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,
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0:28 - 0:29giving in is not an option.
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0:30 - 0:32For these types conflicts --
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0:32 - 0:33when people's rights are violated,
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0:33 - 0:35when their countries are occupied,
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0:35 - 0:37when they're oppressed and humiliated --
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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,
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0:48 - 0:50they will use it.
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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
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0:56 - 0:58by telling people
that violence is morally wrong. -
0:59 - 1:01Instead, we must offer them a tool
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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
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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,
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1:36 - 1:38as people of different sexual orientations
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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.
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3:19 - 3:20Until a few months ago,
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3:20 - 3:24Guatemala was ruled
by corrupt former military officials -
3:24 - 3:25with ties to organized crime.
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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,
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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" --
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4:04 - 4:05the balls --
-
4:05 - 4:08"to stop corrupt candidates
from running for office, -
4:08 - 4:10you can borrow ours."
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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 we would never step down.
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4:21 - 4:24And the activists realized
that they couldn't just keep protesting -
4:24 - 4:26and ask the president to resign.
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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,
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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.
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4:49 - 4:53(Applause)
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4:53 - 4:55I've been greatly inspired
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4:55 - 4:59by the creativity and bravery
of people using nonviolent action -
4:59 - 5:01in nearly every country in the world.
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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,
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5:18 - 5:20a hat that people recognized.
-
5:20 - 5:21(Laughter)
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5:22 - 5:26Activists around the world
are getting better at grabbing headlines, -
5:26 - 5:28but these isolated actions do very little
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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,
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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
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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:
-
Jamila Raqib speaks at TED Talks Live
- 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 |