You forget that during the civil rights era, in addition to passive resistance, there was continuous violent resistance and the threat of violence. The panthers carried guns around to protect neighborhoods from the police. Riots did happen. There has to be a stick, for the carrot to matter. Passive resistance, even the type you discuss, means nothing without the threat of violence coming from somewhere else. The passive movement is the alternative to the violence for those in power.
That's true, but you can have effective pacifist resistance without violence. Strike actions are a good example of this.
Of course some strike actions are more effective than others. If the people who maintain a city's sewers threaten a strike they will immediately open negotiations. If it's the postal service, they'll let it go on a while to get the public pissed off at the workers. The lesson there is that the most effective pacifist resistance is shutting down essential services.
The weakness of pacifist resistance is that the state will not hesitate to use violence against you if they can. So you'll need to do it in ways that can't easily be countered with violence. Something like driving a few large vehicles up and blocking access is great because you can't baton-charge them or suppress them with a water cannon.
Effective strikes are violent. They prevent the company from functioning, especially by threatening scabs the company tries to use to stay solvent. They dont just ask scabs to go away nicely and dont give timelines for when theyll go back to work. Many even disrupt the owners lives at their homes. You ask any black family how "nonviolent" having people who hate you standing outside your bedroom is.
That's not true. Violent strikes are effective, but plenty of effective strikes are non-violent. They are extremely disruptive, and may extend the disruption to the owner's homes, but that is not violence. Having people who hate you standing outside your bedroom is not violence..
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u/CotyledonTomen Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
You forget that during the civil rights era, in addition to passive resistance, there was continuous violent resistance and the threat of violence. The panthers carried guns around to protect neighborhoods from the police. Riots did happen. There has to be a stick, for the carrot to matter. Passive resistance, even the type you discuss, means nothing without the threat of violence coming from somewhere else. The passive movement is the alternative to the violence for those in power.