Choose Democracy: the case for a Nonviolent Version of the Story
[Look for “All You Fascists Bound to Lose” at the end of this post]
Every day we’re waking up to something scary. Our scale for rating scary keeps adding more numbers to the top of the graph as we come to terms with the realization that this is what social breakdown looks like. Scary. And the desperate need to do something about it is on everyone’s mind.
As Omni folks I expect you’re searching for a nonviolent solution that works for everyone. As time goes on those solutions seem harder and harder to find through the forest of guns and rhetoric that seems to be boiling up around us.
What we’ve always said is that when the times get really tough we need each other. So now that the times are really tough, how can we best congregate into a united, supportive whole when we’re dealing with covid? We’re feeling isolated as it is, right?
It is a difficult dilemma. But one that we don’t have the luxury of pretending away. We have to do what we can to resolve it for our own community, and do our part to defend the democracy that gives us the gift of freedom and the agency to defend it. We hope anyway.
Choose Democracy
There are folks in Omni’s network right now who are pulling together to begin a work initiated by Waging Nonviolence and Training for Change. They’re two groups who’ve worked for years to give activists training for nonviolent response to difficult situations that can bring good social change. They started a project called the Choose Democracy Project that sets out a strategy and tactics for dealing with the potential of a stolen election. And it provides tools to enhance connectedness to deal with the certainty of uncertainty afterwards.
The strategy – like all good strategies – is simple. “Count All The Votes”. It’s something no American can question. It’s basic to our democracy. We peace people support that by developing strategies that build power, discipline and unity based on our progressive values, that can potentially stop an election-related power grab. It starts by working together to encourage our election officials to see that all votes in our state are counted, and nobody stops the vote early.
It’s important to talk about the central place of nonviolent discipline in this plan. At a time like this when fear is growing, people begin wondering if nonviolence is a viable option. The number of guns pouring into every community in the country show just how fearful we’ve become. But this campaign lays out the case for a commitment even now. They lay out 8 Principles (the whole list is here). Number 4 is Nonviolent Means of Change:
4. We commit to nonviolent means of change.
We believe nonviolent means are the most powerful choice for election protection efforts for four reasons:
- Effective: Nonviolent means allow us to win the hearts of the public and have proven effective before at critical points in US history.
- Broad Participation: Research shows that the primary factor in winning a struggle against tyranny is broad participation. Nonviolent means enable people from all walks of life to participate in a wide range of actions that exert powerful social, political, and economic pressure.
- Discourage the opposition: Violence of any kind, as well as property destruction, in the name of defending democracy will mobilize people who oppose us and increase the willingness of government agents to obey repressive orders. This makes them less likely to question the Constitutionality of the orders they receive.
- Enhance our own effectiveness: Trump is likely going to try to use the excuse of “imposing law and order” to crack down and stay in power. Doing this against large numbers of nonviolent people with legitimate grievances and goals is likely to backfire against him, as well as lead to defections in his government and among his other allies.
Because Arkansas is not a swing state it may seem that we don’t have much to offer this struggle for democracy. But we do have significant roles and resources that can help. Besides, we don’t want to feel trapped on sidelines with nothing to contribute to this fraught time in our history. We want to feel there’s something we can do… and we can.
If you want to know more, drop Omni a note at omni@omnicenter.org, and become a part of this. If there is an “end times” this could be it. It’s the time and the opportunity to carry forward a progressive vision that isn’t “left” or “right” or hiding behind any of those big scary walls that divide us but is HUMAN TOGETHER ON PLANET EARTH.
Here’s a gift from the Resistance Revival Chorus: “All You Fascists Boud To Loose” by Woody Guthrie, sung by Rhiannon Giddons