Beware the temptation to embrace violence as a short cut.
Exposing the terrible reality that Venezuela is in the midst of a famine, and the illegitimate and criminal Maduro regime refuses to recognize it. Worse yet, the regime sends valuable tons of humanitarian equipment to Cuba while Venezuelans are dying of hunger and lack of basic medicines. If that was not the last straw, this same regime denies the entry of needed humanitarian assistance, and gives order to shoot those trying to bring it in to the country.
The logical result of this immoral policy is that it is creating dissension in the ranks. Defecting members of the military is a good sign. Nonviolent resistance strategy is the way to go to bring change to Venezuela and end the manufactured famine of the Maduro regime.
Revisiting the writings of Gene Sharp, the scholar of non-violent civic resistance, will lead one to a pluralistic concept of power and how regime's depend on different pillars to maintain power. One of the most important pillars is the military, another is the police, the business community, etc.
The fact that there are scores of military personnel refusing to shoot their fellow citizens and abandoning their ranks is an excellent sign.
Now is not the time to embrace violence (or violent flanks) but to double down on nonviolence and an effective strategy to bring yourself out of the crisis by speeding up the collapse of the remaining pillars of the Maduro regime. This also means expanding and maximizing your number of allies.
The example of Syria, where a nonviolent movement made incredible gains only to have a violent flank emerge out of defecting army units, ostensibly to defend nonviolent activists from the violent Assad regime, should serve as a warning. The belief, in some quarters, was that this was inevitable and would speed up the victory over the Syrian dictatorship. The result was just the opposite. Assad's regime was able to consolidate itself and the body count of the conflict exploded and radically violent elements overtook the violent resistance.
"Violent flanks" and the use of the so-called "diversity of tactics" reduces mobilization and decreases the probability of success for a resistance movement. Strategic thinker Gene Sharp put it succinctly when he said: "using violence is a stupid decision."
This does not mean entering into a pointless negotiation with the regime that buys it time to renew itself. Gene Sharp on the BBC program HardTalk in 2015 said it plainly: "Dictator's will not negotiate themselves out of power." The only thing to negotiate is their exit once their pillars of power have imploded.
However it does mean identifying other effective elements of the opposition and strengthening your relationship with them operationally while trying to peel off neutral elements of the population to join your cause.
This does not signify stopping or slowing down your mobilization and activism but finding commonalities to speed up and perfect campaigns and tactics to take power away from the Maduro regime while growing your spectrum of allies.
The friends of the Maduro dictatorship are doing everything they can to discredit Gene Sharp and his writings because they know how effective they are and how they empower the citizenry. Below is the complete 2015 Hard Talk program with Gene Sharp. Please share it widely.
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| The power of nonviolence |
The logical result of this immoral policy is that it is creating dissension in the ranks. Defecting members of the military is a good sign. Nonviolent resistance strategy is the way to go to bring change to Venezuela and end the manufactured famine of the Maduro regime.
Revisiting the writings of Gene Sharp, the scholar of non-violent civic resistance, will lead one to a pluralistic concept of power and how regime's depend on different pillars to maintain power. One of the most important pillars is the military, another is the police, the business community, etc.
 |
| Source: Thoughtful Campaigner |
The fact that there are scores of military personnel refusing to shoot their fellow citizens and abandoning their ranks is an excellent sign.
Now is not the time to embrace violence (or violent flanks) but to double down on nonviolence and an effective strategy to bring yourself out of the crisis by speeding up the collapse of the remaining pillars of the Maduro regime. This also means expanding and maximizing your number of allies.
 |
| Source: Thoughtful Campainger |
The example of Syria, where a nonviolent movement made incredible gains only to have a violent flank emerge out of defecting army units, ostensibly to defend nonviolent activists from the violent Assad regime, should serve as a warning. The belief, in some quarters, was that this was inevitable and would speed up the victory over the Syrian dictatorship. The result was just the opposite. Assad's regime was able to consolidate itself and the body count of the conflict exploded and radically violent elements overtook the violent resistance.
"Violent flanks" and the use of the so-called "diversity of tactics" reduces mobilization and decreases the probability of success for a resistance movement. Strategic thinker Gene Sharp put it succinctly when he said: "using violence is a stupid decision."
This does not mean entering into a pointless negotiation with the regime that buys it time to renew itself. Gene Sharp on the BBC program HardTalk in 2015 said it plainly: "Dictator's will not negotiate themselves out of power." The only thing to negotiate is their exit once their pillars of power have imploded.
However it does mean identifying other effective elements of the opposition and strengthening your relationship with them operationally while trying to peel off neutral elements of the population to join your cause.
This does not signify stopping or slowing down your mobilization and activism but finding commonalities to speed up and perfect campaigns and tactics to take power away from the Maduro regime while growing your spectrum of allies.
The friends of the Maduro dictatorship are doing everything they can to discredit Gene Sharp and his writings because they know how effective they are and how they empower the citizenry. Below is the complete 2015 Hard Talk program with Gene Sharp. Please share it widely.
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We need to invade Venezuela y punto.
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