Power Shifts in Nonviolent Movements are a Roller Coaster Ride

            Day 3 of my analysis of Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Three: The Dynamics of Nonviolent Struggle, applied to the climate movement. Reading Sharp’s books are a prerequisite for anyone who is serious about stopping climate change. Please go to Dr. Sharp’s website, buy these books, and study them.

Sharp:  “The variations in the respective power of the contending groups [in nonviolent conflict} are likely to be more extreme, to take place more quickly, and to have more diverse consequences…The nonviolent group may, by it’s actions and behavior, control the increase or decrease in the relative strength of the opponent group.”

         That’s why you do nonviolent struggle.  It’s obvious by now that the conventional political activism route has had zero effect upon the power of the fossil fuel industry and their allies.  If you want to seriously make an impact, you have to be willing to go “all-in” with a completely different technique.  I think Bill McKibben is well-poised to do this.  His 350.org supporters always astound him with their tremendous response to his calls-to-action. But he and his lieutenants don’t seem to have broken completely free of the regular political activism model.  In their Do the Math presentation they asked for everyone to text them so that then they could reach out to us when needed, but only with the promise that that they won’t be annoying about it.

         I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t be worried about annoying us.  The fossil fuel industry is what annoys us, we’ll do anything you ask, so don’t hesitate to ask as often as is needed!  And if you don’t ask often enough you’re probably not doing enough.  Don’t hold back on our account, remember how astounded you always are and give us some credit!

Sharp:  “The conflict is therefore not one between two clear-cut groups of fixed composition and strength.  Instead the  power of both groups varies…The strength of the nonviolent group will be strongly influenced by the people who are actually carrying out the action…If they participate fully, and persist despite the punishments meted out to them, the nonviolent movement is likely to be strong."

         The struggle group needs to be fully committed.  The leaders and the participants.  It’s actually a sin to be shy about "annoying" us.

Sharp: “In a given nonviolent campaign the active participants are usually a relatively small percentage of the whole population…The attitudes and activities of that wider population associated with the nonviolent struggle are, however, highly important: its approval or disapproval of the nonviolent campaign may influence the morale and hence the behavior of the active participants.  If sympathetic, the wider group may provide funds, facilities, and supplies, take less dangerous symbolic actions of support, or provide new volunteers.”

         This is a big problem for the movement.  While a majority of the population at large gives lip-service to the problem of global warming, very few think it’s worth getting worked up about.  Our peers don’t seem all that concerned.  To them, we seem a little crazy, misguided, or even unrealistic.  Right now I’d argue that this is our opponent’s greatest source of strength.  As long as the wider population is largely unmoved by climate change, industry's strength shall remain unchallenged.  Awakening the wider population is job one.

Sharp:  “The importance of national and world opinion to the outcome of the struggle varies considerably and can be highly exaggerated.  Such opinion may…influence the morale of the respective groups, and hence the outcome of the conflict.”

         In our conflict world opinion will play a key role.  True, world opinion will not factor as importantly as does American public opinion toward creating political action in this country, but this is a global problem and will require global action.  We need the citizens of the world on our side.  We need them to be every bit as active in pushing their governments to act as we must be here.

CH   

I’m including little snippets, but if we’re going to break the fossil fuel industry’s stranglehold upon our government's climate  policy, you need to read Gene Sharp’s stuff.  Please muster up the $34.85 (plus shipping) and purchase The Politics of Nonviolent Action. You can order it HERE.

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To Make the Climate Movement Great, We Need to Cast Off Our Fear

Day 2 of my analysis of Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Three: The Dynamics of Nonviolent Struggle, applied to the climate movement. Reading Sharp’s books are a prerequisite for anyone who wants to help save our life-support system. Please go to Dr. Sharp’s website, buy these books, and study them.

Sharp:  “Nonviolent action is not a safe means of struggle; there is no such thing.   People are liable to be hurt and to suffer in various ways, including economic loss, physical injury, imprisonment, and even death….There are, of course, risks in passivity.”

         Like, for instance, having the world overheat to the point that rivers run dry and civilization can’t feed itself.

Sharp: “A high degree of courage is required of nonviolent actionists.”

         There are those in the movement who think we can win with “slacktivism”.  That somehow by clicking “like” on a facebook page people are doing their bit to help defeat the forces of industry.   These people are steeped in the old paradigms activists have been using, unsuccessfully, for the past thirty years.  Until people really start putting themselves on the line, this movement will continue to be ineffectual.

Sharp:  “The coward seeks to avoid the conflict and flees from danger, the nonviolent actionist faces the conflict and risks the dangers involved in pursuing it honorably.  ‘Cowardice is impotence worse than violence,’ concluded Gandhi.

“The nonviolent actionist must have confidence in the right and strength of his cause, in his principles, and in his technique of action.”

         That should not be hard, when you’re attempting to save the world.

Gandhi:  “The Government takes advantage of our fear of jails.”

         In America, businesses refrain from hiring people who have any kind of a criminal record.  Think of it, fighting to save the world can give you a “criminal” record.  We cannot be afraid of that! We can not let a system designed to do something else work against our saving the future for everyone, including the very businesses that supposedly won’t be hiring us. 

In his Do the Math tour, Bill McKibben correctly pointed out that older Americans, especially tenured professors, can be the first ones to be arrested, jail fodder, as it were.  But younger Americans can make a great statement by fearlessly being willing to risk jail.  During the Freedom Rides, Mississippi’s jails became flooded with idealistic young people from all over the country who flocked to the state to take on segregation laws, until Mississipi’s system couldn’t handle it anymore and the Freedom Riders won a change in the unjust laws.  During the Otpor struggle, it became a point of pride to be arrested, as it was in Montgomery, Alabama, during the bus boycotts.

Martin Luther King, Jr.:  “Those who had previously trembled before the law were now proud to be arrested for the cause of freedom.”

We can’t be afraid of jail guys, just remember to be nice to the police, we’re fighting for their futures too.

Sharp:  “Gandhi repeatedly emphasized the importance of this inner psychological change from fear and submission to fearlessness and self-respect as a necessary prerequisite of real political freedom… Gandhi wrote: ‘We have to dispel fear from our hearts.’…Also, participation in nonviolent action often seems to lead to a loss of fear….

         “Courage in this technique is not simply a moral virtue; it is a practical requirement…Courage is required if the nonviolent struggle is to…lead to the increasing strength of the nonviolent group and an undermining of the opponent’s power.”

Rachel pointed out in her Save Face or Save the Planet post that the biggest roadblock we in the movement face is simply putting ourselves out there, for the world to see, as very visible activists.  That does take courage. Don’t hide behind “slacktivism”.  Get fearless and get active.

CH   

I’m including little snippets, but if we’re going to break the fossil fuel industry’s stranglehold you need to read Gene Sharp’s stuff.  Please muster up the $34.85 (plus shipping) and purchase The Politics of Nonviolent Action. You can order it HERE.

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Nonviolent Struggle is a Formidable System That Climate Leaders Must Take the Time to Fully Understand

        To start the New Year we’re moving on to an analysis of Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Three: The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action, applied to the climate movement. For my money this is one of the two most essential Gene Sharp books for climate activists to read.  Reading Sharp’s books are a prerequisite for anyone who wants to help save our planet. Please go to Dr. Sharp’s website, buy these books, and study them.

Sharp:  “An understanding of how nonviolent action “works,” of its dynamics in struggle, and of its mechanics of change is of extreme importance.  Without that insight our extensive catalogue of its methods (which I skipped but I’ll get to in the future) will lack the vitality which is characteristic of social change and political conflict, and the view of power upon which this technique rests will remain an exercise for specialists in political philosophy.  But with awareness of the dynamics…we can understand the operation of this technique in society and politics, and evaluate intelligently its potential utility in various types of conflict situations." 

         This book is essential for anyone who wants to give more than just lip service to the term “nonviolence”.  It goes from being vague term to being an enthralling and tremendously powerful system. 

Sharp:  “It is essential to remember that the operation of nonviolent action in struggle is always a dynamic process.  It involves continuous change in the various influences and forces which operate in that process and are constantly influencing each other….Also, the process is very complicated...more complicated than conventional military warfare or even guerrilla warfare.”

         In other words, it’s a moving, living beast.  The activists’ actions are just a part of it, the opponents actions are another part, as is society at large, the media, and, in our case, the weather.  Any person or group who decides to play a role in helping lead the climate movement had better have an eye on all these factors, and be willing to engage and evolve on an every-day basis, otherwise they’ll be ineffective.  It’s like a football team that goes into a game with a game plan, but doesn’t make any adjustments to react to how the other team is playing during the game itself.

Sharp: “If nonviolent action is capable of wielding power, it must be able with its power to act upon the power wielded by the opponent.

         “The opponent is frequently a government; where it is not, the opponent often has the support of the state machinery…in strategic terms, the nonviolent group counters the opponent’s power indirectly..weaken the opponent’s relative power position rather than strengthen it by, for example, alienating existing support and undermining the opponent’s ability (and at  times weakening his will) to continue the policy…Instead of meeting him where he is strong, nonviolent actionists rely on a totally different technique of struggle, or “weapons systems,” which is designed to operate to their advantage…Given an extensive, determined, and skillful application of nonviolent action, the opponent is likely to find that the nonviolent actionists’ insistence on fighting with their choice of “weapons system” will cause him very special problems which will tend to frustrate the effective utilization of his own forces”

         Near as I can tell, our opponents are the fossil fuel industry and the right-wing think tanks, media outlets, and government officials that work so hard to prevent action on climate change.   They’re very well-funded, sophisticated, and smart.  They’ve mastered the politics of this.  They know just how the process works, they know how many senators and representatives they need.  They know the state, federal and local laws, they know the constitutional issues, the international treaties.  They know what they want to change and they know what absolutely must not be changed.  They have friendly judges and justices sitting in courtrooms across the country. They know how the media works and how grassroots political action works and they have the money to pull the strings they want to pull.  They’re also completely ruthless.  They’ll play hardball in every aspect.  We mustn’t fight the fight they want to fight.

Sharp:   “Napolean wrote…’Never do what the enemy wishes you to do’.”

         “Nonviolent action is capable of striking at the availability of the sources of political power of the ruler; authority, human resources, skills and knowledge, intangible factors, material resources, and even sanctions themselves…Through various processes which take place in a large-scale nonviolent struggle, the supply of those sources may be threatened, curtailed or cut off.”

         The key term here of course being “large-scale nonviolent struggle”.  At this point the only leaders of the movement who could direct something on a large-scale don’t seem to fully understand how nonviolent action works.  They really need to read their Sharp to see how it’s done.   Otherwise this movement’s actions will continue to be little more than desperate darts thrown at a wall, rather than a formidable system that could overwhelm the oppenent’s capacity to respond.

CH   

I've included snippets, but if we’re going to break the fossil fuel industry’s stranglehold you need to read Gene Sharp’s stuff.  Please muster up the $34.85 (plus shipping) and purchase The Politics of Nonviolent Action.  You can order it HERE.

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Gene Sharp Illustrates How Important Teachers Can be to a Nonviolent Movement

Day 15 of my analysis of Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part One: Power and Struggle, Chapter 2, applied to the climate movement. Reading Sharp’s books are a prerequisite for anyone who wants to help save our life-support system. Please go to Dr. Sharp’s website, buy these books, and study them.

Sharp:  “Significant nonviolent struggles under exceedingly difficult circumstances  also emerged in Nazi-occupied Europe…against a ruthless enemy…The Norwegian teacher’s resistance is but one of these resistance campaigns….[The Norwegian fascist Vidkun Quisling] created a new teacher’s organization with compulsory membership.,,A compulsory fascist youth movement was also set up.

         “The underground called on the teachers to resists.  Between eight thousand and ten thousand of the country’s twelve thousand teachers wrote letters to Quisling’s…Education Department.  All Signed their names and addresses to the wording prescribed by the underground for the letter.  Each teacher said he (or she) could neither assist in promoting fascist education of the children nor accept membership in the new teachers’ organization.

         “The government threatened them with dismissal and then closed all schools for a month.  Teachers held classes in private homes…news of the resistance spread.  Tens of thousands of letters of protest from parents poured into the government office.

         “…about one thousand male teachers were arrested and sent to concentration camps.  Children gathered and sang at railroad stations as teachers were shipped through in cattle cars…On starvation rations, the teachers were put through “torture gymnastics” in deep snow… their suffering strengthened morale and posed problems for the Quisling regime.

         “The schools reopened, but he teachers…told their pupils  they repudiated membership in the new organization and spoke of a duty to conscience.  Rumors were spread that if the teachers did not give in, some or all of those arrested would be killed…the teachers…almost without exception stood firm.”

         “Fearful of alienating Norwegians still further, Quisling finally ordered the teachers’ release.  Eight months after the arrests, the last teachers returned home to triumphal receptions.”

         “Schools were never used for fascist proaganda”.

         I used to be a teacher myself.  And one of my most poignant moments in realizing we needed to do something about climate change came at the end of school one day, when I said goodbye to a class full of just delightful, beautiful 3rd grade kids.  As they walked out the door I thought, “My God, what kind of a future are we dooming them to?”

         In some districts teaching about climate change has been forbidden because it’s “political”.  Good lord, have we really ceded reality away to the point where science can be labeled politics?  Teachers and administrators can be harassed by parents for teaching this stuff.

         But guys, look what the Norwegians stood up to!  What’s a little being harrassed when you’re talking about saving the world?  As teachers, for a few hours every day, we’re surrogates for the parents.  It’s our job to look out for the kid’s welfare, to help prepare them for a successful future.  If we look the other way while climate change is making the planet unable to support our vast numbers in their lifetimes (maybe even by the time they enter adulthood),  are we not concentrating on the little things and ignoring the big thing? 

         Teachers and parents, and students, should be a big part of our push.

CH   

This was one story, but Sharp’s books are packed with similar stories.  If we’re going to break the fossil fuel industry’s stranglehold you need to read Gene Sharp’s stuff.  Please muster up the $34.85 (plus shipping) and purchase The Politics of Nonviolent Action.  You can order it HERE.

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Gandhi’s Example Can Help Guide the Climate Movement

Day 14 of my analysis of Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part One: Power and Struggle, Chapter 2, applied to the climate movement. Reading Sharp’s books are a prerequisite for anyone who wants to help save our life-support system. Please go to Dr. Sharp’s website, buy these books, and study them.

Sharp:  “It was Gandhi who made the most significant personal contribution in the history of the nonviolent technique, with his political experiments in the use of noncooperation, disobedience and defiance to control rulers, alter government policies, and undermine political systems.  With these experiments, the character of the technique was broadened and its practice refined.  Among the modifications Gandhi introduced were greater attention to strategy and tactics….”

         To me, nonviolence without a systematic strategy is like football without teams and games.  I love watching football, but not if it’s just some guy tossing a football into the air.  So while it’s true that all the climate organizations are “nonviolent”, if they haven’t taken the time to really educate themselves about strategic nonviolent struggle, they’re not doing it right.

Sharp: (quoting Gandhi) “’In politics, [power’s] use is based on the immutable maxim that government of the people is possible only so long as they consent either consciously or unconsciously to be governed.’. This constituted the basic principle of his grand strategy.

“In Gandhi’s view, if the maintenance of an unjust…regime depends on the cooperation, submission and obedience of the populace, then the means for changing or abolishing it lies in the noncooperation, defiance and disobedience of that populace.  These, he was convinced, could be undertaken without the use of physical violence, even without hostility toward the members of the opponent group.”

Gandhi: “We hold it a crime against man and God to submit any longer to a rule that has caused this…disaster to our country.  We recognize, however, that the most effective way of gaining our freedom is not through violence…The matter resolves itself into one of matching forces.”

“Gandhi had it so much easier than us,” an exasperated climate activist I know once quipped.  Yes, Gandhi’s task was to free a nation of hundreds of millions from the oppression of a few hundred thousand British troops, and yes, most of those hundreds of millions were aware of and not happy about their servitude, but climate change is going to devastate everyone in the world.  India schmindia!  We just need to awaken people to that fact.  Unfortunately, we will have to awaken practically everyone in the world.  But Mother Nature is already spiraling out of control.  People are clueing in.  They just don’t know how bad it can get, or how fast it can happen.  No one’s talking about that.  Anywhere.  That has to be a big part of our job, and we have to do it credibly and doggedly.

It’s also helpful to remind ourselves of the need to not just be nonviolent, but also without hostility.  It’s easy to bear resentment toward those who’ve deliberately manipulated public opinion toward climate skepticism and who’ve giddily high-fived one another with every defeat of proposed solutions.  But this is personally toxic and it fortifies the other side.  In the movie Gandhi he says “we must defy, not with violence that will inflame their will, but with a firmness that will open their eyes.”

Sharp; “Gandhi set out with disciples on a 26 day march to the sea to commit civil disobedience by making salt.  This was the signal for mass nonviolent revolt throughout the country…there were mass meetings, huge parades, seditious speeches, a boycott of foreign cloth, and picketing of liquor shops and opium dens.  Students left government schools.  The national flag was hoisted.  There were social boycotts of government employees, short strikes (hartals), and resignations by government employees and Members of the Legislative Assembly and Councils.  Government departments were boycotted, as were foreign insurance firms and the postal and telegraph services.  Many refused to pay taxes.  Some renounced titles.   There were nonviolent raids and seizures of government-held salt, and so on.”

         Now THAT’S a movement!  We need to be more like that.  To do so we need a lot more people who understand nonviolent strategy.  

CH   

I’m including little snippets, but if we’re going to break the fossil fuel industry’s stranglehold you need to read Gene Sharp’s stuff.  Please muster up the $34.85 (plus shipping) and purchase The Politics of Nonviolent Action. You can order it HERE.

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How We Can "Match Forces" With the Richest Corporations On Earth

Today marks day 13 of my analysis of Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part One: Power and Struggle, Chapter 2, applying it to the climate movement. Reading Sharp’s books are a prerequisite for anyone who wants to help save our life-support system.

Sharp: “Nonviolent action…is a technique of struggle involving the use of social, economic, and political power, and the matching of forces in conflict.”

         It’s hard for some people to envision just how we intend to “match forces” with the richest companies in the world.  They have all the money and all the political power.  But they’re hugely unpopular and they don’t have a moral leg to stand on.  They’re putting everyone’s kids in grave danger, including their own.  They ‘re basically f***ing up the planet for every other person and every other business in every country on Earth.  And even their own workforce won’t escape the catastrophe that’s coming.  So, if we can get all those other people, including their own workforce and their own families, to stand up and say “No more”, we can very handily “match forces” with them.  It's about figuring out where they're at a disadvantage and playing to that.

Sharp:  “People using nonviolent action do not have to be pacifists or saints; nonviolent action has been predominantly and successfully practiced by ‘ordinary’ people.”

In America the two great nonviolent practitioners we know are Gandhi and Martin Luther King.  So it’s easy for people to think you have to be some kind of religious leader to do nonviolence right.  Not even.  Anyone can do it.  Even you!

Sharp:  “When efforts to produce voluntary change fail, coercive nonviolent measures may be employed.”

         Describes the climate movement’s situation to a “T”.  They have tried and tried to do it the usual way for 30 years and no progress has been made.  So we’ll have to create scenarios where we can “match forces” with the fossil fuel industry.

Sharp: “In nonviolent action there is no assumption that the  opponent will refrain from using violence against the nonviolent actionists; the technique is designed to operate against violence when necessary.”

         “Casting off fear” is a big part of nonviolence done right.    You’re taking a big chance when you step into this arena.  But isn’t it worth it to save the future from an unthinkable disaster?  Humans evolved as tribal creatures, and they would do anything to protect their tribe.  That’s why people will often risk their necks to save complete strangers from gunfire or oncoming traffic or whatever.  It’s hardwired in us. 

Those of us who get it, those of us who understand just how bad this is likely to be, need to willing to take great risks in order to save the world from catastrophe.

CH

I’m including little snippets, but if we’re going to break the fossil fuel industry’s stranglehold you need to read Gene Sharp’s stuff.  Please muster up the $34.85 (plus shipping) and purchase all three volumes of The Politics of Nonviolent Action. You can order it HERE.

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Just Saying "Nonviolence" Won't Cut It, You Must Understand It

Today marks day 12 of my analysis of Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part One: Power and Struggle, Chapter 2, applying it to the climate movement. You really do need to read it all to get properly steeped in nonviolent struggle.  There’s so much to know, and all of it will help everyone who wants to help this movement and save our life-support system!

Sharp: “The nonviolent technique operates by producing power changes.  Both the relative power and the absolute power of each of the contending groups are subject to constant and rapid alterations.  This power variability can be more extreme and occur more rapidly than in situations where both sides are using violence…  Usually the results of these complex changes in the relative power positions of the contenders will determine the struggle’s final outcome.”

         This is why it’s so important to be fluid.  A 5-year campaign is not fluid, and gives the opponents plenty of time to work on the best response.  This movement needs to be able to react to immediate changes, like a super hot summer in an election year, and recalibrate their approach for maximum effect.  Not do nothing because they’d already been planning on doing something else after the election.

Sharp:  “The maintenance of nonviolent discipline in the face of repression is not an act of moralistic naivete.  Instead it…is a prerequisite for advantageous power changes.  Nonviolent discipline can only be compromised at the severe risk of contributing to defeat.”

         It’s so important that people read their Gene Sharp.  Actionists need a strong grasp of how nonviolent struggle works most effectively so that, when the rest of the movement doesn’t react to an unfolding situation, they can, and do it in a way that doesn’t make the movement look bad.

Sharp:  “The nature of nonviolent struggle makes it possible for the actionists also to win considerable support even in the camp of the opponent and among third parties.”

         The third parties are everyone else in society who isn’t part of the struggle group or the opponents.  As for inside the camp of the opponents, here’s a quote in Steve Coll’s book about ExxonMobil, Private Empire, from a former Exxon manager: “Don’t believe for a minute that Exxon doesn’t think climate change is real.  They were using climate change as a source of insight into exploration.”  Here’s a guy who worked “in the camp of the opponent” that didn’t like the smell of what they were doing. 

        

Sharp:  “Victory depends on the strength of the nonviolent actionists…if the group using nonviolent action does not as yet possess sufficient internal strength, determination, ability to act, and related qualities to make nonviolent action effective, then the repetition of phrases like ‘nonviolence’ will not save it.  There is no substitute for genuine strength and skill in nonviolent action; if the actionists do not possess them sufficiently to cope with the opponent, they are unlikely to win.”

         That to me is the biggest problem with this movement.  Stunning lack of strength and determination.  It’s like even they don’t understand how bad climate change could be.  Sure, all the groups say “nonviolence” all the time, but that seems to just mean they’re not going to hurt anybody.  Nonviolence done right is meant to “provoke a response”, it’s not standing next to a fence away from the action holding a sign.  Some of the groups in the movement get it.  Many do not.

Sharp:  “Considering the widespread ignorance of the nature and requirements of nonviolent action and the absence of major efforts to learn how to apply it most effectively, it is surprising that it has won any victories at all.”

         That’s why, yet again, people need to invest the time and energy into reading Gene Sharp’s books.       

CH

I’m including little snippets, but if we’re going to break the fossil fuel industry’s stranglehold you need to read Gene Sharp’s stuff.  Please muster up the $34.85 (plus shipping) and purchase The Politics of Nonviolent Action. You can order it HERE.

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