The secret to effective nonviolent resistance
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0:01 - 0:04War has been a part of my life
since I can remember. -
0:05 - 0:09I was born in Afghanistan,
just six months after the Soviets invaded, -
0:10 - 0:13and even though I was too young
to understand what was happening, -
0:13 - 0:16I had a deep sense of the suffering
and the fear around me. -
0:17 - 0:22Those early experiences had a major impact
on how I now think about war and conflict. -
0:23 - 0:26I learned that when people
have a fundamental issue at stake, -
0:27 - 0:28for most of them,
-
0:28 - 0:29giving in is not an option.
-
0:30 - 0:32For these types conflicts --
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0:32 - 0:33when people's rights are violated,
-
0:33 - 0:35when their countries are occupied,
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0:35 - 0:37when they're oppressed and humiliated --
-
0:37 - 0:41they need a powerful way
to resist and to fight back. -
0:41 - 0:46Which means that no matter how destructive
and terrible violence is, -
0:46 - 0:48if people see it as their only choice,
-
0:48 - 0:50they will use it.
-
0:50 - 0:54Most of us are concerned
with the level of violence in the world. -
0:54 - 0:55But we're not going to end war
-
0:56 - 0:58by telling people
that violence is morally wrong. -
0:59 - 1:01Instead, we must offer them a tool
-
1:01 - 1:05that's at least as powerful
and as effective as violence. -
1:06 - 1:07This is the work I do.
-
1:08 - 1:09For the past 13 years,
-
1:09 - 1:11I've been teaching people
-
1:11 - 1:14in some of the most difficult
situations around the world -
1:14 - 1:17how they can use nonviolent
struggle to conduct conflict. -
1:18 - 1:23Most people associate this type of action
with Gandhi and Martin Luther King. -
1:24 - 1:27But people have been using
nonviolent action for thousands of years. -
1:28 - 1:32In fact, most of the rights
that we have today in this country -- -
1:32 - 1:33as women,
-
1:33 - 1:35as minorities,
-
1:35 - 1:36as workers,
-
1:36 - 1:38as people of different sexual orientations
-
1:38 - 1:41and citizens concerned
with the environment -- -
1:41 - 1:43these rights weren't handed to us.
-
1:43 - 1:45They were won by people
who fought for them -
1:45 - 1:47and who sacrificed for them.
-
1:47 - 1:50But because we haven't learned
from this history, -
1:50 - 1:54nonviolent struggle as a technique
is widely misunderstood. -
1:54 - 1:58I met recently with a group
of Ethiopian activists, -
1:58 - 2:01and they told me something
that I hear a lot. -
2:01 - 2:03They said they'd already
tried nonviolent action, -
2:03 - 2:05and it hadn't worked.
-
2:05 - 2:07Years ago they held a protest.
-
2:07 - 2:11The government arrested everyone,
and that was the end of that. -
2:11 - 2:15The idea that nonviolent struggle
is equivalent to street protests -
2:15 - 2:17is a real problem.
-
2:17 - 2:22Because although protests can be a great
way to show that people want change, -
2:22 - 2:24on their own, they don't
actually create change -- -
2:25 - 2:26at least change that is fundamental.
-
2:27 - 2:28(Laughter)
-
2:28 - 2:31Powerful opponents are not going to give
people what they want -
2:31 - 2:33just because they asked nicely ...
-
2:34 - 2:35or even not so nicely.
-
2:35 - 2:37(Laughter)
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2:37 - 2:40Nonviolent struggle works
by destroying an opponent, -
2:40 - 2:41not physically,
-
2:41 - 2:46but by identifying the institutions
that an opponent needs to survive, -
2:46 - 2:48and then denying them
those sources of power. -
2:48 - 2:51Nonviolent activists
can neutralize the military -
2:51 - 2:53by causing soldiers to defect.
-
2:54 - 2:57They can disrupt the economy
through strikes and boycotts. -
2:57 - 2:59And they can challenge
government propaganda -
3:00 - 3:01by creating alternative media.
-
3:02 - 3:05There are a variety of methods
that can be used to do this. -
3:05 - 3:08My colleague and mentor, Gene Sharp,
-
3:08 - 3:13has identified 198 methods
of nonviolent action. -
3:14 - 3:16And protest is only one.
-
3:16 - 3:18Let me give you a recent example.
-
3:19 - 3:20Until a few months ago,
-
3:20 - 3:24Guatemala was ruled
by corrupt former military officials -
3:24 - 3:25with ties to organized crime.
-
3:26 - 3:28People were generally aware of this,
-
3:28 - 3:31but most of them felt powerless
to do anything about it -- -
3:32 - 3:36until one group of citizens,
just 12 regular people, -
3:37 - 3:39put out a call on Facebook
to their friends -
3:39 - 3:43to meet in the central plaza,
holding signs with a message: -
3:43 - 3:44"Renuncia YA" --
-
3:45 - 3:46resign already.
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3:47 - 3:49To their surprise,
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3:49 - 3:5030,000 people showed up.
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3:51 - 3:54They stayed there for months
as protests spread throughout the country. -
3:55 - 3:56At one point,
-
3:56 - 4:00the organizers delivered hundreds of eggs
to various government buildings -
4:00 - 4:01with a message:
-
4:02 - 4:04"If you don't have the huevos" --
-
4:04 - 4:05the balls --
-
4:05 - 4:08"to stop corrupt candidates
from running for office, -
4:08 - 4:10you can borrow ours."
-
4:10 - 4:11(Laughter)
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4:11 - 4:15(Applause)
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4:16 - 4:18President Molina responded
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4:18 - 4:20by vowing that he would never step down.
-
4:21 - 4:24And the activists realized
that they couldn't just keep protesting -
4:24 - 4:26and ask the president to resign.
-
4:26 - 4:28They needed to leave him no choice.
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4:29 - 4:31So they organized a general strike,
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4:31 - 4:33in which people throughout
the country refused to work. -
4:33 - 4:35In Guatemala City alone,
-
4:35 - 4:38over 400 businesses
and schools shut their doors. -
4:38 - 4:40Meanwhile,
-
4:40 - 4:42farmers throughout the country
blocked major roads. -
4:42 - 4:44Within five days,
-
4:44 - 4:45the president,
-
4:45 - 4:48along with dozens of other
government officials, -
4:48 - 4:49resigned already.
-
4:49 - 4:53(Applause)
-
4:53 - 4:55I've been greatly inspired
-
4:55 - 4:59by the creativity and bravery
of people using nonviolent action -
4:59 - 5:01in nearly every country in the world.
-
5:02 - 5:03For example,
-
5:03 - 5:05recently a group of activists in Uganda
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5:05 - 5:08released a crate of pigs in the streets.
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5:08 - 5:12You can see here that the police
are confused about what to do with them. -
5:12 - 5:13(Laughter)
-
5:13 - 5:15The pigs were painted
the color of the ruling party. -
5:16 - 5:18One pig was even wearing a hat,
-
5:18 - 5:20a hat that people recognized.
-
5:20 - 5:21(Laughter)
-
5:22 - 5:26Activists around the world
are getting better at grabbing headlines, -
5:26 - 5:28but these isolated actions do very little
-
5:28 - 5:31if they're not part of a larger strategy.
-
5:31 - 5:33A general wouldn't march
his troops into battle -
5:33 - 5:35unless he had a plan to win the war.
-
5:35 - 5:38Yet this is how most of the world's
nonviolent movements operate. -
5:39 - 5:43Nonviolent struggle is just as complex
as military warfare, -
5:43 - 5:44if not more.
-
5:44 - 5:49Its participants must be well-trained
and have clear objectives, -
5:49 - 5:53and its leaders must have a strategy
of how to achieve those objectives. -
5:53 - 5:57The technique of war has been developed
over thousands of years -
5:57 - 5:58with massive resources
-
5:58 - 6:01and some of our best minds
dedicated to understanding -
6:01 - 6:03and improving how it works.
-
6:04 - 6:08Meanwhile, nonviolent struggle
is rarely systematically studied, -
6:08 - 6:10and even though the number is growing,
-
6:10 - 6:14there are still only a few dozen people
in the world who are teaching it. -
6:15 - 6:16This is dangerous,
-
6:16 - 6:20because we now know that our old
approaches of dealing with conflict -
6:20 - 6:24are not adequate for the new
challenges that we're facing. -
6:24 - 6:26The US government recently admitted
-
6:26 - 6:29that it's in a stalemate
in its war against ISIS. -
6:29 - 6:31But what most people don't know
-
6:31 - 6:35is that people have stood up to ISIS
using nonviolent action. -
6:35 - 6:39When ISIS captured Mosul in June 2014,
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6:39 - 6:43they announced that they were putting
in place a new public school curriculum, -
6:43 - 6:45based on their own extremist ideology.
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6:46 - 6:47But on the first day of school,
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6:48 - 6:49not a single child showed up.
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6:50 - 6:53Parents simply refused to send them.
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6:53 - 6:56They told journalists they would rather
homeschool their children -
6:56 - 6:58than to have them brainwashed.
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6:59 - 7:02This is an example
of just one act of defiance -
7:02 - 7:03in just one city.
-
7:04 - 7:05But what if it was coordinated
-
7:05 - 7:08with the dozens of other acts
of nonviolent resistance -
7:08 - 7:10that have taken place against ISIS?
-
7:10 - 7:13What if the parents' boycott
was part of a larger strategy -
7:13 - 7:18to identify and cut off the resources
that ISIS needs to function; -
7:18 - 7:21the skilled labor needed to produce food;
-
7:21 - 7:24the engineers needed
to extract and refine oil; -
7:24 - 7:27the media infrastructure
and communications networks -
7:27 - 7:29and transportation systems,
-
7:29 - 7:31and the local businesses
that ISIS relies on? -
7:32 - 7:35It may be difficult
to imagine defeating ISIS -
7:35 - 7:37with action that is nonviolent.
-
7:38 - 7:41But it's time we challenge
the way we think about conflict -
7:41 - 7:43and the choices we have in facing it.
-
7:44 - 7:46Here's an idea worth spreading:
-
7:46 - 7:50let's learn more about where
nonviolent action has worked -
7:50 - 7:52and how we can make it more powerful,
-
7:52 - 7:55just like we do with other
systems and technologies -
7:55 - 7:59that are constantly being refined
to better meet human needs. -
7:59 - 8:03It may be that we can improve
nonviolent action -
8:03 - 8:06to a point where it is increasingly
used in place of war. -
8:07 - 8:11Violence as a tool of conflict
could then be abandoned -
8:11 - 8:13in the same way that bows and arrows were,
-
8:13 - 8:17because we have replaced them
with weapons that are more effective. -
8:17 - 8:22With human innovation, we can make
nonviolent struggle more powerful -
8:22 - 8:25than the newest and latest
technologies of war. -
8:26 - 8:30The greatest hope for humanity
lies not in condemning violence -
8:30 - 8:33but in making violence obsolete.
-
8:34 - 8:36Thank you.
-
8:36 - 8:44(Applause)
- Title:
- The secret to effective nonviolent resistance
- Speaker:
- Jamila Raqib
- Description:
-
We're not going to end violence by telling people that it's morally wrong, says Jamila Raqib, executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution. Instead, we must find alternative ways to conduct conflict that are equally powerful and effective. Raqib promotes nonviolent resistance to people living under tyranny -- and there's a lot more to it than street protests. She shares encouraging examples of creative strategies that have led to change around the world and a message of hope for a future without armed conflict. "The greatest hope for humanity lies not in condemning violence but in making violence obsolete," Raqib says.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 08:57
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How nonviolence can win a war | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How nonviolence can win a war | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How nonviolence can win a war | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How nonviolence can win a war | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How nonviolence can win a war | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for How nonviolence can win a war | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How nonviolence can win a war | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How nonviolence can win a war |