring order, security, freedom & moral equality, to produce mutual respect, friendliness, & peace. Without exertion pacifism seems & feels too negative. Because of lack of action there are many distinguished former pacifists.
Psychological Reasons for Physical Action—Most people learn by physical action; verbal explanation isn't enough. Habits grow from repetitious actions. I propose the nonviolent resister do manual work that: produces something good for the community, & for the poor & unemployed; is possible for the poor & unemployed to do for self-help & self-respect. This work is useful & brotherly; it furnishes discipline for non-violence.
The hand distinguishes man from beast & enables him to use tools. All through human evolution, the hand & using tools have greatly stimulated & influenced one's mind's development. Prolonged, habitual tool use subtly but powerfully organizes thoughts, emotions, & sentiments, giving a sense of power in dealing with our environment. Frequent repetition, gives faith, self-confidence, imaginative power, dignity, & self-respect. In sanitoriums' occupational therapy, interest & self-respect are enhanced by using articles made by one's own hands.
Initial Doubts—Why aren't farmers & city manual workers ready to use nonviolent resistance? Most individuals are capable of it, as is seen in the mostly non-violent character of industrial strikes. When non-violent leadership is present, manual workers show wonderful self-restraint. Those workers aren't prepared to make prolonged mass nonviolent resistance. There is lack of political skill & of unity with the middle-class. Most don't understand or believe in nonviolence's power. It is helpful for individuals & when practiced on a large scale as part of a [solid] plan with understanding of nonviolent reform, then it becomes an effective group discipline.
[Understanding is key]. One skilled at drawing could copy a diagram. Without understanding the theory behind the diagram, it would produce no effect on one's mind. If one copied & understood it, one might be excited over its applications. Understanding that pencil work may alter one's whole life. Individualistic & unintegrated hand work can't act as discipline for steady nonviolence. Another reason why manual workers aren't disciplined for mass nonviolence is competition in industry, commerce, & agriculture. Competition on a large scale, under modern conditions, amounts to economic warfare, which negates nonviolence. For successful struggle of nonviolent constructive effort, drilling, discipline of hand work, organization & raw material is needed.
The Effects of Manual Work and Military Training—Surprisingly, the same valuable benefits derived from military training are developed by habitual, understood hand work. In nonviolent action, the primary OBEDIENCE will be to one's conscience & ideals, aided by careful thinking & meditation. It helps to have an appreciation of how these principles operate on people's minds & hearts. SELF-RESPECT comes from realizing that one is being industrious & manually competent. SELF-RELIANCE is more needed by the gentle [& some-times out-of-work] resister than the soldier, for work often takes place away from any support. Devoting an hour or more a day to hand work may seem like SELF-SACRIFICE. Sacrifice isn't just giving up something. It is giving up a lesser good in order to secure a greater good. The steady, daily practice of hand work develops TENACITY, through having a clear pattern of feasible action, & ways of inducing action in a particular direction.
The Effects of Manual Work and Military Training: Sense of Unity with Others—One who conscientiously and intelligently works with one's hands daily in a widespread organization will develop a sense of unity. That unity is peculiarly strong if the work is manual, because of the close connection between hand, mind, and self-awareness. [The connecting of the cerebrum (thinking center) to the cerebellum (action center) by many nerve fibers] is evidence of the close connection between mind and physical action. The different kinds of brain imagery include: visual; auditory; muscular movement; sense of touch; and joint motion. The imagery of great numbers of inexpressive people and those of limited education are the last 3 kinds of brain imagery. Any great new step forward in the integration of human minds, such as group nonviolent resistance, will wisely be associated with manual work. This association will give such a movement a deep, firm, bodily basis.
The hand worker will learn about the activities of other hand workers & will appreciate them as persons, members of a social group with common purpose; the bond between farm workers & city hand workers would be strengthened. We must work with people & for them; giving money isn't enough. If diverse people take part in manual labor, it will be a democratic experience. It can unite all kinds of people, communities, & the nation.
I'm not suggesting the formation of separate, self-sufficing, small communities for doing such work. Such a community would consist of over 100 people & need enough expensive farmland to feed them all. It may be better to have believers in non-violence living in the general community, acting as ferments for these ideas. Manual work in small groups & individually will bring cohesion, significance & power to their efforts; part of the significance would be economic. The effect on society would be greater than that from separate communities.
Sense of Order and Cooperation/ Protection of Community/ Energy—Under such conditions of group work, & with the growth in moral factors, there comes increase in happiness & satisfaction & solid group morale. As one sees one's articles used more widely, these realizations gain momentum, impressiveness, enthusiasm, & power. This will make it easier to endure hardship for their cause. The experience of joint work, material & intangible products, & feeling useful creates a sense of order & cooperation. Creating awareness of order & personal usefulness by manual work in a large organization has vast importance for the nation's freedom.
The cumulative effect of little efforts & products would be the closing of chasms between [all sorts of different social, economic, & educational groups]. Hand workers would see that they are creators of property & or-der, protectors & builders of their own state. [Some sure creators] of human energy are hope, faith, conviction, enthusiasm, good will. [Brought together in a large organization], it will create widespread happiness & release immense energy. With an increase in numbers the momentum and power increases in almost geometrical ratio.
Courage/ Equanimity and Moral Strength—How can a quiet, humdrum activity develop courage? Courage has several strands: single-minded devotion; sense of unity; moral & physical energy; inner integration; power to endure. Whatever gives a sense of control over exterior forces of any sort promotes courage. Handwork is a manipulative skill which removes economic danger for individuals & the nation. Hand work & the use of its product promotes simplicity; they reduce one's possessions & thus one's economic fears. Making & using hand work increases personal consistency, so our inner conflicts are reduced, our poise is enhanced, & our courage is increased. Allied with single-minded interest is love; all love gives courage. Love rises above the plane of friend/ enemy separation & conflict & asserts the unity of the 2 parties. Where a nation has built up a vast store of good will, it can afford to take social, economics & political risks that a nation poor in that respect can't take.
The winning of equanimity and moral strength is a problem of an inner organizing of sentiments and thoughts, mobilizing energy, and attaining a unifying ultimate spirit. Each person is a center of physical, emotional, intellectual, moral, and spiritual energy. Each of us grew up with frustrations and some humiliations, which blocked the energy of hope and desire when a plan failed. Continued blockage caused resentment and bitterness. Some of that blocked energy has been expressed; much of it still lies within us like a coiled-up watch-spring, even from our distant childhood, waiting for some trivial occasion to trigger an explosion.
War and riot provide a means of venting accumulated resentments. We generally have the self-control to handle the new frustrations and humiliations. It is that huge reservoir of long-suppressed resentments which is so unmanageable and catches us off guard. The nature of manual work and its organization makes draining off that energy by means of manual activities peculiarly effective and complete. Anger among pacific resisters is the equivalent of cowardice among soldiers. Whatever reduces the tendency to anger promotes success in a non-violent struggle. Some bitter former British soldiers secured little plots of land, raised crops, and kept animals. Physical work, creating something, and partly supporting themselves gradually eased their bitterness and anger, restored their self-respect, and gave them happiness. Wholehearted enlistment in a hand work program would increase positive feelings and make maintaining complete nonviolence easier.
Practice in Handling Moral "Weapons/ Patience & Humility—[In a nonviolent approach to struggle], the nonviolent party must win the respect of its opponent by practicing unity, firmness of will, courage, competence, endurance, & strength. A hand work program powerfully demonstrates at least some of these persuasions. Nonviolent resisters may do shovel-work, sanitary field work, & malaria prevention. The struggle to rid the world of organized violence will be the mightiest task humankind has undertaken. The discipline must be exceptionally thorough. They need an understanding of and firm belief in the power of non-violence and faith in the ultimate possibilities of human nature. A true craftsman's selfless fidelity to work is an important form of humility, and by infection promotes other forms of humility.
Love of Truth/ Faith in Human Nature/ Satisfactions/ Relief from Moral Strain—Prolonged work with tools and physical material creates in the worker directness, respect for accuracy, candor, honesty, and sincerity, all elements in love of truth. In doing manual work with other people we learn their moral quality; we usually respect them more and have more faith in human nature. One is more normal and others around one are happier if one has an outlet via manual work for one's desire and instinct for mastering something or someone. Such work could be seen as character-building, and should interest educators and community leaders.
A new program, if it is to be widely adopted for any length of time, must provide immediate and real satisfactions and future satisfaction. 6 bodily senses are given exercise and experience by manual work: sight, touch, hearing, balance, muscular sensation, joint motion. Hand work provides more room for initiative, creation, co-operation, variety, freedom, sociability, self-respect, and dignity than machine work.
[The deeper the understanding] of the work's wider meaning, the more intellectual, emotional, & esthetic satisfactions arise. The habitual daily practice of manual activities provide stimulus & response that promotes the whole person's growth. The nature of manual work is rhythmic, slow, patient, soothing, routine, & undramatic, affording a contrast to the image of pacifism always staying on moral tiptoe. It is creative of useful & sometimes beautiful things. After a strenuous moral effort, the gentle resister may retire to an artistic & re-creative activity.
The Best Manual Discipline and Reasons for its Superiority—The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Work Camps, international Quaker's and Pierre Cérésole's Service's International Relief and Re-construction work in Europe are examples of work beneficial to the poor and unemployed of the community. The list of health services, building projects, agricultural tasks, and small-scale industries worked on is long.
If one kind of work could be found that provides discipline and can be universally practiced, it would be especially valuable. It would need to provide one of the needs of food, shelter or clothing. Food can be raised only by those with land. Building shelter requires many skills and much expensive material and is mostly heavy work. For clothing, once the raw fibers can be obtained, yarn and thread can be made by spinning, and many articles of clothing by knitting, crocheting, weaving and sewing. [Beginning with raw fibers and creating a supply of thread and yarn would avoid being cut off from factory-made materials during a non-violent struggle].
The product of hand-textile work is standard necessity. It is: transportable, saleable, universally useful, can be combined into a final unit product, and be produced without a large organization. The hand tools of textile-making are inexpensive, small, and transportable. Anyone can do it, anywhere, anytime, in groups of any size. It provides a change and a practical rest. For these reasons the making of yarn and cloth by hand is the best manual work for creating a universal physical disciplinary activity for nonviolence.
Overcoming a Prejudice/ Associated Training Activities/ Superiority Over Military Discipline—Because the household manufacture of textile materials and clothing has for ages been mostly a women's occupation, many men will shy away from it, fearing to appear effeminate and undignified. Courage is not an exclusively male virtue or linked with superior size. The finished product by hand will usually be as cheap financially and perhaps cheaper than mill-made product when the high cost of distribution is factored in.
Pacific resisters should meet together not only for work, but also for study, discussion, singing, folk-dancing, reading nonviolence history, meditation, & social service in order to develop moral & spiritual resources. To be effective we must have all levels of our being employed & working together; there must be a discipline of body, emotion, mind & spirit. Discussion is important in understanding nonviolence & how manual work plays its part therein. This broad program of disciplinary activities would provide a rich sensory content as well as strong & varied intellectual, emotional, social, esthetic, moral & religious satisfactions. Such 4-fold disciplined wouldn't only make strong nonviolent resisters but also the basis for a better civilization and a nonviolent world.
These activities engage a wider range of human faculties and potentialities reach deeper and higher and are more consistent than are military exercises and discipline. The military asks for too narrow a range of loyalty and unity. Its discipline severely limits men's initiative and freedom. It calls on one's courage and plays on one's fear of punishment. Believers in nonviolence must subject themselves to some sort of thorough discipline.
In modern war, the expensive weapons, indiscriminate attacks, extent of destruction, distortion of truth, & resulting totalitarianism make a better peace impossible. Military discipline excludes the unity with the opponent essential to an enduring peace. Because the nonviolent discipline wouldn't interfere with ordinary civilian life & would provide real satisfactions, such training could be embraced without harm or difficulty by an entire nation.
[Conclusion]—If pacifism is ever to become a mass, national movement, it must have a common discipline best found in the realm of manual work. Pierre Cérésole proposed every State should have a nonviolent standing army of good will to help with work in reconstruction, or help with disease, poverty, physical hardship, or lack of education inside the nation and beyond it. The national expenses for such an army & such work would be vastly less than those for present armed forces; taxes would be far less. National egoism would decrease, mutual trust and good will develop between both classes and nations; it would be a permanent conquest by kindness. In Cérésole's Service International and Quakers' AFSC there has been for several years the nucleus of such an army of good will functioning. In all conflicts there are moral and physical factors. For nonviolent resistance the required physical element of discipline is manual labor and the direct social use of its products.
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88. Nonviolent resistance: a nation’s way to peace (by Cecil E. Hinshaw; 1956)
[Introduction]—2 contrasting truths dominate our human scene [in this century]: the perhaps record amount of generosity, kindliness, & sympathy expressed, contrasted with unprecedented cruelty & barbarity. No responsible person can dodge the necessity of dealing with the evil one meets; one must do it knowing that God works with one through the eternal forces of goodness. Our 1st responsibility is to deal with the evil in ourselves. The tyranny couldn't fasten itself upon a nation and be maintained were it not mixed with much good.
Answers to Tyranny/Irony of War/Balance of Terror—[2 trends are observed in responding to tyranny: pure evil to be eliminated by any means; mix of good & evil, best left alone for the good to eventually triumph]. Both of these answers are wrong. Underneath all of the questionable motives that support national defense efforts, there remains an inescapable responsibility. [History teaches us] the hard fact that there have been times of terrible, unjustified aggression. The moral necessity of national defense is therefore almost an axiom.
There are very few responsible leaders who believe that successful military defense in an atomic war is possible. [Anyone attempting to prove otherwise] is assuming a terrifying burden of proof. Any [sweeping] change in thought and [method] can only come slowly in society. People will continue to rationalize an old error until a positive and hopeful alternative can be found.
The only real hope left to most people today is the gamble that the threat of terror through massive retaliation will prevent the coming of total war. An uneasy peace can be preserved by a balance of terror while we wait for positive changes in Communist countries. But atomic war may come even though neither side intends for it to happen. [Even] atomic experiments may exact a terrible price from the world. There certainly comes a point beyond which we do not have the right to gamble the lives and sanity of future generations.
The Limitation of Limited Warfare—If the wars of the future can be sharply limited, America faces a strategic problem of immense proportions. Conventional warfare requires tremendous manpower. For all practical purposes America will have to fight such wars alone in the future. The logical consequences of trying to fight such wars with conventional weapons thousands of miles from home, handicapped by logistics across vast distances [and tough guerilla fighters] is to bleed America of its strength.
We can understand why military officials wish to use atomic weapons in such a war. If the enemy did not counter with similar weapons, we might secure military victory, but there seems no particular reason why the enemy could not use such weapons in return. If we were to be the 1st to use atomic weapons, we could lose very heavily in prestige and support, and alienate large numbers of Asian peoples. We have not really considered the moral position we would be in if we should use atomic weapons only to find that an “immoral” enemy capable of using them refused on moral grounds to retaliate with them.
The temptation of the losing side will be very strong to use ever more destructive weapons. Underlying all of these problems is the haunting specter of the condemnation of our own consciences as well as the moral judgment of the world if we dare to begin an atomic conflict. Is the destruction of the enemy in retaliation, justified by any standard of morals and principles we have valued and taught?
Losing Friends and Alienating People—The Communists have inflamed old sores scarcely healed over from the wounds of imperialism; it will keep the US in the minds of millions as the successor to the imperialism they learned to hate in the days of white man domination. The Communists will also use the promise of practical aid in the vast projects and plans to which so many governments now look for relief from the crushing burdens of poverty. Both Russia and China are industrializing rather successfully without any considerable outside help; ] the new countries want to do the same as much as possible].
The really dangerous advantage Communism has is its eager alliance everywhere with the forces of revolution against feudalism & entrenched wealth. [Our “natural” allies end up being] dictators, corrupt political leaders, & possessors of great wealth; it is these groups who will most oppose Communism, since it will destroy them if it triumphs. [The answer to] why our beneficence is often so little appreciated is that our motives are deeply questioned. Wise & understanding aid, given primarily through the UN to help people help themselves, coupled with willingness on our part to trade freely, is essential & promising. If it were freed of the unholy alliances with corrupt military & political elements, it would benefit the countries much more than is the case now.
Positions of Strength—To avoid the errors in present practice and generally accepted theories, we need to begin by a survey of the resources at our command: power of freedom; Religion; Productive capacity and technical knowledge; The limitations of tyranny; The power of passive resistance.
The Power of Freedom, even with our falling short of the theory, stands as beacon lights to our world, the promise of a better future. That people are made for and long for freedom is an article of our faith. Our tradition and principles are in harmony with the fundamental drive in human nature. Our practice has not always been so attractive. America must be reasonably cleansed of racial discrimination before we can hope to exert real leadership in world predominantly composed of colored people.
Religion [is vulnerable] to having its inconsistencies and failures pointed out. It can produce persistent re-births of spiritual power, but we must penitently recognize our present lack of spiritual depth and vitality. Religion answers to a deeply felt need in humans, a need that can never be erased, even in Communist countries. This power of religion to draw people and to hold their loyalty depends in very great measure upon the extent to which religious institutions and leaders truly embody and practice their ideals. Perhaps any really successful defense of our values and ideals can only be [in concert with] a new outburst, [a new surge] of religious life.
Productive Capacity and Technical Knowledge, while in Communist hands, can rapidly industrialize a country [at great human cost], but with a system of more freedom and liberty there is a firmer foundation for material progress and human well-being. If these resources can be used in harmony with our religious and political ideals, they will be like a blood transfusion to the world.
The Limitation of Tyranny [is that totalitarian governments aren't as powerful as they claim to be, & as Americans think they are]. They can cause real damage, so we must strongly oppose the advance of totalitarianism in our world. Russia & China have religion growing, even though the official policy still allows only worship services & choir practices, prohibiting church schools & other such functions. And despite all the government propaganda, threats, & persecutions, the peasants haven't been successfully regimented. There is a limit past which no government, no matter whatever its nature, can go in enforcing laws that are contrary to the people's will.
The Power of Passive Resistance means there is no power that can force the obedience of masses of people to laws and authority they have decided to resist. Gandhi’s contribution at this point to our problem is monumental. There will be those who say that Gandhi’s experience is not applicable to us. And Gandhi’s refusal to sanction military opposition was due to principle and not to any supposition that no other course was open. Other critics will say that the British yielded before they were forced to. This view magnifies the goodness of England beyond what the facts warrant and minimizes the evil in the English rule. The goodness in the British that resulted in yielding so generously may be attributed in part to the validity of the Gandhian method.
Would these methods fail against [the USSR]? Some will say that Communist rule over a long time so changes men that, regardless of how they personally feel, they will obey any order. [There is evidence that that is not universally true]. Genuine and trusted Communists have refused to obey orders, even at the cost of their lives. The result would probably depend on the extent to which the passive resisters were able to persist, regardless of enemy persecution, in maintaining a united stand in a spirit free of hatred and largely imbued with friendship and love. We have at hand a weapon of resistance to evil that can replace the now antiquated, useless, and dangerous atomic warfare upon which we still rely for defense.
The Moral Equivalent of War—William James wrote an essay in which he called for a moral equivalent of warfare. Can power of freedom, Religion, Productive capacity and technical knowledge, The limitation of tyranny, the power of passive resistance be wielded together to form a workable, promising equivalent of war? I am convinced that the development of public opinion in our own country in the direction I am suggesting would release powerful social & political forces in our allies that would move them along with us more rapidly.
This method of defense would require the same opportunity for adequate preparation as military defense. No method of defense is any better than the skill, ability, dedication, faith and courage of those who practice it. We must recognize our limitations. Our work can only be exploratory. It is our obligation to go as far as possible in pointing the way. Such attempts, [whether failure or success], often are the necessary preliminary to later plans much wiser and better. Because there is so little hope in any other plan that can be offered we have a right to assume that our plan will not be ruled out of consideration just because risks are involved.
New Weapons for Old—We now begin putting together power of freedom, religion, productive capacity and technical knowledge, limitations of tyranny, and power of passive resistance into a pattern of national defense which will exclude the element of military power. The growth of such a thought would mean that ultimately it would be embodied in a political program and in an eventual victory at the polls.
The 1st act of this new government would be to issue a proclamation in accordance with the promises it made in the election campaign. While calling on other governments to disarm, this government would proceed to take such action unilaterally. Others would be invited to send official observers of our disarmament process. Our government would have developed a passive resistance program to be used if any attempt were ever made to invade us. As rapidly as savings in manpower & resources were realized, our government would make substantial technical assistance available to underdeveloped countries through the UN without any political restrictions.
On Winning Friends & Influencing People—The nation able & willing to help & guide the momentous change toward industrialization, if it proceeds carefully and wisely, [will create new] relationships with these developing people, [especially since the aid will no longer be] tied to a bankrupt military policy. In spite of past & present limitations, our aid programs have made significant contributions toward helping to save a number of political situations in our world because the welfare of people has been genuinely advanced by the help given.
The possibilities in a truly great technical assistance program are almost unlimited in the results that could be achieved in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, parts of Europe, and South America. A plan aimed at releasing the vast potential of human and material resources yet unrealized, and at helping people help themselves, can pro-duce almost immediate gains and the promise of vastly greater improvements in the future.
The concern that countries would be overrun by the Communists is answered by [observing that] people with hope & faith in their future don’t provide the chaos & disorder that Communism needs in order to take over a country easily. And our passive resistance program [might inspire others to join] a united program of nations in a passive resistance defense program. [In viewing the Communist takeover of China, virtually every authority agrees that no amount of additional aid or even direct action could have prevented Communist victory. Any attempt to protect all the world is foolishly trying to play God. The probable effect of our new policy & defense program would be the winning of new friends & co-workers much more effectively than we are doing now.
Moral Jujitsu—Any Communist attempt to anticipate the results of our actions, & to counter them would mean giving up rigid Communist doctrines about capitalism’s and democracy’s nature. Communism is discovering that not even economic & political programs are sufficient to overcome nationalism. Without the non-Communist world’s military threat, naturally divisive forces between Communist countries would assert themselves.
Within a Communist government, when there is no longer foreign military strength to fear, internal dissensions are much more likely to develop. [With disarmament of non-Communist countries], justification of a military policy would be much more difficult & consequently the trend toward more consumer goods would be extremely hard to resist. Our proposed policy would create confusion in Communist ranks. [If they didn't join us in disarmament], all preceding peace talk would be proven to be hollow & hypocritical. For Russia & China to remain armed when we disarmed would cost the Communist very heavily in the esteem of the world. Would they pay the price? Or would they join us in disarmament in order to compete more favorably for the world’s support.
The Strategy of Passive Resistance—We must now deal with the effect on our country if it adopted this policy, & an attempt were made to [occupy us in] our disarmed state. To be prepared in this case is to lessen the likelihood of having to meet that for which we prepare. [It is unlikely] that enemy would destroy undefended ci-ties. [If they are undefended, there is no advantage, & in fact a disadvantage to bombing them]. Our disarmament would remove any idea that we were a threat to other nations; the attack would be condemned & resented. It is more likely we would be occupied by an army; this is what our defense policy must be directed against.
We who seek to win other people' consent to our view, assume the responsibility of planning a passive resistance defense policy, & the organizing of such a force. Such theoretical planning would never be completely done. [The research studies on it would done with] grants replacing present programs of research for military purposes. By what means would we apply our [passive resistance] principles to the problems of defense?
We would have no right to ask our country to follow such a policy were we not able at the same time to point to a corps of able, dedicated, disciplined people operating in a proven organization structure. In Gandhi’s experience, as many as 400,000 people were organized into such a group. [For our purposes] let us suggest a goal of roughly one million people organized in such a group.
This organization's function would be: teaching & persuading American people, winning them to acceptance of a passive resistance policy; application of principles to American problems; developing a specific plan of operation for the nation when passive resistance is adopted; forming skeletal organization to serve as pilot model of volunteers in a passive resistance defense corps; members’ continued purification & spiritual growth.
With the people’s preparation & education firmly in place, there would be trained, dedicated people ready to volunteer in the new defense plans, somewhat like the National Guard. There must also be a small group of men in full-time service to provide leadership & plans for the larger group. The total organization would be throughout the country, woven into industrial, social, & educational institutions. With the aid of educational & religious leaders, we would teach the outlines of our policy & attempt to build morale necessary to undergird it.
Weapons of Love—There are 2 “weapons of love”: civil disobedience; words & non-violent action. The civil disobedience program would have as its purpose preventing the occupation army from gaining effective control of the nation (e.g refusing to pay taxes, strikes, & filling the prisons). Effectiveness depends on good planning & preparation, & the persistence of the people. Each person in it would know what ones responsibility was in leading others. This would include a long chain through which leadership could be passed in the event of imprisoned or killed leaders. We can have faith such leadership will keep replenishing itself in a time of crisis.
The persistence of the nation in the civil disobedience campaign would be essential and would depend on having a culturally and religiously strong nation. We must assume that an occupation army would find some people willing to cooperate with it in the attempt to rule the country. Such 5th columnists would be a serious problem only if their numbers were considerable. People ultimately value the approval of their friends and neighbors and hesitate to take action that will meet with stern and continuing disapproval.
No greater mistake could be made than to suppose that such a campaign as this could be carried out without loss of life or property. No kind of defense possible to us today can promise safety to the occupants of a nation. The values of freedom cannot be [sacrificed because lives might be lost]. The real question is the calculated judgment as to which method of defense will cost least & be most likely to succeed. Government officials, industrial and labor leaders, communications officials, and religious leaders would thus be imprisoned. If brutality does not accomplish obedience, the danger of its indefinite continuance is not as great as it first appears. [Where] organized resistance took place in the past, little killing took place.
The 1st step in understanding the power of passive resistance is the recognition of the natural aversion of all to suffering, personal or witnessed. Then, there is the understanding that our natural repugnance to suffering is accentuated when we are the cause of that pain. Psychologists say that sadism is explained by inner conflict in a person and not by the unmitigated brutality of man’s nature. We must find justification for causing suffering. When the evil doer is met by [nonviolent], forgiving, suffering love, they are left with no basis for self-justification, and are shaken and psychologically defenseless. If one causes death of an innocent, defenseless, yet spiritually unbeaten opponent, one has posed for one’s self an unanswerable psychological problem.
The strength of passive resistance lies in the fact that victory with even a small minority greatly weakens the morale and power of an enemy by creating internal division in his ranks. No occupation army becomes so depraved or so completely controlled as to be impervious to the power of passive resistance. The time comes when psychological civil war started in the enemy by passive resistance demoralizes his aggressiveness and the machine of cruelty and madness grinds to a halt.
The 2nd weapon is all the means of persuasion at our command in leading the individual members of an occupation to see both the futility and the evil of their policy. We seek their refusal to continue to obey unjust orders. The revelation of what life could be like, both in material abundance and political freedom, coupled with the opportunity among friendly people to escape, would be a powerful motivation to desertion. We have hardly begun to understand what propaganda could mean on our side in such a case.
To those who doubt that our people could sustain such a policy, and overcome their own hate and fear, I would suggest instilling the simple truth that the soldier of the occupation army is a human being under pressure from the dictatorship [who sent him, and is in need of healing]. Once a person sees himself as the doctor in the doctor-patient relationship, it is far easier to practice self-control and follow the Golden Rule. The few pioneers who have broken through the hate and fear barrier are making it increasingly clear that love and goodwill can actually work miracles, that no man is ever totally depraved.
At the worst, the cost of using “weapons of love” would be a long, costly struggle over a generation or two. We should be prepared to suffer ourselves, having the real hope that the enemy would ultimately be conquered. No tyranny is free from laws of change that operate throughout history, upsetting all attempts to perpetuate a static system. At best, the virus of civil disobedience & love of liberty would spread through the occupying troops & spread to their homeland & destroy dictatorship. Even at its worst who can believe that atomic war would be better? It appears more reasonable to conclude that the peaceful change of Communism into a more desirable form of government would be the highly probable result of a policy of disarmament & passive resistance.
“Seek Ye 1st the Kingdom of God”—Passive resistance’s maximum effectiveness rests upon its adoption as a way of life. Our hope is in a revitalized & spiritually strengthened people able to derive full benefits from a reasonably complete program like the one described here. This isn't to say that all the nation’s people must operate on a saintly level, or even a majority. A minority of dedicated & selfless people can carry a heavy part of the nation's load. Such [spiritual] leadership lifts the moral & religious level of the whole nation perceptibly. The application of passive resistance to racial discrimination would advance us in finding a creative solution to it.
History is remolded only by those who dedicate [their whole lives to a vision]. There comes a time when partial goodness is a terrible sin. Personal purification is desirable, but it should never be mistaken for the event we call Pentecost, for history-making epochs when people have seen God’s hand working to redeem a world. The outlines of the work to be done must appear dimly before men can be asked to dedicate their lives to it.
The Art of the Possible—Is there the possibility that such a radical change to a foreign policy of [disarmament & passive resistance] can be accomplished? History has many examples of changes that most people & even experts of the time, have repudiated as not possible. It must also be recorded that the way was beset by doubts, discouragements & ridicule. The alternatives to this method are increasingly so hopeless that more & more people can be expected to join the enlarging ranks of those few [opposing] reliance on atomic weapons.
The next encouraging sign is that the principle of passive resistance & nonviolence is practiced in more & more spheres of life [e.g. mental hygiene, prison reform, race relations]. Gandhi demonstrated masses of people can be won to the use of the principle & accomplish some success. A large percentage of people who studied this principle have accepted it. There is a period of slow growth while a kind of bandwagon movement develops. If this program is based on truth, it will more & more commend itself to thoughtful people. Personal reading, investigation & presentation of this principle throughout America is needed. It is our responsibility to do all that we are able, leaving the issue of our efforts in God’s hands to be worked out in the long history of humankind.
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269. THE SEED AND THE TREE: A Reflection on Non-violence (by Daniel A. Seeger; 1986) About the Author—Daniel A. Seeger became a conscientious objector (CO) to military service during the Korean War after reading Gandhi in a required “Contemporary Civilization” course in college. His challenge became the Supreme Court case The USA vs. Daniel A. Seeger, which broadened the basis for religious objection to military service. He serves as Regional Exec. Secretary to the New York American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). This essay addresses the theory of “just revolution” which has found expression in the corporate activities and statements of Friends’ bodies and agencies.
To free ourselves from established violence without appealing to armed violence requires us to adopt positive, courageous, dynamic, effective nonviolent action… Non-violence must walk with its eyes on heaven, but its feet on the ground. Dom Helder Camara
Being peacemakers is essentially an affair of the heart, rather than of the mind. We shall not debate each other into the ways of love. For we touch people’s hearts not by what we debate with them about, but rather by the quality of our being. Daniel A. Seeger
“The whole Gandhian concept of nonviolent action and satyagraha is incomprehensible if it is thought to be a means of achieving unity rather than as the fruit of inner unity already achieved.” Thomas Merton
Introduction—There are critical moments in history when it becomes necessary to refocus on the basic insights and renew the gifts of the Spirit which inform our approach to social realities and authentic expressions of the Truth. [Currently] the way of nonviolence has become blurred and its strategies uncertain. Gandhi and King have advanced the nonviolent cause, but transformation of Indian society and the struggle for full equality [are incomplete]. Contemporary history’s chaos has sown uncertainty among well-meaning people longing for justice. What does it mean to be committed to the way of nonviolence?
Skepticism Bred of Compassion—A South American woman was impressed with Nicaraguan revolution, especially neighborhood councils that had been the Revolution’s backbone. She came to believe that not to pick up arms & act in self-defense is unethical. Another Latin American said: “True violence doesn’t lie in someone resisting oppression, but in starving wages & expulsion of farmers from their land… Today the Church is changing & is working with labor movement to bring about justice. It is working with the farmers to save their land.
One of the most significant dialogues grows out of the encounters of leaders & people of Latin American Church with oppression in their countries, & the liberation theology movement. Cardinal Paulo Everisto Arns, Archbishop of Sao Paulo said: The real power of a revolution is moral, & if it doesn’t have that the revolution doesn’t exist. Violence isolates. I cannot say [to the poor] ‘I’d rather see you all dead than to see you defend yourselves’ [with violence]. If they have no training in nonviolence, won’t they be led to respond with violence?
Dom Helder Camara, Recife, Brazil’s archbishop said: “To free ourselves from established violence without appealing to armed violence requires positive, courageous, dynamic, effective nonviolent action … Non-violence must walk with its eyes on heaven, but its feet on the ground.” Ernesto Cardenal was Nicaraguan Catholic priest, Sandinista, poet, politician, liberation theologian, Trappist Monk. He said: “We would prefer there not be fighting in Nicaragua; this is not the fault of the pueblo, the oppressed, who only defend themselves.”
Peter Matheson took the fruits of labor and thoughts of some 20 people and wrote [excerpt follows]: “Christians agree that: some forms of violence are never justified (e.g. torture, conquest, oppression); churches and resistance movements alike have not explored adequately the strategies and effectiveness of nonviolence in the struggle for a just society; nonviolence should not be seen as a morally unambiguous, uncontroversial and apolitical form of action, or as one that necessarily excludes others.”
“In “revolutionary situations,” the majority are either accepting of the “just revolution” concept, or believing that peace and justice cannot be obtained by violent means. Martin Luther King and Helder Camara believe that Christians and other men are bound to work for peace and justice here on earth. In come cases their nonviolence is a provisional option and represents a conviction that violence can only legitimately be used as a last resort and that nonviolent options are still open and have rarely been used on a large and systematic scale.”
“Those willing to sanction violence for a just revolution are represented by the writers Camillo Torres, Richard Schaull, James Cone, and by the contemporary Christians Abel Muzorewa, Robert Mugabe, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda in Southern Africa. These 2 options are in some ways much closer to each other than earlier “pacifist” and “just war” position. A confessional chasm lies between those on the side of liberation and those who support the oppressive structures of the status quo.”
The Church and the Gospel of Peace—It is commonly accepted that the 1st Christians understood pacifism to be an integral part of their faith. [In Matthew 5:38-48, Jesus explains how to “love your enemy]. This passage is only one of many which unambiguously sets forth a non-violent ethic. People were not accepted into the Christian community unless they renounced taking part in any function whose processes were ultimately enforced by weaponry. Constantine I [the Great] began the process over an 80 year period of co-opting a fledgling spiritual movement by “the establishment” in an attempt to regenerate itself.
A certain schizophrenic character within the Christian community throughout its subsequent history is accounted for by dividing the clergy from the laity (a distinction unknown in the earlier Church). The clergy tended to maintain a personal code of nonviolence, while in un-Christlike fashion blessing the organized violence of diverse temporal powers during the course of Western history. The prospect that the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America may now be shaking itself loose from a centuries-old collaboration with repressive oligarchies kindles the imagination. Vatican Council II, provided a precedent for reviewing the Church’s mission.
There are 2 paths down which the Church could conceivably proceed: a recommitment to its vast constituency of the oppressed poor while translating its 17 centuries of just war theory into a just revolution theory, or it could recommit to the poor & return to the Gospel of Peace as practiced in primitive Christianity. It is tempting to canonize as non-violent heroes persons whose approach is actually consistent with the just war theory. It is easy to misappropriate the good names of Gandhi, King, & Merton & to choose selectively from their teachings.
Judgmentalism and Solidarity—A 1st step for developing a truly nonviolent sensibility is to stop being judgmental. During WW II many people who are still active in the American Friends Service Committee refused to participate in a violent struggle against evil German and Japanese fascism. I think I would have found that they were not sitting in judgment of those participating in the military effort, [or even the Germans or the Japanese]. Condemnation has no part in a truly peaceable outlook. If our minds are full of hatred and condemnation, this ultimately will be expressed in acts of violence and destruction and murder.
A feeling of pride at having come to understandings which are not yet widely grasped is also corrupting; it disables us as instruments of Truth. For how can one take credit for the experiences one has been given. We should not congratulate ourselves or each other for superior wisdom. True prophets never take credit for the wisdom it is given them to speak. Guilt is another form of judgmentalism which is equally fatal. It is not even necessary to be morosely preoccupied with one’s own past lapses from virtue. [If we dwell on such things] our spirits will grow coarse, our hearts stubborn and we will be overcome with gloom.
[If we manage to avoid all these traps] we are left with an overwhelming feeling of solidarity. We begin to get a glimmer of the whole of humankind as but one family. Such solidarity is not real unless it is given concrete expression in the way we behave toward the specific individual human beings whom life brings across our path. Love of neighbor is the basis not only of Christ’s teachings, but also of all other great spiritual teachings. The Bhagavad Gita says: “Who burns with the bliss and suffers the sorrow of every creature within his own heart, making his own each bliss and each sorrow; him I hold the highest of all sages.” Does loving everyone mean assenting to everything they say? Does it relativize our search for Truth?
The Discernment of Truth—Once it is clearly established that our love for our fellow human beings is not a function of their beliefs and attitudes, it no longer becomes necessary to betray the truth by pretending that the diverse ideas of everyone within some arbitrarily defined “in group” are equally valid. The nonviolent sensibility believes in a credible alternative to the spiritual and intellectual conditions which exist; the task is to create it, not compromise it. To find a way out of the present impasse will require a calm and lucid pursuit of Truth, unencumbered by sentimentalism, guilt, or comradeship at the expense of honesty. Seeking the Truth with impartiality, trying to live the Truth as clearly as we know how, and speaking the Truth without ego investment, is always a service. We should move forward with a new confidence that to pursue the Truth is the 1st and noblest objective, and 2nd is to encourage the sound of Truth.
Pragmatism in Perspective—When people try to compare the costs and the results of violent and nonviolent programs, a profound bias creeps into the discussion. [Since risky, bloody, imperfect, and even unsuccessful crusades are the accepted norm], people arguing nonviolence often appear to be on the defensive if they cannot demonstrate to skeptics’ satisfaction that nonviolent action will work as if by magic and be without human cost. When dealing with the pragmatic aspects of nonviolence, we must recognize the biases that allow for loss of life in weighing the effective use of violence and prohibits any when judging nonviolent strategies.
One of the difficulties we face in conducting pragmatic appraisals is that it is impossible to run through history twice. [Because of the unchangeable fact of history], arguments based upon pragmatic considerations are apt to degenerate into wishful thinking on the part of all those in the discussion. Pacifist armchair philosophers are not immune from the “rose-colored glasses” syndrome. With nonviolence having been tried relatively infrequently, the facts of real experience are much less available to encumber the imagination.
Throughout history people have varied in their readiness to resort to arms & in their creativity in perceiving alternative courses of action before a resort to violence appeared inevitable. The pacifist understands that the arena of social utility assessments is an inadequate one in which finally to secure one’s convictions either for or against nonviolence. It is beyond pragmatism that nonviolent people locate the well-springs of their commitment.
The Reality of the Spiritual Realm—The universe we see is but a series of tokens representing a deeper reality, a reality of spirit and meaning. As human beings we have a still imperfectly developed capacity to experience the spirituality underlying and permeating all that we know with the senses. This special layer of being has to do with areas of reality which are uniquely human and which do not have, nor ever will have intellectually precise delineation. Whether this special human level of functioning be called wisdom, or enlightenment, or compassion, it is a capacity without which the human race clearly will not survive.
The peacemaker knows that the good will never be assured once and for all by one heroic act, or by one final war to make the world safe for democracy. War drives whole populations to one side or the other into in-soluble dichotomies. [Not seeing the enemy as evil] becomes criminal. Fortitude equals fanaticism; all the sinners will be wiped out. Thus is violence humankind’s descent to the lower levels of being. Being peacemakers is essentially an affair of the heart, rather than of the mind. We shall not debate each other into the ways of love. For we touch people’s hearts not by what we debate with them about, but rather by the quality of our being.
The higher capacity of human nature to transcend the insoluble dichotomies is the beyond the power of manipulation. [Theorizing about how to affect the future and ignoring the present moment is a wasted effort]. Each moment affords a choice between life and death, between good and evil. All to which we aspire can find expression in time present. Indeed, there is no time but this present.
No Time but this Present—In our society where worth is equated with productivity, patient action is very difficult. It is easy for activists to forget that their vocation is not to give visibility to their own powers, but to give witness in a free, joyful, and grateful way to the power of Truth. Work for the future is not based on anxiety, but on a vision worthwhile in the present. The nonviolent sensibility will steadfastly renounce a calculus which weighs the absolutes of death and destruction in the present against the uncertain promise of relative social advancement in the future. The most difficult thing for well-meaning people to come to terms with is the reality that it may not be for them to see or significantly help with lifting the oppression from people to whom they reach out in loving service. Inevitably, untruthful means of seeking of the same results will seem seductive.
How do we develop our capacity for seeking and expressing Truth? The various practices have in common the cultivation of a capacity for impartiality. William James said: “Practice may change our theoretical horizon; it may lead into new worlds and secure new powers.” In practice, what Isaac Penington called “the wanderings and rovings of the mind” are stilled. Inner silence is a way of becoming poor [beggars] in spirit, which brings the practitioner close to the Kingdom of God. Through our inner silence we create a small space in our hearts where the seed of eternal things, which is already within, can come to the fore and can establish the solid foundation on which all right living and true peace is based.
[Our part to play in Creation] is held out to us, and it is always suited to our external condition and our inner resources. Bhagavad Gita says: “One attains perfection when his work is the worship of God from whom all things come and who is in all.” [We don’t have to go to a Central American jungle, or be in a South African prison to do our work]. We can reduce our recreational consumption of gasoline, or buy local. To paraphrase [the Buddhist] Hui Neng: “The truth is to be lived; it is not to be merely pronounced with the mouth.” St. Francis of Assisi said: “One possesses only so much wisdom as he puts into practice.” Among the range of options available there is one which is suitable to our present spiritual resources and our practical circumstances, and which we can choose if we are not oblivious to it and choose another by default.
Creation’s Lawfulness—The nonviolent sensibility sees the universe as one governed by law. But a close reading of the great prophets of nonviolence discloses that they are careful not to promise that those practicing the way of Truth will see concrete results. Salvation or nirvana may be promised: the reward of visible historical impact is not. Thomas Merton said: “The whole Gandhian concept of nonviolent action and satyagraha is incomprehensible if it is thought to be a means of achieving unity rather than as the fruit of inner unity already achieved… When seen only as useful in achieving political independence, no inner peace is achieved, no inner unity, only the same divisions, the conflicts & the scandals that were ripping the rest of the world to pieces.
The search for “political results” or “social change” has caused a grave erosion in the authenticity of nonviolent practice among activists in our time. At the time they were martyred, both Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. were in danger of being overwhelmed even by those among their own constituents who were seeking results rather than Truth.
There will be times when our work will affect the course of human events for the better in spectacular ways; there will be other times when the most clearly conceived and purely motivated works will appear to be submerged unnoticed by the wave of history. A truly nonviolent sensibility sees the stamp of eternity even in the smallest project, and this sense of appropriateness is immediate; it does not depend upon results upon the completion of causal chains stretching into the future, for its realization. Cesar Chavez and the many women and men who had joined him in the campaign for Proposition 14 (farm workers’ right to organize) were so convinced of the righteousness of their actions that the final results became secondary to the value of the action itself. They felt there were reasons to celebrate and to be grateful even when the proposition did not pass.
On the inner, spiritual level, the nonviolent sensibility conceives its actions of witness to the Truth as the giving of a gift. That gift in personal affairs is pure which is given without expectation of results, but which is given because of the fitness of the gift at the time. In the inward being of the practitioner, nonviolent action has the character of such a gift, offered because of its fitness as an expression, and not as a stratagem for having one’s way with the unfolding drama of existence.
Knowing that there is no time but this present, the nonviolent sensibility stops to listen, to wait and look, to taste and see, to pay attention and to be awake. The tyranny of past, present, and future gives way to a joyful awareness of the eternal now, of how universal and eternal things are revealed and can be fully apprehended in the present moment. The nonviolent sensibility is an unshakeable commitment to make of ourselves a free gift to that Spirit which patiently awaits our discovery of its power and beauty.
274. Nonviolence on Trial (by Robert W. Hillegass; 1987)
about the author—Robert Hillegrass writes: “The earliest seeds for my exploration of nonviolence were sown at Swarthmore college… Each of us is responsible for life” [Aside from family life-experience] the chief preparation for this account was participation in nonviolent direct actions of the peace group Ailanthus. Friends who read the jail log encouraged him to give a more complete account of his experience with non-violence.
preface—Here I will give an account of personal experiences with nonviolent thinking & acting that took place over a 9-year period. Then I want to describe the process by which I learned that truth can be mediated through action, in the absence of a fully formed faith position. Acting out nonviolent witness for peace provided for rediscovery of Quaker Peace Testimony. Some kinds of truth can only be known through direct experience.
The actions I describe in this paper are small-scale & low-risk by most standards; I believe that faithfully undertaken, any nonviolent action can evoke the same inner dynamics & yield the same insights & conclusions as any other. Because nuclear genie has taken command of so many areas of our lives & deadened sensibilities, I have come to regard nonviolent resistance to militarism as something very close to a self-evident responsibility for Friends & other Christians. Simple living, reconciliation, efforts at self-empowering economics, improving race relations, legislative initiatives, protest & resistance all become integral aspects of a complete peace witness.
Your works, your works, they are your discovery.” William Tomlinson
We live truth into being in tacit partnership with God.
One cornerstone conviction [must be] that the principle of love is reality grounded in Being itself; it is latent reality that always needs to be called into existence anew by individuals’ active faith. Robert Hillegrass
stirrings of change—[I read an article by James Douglass, Catholic theologian/ activist], which described his 5-year witness against the Trident submarine by prayer, fasting, & nonviolent civil disobedience. What struck me [most] was his unwavering faith in the invincible power of nonviolent, suffering love to prevail over the nuclear threat & the world’s alienation. Confronted with the integrity of Douglass’ witness, I was stopped in my spiritual tracks. It was some time before I was ready to try to change my life by taking my first nonviolent action.
What is the problem or evil we are addressing? Is it the trident submarine, nuclear weapons, or something even deeper & more pervasive? The age-old human lusts to possess and control, now [elevated and magnified] in demonic, unmanageable technologies, threaten apocalyptic consequences of all kinds. The nuclear arms race is both sustained and necessitated by the inflated living styles of vast numbers of Americans. Because the root problem was spiritual, the disorder reached into every area of our lives, making it a crisis of civilization.
Change would have to begin with me—starting with my personal relations & habits of consumption. Neither reason nor prudence could avail to stop the arms race which was premised on absurd contradictions rooted in fear. It was becoming clearer that in our militarized society traditional channels of dissent could no longer be used to change nuclear policy. Not to resist was to acquiesce, & to acquiesce was to be complicit. [The spiritual shift needed] was the understanding that I was inextricably joined in the web of creation itself.
Ernest Becker writes that we human have 2 opposite drives: to assert ourselves as individuals who matter & can make a difference in the world, & to feel that we are giving ourselves to the eternal purposes & processes of a Higher Reality within the universe. For me, nonviolent direct action eventually came to satisfy Becker’s conditions better than anything else. I have found a number of ways of bridging [my separation from the rest of creation that involve seeking personal connection with people in need, & attentiveness to what is going on around me in creation]. All of this was preparation for personal witness but preparation of a kind that is never finished.
ailanthus: the first action—Paul, a Quaker friend, & several others had called together friends to form a nonviolent peace community. Focus of the witness would be Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, where the work was to design 1st-strike guidance systems for the Trident, cruise and MX missiles. This group of Friends and Catholics and others agreed to meet every Sunday evening for prayer, meditation, and study of non-violent texts (Gospels, Gandhi, and Tolstoy. Every Monday morning, we would go to Draper to conduct a silent vigil with signs and banners, sometimes accompanied by leaflets. By our willingness to risk arrest in carrying out our witness, we hoped to testify that there was a higher power than the weapons in which we could all place our trust.
I joined Ailanthus, full of anxiety & incredulity. I was embarking on a course with unforeseeable consequences. Risking arrest & jail frightened me partly because of what I knew about the eventuality, but even more for what I didn’t. After watching & being deeply affected by a film about Hiroshima, taken the day the bomb was dropped, we felt compelled to re-enact in some way the Hiroshima experience for Draper people, [who may have detached themselves from the consequences of developing a guidance system for a nuclear weapon]. With the names of Hiroshima victims pinned to our torn & soot-streaked clothes, we lay as people dead or dying, crying out for help or water. The witness, in plain view of Draper workers, ended with the living carrying out “the dead.” I felt joyous liberation, the freedom that flows from acting out of conscience in spite of risks. Nor was I prepared for the euphoria of breaking free from isolation of being connected in a powerful way with all of humanity. I knew the immense potential of nonviolence. I knew it experimentally.
a new order in the court—During the following Advent season, along with a dozen other Ailanthus members, I was arrested for trespass in the Draper Courtyard; we all received suspended sentences. Two years later, I was in Cambridge district court again, along with 3 other Ailanthus friends. The state filed a motion to prevent us from testifying to our motives, our religious convictions, or our knowledge of the work done at the lab.
[From our preparation] for trial, we emerged with essentially two goals: to witness to the loving presence of God in ourselves and all others in court; and to defend what seemed to us to be the self-evident human right to act nonviolently to try to preserve life. We had determined to go pro se, i.e. represent our selves to make clear that our reason for being in court was to witness to the truth, rather than to “win” the case.
The state 1st called the arresting officers & the Draper security people to testify; we were on a 1st-name basis with some. They clearly had no heart for arresting us, but [they] “had their job to do.” As what we testified overstepped the constraints of the in limine motion, the District Attorney had objected immediately. The judge on his part became afflicted with a odd sort of “blindness.” He would allow the D.A. to stand for a long time with her objection before he “saw” her. It wasn’t long before the jury & everyone else in the courtroom knew exactly what the real issue was: the right of citizens to call attention to the government’s genocidal nuclear policy.
Within an hour the jury was back with a “guilty” verdict. To our astonishment the foreman then asked to read a statement. They found us guilty “only under narrowest interpretation of the law,” & the case “raised deep moral & philosophical questions that urgently need the widest possible public discussion.” The judge offered the alternative sentence of community service. We each responded individually. I acknowledged the judge’s partnership in our witness, but said I could not accept any penalty, because I was innocent. [My codefendants joined in my response]; we stood crying in each other’s arms. The judge told us he was refusing to execute sentence until we had taken 6 weeks to consider appealing the case. We appealed in order to carry our witness to a higher level of judiciary. The ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court of MA affirmed the verdict of the lower court & established the necessity defense as legally available to defendants in MA under a number of stringent conditions.
some problems of witness—A decision to witness brings up difficult questions: Why [call me to witness] rather than someone more gifted? Since I enjoy American privileges & advantages, am I not personally responsible for what my nation does? The US has claimed legal right to a 1st-strike nuclear policy. In so doing, it stands self-convicted of “crimes against humanity” under Nuremberg definitions. Have I not a civil & a religious duty to resist the policy by all nonviolent means possible? How can I presume to speak for God to my fellows? To the extent that we are unexceptional & complicit, God gives us a charter, to witness.
[There is a conflict, for] on the one hand we want to “name the evil” On the other, we labor to separate the deed from the doer, who is sister or brother & at least as open to divine influence as I am. We feel impelled to dialogue with our adversaries, to try to win them over by love & reason to be reconciled. This strain of witness leads to what might be called “peace evangelism,” an effort to move together toward a world without weapons.
The resolution of this conflict is to be found in the prophets’ compassionate identification with and anguished outcry on behalf of the suffering of innocents. Unlike some of the group’s members whose lives are devoted to direct service to the sick, the hungry and the homeless in the inner city, I remain very much a suburbanite with the usual attachments and obligations of that way of living. My wife became a silent but effective partner in my peace witness [by becoming the sole breadwinner]. [In my Wellesley Friends Meeting] I have laid upon Friends the call to nonviolent action, [sometimes cheerfully], sometimes a bit obstinately. Individuals and the Meeting offered support for some of the court costs. [I have been led] to a better understanding of the connections between nonviolent resistance and the Quaker Peace Testimony.
siftings and sightings—I have discovered what I believe by acting. The early Quaker William Tomlinson wrote: “Your works, your works, they are your discovery.” We live truth into being in tacit partnership with God. I discovered that it was only in the process of giving myself to an action I felt impelled to take that I began to appropriate truths that until then had been little more than Sunday morning commonplaces for me.
[Then], there is the need to overcome one’s own inner violence, which may take the subtler forms of competition, personal domination, or manipulation. In prison, the emotional needs of other prisoners and the overriding need to maintain a calm and humane atmosphere provide constant opportunities for self-forgetful, creative actions. I found that in an anesthetized society, the witness helped to keep me in touch with reality; witnessing has kept me whole and alive. Ernest Becker said: “The only secure truth men have is that which they themselves create and dramatize; to live is to play at the meaning of life.” Such an approach to expanding our minds and spirits is what is required of us humans if we are to evolve spiritually.
Nonviolence as a political act cannot be said to “work”; as practiced by religious persons it is not a tactic for change, but a spiritual response grounded in a transcendent faith. Gandhi said: “We must renounce the fruits of our actions in advance.” Nonviolence rejects the secular, pragmatic approach that begins with a goal & then searches for the most “effective,” way of reaching it. Nonviolent faith holds that means & ends are inseparable; the latter grows out of the former as “fruit out of a seed.” It is to be used “as an instrument of peace.”
I have formed a working belief that nonviolence is most likely to flourish over the long term when it issues from a small community of faith [made up of autonomous, self-directed individuals]. Such faith communities, combining resistance with experiments in simple living, might well provide nuclei for a new society, if the present one meets catastrophe. What is need now is a growing network of such communities. One cornerstone conviction [must be] that the principle of love is a reality grounded in Being itself; it is only a latent reality that always needs to be called into existence anew by the faith of individuals expressed in action. It is clear that it is we who are on trial; it is only by our active witness that we can hope to keep this Court alive and in session.
275. The Needle’s Eye: (by Carol Reilley Urner; 1987)
About the Author—During the last 21 years Carol Reilley Urner has moved with her family around the world while her husband, Jack has served as a consultant to governments in Libya, the Philippines, Egypt, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. She has work as a grassroots volunteer with [the dispossessed]. Her activities in 4 countries have led to FWCC Right Sharing of World Resources projects there. This pamphlet contains the un-delivered portions of her experiences given after her 1986 talk on “The Spirit, The Light, and The Way.”
Normally, I avoid confrontation. Terrified, I took the first steps. I felt a strength not my own that helped me keep my balance. If I could keep faithful I would reach the other side. Carol Reilley Urner
Our lives can only be of use in this world if we dwell in the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, stay in the Light, & walk firmly in the Way he showed us: [with the poor], in love, truth, purity & humility. I know that I still have a long, long way to grow. Carol Reilley Urner
And I was to bring (people) off/ from all the world’s fellowships/ and prayings and singings/which stood in forms without power … that they might pray in the Holy Ghost,/ and sing in the spirit/ and with the grace that comes by Jesus,/ making melody in their hearts to the Lord.” George Fox
1-2—I found myself thrust in the midst of controversy between church & state & between martial law dictatorship & rebels inspired by Chinese Maoists. What I learned inwardly & spiritually moved me closer to the gospel root of my Quaker faith. Each of us must be honed & purified [by God] if we are to be of use. We had lived 4 years in the Philippines, our 1st experience as “isolated friends.” My husband was a UN planning consultant.
We were forced to realize that what we called Quaker simplicity” was not simplicity at all: we were very wealthy in a poor world. We were part of the 1st world shielded from [the poor] within an armed fortress. I recognized the evil, but did not have the moral strength to radically change my family’s life style. I volunteered as a teacher in a slum community, & became part of an advocacy and self-help organization working with Manila’s squatter communities. In the absence of supportive Friends, I turned to John Woolman. I also met Filipino Catholic sisters, & Protestant lay workers who accepted poverty in order to stand beside the poorest in their struggle.
3-4—My husband took me to visit a Catholic mission to the isolated T’boli people. I found myself responding to the emphasis on the “raw Gospel” shorn of doctrine, & its sensitivity to tribal culture. [The culture had been respected, taught, & even introduced into the Mass]. [Land was retrieved from exploiters & malnutrition was reversed]. That night we heard the guns. PANAMIN had armed non-Christian tribal people. 4 years of martial law convinced me that Penn was right in saying good government discourages violence in settling disputes.
At an US embassy dinner I learned that the Philippine government planned a severe crackdown on church outreach to tribal peoples; 160 nuns, priests, & lay workers were to be imprisoned or deported. [I went home & meditated]. Suddenly it was as though a powerful hand gripped my neck, & shoved me to the floor, forcing me down into the depths of despair. [I experienced more than just my own grief in a timeless fashion]. Only the spirit & way of Jesus & Gandhi, Woolman & Fox could make sense in all this violence, intrigue & exploitation.
My own weakness and errors, the presence of roots of war and oppression could not shield me from the demands I suddenly felt placed upon me. I had to try to follow in that way, and draw others with me into it. And so I rushed in where I had no business going, no outside authorization. Whatever moved inwardly in me was moving in others as well. I found unexpected new friends every step along the way.
5-7—My 1st leading was to take steps to protect the T’boli mission from attack. A few phone calls & personal visits pulled into place a network of “friends” from the international community, offering real & moral support. Moves to deport, imprison, or introduce guns became embarrassments for the government. Powers of government were being used by the ruling class to gain control of natural resources to develop for their own profit.
I sensed clearly the need to organize. I insisted that whatever we did must be in the spirit of nonviolence; this was accepted, even though my husband and I were probably the only ones involved with a thorough pacifist commitment. How could we insure that the voices of tribal people would be heard above those of others like ourselves who too often sought to speak for them? A friend pointed that our best alternative to violence lay in the creation of sound legal structures; we should begin as a legal body ourselves. The Philippine Association for Intercultural Development (PAFID) still existed as a registered non-profit organization. All we had to do was summon the old board. I served as the 1st chairperson because no Filipino cared to risk the post. As PAFID grew in strength Filipinos assumed more and more of the visible leadership positions.
During those early weeks I was inwardly striving for balance, seeking to live with unfamiliar power & energy surging through me that seemed from a source other than myself. The Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines, including conservatives who previously urged cooperation, joined in unanimous disapproval of government harassment of tribal peoples. The Jesuit Bishop Claver, a son of proud mountain tribesmen, called for truth-speaking & nonviolent non-cooperation with the government, boycotting referendums & praying in the streets.
Though I was undoubtedly one of the least apt and experienced members of PAFID, I continued to hold a disproportionate authority within it; partly because I had drawn it together, but also because my husband was its chief funder the 1st 2 years. I insisted on 2 policies: truthfulness and openness; [speaking to that of God in every-one, including the opposition]. Even in the unbalanced director of PANAMIN and in the dictator Marcos the seed of God lay hidden under evil and corruption. It was a martial law colonel who helped us find our way through the jungle of government power and who became one of our most effective advocates. Normally, I avoid confrontation. Terrified, I took the first steps. I felt a strength not my own that helped me keep my balance. If I could keep faithful I would reach the other side.
8-9—Soon tribal people, sometimes barefoot, came into our tiny unfurnished office. We went through their problems & looked for 1st steps to take. A group of negritos were forced from a plantation after complaining of being cheated at the plantation store. The sisters secured church land & PAFID found a grant for self-help housing. Other problems [had to do] with the lack of protection against predators high in the power pyramid.
The tribals’ claims to “ancestral lands” were ignored, and such lands were decreed under government control. One tribal group had stumbled on a formula that seemed to protect their lands even under martial law. The Kalahan formed into a legal corporation and signed a lease. For the government to break the lease, would have called into question the legality of similar contracts held [by those exploiting resources for profit]. Even such a government must operate within its own legal framework, or risk chaos; the experiment continued and flourished. Their success pointed a way to other tribal groups. The search for land contracts combined with simple development assistance and self-help projects [became a consistent PAFID policy]. Each group chose its own approaches. It interested me to find that the groups themselves almost universally preferred nonviolence.
[One tribe resisted replacement of a duly elected mayor with a Marcos crony]. [A dam that would flood ancestral lands was resisted by a petition]. [Since they could not] publicize their petition in the censored press, it was printed on hand bills & circulated widely throughout the Philippines; the flood never came. A PAFID engineer visited the area & determined that the soil couldn’t support the proposed dam. Other PAFID members won a moratorium on surveying & construction, & a series of dialogues between would-be dam builders & the tribal peoples on their own ground. PAFID & tribal peoples faced many other threatening challenges for 2 years.
10-12—The Marcos government had developed a scheme for a vast timber farm in northern Luzon. [It involved virgin forest being cut] and a Caribbean pine, as yet untested in the Philippines. The plan seemed ecologically unsound, and ignored the existence of 60,000 tribal people in the province. Both the corporation officers and the tribal people were approached. A repugnance toward the whole operation grew rapidly. Marxists were among the insurgents that moved into the area to exploit the situation. [Both a priest and university student argued for revolution and said that nonviolence would not work]. [I felt that we may be asked to die for the salvation of an “enemy,” but we ourselves cannot kill. Nor can we condone killing. But I knew that these were only words and words are not enough. We are required to show the way with our own lives.
My own arguments for nonviolence still made sense to some, but there was not the moral force to hold us together, or give clear direction. I saw with terrible clarity that I had been of use to this point, but could be used no further. Why should [violent young Maoists] heed my cries to “love also the oppressor” when I myself seemed too much a beneficiary of oppression? What moral challenge did corporate official see in my life, when I risked little and already possessed the affluence for which they strove? [The time drew near for me to leave, and I hated to go]. I found only one—Bishop Claver—with an equally deep commitment to gospel teachings on nonviolence. Could PAFID possibly survive as a witness, however feeble, to another way?
One day I called on an aide to the US ambassador who 1st said there was no way to hold an American multi-national accountable for forcing tribal people off their land. He then spent 15 minutes earnestly outlining a plan for nonviolent action which he thought I might initiate among Filipinos I knew in order to bring pressure on such firms & Congress to develop an enforceable ethical code. A brave young magazine editor turned over a whole issue to PAFID & we told the story of the nonviolent struggles of tribal peoples for justice in a dozen articles.
During next few months in the US, I looked for Friends who might help Filipinos find alternative to civil war. I found in the Fellowship Of Reconciliation the understanding & response I sought. PAFID [slipped into dormancy 2 months after I left, a victim of internal factional disputes]. 2 years later, on a short visit, a group of us once more revived the organization; the Maoists agreed to remain outside it. In the ensuing years, PAFID, led by Filipino tribal people & courageous friends, played an increasingly effective role in the struggle for a just society.
In spite of [Marcos having Claver’s priests murdered, parishioners imprisoned, and his radio station shut down], the little Bishop would not be silenced. Ninoy Aquino, Marcos’ chief political opponent, had encountered Gandhi. His dramatic martyrdom launched a rapidly building revolution, with his widow as its chosen leader. In February of 1986 the remarkable and bloodless revolution of the Filipino occurred.
As hard as it was for me to leave the Philippines in early 1979, the time had come for me to go. There were others far better equipped inwardly than I to take the next steps required for nonviolent social change. For me, more plowing & harrowing was need. The needle’s eye [through which to enter God’s Kingdom] is closed to those of us who hold wealth to ourselves, to the self-interested, or the self-indulgent. Our lives can only be of use in this world if we dwell in the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, stay in the Light, & walk firmly in the Way he showed us: [with the poor], in love, truth, purity & humility. I know that I still have a long, long way to grow. http://www.pendlehill.org/product-c...
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322. Nonviolence and Community: Reflections on the Alternatives to Violence Project (By Newton Garver & Eric Reitan; 1995)
269. THE SEED AND THE TREE: A Reflection on Non-violence (by Daniel A. Seeger; 1986)
To free ourselves from established violence without appealing to armed violence requires us to adopt positive, courageous, dynamic, effective nonviolent action… Non-violence must walk with its eyes on heaven, but its feet on the ground. Dom Helder Camara
Being peacemakers is essentially an affair of the heart, rather than of the mind. We shall not debate each other into the ways of love. For we touch people’s hearts not by what we debate with them about, but rather by the quality of our being. Daniel A. Seeger
“The whole Gandhian concept of nonviolent action and satyagraha is incomprehensible if it is thought to be a means of achieving unity rather than as the fruit of inner unity already achieved.” Thomas Merton
Introduction—There are critical moments in history when it becomes necessary to refocus on the basic insights and renew the gifts of the Spirit which inform our approach to social realities and authentic expressions of the Truth. [Currently] the way of nonviolence has become blurred and its strategies uncertain. Gandhi and King have advanced the nonviolent cause, but transformation of Indian society and the struggle for full equality [are incomplete]. Contemporary history’s chaos has sown uncertainty among well-meaning people longing for justice. What does it mean to be committed to the way of nonviolence?
Skepticism Bred of Compassion—A South American woman was impressed with Nicaraguan revolution, especially neighborhood councils that had been the Revolution’s backbone. She came to believe that not to pick up arms & act in self-defense is unethical. Another Latin American said: “True violence doesn’t lie in someone resisting oppression, but in starving wages & expulsion of farmers from their land… Today the Church is changing & is working with labor movement to bring about justice. It is working with the farmers to save their land.
One of the most significant dialogues grows out of the encounters of leaders & people of Latin American Church with oppression in their countries, & the liberation theology movement. Cardinal Paulo Everisto Arns, Archbishop of Sao Paulo said: The real power of a revolution is moral, & if it doesn’t have that the revolution doesn’t exist. Violence isolates. I cannot say [to the poor] ‘I’d rather see you all dead than to see you defend yourselves’ [with violence]. If they have no training in nonviolence, won’t they be led to respond with violence?
Dom Helder Camara, Recife, Brazil’s archbishop said: “To free ourselves from established violence without appealing to armed violence requires positive, courageous, dynamic, effective nonviolent action … Non-violence must walk with its eyes on heaven, but its feet on the ground.” Ernesto Cardenal was Nicaraguan Catholic priest, Sandinista, poet, politician, liberation theologian, Trappist Monk. He said: “We would prefer there not be fighting in Nicaragua; this is not the fault of the pueblo, the oppressed, who only defend themselves.”
Peter Matheson took the fruits of labor and thoughts of some 20 people and wrote [excerpt follows]: “Christians agree that: some forms of violence are never justified (e.g. torture, conquest, oppression); churches and resistance movements alike have not explored adequately the strategies and effectiveness of nonviolence in the struggle for a just society; nonviolence should not be seen as a morally unambiguous, uncontroversial and apolitical form of action, or as one that necessarily excludes others.”
“In “revolutionary situations,” the majority are either accepting of the “just revolution” concept, or believing that peace and justice cannot be obtained by violent means. Martin Luther King and Helder Camara believe that Christians and other men are bound to work for peace and justice here on earth. In come cases their nonviolence is a provisional option and represents a conviction that violence can only legitimately be used as a last resort and that nonviolent options are still open and have rarely been used on a large and systematic scale.”
“Those willing to sanction violence for a just revolution are represented by the writers Camillo Torres, Richard Schaull, James Cone, and by the contemporary Christians Abel Muzorewa, Robert Mugabe, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda in Southern Africa. These 2 options are in some ways much closer to each other than earlier “pacifist” and “just war” position. A confessional chasm lies between those on the side of liberation and those who support the oppressive structures of the status quo.”
The Church and the Gospel of Peace—It is commonly accepted that the 1st Christians understood pacifism to be an integral part of their faith. [In Matthew 5:38-48, Jesus explains how to “love your enemy]. This passage is only one of many which unambiguously sets forth a non-violent ethic. People were not accepted into the Christian community unless they renounced taking part in any function whose processes were ultimately enforced by weaponry. Constantine I [the Great] began the process over an 80 year period of co-opting a fledgling spiritual movement by “the establishment” in an attempt to regenerate itself.
A certain schizophrenic character within the Christian community throughout its subsequent history is accounted for by dividing the clergy from the laity (a distinction unknown in the earlier Church). The clergy tended to maintain a personal code of nonviolence, while in un-Christlike fashion blessing the organized violence of diverse temporal powers during the course of Western history. The prospect that the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America may now be shaking itself loose from a centuries-old collaboration with repressive oligarchies kindles the imagination. Vatican Council II, provided a precedent for reviewing the Church’s mission.
There are 2 paths down which the Church could conceivably proceed: a recommitment to its vast constituency of the oppressed poor while translating its 17 centuries of just war theory into a just revolution theory, or it could recommit to the poor & return to the Gospel of Peace as practiced in primitive Christianity. It is tempting to canonize as non-violent heroes persons whose approach is actually consistent with the just war theory. It is easy to misappropriate the good names of Gandhi, King, & Merton & to choose selectively from their teachings.
Judgmentalism and Solidarity—A 1st step for developing a truly nonviolent sensibility is to stop being judgmental. During WW II many people who are still active in the American Friends Service Committee refused to participate in a violent struggle against evil German and Japanese fascism. I think I would have found that they were not sitting in judgment of those participating in the military effort, [or even the Germans or the Japanese]. Condemnation has no part in a truly peaceable outlook. If our minds are full of hatred and condemnation, this ultimately will be expressed in acts of violence and destruction and murder.
A feeling of pride at having come to understandings which are not yet widely grasped is also corrupting; it disables us as instruments of Truth. For how can one take credit for the experiences one has been given. We should not congratulate ourselves or each other for superior wisdom. True prophets never take credit for the wisdom it is given them to speak. Guilt is another form of judgmentalism which is equally fatal. It is not even necessary to be morosely preoccupied with one’s own past lapses from virtue. [If we dwell on such things] our spirits will grow coarse, our hearts stubborn and we will be overcome with gloom.
[If we manage to avoid all these traps] we are left with an overwhelming feeling of solidarity. We begin to get a glimmer of the whole of humankind as but one family. Such solidarity is not real unless it is given concrete expression in the way we behave toward the specific individual human beings whom life brings across our path. Love of neighbor is the basis not only of Christ’s teachings, but also of all other great spiritual teachings. The Bhagavad Gita says: “Who burns with the bliss and suffers the sorrow of every creature within his own heart, making his own each bliss and each sorrow; him I hold the highest of all sages.” Does loving everyone mean assenting to everything they say? Does it relativize our search for Truth?
The Discernment of Truth—Once it is clearly established that our love for our fellow human beings is not a function of their beliefs and attitudes, it no longer becomes necessary to betray the truth by pretending that the diverse ideas of everyone within some arbitrarily defined “in group” are equally valid. The nonviolent sensibility believes in a credible alternative to the spiritual and intellectual conditions which exist; the task is to create it, not compromise it. To find a way out of the present impasse will require a calm and lucid pursuit of Truth, unencumbered by sentimentalism, guilt, or comradeship at the expense of honesty. Seeking the Truth with impartiality, trying to live the Truth as clearly as we know how, and speaking the Truth without ego investment, is always a service. We should move forward with a new confidence that to pursue the Truth is the 1st and noblest objective, and 2nd is to encourage the sound of Truth.
Pragmatism in Perspective—When people try to compare the costs and the results of violent and nonviolent programs, a profound bias creeps into the discussion. [Since risky, bloody, imperfect, and even unsuccessful crusades are the accepted norm], people arguing nonviolence often appear to be on the defensive if they cannot demonstrate to skeptics’ satisfaction that nonviolent action will work as if by magic and be without human cost. When dealing with the pragmatic aspects of nonviolence, we must recognize the biases that allow for loss of life in weighing the effective use of violence and prohibits any when judging nonviolent strategies.
One of the difficulties we face in conducting pragmatic appraisals is that it is impossible to run through history twice. [Because of the unchangeable fact of history], arguments based upon pragmatic considerations are apt to degenerate into wishful thinking on the part of all those in the discussion. Pacifist armchair philosophers are not immune from the “rose-colored glasses” syndrome. With nonviolence having been tried relatively infrequently, the facts of real experience are much less available to encumber the imagination.
Throughout history people have varied in their readiness to resort to arms & in their creativity in perceiving alternative courses of action before a resort to violence appeared inevitable. The pacifist understands that the arena of social utility assessments is an inadequate one in which finally to secure one’s convictions either for or against nonviolence. It is beyond pragmatism that nonviolent people locate the well-springs of their commitment.
The Reality of the Spiritual Realm—The universe we see is but a series of tokens representing a deeper reality, a reality of spirit and meaning. As human beings we have a still imperfectly developed capacity to experience the spirituality underlying and permeating all that we know with the senses. This special layer of being has to do with areas of reality which are uniquely human and which do not have, nor ever will have intellectually precise delineation. Whether this special human level of functioning be called wisdom, or enlightenment, or compassion, it is a capacity without which the human race clearly will not survive.
The peacemaker knows that the good will never be assured once and for all by one heroic act, or by one final war to make the world safe for democracy. War drives whole populations to one side or the other into in-soluble dichotomies. [Not seeing the enemy as evil] becomes criminal. Fortitude equals fanaticism; all the sinners will be wiped out. Thus is violence humankind’s descent to the lower levels of being. Being peacemakers is essentially an affair of the heart, rather than of the mind. We shall not debate each other into the ways of love. For we touch people’s hearts not by what we debate with them about, but rather by the quality of our being.
The higher capacity of human nature to transcend the insoluble dichotomies is the beyond the power of manipulation. [Theorizing about how to affect the future and ignoring the present moment is a wasted effort]. Each moment affords a choice between life and death, between good and evil. All to which we aspire can find expression in time present. Indeed, there is no time but this present.
No Time but this Present—In our society where worth is equated with productivity, patient action is very difficult. It is easy for activists to forget that their vocation is not to give visibility to their own powers, but to give witness in a free, joyful, and grateful way to the power of Truth. Work for the future is not based on anxiety, but on a vision worthwhile in the present. The nonviolent sensibility will steadfastly renounce a calculus which weighs the absolutes of death and destruction in the present against the uncertain promise of relative social advancement in the future. The most difficult thing for well-meaning people to come to terms with is the reality that it may not be for them to see or significantly help with lifting the oppression from people to whom they reach out in loving service. Inevitably, untruthful means of seeking of the same results will seem seductive.
How do we develop our capacity for seeking and expressing Truth? The various practices have in common the cultivation of a capacity for impartiality. William James said: “Practice may change our theoretical horizon; it may lead into new worlds and secure new powers.” In practice, what Isaac Penington called “the wanderings and rovings of the mind” are stilled. Inner silence is a way of becoming poor [beggars] in spirit, which brings the practitioner close to the Kingdom of God. Through our inner silence we create a small space in our hearts where the seed of eternal things, which is already within, can come to the fore and can establish the solid foundation on which all right living and true peace is based.
[Our part to play in Creation] is held out to us, and it is always suited to our external condition and our inner resources. Bhagavad Gita says: “One attains perfection when his work is the worship of God from whom all things come and who is in all.” [We don’t have to go to a Central American jungle, or be in a South African prison to do our work]. We can reduce our recreational consumption of gasoline, or buy local. To paraphrase [the Buddhist] Hui Neng: “The truth is to be lived; it is not to be merely pronounced with the mouth.” St. Francis of Assisi said: “One possesses only so much wisdom as he puts into practice.” Among the range of options available there is one which is suitable to our present spiritual resources and our practical circumstances, and which we can choose if we are not oblivious to it and choose another by default.
Creation’s Lawfulness—The nonviolent sensibility sees the universe as one governed by law. But a close reading of the great prophets of nonviolence discloses that they are careful not to promise that those practicing the way of Truth will see concrete results. Salvation or nirvana may be promised: the reward of visible historical impact is not. Thomas Merton said: “The whole Gandhian concept of nonviolent action and satyagraha is incomprehensible if it is thought to be a means of achieving unity rather than as the fruit of inner unity already achieved… When seen only as useful in achieving political independence, no inner peace is achieved, no inner unity, only the same divisions, the conflicts & the scandals that were ripping the rest of the world to pieces.
The search for “political results” or “social change” has caused a grave erosion in the authenticity of nonviolent practice among activists in our time. At the time they were martyred, both Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. were in danger of being overwhelmed even by those among their own constituents who were seeking results rather than Truth.
There will be times when our work will affect the course of human events for the better in spectacular ways; there will be other times when the most clearly conceived and purely motivated works will appear to be submerged unnoticed by the wave of history. A truly nonviolent sensibility sees the stamp of eternity even in the smallest project, and this sense of appropriateness is immediate; it does not depend upon results upon the completion of causal chains stretching into the future, for its realization. Cesar Chavez and the many women and men who had joined him in the campaign for Proposition 14 (farm workers’ right to organize) were so convinced of the righteousness of their actions that the final results became secondary to the value of the action itself. They felt there were reasons to celebrate and to be grateful even when the proposition did not pass.
On the inner, spiritual level, the nonviolent sensibility conceives its actions of witness to the Truth as the giving of a gift. That gift in personal affairs is pure which is given without expectation of results, but which is given because of the fitness of the gift at the time. In the inward being of the practitioner, nonviolent action has the character of such a gift, offered because of its fitness as an expression, and not as a stratagem for having one’s way with the unfolding drama of existence.
Knowing that there is no time but this present, the nonviolent sensibility stops to listen, to wait and look, to taste and see, to pay attention and to be awake. The tyranny of past, present, and future gives way to a joyful awareness of the eternal now, of how universal and eternal things are revealed and can be fully apprehended in the present moment. The nonviolent sensibility is an unshakeable commitment to make of ourselves a free gift to that Spirit which patiently awaits our discovery of its power and beauty.
about the author—Robert Hillegrass writes: “The earliest seeds for my exploration of nonviolence were sown at Swarthmore college… Each of us is responsible for life” [Aside from family life-experience] the chief preparation for this account was participation in nonviolent direct actions of the peace group Ailanthus. Friends who read the jail log encouraged him to give a more complete account of his experience with non-violence.
preface—Here I will give an account of personal experiences with nonviolent thinking & acting that took place over a 9-year period. Then I want to describe the process by which I learned that truth can be mediated through action, in the absence of a fully formed faith position. Acting out nonviolent witness for peace provided for rediscovery of Quaker Peace Testimony. Some kinds of truth can only be known through direct experience.
The actions I describe in this paper are small-scale & low-risk by most standards; I believe that faithfully undertaken, any nonviolent action can evoke the same inner dynamics & yield the same insights & conclusions as any other. Because nuclear genie has taken command of so many areas of our lives & deadened sensibilities, I have come to regard nonviolent resistance to militarism as something very close to a self-evident responsibility for Friends & other Christians. Simple living, reconciliation, efforts at self-empowering economics, improving race relations, legislative initiatives, protest & resistance all become integral aspects of a complete peace witness.
Your works, your works, they are your discovery.” William Tomlinson
We live truth into being in tacit partnership with God.
One cornerstone conviction [must be] that the principle of love is reality grounded in Being itself; it is latent reality that always needs to be called into existence anew by individuals’ active faith. Robert Hillegrass
stirrings of change—[I read an article by James Douglass, Catholic theologian/ activist], which described his 5-year witness against the Trident submarine by prayer, fasting, & nonviolent civil disobedience. What struck me [most] was his unwavering faith in the invincible power of nonviolent, suffering love to prevail over the nuclear threat & the world’s alienation. Confronted with the integrity of Douglass’ witness, I was stopped in my spiritual tracks. It was some time before I was ready to try to change my life by taking my first nonviolent action.
What is the problem or evil we are addressing? Is it the trident submarine, nuclear weapons, or something even deeper & more pervasive? The age-old human lusts to possess and control, now [elevated and magnified] in demonic, unmanageable technologies, threaten apocalyptic consequences of all kinds. The nuclear arms race is both sustained and necessitated by the inflated living styles of vast numbers of Americans. Because the root problem was spiritual, the disorder reached into every area of our lives, making it a crisis of civilization.
Change would have to begin with me—starting with my personal relations & habits of consumption. Neither reason nor prudence could avail to stop the arms race which was premised on absurd contradictions rooted in fear. It was becoming clearer that in our militarized society traditional channels of dissent could no longer be used to change nuclear policy. Not to resist was to acquiesce, & to acquiesce was to be complicit. [The spiritual shift needed] was the understanding that I was inextricably joined in the web of creation itself.
Ernest Becker writes that we human have 2 opposite drives: to assert ourselves as individuals who matter & can make a difference in the world, & to feel that we are giving ourselves to the eternal purposes & processes of a Higher Reality within the universe. For me, nonviolent direct action eventually came to satisfy Becker’s conditions better than anything else. I have found a number of ways of bridging [my separation from the rest of creation that involve seeking personal connection with people in need, & attentiveness to what is going on around me in creation]. All of this was preparation for personal witness but preparation of a kind that is never finished.
ailanthus: the first action—Paul, a Quaker friend, & several others had called together friends to form a nonviolent peace community. Focus of the witness would be Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, where the work was to design 1st-strike guidance systems for the Trident, cruise and MX missiles. This group of Friends and Catholics and others agreed to meet every Sunday evening for prayer, meditation, and study of non-violent texts (Gospels, Gandhi, and Tolstoy. Every Monday morning, we would go to Draper to conduct a silent vigil with signs and banners, sometimes accompanied by leaflets. By our willingness to risk arrest in carrying out our witness, we hoped to testify that there was a higher power than the weapons in which we could all place our trust.
I joined Ailanthus, full of anxiety & incredulity. I was embarking on a course with unforeseeable consequences. Risking arrest & jail frightened me partly because of what I knew about the eventuality, but even more for what I didn’t. After watching & being deeply affected by a film about Hiroshima, taken the day the bomb was dropped, we felt compelled to re-enact in some way the Hiroshima experience for Draper people, [who may have detached themselves from the consequences of developing a guidance system for a nuclear weapon]. With the names of Hiroshima victims pinned to our torn & soot-streaked clothes, we lay as people dead or dying, crying out for help or water. The witness, in plain view of Draper workers, ended with the living carrying out “the dead.” I felt joyous liberation, the freedom that flows from acting out of conscience in spite of risks. Nor was I prepared for the euphoria of breaking free from isolation of being connected in a powerful way with all of humanity. I knew the immense potential of nonviolence. I knew it experimentally.
a new order in the court—During the following Advent season, along with a dozen other Ailanthus members, I was arrested for trespass in the Draper Courtyard; we all received suspended sentences. Two years later, I was in Cambridge district court again, along with 3 other Ailanthus friends. The state filed a motion to prevent us from testifying to our motives, our religious convictions, or our knowledge of the work done at the lab.
[From our preparation] for trial, we emerged with essentially two goals: to witness to the loving presence of God in ourselves and all others in court; and to defend what seemed to us to be the self-evident human right to act nonviolently to try to preserve life. We had determined to go pro se, i.e. represent our selves to make clear that our reason for being in court was to witness to the truth, rather than to “win” the case.
The state 1st called the arresting officers & the Draper security people to testify; we were on a 1st-name basis with some. They clearly had no heart for arresting us, but [they] “had their job to do.” As what we testified overstepped the constraints of the in limine motion, the District Attorney had objected immediately. The judge on his part became afflicted with a odd sort of “blindness.” He would allow the D.A. to stand for a long time with her objection before he “saw” her. It wasn’t long before the jury & everyone else in the courtroom knew exactly what the real issue was: the right of citizens to call attention to the government’s genocidal nuclear policy.
Within an hour the jury was back with a “guilty” verdict. To our astonishment the foreman then asked to read a statement. They found us guilty “only under narrowest interpretation of the law,” & the case “raised deep moral & philosophical questions that urgently need the widest possible public discussion.” The judge offered the alternative sentence of community service. We each responded individually. I acknowledged the judge’s partnership in our witness, but said I could not accept any penalty, because I was innocent. [My codefendants joined in my response]; we stood crying in each other’s arms. The judge told us he was refusing to execute sentence until we had taken 6 weeks to consider appealing the case. We appealed in order to carry our witness to a higher level of judiciary. The ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court of MA affirmed the verdict of the lower court & established the necessity defense as legally available to defendants in MA under a number of stringent conditions.
some problems of witness—A decision to witness brings up difficult questions: Why [call me to witness] rather than someone more gifted? Since I enjoy American privileges & advantages, am I not personally responsible for what my nation does? The US has claimed legal right to a 1st-strike nuclear policy. In so doing, it stands self-convicted of “crimes against humanity” under Nuremberg definitions. Have I not a civil & a religious duty to resist the policy by all nonviolent means possible? How can I presume to speak for God to my fellows? To the extent that we are unexceptional & complicit, God gives us a charter, to witness.
[There is a conflict, for] on the one hand we want to “name the evil” On the other, we labor to separate the deed from the doer, who is sister or brother & at least as open to divine influence as I am. We feel impelled to dialogue with our adversaries, to try to win them over by love & reason to be reconciled. This strain of witness leads to what might be called “peace evangelism,” an effort to move together toward a world without weapons.
The resolution of this conflict is to be found in the prophets’ compassionate identification with and anguished outcry on behalf of the suffering of innocents. Unlike some of the group’s members whose lives are devoted to direct service to the sick, the hungry and the homeless in the inner city, I remain very much a suburbanite with the usual attachments and obligations of that way of living. My wife became a silent but effective partner in my peace witness [by becoming the sole breadwinner]. [In my Wellesley Friends Meeting] I have laid upon Friends the call to nonviolent action, [sometimes cheerfully], sometimes a bit obstinately. Individuals and the Meeting offered support for some of the court costs. [I have been led] to a better understanding of the connections between nonviolent resistance and the Quaker Peace Testimony.
siftings and sightings—I have discovered what I believe by acting. The early Quaker William Tomlinson wrote: “Your works, your works, they are your discovery.” We live truth into being in tacit partnership with God. I discovered that it was only in the process of giving myself to an action I felt impelled to take that I began to appropriate truths that until then had been little more than Sunday morning commonplaces for me.
[Then], there is the need to overcome one’s own inner violence, which may take the subtler forms of competition, personal domination, or manipulation. In prison, the emotional needs of other prisoners and the overriding need to maintain a calm and humane atmosphere provide constant opportunities for self-forgetful, creative actions. I found that in an anesthetized society, the witness helped to keep me in touch with reality; witnessing has kept me whole and alive. Ernest Becker said: “The only secure truth men have is that which they themselves create and dramatize; to live is to play at the meaning of life.” Such an approach to expanding our minds and spirits is what is required of us humans if we are to evolve spiritually.
Nonviolence as a political act cannot be said to “work”; as practiced by religious persons it is not a tactic for change, but a spiritual response grounded in a transcendent faith. Gandhi said: “We must renounce the fruits of our actions in advance.” Nonviolence rejects the secular, pragmatic approach that begins with a goal & then searches for the most “effective,” way of reaching it. Nonviolent faith holds that means & ends are inseparable; the latter grows out of the former as “fruit out of a seed.” It is to be used “as an instrument of peace.”
I have formed a working belief that nonviolence is most likely to flourish over the long term when it issues from a small community of faith [made up of autonomous, self-directed individuals]. Such faith communities, combining resistance with experiments in simple living, might well provide nuclei for a new society, if the present one meets catastrophe. What is need now is a growing network of such communities. One cornerstone conviction [must be] that the principle of love is a reality grounded in Being itself; it is only a latent reality that always needs to be called into existence anew by the faith of individuals expressed in action. It is clear that it is we who are on trial; it is only by our active witness that we can hope to keep this Court alive and in session.
About the Author—During the last 21 years Carol Reilley Urner has moved with her family around the world while her husband, Jack has served as a consultant to governments in Libya, the Philippines, Egypt, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. She has work as a grassroots volunteer with [the dispossessed]. Her activities in 4 countries have led to FWCC Right Sharing of World Resources projects there. This pamphlet contains the un-delivered portions of her experiences given after her 1986 talk on “The Spirit, The Light, and The Way.”
Normally, I avoid confrontation. Terrified, I took the first steps. I felt a strength not my own that helped me keep my balance. If I could keep faithful I would reach the other side. Carol Reilley Urner
Our lives can only be of use in this world if we dwell in the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, stay in the Light, & walk firmly in the Way he showed us: [with the poor], in love, truth, purity & humility. I know that I still have a long, long way to grow. Carol Reilley Urner
And I was to bring (people) off/ from all the world’s fellowships/ and prayings and singings/which stood in forms without power … that they might pray in the Holy Ghost,/ and sing in the spirit/ and with the grace that comes by Jesus,/ making melody in their hearts to the Lord.” George Fox
1-2—I found myself thrust in the midst of controversy between church & state & between martial law dictatorship & rebels inspired by Chinese Maoists. What I learned inwardly & spiritually moved me closer to the gospel root of my Quaker faith. Each of us must be honed & purified [by God] if we are to be of use. We had lived 4 years in the Philippines, our 1st experience as “isolated friends.” My husband was a UN planning consultant.
We were forced to realize that what we called Quaker simplicity” was not simplicity at all: we were very wealthy in a poor world. We were part of the 1st world shielded from [the poor] within an armed fortress. I recognized the evil, but did not have the moral strength to radically change my family’s life style. I volunteered as a teacher in a slum community, & became part of an advocacy and self-help organization working with Manila’s squatter communities. In the absence of supportive Friends, I turned to John Woolman. I also met Filipino Catholic sisters, & Protestant lay workers who accepted poverty in order to stand beside the poorest in their struggle.
3-4—My husband took me to visit a Catholic mission to the isolated T’boli people. I found myself responding to the emphasis on the “raw Gospel” shorn of doctrine, & its sensitivity to tribal culture. [The culture had been respected, taught, & even introduced into the Mass]. [Land was retrieved from exploiters & malnutrition was reversed]. That night we heard the guns. PANAMIN had armed non-Christian tribal people. 4 years of martial law convinced me that Penn was right in saying good government discourages violence in settling disputes.
At an US embassy dinner I learned that the Philippine government planned a severe crackdown on church outreach to tribal peoples; 160 nuns, priests, & lay workers were to be imprisoned or deported. [I went home & meditated]. Suddenly it was as though a powerful hand gripped my neck, & shoved me to the floor, forcing me down into the depths of despair. [I experienced more than just my own grief in a timeless fashion]. Only the spirit & way of Jesus & Gandhi, Woolman & Fox could make sense in all this violence, intrigue & exploitation.
My own weakness and errors, the presence of roots of war and oppression could not shield me from the demands I suddenly felt placed upon me. I had to try to follow in that way, and draw others with me into it. And so I rushed in where I had no business going, no outside authorization. Whatever moved inwardly in me was moving in others as well. I found unexpected new friends every step along the way.
5-7—My 1st leading was to take steps to protect the T’boli mission from attack. A few phone calls & personal visits pulled into place a network of “friends” from the international community, offering real & moral support. Moves to deport, imprison, or introduce guns became embarrassments for the government. Powers of government were being used by the ruling class to gain control of natural resources to develop for their own profit.
I sensed clearly the need to organize. I insisted that whatever we did must be in the spirit of nonviolence; this was accepted, even though my husband and I were probably the only ones involved with a thorough pacifist commitment. How could we insure that the voices of tribal people would be heard above those of others like ourselves who too often sought to speak for them? A friend pointed that our best alternative to violence lay in the creation of sound legal structures; we should begin as a legal body ourselves. The Philippine Association for Intercultural Development (PAFID) still existed as a registered non-profit organization. All we had to do was summon the old board. I served as the 1st chairperson because no Filipino cared to risk the post. As PAFID grew in strength Filipinos assumed more and more of the visible leadership positions.
During those early weeks I was inwardly striving for balance, seeking to live with unfamiliar power & energy surging through me that seemed from a source other than myself. The Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines, including conservatives who previously urged cooperation, joined in unanimous disapproval of government harassment of tribal peoples. The Jesuit Bishop Claver, a son of proud mountain tribesmen, called for truth-speaking & nonviolent non-cooperation with the government, boycotting referendums & praying in the streets.
Though I was undoubtedly one of the least apt and experienced members of PAFID, I continued to hold a disproportionate authority within it; partly because I had drawn it together, but also because my husband was its chief funder the 1st 2 years. I insisted on 2 policies: truthfulness and openness; [speaking to that of God in every-one, including the opposition]. Even in the unbalanced director of PANAMIN and in the dictator Marcos the seed of God lay hidden under evil and corruption. It was a martial law colonel who helped us find our way through the jungle of government power and who became one of our most effective advocates. Normally, I avoid confrontation. Terrified, I took the first steps. I felt a strength not my own that helped me keep my balance. If I could keep faithful I would reach the other side.
8-9—Soon tribal people, sometimes barefoot, came into our tiny unfurnished office. We went through their problems & looked for 1st steps to take. A group of negritos were forced from a plantation after complaining of being cheated at the plantation store. The sisters secured church land & PAFID found a grant for self-help housing. Other problems [had to do] with the lack of protection against predators high in the power pyramid.
The tribals’ claims to “ancestral lands” were ignored, and such lands were decreed under government control. One tribal group had stumbled on a formula that seemed to protect their lands even under martial law. The Kalahan formed into a legal corporation and signed a lease. For the government to break the lease, would have called into question the legality of similar contracts held [by those exploiting resources for profit]. Even such a government must operate within its own legal framework, or risk chaos; the experiment continued and flourished. Their success pointed a way to other tribal groups. The search for land contracts combined with simple development assistance and self-help projects [became a consistent PAFID policy]. Each group chose its own approaches. It interested me to find that the groups themselves almost universally preferred nonviolence.
[One tribe resisted replacement of a duly elected mayor with a Marcos crony]. [A dam that would flood ancestral lands was resisted by a petition]. [Since they could not] publicize their petition in the censored press, it was printed on hand bills & circulated widely throughout the Philippines; the flood never came. A PAFID engineer visited the area & determined that the soil couldn’t support the proposed dam. Other PAFID members won a moratorium on surveying & construction, & a series of dialogues between would-be dam builders & the tribal peoples on their own ground. PAFID & tribal peoples faced many other threatening challenges for 2 years.
10-12—The Marcos government had developed a scheme for a vast timber farm in northern Luzon. [It involved virgin forest being cut] and a Caribbean pine, as yet untested in the Philippines. The plan seemed ecologically unsound, and ignored the existence of 60,000 tribal people in the province. Both the corporation officers and the tribal people were approached. A repugnance toward the whole operation grew rapidly. Marxists were among the insurgents that moved into the area to exploit the situation. [Both a priest and university student argued for revolution and said that nonviolence would not work]. [I felt that we may be asked to die for the salvation of an “enemy,” but we ourselves cannot kill. Nor can we condone killing. But I knew that these were only words and words are not enough. We are required to show the way with our own lives.
My own arguments for nonviolence still made sense to some, but there was not the moral force to hold us together, or give clear direction. I saw with terrible clarity that I had been of use to this point, but could be used no further. Why should [violent young Maoists] heed my cries to “love also the oppressor” when I myself seemed too much a beneficiary of oppression? What moral challenge did corporate official see in my life, when I risked little and already possessed the affluence for which they strove? [The time drew near for me to leave, and I hated to go]. I found only one—Bishop Claver—with an equally deep commitment to gospel teachings on nonviolence. Could PAFID possibly survive as a witness, however feeble, to another way?
One day I called on an aide to the US ambassador who 1st said there was no way to hold an American multi-national accountable for forcing tribal people off their land. He then spent 15 minutes earnestly outlining a plan for nonviolent action which he thought I might initiate among Filipinos I knew in order to bring pressure on such firms & Congress to develop an enforceable ethical code. A brave young magazine editor turned over a whole issue to PAFID & we told the story of the nonviolent struggles of tribal peoples for justice in a dozen articles.
During next few months in the US, I looked for Friends who might help Filipinos find alternative to civil war. I found in the Fellowship Of Reconciliation the understanding & response I sought. PAFID [slipped into dormancy 2 months after I left, a victim of internal factional disputes]. 2 years later, on a short visit, a group of us once more revived the organization; the Maoists agreed to remain outside it. In the ensuing years, PAFID, led by Filipino tribal people & courageous friends, played an increasingly effective role in the struggle for a just society.
In spite of [Marcos having Claver’s priests murdered, parishioners imprisoned, and his radio station shut down], the little Bishop would not be silenced. Ninoy Aquino, Marcos’ chief political opponent, had encountered Gandhi. His dramatic martyrdom launched a rapidly building revolution, with his widow as its chosen leader. In February of 1986 the remarkable and bloodless revolution of the Filipino occurred.
As hard as it was for me to leave the Philippines in early 1979, the time had come for me to go. There were others far better equipped inwardly than I to take the next steps required for nonviolent social change. For me, more plowing & harrowing was need. The needle’s eye [through which to enter God’s Kingdom] is closed to those of us who hold wealth to ourselves, to the self-interested, or the self-indulgent. Our lives can only be of use in this world if we dwell in the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, stay in the Light, & walk firmly in the Way he showed us: [with the poor], in love, truth, purity & humility. I know that I still have a long, long way to grow. http://www.pendlehill.org/product-c...
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About the Authors—Newton Garver is a member of Buffalo Meeting & teaches philosophy at SUNY at Buffalo. He became acquainted with Friends at Swarthmore College. He has made contribution to Friends Journal & written Pamphlet #250. He became active in Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) in 1989. Eric Reitan has been visiting Assistant philosophy professor at Pacific Lutheran University, receiving a doctorate from SUNY at Buffalo. He became involved in AVP as grad student & has done workshops in Washington State.
Introduction—In 1975, inmates at Greenhaven prison asked some visiting Quakers for help in preparing a program for teenagers; from their collaboration grew the AVP. One central mission of AVP is to encourage and train people in the use of nonviolent conflict-resolution techniques. The main mission is to invite people to change themselves, so that they become AVP people in their everyday lives.
The mission is advanced through workshops held in prisons, schools, and other community settings. The goals are to: cultivate a climate of affirmation, openness, and self-worth; build a community among its participants; teach participants how to overcome communication barriers set up by intolerance and thoughtlessness; teach basic approaches towards resolving conflicts. Exercises include: affirmation; cooperation; self-exploration; trust-building; confronting and accommodating differences; role-playing; and humor.
PART ONE: The Practical Elements of an AVP workshop—Even long-standing grudges can be transformed by friendly atmosphere of workshop & a group can be kept together [for the workshop’s duration]. New behavior can be learned after a few sessions, & a proud, quick-tempered, vulnerable person can be transformed into someone confident & in control. 10 practical elements of an AVP workshop work together to create an experience of a safe & challenging community: Voluntarism; Teamwork; Ground Rules; Transforming Power; Learning by Experience; Spiritual Focus; Progressive Focus; Cumulative Focus; Light and Livelies; Feedback.
1. Voluntarism—AVP facilitators are volunteers; this has always been a condition of AVP leadership. The essential requirement is that each facilitator participates wholeheartedly, as a whole person. Voluntarism has added significance in prisons; such institutions tend to enrich professionals at the expense of the clientele. Voluntarism on the participant’s part is equally important; a person going through the motions [to satisfy some requirement] isn’t going to learn much. Physical presence can be mandated; attention & understanding cannot.
2. Teamwork—All AVP workshops are conducted by a team. The main reasons are that several different people are indispensable for perceiving and responding to what is happening at various levels in a workshop, and that the non-hierarchical cooperative leadership modeled by a team is an indispensable component of the kind of community leadership skills taught by AVP.
Outstanding members of group [have danger of] relegating everyone but the star to being an audience, which isn't good for receiving affirmation, making choices, or learning from experience. The training team generally consists of 2-5 persons; inmates are always a part of the team. The “lead trainer” proposes agenda, schedules a team meeting before the workshop, conducts planning meetings, & writes the report; trainers take turns at leading. Manuals have been compiled on the basis of workshop experience; trainers can initiate variations.
3. Ground Rules—One of the 1st things to happen in workshop is agreement on Ground Rules: no put-downs/ affirm yourself & others; confidentiality/listen—don’t interrupt; right to pass/volunteer yourself only. Confidentiality includes not reporting on participants & asking them not to talk outside of workshop. Ground Rules set the tone in AVP workshops: non-critical, non intellectual, & non-confrontational.
4. Transforming Power—The concept of Transforming Power is “the central philosophy of AVP.” It derives from Larry Appsey’s Transforming Power for Peace. [It has to do with hoping/trusting that appealing to the good in another person can/will result in a positive outcome]. Transforming Power is somewhat mystical as well as practical; it does not depend on means-ends relations and comes with no guarantees. When it works it transforms me, the other person, and the situation. Such power is very real and accessible to everyone.
The founders of AVP wanted to avoid words like “God” & “love,” because they sensed that many inmates would associate those words with repression & denial. In Lincoln Nebraska, the cantor of a synagogue left [friendly] messages on a Klu Klux Klan member’s answering machine after the member made threatening messages to him. They eventually had dinner together, & when the Klansman’s disability got worse, he moved into the cantor’s house, where he died some months later. The human tragedy is that many of us seldom stretch our inner powers, seldom risk creative alternatives, in the more ordinary challenges of living. Transforming Power is something that changes a threatening situation into a neutral or friendly one. Nothing is more central to AVP than giving people the skills & confidence that will enable them to have growing confidence in this great resource.
5. Learning by Experience—Nonviolence doesn't consist of simply not hitting people. We must define violence much more broadly to include psychological & social violence as well as pugnacious & ideological attitudes within its scope; it isn't just a kind of action but pattern of behavior including both actions & dispositions. Personal violence is often a pattern of behavior whose history of reinforcement includes escape from or denial of reality. Learning nonviolence involves learning new patterns of behavior under conflict and provocation.
“Ours is a process of seeking and sharing, not of teaching. We do not bring answers to the people we work with. We do not have the answers.” AVP Manual
6. Spiritual Focus—The appeal to Transforming power is unabashedly spiritual. It focuses on the soul or character of the person and the well-being of the group rather than maintaining the good order of society. AVP [promotes] behavioral alternatives to doing or accepting violence. It emphasizes acknowledging feelings, especially those of anger, rather than on repression. We have with us a spiritual core that opens us to Transforming Power. AVP workshops try to strengthen the capacity to express and respond to Transforming Power.
7. Progressive Focus, Cumulative Process—An AVP workshop consists of 6 to 9 sessions (22-25 hours) and is meant to develop more and more trust among participants. We start with Adjective Name Exercise. The [often humorous] names chosen in this exercise are then used throughout the workshop. The facilitator sets the pattern with an affirming alliterative adjective name. It is important to distinguish and separate the various skills that nonviolence requires—affirmation, good will, trust, careful listening, communication, cooperation, gentle humor, conflict resolution etc.; it is equally important to integrate them and make use of them as a package.
8-10. Light and Livelies/Varied Pace/Feedback—These are quick exercises used to lighten the mood or quicken the tempo of the workshop. The point is to make use of play and laughter to bind the participants closer together into community. Each AVP workshop session has its own agenda; there is tension between sticking to the agenda and following the lead of the moment. There is no magic formula for resolving such tension. Space needs to be made for what gets cut off (e.g. a sheet for unanswered questions is posted). Feedback is crucial for experiential learning. Even if the facilitators learn nothing about what needs to be done or redone, a time for evaluation give participants a chance to consider what their experience has been and to practice communication skills in doing so. For a workshop to succeed, it must be a safe place to get deeply involved or to share or express feelings. AVP facilitators regularly process exercises and debrief participants in role plays.
Experience of a Safe and Challenging Community—An AVP workshop is removed from the hurly-burly of winning and losing, of achieving and failing, of getting and spending. Even in a [workshop’s] temporary environment a genuine experience of community is possible; the community can be extended beyond the workshop. It is important for nonviolence that the community be open and accessible to all rather than restrictive. In the most successful cases the experience projects itself beyond the immediate circumstances.
Nothing deserves "community" name if it fails to support [& challenge] its members; [that is a goal] from the very outset. AVP encourages talking that creates interactions with others in unfamiliar ways; it sets up a new pattern of interaction for the participants. The interactions not only constitute a step toward community, but also reveal something about the other person & oneself. Alternatives to violence are patterns of action which grow out of & which in turn nurture the human interaction that define such a safe, challenging community.
PART TWO: Metaphysical and Ethical Presuppositions of AVP—AVP assumes a world-view different from world-views prevailing in US society at large. The Manual states: “Ours is a process of seeking and sharing, not of teaching. We do not bring answers to the people we work with. We do not have the answers.” 2 pre-suppositions are essential to this underlying world view. 1st, AVP’s mission is grounded in an ethic of community; 2nd, Transforming Power is the resource by which this community is cultivated.
What Community is—The Manual states: People need community. They need to know the community is safe for them, so they will be free to risk change. This requires cooperation, respect & caring from its members for it & for each other, & nonviolent ways of challenging & turning around those who abuse it. “Community” is condition between people, characterized by a set of attitudes & by strategies of interaction. When one works together with others in solving problems, one develops a sense of belonging as well as caring & respect. Where frequent personal interaction is lacking, we tend toward formal or rule-governed interactions, ones that are subject to a society ethic rather than community ethic. Violence within community is dealt with by mercy, forgiveness, & reintegration. Violence between communities is dealt with by mediation, compromise, & violence.
Criminals within a society are typically deemed to have somehow forfeited membership in “community.”
A close community is not free of conflict, and should not be. The point is that it addresses conflict constructively rather than destructively, with respect of one member for another. When conflicts arise, they are addressed by examining needs and interests which underlie conflicting aims and then seeking courses of action which satisfy as far as possible the most important needs and interests of all disputing parties. Effective communication among group members is an essential part of community.
A fundamental presupposition of AVP is that the basic needs and interests of persons are best met in cooperative environments. When the members of a group aim at the satisfaction of needs and interests, these aims are rarely if ever completely incompatible. What holds an AVP community together must be something within individual members rather than something imposed on them from without. This spirit within persons is something that is both communal and individual. The computer simulation “Prisoner’s Dilemma” is a variable-sum game where a cooperative contestant can achieve the highest overall score without ever getting a higher score than the immediate antagonist. Community in the moral sense is a dynamic state characterized by a group of persons who consider the needs and interests of each member of the group to be of value, who act so as not to compromise the needs and interests of others, who refrain from coercion, who seek creative and generally cooperative ways of satisfying the underlying needs and interest of a conflict.
“There is in the universe a power that is able to transform hostility and destruction into cooperation and community, and to do justice among us … tuning into it enables us and opponents to realize our birthright of peace and dignity.” AVP policy statement
The moral sense of the word “community” in which it refers to a certain dynamic state or condition rather than a certain collection of people, obviously differs from other common senses of the word. [In groups which we call “community” in the common sense of the word, the moral] state of community is often undeveloped or completely nonexistent. An AVP workshop tries to create a temporary actual, [moral] community. Does violence ever really work? Since violence destabilizes human affairs, its success is only temporary, and it never succeeds in promoting community between the victim of violence and the perpetrator.
The Kind of Commitment to Community Required by the Ethic of Community—AVP seems grounded in an ethic, a moral perspective which requires commitment to a certain kind of community. What kind of commitment to community is required? [What need is there for an ethic] requiring this sort of commitment? Most of us have some sort of commitment to community. Violence might be acceptable if [community began and ended with those around us, or if it included only those “like us” in some fashion].
AVP’s presupposition has the theme that praiseworthy acts have cultivation & preservation of community as an end; blameworthy acts have disruption or thwarting community as their end. An “end” can be inherent or purposive. Inherent end is immediately caused by the act; purposive end is what you expect will occur & which is the ultimate purpose for which you act. If the cultivation & preservation of community were the ultimate purpose of praiseworthy acts, but not necessarily the inherent end of such acts, I would be called upon to do what was necessary to achieve the ultimate result of maximal community. While the creation of community can't be the immediate effect of your acts alone, the thwarting of community can be an immediate effect of your acts.
Community can be the inherent end of your acts when: 1) it makes community possible and does not thwart it; and 2) your act is designed to encourage others to do their part in cultivating community. The ethic underlying AVP does not condone any act that violates the strategies of community. Beyond not doing evil, you are called upon to strive to reach out to others so as to encourage them to participate in community as well.
The “AVP Mandala” is made up of 3 concentric circles, with the outer 2 divided into sections. The core circle is “Transforming Power”; the next circle is divided in half between “Respect for Self” and “Caring for Others; the 3rd circle is divided into thirds between “Expect the Best,” “Think Before Reacting,” and “Look for a Nonviolent Path. When action in accordance with the strategies of community is informed by Transforming Power, such action will not only have community as its inherent end, but will serve to maximize community.
2 metaphysical presuppositions undergird the ethic of community informed by Transforming Power. AVP philosophy states: “We believe that only when the birthright of dignity, self-respect, & self-actualization is made real for all of us will we have a just & peaceful world … Every person has value simply by being a person, & this value grounds the [birth] right of every person.” It is useful to think of metaphysical presuppositions as even more basic than an ethical one. To act out of respect for [the birthright of others] amounts to following the strategies of community. Community is a context uniquely suited to a life of dignity, self-respect, & -actualization.
Transforming Power: The Resource for Cultivating and Maintaining Community—Cultivating community with another person consists in seeking to develop with that person the dynamic condition we outlined above. [By respecting another’s birthright I respect my own]. The value of every person demands that I pursue a community that never excludes anyone. AVP’s philosophy statement asserts: “There is in the universe a power that is able to transform hostility and destruction into cooperation and community, and to do justice among us … tuning into it enables us and opponents to realize our birthright of peace and dignity.” Its role in conflict is as a spiritual force that can work through us, if we follow strategies that open up the conflict to its influence. Hostile and conflicting parties are moved to put aside their enmity.
Barriers to community exist both within ourselves and in others, and the disciplines associated with Transforming Power are guides for breaking down these barriers. Anyone who sees you according to some pre-deter-mined stereotype or category [i.e. hostile], will interpret all your actions in the light of that stereotype. [Since offering community] does not fit the person’s stereotyped picture of you, your overtures are apt to be taken as dishonest. Seeking to forge some kind of human contact or relationship is important for attaining this end.
Persons who have a limited perception of their own capacities may not be able to enter into community with others. By asking for somebody’s help, you give that person the opportunity to have an impact in a way that promotes community instead of thwarting it. The ethic underlying AVP is committed to cultivating community with all those with whom one interacts in the course of ordinary human living. Acting in such a way will further the possibility of achieving the dynamic condition of community [and the birthright of all persons].
Nonviolence consists partly of patterns of behavior & habits of response; it's a spiritual affair, & requires a spirit that comes from within. The best that can be done is to teach some of the skills that nonviolence requires, to devise & organize experiences in which its spirit is more likely to be communicated & strengthened. While we fear violence of others, we often rationalize our violence, [saying] there's no alternative. In such a world 1 main task of Friends [& AVP] is to teach alternatives. Alternatives to violence are as real & as vital as force & coercion. AVP isn't only a resource for understanding violence's nature & its realistic alternatives but also for discovering or rediscovering the hope and community spirit which lies at the heart of a nonviolent way of life.
Introduction—In 1975, inmates at Greenhaven prison asked some visiting Quakers for help in preparing a program for teenagers; from their collaboration grew the AVP. One central mission of AVP is to encourage and train people in the use of nonviolent conflict-resolution techniques. The main mission is to invite people to change themselves, so that they become AVP people in their everyday lives.
The mission is advanced through workshops held in prisons, schools, and other community settings. The goals are to: cultivate a climate of affirmation, openness, and self-worth; build a community among its participants; teach participants how to overcome communication barriers set up by intolerance and thoughtlessness; teach basic approaches towards resolving conflicts. Exercises include: affirmation; cooperation; self-exploration; trust-building; confronting and accommodating differences; role-playing; and humor.
PART ONE: The Practical Elements of an AVP workshop—Even long-standing grudges can be transformed by friendly atmosphere of workshop & a group can be kept together [for the workshop’s duration]. New behavior can be learned after a few sessions, & a proud, quick-tempered, vulnerable person can be transformed into someone confident & in control. 10 practical elements of an AVP workshop work together to create an experience of a safe & challenging community: Voluntarism; Teamwork; Ground Rules; Transforming Power; Learning by Experience; Spiritual Focus; Progressive Focus; Cumulative Focus; Light and Livelies; Feedback.
1. Voluntarism—AVP facilitators are volunteers; this has always been a condition of AVP leadership. The essential requirement is that each facilitator participates wholeheartedly, as a whole person. Voluntarism has added significance in prisons; such institutions tend to enrich professionals at the expense of the clientele. Voluntarism on the participant’s part is equally important; a person going through the motions [to satisfy some requirement] isn’t going to learn much. Physical presence can be mandated; attention & understanding cannot.
2. Teamwork—All AVP workshops are conducted by a team. The main reasons are that several different people are indispensable for perceiving and responding to what is happening at various levels in a workshop, and that the non-hierarchical cooperative leadership modeled by a team is an indispensable component of the kind of community leadership skills taught by AVP.
Outstanding members of group [have danger of] relegating everyone but the star to being an audience, which isn't good for receiving affirmation, making choices, or learning from experience. The training team generally consists of 2-5 persons; inmates are always a part of the team. The “lead trainer” proposes agenda, schedules a team meeting before the workshop, conducts planning meetings, & writes the report; trainers take turns at leading. Manuals have been compiled on the basis of workshop experience; trainers can initiate variations.
3. Ground Rules—One of the 1st things to happen in workshop is agreement on Ground Rules: no put-downs/ affirm yourself & others; confidentiality/listen—don’t interrupt; right to pass/volunteer yourself only. Confidentiality includes not reporting on participants & asking them not to talk outside of workshop. Ground Rules set the tone in AVP workshops: non-critical, non intellectual, & non-confrontational.
4. Transforming Power—The concept of Transforming Power is “the central philosophy of AVP.” It derives from Larry Appsey’s Transforming Power for Peace. [It has to do with hoping/trusting that appealing to the good in another person can/will result in a positive outcome]. Transforming Power is somewhat mystical as well as practical; it does not depend on means-ends relations and comes with no guarantees. When it works it transforms me, the other person, and the situation. Such power is very real and accessible to everyone.
The founders of AVP wanted to avoid words like “God” & “love,” because they sensed that many inmates would associate those words with repression & denial. In Lincoln Nebraska, the cantor of a synagogue left [friendly] messages on a Klu Klux Klan member’s answering machine after the member made threatening messages to him. They eventually had dinner together, & when the Klansman’s disability got worse, he moved into the cantor’s house, where he died some months later. The human tragedy is that many of us seldom stretch our inner powers, seldom risk creative alternatives, in the more ordinary challenges of living. Transforming Power is something that changes a threatening situation into a neutral or friendly one. Nothing is more central to AVP than giving people the skills & confidence that will enable them to have growing confidence in this great resource.
5. Learning by Experience—Nonviolence doesn't consist of simply not hitting people. We must define violence much more broadly to include psychological & social violence as well as pugnacious & ideological attitudes within its scope; it isn't just a kind of action but pattern of behavior including both actions & dispositions. Personal violence is often a pattern of behavior whose history of reinforcement includes escape from or denial of reality. Learning nonviolence involves learning new patterns of behavior under conflict and provocation.
“Ours is a process of seeking and sharing, not of teaching. We do not bring answers to the people we work with. We do not have the answers.” AVP Manual
6. Spiritual Focus—The appeal to Transforming power is unabashedly spiritual. It focuses on the soul or character of the person and the well-being of the group rather than maintaining the good order of society. AVP [promotes] behavioral alternatives to doing or accepting violence. It emphasizes acknowledging feelings, especially those of anger, rather than on repression. We have with us a spiritual core that opens us to Transforming Power. AVP workshops try to strengthen the capacity to express and respond to Transforming Power.
7. Progressive Focus, Cumulative Process—An AVP workshop consists of 6 to 9 sessions (22-25 hours) and is meant to develop more and more trust among participants. We start with Adjective Name Exercise. The [often humorous] names chosen in this exercise are then used throughout the workshop. The facilitator sets the pattern with an affirming alliterative adjective name. It is important to distinguish and separate the various skills that nonviolence requires—affirmation, good will, trust, careful listening, communication, cooperation, gentle humor, conflict resolution etc.; it is equally important to integrate them and make use of them as a package.
8-10. Light and Livelies/Varied Pace/Feedback—These are quick exercises used to lighten the mood or quicken the tempo of the workshop. The point is to make use of play and laughter to bind the participants closer together into community. Each AVP workshop session has its own agenda; there is tension between sticking to the agenda and following the lead of the moment. There is no magic formula for resolving such tension. Space needs to be made for what gets cut off (e.g. a sheet for unanswered questions is posted). Feedback is crucial for experiential learning. Even if the facilitators learn nothing about what needs to be done or redone, a time for evaluation give participants a chance to consider what their experience has been and to practice communication skills in doing so. For a workshop to succeed, it must be a safe place to get deeply involved or to share or express feelings. AVP facilitators regularly process exercises and debrief participants in role plays.
Experience of a Safe and Challenging Community—An AVP workshop is removed from the hurly-burly of winning and losing, of achieving and failing, of getting and spending. Even in a [workshop’s] temporary environment a genuine experience of community is possible; the community can be extended beyond the workshop. It is important for nonviolence that the community be open and accessible to all rather than restrictive. In the most successful cases the experience projects itself beyond the immediate circumstances.
Nothing deserves "community" name if it fails to support [& challenge] its members; [that is a goal] from the very outset. AVP encourages talking that creates interactions with others in unfamiliar ways; it sets up a new pattern of interaction for the participants. The interactions not only constitute a step toward community, but also reveal something about the other person & oneself. Alternatives to violence are patterns of action which grow out of & which in turn nurture the human interaction that define such a safe, challenging community.
PART TWO: Metaphysical and Ethical Presuppositions of AVP—AVP assumes a world-view different from world-views prevailing in US society at large. The Manual states: “Ours is a process of seeking and sharing, not of teaching. We do not bring answers to the people we work with. We do not have the answers.” 2 pre-suppositions are essential to this underlying world view. 1st, AVP’s mission is grounded in an ethic of community; 2nd, Transforming Power is the resource by which this community is cultivated.
What Community is—The Manual states: People need community. They need to know the community is safe for them, so they will be free to risk change. This requires cooperation, respect & caring from its members for it & for each other, & nonviolent ways of challenging & turning around those who abuse it. “Community” is condition between people, characterized by a set of attitudes & by strategies of interaction. When one works together with others in solving problems, one develops a sense of belonging as well as caring & respect. Where frequent personal interaction is lacking, we tend toward formal or rule-governed interactions, ones that are subject to a society ethic rather than community ethic. Violence within community is dealt with by mercy, forgiveness, & reintegration. Violence between communities is dealt with by mediation, compromise, & violence.
Criminals within a society are typically deemed to have somehow forfeited membership in “community.”
A close community is not free of conflict, and should not be. The point is that it addresses conflict constructively rather than destructively, with respect of one member for another. When conflicts arise, they are addressed by examining needs and interests which underlie conflicting aims and then seeking courses of action which satisfy as far as possible the most important needs and interests of all disputing parties. Effective communication among group members is an essential part of community.
A fundamental presupposition of AVP is that the basic needs and interests of persons are best met in cooperative environments. When the members of a group aim at the satisfaction of needs and interests, these aims are rarely if ever completely incompatible. What holds an AVP community together must be something within individual members rather than something imposed on them from without. This spirit within persons is something that is both communal and individual. The computer simulation “Prisoner’s Dilemma” is a variable-sum game where a cooperative contestant can achieve the highest overall score without ever getting a higher score than the immediate antagonist. Community in the moral sense is a dynamic state characterized by a group of persons who consider the needs and interests of each member of the group to be of value, who act so as not to compromise the needs and interests of others, who refrain from coercion, who seek creative and generally cooperative ways of satisfying the underlying needs and interest of a conflict.
“There is in the universe a power that is able to transform hostility and destruction into cooperation and community, and to do justice among us … tuning into it enables us and opponents to realize our birthright of peace and dignity.” AVP policy statement
The moral sense of the word “community” in which it refers to a certain dynamic state or condition rather than a certain collection of people, obviously differs from other common senses of the word. [In groups which we call “community” in the common sense of the word, the moral] state of community is often undeveloped or completely nonexistent. An AVP workshop tries to create a temporary actual, [moral] community. Does violence ever really work? Since violence destabilizes human affairs, its success is only temporary, and it never succeeds in promoting community between the victim of violence and the perpetrator.
The Kind of Commitment to Community Required by the Ethic of Community—AVP seems grounded in an ethic, a moral perspective which requires commitment to a certain kind of community. What kind of commitment to community is required? [What need is there for an ethic] requiring this sort of commitment? Most of us have some sort of commitment to community. Violence might be acceptable if [community began and ended with those around us, or if it included only those “like us” in some fashion].
AVP’s presupposition has the theme that praiseworthy acts have cultivation & preservation of community as an end; blameworthy acts have disruption or thwarting community as their end. An “end” can be inherent or purposive. Inherent end is immediately caused by the act; purposive end is what you expect will occur & which is the ultimate purpose for which you act. If the cultivation & preservation of community were the ultimate purpose of praiseworthy acts, but not necessarily the inherent end of such acts, I would be called upon to do what was necessary to achieve the ultimate result of maximal community. While the creation of community can't be the immediate effect of your acts alone, the thwarting of community can be an immediate effect of your acts.
Community can be the inherent end of your acts when: 1) it makes community possible and does not thwart it; and 2) your act is designed to encourage others to do their part in cultivating community. The ethic underlying AVP does not condone any act that violates the strategies of community. Beyond not doing evil, you are called upon to strive to reach out to others so as to encourage them to participate in community as well.
The “AVP Mandala” is made up of 3 concentric circles, with the outer 2 divided into sections. The core circle is “Transforming Power”; the next circle is divided in half between “Respect for Self” and “Caring for Others; the 3rd circle is divided into thirds between “Expect the Best,” “Think Before Reacting,” and “Look for a Nonviolent Path. When action in accordance with the strategies of community is informed by Transforming Power, such action will not only have community as its inherent end, but will serve to maximize community.
2 metaphysical presuppositions undergird the ethic of community informed by Transforming Power. AVP philosophy states: “We believe that only when the birthright of dignity, self-respect, & self-actualization is made real for all of us will we have a just & peaceful world … Every person has value simply by being a person, & this value grounds the [birth] right of every person.” It is useful to think of metaphysical presuppositions as even more basic than an ethical one. To act out of respect for [the birthright of others] amounts to following the strategies of community. Community is a context uniquely suited to a life of dignity, self-respect, & -actualization.
Transforming Power: The Resource for Cultivating and Maintaining Community—Cultivating community with another person consists in seeking to develop with that person the dynamic condition we outlined above. [By respecting another’s birthright I respect my own]. The value of every person demands that I pursue a community that never excludes anyone. AVP’s philosophy statement asserts: “There is in the universe a power that is able to transform hostility and destruction into cooperation and community, and to do justice among us … tuning into it enables us and opponents to realize our birthright of peace and dignity.” Its role in conflict is as a spiritual force that can work through us, if we follow strategies that open up the conflict to its influence. Hostile and conflicting parties are moved to put aside their enmity.
Barriers to community exist both within ourselves and in others, and the disciplines associated with Transforming Power are guides for breaking down these barriers. Anyone who sees you according to some pre-deter-mined stereotype or category [i.e. hostile], will interpret all your actions in the light of that stereotype. [Since offering community] does not fit the person’s stereotyped picture of you, your overtures are apt to be taken as dishonest. Seeking to forge some kind of human contact or relationship is important for attaining this end.
Persons who have a limited perception of their own capacities may not be able to enter into community with others. By asking for somebody’s help, you give that person the opportunity to have an impact in a way that promotes community instead of thwarting it. The ethic underlying AVP is committed to cultivating community with all those with whom one interacts in the course of ordinary human living. Acting in such a way will further the possibility of achieving the dynamic condition of community [and the birthright of all persons].
Nonviolence consists partly of patterns of behavior & habits of response; it's a spiritual affair, & requires a spirit that comes from within. The best that can be done is to teach some of the skills that nonviolence requires, to devise & organize experiences in which its spirit is more likely to be communicated & strengthened. While we fear violence of others, we often rationalize our violence, [saying] there's no alternative. In such a world 1 main task of Friends [& AVP] is to teach alternatives. Alternatives to violence are as real & as vital as force & coercion. AVP isn't only a resource for understanding violence's nature & its realistic alternatives but also for discovering or rediscovering the hope and community spirit which lies at the heart of a nonviolent way of life.
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[Bishop Samuel Ruiz's (Mexico) Queries (1994)]—How can we join in an encounter with ethnic groups so we can walk together on new paths of mutual & just relations? How can we wash away discrimination & substantially reduce the economic & social disparities that separated us for generations? How can we gene-rate new attitudes, throw off our egoism? How can we create economies that don't pauperize & kill?
[Introduction]—At North Pacific YM (1995), we concerned ourselves with society's racism, and our [Friends'] Society's lack of diversity. In silent worship I "watched" Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the well. US Friends are mostly white. We are called to go out into the "colored world" to form real warm relationship, and to be ready to receive their ministry; the Spiritual Source's "water" came to me.
In 1994, as a Witness for Peace, I accompanied refugees from Mexico to Guatemala. The Witness provided protection from the hostile army & death squads present in Guatemala. I was sick with diarrhea, & was delaying the caravan. I, who had come to be of help, received ministry. This is a deep lesson that I learned as an accompanier. [As we] go into the world, we find suffering, poverty, injustice, & we will find strength, persistence, courage, & depth of spirit that comes from struggle. We will be humbled & receive Living Waters that revive and deepen us as individuals & Meetings. [I had that experience], & it affected me deeply. I hope you gain awareness of accompaniment's nature and the depth of the nonviolent resistance of the people I was accompanying.
Nonviolent International Accompaniment—It is one part of a long & important history of nonviolent resistance & action going back to the 1960's. The World Peace Brigade [now Peace Brigade International (PBI)] provided a presence in the Zambian independence movement, the Chinese-Indian border conflicts, nuclear weapons testing, & in the Cyprus resettlement project. The 1980's saw this again in response to oppressed & marginalized Central American people. The brutal forces of these countries are much less likely to act as oppressively when an international accompaniment is present. News of an accompanier being killed or tortured will be reported; news of an assassinated local ordinarily isn't. Accompaniment provides security & psychological support.
PBI was founded in 1981, establishing long-term teams in Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Columbia, & Haiti. In Canada, teams accompany communities in the Mohawk nation near Montreal. PBI works with the Balkans Peace Team International, & occasionally brings short-term delegations to countries, & accompany threatened popular movement leaders. Witness for Peace fields long-term teams in Nicaragua & Guatemala. Short-term delegations commit to sharing experiences & knowledge with others, & to changing US policies. The idea of international peace teams, trained in mediation, nonviolent skills & cultural sensitivity, is growing, & is being considered by some countries & the UN. Friends has a Friends Peace Teams Project. [Other groups include]: Peaceworker, founded by David Hartsough, Servicio Internacional para la Paz (SIPAZ), Balkans Peace Team International, Alternatives to Violence (AVP), Loretto Community, and the Guatemala Accompaniment Project (GAP).
Accompaniment in Guatemala takes many forms, with mostly young people from European countries, Cana-da, & the US. The Lorretto Community (Denver) provides accompaniment to Guatemalan leaders who live in exile & return to Guatemala sometimes as part of their work. Many are a presence in communities of refugees now numbering in the 1,000's, who settle & resettle in jungles & mountains. Isolated communities are threatened by army outposts, & "Civil Defense Patrols." International accompaniers live in communities, providing literacy training, child care, recreation, farming or construction; most importantly, they are simply there. The GAP organized to provide accompaniment to returned refugees, & provide church & "home bases" for accompaniers.
Guatemala: My 1994 Accompaniment Experience—In 1945, Guatemalan created the 1st democratic reform government in the history of the country. The land reforms designed to aid Mayan & campesinos threatened the United Fruit Company's interests. In 1954, a CIA-managed coup d'etat toppled the government & put in place a military-dominated government that reversed the reform policies, put the oligarchy back in power & renewed the violent repression & impoverishment. [While officially democracy was restored in 1985, the struggle to ensure fair treatment of isolated communities continued around the time of this pamphlet's publication.
[In a report in 1999, the UN-sponsored Historical Clarification Committee (CEH) stated that the state was responsible for 93 percent of the human rights violations committed during the war (1960-95), the guerrillas for 3 percent. They peaked in 1982. 83 percent of the victims were Mayan. Both sides used terror as a deliberate policy]. US policies that have led to ongoing CIA, Defense Intelligence, & direct military involvement in, & toleration of Guatemalan atrocities, have been going on for many years. How will Congressional monitors hold the CIA accountable and ensure they send different signals to Guatemala's lawless military commanders?
Those staying a ½-year or more, & fluent in the language, can relate more deeply to people. Others like myself, with less fluency & time are invited & welcomed. In my 1994 experience, from January to May, I visited several communities briefly, I accompanied refugees part of the time. I felt spirit-led in this journey; there was an amazingly smooth flow to it. It was intense & fatiguing, but also beautiful. [My inner child encouraged me to go] & accompanied me. All 6 communities I visited had a: small health clinic; school; plastic wall or no wall; church; stick huts; metal or thatched roof; open fireplace; small store (tiendas); soccer field used daily. They had education, health promoters, & catechists, & women's organizations. Medicos del Mundo (Doctors of the World) or Medicos sin Fronteras (Doctors without Borders) provided potable water, doctors & nurses.
Nueva Esperanza (Chacula): 1/5-18—I began by providing accompaniment for a refugee return from southern Mexico to Guatemala; there were 12 of us. We received an in-depth orientation & met & planned with accompaniers from several European countries. I asked myself: Will I come too, on the path of these refugees? Will I join their struggles? What does it mean for me? My companion, Laura & I, were let off beside the steep hill called Bella Vista, a forested hillside dotted with huts. Looking from the hill, we could see distant Guatemalan mountains. We found a circle of returning refugees under the trees, & introduced ourselves.
I stayed with Lola & Francisco & their family of 7 children in their tiny 2-room hut. Lola was a small woman who didn't talk much, but quietly managed her large family. Each child followed her or his role without complaint. [We learned chants by the light of wicks in kerosene]. The older children could read the chants; the adults couldn't. The teenager Catalina had her 1st experience of cleaning someone's home, [and glowed with the feeling of growing up. The families loaded their possessions, even the roof of their huts onto large cattle trucks.
We camped out beside the road, to guard possessions stowed in the truck, & to wait for the buses' early morning arrival. Laura & I rode on the buses, one of us per bus; there was a day-old infant on my bus. [A bus & truck convoy, with refugees & belongings] from many camps assembled in a Mexican field near the border; the UN supplied a breakfast. [There was a Mayan Nobel-Prize winner (for I, Rigoberta Menchu) in the gathering. She lost father, mother & brothers before she fled Guatemala, traveling & speaking in Europe & North America].
Our caravan of 1,000 refugees, 37 buses & accompanying cars and trucks, crossed into Guatemala. 9 year-old Guadelupe from "my" family sat with me & stared at the homeland she had never seen. We were welcomed by 100's lining the road, holding UN flags. We drove north for 12 hours up a winding road near Guatemala's western border to Chacula, a former cattle plantation, which the refugees called Nueva Esperanza (New Hope). Accompaniers lived with several families, sharing their "galerias" of blue tarp, & metal roofs. Even with blankets they were given, people were cold in this windy, rainy, cloud-forest climate, especially women & children. Despite the conditions, people were full of energy, exploring their land, meeting to decide where to locate their homes, discussing ways to raise cash, forming their cooperative. Half the population was children, and they were everywhere. A 9 year-old from "my" family held my hand wherever we went.
[4/8-11]—Neuva Esperanza, like most of the returned refugee communities, faces threats from the Guatemalan military, especially from an army camp nearby. 3 months later, the army camp was gone after a challenge by the government Human Rights Procurator. I returned to visit Nueva Esperanza, [& got a warm welcome back]. My visits provided security from the army, & deep psychological support, & recognition from the international community. During this visit they moved to their temporary houses, mainly built out of metal roofing. The schools had lots of children, no furnishings & few supplies, taught by young, barely educated teachers.
Once on the public bus, we were stopped by 2 small, skinny armed men from the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), who ordered us all off the bus, handed out leaflets and urged us to join the group. Group Queries: How can we be strong bridges between 2 worlds? [How do we communicate that we "have the same moon" in common with the new settlers]? How will we continue to walk with the people, to step outside of our lives and move with others? What kind of symbol can we be to the new settlers and to the people back home? How the community take shape? How will I take shape?
The Ixcan (2/24-3/22)—In Quetzaltenango, [located in the southwestern Guatemalan highlands], I studied Spanish for a month. I then went to Ixcan near the western border with Mexico. There was a large cooperative movement there, started by Maryknoll priests who obtained land there; it had proved a great success, growing cardamon. The army, using Vietnam counterinsurgency tactics, massacred people, burned villages, & assassinated priests. Many fled to Mexico, others were put into army-run "model villages." Some fled deeper into the jungles & mountains, becoming Communities of Populations in Resistance (CPR). They resisted the army non-violently by forming self-governing, tight communities for security & survival. They had to flee the army, which accused the CPRs of being guerilla, yet they survived for more than 10 years. I stayed in a CPR for a week.
When the government balked for a long period in the negotiations for the First Return in 1993, refugees began walking from Mexican camps into Guatemala; the official, legal 1st Return came after that. In the 2nd Return, after fruitless negotiation, refugees walked long distances to lands near the land they own, and were negotiating to resettle. That land might be occupied by others brought in by the government or the army. International accompaniers were and still are, a part of the strong nonviolent movement. Without our participation, these returning refugees would be in tremendous danger; repression would occur more easily. Accompaniers went home with a deeper knowledge of the true nature of nonviolent resistance. After receiving letters of introduction from representatives of the refugees and the CPRs, I was able to travel to Ixcan and stay for a month.
Centro Veracruz (CV; 2/24-27)/ Victoria 20 de Enero—CV had become a temporary stop for refugees as they flowed back from Mexico to wait for their land to be vacated; they lived in crowded conditions with inadequate latrines. People expressed their weariness, but kept up their spirits. I was there 3 nights. Families made money from small stores, or from weaving hammocks. I went to school with the children, and watched them enthusiastically do their lessons. I bathed and washed clothes in the river. Accompaniers were there from Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, and the US; most had been there since December.
I spent 3 weeks in Victoria. It was large with some 2,000 people from different Mexican camps. The population was double the size that the land could support. The had to wait for land mines and marjuana to be removed from the farmland. When I came they were having their first harvest. A spiritual message to me was that I was to listen, which I did with my whole body. Several sections of Victoria had huts for accompaniers. We had our own kitchen-dining area with an open fireplace, and huge bags of oats and rice. Accompaniers and visitors came and went, some on their way to CPRs. A group of accompaniers from the Basque region of Spain settled in another hut, with the plan of staying several months.
[My Job]—My hut was next to the large church, built out of sticks with a thatched roof. My job was, 1st & foremost, just to be there. I had the tasks of typing land agreements for the residents, making 13 copies using an old-fashioned typewriter & carbon paper, to staff an accompaniers' office, & keep a journal of their activities. I observed various long meetings, [particularly] the Grupo sin Terra ((GsT) Group without Land) working on talks to find & buy land on which to settle; GsT eventually settled in Xaman in south-central Guatemala, site of a massacre by the army in 1995. Work was being done to train women in literacy, leadership, health & rights.
Children flocked to our hut to use our paper & crayons, to taste the weird food we cooked up. I sat & chatted with women crocheting outside their huts. 400 local women celebrated International Women's Day with a 2-day observance. I felt a powerful & hopeful energy, sitting with these women. There was a workshop for church catechists, and ancient marimba music. Men and boys invited me to come with them as they cleared a path for supplies through the jungle with machetes. Survivors of massacres were going home again. Others who tried to return home were branded guerillas by army propaganda. The group I accompanied to Xalbal to reclaim their land, now occupied by other settlers, decided to take the issue to Guatemala City to pursue legally. The army claimed there was a war going on, that gave them the right to be there, to block trade and harvest crops; I saw no evidence of fighting. The army left after 3 weeks, but came back off and on to harass the Ixcan communities.
The CPR Pueblo Nuevo I (March 12-18)—I was able to join a small group that was to be guided through the jungle on the 2-hour walk to the nearest CPR of 200 to 300 people, where I spent nearly a week. The CPRs of the Ixcan had been running from the army since about 1982-early 1994. On 2/8/94, about 5,000 people, mainly the CPR population, along with accompaniers from Guatemalan and other human rights organization, church groups and internationals, walked out of the jungle to locations, jungle clearings, where they publicly announced they were going to settle. By the time I arrived at my CPR, it had been there about 5 weeks. [There I learned the 10+ year history of CPRs]. The men and older boys left each day at 3 am for Victoria to carry metal roofing for the school. A person qualified in health education came from Victoria to conduct vaccinations and classes in sanitation and birth control. When told about the presence of the army, the men decided that they would stay put, counting on increased international awareness and the presence of international accompaniers for their security. I prepared supper with Julia, and ate with her and Jose Luis.
At 7 am Jose would set out with the other men to work & prepare the land; the products were shared. More fertile parcels of land, owned by the oligarchy laid fallow. I went back to Victoria, & a few days later left again with 2 young Danish women who had become my friends. Queries: How can we bring about real change? How can we open the eyes of our families & friends, as we live our lives & let these things happen? When I was resting in a hotel in Guatemala City, I realized the extent of my emotional & mental exhaustion. I went to Meeting for Worship there, & was invited to share my experience at that time. Later, in the Mexico City Friends Center, I was again invited to share, [as part of my promise to let others know what was going on in Guatemala].
Interim, Campeche and Home (April 26-May 5)—I enjoyed worshiping on Palm Sunday with Mario Rolando and Maria Luisa Lopez. There, I imagined the refugees to be like Jesus, returning to Guatemala in triumph. How can we avoid inaction, or anything less than full support and solidarity with the refugees after they return home? I was disappointed to learn that the presence of the Witness for Peace was to be severely cut the following year, for lack of funding. I visited Evangelina Rodriguez Lopez at the Campeche refugees camp on the Yucatan Peninsula. I attended some of the meetings at the camp, where they were negotiating for property in the region where many of them had lived before the massacres. The forests of the area were being destroyed, probably by thieves from Belize and Mexico and some of the Guatemala military. They asked me to report on the situation in the Ixcan, as they have very little access to information.
Re-entry—Re-entering my own country, I faced the dramatic contrast between the lives of the people I had been with & my affluence; it was gut-wrenching. Friends' simplicity takes on new meaning, [when we see it in the light of] exploitation of the south by the north. Their poverty & suffering, their exploitation, their rich cultures & courage, call out to us to walk [& work with them]. How can I work effectively? Being in a loving community, supporting & being supported is an important component & source of my growth & strength.
Desert monks, men & women in Christianity's early centuries, when faced with the depth of their demons & frailty, were drawn into unity with humanity. Henri Nouwen urges us to make time in our lives for solitude & silence, to meet our demons, [embrace] our common humanity & learn to live from spiritual centers. The struggles of the homeless & unions here are the same as landless campesinos' land occupation & maquiladora workers' struggles in Guatemala. Struggles of people of color against white racism are everywhere; solidarity must cross borders, just as multinational corporations do. Currents of [coordinated] activities are becoming stronger.
[Healing Water Prayer]—Healing Water, wash away [life] clutter ... so that my life flows in the Spirit./ Help me to know what is important./ Help me to make space ... for the Waters to flow around me ... revive ... give me life./ Wash away mind clutter,/ opening up quiet reaches of my soul ... Wash away our hearts' coldness ... the pain we inflict ... our conceit ... Open our country to the Spirit,/ warm our hearts, open our souls to the pain;/ Take away our isolation from the suffering of others ... We are a country in chaos. Rain on our chaos, clean away our poisons, release the Spirit's air so that we are touched.
333 Walk With Me: Nonviolent Accompaniment in Guatemala (By Peg Morton; 1997)
About the Author—Peg Morton is an active member of Eugene (OR) Friends Meeting and a volunteer with CISCAP (Committee in Solidarity with the Central American People), Witness for Peace, and NWTRCC (National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee). She has traveled to Guatemala 5 times as a short-term accompanier and to study Spanish; she was an observer in the El Salvador elections (1994). Ruth Evans typed up numerous of my handwritten newsletter from Guatemala, which were the basis for this pamphlet.[Bishop Samuel Ruiz's (Mexico) Queries (1994)]—How can we join in an encounter with ethnic groups so we can walk together on new paths of mutual & just relations? How can we wash away discrimination & substantially reduce the economic & social disparities that separated us for generations? How can we gene-rate new attitudes, throw off our egoism? How can we create economies that don't pauperize & kill?
[Introduction]—At North Pacific YM (1995), we concerned ourselves with society's racism, and our [Friends'] Society's lack of diversity. In silent worship I "watched" Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the well. US Friends are mostly white. We are called to go out into the "colored world" to form real warm relationship, and to be ready to receive their ministry; the Spiritual Source's "water" came to me.
In 1994, as a Witness for Peace, I accompanied refugees from Mexico to Guatemala. The Witness provided protection from the hostile army & death squads present in Guatemala. I was sick with diarrhea, & was delaying the caravan. I, who had come to be of help, received ministry. This is a deep lesson that I learned as an accompanier. [As we] go into the world, we find suffering, poverty, injustice, & we will find strength, persistence, courage, & depth of spirit that comes from struggle. We will be humbled & receive Living Waters that revive and deepen us as individuals & Meetings. [I had that experience], & it affected me deeply. I hope you gain awareness of accompaniment's nature and the depth of the nonviolent resistance of the people I was accompanying.
Nonviolent International Accompaniment—It is one part of a long & important history of nonviolent resistance & action going back to the 1960's. The World Peace Brigade [now Peace Brigade International (PBI)] provided a presence in the Zambian independence movement, the Chinese-Indian border conflicts, nuclear weapons testing, & in the Cyprus resettlement project. The 1980's saw this again in response to oppressed & marginalized Central American people. The brutal forces of these countries are much less likely to act as oppressively when an international accompaniment is present. News of an accompanier being killed or tortured will be reported; news of an assassinated local ordinarily isn't. Accompaniment provides security & psychological support.
PBI was founded in 1981, establishing long-term teams in Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Columbia, & Haiti. In Canada, teams accompany communities in the Mohawk nation near Montreal. PBI works with the Balkans Peace Team International, & occasionally brings short-term delegations to countries, & accompany threatened popular movement leaders. Witness for Peace fields long-term teams in Nicaragua & Guatemala. Short-term delegations commit to sharing experiences & knowledge with others, & to changing US policies. The idea of international peace teams, trained in mediation, nonviolent skills & cultural sensitivity, is growing, & is being considered by some countries & the UN. Friends has a Friends Peace Teams Project. [Other groups include]: Peaceworker, founded by David Hartsough, Servicio Internacional para la Paz (SIPAZ), Balkans Peace Team International, Alternatives to Violence (AVP), Loretto Community, and the Guatemala Accompaniment Project (GAP).
Accompaniment in Guatemala takes many forms, with mostly young people from European countries, Cana-da, & the US. The Lorretto Community (Denver) provides accompaniment to Guatemalan leaders who live in exile & return to Guatemala sometimes as part of their work. Many are a presence in communities of refugees now numbering in the 1,000's, who settle & resettle in jungles & mountains. Isolated communities are threatened by army outposts, & "Civil Defense Patrols." International accompaniers live in communities, providing literacy training, child care, recreation, farming or construction; most importantly, they are simply there. The GAP organized to provide accompaniment to returned refugees, & provide church & "home bases" for accompaniers.
Guatemala: My 1994 Accompaniment Experience—In 1945, Guatemalan created the 1st democratic reform government in the history of the country. The land reforms designed to aid Mayan & campesinos threatened the United Fruit Company's interests. In 1954, a CIA-managed coup d'etat toppled the government & put in place a military-dominated government that reversed the reform policies, put the oligarchy back in power & renewed the violent repression & impoverishment. [While officially democracy was restored in 1985, the struggle to ensure fair treatment of isolated communities continued around the time of this pamphlet's publication.
[In a report in 1999, the UN-sponsored Historical Clarification Committee (CEH) stated that the state was responsible for 93 percent of the human rights violations committed during the war (1960-95), the guerrillas for 3 percent. They peaked in 1982. 83 percent of the victims were Mayan. Both sides used terror as a deliberate policy]. US policies that have led to ongoing CIA, Defense Intelligence, & direct military involvement in, & toleration of Guatemalan atrocities, have been going on for many years. How will Congressional monitors hold the CIA accountable and ensure they send different signals to Guatemala's lawless military commanders?
Those staying a ½-year or more, & fluent in the language, can relate more deeply to people. Others like myself, with less fluency & time are invited & welcomed. In my 1994 experience, from January to May, I visited several communities briefly, I accompanied refugees part of the time. I felt spirit-led in this journey; there was an amazingly smooth flow to it. It was intense & fatiguing, but also beautiful. [My inner child encouraged me to go] & accompanied me. All 6 communities I visited had a: small health clinic; school; plastic wall or no wall; church; stick huts; metal or thatched roof; open fireplace; small store (tiendas); soccer field used daily. They had education, health promoters, & catechists, & women's organizations. Medicos del Mundo (Doctors of the World) or Medicos sin Fronteras (Doctors without Borders) provided potable water, doctors & nurses.
Nueva Esperanza (Chacula): 1/5-18—I began by providing accompaniment for a refugee return from southern Mexico to Guatemala; there were 12 of us. We received an in-depth orientation & met & planned with accompaniers from several European countries. I asked myself: Will I come too, on the path of these refugees? Will I join their struggles? What does it mean for me? My companion, Laura & I, were let off beside the steep hill called Bella Vista, a forested hillside dotted with huts. Looking from the hill, we could see distant Guatemalan mountains. We found a circle of returning refugees under the trees, & introduced ourselves.
I stayed with Lola & Francisco & their family of 7 children in their tiny 2-room hut. Lola was a small woman who didn't talk much, but quietly managed her large family. Each child followed her or his role without complaint. [We learned chants by the light of wicks in kerosene]. The older children could read the chants; the adults couldn't. The teenager Catalina had her 1st experience of cleaning someone's home, [and glowed with the feeling of growing up. The families loaded their possessions, even the roof of their huts onto large cattle trucks.
We camped out beside the road, to guard possessions stowed in the truck, & to wait for the buses' early morning arrival. Laura & I rode on the buses, one of us per bus; there was a day-old infant on my bus. [A bus & truck convoy, with refugees & belongings] from many camps assembled in a Mexican field near the border; the UN supplied a breakfast. [There was a Mayan Nobel-Prize winner (for I, Rigoberta Menchu) in the gathering. She lost father, mother & brothers before she fled Guatemala, traveling & speaking in Europe & North America].
Our caravan of 1,000 refugees, 37 buses & accompanying cars and trucks, crossed into Guatemala. 9 year-old Guadelupe from "my" family sat with me & stared at the homeland she had never seen. We were welcomed by 100's lining the road, holding UN flags. We drove north for 12 hours up a winding road near Guatemala's western border to Chacula, a former cattle plantation, which the refugees called Nueva Esperanza (New Hope). Accompaniers lived with several families, sharing their "galerias" of blue tarp, & metal roofs. Even with blankets they were given, people were cold in this windy, rainy, cloud-forest climate, especially women & children. Despite the conditions, people were full of energy, exploring their land, meeting to decide where to locate their homes, discussing ways to raise cash, forming their cooperative. Half the population was children, and they were everywhere. A 9 year-old from "my" family held my hand wherever we went.
[4/8-11]—Neuva Esperanza, like most of the returned refugee communities, faces threats from the Guatemalan military, especially from an army camp nearby. 3 months later, the army camp was gone after a challenge by the government Human Rights Procurator. I returned to visit Nueva Esperanza, [& got a warm welcome back]. My visits provided security from the army, & deep psychological support, & recognition from the international community. During this visit they moved to their temporary houses, mainly built out of metal roofing. The schools had lots of children, no furnishings & few supplies, taught by young, barely educated teachers.
Once on the public bus, we were stopped by 2 small, skinny armed men from the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), who ordered us all off the bus, handed out leaflets and urged us to join the group. Group Queries: How can we be strong bridges between 2 worlds? [How do we communicate that we "have the same moon" in common with the new settlers]? How will we continue to walk with the people, to step outside of our lives and move with others? What kind of symbol can we be to the new settlers and to the people back home? How the community take shape? How will I take shape?
The Ixcan (2/24-3/22)—In Quetzaltenango, [located in the southwestern Guatemalan highlands], I studied Spanish for a month. I then went to Ixcan near the western border with Mexico. There was a large cooperative movement there, started by Maryknoll priests who obtained land there; it had proved a great success, growing cardamon. The army, using Vietnam counterinsurgency tactics, massacred people, burned villages, & assassinated priests. Many fled to Mexico, others were put into army-run "model villages." Some fled deeper into the jungles & mountains, becoming Communities of Populations in Resistance (CPR). They resisted the army non-violently by forming self-governing, tight communities for security & survival. They had to flee the army, which accused the CPRs of being guerilla, yet they survived for more than 10 years. I stayed in a CPR for a week.
When the government balked for a long period in the negotiations for the First Return in 1993, refugees began walking from Mexican camps into Guatemala; the official, legal 1st Return came after that. In the 2nd Return, after fruitless negotiation, refugees walked long distances to lands near the land they own, and were negotiating to resettle. That land might be occupied by others brought in by the government or the army. International accompaniers were and still are, a part of the strong nonviolent movement. Without our participation, these returning refugees would be in tremendous danger; repression would occur more easily. Accompaniers went home with a deeper knowledge of the true nature of nonviolent resistance. After receiving letters of introduction from representatives of the refugees and the CPRs, I was able to travel to Ixcan and stay for a month.
Centro Veracruz (CV; 2/24-27)/ Victoria 20 de Enero—CV had become a temporary stop for refugees as they flowed back from Mexico to wait for their land to be vacated; they lived in crowded conditions with inadequate latrines. People expressed their weariness, but kept up their spirits. I was there 3 nights. Families made money from small stores, or from weaving hammocks. I went to school with the children, and watched them enthusiastically do their lessons. I bathed and washed clothes in the river. Accompaniers were there from Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, and the US; most had been there since December.
I spent 3 weeks in Victoria. It was large with some 2,000 people from different Mexican camps. The population was double the size that the land could support. The had to wait for land mines and marjuana to be removed from the farmland. When I came they were having their first harvest. A spiritual message to me was that I was to listen, which I did with my whole body. Several sections of Victoria had huts for accompaniers. We had our own kitchen-dining area with an open fireplace, and huge bags of oats and rice. Accompaniers and visitors came and went, some on their way to CPRs. A group of accompaniers from the Basque region of Spain settled in another hut, with the plan of staying several months.
[My Job]—My hut was next to the large church, built out of sticks with a thatched roof. My job was, 1st & foremost, just to be there. I had the tasks of typing land agreements for the residents, making 13 copies using an old-fashioned typewriter & carbon paper, to staff an accompaniers' office, & keep a journal of their activities. I observed various long meetings, [particularly] the Grupo sin Terra ((GsT) Group without Land) working on talks to find & buy land on which to settle; GsT eventually settled in Xaman in south-central Guatemala, site of a massacre by the army in 1995. Work was being done to train women in literacy, leadership, health & rights.
Children flocked to our hut to use our paper & crayons, to taste the weird food we cooked up. I sat & chatted with women crocheting outside their huts. 400 local women celebrated International Women's Day with a 2-day observance. I felt a powerful & hopeful energy, sitting with these women. There was a workshop for church catechists, and ancient marimba music. Men and boys invited me to come with them as they cleared a path for supplies through the jungle with machetes. Survivors of massacres were going home again. Others who tried to return home were branded guerillas by army propaganda. The group I accompanied to Xalbal to reclaim their land, now occupied by other settlers, decided to take the issue to Guatemala City to pursue legally. The army claimed there was a war going on, that gave them the right to be there, to block trade and harvest crops; I saw no evidence of fighting. The army left after 3 weeks, but came back off and on to harass the Ixcan communities.
The CPR Pueblo Nuevo I (March 12-18)—I was able to join a small group that was to be guided through the jungle on the 2-hour walk to the nearest CPR of 200 to 300 people, where I spent nearly a week. The CPRs of the Ixcan had been running from the army since about 1982-early 1994. On 2/8/94, about 5,000 people, mainly the CPR population, along with accompaniers from Guatemalan and other human rights organization, church groups and internationals, walked out of the jungle to locations, jungle clearings, where they publicly announced they were going to settle. By the time I arrived at my CPR, it had been there about 5 weeks. [There I learned the 10+ year history of CPRs]. The men and older boys left each day at 3 am for Victoria to carry metal roofing for the school. A person qualified in health education came from Victoria to conduct vaccinations and classes in sanitation and birth control. When told about the presence of the army, the men decided that they would stay put, counting on increased international awareness and the presence of international accompaniers for their security. I prepared supper with Julia, and ate with her and Jose Luis.
At 7 am Jose would set out with the other men to work & prepare the land; the products were shared. More fertile parcels of land, owned by the oligarchy laid fallow. I went back to Victoria, & a few days later left again with 2 young Danish women who had become my friends. Queries: How can we bring about real change? How can we open the eyes of our families & friends, as we live our lives & let these things happen? When I was resting in a hotel in Guatemala City, I realized the extent of my emotional & mental exhaustion. I went to Meeting for Worship there, & was invited to share my experience at that time. Later, in the Mexico City Friends Center, I was again invited to share, [as part of my promise to let others know what was going on in Guatemala].
Interim, Campeche and Home (April 26-May 5)—I enjoyed worshiping on Palm Sunday with Mario Rolando and Maria Luisa Lopez. There, I imagined the refugees to be like Jesus, returning to Guatemala in triumph. How can we avoid inaction, or anything less than full support and solidarity with the refugees after they return home? I was disappointed to learn that the presence of the Witness for Peace was to be severely cut the following year, for lack of funding. I visited Evangelina Rodriguez Lopez at the Campeche refugees camp on the Yucatan Peninsula. I attended some of the meetings at the camp, where they were negotiating for property in the region where many of them had lived before the massacres. The forests of the area were being destroyed, probably by thieves from Belize and Mexico and some of the Guatemala military. They asked me to report on the situation in the Ixcan, as they have very little access to information.
Re-entry—Re-entering my own country, I faced the dramatic contrast between the lives of the people I had been with & my affluence; it was gut-wrenching. Friends' simplicity takes on new meaning, [when we see it in the light of] exploitation of the south by the north. Their poverty & suffering, their exploitation, their rich cultures & courage, call out to us to walk [& work with them]. How can I work effectively? Being in a loving community, supporting & being supported is an important component & source of my growth & strength.
Desert monks, men & women in Christianity's early centuries, when faced with the depth of their demons & frailty, were drawn into unity with humanity. Henri Nouwen urges us to make time in our lives for solitude & silence, to meet our demons, [embrace] our common humanity & learn to live from spiritual centers. The struggles of the homeless & unions here are the same as landless campesinos' land occupation & maquiladora workers' struggles in Guatemala. Struggles of people of color against white racism are everywhere; solidarity must cross borders, just as multinational corporations do. Currents of [coordinated] activities are becoming stronger.
[Healing Water Prayer]—Healing Water, wash away [life] clutter ... so that my life flows in the Spirit./ Help me to know what is important./ Help me to make space ... for the Waters to flow around me ... revive ... give me life./ Wash away mind clutter,/ opening up quiet reaches of my soul ... Wash away our hearts' coldness ... the pain we inflict ... our conceit ... Open our country to the Spirit,/ warm our hearts, open our souls to the pain;/ Take away our isolation from the suffering of others ... We are a country in chaos. Rain on our chaos, clean away our poisons, release the Spirit's air so that we are touched.
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