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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAlthough nonviolent direct action, or NDA, is frequently dismissed in activist circles as ineffective and purely symbolic, there are literally thousands of examples, and quite literally millions of ordinary people, embracing the strategy of \u201cpeople power\u201d on a local and national level. My book “Good Trouble: A Shoeleather History of Nonviolent Direct Action” documents, for the first time, dozens of these examples utilized by a wide range of people, especially communities of color who are fighting for economic, social, environmental and racial justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Organized nonviolent resistance is a method of struggle outside of\ninstitutional methods (laws, courts, petitions, voting), without the use of\ninjurious force or threat to others. It\nis open and direct conflict that exposes oppression. It is protest, resistance, or intervention to\nstop injustice and win control over our lives. \nSuch resistance, wrote sociologists Frances Fox Piven and Richard\nCloward, gains real leverage by causing \u201ccommotion among bureaucrats,\nexcitement in the media, dismay among influential segments of the community,\nand strain for political leaders.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Focused mostly in urban settings, “Good Trouble” <\/em>documents the work of public housing tenants to protect their kids from a hazardous river, welfare moms who set up a tent city to stop benefit cuts by the Governor, and a neighborhood that forces a restaurant owner to clean up his rat-infested property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other events demonstrate how the use of NDA has exposed injustices and\nforced the powerful to make significant changes: young Black and white\nactivists who challenge racist hiring practices by blocking United Parcel\nService (UPS) trucks; anti-war veterans who occupy a cathedral during mass to\nexpose church investment in weapons production; and an inmate sit-down strike\ntriggered by inhumane jail conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And there\u2019s more: urban high school students publish an independent\nnewspaper despite escalating discipline; university students lock college\ntrustees in a conference room until they approve Black student scholarships;\ndisplaced families occupy hotels and state offices; homeless men take over city\nhall to expose the lack of an inclusive housing policy; the lesbian community\nrefuses to cooperate with a federal grand jury witch hunt against underground\nactivists; gay rights advocates face down a bar owner who discriminates against\n\u201cnonconformimg\u201d patrons. These are just a few of the creative, militant and\neffective uses of strategic nonviolence collected in the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what\u2019s stopping us?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If active nonviolence is so powerful, why isn\u2019t it utilized more often?\nWhy can\u2019t we mount massive protests that stop \u201cbusiness as usual?\u201d Why do the\nPuerto Rican, Hong Kong, and Sudan democracy campaigns, and the European\nstudent climate strikes attract millions of people, not just for one rally but\nas a sustained presence that disrupts governments and forces real change? <\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, we can and we have: in the U.S. workers have done so many times. With labor strikes \u2014 most recently by teachers, supermarket workers, and tech companies \u2014 organized workers have mounted successful actions that are nonviolent at their core. The conscious, collective withdrawal of cooperation is one of NDA\u2019s main tenets, and for two centuries U.S. workers have used it to win better lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Maine shoe factory story is just one example of many, where union (and nonunion) workers take charge of their work lives, to make the boss do the right thing or stop him from doing wrong. In my healthcare union, we have a practice of \u201dwalking in\u201d on the employer to press for immediate action. It\u2019s an effective, time-honored tradition. Workers learn what it\u2019s like to engage in an action together; it sets the stage for going on strike when necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline and the Standing Rock occupation, Black Lives Matter, and the Fight for Fifteen and a Union have shaken the ground beneath a complacent power structure and pointed to the efficacy of this powerful tool. As BLM co-founder Alice Garza has stated: \u201cEvery successful social movement in the country\u2019s history has used disruption as a strategy to fight for social change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/cnv\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Children-want-housing-920x1024.jpg\")
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