The second round is ready to begin this afternoon at 4:30 pm, berth 58 at the Port of Oakland. Please join the activists and workers in this effort this afternoon if you can!

Check out a recent news report HERE. The dock workers, with the support of protesters, successfully negotiated to refuse to offload the Israeli ship. A second group of workers will arrive this afternoon, and with our support they can also make the decision not to work to unload the ship during this shift. The goal of this action is to resist the unloading for a minimum of 24 hours. This is a historic opportunity to support the shift toward a more nonviolent culture, by participating in an internationally-supported movement for Peace. Please attend if you can!

Original announcement follows:

6/20/2010 Oakland Labor Community Picket of an Israeli Zim Line ship

Indeed, South Africa now faces growing violence in its cities, streets, and countryside, with a spiraling murder rate. Unemployment is at 25%, and economic inequality remains a legacy of the past and the greatest of challenges for the nation. At the same time, economic growth has been lifting the ranks of the black middle class. South Africa is Africa’s leading economy, and will be the first African nation to host the World Cup soccer championship this summer. And there are numerous examples where alternative development models are also contributing to build a better future for all South Africans.

While on a recent business trip to Cape Town the inevitable discussion of the South African apartheid struggle came up in a conversation I was having with my Afrikaans agent there. How is it, I asked him, that during the years of struggle and the final days of the overturn of apartheid that the country did not spin out of control into an unstoppable civil war that could perhaps still be ongoing today?

“Very simple, ” he replied. “If it hadn’t been for the leadership of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, we would have likely had such a terrible civil war.”

The gentleman I am speaking with is Afrikaans and at 72 was a member of the old guard, yet he has never left the country and in fact is quite proud of the fact that South Africa has such a story of triumph to tell, for the nonviolent space that was created has allowed the country to move forward in untold ways compared to the scars and destructive forces that civil war would have unleashed.

So the legacy of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, as the sons of Gandhi’s own movement in the very country that first threw the young Indian off the railcar and into the collective consciousness forever, remains a living testament to the power of nonviolence to influence positive social change through inspired and enlightened leadership. This is the leadership we are all called to provide in our own way, beginning with ourselves.

South Africa is a long way from reaching the Promised Land, but the seeds of change there have been deeply planted and remain a great source for optimism. Let’s keep their hope alive.

Angelo Capozzi

The Metta Center is happy to announce the call for applications for the 2010 Metta Mentors Nonviolence Immersion Program. Yes, to all of you who have been asking: it’s time to apply!

If you’re interested, you can do two things that will help us get the word out effectively:

1) Learn more about the program by browsing and reading over the site (or consider applying). Contact us at mettamentors@mettacenter.org with any questions or suggestions for ways in which we can make the program information as clear and comprehensive as possible.

2) Share this message with everyone you know! We are looking for applicants from 18-35, and as in previous years we are hoping to invite both US and international students to our program. A call for applications follows this message, which you can forward easily, so please do so and help us get the word out!

If you were involved in any way with Metta Mentors last year, you will know that the 2009 program was an unqualified success. We hosted an amazing group of twelve mentees, and in the process our lives were transformed, even as we worked to transform the lives of those who came to participate. Many, many seeds were planted that we hope will blossom wildly this year as an even more transformative and unique program.

Note: though we have secured enough funding to run the 2010 program at a bare-bones level, we are still seeking funding; the number of mentees that we can accept this year has yet to be determined as a result. For more information about donating to the program, see the Metta Mentors post on our home page.

…and now for the announcement…

For more information, or to apply, please visit the Metta Mentors section of the Metta Center website, at:

http://www.mettacenter.org/mc/projects/metta-mentors

For anyone who is interested in exploring the legitimacy of President Obama’s comments on nonviolence in his Nobel Peace Prize speech, check out this informative, easy article by Eric Stoner, posted on the PJSA blog (that’s the Peace and Justice Studies Association), here.

For a cool commentary on Obama’s charge that “A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies”, here is another PJSA blog by self-confessed old-hippie American peacenik Tom Hastings, who gave Obama a C- for his Nobel speech :)

And finally, for a unique article that has Obama ‘in conversation’ with Martin Luther King, Jr., on the topic of nonviolence, check out Randall Amster’s recent post, “Keep Your Eyes on the Peace Prize”, on the Huffington Post site. Well done, Randall!

This topic has been a bit overdiscussed at this point, perhaps, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more…and more…and more that we can learn about nonviolence by studying Obama’s words and the response they have engendered. May we learn lessons from our forebears’ experience and wisdom, rather than repeating their fights — and their mistakes.

Considering that the president of the U.S. has just accepted the Nobel Peace Prize by giving a speech on the defense of war, there must be something more we have to learn.

Here’s to history, and to paying attention to what it has to teach us.

Here’s to not wasting energy by reinventing the wheel, but rather, to using the energy we have in skillful ways as a force for continued forward movement and transformation!!

45 Years, No Progress: Students at UC Berkeley take part in a guerilla art action to protest the lack of free speech on campus despite the 45th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement.

A respectful letter to students and other participants of the UC protests,
and to those calling for nonviolent change worldwide,

Having been a passionate participant in the Free Speech Movement (how’s that for full disclosure?), and having devoted much of my life since to figuring out where we succeeded and where we failed (unfortunately, more material on that side of the scale) and what nonviolence is and how it works, I would like to share some suggestions about the present unrest at UC Berkeley and other campuses over the fee hikes — and much broader issues.  In the interests of time I will simply list some concrete features that I believe a successful movement, one that really moved us toward permanent change, would have to have.

• I think the core of the ‘revolution’ should be built by faculty, students, staff, workers and — why not? — interested administrators (they also have a stake in a vibrant, stable University) coming together to remind yourselves what education means.  For the last quarter century or thereabouts every spokesperson who tried to represent the value of the University to the general public, state government, etc. stressed one theme: money.  The point of an education is to get the job you want, the purpose (or at least the utility) of the University to the state is income, etc.  No.  Education is for discovering reality, within and around us; for discovering the meaning of our life.  You may not agree; however, that education is about money is surely a travesty; we must come up with a far more inspiring purpose around which a core of engaged people can reach some basic agreement.
• The next step would be for your group to come up with a plan to address the fiscal problems of the University, obviously in more creative ways than the hatchet job that is now being carried out.  In other words, you should take responsibility, and not passively accept  — or reject — the feeble solution that’s being now implemented; more importantly, you should approach the Regents and Administration in a spirit of cooperation: “You and me against the problem.”  Put forward your own plan with confidence.  In the history of nonviolence there is a track record of factories, universities, and other institutions being successfully redesigned by workers and teachers when owners and administrators fail.  In nonviolence, it is essential to come up with your own articulate, realistic plan; not just protest someone else’s.  It’s also very useful to assume that the other party can change and is willing to listen to you — even though they don’t look it.
• But protest there may have to be.  In nonviolence, when appeals to reason go unheeded (they have to be tried first, and in good faith) people who believe that something is simply unacceptable must be prepared to fight it — but by nonviolent methods, in a nonviolent spirit.
• This may be hard.  The ‘Miami Model’ used by law enforcement since the ‘successful’ containment of protests against the FTAA trade agreement in November 2003 in that city, not always by methods worthy of a civilization, means that those who believe change is essential must be ready to suffer to bring it in.
• You must have a long-term strategy.  And today one thing that it must include is some way to deal with protestors who are not nonviolent.  It takes very few of them to capture attention and effectively cancel the effectiveness of a nonviolent action.  Somehow these people have to be brought along, or at least encouraged to stay away.  Monitors who know what they’re doing can deal with a few of them, but as always the best strategy is to make an enemy into a friend — whatever side of the fence he or she is standing on.
• These problems are not going away any time soon.  In the meantime, there is a lot to learn about the methods and principles of nonviolence, and all of you who want to be involved in the struggle should be encouraged to do that learning.  You may just find you’re getting a real education in the process.

Michael Nagler
Metta Center

One of the ways that we define violence at Metta is “coercive action based on an illusion of separateness, or the inability to recognize oneself in the other.” When we do violence to another, the wise would say, we do violence to ourselves. To take that one step further, when we watch another person doing violence to another (read: in the media, TV, video games, in our family relationships, etc.), we also experience that violence ourselves. Violence is based on an illusion of separateness, but it affects us all as interconnected beings, whether we recognize it or not. Just as we can raise our tolerance to alcohol by drinking more, we can raise our tolerance to violence by taking more of it in.

Conversely, nonviolence is a force that reveals itself via an ability to see ourselves in the other, a realization of the non-separation between ourselves and those around us. Research on mirror neurons, though it is new and multi-directional (read: controversial) at this point, can help us to begin to understand the science behind this interrelationship between ourselves, other beings, violence, and nonviolence. This video, and the scientific paradigm of which it is a part, is worth watching, and worth developing. (The video is also available here.) Check it out!

 A quote from VS Ramachandran in the video: “There is no real independent self aloof from other human beings, inspecting the world and inspecting other people; you are in fact connected…quite literally connected by your neurons…and there is no real distinctiveness of your consciousness from someone else’s consciousness. This emerges from an understanding of basic neuroscience.”

We really are all ONE.

The Search for a Nonviolent Future has been published in Arabic! Soon to be distributed in Syria, Morocco, Jordan, and Lebanon. We are also working on connections in — yes — Iraq, through our friends in La’Onf, and Palestine.

Dear Metta Community,

May this find you grounded in peace and gratitude as we prepare together for the transition to a new decade, one full of promise and potentiality for the continued movement toward an ever-more-nonviolent future!

We are writing today to update you on the status of our Metta Mentors Nonviolence Mentorship program for the year 2010, and to ask for your support and advice.

Metta Mentors: the 2009 Mentees!

As you may know, the Mentors program is one of Metta’s most successful and concrete projects. The feedback from our former mentees and partners affirms that participation in the program can be a life-changing experience. As one of our 2009 mentees wrote,

“I wanted to formally thank you for what was easily one of the most transformative summers of my life. …I have realized how much room there is for change within myself. I have learned to approach problems differently than I used to, and I am getting better at recognizing the needs and fears of others and responding accordingly.”

Metta Mentors is changing lives. Nevertheless, after three incredible summers, we find our program for the first time without funding for the coming year, as our previous funder has discontinued its grantmaking activities. Thus, we are now searching for creative ways to put this unique program together for summer 2010. Fortunately, what we lack in conventional currency, we have in abundance in the forms of social capital, creativity, and passionate belief in the transformative power of nonviolence education!

And as we have told a number of people recently (including a few potential participants who have already requested applications for the 2010 program), we are dedicated to putting on the program this summer, with whatever resources we have, in whatever size and shape we are able to make it, and to make it even more thoughtful and transformative than it has ever been.

Fortunately, we already know that our program expenses will be lower this year, as we have made some changes that will allow us to be more efficient with our resources. (Please see the P.S. for more information about these new developments.) But we know that you — our amazing, supportive community and network — can help us to find even more creative solutions to fill our needs, and so we are asking for your help! Below are three ways you can be of great help to us as we plan for a successful 2010 program:

1. Fund a Mentee

If you are interested in contributing funds to support a future leader of the nonviolent paradigm (aka “mentee”), or if you know of other potential funding sources, please let us know.

The numbers are simple: with $2000, we can provide a mentee with a living stipend for the ten weeks of the program. With $1000 (maybe less), we can provide a travel grant for an international student. The international component of the program is a unique and important one, and we would like to continue to invite international students to our program, if possible.

Note that these are the only donations we are soliciting for the program – support that will go directly to the mentees to cover their expenses. This is a transparent donor-to-recipient project, so please consider supporting an idealistic, young future peacemaker with even the smallest amount if you are able!

You can easily donate any amount via the Metta Center account at Network for Good. Be sure and tell us that your donation is specifically to support Metta Mentors, so we can allocate it correctly.

2. Provide room and/or board for a mentee.

Our mentees are thoughtful, considerate, smart, and dynamic young individuals from the US and abroad. Any offers of room and/or board would radically decrease their cost of living, and thus, our stipend costs. Please let us know if you are interested in hosting a mentee, or know someone who would be. We would be happy to provide references of people who have hosted mentees in the past.

3. Tell us about any other ideas you have for supporting the program.

There is so much inspiring, rippling, community-nurturing work being done today that there must be ways for us to run this program outside the box of conventional funder-grantee relationships. We believe in the currency of shared values and shared passion for nonviolence, and want to explore it! If you know of any ways we might receive travel support through other agencies, or thoughtful ways to experiment with social media, gift economy, or other means of social- or pay-it-forward technology, please let us know.

We recognize that we are living in an interdependent world, and that success for every one of us is rooted in our compassion and willingness to work together toward a common goal. Please help us to see what we may be missing so that we can continue to give this gift to our mentees, to the community organizations that they serve, and to the world!

In writing this letter we assume that you are familiar with the Metta Mentors program and all that it offers. If you would like to know more about the program, please visit the program pages on this site, and feel free to contact us with additional questions or comments at info@mettacenter.org.

With great challenges come great opportunities. This time of transformation can be an opportunity for us at Metta to be even more thoughtful and transparent about our needs, to find unexpected solutions, and and to put together a program that more effectively reflects who we are as an organization — a group passionate about living nonviolence in every moment, experimenting with Truth, and serving the world creatively as dedicated satyagrahis!

Thank you so much for your support and solidarity. May we all vow to live nonviolently in the present as we work together to create a nonviolent future.

In gratitude,
Shannon Wills, on behalf of the Metta Team

P.S. A note on past and future program planning:

Metta Center ran the Metta Mentors program last year at a cost of $32,000, which included living-expense stipends ($2000/ea) for twelve mentees and two co-facilitators, travel grants for our four international mentees, rental of program and event space, and minimal expenses for transportation, food, printing, etc. This year we have already secured $4000 for the program — enough to fund two mentees –and are waiting to hear back from several family foundations to whom we have applied for supplemental funding.

This year our program expenses will be lower, as we will host the weekly mentee gatherings in our new office space on Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Berkeley. Whereas we were required to rent space last year to house the gatherings, we can now offer the program in-house, which will also contribute to a tighter-knit community between the mentees and the Metta team (though we were already quite tight-knit last year :)

In order to further lower expenses, we are ready to take some obvious cost-saving steps, such as lowering the number of mentees we can accept, reducing or eliminating travel grants (not a favorite option!), accepting more local students with fewer financial needs (also not favored as it discriminates against those with fewer financial resources), and utilizing volunteer hours however possible. We are also considering facilitating the program completely in-house, thus eliminating the need for facilitator stipends.

Some of these changes may actually increase the effectiveness of Metta Mentors in 2010, increasing the community quotient, the gratitude quotient, and the creativity quotient that are all the driving forces of the program in the first place! In our fourth year of the program, Metta Mentors is well-established and positioned to be even more efficient with the resources we have — and do so without detracting from our other projects (click here for a description).

A final note on our dedication to the continued life of the program:

One thing we hope to do this year is record elements of the program, and create an online course version of Metta Mentors that can be shared with the world community the way we have done with Michael Nagler’s nonviolence courses.

The in-house program is already reaching people around the world as a result of the ripples spread by our nearly 30 previous mentees, and we hope it will continue to do so for many years to come. But to preserve and share the model so that the ripples can be consciously replicated by others who wish to undertake it, we wish to give the gift of an online program that will live beyond our walls and beyond our needs for local funding. Whatever happens to the Berkeley-based Metta Mentors program, we will preserve the theory, the documentation, and the model for generations of change-makers to come!

There is a better, louder, braver choice, and that is standing solidly in the face of violence, and refusing to be broken by it. That braver choice is what is being celebrated in the song “Lady Valia Stood Her Ground”, by the San Fran band Foolproof Four. Check out the song on their MySpace page [or you can download it at the end of the post].

Here’s a note from Noah Grant, a member of Foolproof Four, who posted his comment on the ReclaimUC Blog :

“…I‘m also a recent cal alum, and I’m fully behind your movement. i also wrote and recorded an a capella song in support of you, of Zhivka, of the people who took over wheeler, and of everyone else who supports the movement. please give it a listen when you get a chance, it’s really for you all….thanks for sticking up for what you believe in.”

And some words from nuestro hermano Pancho at Metta following up on that comment:

“Let’s get more of those story telling songs!”

“We need to re-write history and write history from _OUR_ perspective, not those sick of corporate/state power. They use the events of the past as tools to distort people’s minds. Read between the lines of “history”. Unwritten history is more significant, from my perspective, that which is written. When a mother takes care of her children, loves them and feeds them well, nobody sends a wire to the propaganda machines of the Empire…”

The power of writing history is one of the powers of song, and of art in general in any movement, including the movement toward a nonviolent future. We can use it to write our own present and future, to tell the stories of our lives, to inspire action, to keep our hearts light, and to educate, collaborate, and achieve transformation together.

A quote to illustrate follows from James Connolly, a quote that towers in mural form over the revelers and performers each week at the Starry Plough (Berkeley’s friendly neighborhood revolutionary-spirited Irish pub, in front of the Anarchist infoshop The Long Haul), most notably over the notes of  live Irish fiddles, fifes, and drums each Sunday night. You’ll find it just on the outskirts of the Berkeley Bubble and loud enough to be heard all the way to Oakland:

“No revolutionary movement is complete without its poetic expression. If such a movement has caught hold of the imagination of the masses, they will seek a vent in song for the aspirations, fears and hopes, the loves and hatreds engendered by the struggle.”

“Until the movement is marked by the joyous, defiant singing of revolutionary songs, it lacks one of the most distinctive marks of a popular revolutionary movement; it is the dogma of the few and not the faith of the multitude.” — 1907

Peace to our songwriters and artists. Peace to those who have the courage to choose nonviolence in the face of violence. Peace to those who choose violence for whatever reason they do. Peace to those who don’t know they have a choice. Peace to all in 2010!

PS: You can download the song in mp3 format here: “Lady Valia Stood Her Ground” by the band Foolproof Four.

A vote for nonviolent communication is a vote for nonviolence!

Have you seen The Story of Stuff? If not, consider stopping to watch it now. Then by all means, continue…

Did you think it captured the attention of the world in a way that no other medium had done before? Many people did. Did you learn something from that short animated film that stuck in your mind the way that the endless news reports about global warming and overconsumption of resources, etc., had not? Many people did. Have you ever wished you could turn an issue dear to your heart into a little animated flick like that one, in order to reach deeply into the hearts of the citizens of Earth the way The Story of Stuff did?

We have. (Our version: “If only we could work with Free Range to do a film about nonviolence, just imagine how many people we could reach, how many hearts we could transform, etc.!”…or something like that….)

…Fast forward to now. Free Range Studios, the makers of The Story of Stuff, are planning another concept animation film on a topic that is yet-to-be-decided. And the topic will be decided by public voting! With their Youtopia Grant, Free Range will be offering one group the opportunity to create a video share with the world and speak to people as only hard-hitting intelligent animated commentary can :)

We’re putting this up on the Metta blog to bring attention to the fact that Free Range has a section on Peace and Nonviolence that lies nestled among the voting options. That’s right — Peace and Nonviolence — not surprising! Metta Center did not put in a proposal for an animation (how did we miss that opportunity?), but our friends at Bay Area Nonviolent Communication did, and they are on the Youtopia website, waiting to be voted on my you. (Bay NVC is one of Metta’s partner organizations for our Metta Mentors program, and an all-around outstanding organization.)

Bay NVC is one of the highest vote-getters in the entire selection, which is inspiring in itself. People want to support and know about nonviolent communication, because they want to support and know about nonviolence! That is of profound importance, considering that nonviolene is a power that can transform the planet and lead to the conscientious improvement in matters of the environment, animal rights, corporate responsibility, and all the other issues that are being so passionately defended by the many other organizations represented on the Free Range topics list. People recognize this interconnectivity, and they are voting for it.

As Vandana Shiva and others have eloquently reminded us: if we clean up our polluted minds, we will then clean up our environment, take care of our culture, food, and animals, and reform our broken institutions, as a matter of course. From nonviolence comes wisdom, and from wisdom comes nonviolence.

If this resonates with you and you’re feeling democratic, check out the Youtopia site, create an account (takes, literally, five seconds), and vote to make the issue dearest to your heart into an animated film to reach around the world with beauty, intelligence, and people power. Vote for nonviolence, or vote for another issue (you have more than one vote to cast!). But please, just vote your heart, and let’s use our collective voice to inspire one another to creative action.

Thank you to Free Range Studios for speaking a language that everyone can understand.

Remember, a vote for nonviolent communication is a vote for nonviolence.
We are all on this planet together.

…for so it is that some people come to understanding
through reason.
Others come to it through emotion.
Some come to it through devotion,
Some through suffering,
Some through the work of their own hands. 
Perhaps still others come upon it by accident :)
And for some,
Only art can tell a story that their souls can comprehend.
It is to those souls especially that these haiku are offered.

For it is the same with nonviolence as it is with all understanding. We all carry it within us, but it is through different points of entry that we gain access to its great treasures.  Deep respect to all the artists of this planet, and loving gratitude to Bill Denham for tending to our shared space with his work and his words.

After reading Gandhi the Man
—five haiku

One question —a haiku

Tell me, whenever
Does a right act come out of
A violent one?

There’s always blowback —a haiku

Never, ever does
A bullet or a bomb make
Anything better.

Ahimsa —a haiku

Show me violence
In any form and I will
Show you a mistake.

Another question —a haiku

Tell me, when has fear
Ever produced a single
Right action? Can you?

Gandhi — a haiku

Gandhi, my main man,
Lays it out for all to see—
Just satyagraha!

BD 11/12/09

Educators for Nonviolence (EFNV) is a sister project of the Metta Center, first started as a joint project between Metta and the Dalai Lama Foundation. The mission of EFNV is “to make the teaching and living of nonviolence part of mainstream education.” How great would that be??

EFNV has been in a period of incubation over the last year or so, since it’s most recent (3rd Annual) conference in the summer of 2008. In recent months, Metta has teamed with Young Spirit Foundation in an effort to update, fortify, and reignite EFNV as a potent force in nonviolence education.

While that effort is still underway (and planning for a 2010 EFNV conference in its nascent stages), it has been a joy to work with Young Spirit throughout the initial planning stages of this project. We look forward to working with YS further, and want to introduce you to them right now (if you haven’t heard of them already!!).

The first thing you can do to find out more about YS is visit the website. From there, you can read more about their programs and successes, find ways to get involved, check out their beautiful educational resources, and get inspired by all they have to offer.

The second think you can do is spread the word about a November 21 benefit concert that Young Spirit is hosting as they celebrate plans for a new project-based charter school in Silicon Valley.

Third thing you can do is: stay posted and stay in touch! We’ll be announcing developments with the EFNV re-ignition extravaganza through the Metta site as they happen, so no need to worry. But if you are interested in being on the EFNV mailing list when it comes online, and therefore, being much more connected with the future of that project, let us know. Simply send an email to info@efnv.org and tell us you want to be on that upcoming list!

Thanks to Young Spirit for injecting the EFNV project with an incredible dose of passion and energy. Also thanks to EFNV’s current and previous partners and supporters, and to all of you who have written us numerous times asking, “Hey, when’s that next EFNV conference going to happen, anyway?” Your voices have been heard, and they will be answered.

Once again, check out that concert announcement!

-Martin Luther King, Jr., 1964

Have you been asking yourself how (or even if) nonviolence works? You’re not alone. You can find a lot of information about nonviolence on the Metta Center site, of course, and we hope you find answers here, especially those that help uncover the inner truths that are brought out through living a life of applied nonviolence (i.e. a life of experimenting with nonviolence.)

But the truth is, there are many truths about nonviolence (though they all lead to the same Truth, as Gandhi  — or our President Michael Nagler — would remind us), and they all contain seeds of a deep understanding of shared human dignity. There is such a vast body of supportive and intelligent commentary on nonviolence out there, it would be an oversight not to share inspired work from other sources that can can answer the question: “Does nonviolence work? If so, how?”

With that in mind, here’s an article that does the kind of myth-dispelling analysis that we like to spread around here, an article by Stephen Zunes in Yes! magazine about the effectiveness and strength of nonviolence, the “weapon of the brave.”

Stephen doesn’t write for Metta, obviously, and he comes from (perhaps, perhaps?) a different school of thought about nonviolence than those of us who interpret nonviolence as, above all, a spiritual force. But what good are schools of thought, anyway, if they don’t bring us together? We can look to Stephen’s article not just for the facts he presents, but rather, as a call to examine the truths it represents, and to look for the coherence between the nonviolent argument and what we feel and know to be true inside. When we pay attention to what resonates with us, whatever that is, we take a step forward on the nonviolent path.

So check out the article here. See what resonates with you, and what doesn’t. Is nonviolence fact, or is nonviolence truth? Is it both or neither of these? Think about what nonviolence is for you. Then share.

Local action in Metta's own backyard - the UC Berkeley campus protests, October, 2009

Metta Center wishes to give voice to people who are fleshing out the fine points of nonviolent theory (and subsequent nonviolent action), by sharing thoughtful commentary on this topic when it comes our way. Here is a post from fellow peacemaker Barry Gan, which he recently shared with us and agreed to post to this blog. He’s asking us all to put our heads together to find collective, locally enacted solutions to our challenges, so see what comes to your mind as you read this, and feel free to share.

 Thank you, Barry, for your thoughtful work!

I examined successful activism by reference to King’s and Gandhi’s most well-known successes and failures. Here is what I came up with.

First, we should not aim for national campaigns, which are generally too difficult to manage, but instead should promote well-designed local actions that are easily replicable so that they can become national in scope.

Second, we should not equate arrests and lawbreaking with genuine civil disobedience, that is to say, with noncooperation with a particular law or policy, a more effective tactic and strategy.

Third, our goals should be well defined. Ideally, they should entail the establishment of viable alternatives to the status quo, what Gandhi called constructive programs, so that, in the end, the goals are met whether or not the adversary yields.

Fourth, the (local, replicable) campaign should capture the public imagination by offering the adversary a choice: “Do as we wish, or make us suffer” and tailoring that choice in such a way as to create cognitive dissonance among those one opposes and, more importantly, among the undecided members of the population who usually comprise the vast majority of people. One creates cognitive dissonance by tailoring the local action in ways that appeal to the strongest values in the silent majority, values that conflict with what one’s adversary will be forced to do if they don’t acquiesce.

What these suggestions mean, concretely, is a tricky and creative matter. I don’t have any ideas yet, but I offer these observations in hopes that some of us might put our heads together to devise a local, replicable strategy to achieve a well-defined goal via constructive programs that create cognitive dissonance and launch a powerful local movement that will spread from city to city and thereby become national.”

Barry Gan is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Nonviolence at St. Bonaventure University. In 2005, along with Robert L. Holmes, Barry Gan published “Nonviolence in Theory and Practice” (Second Edition).