What is Nonviolence?

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What is nonviolent action?

Nonviolent action (also sometimes referred to as popular resistance, political defiance, and nonviolent struggle) is a technique of action for applying power in a conflict by using symbolic protests, noncooperation, and defiance, but not physical violence. Nonviolent action may involve:

1. Acts of omission—that is, people may refuse to perform acts that they usually perform, are expected by custom to perform, or are required by law or regulation to perform

2. Acts of commission—that is, people may perform acts that they do not usually perform, are not expected by custom to perform, or are forbidden to perform

3. A combination of the two.

As a technique, therefore, nonviolent action is not passive. It is not inaction. It is action that is nonviolent. There is a difference between nonviolent action and nonviolence.
Nonviolence is often used to mean many different phenomena, but generally refers to the absence of violence and to religious, moral, or ethical beliefs that reject violence.

Nonviolent action works by getting a population to withdraw its support and obedience from a regime. By getting key groups to withdraw their consent, nonviolent action is able to remove the sources of power for a regime or rival group.

Applications
Nonviolent action can and has been used to:
• Dismantle dictatorships
• Block coups d’état
• Defend against foreign invasions
• Expel foreign occupation
• Provide an alternative to violence in extreme conflicts
• Challenge unjust social and economic systems
• Develop, preserve and extend democratic practices, human rights, civil liberties and freedom of religion
• Resist genocide

Methods
There are a multitude of specific methods of nonviolent action or “nonviolent weapons.” Nearly two hundred have been identified to date, and without doubt, scores more already exist or will emerge in future conflicts.
Three broad classes of nonviolent methods exist:
1. Nonviolent protest and persuasion,
2. Noncooperation, and
3. Nonviolent intervention>