by Raffaele Barbiero
Nonviolence as a discipline of study and as a practical methodology of conflict resolution is “conceived” by Gandhi during his long life and is applied directly and systematically in the conflict between India and England during the I and World War II. At the end of this conflict, nonviolence will be successful and will lead India to gain independence from British rule. Nonviolence has more ancient roots, but the first who made it a principle and a theory of life, and praxis of action were precisely Gandhi. It is for this reason that the reflection begins with Gandhi. For Gandhi, the relationship with nonviolence is linked to the individual and the development of his conscience.
He proposes two basic concepts:
a) AHIMSA, do not harm others.
b) SATYAGRAHA, adherence to truth.
Not harming others and adherence to the truth requires a strong work based on the person and his ability to grow on these things and to resist the incoherent pressures of the context in which one lives. However, he does not impose a rule but indicates an individual path to reach nonviolence, a path that can and must be shared with others. Perhaps the “real goal” is not being nonviolent, but rather friends of nonviolence and concerning nonviolence, the aim is to reduce the presence of violence in human actions and human activities to the minimum possible terms. Violence must be understood in its broadest meaning, for which it is not only of war or weapons, but every act that involves destruction, oppression, compulsion, towards things, animals, people. There is therefore the opportunity for everyone to improve themselves in nonviolent action.
A series of points for implementing a nonviolent action are briefly listed below:
1) nonviolent struggle becomes legitimate only after all other lawful means have been tested,
2) we must not broaden the objective of the struggle and not start the struggle with the most radical means (there is a gradual scale that foresees starting with the means with the lowest impact for the counterpart and then growing in the determination if this does not have an effect),
3) you must always put yourself “in the other person’s shoes” to understand the reasons that lead the counterpart to the conflict. Not so much with the aim of better knowing how to counter it, but to be able to find points of agreement with the counterpart,
4) a compromise must always be sought so that both parties find satisfaction in the resolution of the conflict. The modality to be sought is not that of “I WIN-YOU LOSE”, but “I WIN-YOU WIN”,
5) however, you can never compromise on the “heart” of the conflict or the underlying principles. This point, therefore, requires a great capacity for analysis and political choice concerning things that are “heart” or “principles”,
6) nonviolence must be understood as respect for the dignity of the counterpart and not only for his life,
7) even material things must be respected. In any case, if you decide to resort to boycott and then sabotage, the objective of the action must be targeted and must not endanger anyone (except for the economic or political affairs of the counterpart),
8) we must always avoid clandestinity and secrets. Nonviolent action must be public, without secrets or double ends. The other party must know what we want,
9) you have to be creative and imaginative. Never leave the counterpart to take action, act first to force the other to “chase” us on our ground. The more innovative the action will be, conducted in imaginative and aggregating forms, the more the counterpart will be difficult,
10) you must always prepare a “constructive program”, which is a series of things or achievements that you want to do in place of the things that are in dispute. On the part of those who act in a nonviolent way, there is always the burden of presenting a credible and achievable proposal for the things they want to do,
11) it is necessary to remember and know that nonviolence, experienced only as a technique of action, does not guarantee the goodness of the end. Nonviolent methodologies can also be used for unjust or unlawful purposes.
Elements of nonviolence
The elements of nonviolence are substantially represented by its principles. The key element, however, is constituted by the relationship, that is, by that set of links, connections, emotional states, etc. that develop between two or more subjects, both when they are single persons and when dealing with complex realities such as societies or nations. Possibility of making the relationship a “bridge” between the two conflicting parties, a “bridge” that does not judge and does not establish who is right or wrong, but which facilitates communication and understanding between the parties. The third element is given by action, that is the ability to implement the principles and the relations in practice.
Nonviolence can be understood as:
a lifestyle: openness to the existence, to freedom, to the development of all;
opposition to oppression, to destruction. Active resistance. A way of being and living relationships with others which, before acquiring a value as social action (external to us), must penetrate our consciences and be part of us;
or like a pragmatic choice to resolve conflicts: in the first case, the type of approach is more linked to Gandhian philosophy, in the second case it can be identified with the contributions of Western scholars. On the other hand, in the Western approach, the central point concerns the analysis to obtain and maintain power. These two dimensions can be integrated even if we will focus mainly on the second.
The power
However, to do this it is first necessary to clarify what we mean by the term POWER. By power we mean the possibility of directing people, counting on human and material resources, having an apparatus of coercion and a bureaucracy. Power is based on the collaboration of many groups, institutions, people, etc. It depends on SANCTIONS as a tool to enforce or restore obedience and deter disobedience against rulers. The sources of power, that is, those elements that give recognition and nourishment to power are:
1) authority,
2) human resources,
3) the availability of ability and knowing,
4) indefinable factors such as ideologies, cultural/religious traditions etc.,
5) material resources,
6) sanctions.
SANCTION is important because it triggers the psychological element of FEAR and fear can block any kind of will and action. The power to exist, in addition to the sources, must be based on obedience.
Factors of obedience are:
1) information,
2) fear of sanctions and retaliation,
3) the moral obligation that each of us feels toward a recognized law, norm, or authority,
4) the personal interest of those who obey,
5) identification with psychological governance,
6) the existence of “zones of indifference” for which certain situations leave us “neutral” because they do not concern or involve us,
7) lack of self-confidence and a strong will,
8) the tendency to avoid any responsibility,
9) habit, which consolidates all the other points already mentioned. Obedience is certainly a determining element if linked to authority.
In an interesting essay by Jacques Semelin (2) comes an experiment that, beyond moral judgments on authority – whether to be good or bad-examines the consequences of the authoritarian relationship between men, to show how obedience to authority can be at the origin of human destructiveness. Psychologist Stanley Milgram proved this thesis through a series of rigorous laboratory experiments described in his book (3). Violence arises from a constricting relationship that “imprisons” the normal individual and drags him, despite his moral conscience, towards forms of violence that are unimaginable. Milgram writes: “Those who administered the electroshocks did not do it to satisfy particularly aggressive tendencies but were morally constrained by the obligations they thought they had, as subjects of the experiment. And this is, perhaps, the fundamental teaching of the whole study: normal people, deprived of hostility, can become the agents of an atrocious destructive process, adhering to the tasks that have been given to them”
The pressure of the authority that at that moment is represented by the experimenter (who was wearing a white coat) causes in the subject a profound conflict that can be verified by the acceleration of the heartbeat, by an abundant sweating. Then, little by little, the actual tension resolves, with the decrease of the attention given to the victim and the increase of the attention to the experimenter and his devices. Observations such as: are frequent, which prove a slow, but constant, distance from the victim to identify with the “leader” of the experiment and the willingness to feel IRRESPONSIBLE of the one’s actions and what one is doing, unloading the weight of these responsibilities on authority. The theory behind an approach that analyzes the effects of obedience believes that governments depend heavily on people’s willingness to obey and that, with well-organized nonviolent actions and with precise objectives, any kind of established power can be heavily influenced and, in extreme cases, reduce it to impotence. What nonviolence can do It can become a tool for: – obtain new things: more “fair” laws, freedoms, more civil and human rights, prevent actions deemed reprehensible, push governments, companies, or groups towards certain choices. – to defend existing things: laws deemed valid, democratic institutions, civil achievements, traditions and culture, territories, people, associations, etc. Its tools of struggle are nonviolent means of struggle such as non-collaboration, civil disobedience, boycott, sabotage, constructive and alternative program and many small actions, techniques, and modalities. In a famous book by Gene Sharp (2), 198 possible nonviolent responses and actions to be implemented are presented (non-collaboration with those who govern; civil disobedience; social, economic, political boycott; counter-information; tax, labor objection; etc. ).
Historical examples
I point out a short chronological list of struggles, actions, movements that have been based, sometimes even unconsciously, on nonviolent methodologies:
– India’s liberation struggle by the Gandhi-led movement;
– part of the Danish and Norwegian resistance to the Nazi invasion;
– many examples of the Italian resistance to the fall of fascism in ’43 (research done on Rome, Naples, Bergamo, Forlì, etc.);
– the struggle for civil rights of blacks led by Martin L. King; – the struggles for civil and trade union rights carried out with César Chavez;
– the resistance to the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the forces of the former Warsaw Pact in 1968;
– the struggle of the European peace movements against the installation by the US government of atomic missiles in response to the rearmament of the USSR;
– start of the mass civil disobedience campaign against the part of the taxes destined to the Italian defense budget (conscientious objection to military expenses). It is a form of struggle that is also widespread in other countries;
– the fall of the dictator Marcos in the Philippines, 1986;
– fight against nuclear power and nuclear power plants in Italy which culminated in 1987 with the referendum won by the anti-nuclearists (1986 very serious accident in Chornobyl);
– worldwide boycott of banks involved with the racist regime in South Africa. The campaign then ended due to the profound changes that took place in that country which brought Nelson Mandela, a black lawyer in prison for 25 years, to lead the nation after free elections;
– simulation of nonviolent popular defence that involved the entire municipality of Boves in Italy;
– preparation and study by state or institutional bodies of popular nonviolent defence models in the Netherlands, Austria, Australia;
– fall of the communist regimes of the East. All, except Romania, without the preordained use of violence, 1989;
– separation of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia with the prevalent use of nonviolent actions; – victorious resistance to the coup d’etat in the USSR against Gorbachev and his reforms, 1991;
– initiative, repeated for several years, against the presence of the Naval Warfare Show in Genoa. Eventually, the Salone was no longer organized in Genoa; – pacifist initiatives in the territories of the former Yugoslavia organized mainly by the Blessed Peace Builders of Padua, from which the idea of the European Civil Peace Corps was born, proposed as early as 1994 by the European parliamentarian Alexander Langer. The first march took place in December 1992 and brought 500 pacifists to Sarajevo; the second in August 1993, called Mir Sada, involved 2,000 people but did not reach Sarajevo, only Prozor and Mostar.
Conclusions
Nonviolence to unfold requires great organizational and training work. Many people must be involved in nonviolent action (not just men, because everyone can practice nonviolence) while the individual is enough for violence (if not “a few units”), for nonviolence the participation of many is required. Means, people and economic resources are therefore necessary to be able to experiment with these methods.
Forlì, 15 April 2022
(First article 20 May 1996)
(1) = “Teoria e pratica della nonviolenza”, by Giuliano Pontara, ed. Einaudi, Turin 1973. (2) = “Politica dell`azione nonviolenta” by Gene Sharp, vol. II Editions Gruppo Abele, Turin 1986.
(3) = “Obbedienza all`autorita’” by Stanley Milgram, ed. Bompiani, Milan 1975.
Bibliography
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c) EU Commission concerning ECPC: Feasibility Study on the Establishment of a European Civil Peace Corps. Final report, 11/29/2005, Ohain: Channel Research COWI-B6S, www.channelresearch.com
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