Civil disobedience/NVDA

War Resisters' International worked together with South Korean partner organisations for an international seminar on peace in North-East Asia, held at the Bongdo Centre outside Seoul in June 2005. The seminar brought together peace activists and peace researchers from North-East Asia and all over the world, to discuss the present threats to peace in North-East Asia, and possible peace movement responses, based on War Resisters' International's more than 80 years of experience with nonviolence.

Nonviolent direct actions and acts of civil disobedience international

This is a summary of some more radical actions against the war on Iraq. It includes nonviolent direct actions and actions of civil disobedience. The document consists mainly of reports from a wide range of sources -- most of the internet based. [webmaster's note: some of the original reports refer to photos which have been deleted from this version for reasons of filesize.

Nonviolent action is the most promising method of moving beyond capitalism to a more humane social and economic system. How can this be achieved? Nonviolence versus Capitalism offers a systematic approach, starting with an analysis of capitalism from the viewpoint of nonviolence, outlining nonviolent economic alternatives and describing what is involved in a nonviolence strategy. A check list for activists is proposed and used to assess diverse campaigns, including workers' struggles, sabotage, environmental campaigns, social defence, global campaigns and economic alternatives.

Let's begin with two bold propositions. First, methods of social action without violence can be extremely powerful -- indeed so powerful as to be a possible alternative to military defence. Second, technology, which is now massively oriented to military purposes, can be reoriented to support nonviolent action.

These two propositions, if followed through, lead to two striking conclusions. First, nonviolent struggle, which is normally seen as primarily a social and psychological process, has vital technological dimensions. Second, reorienting technology to serve nonviolent struggle would involve a wholesale transformation of research directions, technological infrastructure and social decision making.

Civil Disobedience and Environmental Action

facilitated by Stephen Hancock and Melanie Jarman

The aims of the group were: to uncover the environmental concerns of anti-militarists; to explore the links between militarism and environmental destruction; to compare methods being used; and to learn from each other as anti-militarists and environmentalists.

Day 1 explored the connections between environmental destruction and militarism and identified relevant questions to bear in mind during our discussions.

Alba Kör's NO to NATO in Hungary

With a national referendum on joining NATO due to take place mid-November in Hungary, the

from Peace News No 2412, April 1997

Silke Kreusel

Twenty years after Seabrook, the German nonviolent movement against nuclear power is still making effective use of the nonviolent blockade as a form of mass civil disobedience against the violence of the state. As many as 9000 people spent a whole night sitting in the road, resisting the frost as well as the water canons, in order to block the route of the Castor nuclear waste shipment as it was loaded onto truck in Dannenberg.

Anti-Castor activities in Germany have involved a broad range of people with differing and often ill-defined political views. Many of these people haven't been involved in political groups before. Therefore it has been important to establish structures which make it easier for such people to be involved without putting at risk the movement's principles of grassroots democracy and nonviolence.

It was the strong emphasis on a clearly-defined nonviolent blockade that encouraged so many people to participate in the "X-tausendmal quer" blockade. Therefore it is worth looking at the organisational structures which allowed principles of nonviolent action to be preserved even on such a large scale as this.

A system of affinity groups

The system of affinity groups comprising nine to 12 people served as the basic organisational structure for this action, but unlike the affinity groups at Seabrook, which had gone through a long process of intense preparation, most of the "X-tausendmal quer" groups were created more spontaneously just before the action.

Founding meetings for new affinity groups were held in order to integrate new participants into the existing structure. About 650 people attended these meetings during the four-day preparation period. They were introduced to the structure of affinity groups, the groups' tasks, decision making processes and the principle of consensus.

A nonviolent action training was also run just before the action, with about 1000 people participating.

The speakers' council

Each affinity group sent a speaker to the speakers' council, the decision making organ for the whole action. This system had been established in a preparation period some months before the action, but then became increasingly successful during the action itself. During the so-called "X-minus" days (the weekend before the Castor transport), the number of affinity groups increased, and the speakers' council grew to 200 persons.

For practical reasons, the speakers' council then had to be divided into ten sections with one or two people from each section forming a "council within a council". It was the first time many people had taken on such a task as this. The whole action clearly benefited from the less ideological, more pragmatic and problem-centric discussions which took place in the speakers' council.

Delicate task of peace-keepers

The main aim of the whole structure was to stick to nonviolent principles and not to react violently to any form of police provocation. Considering the large number of people participating - including those not part of any affinity group and without any preparation - the whole action was a big challenge. Therefore during the blockade "peace-keepers" were appointed.

The peace-keepers' task was to integrate newly-arrived participants into the blockade and explain to them the procedure and principles of the action and the absolute necessity to observe these procedures and principles. They also had to intervene in escalating situations and to arbitrate where necessary. Actually, the peace-keepers' task was a very delicate one because at the front of the blockade there were frequent announcements suggesting that provocations were expected.

It was a core aim of "X-tausendmal quer" to involve as many people as possible in the blockade. This meant there was a tendency for a lot of people to decide spontaneously to take part in the action. These people were openly welcomed and integrated into existing structures in a way seldom achieved in the past.

"X-tausendmal quer" was thus an attempt to transfer some useful nonviolent concepts of the 1970s into the 1990s, when people tend not to organise themselves into permanent groups. In dealing with the problems which arise because of this, "X-tausendmal quer" was a first but major step.

Index of individual chapters

Published in 1991 by War Resisters' International and the Myrtle Solomon Memorial Fund Subcommittee (of the Lansbury House Trust Fund; Charity Reg No 306139) c/o War Resisters' International, 55 Dawes Street, London SE17 1EL, Britain.

A grant towards the production of this book was received from the Puckham Trust

ISBN 0 903517 14 0

Edited by Shelley Anderson and Janet Larmore

Production by Howard Clark and Ken Simons

All copyrights are

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This statement was prepared by a group of women involved in the War Resister’s International and was signed by women attending the International conference on Women and Militarism, July 26 to August 1, 1980, Laurieston Hall, Laurieston, Castle Douglas, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

We, women committed to anti-militarism and feminism, believe that total resistance to military service is the necessary role for all women challenged by the military structure in society.

Life can be better than this. The most fortunate of us have been crippled and scarred; we are less than we could be. All of us have lived in societies where individuals, groups, classes exert arbitrary power over others. This is the essence of oppression. Women and men who should be able to think and decide and act for themselves are forced to be the obedient instruments of the will of others.

Nor is it the conditions of the present time alone that cripple us. 'The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living' wrote Marx. The history and culture of every society shapes the consciousness of those born and brought up within it, and no culture is without repressions, taboos, and myths which limit the growth of individuals and of society as a whole. Without a profound cultural revolution there is no revolution at all.