Tag Archives: civil resistance

Maxims on Civil Resistance part III

12 Oct
  • Fighting dictatorships is like defying gravity. Unless these regimes are already upside down.
  • We read a lot about violent collapse of Yugoslavia and find nonviolent dissolution of Czechoslovakia boring and no newsworthy.
  • Nationalism is a slavery to an infallibility of the state. Patriotism is the liberty to disobey that state.
  • All dictators are the same. They are boring, ugly and smell like death. Civl resistance that challenges them must be witty, beautiful and infused with life.
  • Coalition building in civil resistance is a cooker of ideas and mixture of positive tensions. Skill is to use these vibes to weave unity.
  • Engagement in civil resistance builds our skills and expertise. This is why, regardless of the eventual outcome, we are better citizens if forged in civil resistance fire.
  • Violence on the part of the movement’s radicals consolidates the opponents as much as it polarizes movement’s supporters. A tactic that unifies the movement and divides the opponent is strategically best option for resisters.
  • Prefigurative powers of civil resistance are reflected in collective acting by people as if their freedom was already here.
  • How existence becomes resistance? When the life is affirmed and the goal of self attainment and community empowerment is being realized by locals despite domestic or foreign  oppression.
  • Dictators are not as strong as they believe they are. Their material powers have little force when faced with organized and disciplined people.
  • People are not as weak as they think they are as long as they strategize and gauge smartly risks and benefits of their political actions.
  • Do the movements fail or do they just not succeed yet? For many successful movements their initial failures paved the way to the ultimate victory.
  • Victims must be their own liberators. Seemingly disempowered hold the key to their own liberation if only they unlock their collective powers.

Maxims on Civil Resistance part II

Maxims on Civil Resistance part I

The Syrian Resistance

4 Oct

Last week, openDemocracy published my co-authored article on the Syrian struggle.

Together with Mohja Kahf, we assess the role and impact of the Syrian nonviolent resistance when it lasted and show how the armed resistance jeopardized what civil resistance had achieved. We also address myths pertaining to the resort to arms by the Syrian opposition. The decision to engage Assad regime on its own terms and where it is the strongest – via arms – was based on the misplaced beliefs in the efficacy of armed protection and the inadequate knowledge of the effects of civil resistance.

Read more ….

Comment ….

Maxims on Civil Resistance part I

1 Oct

 

  • Civil resistance is a voluntary collective experience that imparts pluralism before state becomes pluralistic.
  • ‘Rule of law’ occludes the fact that without people’s consent there cannot be any rule of laws, institutions, or elites.
  • Gandhi, King, Havel, Walesa, Mandela agreed on this point: idea of political violence to overthrow dictatorial regimes is NOT RADICAL enough.
  • Resistance is about preeminence of action. Inaction is less effective than violent action. Violent action is less effective than nonviolent action.
  • No nonviolent resistance that mobilized at least 3.5% of the population ever failed. In China, it would be 45 million people…
  • Transactional demands: higher wages, better working conditions pave the way to transformational demands: equitable distribution of wealth.

See Maxims on Civil Resistance part II

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