What Is Nonviolence?
Nonviolence
is a political strategy, or moral philosophy, that rejects the use of
violence in efforts to attain social or political change.
As an alternative to both passive
acceptance and armed struggle, nonviolence proclaims other means of
popular struggle such as civil disobedience, nonviolent resistance or
the power of non co-operation combined with persuasion.
Nonviolence is not passivism.
Since the mid 20th century the term nonviolence or nonviolent
resistance has come to embody a diversity of techniques for social
change without the use of force, as well as the underlying political and
philosophical rationale for the use of these techniques. Nonviolent
resistance is different from pacifism because it is a direct attack on
the oppressor's will and sense of right and wrong.
As
a technique for social struggle, nonviolence has been described as "the
politics of ordinary people", reflecting its historically mass-based use
by populations throughout the world and history. Struggles most often
associated with nonviolence are the non co-operation campaign for Indian
independence led by Mohandas Gandhi, the struggle to attain civil rights
for African Americans, led by Martin Luther King Jr., and people power
in the Philippines.
Nonviolence has obtained a level of institutional recognition and
endorsement at the global level. On November 10th, 1998, the United
Nations General Assembly proclaimed the first decade of the 21st century
and the third millennium, the years 2001 to 2010, as the International
Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the
Children of the World.
The
following links will guide you to resources that will help you better
understand what nonviolent conflict is and, in the case of the site
A Force More Powerful, provide you with real examples of how that
change has already worked in the 20th Century.
Non-Violent Conflict Resolution in Schools
Principles of Non-Violent Conflict Resolutions
International Center for Nonviolent Conflict
A Force More Powerful: Using Nonviolence Conflict to achieve democracy and human rights