Strategic Nonviolent Direct Action –
what is it and how to get some happening
Our Movement – The Animal Rights Movement – has a rich history of civil disobedience and in many ways it is one of the most effective tools that we have. Historically, strategic nonviolence resisters have overthrown dictators, freed colonies, defended countries from occupying forces, and advanced social justice in a variety of circumstances and countries. Its adaptability makes it a powerful and relevant force for eco-animal liberationists.
ON WHAT IS NONVIOLENT DISCIPLINE?
"Undisciplined strength or strength which is not in keeping with right principles can never lead to a beneficial fruition. It could lead to danger for many."
– Aung San Suu Kyi
and again,
"If you want to be respected for your actions, then your behaviour must be beyond reproach .... this is how you gain the respect of others. If our lives demonstrate that we are peaceful, humble, and trusted, this is recognised by others. If our lives demonstrate something else, that will be noticed to."
– Rosa Parks, the black civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. Before she was arrested, she distinctly remembered thinking, "Our mistreatment is just not right, and I was tired of it. The more we gave in, the worse they treated us."
ON WHY NONVIOLENCE?
"In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those that oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us."
– Titus 2:7-8
ON TOTAL ANIMAL LIBERATION
"All competent strategy derives from objectives that are well chosen, defined, and understood. Yet it is surprising how many groups in conflict with animal abusers fail to articulate their objectives in anything but the most abstract terms. In each conflict there is an ultimate goal that, once attained, will constitute victory. That goal should be seen as the dependent variable towards which all levels of decision making are directed."
– Peter Ackerman and Chris Kruegler, authors of Strategic Nonviolent Conflict.
ON UNDERSTANDING POWER
"The tyrant and his subjects are in somewhat symmetrical positions. They can deny him most of what he wants – they can, that is, if they have the disciplined organisation to refuse collaboration. And he can deny them just about everything they want – he can deny it by using the force at his command. It is a bargaining situation in which either side, if adequately disciplined and organised, can deny most of what the other wants; and it remains to see who wins."
– Thomas C. Schelling, military strategist.
ON WHY VIOLENCE DOESN'T HELP THE ANIMAL RIGHTS CAUSE
"To produce change, nonviolent action operates on much more fundamental psychological, social and political levels than other techniques of action. These more fundamental levels of operation in nonviolent action, which may produce shifts of loyalties and invisibly undermine the power of a hostile regime, often operate more quickly than dramatic acts which might only be possible by secrecy. Therefore, it is highly dangerous to threaten the operation of those sometimes less obvious but much stronger forces by a secret effort to produce a quick, temporary victory on some subordinate point."
– Gene Sharp, author of The Politics of Nonviolent Action.
ON THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL
"Wars will never cease while men still kill other animals for food, for to turn any living creature into a roast, a steak, a chop, or any other type of 'meat' takes the same kind of violence, the same kind of bloodshed, and the same kind of mental processes required to change a living man into a dead soldier."
– Written in 1943 by the feminist vegetarian Agnes Ryan.
and again
"Nothing is more irritating and, in the final analysis, harmful to a government than to have to deal with people who will not bend to its will, whatever the consequences."
– Jawaharal Nehru, first Indian Prime Minister.
ON NON-COOPERATION
"All people recognise the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its efficiency are great and unendurable."
– Henry David Thoreau, an abolitionist and anti-war activist
ON REPRESSION
"Without willingness to face repression as the price of the struggle, the nonviolent action movement cannot hope to succeed."
– Gene Sharp
ON FEARLESSNESS
"A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small daily acts of courage which help to preserve {ones} self-respect and inherent human dignity."
– Aung San Suu Kyi
and again,
"I'll speak on the ashes!"
– Sojourner Truth's response to her opponents threats to burn down the meeting halls where she was scheduled to speak.
ON OPEN DEFIANCE AND HONESTY
"So long as the oppressor is not convinced of the activists attitude, he will be inclined to strengthen his own position. Only an open resistance organisation can convince the oppressor that its professed belief and demands which arise from it correspond to the true aims of the campaign."
– Theodor Ebert, author of Theory and Practice of Nonviolent Resistance
ON SOLIDARITY
"The gains we made came about because blacks realised that it takes cooperation and determination to make progress in their struggle towards equality. No one can fight effectively for justice alone."
– Rosa Parks
ON THE POWER OF FOCUS
"In analysing our campaign in Albany, Georgia, we decided that one of the principle mistakes we had made there was to scatter our efforts too widely. We had been so involved in attacking segregation in general that we had failed to direct our protest effectively to any one major facet. We concluded that in hard-core communities a more effective battle could be waged if it was concentrated against one aspect of the evil and intricate system of segregation."
– Martin Luther King Jr
ON PERSISTENCE
"I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience."
– John Bunyan, a seventeenth century religious reformer who spent nearly 12 years of his life in jail for repeatedly preaching without a license.
ON UNJUST LAWS
"We no longer petition legislature or Congress to give us the right to vote, but appeal to women everywhere to exercise their too long neglected 'citizen's rights'."
– Susan B. Anthony referring to her efforts to get women to register to vote before they were legally able to do so.
and again,
"... if (oppression) is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counterfriction to stop the machine."
– Henry David Thoreau
ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
"Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such a creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatise the issue that it can no longer be ignored."
– Martin Luther King Jr
ON SACRIFICE TO SUCCESS
"We must all sacrifice our own needs for the needs of others."
– Aung San Suu Kyi, who voluntarily stayed under house arrest, separated from her husband and children for six years, rather than permanently leave her own country of Burma, where she leads the nonviolent democracy movement against an oppressive military regime.
and again,
"I was scarcely breathing, but I was willing to suffer whatever the cause required."
– Lucretia Mott's thoughts while pro-slavery forces mobbed her house intending to burn it.
and again,
"I have found that a mere appeal to reason does not answer where prejudices are age-long and based upon supposed religious authority. Reasoning has to be strengthened by suffering and suffering opens the eyes to understanding."
– Gandhi
ON STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING
"Nonviolent action was grasped by the Negro masses because it embodied the dignity of struggle, or moral conviction and self sacrifice. The Negro was able to face his adversary, to concede to him a physical advantage and to defeat him because the superior force of the oppressor had become powerless."
– Martin Luther King Jr
ON A PLAN OF ACTION
"That (strategic nonviolence) has considerable effect on the opponent is undoubted. It exposes his moral defenses, it unnerves him, it appeals to the best in him, it leaves the door open for reconciliation. There can be no doubt that the approach of love and self suffering has powerful psychic reactions on the adversary as well as on the onlookers."
– Nehru
ON STRENGTH
"You have to be prepared to die before you can begin to live."
– Fred Shuttlesworth, a civil rights activist who was beaten and had his home bombed by opponents.
ON MORAL BELIEF
"I've seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and I've seen hate on the faces of too many sheriffs, too many White Citizen Councillors, and too many Klansmen of the South to want to hate, myself; and every time I see it I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear ..... if there be peace on earth and goodwill towards men, we must finally believe in the ultimate morality of the universe, and believe that all reality hinges on moral foundations."
– Martin Luther King Jr
ON KEEPING PERSPECTIVE
"Those activists demanding to see outcomes too soon may quit before the real opportunities to win become clear. Lack of persistence, a major cause of failure in nonviolent conflict, is often the product of a short-term perspective. Explaining to supporters that certain events have only tactical significance and that they must try to see the larger picture in terms of policy objectives and operations will kept supporters informed, motivated and patient."
– Peter Ackerman and Chris Kruegler
And so the Animal Rights Movement is part of this incredible diversity of lovers of truth and justice. Our ultimate goals cannot be achieved through one letter, one protest, one raid, one speech, or any one tactic. Perhaps the last word should go to Peter Singer, the father of the modern-day Animal Rights Movement.
"... we must claw our way, inch by inch, never losing sight of the larger picture, but always focused on equal consideration for the individual animal ...."
As a movement we must continue to refine and improve our strategy. Despite differences of opinion on strategies and tactics there is a deep kinship with all people touched by the desperate plight of the animals. Fighting the seemingly omnipresent selfishness, greed and violence against animals is a formidable challenge but one that we are up to. Total animal liberation is not a dream if we are unified, and persistent, and fearless and determined. It is up to every one of us to make that happen.
Yeah.
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