peace st 1a03 (2010/11) lecture 7: nonviolence

8/7/2019 PEACE ST 1A03 (2010/11) Lecture 7: Nonviolence

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Lecture 7Monday February 7 2011

PEACE ST 1A03: Introduction to Peace StudiesDr Colin Salter, Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University

Nonviolencetheory, practice, criticisms

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Questions

Like Peace, we often hear references tononviolence, yet what does it actually mean?

Is there a universal or popularly adopted definitionof nonviolence?

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Taken literally, nonviolent action would mean any formof action that does not involve violence or force such as

beating, torture, imprisonment or killing.In practice, nonviolent action has come to refer to arange of methods of social action that neither involveviolence nor are routine parts of life or politics.

Nonviolence

Brian Martin (2001)

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Examples

resistance in Finland to Russian attempts todominate, 1899-1905

thwarting of the Kapp Putsch in Germany in 1920 nonviolent insurrection to overthrow the

dictatorship in El Salvador in 1944

resistance against the Nazi occupation, 1939-1943,especially in Norway, Denmark and theNetherlands

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Examples

the US civil rights movement in the 1950s and1960s

thwarting of the 1961 Algerian Generals revolt

Czechoslovak resistance to the 1968 Sovietinvasion

the Palestinian intifada, 1987-1993, challenging theIsraeli occupation

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Examples

collapse in 1989 of repressive Eastern Europeanregimes

the removal of the racist and oppressive apartheidsystem in South Africa in the 1990s

Tunisia and Egypt (2010-11)

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Most of these people will never make the headlines andtheir names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet whenyears have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth

is focused on this marvellous age in which we live--menand women will know and children will be taught thatwe have a finer land, a better people, a more noblecivilization--because these humble children of God werewilling to suffer for righteousness' sake.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Nonviolent disarmament

Civil disobedience

Trident Ploughshares

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/88451

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I do not, however, deny that I planned sabotage. I did notplan it in a spirit of recklessness, nor because I have anylove of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm andsober assessment of the political situation that hadarisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation, andoppression of my people by the Whites.

Nelson Mandela

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A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity,

stability, and beauty if the biotic community. It is wrongwhen it tends otherwise.

Aldo Leopold (1981)

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Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will

make violent revolution inevitableJohn F. Kennedy, 1962

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Uncivil disobedience

To inflict economic damage on those profitting fromthe destruction and exploitation of the natural

environment. To reveal and educate the public on the atrocities

committed against the earth and all species thatpopulate it.

To take all necessary precautions against harmingany animal, human and non-human.

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Summary

Satyagraha

Christian Pacifism

(Black) Liberation

Theology Radical perspectives

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Image sources

Peace flag, original source unknown.

Marc Riboud. Jan Rose Kasmir, protest against the Vietnam War outside the Pentagon, Arlington County,Virginia, Saturday, 21 October, 1967 http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Rose_Kasmir

Elisa Iannacone. As leaders of the G20 nations gathered in Toronto, Canada, protesters took to the streets

[caption]. G20 summit protests in Toronto : Your pictures, BBC News, 27 June 2010 http:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/10427404

The U.S. vs. John Lennon reproduced from Jrgen Fauths Muckworld http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/02/14/the-us-vs-john-lennon/

Britches (1985) sourced from http://www.animalliberationfront.com/ALFront/lab.htm

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peace st 1a03 (2010/11) lecture 7: nonviolence

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