The Case for Nonviolence
“Nonviolence is pretty ballsy, pretty advanced weaponry.”
The power of nonviolent protest cannot be overstated. It has the ability to overthrow governments, stop wars, and save lives. It can build coalitions and unite people who otherwise agree on practically nothing through its quest of a common cause found to be just and true. To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr, it is a powerful weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the person who wields it. It is a sword that heals.
Our mission to save democracy is altogether grand, noble, and just. The broad coalition we are building will bring together people with very different political and social beliefs. We will see Pro Choice activists march alongside Pro Life advocates; NRA members arm-in-arm with Moms Demand Action supporters. Democracy lovers come from every corner within the American spectrum because the life of our very democracy, which grants us the freedom to hold and express such disparate beliefs, is at stake.
Our nonviolent army, as it grows, will poke, prod, and irritate the Trump administration and they will continue to take actions against us. They will further their attempts to intimidate us by threatening arrest, incarceration, and deportation. They will label us as Communists, lovers of genocide, and insurrectionists. They will try to divide us by playing our differing beliefs against each other. They will watch closely for the slightest action which can be construed as violent, so they might have an excuse to use violence in order to squash us. No means of repression will be off the table for them to use against us; fire hoses, batons, tear gas, guns.
Against all of this, and against our instinct to fight fire with fire, we must hold true to our nonviolent mission. By doing so, more people will leave the sidelines and join our ranks because they will understand that we represent the America they love. If we fail to do so, the growth of our movement will stop, public sentiment will turn against us, and our cohesion will break.
The importance of our nonviolent mission is not simply a principle based on feelings but a truth rooted in facts. Erica Chenoweth, political scientist and professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, has studied the effectiveness of nonviolent versus violent movements throughout the world. Nonviolence movements are effective 53 percent of the time, where violent uprisings succeed only 26 percent of the time. Chenoweth’s research also highlights the importance of the 3.5 percent rule, which states that movements which mobilize at least 3.5 percent of the country’s population are uniformly successful. That’s around 11 million people in the U.S.; 245,000 in Massachusetts. While those numbers may sound huge, they’re completely achievable. Heck, we have 12,000 subscribers to our Mass 50501 newsletter and we’re a brand new organization. If each of us engages and recruits 10 people, and our allies in other orgs continue to grow, we’ll blow away that number.
Original Art by Alfie
Gene Sharp was an American political scientist and founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit dedicated to advancing the study of nonviolent action, and professor at UMass Dartmouth. His 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action provides a broad framework of how nonviolent campaigns can proceed. One theme he touches on frequently in his writings is that nonviolence is a form of combat, which requires wise strategy and tactics, employs numerous “weapons” and demands of its “soldiers” courage, discipline, and sacrifice. In the past couple of months, we have seen this take shape with the big “battles” in the form of Tesla Takedowns and major rallies, along with tactical “skirmishes” where calls have been answered for same-day ICE protests in different cities. Our forces are deployed throughout the country and the amount of courage, discipline, and sacrifice required from each of us will only continue to grow in the coming weeks and months.
The power of nonviolent protest extends from your living room to the streets of every state. Groups like 50501, Indivisible, Veterans Against Trump, Common Cause, and others are growing in number each day and are active in every state. There are podcasts and publications, both liberal and conservative, sounding the alarm against the winds of fascism which are descending on us like a sandstorm in the desert. Poets are writing, Pedro is imploring and The Boss has spoken. Together we need to wield the most powerful weapon we have at our disposal: our voice. Let it be heard across the land so that Trump, his oligarchs, the Project 2025 architects, and all others who would see our Constitution burn and our democracy crumble, feel the searing winds of our vitriol.
The beauty of our deeply flawed democracy lies in the fact that our power is limitless. While we are bound by the rule of law, We The People are the ultimate authority. When we use the freedoms promised to us by the Constitution, to protect and defend that very document and our way of life, fascism will be defeated before it ever gets the chance to rule our land.
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