Nonviolence
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Wikipedia Nonviolence
Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosophy of abstention from violence. It may be based on moral, religious or spiritual principles, or the reasons for it may be strategic or pragmatic.[1] Failure to distinguish between the two types of nonviolent approaches can lead to distortion in the concept's meaning and effectiveness, which can subsequently result in confusion among the audience.[2] Although both principled and pragmatic nonviolent approaches preach for nonviolence, they may have distinct motives, goals, philosophies, and techniques.[3] However, rather than debating the best practice between the two approaches, both can indicate alternative paths for those who do not want to use violence.[2]
Nonviolence has "active" or "activist" elements, in that believers generally accept the need for nonviolence as a means to achieve political and social change. Thus, for example, Tolstoyan and Gandhian philosophies on nonviolence seek social change while rejecting the use of violence, seeing nonviolent action (also called civil resistance) as an alternative to either passive acceptance of oppression or armed struggle against it. In general, advocates of an activist philosophy of nonviolence use diverse methods in their campaigns for social change, including critical forms of education and persuasion, mass noncooperation, civil disobedience, nonviolent direct action, constructive program, and social, political, cultural and economic forms of intervention.[4][5]
The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world
Looking at hundreds of campaigns over the last century, Chenoweth found that nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. And although the exact dynamics will depend on many factors, she has shown it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.
The Success of Nonviolent Civil Resistance
Between 1900-2006, campaigns of nonviolent civil resistance were twice as successful as violent campaigns. Erica Chenoweth, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and a Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will talk about her research on the impressive historical record of civil resistance in the 20th century and discuss the promise of unarmed struggle in the 21st century. She will focus on the so-called “3.5% rule”—the notion that no government can withstand a challenge of 3.5% of its population without either accommodating the movement or (in extreme cases) disintegrating. In addition to explaining why nonviolent resistance has been so effective, she will also share some lessons learned about why it sometimes fails.
How effective has truly been non-violent protest across history?
I have searched a bit the subreddit before asking, but I haven't find any thread that ask the subject more broadly.
Most of the succesfull changes attributed to non-violent protest seem to have a simultaneus violent vertient happening at the same time, even if the merit to the achievent is perceived as earned by the non-violent action.
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5 Peaceful Protests That Led to Social and Political Changes
by Meghan Werft and Julie Ngalle 8/7/16 GLOBAL CITIZEN
Peaceful stances against unequal civil rights have been successful throughout history and nonviolent movements can lead to meaningful systemic change. Reflecting back on several landmark moments can act as a guide for action in these tumultuous times to gain equality for all lives in society.
The Enduring Power of Nonviolent Protest
by Isabella Ruder 18/12/23 University of Winsconsin-Madison
In the 1930s, Mahatma Gandhi led the Indian people in a nonviolent act of civil disobedience, marching against taxes levied by the British salt monopoly. Gandhi and his followers trekked 240 miles over 24 days, gently shaking the world with their ultimately successful nonviolent protest.
nonviolent resistance
African-Americans in the civil rights movement often practiced nonviolent resistance in the South in the 1960s — for example, by sitting-in at segregated lunch counters to provoke arrest and draw attention to their cause. (See segregation and sit-ins.)
198 Methods of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp
Gene Sharp researched and catalogued these 198 methods and provided a rich selection of historical examples in his seminal work, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (3 Vols.) Boston: Peter Sargent, 1973. These “nonviolent weapons” are classified into three broad categories: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and political), and nonviolent intervention.
The Power of Peaceful Protests
While driven by different triggers and motivations, these instances are not unique. The last few years have seen an increasing prevalence of demonstrations related to civil liberties and human rights. New technologies and social movements have enabled campaigns to gain traction and spread globally, encouraging their potential to become hugely influential.
key term - Nonviolent Protests
Nonviolent protests are forms of activism aimed at social or political change that do not involve physical violence. These methods often include peaceful demonstrations, sit-ins, and marches, relying on the power of collective action and moral persuasion to convey their message. By embracing nonviolence, these protests seek to challenge injustice and oppression while maintaining a commitment to peaceful resistance, ultimately aiming to create dialogue and foster understanding.
ICNC focuses on how ordinary people wage nonviolent conflict to win rights, freedom and justice.
This April, ICNC Press has released a collection of framing essays for the 2025 Copenhagen People Power Conference, in collaboration with ActionAid Denmark.
MLK Day keynote: Why nonviolent protest has become less successful (when it might be needed most)
Looking out at the audience gathered in Gomes Chapel on Monday morning, Erica Chenoweth, an expert on nonviolent protest and this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. keynote speaker, piqued the audience’s interest by saying they could easily mount a big, DIY nonviolent protest that very evening.
Erica Chenoweth illuminates the value of nonviolent resistance in societal conflicts
by Ralph Ranalli 2019 HARVARD Kennedy School
THEY REACH OUT TO ERICA CHENOWETH ALMOST DAILY—from Africa, South America, the Middle East, Europe, even the United States. They hail from places where authoritarian officials are tightening their grip, where repression is on the rise, and where citizens are mobilizing against governments they want to unseat. Their inquiries usually boil down to one key question: How can we win without resorting to violence?
30+ Examples of nonviolent campaigns and how they were successful:
by Joshua Kirshbaum 2/6/24 Nonviolence NY NETWORK
When exploring history you can find thousands of examples of successful nonviolent campaigns that have changed the course of Humankind. Nonviolence has been used as a tool for change since before the time of Christ all the way up to just a year ago, and here are just thirty global and historical examples of nonviolent action achieving real results
tAKE THE TORTURE OUT OF PROTEST
Protest is an invaluable way to speak truth to power. Throughout history, protests have been the driving force behind some of the most powerful social movements, exposing injustice and abuse, demanding accountability and inspiring people to keep hoping for a better future.
Myanmar in the Streets: A Nonviolent Movement Shows Staying Power
by Billy Ford; Jonathan Pinckney, 31/3/21 UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF PEACE
The people of Myanmar have opposed military rule in the past but never like this: In the face of horrific brutality by a lawless regime, Burmese have risen up in an historic national movement of nonviolent resistance. Led by young women, the fractious country has united across ethnic, generational and class lines, weaponizing social norms and social media in a refusal to accept the generals’ February 1 seizure of power.
Nonviolent Demonstration Safety & Training
Demonstrations are an act of transformation. Whether it is a radical gesture of one individual speaking truth to power, or a gathering of thousands, a demonstration is seeking change in the existing reality and should be approached with some element of preparation. In his book Strength to Love, Martin Luther King, Jr. talks about “transformed nonconformists”. As part of the pre-demonstration training during the civil rights movement, participants were required to do some inner preparation so their spirit and mind were attuned to the power of what the act of protest means.
American Spring? How nonviolent protest in the US is accelerating
In fact, as we discussed in March, protests in the U.S. have been quite robust since Trump took office the second time. Our ongoing research on protests in the United States reveals that within the first two weeks of the second Trump administration, protest activity surpassed that of 2017. By the end of March 2025, there had been three times as many protests as had taken place in 2017. Protest has been surging since, with large boosts coming from major, multi-location actions in April and May.
What is Nonviolent Peacemaking?
There are many forms of violence. The most visible is physical violence, which usually manifests as physical harm to someone. Psychological violence can manifest as an independent event (lies, manipulation, or threats) or as an aftereffect of other physical or psychological harm (psychological damage, distress, or trauma). This form of violence targets the mind and soul.
Nonviolent Movements Can Save a World in Crisis
by Ivan Marovic THE CENTURY FOUNDATION
Today, as war tests the rules-based international order, a sense of malaise permeates the globe. In countries from Europe to North America to the Middle East and beyond, the general public views politics cynically, as a corrupt and self-serving pursuit of personal enrichment and neglect of the common good. This perception of politics leads to feelings of apathy, indifference, and lack of hope—which then gives corrupt politicians even greater power to abuse the system.
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has "active" or "activist" elements, in that believers generally accept the need for nonviolence as a means to achieve political and social change. Thus, for example, Tolstoyan and Gandhian philosophies on nonviolence seek social change while rejecting the use of violence, seeing nonviolent action (also called civil resistance) as an alternative to either passive acceptance of oppression or armed struggle against it. In general, advocates of an activist philosophy of nonviolence use diverse methods in their campaigns for social change, including critical forms of education and persuasion, mass noncooperation, civil disobedience, nonviolent direct action, constructive program, and social, political, cultural and economic forms of intervention.[4][5]
The Future of Nonviolent Resistance
Over the past fifty years, nonviolent civil resistance has overtaken armed struggle as the most common form of mobilization used by revolutionary movements. Yet even as civil resistance reached a new peak of popularity during the 2010s, its effectiveness had begun to decline—even before the covid-19 pandemic brought mass demonstrations to a temporary halt in early 2020.
Glossary of Nonviolence
Overflowing unconditional love for all, including adversaries, needed for nonviolent conflict-resolution. Dr. King called it “love in action…love seeking to preserve and create community…love which is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless and creative.”
Freedom Riders Train for Non-Violent Civil Rights Protest | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Learn how students in Nashville, Tennessee, prepared for civil rights protests by training in the techniques of nonviolent direct action in this excerpt from Freedom Riders | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. This training prepared them for desegregation sit-ins focused on the Nashville community and made them ideal reinforcements when attacks by White mobs decimated the ranks of the first Freedom Riders in 1961.
Violent vs. Non-violent Protest: Which provides the best chance to advocate positive change?
This series of activities will incorporate individual work in interpreting primary sources, cooperative group learning in the form of class debates, and cross-curricular learning with language arts as students read and discuss famous civil-rights era lite.
Martin Luther King Jr: A trailblazer of peaceful protesting
The Civil Rights movement harnessed a series of demonstrations and boycotts to protest the widespread racial segregation and discrimination of African Americans, culminating in the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Nonviolent Protest
Explore the ways that civil rights activists challenged racial inequality through nonviolent protest.
The Role of Violence in Nonviolent Resistance
Over the past two decades, there has been growing scholarly interest in nonviolent resistance—a method of conflict in which unarmed people mobilize collective protests, strikes, and boycotts in a coordinated way. Mass movements that rely overwhelmingly on nonviolent resistance sometimes feature unarmed collective violence, fringe violence, or even organized armed action.
Techniques and Outcomes
Blockades, tree-sitting, boycotts, sit-ins, not paying your taxes, and deliberately disobeying a specific law perceived to be unjust--these are some of the many ways citizens use non-violent civil disobedience to promote political change. Very often these tactics are illegal, putting the individuals carrying out these actions at personal risk of arrest, fines, jail, and even civil damage awards.
=====Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Six Principles of Nonviolence handout===== by UNODC
Principle one: Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people. It is active nonviolent resistance to
evil. It is aggressive spiritually, mentally and emotionally.
Civil Rights Movement (United States): Nonviolent Protests
by SOUTHERN ADVENTIST UNIVERSITY
Risking it All and Riding for Freedom
Challenging the South’s failure to enforce the Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which ruled that segregation of public buses was unconstitutional, foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement began the Freedom Rides. The Freedom Riders rode interstate buses across the South and drew national attention to their cause because of the violence that often erupted against them. You can visit the cities where the Freedom Riders stopped on their journey and discover the impact of the rides on the Civil Rights Movement and the country.
Resistance is alive and well in the United States
by Erica Chenoweth, Jeremy Pressman, and Soha Hammam 19/3/25 WAGING NONVIOLENCE
Many underestimate resistance to the current Republican administration because they view resistance through a narrow lens. The 2017 Women’s March in particular — immediate in its response, massive in its scope and size — may inform collective imaginations about what the beginning of a resistance movement should look like during Trump 2.0.
Non-violent civil disobedience
Non-violent resistance is the practice of achieving social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, or other methods, while being nonviolent.
“Non-violent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue” — Martin Luther King Jr.
10 Essential Things to Know about Nonviolent Resistance
by Richard Sandbrook – PROGRESSIVE FUTURES BLOG
Unarmed civilians employ coordinated and unconventional methods to deter or defend against usurpers and foreign aggressors or to overturn injustices, though without causing or threatening bodily harm to their opponents. Examples of nonviolent methods include demonstrations, protests, strikes, stay-at-homes, boycotts, street theatre, derision of authorities, rebellious graffiti and other communications, shunning of collaborators, building alternative institutions, and many more.
The Effectiveness of Nonviolent Resistance Movements
by Valli Pendyala 28/6/25 INTERFAITH ALLIANCE
In a 2008 research paper titled “Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict,” Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth demonstrate the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance campaigns in comparison to violent resistance. The authors found that “nonviolent campaigns are more likely to succeed in the face of repression than are violent campaigns” because domestic repression against nonviolent campaigns increases public sympathy and support for the protesters. Additionally, in cases where security, police, or military forces begin to support the nonviolent campaign, it is 46 times more likely to succeed than campaigns that don’t gain security support.
There are no open spots for this class, but we found something similar!
This course analyzes how humans responded to injustice, focusing its lens on the civil rights movement and in particular forms of non violent protest and civil disobedience.
The Writing's on the Wall: Art as Non-Violent Protest
by Pablo Picasso Arizona State University
Throughout history, walls have been erected, torn down, celebrated, reviled, and debated. There are infamous walls like the Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China and the Wailing Wall. In medieval times, walls were built around villages to keep out enemies. Many backyards today are surrounded by brick walls.
Potential risks
It’s amazing to think that unarmed masses of people have defeated armed-to-the-teeth forces using humble techniques as strikes, occupations, boycotts, and sit-ins. One way of understanding why this can happen is that nonviolent methods put the oppressor in a decision dilemma: either rain pain on a bunch of unarmed resisters, or capitulate. The former can turn public opinion toward the protesters and undermine the legitimacy upon which the oppressor’s power rests. If the resistance persists, escalating crackdowns can start to backfire, even to the point that the police or military refuse to participate. Eventually the sovereign has no choice but to capitulate.
Protest movements involving limited violence can sometimes be effective: Evidence from the 2020 BlackLivesMatter protests
by Eric Shuman 7/9/25 National Library of Medicine
The effects of recent protests for racial equality, particularly when they included violence, are currently of public and academic interest. To better understand these effects, we combine a dataset of all 2020 BlackLivesMatter protests with survey data containing measures of prejudice and support for police reform. Protests were not associated with reductions in prejudice, but were associated with increases in support for police reform.
Nonviolent Resistance: A Comprehensive Guide to Its Legal Framework
Nonviolent resistance refers to a range of strategies used to achieve social or political goals without resorting to violence. This approach includes tactics such as symbolic protests, civil disobedience, and economic or political noncooperation. It is often synonymous with civil resistance and is sometimes called nonviolent action. The methods employed can vary widely and may include activities like picketing, vigils, leafletting, and protest art, among others. Importantly, nonviolent resistance emphasizes the refusal to use violence, advocating for peaceful means to effect change.
Protest and non-violent action: our position
by Friends of The Earth Policy
When representing Friends of the Earth, local group members may organise and participate in peaceful protest and lawful non-violent direct action where they believe it is the best way to achieve our objectives consistent with our rights to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and other relevant democratic rights.
Tips for Preparedness, Peaceful Protesting, and Safety
Whether you're preparing for an emergency or participating in a peaceful protest, these guidelines will help ensure your safety and well-being.
Nonviolent Protest royalty-free images
3,948 nonviolent protest stock photos, vectors, and illustrations are available royalty-free for download.
key term - Non-violent Protests
Non-violent protests are methods of demonstration aimed at achieving social or political change without the use of violence. This approach was pivotal in the early steps of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1940s and 1950s, where activists sought to challenge racial segregation and discrimination through peaceful means, such as sit-ins, marches, and boycotts. The philosophy behind non-violent protests is rooted in the belief that moral authority and public sympathy can be gained by maintaining peace and dignity, thereby garnering broader support for the cause.
Analytics help us write better guides for change-makers.
Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, constructive program, or other methods, while refraining from violence and the threat of violence.
On Violence in the South: Nonviolent Protest
by admin 14/7/16 CENTER4 FOR THE STUDY OF SOUTHERN CULTURE
As a response to violence and the issues it raises, and how people have opposed it, the Center is running a series of entries from the New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture volume on Violence, published in 2011. So far this week we’ve featured entries on Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Jessie Daniel Ames, and antilynching activism. Today, an article by Charles Reagan Wilson on nonviolent protest.
Peaceful protest movements
As witnessed across Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa region, Asia, Africa and Europe during the last decade, there is a global resurgence of nonviolent movements taking to the streets to protest against autocratic or unaccountable governments, often aspiring for regime change, state reform or the reallocation of political power.
Does peaceful protest work?
by Lowri Evans 14/4/21 GREENPEACE
When Margaret Mead said, ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, organized citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has,’ she probably wasn’t talking specifically about fans of the TV show Jericho. The fans, in protest of its cancellation, sent 20 tons of peanuts to the office of CBS and inundated them with phonecalls and emails – eventually resulting in a much-demanded second season.
What is Nonviolent Resistance?
by mya in Activism News NOVOICEUNHEARD
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.
For Martin Luther King Jr., Nonviolent Protest Never Meant ‘Wait and See’
Every year in January, the United States celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The intention behind the holiday is to commemorate this great man’s life, and recommit to his call to fight for justice everywhere. Many spend the holiday as a day of service to others, staying true to his words that “everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.”
Thirty articles on nonviolent protest
by Michael Edwards 2/6/20 openDemocracy
The killing of George Floyd, an African-American man, by Derek Chauvin, a white policeman in Minneapolis on May 25 2020 has unleashed a worldwide wave of protests against racism and police brutality.
Why Non-Violent Protests Work
by Jesse Marczyk Ph.D. 13/2/17 Psychology Today
It’s a classic saying: The pen is mightier than the sword. While this saying communicates some valuable information, it needs to be qualified in a significant way to be true. Specifically, in a one-on-one fight, the metaphorical pens do not beat swords.
Non-Violence
Martin Luther King's creed of non-violence surprised many Americans. Though conceding that King's methods were effective, black psychologist Kenneth Clark called the philosophy of loving one's enemy "psychologically burdensome." In a 1963 interview, Malcolm X accused King of working "to keep Negroes defenseless in the face of an attack." Nevertheless, King's approach achieved success in Montgomery, Alabama, and other civil rights hot spots.
16 Martin Luther King quotes to remember
by AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 15/1/16
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., American Baptist Minister, led the struggle against racial discrimination in 1960s USA, inspiring supporters with the power of his rhetoric. He advocated the principle of non-violent protest, affirming that opposition should be tackled with compassion rather than aggression. Born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, he was assassinated on 4 April 1968. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to non-violent struggle in 1964.
A Call to La Raza for a Personal Pledge to Non Violence
Soon after the founding of NCLR in 1968—in the midst of urban riots following the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, at a time when some elements of both the African American and Latino civil rights movements were urging the use of violence to achieve social change—the first two chief executives of the organization, Herman Gallegos and Henry Santiestevan, issued this call to Latinos, A Call to La Raza for a Personal Pledge to Non Violence.
Malcolm and the Civil Rights Movement
Near the end of his life, Malcolm X publicly recognized that "Dr. King wants the same thing I want — freedom!" But for most of his ministry he did not identify with King and the civil rights movement. Although both Black Muslims and King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference had the same general goals of defeating white racism and empowering African Americans, Malcolm and King had different tended to speak at different venues (street corners vs. churches) and had different aims.
Sept. 16, 1837: Abolitionist William Whipper Advocated Non-Violence
by William Whipper 16/9/1837 ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT
William Whipper was an African American abolitionist and businessman from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania who played an active role on the Underground Railroad, furnishing food and transportation assistance to people escaping from slavery.
The Machiavelli of Nonviolence: Gene Sharp and the Battle Against Corporate Rule
If there are some things in life that should not be bet on, the question of who will next win the Nobel Peace Prize somehow feels like it should be among them. Internet bookmakers, however, will place odds on almost anything, and they are not above taking wagers on Nobel prospects. Over the past two years, some of the safest money has not been on a head of state, a major nongovernmental organization, or a charismatic resistance leader, but rather on a soft-spoken, eighty-five-year-old academic. His name is Gene Sharp.
Revolutionary Non-Violence: Remembering Dave Dellinger, 1915-2004
by Howard Zinn 27/5/04 Democracy Now
Through the decades, Dellinger was a stalwart in nonviolent protest beside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Daniel Berrigan, Daniel Ellsberg and other leaders on the left. But he probably is best known for being one of those on trial in Chicago after the 1968 Democratic Convention.
Birmingham Urban League Kicks Off 100 Days of Nonviolence
by Array Array 21/8/25 National Urban League
Birmingham (Oct. 17, 2022) – On Wednesday, Oct. 12th, the Birmingham Urban League (Birmingham, AL) kicked off the 100 Days of Non-Violence campaign at a local high school.
The initiative is meant to address violence among teens and young adults. This year, organizers have introduced gang violence into the conversation. Many of the instances of violence in schools are because of gangs, teens say.
This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible
Charles Cobb’s book, This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible, is essential reading for anyone teaching the Civil Rights Movement because it calls into question much of what we think we know about nonviolence and the agency of African Americans in the South.
Prison Nonviolence Project
KATE OLSON, correspondent: For most of its 160 year history, San Quentin has been known as a tough place to do hard time. But over the past two decades, this has begun to change.
We Need Political Nonviolence Now More Than Ever
by Rivera Sun 22/7/24 COUNTERPUNCH
The ties between nonviolence and democracy run deep. We know from the groundbreaking research of Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan that even if a nonviolent movement fails to achieve its primary goals, it often leaves a more democratic society in its wake. On the other hand, violence swiftly destroys democracies, shoving them toward authoritarianism and “politics at the barrel of a gun.”
A Democracy Minute: John Lewis on nonviolence in America
John Lewis was a civil rights leader who led and helped organize the civil rights movement's freedom rides, the 1963 March on Washington and the Selma to Montgomery marches. Lewis co-founded and and chaired the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and served as a U.S. representative from Georgia from 1987 to 2020.
New Documents Show FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Targeting Peaceful Protest Activity in Colorado
by ACLU of Colorado 8/12/05 ACLU
The ACLU, which obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, said the FBI is wasting resources and threatening First Amendment rights by wrongfully equating nonviolent protest with domestic terrorism.
Victory for Nonviolence
The Freedom Rides demonstrated the power of nonviolent direct action to achieve strategic victory. Along with the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the student lunch counter sit-ins of 1960, the Freedom Rides were one of the earliest demonstrations that Gandhian principles of nonviolence could prove effective in the American civil rights movement.
Resistance to White Supremacy: Nonviolence in the U.S. South and South Africa
During the 1950s and early 1960s, nonviolent protesters challenged legalized racial segregation and discrimination in the only two places on earth where such blatant manifestations of white supremacy could be found—the southern United States and the Union of South Africa. Comparing these movements gives us a better perspective on the recent history of black liberation struggles in the two societies.
China: Release Advocates of Nonviolence
(New York) – The Chinese government should immediately release human rights activists Tang Jingling, Yuan Xinting, and Wang Qingying and drop all charges against them, Human Rights Watch said today. The three will be tried for allegedly “inciting subversion,” which can carry sentences of up to 15 years in prison, on June 19, 2015, by the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court.
Satyagraha 100 Years Later: Gandhi Launches Modern Non-Violent Resistance Movement on Sept. 11, 1906
September 11th 2006 has a special significance. It not only marks the fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, it also marks 100 years to the day that Mahatma Gandhi launched the modern nonviolent resistance movement. We speak with Gandhi’s grandson, Arun, about “Satyagraha.”
EJI Remembers Civil Rights Leader Rev. C.T. Vivian
by Equal Justice Initiative 18/7/20
A Baptist minister, Mr. Vivian was a key adviser to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and served as the national director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s 85 local chapters from 1963 to 1966, directing protest activities, training activists in nonviolence, and coordinating voter registration and community development projects.
Civil Rights Icon Bernard Lafayette on His Friend John Lewis, Freedom Rides & Practicing Nonviolence
We revisit civil rights leader and Congressmember John Lewis’s early years of activism with Bernard Lafayette, one of Lewis’s closest friends and collaborators.
The Power of Nonviolence: Myths and Reality
by Haley Morrow 31/5/23 COUNTERPUNCH
A commonly held myth is that war concludes well with peace. In fact, conflict research shows that the losing side may accept defeat in a public-facing manner, only to fester and plot to get revenge later.
Building New 'Nonviolent Cities'
by Rev. John Dear 14/3/16 Common Dreams
Last year, I was invited to give a talk on peace in Carbondale, Illinois. I was surprised to discover that in recent years, activists from across Carbondale had come together with a broad vision of what their community could one day become--a nonviolent city. They wanted a new holistic approach to their work, with a positive vision for the future, so that over time, their community would be transformed into a culture of nonviolence.
Yes to Assertive, No to Aggressive
by Tom H. Hastings 11/5/16 COUNTERPUNCH
I teach and write in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies, with a special focus on strategic nonviolence. It is a rich field, growing in its scholarship and its widespread usage. I’m so enthused by this—the more we wage our conflicts with nonviolence the lower the costs.
Mexican Campaign Ads: Fraternity, Nonviolence and ‘I Will Wear the Pants’
One of the top contenders in Mexico’s July 1 presidential election, Josefina Vazquez Mota of the Partido Accion Nacional, or PAN, is portraying herself as tough on crime and a protector of families. “I will be a president in a skirt,” she says in a campaign ad, “but I will wear the pants.”
Nonviolence in Iraq
by Owner Account 21/9/08 common dreams
"Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows," Martin Luther
King, Jr. once said. In the days after September 11, 2001, some relatives of those who died in the attacks took King's words to heart. They formed "September
The New Nonviolence -- Stories of Civic Creation
by Harry Boyte 1/10/17 HUFFPOST
Though it has ancient roots in religions and earlier struggles, nonviolence as a method of large scale change was first developed by Mahatma Gandhi and his colleagues in South Africa in the early 20th century to challenge bigotry against Indians.
Non-Violence Uses Love as Force
by Richard Moser 9/2/18 COUNTERPUNCH
“Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored…there is a type of of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth.
Nonviolence or Nonexistence
by Robert C. Koehler 5/5/19 common dreams
One of the people working tirelessly to make this happen is Mel Duncan, co-founder of Nonviolent Peaceforce. Just over a month ago, he did his best to bring some peace consciousness to a House Appropriations subcommittee, in an effort to get funding for a global lifesaving program that's in place in some of the most conflict-ravaged regions of the world. It's called, simply enough, Unarmed Civilian Protection, but there's nothing simple about what it is or how it works.
Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh, Hailed by MLK as “Apostle of Peace & Nonviolence,” Dies at 95
World-renowned Buddhist monk, poet, teacher and antiwar activist Thich Nhat Hanh has died in his native Vietnam at the age of 95. He was exiled from Vietnam for decades beginning in the 1960s after he spoke out publicly against the war. In 1966, he traveled to the United States and met with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helping to persuade King to speak out against the U.S. War on Vietnam.
A Few Things About Nonviolence: A Response to Yoav Litvin
by Andie Stewart 22/9/17 COUNTERPUNCH
Yoav Litvin’s recent column, To Punch or Not to Punch – The American Left’s Existential Crisis, about nonviolence is a deeply mistaken and rather insulting piece of writing. His understanding of nonviolence is ahistorical and decontextualized. What he calls ‘nonviolence’ is not nonviolence, it is the liberal media’s false projection of nonviolence that has been created in the 50 years since the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. to function as a soft-power ideological state apparatus.
Imagining the nonviolent state
What if nonviolence wasn’t an inhuman standard demanded of the powerless, but an ethic upon which we reimagined the state?
The power of nonviolence
No political action seems to enjoy greater moral authority than the nonviolent methods Mahatma Gandhi inaugurated more than a century ago. Gandhi’s neologism for nonviolent direct action was satyagraha, which roughly translates to ‘holding fast to truth’. While this term itself never caught on, in principle or form, nonviolent models of organising protest did. For decades, pro-democracy movements in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe have conspicuously embraced nonviolent politics to express mass dissent and topple authoritarian governments.
Why Ta-Nehisi Coates is hopeful
The author of Between the World and Me on why this isn’t 1968, the Colin Kaepernick test, police abolition, nonviolence and the state, and more.
Ta-Nehisi Coates Criticizes Calls For Nonviolence In Baltimore
by All Things Considered 1/5/15 npr
Ta-Nehisi Coates, national correspondent for The Atlantic, grew up in the Baltimore neighborhood where this week's riots broke out. In response to all the public calls for nonviolence, Coates wrote this, When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling timeout, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. Ta-Nehisi Coates joins us now.
McKissich Says Nonviolence Has Become Dead Philosophy
by The New York Times 15/4/1968
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Just Folks At a School For Nonviolence; School for Nonviolence Her politics are, she will concede, "all vague"
by Joan Didion 27/2/1966 The New York Times
OUTSIDE the Monterey County Courthouse in Salinas the Downtown Merchants' Christmas decorations glittered in the thin sunlight that makes the winter lettuce grow. Inside, the crowd blinked uneasily in the blinding television lights. The occasion was a meeting of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, and the issue, on this warm afternoon before Christmas, was whether a small school in the Carmel Valley owned by Miss Joan Baez, the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence, was in violation of Section 32-C of the Monterey County Zoning Code, which prohibits land use “detrimental to the peace, morals, or general welfare of Monterey County.”
Occupy Wall St. nonviolence: Is Oakland the exception or the future?
by Gloria Goodale 31/1/12 THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
As Occupy groups in Washington and Oakland generate contrasting images of Dream tents on the one coast and flag burning on the other, it’s becoming clear that the four month-old protest movement is facing its Hamlet moment: to be or not to be nonviolent.
Ally to the End in Dr. King's Philosophy of Nonviolence
by The New York Times 25/9/1985
The Sept. 15 news article about transcripts of wiretapped telephone conversations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could lead readers to believe that in 1968 I rejected the philosophy of nonviolence as espoused by Dr. King. I did not.
From Occupy to Black Lives Matter: how nonviolent resistance is shaping the 2016 elections
by Erica Chenoweth 18/4/16 Vox
MALCOLM X DISPUTES NONVIOLENCE POLICY
by The New York Times 5/6/1963
Malcolm X, the Eastern leader of the Black Muslim movement, charged last night that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s policy of nonviolence was "disarming" Negroes in their struggle for rights.
KENNEDY APPEALS FOR NONVIOLENCE; Bids Negroes in Indianapolis Follow Dr. King Example
INDIANAPOLIS, April 4—Senator Robert F. Kennedy, moved almost to tears by the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., told a street corner rally of Negroes tonight that they must strive for love, wisdom, understanding and compassion toward all men.
Nonviolence Making Quiet Gains in U.S. Despite Disorders
by John Herbers 5/4/1970 The New York Times
HAVERFORD, Pa., April 3— Two years after the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., nonviolence as a tech nique for social change, al though widely rejected, is making quiet gains across the nation.
Why Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy of nonviolence matters now more than ever
by Eliott C. McLaughlin 27/2/22 CNN
The discipline made sense in the 1950s and 1960s when peaceful protesters were met by “Bull” Connor or Sheriff Jim Clark, who unleashed the full venom of law enforcement. Protesters’ nonviolent response to dogs, billy clubs and water cannons painted a necessary contrast for the North and the world: Here are the oppressors; there are the oppressed.
DR. KING STRESSES NONVIOLENCE ROLE; Tells Oslo Students Nations Should Try to ‘Sacrifice’ to Achieve World Peace
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, addressing students at Oslo University, said the “freedom movement is spreading in the [widest liberation in history.” In its vanguard, he said, is the spirit of nonviolence.
Tag: Nonviolence
“The lure of the political” changed Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a pastor and theologian. He prayed with the conspirators to assassinate Hitler, and he conferred blessings on the various coup attempts. Watch our interview with Charles Marsh, author of “Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”
NON-VIOLENCE -- POWERFUL RIGHTS WEAPON
by John Herbersspecial To the New York Times 28/2/1965 The New York Times
JACKSON, Miss., Feb. 27— On the morning of Feb. 3, Malcolm X showed up unexpectedly in Selma, Ala., where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading a non-violent movement against the area's restrictions on Negro voting. Dr. King was, by his own design, in jail.
Breaking news alert: People are inherently good, nonviolent
by David G. Allan 11/12/18 CNN
It matters how you personally respond when you hear news of violence. The way you process and frame it has real mental and physical impacts.
Mass shootings, deadly hate crimes, terror, murder, gun violence and war all have their particular details, but each story revives age-old, yet urgent, questions about who we are as a species.
How to topple dictators and transform society
Nonviolent resistance scholar Erica Chenoweth explains the key ingredients of successful social movements.
A Distinguished French General Is Now a Man of Nonviolence
by Nan Robertson Special to The New York Times 29/8/1973 The New York Times
Two weeks ago the Government struck General de Bollardiere from the army reserve list for actively opposing the current French atomic bomb tests in the atmosphere over Mururoa atoll in the South Pacific. The French Navy forcibly removed him from an American yacht that had gone near the forbidden nuclear site as a protest gesture.
10 Organizations Promoting Nonviolent Resistance Worldwide
by by Taylor O’Connor 12/09/2024 Everyday Peace Building
Nonviolence organizations mapped in this blog post focus on the study and promotion of nonviolent resistance. They research and document nonviolent movements around the world and throughout history. They train activists in nonviolent tactics and strategy. They support nonviolent movements worldwide. They promote the use of nonviolent tactics and strategies to bring down dictators, fight for social justice, promote democracy, and end war, but aren’t specifically about peace and war.
