As I watch the display of gutsy, soulful dissidence in the streets of Rangoon, I hold my breath. I pray this new wave of protest can loosen the deathly embrace of the military regime that has been smothering the people of Burma/Myanmar for so, so long.

I am hopeful as I see monks in crimson robes take the lead in the streets, civilians form human chains to protect them, key footage escape the country through cell phone cameras, religious services withdrawn from the military.

The power of creative actions! Tactical innovation lies at the heart of the new momentum. Audacity gives new impetus, helps a movement come unstuck.

From deadlock to renewal

Burma had not seen protests on this scale since 1988, when a promising movement was crushed in a deadly crackdown. For nearly two decades, the Birman junta and the pro-democracy movement have appeared in a deadlock.

On one side, the paranoid generals. Imagine that: they went as far as to design a new national capital architected to preempt any popular disturbances, and built hours away from any potentially volatile urban centres, like demoted first city Rangoon.

On the other side, a weakened but resilient opposition movement, exemplified by the continuing detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has remained imprisoned for the better part of the last 17 years. For at least that long, calls for sanctions, boycotts and isolation against the Myanmar regime have been the mantra of prominent Burmese opposition leaders and support organizations.

Shifting tactics

The Free Burma Coalition waged a multi-year campaign to force Pepsi Co. and other multinationals to leave Burma. According to Zar Ni, one of the founders of the Free Burma Coalition: “We officially ended the boycott in 2003 because we realized that we needed to use a new set of tactics to start to reframe the issue and bring our campaign to another level. We realized that unless we changed the way people tell the Burma story, we would not win.”

“Boycotts have a lot of potential to do good", said Zar Ni. "They can be like the heavy artillery in a military campaign: They wear down the enemy, but the real job is done by the people on the ground, in the country itself.”

And that may be where inspiring tactics first needed to be reborn — on the blood-soaked but fertile soil of oppressed Burma/Myanmar — in order to spur a new wave of international activity. Knowing when it’s time to switch tactics can be just as important as knowing how to choose which tactic to use in the first place.

Tactical innovation brings hope

Founder of the Center for Torture Victims and initiator of the New Tactics Project, Doug Johnson has summarized the dangers of relying on a few pet tactics and the benefits of tactical savviness:

• An over-reliance on any single tactic leads to its application in the wrong circumstances, and to missed opportunities to expand strategic targets; flexible tactical thinking creates the opportunity for refined strategic targeting.
• An overused tactic encourages the adversary to systematize a response and makes it easier for adversaries to defend their position; tactical flexibility creates surprise and learning.

While we may fail to change our tactics, the other side will surely change theirs. In the real world of oppression under murderous regimes, when the opponent changes and adapts their tactics faster than us, the price to be paid can be deadly.

And thus it is that waging struggle involves a race for tactical innovation. The good news is, by virtue of our diversity, sheer resilience and, dare we say, love of life, our democracy and social justice movements stand a good chance of being more resourceful and imaginative than rigid bureaucracies and stiff military hierarchies.

And that, my friend, is my hope.

The right tactics at the right moment will inspire hundreds to take breathtaking risks. This in turn will encourage thousands to take action. And then millions will be drawn to express support. And in the end indeed, the whole world will stand watching and working, bringing us all closer together.

From stalemate to victory, riding the wave of history, that's the power of new tactics.

When stuck, consider ditching old tactics. What have you got to lose? Dare the new. Try a shift in tactics.

— Philippe Duhamel

Tell us about some of the tactical shifts you have had to make over the years. What were the some of the challenges? What were some of the benefits?
Post your comment below.

Links

• See “Shifting tactics”, page 67, in the Disruption tactics chapter of New Tactics' Resource for Practitioners.

• If you want to join an ongoing discussion of recent events in Myanmar, see this page.

• Tell us your ideas on what tactical shifts we could make in our own countries to support the protests and weaken the Junta's grip. In the meantime, check out this hub for demonstrations supporting the monks.

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