Mention nonviolent solutions, and who comes to mind? Mahatma Gandhi, maybe, or Martin Luther King Jr.?
Jamila Raqib, executive director of The Albert Einstein Institution, which is dedicated to the study and teaching of nonviolent approaches, is in Durango to work with students in Fort Lewis College’s Social Justice and Environmental Studies programs and Great Old Broads for Wilderness.
The institution was founded in 1983 by Gene Sharp, considered one of the pre-eminent scholars of nonviolence and the author of 30 books and numerous articles. It was named in honor of Einstein, who was deeply concerned about oppression and wrote a foreword to Sharp’s first book.
On Thursday evening, Raqib spoke to about 120 people at the Professional Associates of Fort Lewis College’s Lifelong Learning Series about the history and potential of nonviolent struggles. Here are her responses to questions:
What is nonviolence?
We don’t use the word ‘nonviolence,’ because it can mean too many things. We promote nonviolent action or nonviolent struggle. We take out the ideology and talk about it as a pragmatic approach. We’ve identified 198 social, political and economic nonviolent methods. Many people think going out with a sign to a protest is the way to be nonviolent, but that’s actually the weakest method. Symbolic vigils and demonstrations are a better way to bear witness but there are many other effective tools.
Is Gandhi’s work to gain independence for India from Great Britain the best example of the nonviolent method?
Gandhi did not invent the approach, and neither did Martin Luther King. It’s a very human way to conduct struggle that’s been going on for centuries. Gandhi was a brilliant strategist, who somehow intuitively was able to develop a plan that ended up working against a very, very powerful opponent. But we’ve been cataloguing thousands of cases, many people have never heard of, and from that, we’ve distilled lessons that can be useful.
What do you think about the demonstrations in Hong Kong?
The idea that they are simply angry is not accurate. The media tends to portray events like Hong Kong, the Berlin Wall coming down, the overthrow of Milosevic in Yugoslavia, the Arab Spring as spontaneous, but they involve levels of planning. Several organizations in Hong Kong worked for months to mobilize people, and none of it was a secret. They made a strict commitment to nonviolent action and civil disobedience, worked on how to keep nonviolent discipline by even training people how to behave if they are arrested. They even hit them with water cannons, so they wouldn’t be surprised.
Will Hong Kong be another Tiananmen Square?
The Chinese government has shown that it’s not afraid to be harshly repressive, particularly when it has a great deal to lose. Lots of experts in the region fear China’s actions because this is a serious challenge, not just in Hong Kong, but to the mainland. Fear of disapproval from the international community could be some help.
What is the biggest misconception about a nonviolent approach?
People think this approach assumes that the opponent will react in a gentle, nonviolent way, but in fact, any serious challenge to a powerful entity will be met with repression, even massacres, and that should not be a surprise. Violence is seen as a source of power to the opponent, which is able to use its police and military. But using it against nonviolent protesters can backfire. It can create fractures in the government itself by people disagreeing about the response, and sympathy for the protesters can win them new followers and third-party support.
What advice would you give any group, organization or government that wants to try to solve a problem with a nonviolent approach?
A general would never send his troops out without a plan, and neither should activists. Groups must think carefully, plan wisely and act courageously.
abutler@durangoherald.com
On the Net
Visit www.aeinstein.org to learn more about The Albert Einstein Institution and its research.
