WHAT IS THIS?

1
WHAT IS THIS?
Unrest? Opposition? Protest? Uprising? Revolution?

2
Structure Agency

• States Non-State Actors
• Governments Citizens
• Rulers People
• Laws Consent
• Elites Civil Society
• Institutions Movements
• Conditions Skills
• Physical Political
• Unrest Resistance

3
CIVIL RESISTANCE

• Power concedes nothing and it never will.
  Find out just what any people will quietly submit
  to, and you have found out the exact measure of
  injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon
  them, and these will continue until they are
  resistedThe limits of tyrants are prescribed by
  the endurance of those whom they oppress.
  Frederick Douglass

4
Tactics of Resistance

• Protest/Persuasion
• Petitions, symbols, vigils
• Marches, walk-outs
• Non-cooperation
• Boycotts, strikes, sit-ins
• Civil disobedience
• Intervention
• - Blockades, seizures

5
The Dynamic of Resistance

• When the people deprive an oppressor of their
  consent, it reduces his legitimacy.
• When enough people refuse to cooperate, they
  increase the cost of holding control.
• When the systems legitimacy drops and its costs
  rise, its enforcers doubt its endurance.

6
RECORD OF RESISTANCE

• The great nation-changing nonviolent movements
• Indians (1920s-40s) East Germans (1989)
• Salvadorans (1944) Mongolians (1990)
• African-Americans (60s) Malians (1991)
• Poles (1970s-1980s) Russians (1991)
• South Africans (84-92) Serbs (2000)
• Chileans (1985-1988) Georgians (2003)
• Filipinos (1986) Ukrainians (2004)
• Czechs/Slovaks (1989) Maldivians (2008)

7
Demand for Militant Struggle

• From people who want
• - End to dictatorship
• (Syria, Belarus)
• - Self-determination
• (W. Papua, W. Sahara)
• - End to violence
• (Mexico, Nigeria)

8
Syria Civil Resistance

• March 15, 2011 Rare Political Protest Held in
  Syria (Reuters)
• March 27, 2011 Democracy Movement Spreads to
  Syria (IPS)
• April 15, 2011 Syrias Silent Majority Will
  Determine Next Step as Protests Grow (Guardian)
• April 28, 2011 Hundreds Resign from Baath
  Party (Guardian)
• June 11, 2011 Syrian Army Cracking
• Amid Crackdown (Al Jazeera)
• July 28, 2011 Syrians Planning for
• Stepped-Up Protests (NY Times)
• August 21, 2011 Amid Crackdown,
• Syrias Protesters Get Creative
• (Global Post)

9
Syria Civil Resistance

• September 25, 2011 Defectors Form Dissident
  Army (Washington Post)
• October 14, 2011 Thousands of Syrians Join
  Anti-Government Protests (Guardian)
• December 8, 2011 Syrians Launch
• Civil Disobedience (AFP)
• December 13, 2011 Activists Show
• Opposition to Assads Rule
• Dec. 15, 2011 Syrian Army
• Defectors Kill 27 Soldiers
• (NYTimes)

10
Syria Armed Struggle

• Jan. 26, 2012 Unarmed Resistance Still Syrias
  Best Hope (NCR)
• Feb. 23, 2012 Deep Divisions Hobble Syrias
  Opposition (New York Times)
• Feb. 26, 2012 Saving the Nonviolent
• Revolution in Syria (Al Ahram)
• April 20, 2012 Militarization of Conflict
• Boosting Radicals, Marginalizing
• Moderates (Democracy Digest)
• May 4, 2012 Syrians Questioning
• If Armed Revolt Works (Guardian)
• May 14, 2012 Assads Businessmen
• Have Defected (Al Arabiya)

11
Syria Armed Struggle

• May 18, 2012 Largest Protests Yet in Syrian
  City of Aleppo (Guardian)
• May 24, 2012 Syrian Diplomats Expelled from
  Countries (Guardian)
• July 3, 2012 Syrian Rebel Fighters Boycott Push
  for United Front (AFP)
• July 14, 2012 Syria Massacre
• Assads Forces Shot Anything
• Moving (Guardian)
• July 19, 2012 Why Assads Regime
• Will Probably Survive the
• Damascus Bombing
• (Political Violence _at_ a Glance)

12
Violent v. Nonviolent Power

• New study of 323 violent and nonviolent
• campaigns, 1900 to 2006
• -Violent campaigns
• succeeded in 26 of cases.
• -Nonviolent campaigns
• succeeded in 53 of cases.
• Stephen Chenoweth, Why Civil Resistance
• Works, International Security, Summer 2008.

13
Emergent properties of civil resistance

• REASON
• - respects the citizens
• mind
• - persuasion, not coercion
• - signals honesty
• credibility

14
Emergent properties of civil resistance

• SELF-RULE
• - Swaraj
• - Self-organization
• - Planning
• - Nonviolent
• discipline

15
Emergent properties of civil resistance

• REPRESENTATION
• Ascertaining/presenting grievances
• Listening, delegating, inviting participation
• Humility, not hierarchy
• Solidarity of all,
• not heroism of a few

16
Emergent properties of civil resistance

• RESILIENCE
• Momentum
• Existential stakes
• Certitude of faith in
• eventual success
• Fannie Lou Hamer

17
The Basis of Resistance A Choice of Identity

• Who are you?
• The object of a ruling elite,
• submissive to threats of
• repression and violence?
• or
• A citizen, able to develop
• the means to obtain power
• to win your rights?

18
Civil Resistance Delivers

• Rights
• Self-rule
• Justice
• Democracy
• Peace