“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Are the citizens of the United States of America patient enough, inspired enough, cooperative enough, to depose the thugs that rule us? Can we sacrifice our incomes, our possessions, our lives for Safety and Happiness? Can we keep our republic?
What lessons does history hold for us regarding non-violent “revolution?”
Well, there are two good examples in the Polish Solidarity movement, and Ghandi’s Satyagraha Independence Movement.
A few common elements seem to emerge:
1. It takes a long time and progress is not steady.
2. Withholding labor – strikes – is practically the only leverage that people have.
3. Oppressive incumbents will crack down, and non-violent resistors will be jailed, hurt, and killed.
4. Resistors need to be prepared, through training and inspiration, for maximum hardship.
5. Effective resistance requires a coalition, which will likely splinter once it gains power.
6. If resistance is successful, the thugs do not go away. Eternal vigilance is required.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity
Solidarity ; full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union – is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Gdansk Shipyards, and originally led by Lech Walesa. In the 1980s, it constituted a broad anti-communist social movement ranging from people associated with the Catholic Church to members of the anti-communist Left.
Solidarity advocated nonviolence in its members’ activities. The survival of Solidarity was an unprecedented event not only in Poland, a satellite state of the USSR ruled (in practice) by a one-party Communist regime, but the whole of the Eastern bloc. It meant a break in the hard-line stance of the communist Polish United Workers’ Party, which had bloodily ended a 1970 protest with machine gun fire (killing dozens and injuring over 1,000), and the broader Soviet communist regime in the Eastern Bloc, which had quelled both the 1956 Hungarian Uprising and the 1968 Prague Spring with Soviet-led invasions. Solidarity’s influence led to the intensification and spread of anti-communist ideals and movements throughout the countries of the Eastern Bloc, weakening their communist governments.
In Poland, the Roundtable Talks between the weakened government and Solidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December Walesa was elected president. This was soon followed by the dismantling of the People’s Republic of Poland, and the creation of the non-communist, democratic Third Polish Republic. These limited elections where anti-communist candidates won a striking victory sparked off a succession of peaceful anti-communist counterrevolutions in Central and Eastern Europe.
Solidarity’s example was in various ways repeated by opposition groups throughout the Eastern Bloc, eventually leading to the Eastern Bloc’s effectual dismantling, and contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the early 1990s.
Since 1989 Solidarity has become a more traditional trade union, and had relatively little impact on the political scene of Poland in the early 1990s. A political arm was founded in 1996 as Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) would win the Polish parliamentary election, 1997, but lose the following Polish parliamentary election, 2001. Currently Solidarity has little political influence in modern Polish politics.
* 1 Roots (before 1980)
* 2 The strikes of the early 1980s (1980-1981)
* 3 Martial law (1981-1983)
* 4 Underground Solidarity (1982-1988)
* 5 The fall of the U.S.S.R. (1988-1989)
* 6 After the victory (1989-present)
* 7 Solidarity’s influence abroad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India, and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer and perfector of Satyagraha — the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience strongly founded upon ahimsa (total non-violence), which led India to independence, and has inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known and addressed in India and across the world as Mahatma Gandhi (from Sanskrit, Mahatma: Great Soul) and as Bapu (in many Indian languages, Father).
An English-educated lawyer, Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community’s struggle for civil rights in South Africa. Upon his return to India, Gandhi organized poor farmers and labourers in India to protest oppressive taxation and extensive discrimination, and carried it forward on the national stage to protest oppressive laws made by the British Raj. Becoming the leader of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led a nationwide campaign for the alleviation of the poor, for the liberation of Indian women, for brotherhood amongst communities of differing religions and ethnicity, for an end to untouchability and caste discrimination, and for the economic self-sufficiency of the nation, but above all for Swaraj — the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the disobedience of the salt tax through the 400 kilometer (248 miles) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and in an open call for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years on numerous occasions in South Africa and India.
Throughout his life, Gandhi remained committed to non-violence and truth even in the most extreme situations. Gandhi was a student of Hindu philosophy and lived simply, organizing an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. He made his own clothes — the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with a charkha — and lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts — abstaining from food and water for long periods — for self-purification as well as a means of protest.
Gandhi was recognized as the Father of the Nation by Subhas Bose and later by the whole nation (India). October 2, his birthday, is each year commemorated as Gandhi Jayanti, and is a national holiday. Gandhi’s life and teachings inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Biko and Aung San Suu Kyi and respectively the American civil rights movement and the freedom struggles in South Africa
* 1 Early life
* 2 Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893-1914)
* 3 Fighting for Indian Independence (1916-1945)
o 3.1 Champaran and Kheda
o 3.2 Non-Cooperation
o 3.3 Swaraj and the Salt Satyagraha
o 3.4 World War II and Quit India
* 4 Freedom and partition of India
* 5 Assassination
* 6 Gandhi’s principles
o 6.1 Truth
o 6.2 Nonviolence
o 6.3 Vegetarianism
o 6.4 Brahmacharya
o 6.5 Simplicity
o 6.6 Faith
* 7 Criticism
* 8 Legacy
o 8.1 Mahatma
o 8.2 Artistic depictions
o 8.3 Across the world
o 8.4 Popular Culture
