Nonviolent resistance (or nonviolent action) is the practice of achieving socio-political goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, and other methods, without using violence.

Nonviolent resistance advocates include Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas Gandhi, Andrei Sakharov, Martin Luther King, Jr, Václav Havel, and Lech Wałęsa.

From 1966 to 1999 nonviolent civic resistance has played a critical role in 50 of 67 transitions from authoritarianism. Recently nonviolent resistance has led to the Rose Revolution in Georgia and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Current nonviolent resistance includes the Jeans Revolution in Belarus and the fight of the Cuban dissidents.

Many movements which promote philosophies of nonviolence or pacifism have pragmatically adopted the methods of nonviolent action as an effective way to achieve social or political goals. They employ nonviolent resistance tactics such as: information warfare, picketing, vigils, leafletting, samizdat, magnitizdat, satyagraha, protest art, protest music and poetry, community education and consciousness raising, lobbying, tax resistance, civil disobedience, boycotts or sanctions, legal/diplomatic wrestling, sabotage, underground railroads, principled refusal of awards/honours, and general strikes.

History of nonviolent resistance

Current and recent nonviolent resistance organizations

• Albert Einstein Institution [US]

• Bil'in http://www.bilin-village.org/english/ (West Bank)

• Christian Liberation Movement (Cuba)

• Kifaya (Egypt)

• Kmara (Georgia)

• Ladies in White (Cuba)

• Mjaft (Albania)

• Otpor (Serbia)

• Parihaka (New Zealand)

• Pora (Ukraine)

• Project Chanology (Worldwide)

• Project Nonviolence (Brasil)

• Rachad (Algeria)

• Russian School Defense Staff (Latvia)

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (U.S.)

• Students for a Democratic Society (U.S.)

• Varela Project (Cuba)

• Zubr (Belarus)

• Yo No Coopero Con La Dictadura (Cuba)

See also

• Christian nonviolence

• Civil disobedience

• Direct Action

• Economic secession

• Industrial action

• Internet resistance

• Nonresistance

• Nonviolent revolution

• Nonviolence

• Pacifism

• Passive obedience

• Rebellion

• Tax resistance

Publications

• M K Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha)

• Gene Sharp, Politics of Nonviolent Action (Parts 1 - 3)

• Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence - A Third Way

• Kurt Schock, Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Nondemocracies

• by David McReynolds

• A Force More Powerful, directed by Steve York

• Michael King, The Penguin History of New Zealand Pp 219–20, 222, 247–8, & 386. 2003

• Mark Kurlansky, Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea''

Notes and References

Category:Community organizingCategory:NonviolenceCategory:Protest tactics
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