Nonviolent resistance: a system of means by which the powerless and the oppressed shift the balance of power between themselves and their oppressors without the use of physical violence or property destruction.The method of choice of the Black Lives Matter movement is the use of strategic nonviolent resistance in order to end the brutal racism of the dominant American culture against people of color. And the proper application of strategic nonviolent resistance against oppressors works by removing the pillars of support which uphold those oppressors. I described these pillars of support in last week's post.
Now those who have studied strategic nonviolent resistance know that it is such an effective method when properly applied that oppressors frequently try to inject violence into an initially nonviolent resistance struggle so that they can more easily crush it. We saw this in the United States under Trump from 2017 to 2019 with the staged clashes between the Antifa and various right-wing groups. I believe we are seeing it again with the rise of people who engage in acts of destruction against monuments commemorating heroes of White American history. Regardless of how you may feel about these heroes (and believe me, I don't regard these people as my heroes), here's the go to jail truth about property destruction: it is perceived by many people as an act of violence. Violence polarizes people and causes the agents of the oppressor to tighten their loyalty to the oppressor. It also plays right into the hands of oppressors who claim that they must oppress in order to maintain "law and order" and to protect society from "chaos." Even property destruction therefore decreases the ability of the liberation struggle to weaken the oppressor's pillars of support. Violence - including property destruction - also diminishes mass participation in a movement.
So why are some of those who claim to stand on behalf of Black lives engaging in attacking monuments? And why, after several weeks of protests, have those who seek to resist oppression not broadened their tactics of nonviolent action beyond protest? If you're reading this blog and you are Black or Brown, please read Gene Sharp's books on nonviolent resistance! Or please start studying the CANVAS core curriculum! If you're White and you claim to want to support Black and Brown people in their struggle against White racists, please read these books also! And please stop trying to hijack our struggle or to turn our struggle into an expression of your own private grievances! Most of the vandals who have acted during the protests of the last several weeks have been White.
One other thing. While I have in the past enjoyed reading the literature of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, I think it's time to reject them for the present, as I wrote in a post in May of this year. In that post, I said that those who want to incite violence have managed to infiltrate even some organizations whose ostensible mission is to teach strategic nonviolent resistance. I also challenged the ICNC to take out some of its own trash. But the ICNC has recently posted on the front page of its website a link to an article written by professor Tom Hastings at Portland State University which argues that there are times when property destruction (that is, protesters destroying property that doesn't belong to them) is helpful to a nonviolent campaign. Wrong, Professor Hastings! Can Hastings name a single instance in which destruction of someone else's property enabled nonviolent resisters to weaken an oppressor's pillars of support? I don't think so! If protesters destroy other people's property (even statues!), it shows their lack of competence in weakening the oppressor's pillars of support. Think of the many cases in which BLM activists were successful in getting oppressive state governments to remove their own monuments commemorating racist heroes. Now that's skill. As Isaac Asimov once said, violence is truly the last refuge of the incompetent - unless the violent actors happen to be agents provocateurs.
Donald Trump badly needs a "rally round the flag moment" just now. We need to make sure that we don't give him one.
No comments:
Post a Comment