July 2018 Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies, V.2(1), and International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and Research Gate:
Despite being the poorest and least developed country in South America, Bolivia was the first to emerge from the period of military dictatorships that dominated the continent from the mid-1960s into the 1980s. This article examines the role of civil resistance in that country’s seemingly improbable early end to military rule, noting how a broad coalition of unions, intellectuals, the Catholic Church, and opposition parties succeeded in bringing down a series of military leaders, eventually ushering in elected civilian governance…
Category: Nonviolent Action
Nonviolent Action
Civil Resistance Against Coups: A Comparative and Historical Perspective
International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, December 2017:
This monograph presents in-depth case studies and analysis intended to improve our understanding of the strategic utility of civil resistance against military takeovers; the nature of civil resistance mobilization against coups; and the role of civil resistance against coups.
Remembering Martin Luther King, the Radical for Peace
The Progressive April 3, 2018: King challenged the draining of our national resources for the military, opposed the Vietnam War and other aspects of U.S. foreign policy and questioned an economic system that created enormous poverty amid great wealth. He was assassinated while organizing the Poor People’s March…
Global Journalist: Egypt’s Staged Election
[Zunes’ segment begins at 14 mins.]
Global Journalist March 8, 2018: President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, who led a 2013 coup against Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, is expected to be handily re-elected. That’s because el-Sissi’s government has arrested or intimidated all viable potential opponents…
Power’s Prophet: Remembering Gene Sharp
The Progressive February 1, 2018: Dr. Gene Sharp, a Harvard University-based scholar, through his through analysis of centuries of nonviolent struggle, made a convincing case on utilitarian grounds that nonviolent struggle was a more effective and successful means of resistance than violence…
[Related article & Petition]
In Trump’s America, who’s protesting and why?
Washington Post April 24, 2017: For March 2017, we tallied 585 protests, demonstrations, marches, sit-ins and rallies with at least one in every state and the District. Our conservative guess is that 80,000 to 90,000 people showed up. Because mainstream media often neglect to report nonviolent actions — especially small ones — it is probable that we did not record every event that occurred.
The Bipartisan Effort against Campaigns for Corporate Responsibility
The Progressive, Huffington Post & Common Dreams
The Trump Administration’s efforts to legitimize the Israeli occupation and illegal settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories has received surprising bipartisan support. A series of bills passed or under consideration in Washington and in state capitols seeks to punish companies, religious denominations, academic associations, and other entities which support the use of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to challenge the occupation of Palestinian land…
Pro-Palestinian activism faces suppression on Catholic campuses
Fordham ban of Palestine group contradicts free speech, Jesuit values
Anti-war movement must listen to voices within Syria’s civil war
Discerning Real from False Claims of Anti-Semitism in the Pro-Palestinian Movement
The contrasting fates of Tunisia and Libya
National Catholic Reporter June 8, 2015 [and Common Dreams]
The people of Libya and Tunisia both overthrew long-standing dictatorships in popular uprisings in 2011. Four years later, the political situation in these neighboring states could not be more different. The reason has much to do with how their regimes were overthrown…
Powerful nonviolent resistance to armed conflict in Yemen
Open Democracy April 11, 2015
[Also Common Dreams, Rotarian Action Group for Peace, Rulac, Satyagraha Foundation, Transnational.org, ZNetwork.org]
While media coverage of the tragic situation unfolding in Yemen in recent months has focused on armed clashes and other violence, there has also been widespread and ongoing unarmed nonviolent civil resistance employed by a number of different actors.
Why Nonviolent Resistance Wins
The source link is no longer available [best related links on this topic]
Barker’s Bizarre Attacks against Progressive Scholars and Proponents of Nonviolent Resistance
The Real News Network January 15, 2014
Michael Barker, in an article posted on this site a few days ago, takes offense at my labeling him as someone “notorious” for “conspiracy-mongering.” However, a careful reading of his article and its links actually reinforces that argument. At the outset, Barker questions my assertion that my colleagues and I are genuinely upset at the Stratfor revelations regarding Serbian nonviolent activist Srdja Popovic because he “is still included upon the advisory board of Waging Nonviolence…”
The Truth About Nonviolent Movements
In These Times, December 17, 2013
Journalists Carl Gibson and Steve Horn have done an important service with their article outlining Serbian activist Srdja Popovic’s inexcusable collaboration with the global intelligence company STRATFOR, and his role in disclosing the activities of movements and activists with whom he has worked.
Analysis of STRATFOR Leaks Misrepresents Nonviolent Movements
The Real News Network, December 11, 2013
First published on WarIsACrime.org. Republished by In These Times, Medcom-Taiwan, Transcend.org
Ruthless regimes not impervious to civil resistance: A reply to Maged Mandour
Open Democracy, November 1, 2013
Republished by International Center for Nonviolent Conflict
There is little systematic evidence to suggest that “ruthlessness” is itself a critical variable. Maged Mandour’s article on OpenDemocracy, “Beyond Civil Resistance: The Case of Syria”, argues that civil resistance has been marginalized in the Syrian insurrection because it doesn’t work against “ruthless” regimes. But history doesn’t support that conclusion…
On Syria, most thoughtful people are torn
Open Democracy, October 5, 2013
Indeed, with the exception of some neo-conservatives and other hawks who apparently have never seen an opportunity for western intervention they didn’t like and some on the far left who assume that any regime hostile to western imperialism must be progressive, I’ve generally been impressed with the maturity of the debate around Syria. Most thoughtful people are torn on these questions, myself included. Once again, however, Hashemi misrepresents me…
Opposition to intervention in Syria utilitarian, not ideological
Open Democracy September 23, 2013. Republished by
International Center on Nonviolent Conflict & SeenThis.net
In this reply to a critique by Nader Hashemi, Dr. Zunes explains that: “Whether or not a movement is primarily violent or nonviolent, what is important is whether it employs strategies and tactics that can maximize its chances of success.”