WEBVTT

00:00:01.197 --> 00:00:04.192
War has been a part of my life
since I can remember.

00:00:04.811 --> 00:00:08.955
I was born in Afghanistan,
just six months after the Soviets invaded,

00:00:09.526 --> 00:00:12.807
and even though I was too young
to understand what was happening,

00:00:12.831 --> 00:00:16.152
I had a deep sense of the suffering
and the fear around me.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:17.219 --> 00:00:22.341
Those early experiences had a major impact
on how I now think about war and conflict.

00:00:23.049 --> 00:00:26.487
I learned that when people
have a fundamental issue at stake,

00:00:26.511 --> 00:00:27.763
for most of them,

00:00:27.787 --> 00:00:29.419
giving in is not an option.

00:00:29.971 --> 00:00:31.583
For these types conflicts --

00:00:31.607 --> 00:00:33.392
when people's rights are violated,

00:00:33.416 --> 00:00:35.186
when their countries are occupied,

00:00:35.210 --> 00:00:37.428
when they're oppressed and humiliated --

00:00:37.452 --> 00:00:40.610
they need a powerful way
to resist and to fight back.

00:00:41.308 --> 00:00:45.571
Which means that no matter how destructive
and terrible violence is,

00:00:45.595 --> 00:00:48.019
if people see it as their only choice,

00:00:48.043 --> 00:00:49.500
they will use it.

00:00:50.074 --> 00:00:53.650
Most of us are concerned
with the level of violence in the world.

00:00:54.045 --> 00:00:55.499
But we're not going to end war

00:00:55.523 --> 00:00:58.231
by telling people
that violence is morally wrong.

00:00:58.883 --> 00:01:01.282
Instead, we must offer them a tool

00:01:01.306 --> 00:01:04.645
that's at least as powerful
and as effective as violence.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:05.574 --> 00:01:07.060
This is the work I do.

00:01:07.717 --> 00:01:09.256
For the past 13 years,

00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:10.565
I've been teaching people

00:01:10.589 --> 00:01:13.697
in some of the most difficult
situations around the world

00:01:13.721 --> 00:01:17.088
how they can use nonviolent
struggle to conduct conflict.

00:01:18.113 --> 00:01:22.803
Most people associate this type of action
with Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

00:01:23.589 --> 00:01:27.302
But people have been using
nonviolent action for thousands of years.

00:01:27.831 --> 00:01:32.163
In fact, most of the rights
that we have today in this country --

00:01:32.187 --> 00:01:33.338
as women,

00:01:33.362 --> 00:01:34.513
as minorities,

00:01:34.537 --> 00:01:35.885
as workers,

00:01:35.909 --> 00:01:38.475
as people of different sexual orientations

00:01:38.499 --> 00:01:40.957
and citizens concerned
with the environment --

00:01:40.981 --> 00:01:42.838
these rights weren't handed to us.

00:01:43.226 --> 00:01:45.386
They were won by people
who fought for them

00:01:45.410 --> 00:01:47.232
and who sacrificed for them.

00:01:47.256 --> 00:01:49.776
But because we haven't learned
from this history,

00:01:49.800 --> 00:01:53.841
nonviolent struggle as a technique
is widely misunderstood.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:54.488 --> 00:01:57.610
I met recently with a group
of Ethiopian activists,

00:01:57.634 --> 00:02:00.784
and they told me something
that I hear a lot.

00:02:00.808 --> 00:02:03.134
They said they'd already
tried nonviolent action,

00:02:03.158 --> 00:02:04.576
and it hadn't worked.

00:02:04.600 --> 00:02:06.936
Years ago they held a protest.

00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:10.668
The government arrested everyone,
and that was the end of that.

00:02:11.302 --> 00:02:15.262
The idea that nonviolent struggle
is equivalent to street protests

00:02:15.286 --> 00:02:16.684
is a real problem.

00:02:17.204 --> 00:02:21.604
Because although protests can be a great
way to show that people want change,

00:02:21.628 --> 00:02:24.498
on their own, they don't
actually create change --

00:02:24.522 --> 00:02:26.490
at least change that is fundamental.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:26.514 --> 00:02:27.702
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:27.726 --> 00:02:30.835
Powerful opponents are not going to give
people what they want

00:02:30.859 --> 00:02:32.791
just because they asked nicely ...

00:02:33.519 --> 00:02:35.396
or even not so nicely.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:35.420 --> 00:02:36.553
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:36.577 --> 00:02:39.621
Nonviolent struggle works
by destroying an opponent,

00:02:40.018 --> 00:02:41.330
not physically,

00:02:41.354 --> 00:02:45.764
but by identifying the institutions
that an opponent needs to survive,

00:02:45.788 --> 00:02:47.970
and then denying them
those sources of power.

00:02:48.470 --> 00:02:51.234
Nonviolent activists
can neutralize the military

00:02:51.258 --> 00:02:53.482
by causing soldiers to defect.

00:02:53.506 --> 00:02:56.781
They can disrupt the economy
through strikes and boycotts.

00:02:57.190 --> 00:02:59.492
And they can challenge
government propaganda

00:02:59.516 --> 00:03:01.382
by creating alternative media.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:01.829 --> 00:03:04.673
There are a variety of methods
that can be used to do this.

00:03:05.384 --> 00:03:08.176
My colleague and mentor, Gene Sharp,

00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:12.827
has identified 198 methods
of nonviolent action.

00:03:14.186 --> 00:03:15.951
And protest is only one.

00:03:16.376 --> 00:03:18.373
Let me give you a recent example.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:18.885 --> 00:03:20.354
Until a few months ago,

00:03:20.378 --> 00:03:23.595
Guatemala was ruled
by corrupt former military officials

00:03:23.619 --> 00:03:25.430
with ties to organized crime.

00:03:26.071 --> 00:03:27.864
People were generally aware of this,

00:03:27.888 --> 00:03:31.238
but most of them felt powerless
to do anything about it --

00:03:32.401 --> 00:03:36.482
until one group of citizens,
just 12 regular people,

00:03:36.506 --> 00:03:39.248
put out a call on Facebook
to their friends

00:03:39.272 --> 00:03:42.511
to meet in the central plaza,
holding signs with a message:

00:03:43.046 --> 00:03:44.431
"Renuncia YA" --

00:03:45.024 --> 00:03:46.440
resign already.

00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:48.608
To their surprise,

00:03:48.632 --> 00:03:50.392
30,000 people showed up.

00:03:51.045 --> 00:03:54.482
They stayed there for months
as protests spread throughout the country.

00:03:54.932 --> 00:03:56.088
At one point,

00:03:56.112 --> 00:04:00.300
the organizers delivered hundreds of eggs
to various government buildings

00:04:00.324 --> 00:04:01.491
with a message:

00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:03.846
"If you don't have the huevos" --

00:04:03.870 --> 00:04:05.076
the balls --

00:04:05.100 --> 00:04:08.154
"to stop corrupt candidates
from running for office,

00:04:08.178 --> 00:04:09.636
you can borrow ours."

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:09.660 --> 00:04:11.319
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:11.343 --> 00:04:14.698
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:16.469 --> 00:04:17.988
President Molina responded

00:04:18.012 --> 00:04:20.148
by vowing that he would never step down.

00:04:20.674 --> 00:04:24.275
And the activists realized
that they couldn't just keep protesting

00:04:24.299 --> 00:04:26.313
and ask the president to resign.

00:04:26.337 --> 00:04:28.333
They needed to leave him no choice.

00:04:28.793 --> 00:04:30.724
So they organized a general strike,

00:04:30.748 --> 00:04:33.395
in which people throughout
the country refused to work.

00:04:33.419 --> 00:04:34.821
In Guatemala City alone,

00:04:34.845 --> 00:04:37.794
over 400 businesses
and schools shut their doors.

00:04:38.367 --> 00:04:39.548
Meanwhile,

00:04:39.572 --> 00:04:42.201
farmers throughout the country
blocked major roads.

00:04:42.225 --> 00:04:43.703
Within five days,

00:04:43.727 --> 00:04:44.904
the president,

00:04:44.928 --> 00:04:47.651
along with dozens of other
government officials,

00:04:47.675 --> 00:04:49.144
resigned already.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:49.168 --> 00:04:53.451
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:53.475 --> 00:04:55.078
I've been greatly inspired

00:04:55.102 --> 00:04:59.005
by the creativity and bravery
of people using nonviolent action

00:04:59.029 --> 00:05:01.252
in nearly every country in the world.

00:05:01.718 --> 00:05:02.869
For example,

00:05:02.893 --> 00:05:05.450
recently a group of activists in Uganda

00:05:05.474 --> 00:05:07.607
released a crate of pigs in the streets.

00:05:08.096 --> 00:05:11.534
You can see here that the police
are confused about what to do with them.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:11.558 --> 00:05:12.594
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:12.618 --> 00:05:15.234
The pigs were painted
the color of the ruling party.

00:05:15.617 --> 00:05:17.895
One pig was even wearing a hat,

00:05:17.919 --> 00:05:19.799
a hat that people recognized.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:20.321 --> 00:05:21.384
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:22.264 --> 00:05:25.633
Activists around the world
are getting better at grabbing headlines,

00:05:25.657 --> 00:05:28.320
but these isolated actions do very little

00:05:28.344 --> 00:05:30.527
if they're not part of a larger strategy.

00:05:30.914 --> 00:05:33.153
A general wouldn't march
his troops into battle

00:05:33.177 --> 00:05:35.308
unless he had a plan to win the war.

00:05:35.332 --> 00:05:38.443
Yet this is how most of the world's
nonviolent movements operate.

00:05:38.896 --> 00:05:43.216
Nonviolent struggle is just as complex
as military warfare,

00:05:43.240 --> 00:05:44.438
if not more.

00:05:44.462 --> 00:05:48.657
Its participants must be well-trained
and have clear objectives,

00:05:48.681 --> 00:05:52.513
and its leaders must have a strategy
of how to achieve those objectives.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:53.242 --> 00:05:56.508
The technique of war has been developed
over thousands of years

00:05:56.532 --> 00:05:58.079
with massive resources

00:05:58.103 --> 00:06:01.349
and some of our best minds
dedicated to understanding

00:06:01.373 --> 00:06:03.098
and improving how it works.

00:06:03.608 --> 00:06:08.190
Meanwhile, nonviolent struggle
is rarely systematically studied,

00:06:08.214 --> 00:06:10.224
and even though the number is growing,

00:06:10.248 --> 00:06:14.033
there are still only a few dozen people
in the world who are teaching it.

00:06:14.849 --> 00:06:16.142
This is dangerous,

00:06:16.166 --> 00:06:20.334
because we now know that our old
approaches of dealing with conflict

00:06:20.358 --> 00:06:23.776
are not adequate for the new
challenges that we're facing.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:25.883
The US government recently admitted

00:06:25.907 --> 00:06:28.820
that it's in a stalemate
in its war against ISIS.

00:06:29.318 --> 00:06:31.062
But what most people don't know

00:06:31.086 --> 00:06:34.600
is that people have stood up to ISIS
using nonviolent action.

00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:38.930
When ISIS captured Mosul in June 2014,

00:06:38.954 --> 00:06:42.685
they announced that they were putting
in place a new public school curriculum,

00:06:42.709 --> 00:06:44.839
based on their own extremist ideology.

00:06:45.556 --> 00:06:47.096
But on the first day of school,

00:06:47.672 --> 00:06:49.358
not a single child showed up.

00:06:50.222 --> 00:06:53.044
Parents simply refused to send them.

00:06:53.068 --> 00:06:56.260
They told journalists they would rather
homeschool their children

00:06:56.284 --> 00:06:57.840
than to have them brainwashed.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:58.689 --> 00:07:01.698
This is an example
of just one act of defiance

00:07:01.722 --> 00:07:03.077
in just one city.

00:07:03.659 --> 00:07:05.104
But what if it was coordinated

00:07:05.128 --> 00:07:07.750
with the dozens of other acts
of nonviolent resistance

00:07:07.774 --> 00:07:09.829
that have taken place against ISIS?

00:07:09.853 --> 00:07:13.288
What if the parents' boycott
was part of a larger strategy

00:07:13.312 --> 00:07:17.538
to identify and cut off the resources
that ISIS needs to function;

00:07:18.157 --> 00:07:20.653
the skilled labor needed to produce food;

00:07:20.677 --> 00:07:24.266
the engineers needed
to extract and refine oil;

00:07:24.290 --> 00:07:26.883
the media infrastructure
and communications networks

00:07:26.907 --> 00:07:28.880
and transportation systems,

00:07:28.904 --> 00:07:31.408
and the local businesses
that ISIS relies on?

00:07:31.911 --> 00:07:35.032
It may be difficult
to imagine defeating ISIS

00:07:35.056 --> 00:07:36.967
with action that is nonviolent.

00:07:37.511 --> 00:07:40.619
But it's time we challenge
the way we think about conflict

00:07:40.643 --> 00:07:43.058
and the choices we have in facing it.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:44.194 --> 00:07:46.465
Here's an idea worth spreading:

00:07:46.489 --> 00:07:49.644
let's learn more about where
nonviolent action has worked

00:07:49.668 --> 00:07:52.185
and how we can make it more powerful,

00:07:52.209 --> 00:07:55.253
just like we do with other
systems and technologies

00:07:55.277 --> 00:07:58.836
that are constantly being refined
to better meet human needs.

00:07:59.446 --> 00:08:02.905
It may be that we can improve
nonviolent action

00:08:02.929 --> 00:08:06.180
to a point where it is increasingly
used in place of war.

00:08:06.838 --> 00:08:10.913
Violence as a tool of conflict
could then be abandoned

00:08:10.937 --> 00:08:13.344
in the same way that bows and arrows were,

00:08:13.368 --> 00:08:16.712
because we have replaced them
with weapons that are more effective.

00:08:17.427 --> 00:08:22.306
With human innovation, we can make
nonviolent struggle more powerful

00:08:22.330 --> 00:08:24.954
than the newest and latest
technologies of war.

00:08:26.010 --> 00:08:30.473
The greatest hope for humanity
lies not in condemning violence

00:08:30.497 --> 00:08:32.860
but in making violence obsolete.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:34.365 --> 00:08:35.516
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:35.540 --> 00:08:43.935
(Applause)