Non-Violent Direct Action
Introduction to Non-Violent Direct Action by Susan Yeats and Maurizio Pittau
Arcadia Lab, Glouchester Lane, Dublin
7pm-10pm Thursday 25th November 2010
Nonviolence (ahimsa) is a philosophy and strategy for social change that rejects the use of violence. Thus, nonviolence is an alternative to passive acceptance of oppression or of armed struggle against it. Nonviolence practitioners use diverse methods in their campaigns for social change, including critical forms of education and persuasion, civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action, and targeted communication via mass media.
Non-violent direct action (NVDA) is any form of direct action that does not rely on violent tactics. Mohandas Gandhi's teachings of Satyagraha (or truth force) have inspired many practitioners of nonviolent direct action, although the use of nonviolence does not always imply an ideological commitment to pacifism.
In 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. described the goal of NVDA in his Letter from Birmingham Jail:
Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.
Agenda
7pm Introduction to NVDA
Examples nonviolent resistance and nonviolent revolution: India independence in 1947, civil rights for African Americans,, César Chávez's and 1960s treatment of farm workers in California, "Velvet Revolution", Leymah Gbowee.
Difference peace/nonviolence. Christianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Modern pagan traditions. Henry David Thoreau. Leo Tolstoy. Mohandas Gandhi. Martin Luther King Jr. Lanza del Vasto. Danilo Dolci.
8pm Case Studies
- Greenham Common Protest
- Marcia Perugia-Assisi
- Students against TRIDENT
- Critical Mass
- Climate Camp
- No Berlusconi Day
- AA5A Protest
- Word March for Peace and Nonviolence
9pm Simulation NVDA
- Acts of Protest and Persuasion
- Noncooperation
- Nonviolent Intervention
Methodology
The training will be based on the principles and practice of non-formal education and is conceived to allow a learner-centred approach taking into account the needs, motivations and the experiences of participants. The previous experience of participants in protests or social activitities will be the starting point of the agenda and of the learning process.
Because the interactive methology the training is available just for a group size up 22-24 people. The cost for this training is 25 euro (students/unemployeds 15 euro).