We offered a practical definition of nonviolent struggle earlier in this series. We now turn to "civil resistance", a term often used as a synonym of nonviolent action. Is there a difference between the two? Why use one over the other? Drawing from a new release on the subject, find out what the rationale is for using "civil resistance" as a term that covers most of the ground associated with nonviolent action, without some of its unwanted aura of ascetic faith or doctrine.

How often do you get the chance to take in wisdom garnered through decades of smart organizing work? 

In
1979, from a remote summer camp cabin in the Berkshire mountains,
nineteen-year-old Al Giordano started organizing the Rowe Nuclear
Conversion Campaign. Thirty-two years later, he's back in the same
summer camp to share with us, lucky few, some of his best stories. A
rare treat; not many organizers lasted as many seasons, or make the
effort to patiently share their crop of battle-tested insights.

The Initiative for Freedom of Expression used a civil disobedience approach that involved voluntarily selecting to republish state-banned materials to ridicule restrictions on freedom of expression.  The tactic was implemented in order to make many people participate in the “crime” so the action no longer appeared a crime.  They tried to force prosecution in order to bring attention to Turkish laws that were violating freedom of expression and to bring about amendments or changes to these laws and then make the judicial mechanisms exercise the essence of the law.

photo: Benoît Aquin

One goal of the New Tactics Project is to help us adapt action methods in innovative ways. As we look to various tactics, the main focus remains on "transferability", the capacity to bring and apply a given tactical framework to a different issue or situation.

It's hard.

Most activists do not even think twice about "transferability' when they choose to organize a march or a boycott. But when it comes to more complex tactics, most people can't bring themselves to envision it in a different context. Yet, every tactic is transferable. 

Because I have had some experience with the nonviolent raid as intervention tactic, some fairly recent, I thought it might be useful to show a few examples of how this tactic can be, and was, transferred across different campaigns on a number of issues. The goal of the exercise is to spark our imagination.

From the movie Gandhi (1982). — See the raid on the Dharasana Salt Works.

When Santa Claus and elves tried to deliver a piece of coal to the Prime Minister of Canada last December, the tactic they used was the nonviolent raid. In a nonviolent raid, committed and well-trained actionists attempt to enter a protected facility to seize it, or to carry out some legitimate task consistent with their goals. 

The nonviolent raiders are seen advancing. They seek to enter the facility. But fences, barricades or police lines are there to block them. They proceed nonetheless. Most often than not, they are stopped through some form of repression, with arrests usually. But they still win.

Photo: Ashley Fraser, The Ottawa Citizen, Dec. 13, 2007. — Protesters dressed as Santa Claus and several of his elves were arrested at 24 Sussex Drive last night when they took Stephen Harper a lump of coal. It was to be his reward for what they call his sabotage of the UN climate talks in Indonesia.

That’s a picture of yours truly as... well, a flying elf. 

I was arrested last week. Again.

First time ever as one of Santa’s Little Helpers, though.

Let me tell you what happened as an introduction to how the tactic — the nonviolent raid — can be, and has been, used in a wide range of campaigns. 

In the late 1990s, the organization Otpor! developed in
Milosevic-ruled Serbia.
Considered by many as a rag-tag group of student protestors, the group soon
became the leading citizen-based force for resistance to the Milosevic regime.
Otpor! used non-violent tactics to create a broad base of citizen support and

For the past month, Buddhists monks have been marching and practicing civil disobedience in Myanmar (formerly Burma).This past weekend (September 23) the marches gained more participants, and attention. The Associated Press reports that upwards of 100,000 people led by hundreds of Buddhist monks marched through the streets of Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon.