[Peace-discuss] People Power

[John Fettig]

After seeing a reference to this book in the forward about sending rice
to the White House, I was curious enough to go to the library and read
it.  It is a very interesting book, I highly suggest you all read it
(it's not that long, you can read it at the library).  It provides some
good insight into what we need to do to be effective as non-violent
noncooperators.  

The book:  People Power: Applying Nonviolence Theory, David H. Albert,
1985, New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, PA.

An excerpt: (pp 53-54)
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" A more contemporary example is the unwillingness of most Americans to
abandon reliance on military and nuclear defense.  Many Americans can
see the evils and dangers inherent in current defense strategies - the
huge costs to the economy, the dangers of nuclear war, etc.  Yet, they
also perceive a need to defend the territorial integrity of the United
States, the traditional freedoms of speech, assembly, press, and
religion, their homes and their families.  They are willing to accept
the "by-products" of current military defense strategies because they
don't perceive a way in which these needs will be fulfilled by other,
less costly and oppressive, means.  Arms talks, nuclear freezes,
"build-downs", etc., while perhaps constructive, offer no alternatives
in the meeting of these needs, and hence do little or nothing to shake
most Americans' reliance on the traditional means of defense.  Only by
offering the real possibilities of performing what are perceived as
socially necessary defense functions will anti-military activists likely
make inroads into broad American support for military spending and
nuclear defenses.

"Before conducting campaigns, nonviolent activists should carefully
analyze the social institutions or activities they will be opposing.
They should understand what social functions claimed for the
institutions are really "societal myths" and devise strategies for
exposing them as such.  But they should also understand what social
functions are really performed by these institutions, however oppressive
they are in their actual operation, and ensure that they have ways of
making the public aware of how these functions can be performed, by
other institutions or activites, or by reforming existing institutions."

+===================================================================+

I am still trying to figure out where his source is on the Eisenhower
rice story.  It sounds very far fetched, and I would like to read more
about it(which is why I went to the library in the first place).

He gives several other examples of successful nonviolent campaigns:

"search and avoid" missions in Vietnam, which sounds basically like
soldiers refusing to fight the war by going out on "search" missions and
avoiding conflict, and he attributes the change from a ground fought war
to a largely air fought war to our withdrawal, to these nonviolent
efforts.

Iranian Revolution, 1979: The shah appoints a U.S.-approved leader named
Bakhtiar, and the people essentially ignore his position.

The Russian Revolution, 1917: was started with the help of the Czar's
soldiers desertion.

+===================================================================+


And what is going to end up as my signature for a while, as I think it
is extremely insightful, and a terribly relevant slice of wisdom in this
day:

"The spirit in which any struggle, violent or non-violent, is carried
out, will always remain an important factor in determining the values
inherent in the new power relationships."  -- David Albert



John (I really hope somebody read this far) :)