A Strategic Nonviolence Academy

This week on Nonviolence Radio, Stephanie and Michael speak with Joe Worthy, a nonviolence strategist who is currently developing the Strategic Nonviolence Academy, a place where those interested in being active and effective leaders can learn about the principles and methods of nonviolence. The Strategic Nonviolence Academy will empower those wanting to lead communities in the nonviolent resistance of oppression and exploitation. This comes by ensuring that incoming students acquire not only practical skills but a deeply felt commitment to the values that ground and continue to nurture nonviolent action.

"…it is a very powerful approach, process, way of life to, you know, change yourself in the world. And I think most important, in this time, is that it is a pathway towards the world that you want to build. And on your way to that world, you're going to transform yourself, your community, and the world while you're doing that."

This Academy aims to be a place where nonviolence is explored and enacted holistically, that is, involving  the “head, hearts and feet” of those who join.

Transcript

Stephanie: Greetings everybody and welcome to another episode of Nonviolence Radio. I’m your host, Stephanie Van Hook, and I’m here with my co-host and news anchor of the Nonviolence Report, Michael Nagler. And we’re from the Metta Center for Nonviolence in Petaluma, California. 

On today’s show we’ll speak with Joe Worthy, a nonviolence strategist about a new strategic nonviolence academy that he is currently recruiting participants for. And we’re going to start off with a little bit of nonviolence in the news from Michael Nagler’s Nonviolence Report. Let’s turn to Michael Nagler.

Michael: Thank you. Stephanie.

I think I will recur back to an event that happened early last month on April 5th. Because some have estimated that it was up to 5.2 million people that rallied and marched in 1300 different locations, mind you, for the 50501 and the Hands Off! protests. And, you know, I always like to comment on this – that this is a wonderful beginning, which I hope will be picked up on and carried forward. Because simply to protest in itself has not proven to be a very effective way of building resistance movements. But it is a way of identifying your friends.

So, I'm in hopes that a lot of networking happens, that people encouraged themselves, and that we’re going to pick up and carry forward now with the idea of what we can take, what can we do to rebuild it?

And having used that phrase, an opinion writer in the New York Times I like very much is Corbyn Trent. And he laments the fact that none of the political leaders we have in either of the two main parties have proposed – this is a quote now, “have proposed the kind of systemic change it will take to rebuild it.”

And really part of that systemic change is beginning to identify the positive creative elements in human nature, which means, looking into the development – which is really dramatically these days – of nonviolence.

One of the things Corbyn says is, “The United States can't just be a market. It has to be a country.” That really resonated with me.

Stephanie: I want to get back to some things that you were saying though, about protest, if I can –

Michael: Sure.

Stephanie: -lead us back there. You know, as I think about it, it feels good to go out and demonstrate, even if it's not protest, to show what we believe as a community, as people. And that protest, as we know, serves purposes too. When done strategically and with a long-term goal, it can be a part of movement building. Right?

Michael: Yeah.

Stephanie: But without a long-term goal, protests can also be disorganized, unfocused, and it can get exhausting. Because people stop listening to you, and it becomes – if you're, you know, constantly just going to protests, it's hard to keep that energy. It's hard to keep – it's like, “Okay, what are we doing next week?” “Well, we're going to another protest.”

So, there needs to be a wide array of options for people to engage with strategies in nonviolence. As well as practicing in our daily lives, in our relationships toward ourselves, in our organizations, and our businesses. Ways that are, you know, not just communication, not nonviolent communication, but you know, looking at, are we doing things differently to the extent that we can?

Michael: And I'm happy to say that people are becoming more aware of this. You know, I'm old enough to remember a time when people would just get out and protest and march and go home, and that would be the end of it. But now people are beginning to recognize that that is a good beginning, but only a beginning.

And I want to throw this into relief by citing a protest of a kind that happened in Iceland in 1975. The issue that was bothering a lot of people, mostly the women, of course, was that women were still in a very subordinate position. And their salaries were running like 15-20% lower than men's salaries for the same job. And they got out and protested. But that was half the population, and they brought the whole country to a standstill.

So, that is the difference between symbolic and concrete action. On one level, you could say it's the same thing. There's a bunch of people walking around in the square. But you have to realize that on another level, they had a direct impact on the reality of the situation.

So, we should bear that in mind always. That merely symbolic actions are good for our inspiration and encouragement, which indeed we need, but nothing compared to the impact that could be had through really concrete work.

Recently, of course, we had a very dramatic episode in this country where Senator Cory Booker spoke for 26 hours. And there are so many wonderful things that he said. But I just want to pull out one because it kind of sounds like a mantra that we use all the time at Metta.

He said, “The power of the people is greater than the people in power.” Now, I wonder if he had actually seen our film or read our website because –

Stephanie: Because always say – well, you said it and we use it as a –

Michael: Yeah, that.

Stephanie: – kind of tagline.

Michael: That's right. It's not so much putting a different kind of people in power as arousing a different kind of power in people.

So, I was very, very happy to see that. And of course, when we say that, a different kind of power in people, we mean the power of nonviolence, which we firmly believe is actually the ultimate underlying power. I'm going to make a big, big generalization now – the underlying power of reality, of the universe, and definitely of living beings and very definitely of human beings. That it is always amazing that nonviolence is so much more powerful than we think, and violence is so much less powerful than we think.

Stephanie: I have something actually that ties into that.

Michael: Okay. Tie right in.

Stephanie: Another event took place somewhere across the world in Hungary. And this happened earlier in the month of April, kind of mid-April. It was a parade, but they called it Gray Pride. It was a Gray Pride parade. And everyone wore, like, drab gray clothes and had gray signs that said Gray Pride.

And it was a humorous, and very organized way of protesting Viktor Orbán's clampdown on LGBTQIA+ rights. And there was legislation that was going to be voted on about the Pride parade in Hungary, in Budapest.

It was successful in the way that it organized people around a single issue and had complete nonviolent discipline as part of it. That was really the victory. It didn't stop the legislation. But that is not always the point either, because it really emphasizes that the power of the people is more powerful than the people in power, in a way. Because with that kind of organization and that kind of humor and that dedication to an issue, that issue is not going to go away. We can be sure.

Michael: You're touching on one of our favorite formulations at Metta which is work versus “work”. It's hard to do this over the air, but it's work versus “work”, quote unquote. Where “work” means you got the legislation passed, which failed in this case. But work without quotes means a bunch of people who are not normally visible in society very proudly stepped forward. And they showed resistance against one of the most brutal dictators that we've got going in the world today, which is saying a lot. 

So, work, without quotes, can be invisible in the short term, but it often leads to a powerful change in the long term. And I like to quote my example of 1953. Yeah, I've been around for a while.

Stephanie: Oh yeah, that was a good story.

Michael: Yeah. I was a kid. And there was a campaign started by the American Friends Service Committee. The issue was the Korean War was going on, and we did not want to escalate that. We didn't want to see it escalated into China: “Don't cross the Yellow River.” So, the AFSC sent out these little canvas bags – imitation grain bags with little labels from Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, saying, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him.”

And what a wonderful sentiment. You know, if your enemy is at a disadvantage, you have an opportunity to reconcile with that person by suddenly reaching out and helping him. There are many, many historical examples I won't go into right now. But here I am, okay, I'm an idealistic teenager, I pay $0.35, sent my grain bag in, and sat by the phone and radio listening. And, of course, nothing happened. Or so we thought.

Then, 25 years later, I'm still sort of idealistic, but not a kid anymore. It turns out that the Freedom of Information Act turned up the following episode. That is, in fact, when those bags arrived, President Eisenhower was sitting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and they were arguing that it was time to cross the Yellow River and start bombing mainland China.

Now, Eisenhower, to his credit, was a real military person. And he knew that you didn't just play games like that. He knew what the results would be. And he was kind of looking around for a way to put an end to this proposal. And it dawned on him that these little bags had come in. 

So, he said to one of his staff people, “Hey, how many did we get?” And the fellow ran out and checked and came back in and whispered in his ear, “Sir, we had 35,000 of them.” And Eisenhower then put his hand on the table and said, “Gentlemen,” there being no ladies in the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, said, “Gentlemen, 35,000 Americans want us to start feeding the Chinese. This is not the time to start bombing them.” Meeting adjourned.

Stephanie: I like how you were like you put yourself in the room. It’s always very dramatic.

Michael: Yeah, well, it was one of the very few episodes I participated in that had an acknowledgeable good impact.

Stephanie: But I think that the follow-up to that story, which is really interesting, is that a few weeks ago on a call that we were on with our friend Cassie. She had a follow-up for you about that.

Michael: She sure did.

Stephanie: You want to share that?

Michael: Yeah. Cassie Liu is one of our kind of staff people at Metta. We’re really, really fond of Cassie. And she chimed in at the end of my telling this story, and pointed out that her grandfather and two of his daughters died in that famine in 1953. And that her grandmother, with her infant father, had to swim across a river to get to Hong Kong, which is where Cassie eventually was born.

So suddenly, this abstract story became very, very real and very humanly personal for us. And I think it's – we ought to, you know, remember when we read these statistics and 5.2 million people and blah-blah, that every one of them was a real living human being. And as the Quakers are fond of saying, “There is that of God in every person.”

Stephanie: Yeah. And it also really brings out the importance of a long-term vision for folks who are interested in pursuing nonviolence. That we have to look beyond the immediate space that we're in and think, “What are the long-term consequences of this kind of thinking, of this kind of behavior? Is it going to lead to more justice, more peace, or is it going to destroy? Is it going to create a path of destruction?”

Michael: And I think it's important for all of us to have faith in the following principle. That when you do something good, it will have a good result. When you do something bad, you know, alienating, harmful, separating, destructive, it will have a bad result.

And so, it is not given to us as human beings, with our limited vision, to see all the results of our action in detail. But it is given to us to have this innate faith that nonviolent work will have a nonviolent result and vice versa. That’s really pretty much all we need to know.

Stephanie: Thank you so much. Now, yesterday was the 1st of May, a big day for unions and labor. So, I'm going to play a song here while we get our guest on, Joe Worthy. And there were protests all over. There'll be protests again on Saturday, I think, because not everybody could get off work on Thursday, unfortunately.

So, this is actually a song that I heard when I first started working with Michael Nagler. There was a peace conference and this song came on. So, here we go.

[Music – Pete Seeger, “Which Side Are You On?”]

Stephanie: So, for those of you who are unfamiliar, that was Pete Seeger, “Which Side Are You On?” And as we were playing that, Michael was, strumming his air banjo and singing his full head off. So, welcome back. We're here at Nonviolence Radio.

I have our guest here, Joe Worthy. He's a nonviolence strategist. And I thought it would be important to have Joe's voice on the show today, because he's going to talk about a Strategic Nonviolence Academy that he's building for people who are watching what's happening in our world, in the US and elsewhere, and say, “I want to get involved. I want to do something, but I want it to be meaningful. I want it to have impact. And I want it to be nonviolent.”

So, welcome back to Nonviolence Radio, Joe.

Joe: Yeah. Thanks, Stephanie. It's great to be back.

Stephanie: Yeah, it's been a while, but you've been up to a lot of really good work with different organizations and deepening your commitment to nonviolence. So, to maybe bring us up to speed, what have you been doing with the Strategic Nonviolence Academy?

Joe: Yeah. Thank you. So looking at everything that was going on in the world, and looking at all the experiences that I've had since the last time that we talked, I thought that it was important to create a space for people to get a full understanding of the power of nonviolence. Not only the understanding of it, but to also have a space to incubate, create, and deploy their efforts out into the world.

And so, the Strategic Nonviolence Academy is an attempt to create a space to be able to train and develop leaders, that empower them to build the movements that we want to see in the world. We've had a lot of issues, maybe in the past 5 to 6 years, of being able to win a lot of campaigns.

We've seen the rollback of democracy in several different forms, whether it be at the local, or the state, or national level. And there was actually a report that came out right after the election. It was published in The Forge, where they looked at organizers across the United States, I think they interviewed over 300 of them.

And a large amount of them said that the failures that we're seeing are failures in infrastructure. And failures in development of the organizers who are sort of coming up the ranks. And that there was a clear need expressed by organizers across the United States for some sort of academy to be able to develop these leaders, to be able to win these campaigns and advance the objectives that we want to see in the world, to build a better world. People need to understand how to do that. 

And so, not just the politics, but the techniques of strategic nonviolent action need to be taught and perpetuated across – especially in this time right now, in this moment in the United States. And so that's what we're trying to do.

Stephanie: I love that. And it's a question that we get all the time of, you know, What can I do? How can I get involved? And if there were an academy out there that we could say, you know, “Go hone your leadership skills for nonviolent campaigns at this place” –  I mean, there are organizations everywhere. It's hard to pick just one, right? So, we want to get as much training as possible. 

But you're kind of creating an umbrella and sort of almost like a new version, I'd say, of the Highlander Folk School, in a way, of trying to really start a new level of this movement for human rights, civil rights, democracy.

So, I'd like you to maybe talk a little bit about this idea of head, hearts, and feet. Because when you talk about strategic nonviolence, I hear you saying something that's much more comprehensive than I hear other times when strategic nonviolence is discussed. Usually it's like, you know, we're using nonviolence, but we're not worried about the inner transformation. We're not worried about anything else except just not being violent with our fists.

So, talk a little bit about this deeper approach, this more comprehensive approach to strategic nonviolence that is part of this academy.

Joe: Yeah. So, the Academy's approach is comprehensive. I like to say, “We want to engage the whole person so that we can build whole movements.” And a lot of this perspective has come from my experience over the years. I know the last time I talked with you and Michael, we were more or less debriefing our campaign in Cleveland for police accountability after the murder of Tamir Rice.

And since then, I've gone on to train and coach movements across the United States and across the world. And through that process, there've been several things that I think even, you know, some of the most experienced activists have been struggling with, right?

And the biggest thing is that the movements weren't whole. So, they might be very good at building a large base, but they might have a hard time with internal toxicity, right? Or they might be really adept at having people do the inner work, and maybe even building a large base, but may have a hard time in being able to point all that power in the right direction so that they can actually achieve a win.

And so, when we're talking about whole movements, we are talking about the head, the heart, and feet. This idea that you need to be able to have the skill and the craft to be able to build a base effectively, be able to structure in a way that is going to realize the community vision and allow people in this space to be able to act on that vision, right? You need to be able to point all that power, in the right direction and to be able to discern, when and how you move and to what end are you moving to, right?

And then the last thing and, you know, I dare say probably one of the most important things, is being able to understand so that we are enabled to intervene in the world meaningfully, you have to have an awareness of your own presence, of your own being, for several reasons.

One, understanding who you are at a fundamental level as an individual activist, first, shields you from a lot of things, right? And it allows you to practice self-compassion. It allows you to be open and vulnerable with the people in your community to whom you say you want to serve.

And it is, and in my estimation, one of the biggest shields against something that a lot of organizers and activists deal with, which is burnout on an organizational level though, creating the spaces for that internal work, creating the spaces to – a good way to say this, to metabolize suffering, allows for the longevity and sustainability of these organizations as a whole.

What that inner work also does is allow for conflict within a space to be addressed head-on and dealt with so that we don't have these internal collapses within movements. And so, all of the three pillars, I guess we'll call them, or the three spaces that make a whole movement, are really critically important in their own way, right?

But what I've seen, having been in struggle before and seeing people struggle, and their struggles right now, is that the heart works, the heart piece, right? Your internal center is among the most important things because it informs everything that we do, right? And we like to try to maybe leave it off to the side because it's not the most immediate thing.

But when you take a step back, and you look at it, it is, in fact, the most immediate thing. Because who you are being on the inside and how you are interpreting this world affects everything from your ability to build relationships with people. It affects your ability to formulate coherent strategy and it affects the community's ability to stick together in the toughest of times.

And we're seeing now an extreme amount of repression on a day-to-day basis. And community is the most important piece of that puzzle, to keep going even in the face of all these things that are happening.

Stephanie: Yeah. Absolutely, I agree with that 100%. When we see everything that's going on, we're feeling what's happening. And when we're feeling what's happening, it's painful. Not because so-and-so did something necessarily, which we're going to address, but behind it is this breaking of trust, and the breaking of community, and the breaking apart of our image of who we are.

And we have to be able to see these breaks as something that can be healed and repaired to create something better, to create something more just, and to remind ourselves that that's not who we are. But this happened because the structures have allowed it in some way. And so, we have to address those structures. We have to change those structures. Michael?

Michael: Yeah. You know, there's a concept that's come up that I'm sure you're familiar with, Joe. The concept of noncompliance. And there's a group in Philadelphia called Freedom Trainers. And a good friend of ours, Maria Stephan, who's a really great nonviolence scholar, is one of these people.

And they have done so much. They've led over three dozen trainings in noncompliance. And they built a range of curricula that have trained over 10,000 people. So, that's going to start to make a difference. Were you aware of that organization, Joe? Or what's your sense?

Joe: Yeah, you know, I absolutely am. I believe that noncompliance or, you know, non-cooperation is a – not that that's specifically what it is that they're doing all the time – is a huge part of this puzzle. And there is especially room for people to do these mass trainings that give people the baseline in terms of, like, what it is they need to do to be able to be able to gain this mass noncompliance.

And I think all of those trainings, all the things that are happening are critically important to this ecosystem and to allow people to know that there are steps that you can take, there are things that you can do right now, in this moment to exercise your will, in relationship to, you know, what the state is currently trying to do.

I think where we're looking to – not necessarily looking to be different for a different sake. I think our approach is looking at how do we develop the people who are going to be in position to effectively coordinate these masses of people, right?

And when you look at a person who is in that position, there are a lot of things that they deal with on a day-to-day basis that are critically important for them to be able to contend with to be aware of, and to be able to process in order for them to be successful in that position in particular, right? And there are some people who want to take on that role, and there are some people who are more than happy to take on the role of participant.

What we're looking at is a situation where you're getting the ability to have a bigger leadership role in the movement ecosystem as a whole, right? Or you're going to be in a position to, with care, and with patience, and with resilience, engage these masses of people and be able to create conditions for them to realize what it is that they want in their communities.

And so, the reason why, you know, our approach is so rigorous, that we're asking people to engage more intensely for eight weeks, continue to engage pretty intensely for another four weeks after that and stay in their learning communities for that entire year, is because they're going to be in a position where people are going to be depending on them for leadership, essentially.

And so, the people who are signing up right now are the people who are in those positions and willing to sharpen their ability to lead people most effectively.

Stephanie: Joe, I want to bring up, first of all, how can people get in touch with you? We’ll bring it up again at the end of the show, and they're like, I want to join this academy. They can contact you over email, right?

Joe: Yes, they can. You can yeah. You can go to StrategicNonviolenceAcademy.org. And there's a ‘Coming Soon’ page up where you can send email and/or fill out a contact form and get in contact right away. You know, my email more directly, you can email Joe.Worthy1@gmail.com. And I can be very responsive and – yeah, that’s how you can reach out.

Stephanie: Okay. It's just a quick plug for that. Our friend Mary Jane sent us a video the other day about the release of Mohsen Mahdawi from ICE custody. He’s the student from Columbia University. He’s Palestinian and he was arrested during his immigration interview. You know his story, right?

So, he was released. And his friend – part of this video was saying, you know, people are looking, asking, where is the Palestinian Gandhi? Well, this is he. Mohsen Mahdawi has been looking at violence on all sides of the conflict and is for nonviolence.

And I thought that was interesting. I wanted to bring it up in the context of Strategic Nonviolence Academy because my feeling about this is that there is no other Gandhi. We're not we're not looking for new Gandhi's. We're not looking for new Mandela’s or MLKs. What we're looking for is for people to become the best leaders that they can be.

And it's somewhat unfair to say, “This person is a Gandhi” versus what the value is behind when we say that, when we say this person is, you know, the next Gandhi or the next MLK. Meaning, the value behind it is nonviolence.

And when we say that that's the leadership model, nonviolence, we start seeing those leaders everywhere, whether they're organizations – one of my favorites in that region of the world of Israel-Palestine is Combatants for Peace. You know, combatants from both sides, Israel, Palestine, coming together and saying, “We have to live together. We embrace nonviolence.” And they're standing up for nonviolence on all sides of the conflict.

So, I want you to talk a little bit about the power of nonviolence in all of what you're saying. I mean, we've been talking a bit about strategy and leadership, but what about nonviolence?

Joe: I think the power of nonviolence, and especially in times like these and in situations like these, are enormously relevant to the world that we want to build, you know? I tend to shy away from speaking to nonviolence for nonviolence’s sake, right?

In that it is a very powerful approach, process, way of life to, you know, change yourself in the world. And I think most important, in this time, is that it is a pathway towards the world that you want to build. And on your way to that world, you're going to transform yourself, your community, and the world while you're doing that.

And so, the power of nonviolence, I think, is critically important in this time for a couple of reasons. I think the first and most important piece of the whole process is that it is a community effort, right? Everyone who wants to can come together and participate in this. And through that broad community participation, if done well, what we tend to get out of it is a world that was better than when we started.

And so, the power of this entire process is that anyone who's listening to this can make a choice right now to begin to engage. And with careful planning, wise leadership, and understanding who you are and what you want this world to be, I think what history tells us is that it's not if it will change, it's when it will change. And I think that's the power of this entire process.

Michael: Hooray! And, Joe, I wanted to ask you a question. You've been using the term strategic nonviolence. And of course, in my mind, that immediately triggers the other part of this pair, which is principled nonviolence. And I wonder, what's your thinking on that? Do you engage people in some considerations of principled nonviolence?

Stephanie: Well, I've been hearing that throughout everything he's saying. That's why when he's talking about the head, heart, and feet. But Joe, do comment if you'd like.

Joe: Yeah, I think those are like really, really great questions.

And I think the naming is really important. So, if you look at the field as a whole, what you'll see, you know, things like civil resistance, or you'll see strategic nonviolent action. You'll see just like nonviolence in and of itself. And you'll see all these different words.

Strategic nonviolence, and not just strategic nonviolent action, but strategic nonviolence, is the merging together of what you're talking about, Michael. The merging of the principal piece with the strategic piece. And not that people haven't done it before. What we're trying to say through this project is that we need all of this.

And if we can just put it together coherently and start our leaders off, or you know, people get continuing education credits or what have you. Being sound, at least, in all three of these areas, I think ultimately, we'll have better movements all together.

But then also I think, as the leaders come through the academy, and they do come into contact with people who may lean more towards one side or the other, they'll be able to effectively collaborate with them because they understand where they're coming from, you know? And I think that is the power in bringing all of these pieces together at once, deliberately, intentionally, in an intensive process so that people can understand how this all works together.

And so, what we're going to be doing in the academy is going to be talking about the intersections every single week of this principled nonviolence and the strategic nonviolence. How do these two things intersect with each other? How do the principles affect the strategy, right? How do the principles affect your ability to build a base more effectively? All of these things tend to work together. And so, we want to recognize that and honor that and not leave any of those pieces out.

Stephanie: So, this all sounds really, really powerful. And I've had the chance to read the application for this program. And in that, you do mention that this isn't for observers. This academy is really for people who want to get some training, some learning in them in order to go out and make change as leaders of movements.

So that's a little different. You're not looking for people coming just to learn. You're looking for engaged leaders that want a deeper sense of how nonviolence is going to work for them in their community building to help repair these problems that are surfacing.

Joe: Yeah, absolutely. And I think we want people who want to come and learn. But I think the – you know, evidence tells us that the best way to learn is by trying it on, you know? When I said that this could be a first step, what I want to convey is that you're not going to be sitting around just thinking about it, for the first few weeks, you know what I mean? You're going to be encouraged to get out in the world as soon as responsibly possible to start to work on these things effectively, right?

And so, for the person who's sitting there like, “Oh, well, you know, I want to start now,” joining into the Academy is starting now.

Stephanie: Joe, thank you. Thank you so much. We're running out – we actually have run out of time here to talk to you. So, give us the website again.

Joe: StrategicNonviolenceAcademy.org.

Stephanie: Okay. Thank you so much for joining us today on Nonviolence Radio. And we wish you the best of luck with this project.

Michael: May the nonviolent force be with you.

Stephanie: Yeah. Thanks so much, Joe.

Joe: Thanks, Stephanie.

Nonviolence Report

Michael: And friends, this is your bonus news segment for today. 

So, first I'd like to mention that while a very large number of new organizations are coming online, I'm seeing like 1 or 2 a day. And I mean, interesting organizations, doing very good work. There's one I wanted to mention in particular. It's an NGO, and it's called Espacio Ubuntu. Espacio, of course, the Spanish word for space. And ubuntu, the Zulu word for human reciprocity, it’s often used as an almost a synonym for nonviolence. 

And the reason that I cite them is that it's dedicated to personal transformation, community initiatives, and gift economy. Now, that last part, gift economy, would make you think immediately of our friend Nipun Mehta, and his very large project, to create an economic alternative of a gift economy, where, for example, they have a network of restaurants called Karma Kitchen, which you go in, you have your meal, and then the bill says, pay what you would like to.

And sometimes people overpay to cover for others. Sometimes they underpay. And it does tend to break up the nature of the transaction. When we go in to have a meal, which should be a lot more than just a business transaction. 

And I was happy to read also, mentioning Nipun and his project, that they've now set up their first Karma Kitchen in Calabria, and they're doing a lot in addition. Calabria, I had to look it up, is the toe of the boot of Italy. So, it's right across the Straits of Messina from Sicily. 

So, it's going around the world, and it is one form of alternative economy. I am now preparing a new article on two others. One is the Mondragon cooperatives in northern Spain. And the other is the largest social movement in South America, and probably in the world today, which is the Landless Workers Movement [Portuguese]. Which is all the Portuguese that I know. Landless Workers Movement is an amazing, institution involving over a million families. And we must sit and talk about that at some point. 

But anyway, these are all efforts at breaking up the cash economy that dominates our thinking, our value system, so forth. 

Moving on now, almost every program with you, I talk about Waging Nonviolence because they have such good radar. And they do such good reporting on the wonderful episodes and organizations of nonviolence that are happening around the world, and almost not reported on, except for them on the web, and us here on Nonviolence Radio. 

And the recent Waging Nonviolence had a very big list of articles on the general theme, which is on the mind of so many of us right now, ‘What to do now?’ Specifically, as they put it, “How to Tear up the Tyrant’s Playbook.” I never thought we would have to do that in the United States of America. But, we do. 

Another item is from a very good friend of ours that I spoke with on the phone recently, Mel Duncan, who is a co-founder of Nonviolent Peaceforce. And as I've mentioned on this program, he was in occupied Palestine, in the West Bank.

And he reported to me recently that over 100 experienced UCP volunteers have stepped forward and are being interviewed for the first pilot team, which was wrapped up last weekend. 

Now, UCP stands for Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping – or rather, Unarmed Civilian Protection, they now call it. And it is an organization and conceptual model that I just think the world of. I think it has tremendous potential to create an alternative to war. And in fact, Nonviolent Peaceforce, which is the organization Mel co-founded, has as its motto, ‘What you can support when you don't want to support war’. 

So, they have never shied from going into dangerous territories. And they are now, as I say, collecting volunteers in the West Bank who will do interventions. The West Bank being conflictual and dangerous enough. But the ultimate idea that they have in mind, if and when they get ready, is to go on down to Gaza. 

Now, I said, if and when they get ready. I think this is an important element of Nonviolent Peaceforce, and Peace Brigades International, and some of the 18 or so other organizations that are doing this critical work in our world today. They don't just run off unprepared.

There were some examples of groups doing that, for example, the Balkan Peace Teams back in the 80s and 90s. But they are now – I want to stress this word – experienced. And I also want to talk about the word volunteers in a second. But these are experienced people who have carried out this kind of intervention in highly conflicted areas. Including places where there is active fire going on.

And it's not an easy thing to do. It's not a safe thing to do. People have lost their lives, but it is a very, very rewarding thing to do. And a very effective thing to do, in creating an alternative institution that can intervene in, and defuse, conflict without simply recreating the conflict spiral through more violence.

Now, I said I wanted to say a word about volunteers. Originally, this whole effort was based on volunteers, but Nonviolent Peaceforce, in particular, found that that meant that their teams were drawn entirely from the global North because people who live in communities that are marginal economically can't afford to do this. So, they went out and raised more money, and now they actually do give a living wage, indexed to the area that they are deployed in, to people who undertake this work. So, these are volunteering to be interviewed to do it. They will not be volunteers if they're selected.

For our last item today with you, I want to recycle – or cycle back to the US, and give you a quote from a Tesla demonstration – anti-Tesla demonstration that took place recently in Seattle. And this – I'm going to read you their quote, then I’ll comment on it. Though knowing me, the comment will be obvious. 

So, here's the quote. “The idea for the Unelected Slide,” that's the name of their project. “The idea for the Unelected Slide came up in the Seattle protest group as they wrestled with calls to, quote, ‘escalate’, unquote, their tactics. The Seattle organizers chose to escalate with creativity instead of violence.” And the final comment is, “This was a smart approach.” And I couldn't agree more.

First, I want to point out that we talk a great deal about protest on this program because it's happening a lot. And just today we were talking about the 5+ million people who, you know, demonstrated in 1300 places around the country, and a few others around the world, in the Hands Off! movement. 

And what we said then, and we always say, is that protest has a limited function. It can be good for people getting inspiration, networking, getting into the habit of getting out of their comfort zone – which for people who haven't done anything of this nature before, is very important, and create thereby a by a pool of potential resisters. But the protest almost never gets the job done by itself. It is a first step. And you see a beautiful example of that here.

They have this protest. And then a lot of people were saying, okay, we have to do more. We have to escalate our tactics. And that's a dangerous moment for any nonviolent operation. When the nonviolence seems not to be working and when they don't have a good grasp on the principle of “work” versus work – which we've discussed here on various occasions, they face a choice. Shall we continue being nonviolent or not? 

And for example, in South Africa, when Nelson Mandela came out of prison, things were not going well. They needed to escalate their tactics. There was a lot of pressure for them to use violence. But here, I'm going to read this again, the Seattle organizers chose to escalate with creativity instead of violence.

And actually, there's a close connection between nonviolence and creativity, just as there's a very close connection between violence and boring, boring, same old, same old. 

So those are the additional topics I wanted to place before you this week. Things are happening very rapidly. And if I were to step back and have a general overview, I think I could say that it's not just quantitative in its growth.

I'm very happy to share with you that it seems to be a qualitative improvement also. And what I just quoted with you,” escalating with creativity,” and often with humor, is an example of being more sophisticated about how to choose nonviolent tactics. So, that's why I say, both quantitatively and qualitatively, resistance is growing at a remarkable rate. It goes without saying that the oppression has really fallen on us.

And I'm going to use a word here, which I find I'm not the only one using: it has been a kind of ‘blitzkrieg’, a term invented by the Nazis for their falling upon another country or another group sometimes, with so much violence at such a high level, hitting them with everything they've got, and not giving them a chance to fight back, to realize what was happening.

So, this has partly been the strategy of the administration. And I'm happy to say it isn't working. The resistance is gathering momentum and gathering intelligence. And these are very tense developments, which we will be following as closely as we can and sharing with you as often as we can. 

So, thank you very much for listening. And until next time, keep your eyes on the prize of nonviolent resistance.

Stephanie: Well, that’s it for another episode of Nonviolence Radio. I’m your host, Stephanie Van Hook. I’m here with Michael Nagler. We’re from the Metta Center for Nonviolence. Learn more about nonviolence at MettaCenter.org. Archives of the show, NonviolenceRadio.org. Special thanks to our mother station, KWMR, also to KPCA, the Pacifica Network and Waging Nonviolence. Thank you for syndicating our show. And to everybody who helps makes this show possible, we couldn’t do it without you, especially you our listeners. Until the next time, please take care of one another.