A Deeper Dive Into Dilemma Actions

Here is a link to an interview which provides a clearer picture of a concept which I mentioned in my last post.  The interview was given by Srdja Popovic on the Democracy Paradox podcast and was posted on March 7, 2023. Srdja Popovic is the founder of CANVAS (The Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies). CANVAS provides training to organizers who need to wage campaigns of strategic nonviolent resistance in order to liberate themselves and their people from oppression and build durable democratic societies. 

In the interview Mr. Popovic emphasizes several points which have also been mentioned on my blog, The Well Run Dry.  In particular, he talks about how essential it is for the organizers of a movement of strategic nonviolent resistance to start by developing a wise master strategy.  He also talks about why movements need leadership in order to be successful and why so many "leaderless movements" of spontaneous mass protest have accomplished so little over the last two decades.  He explains the concept of a dilemma action and shows how it can be a powerful tactic when wielded by skillful resisters who implement this tactic as part of a larger, well-formulated grand strategy.

The points he makes fit in well with my most recent post, which makes the case that struggle groups who wish to win need to evolve their tactics in order to fit with the ever-evolving nature of the space in which they struggle.  This particularly applies to the methods of protest and persuasion listed by Gene Sharp in books like From Dictatorship to Democracy.  I have mentioned previously that the methods of protest and persuasion are among the weakest methods of strategic nonviolent resistance.  Yet they are not useless - they can still augment the power of a resistance movement as long as the tactics of protest have evolved to meet the changing nature of the struggle space, and especially as long as these methods are part of an entire suite of strategically chosen tactics which accomplish more than just protest.  Calling for mass protest marches is not a tactic that fits the present times, due to the extreme ease with which an oppressor can neutralize this form of protest by injecting violence (including vandalism) into any such protest marches.  Feel free to listen to Srdja as he describes more innovative and effective tactics of protest.