Tag: activism

We the People are once again facing unprecedented times. Resistance to the current administration is building and people across the globe are looking for ways to help. Activism is new to many of us, it is vital to be informed in what Nonviolent Resistance truly stands for and the kinds of Nonviolent Resistance we can participate in.

What is Nonviolent Resistance?

Also known as nonviolent action or civil resistance. Nonviolent resistance is working toward social change through protests, economic or political noncooperation, or other methods while refraining from violence and the threat of violence. It aims to disrupt oppressive systems and win over opponents through moral persuasion and by highlighting the injustice of the situation. Nonviolent resistance has been shown to be twice as effective as armed struggle in achieving major political goals.

Principles of Nonviolence

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took inspiration from the teachings of Gandhi and the Bible and believed these six principles of nonviolence should be a way of life.

• Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
• Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.
• Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.
• Nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform.
• Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.
• Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.

Types of Nonviolent Resistance

• Protests & Sit-Ins
  • Marches, vigils, and demonstrations to raise awareness.
• Economic or Political Noncooperation
  • Boycotts, strikes, and refusal to participate in systems of oppression.
• Civil Disobedience
  • Refusal to comply with unjust laws or pay taxes and fines to an oppressive system.
• Information Warfare
  • Community education
    • Workshops
    • Pamphlets/Flyers

Effectiveness of Nonviolent Resistance

The success of Nonviolent Resistance depends of the level of organization, the ability to mobilize large numbers of citizens, and the willingness of the government to negotiate or compromise.

• A study done by Erica Chenoweth, a Harvard Kennedy School professor, and her colleague Maria J. Stephan collected data on nonviolent and violent campaigns between 1900 and 2006 that resulted in the overthrow of a government or in territorial liberation. With over 323 mass actions in their data set and 160 variables considered, they found that nonviolent civil resistance was far more effective in producing change. 53% of major nonviolent campaigns were successful compared to only 26% of violent campaigns.
  • “3.5% Rule”
    • No government can withstand a challenge from 3.5% of its population without either accommodating the movement or disintegrating.
      • Broad Participation: Nonviolent Resistance campaigns attract a wider range of participants, potentially disrupting normal urban life and functioning of society, which can be a powerful tool for change.

Examples of Successful Nonviolent Resistance

• Civil Rights Movement (1960s)
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Led the way for African Americans during The Civil Rights Movement; sparked when Rosa Parks defying orders and refusing to give up her seat on the bus (a form of nonviolent protest through civil disobedience). Boycotts, marches, and many other demonstrations followed and applied massive political pressure for change.
    • The Civil Rights Movement in the United States led to significant legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
• United Farm Workers (UFW, 1965)
  • Cesar Chavez led several Farm Worker organizations in joining together to fight for better labor rights for the Mexican-American and Filipino-American farm workers of California.
    • Delano Grape Strike- The strike lasted for five years and was characterized by its grassroots efforts—consumer boycotts, marches, community organizing and nonviolent resistance—which gained the movement national attention.
• Vietnam War Protests (1960s-1970s)
  • The U.S. anti-war movement had amassed an impressive record of nonviolent action. Over a decade of organizing, actions had included mass protests and vigils; sit-ins, occupations, and blockades; conscientious objection, draft resistance and desertion; obstruction of military recruiters, arms shipments and personnel; petitioning and letter-writing campaigns.

Nonviolent Resistance is a pivotal piece in making change in our current times. Success is dependent on us now. As resistance builds and protests continue, we must hold fast to our principles of love and acceptance and fight the injustice we see. Show them that kindness, empathy, and unity are louder and more powerful than hate and violence. Solidarity will keep our movement alive. Our voices will be heard.

Mya

NoVoiceUnheard

The Required Resurgence of the Rainbow Coalition

In the midst of fragmentation within the Democratic party and the other, openly dismantling everything the United States has ever stood for, the growing sentiment of despair for our two party system is justified. Economic insecurity is widespread amongst the majority, and history had warned of the country’s current predicament.

George Washington, in his farewell address, said “political parties are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” I could not find truer words to define our current reality. Cruelty has never been more blatant and general from our country’s leadership.

This statement is so profound because this country’s historical precedent of indifference no longer applies. Jim Crow laws prohibited black progress; Eisenhower’s Operation Wetback, the largest mass deportation in American history, aimed to dismantle Hispanic progress. However, Trump’s reckless actions to the federal government have touched the careers of everyone, for the worse. Whether Republican, Democrat, Independent, or politically apathetic, we can all agree that we are concerned for the country. Prices are too high; people are losing their jobs left and right, and it seems to grow more difficult by the day to take care of our families. Inherently, all of these different concerns unite under the same desire to live our lives to the fullest, protect and cherish what we love about America, and leave this world better than we found it. If I could characterize it, it is a right to economic security.

This concept is something Fred Hampton understood. Leader of Chicago’s Black Panther Party chapter, he brought together the Rainbow Coalition. It consisted of the Black Panther Party, Young Patriots Organization, and the Young Lords. The Young Patriots Organization was designed to support young, white migrants from Appalachia who experienced extreme poverty; it promoted Southern culture and used a Confederate battle flag as a symbol. The Young Lords were a Chicago-based street gang aimed to fight for neighborhood empowerment and self-determination for Hispanics. Vastly different, one could even say that each group represented an antagonist to their identity politics. However, they understood that poverty and oppression, though inflicted differently, stemmed from the same system. Hampton’s vision proved that people with vastly different lived experiences could unite when economic justice was the shared goal.

It represented a possibility, and that possibility still exists. It has been the next step for societal progress for the last fifty years that no one has taken. Martin Luther King Jr. began to shift the Civil Rights Movement to a focus on economic rights before his death, and then, the Black Panther Party took on this idea before they were uprooted from society. They understood something that this current generation must recognize. Without economic empowerment, legal rights alone would never bring true equality. We have the legal protections, advancements, and time that they did not. In spite of MAGA, the general public is more understanding and tolerable for all identities of people. That is not to say everything is perfect; it’s not but bare with me. Our identity politics are better than at any point in the sixties and early seventies, but economic insecurity remains the great equalizer, limiting progress for all.

Civil rights, alone, is insufficient to provide true progress without economic security and access to resources. True equality requires not just civil rights but economic power and justice. Power in America has always been an issue of class; both parties have protected this system, and both party’s constituents are boiling in frustration. If we want to battle the administration and system of governance, we must develop solidarity amongst all people impacted by economic insecurity. We must nationalize the Rainbow Coalition. The fear of poverty was never just a war for the battle to wage, but that fact has never been more apparent than today. Everyone is impacted, in every aspect, by how life has become.

This is where unity is possible, but it begins through conversation. We must be willing to speak with those who differ from us. Race, gender, party affiliation, and sexual identity cannot stop us from talking to each other because we are not that different. It is messy, and we will not agree on everything, but I can say without any doubt that an effective coalition can and will grow here. We cannot settle for anything less, a coalition of all groups of people united for economic power and justice. It is radical, but if the revolutionary black panther party can collaborate with a group that used the Confederate flag as their symbol, we can too. Go out in the spirit of aggressive collaboration. Though history showed America’s current decline, it also shows the solution: We The People.