The Shape of Our Struggle

Things in the United States are turning out about as I expected in the aftermath of Joe Biden's election victory over Donald Trump.  Trump's response has been what he told us all along that it would be.  Indeed, even when Trump ran against Hillary Clinton in 2016, he had told us that he would not accept a legitimate election loss.  The deep existential foundations of Trump's malignant narcissism are the motive behind his refusal in 2020 to accept a loss that is becoming more painfully obvious with each passing day.

Over the last four years, Trump has managed to pack many offices of the Federal government with sycophants who have no principles other than self-seeking loyalty to Trump.  Anyone with competence and principles who was part of his administration at any time has by now left.  He has packed the Federal judiciary with unrighteous judges.  And he is now packing the Pentagon with loyalists.  

All of this leads naturally to the question of what decent people in the United States should do if Trump refuses to leave office, or if he succeeds in getting corrupt courts to void a legitimate election, or if he stages a military coup.  My answer to such a question is contained in the many posts I have written which explain strategic nonviolent resistance on this blog.  Strategic nonviolent resistance is a key component of the struggle of an oppressed people to liberate themselves from a tyrant, dictator, or oppressor.  If you're looking for what you can do to contribute to that struggle, please read these posts.

A few points must be made.  First, you must get ready to organize with your neighbors.  Second, you must organize to massively and collectively withdraw your economic and political cooperation from the system.  This will massively raise the costs borne by a Trump dictatorship and make such a dictatorship unsustainable.  (Think of such things as strikes and boycotts of large businesses (such as Fox News) that support Trump.  DO NOT base your struggle solely on mass protest marches!)  Third, you must remain nonviolent in your struggle.  This is not just for moral reasons!  It is also because the moment you allow violence, you decrease your chances that your liberation struggle will succeed.  (If you don't believe me, please read Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan.  Or watch some of the YouTube videos of Erica Chenoweth.)  

Fourth, you must begin NOW to study strategic nonviolent resistance if you haven't yet started.  Fighters who lack skill never win.  If you want to win, you must study.  But learn only from reputable sources.  Here is a short list of sources I consider trustworthy:

• The Albert Einstein Institution
• The Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS)
• Teachers and practitioners of community organizing.

One source which I would urge you to stay away from is the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC).  From their founding up to the end of 2016, their courses and publications presented valuable information and good advice.  But from 2017 onward, something began to change.  Thus in one of their online courses which took place after 2016, Daniel Dixon of the ICNC suggested that violent and nonviolent forms of resistance could be combined in a movement to make the movement stronger.  (By the way, all available evidence on social movements proves the exact opposite.)  His exact words were, "An organizing friend of mine likes to talk about 'synergy of tactics' as opposed to 'diversity of tactics'.  By this he means that violent forms of protest can work alongside nonviolent forms of protest to create something that is more powerful than either could accomplish individually."  This is complete garbage.  He is not the only one to make suggestions that are harmful to liberation struggles.  Tom Hastings of the ICNC suggested this year that there were times and cases in which a nonviolent resistance movement could help its cause by destroying property.  That too is garbage.  If you engage in violence (including property destruction) you will make it harder to shift the pillars of support of the dictator's regime.  And we want to make it as easy as possible for people who now support Trump to walk away from him.

This weekend, God willing, I will be continuing my series on the book From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp.  Stay tuned.