Metta’s Opinion

A Family Effort in the Empire Zinc Corporation Miner’s Strike.

Posted on October 23, 2014

By: Mercedes Mack

On October 17, 1950, in Hanover, New Mexico, workers at the Empire Zinc mine finished their shifts, formed a picket line, and began a fifteen-month strike after attempts at union negotiation with the company reached an impasse. Miner demands included: equal pay to their White counterparts, paid holidays and equal housing. As a larger objective, the Local 890 Chapter of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers was to end the racial discrimination they suffered as a product of the institutions created by the Empire Zinc company in their town. For example, Mexican-American workers were subject to separate pay lines, unequal access to sanitation, electricity and paved streets as a result of discrimination by company sponsored housing, segregated movie theaters, etc. But for now, Union members of the 890 chapter voted to go on strike until Empire Zinc addressed their immediate workplace demands.

By June 1951, the strike had stopped production for eight months. Empire Zinc obtained an injunction against any further picketing. Wary of the mass jailing and fines that would result from violating the court order, yet not wanting to give up their strike, mine workers needed to change their tactic. Female activists in Mine-Mill Ladies Auxiliary 209, came up with the idea that they would continue the strike in place of what was an all-male striking labor force. Since they were not legally striking workers the members of the Ladies Auxiliary, the wives of strikers, as well as women and children in the community, would take over the picket line. For the next seven months, the women held the line in the face of violence from strikebreakers, mass arrests by the sheriff, and opposition from many of their own husbands, who were suddenly faced with the responsibilities of caring for children, washing clothes, and doing the dishes.

The women’s picket was carefully organized, militant, and successful. Not only did wives of Empire strikers, such as Henrietta Williams and Virginia Chacón, walk the line; many women from other towns in Grant County also participated. When County Sheriff Leslie Goforth ordered 53 women arrested on June 16, another 300 women took their places! The women and their children were jailed, their protests behind bars drew national attention, and they were soon released. While Judge Marshall did issue a subsequent ruling that the women were also covered by the injunction, months went by before the sheriff tried again to enforce the order. While the union was politically isolated from the CIO leadership and many AFL unions, the strike had broad support among Mexican Americans in New Mexico. This helped stay the hand of Governor Mechem who refrained, for several months, from using state police to reopen the mine.(Silver City Sun News)

The effect of including women was vital to the success of the movement as a whole. It brought media attention to the struggle because it was unusual for women to be involved in a mining protest. The presence of women evoked empathy from law enforcement, and also garnered support from Mexican American women in nearby towns.

This tactic is clever for several reasons:

It broadened participation- with the inclusion of women and children, now essentially the whole mining community became involved in the movement. This increases the participatory size of the movement (ie the amount of people visibly striking) and involves a group of people who were equally affected by injustice at the larger objective level to contribute to a cause that also would benefit them.

It circumvented a repressive law- while one option would have been for the mine workers to continue picketing and consciously break the law and receive the consequences, devising a tactic that circumvented this law was a move that felt right to movement leaders. It is important to remember that all participants involved in a movement must be willing to break a law collectively for it to be impactful and if that is not the case, another strategy must be employed to the collective satisfaction of participants. This showed solidarity within the movement, as well as flexibility. It also had the unintended effect of temporarily switching the traditional gender roles for participants. While women continued the strike, men assumed household duties and were not the center of the movement anymore.

In January 1952, the strikers returned to work with a new contract improving wages and benefits. Several weeks later, Empire Zinc also installed hot water plumbing in Mexican American workers’ houses–a major issue pushed by the women of these households.

For more information:

Check out the film, Salt of the Earth, a “based on a true story” film about the strike.

A Crime to Fit the Punishment-an article that addresses the strike and the film.

Their View: Film on Empire Zinc strike 60 years ago made history

Turning Fear into Power

This article was originally posted on Wagingnonviolence.org on October 14, 2014.

Linda Sartor standing on a Soviet tank outside of Kabul, Afghanistan. (WNV / Peggy Gish)

Linda Sartor is not afraid to die. Dedicated to nonviolence, she spent 10 years after September 11, 2001 traveling to conflict zones throughout the world as an unarmed peacekeeper, with roles ranging from protective accompaniment to direct interpositioning between parties when tensions were running high. She documents her work across the world — in Israel/Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran and most recently Bahrain — in her new book, Turning Fear into Power: One Woman’s Journey Confronting the War on Terror. Inwardly quiet and exceedingly humble (she chose to sleep outside for eight years of her adult life), her courage and conviction are not only refreshing, they’re infectious. I recently had the privilege of spending a day with her to discuss her travels and the ways in which they have changed her as an individual, as well as her relationship to nonviolent action.

Is there a nonviolent response to terrorism?

I think George W. Bush misused the word “terrorism” so much that it really has no meaning. When protesters in the Occupy movement are portrayed as terrorists, that really changes the meaning of democracy too. If there is such a thing as real terrorism, I think it is often a last resort cry for help by people who are being severely abused and mistreated and who don’t have any other way to be seen and heard by those who could bring justice to a situation. A nonviolent response to terrorism is anything that brings more justice into the world, including more equity in our global economic system so that all people have their needs met and no one can abuse anyone else for their own economic advantage.

What does activism mean to you?

I think the word activism most often means protesting against something, but I am more excited about Gandhi’s idea of constructive program. I prefer the focus on creating models of what we want as opposed to protesting against what we don’t want because I believe that when we put energy against something it actually gives that something more power.

You worked for an organization doing constructive program, which is at the forefront of international unarmed peacekeeping, the Gandhian dream of the Shanti Sena, or Peace Army. Can you tell a story illustrating that kind of nonviolence at work?

The day after a massacre in a Christian Tamil village on an island in Sri Lanka, we Nonviolent Peaceforce unarmed civilian peacekeepers were greeted by the priest who took us to see the bodies. The people of the village were all excited to tell us what they had experienced the night before when the 11 people were killed. Each story confirmed that the killers were of the Sri Lankan Navy. The way it worked in Sri Lanka was that the bodies had to stay in place until the judge looked at them. When the judge arrived walking down the street, she was accompanied by Navy and police. So as soon as the villagers saw the group coming, the women and children all quickly went inside the churchyard and the men clumped closer to each other on the side of the street across from the church. The tension was palpable.

I positioned myself on the side of the clump of men, so the Navy, police and judge walked past me first and then past the village men. As they passed, I smiled and waved and that proved to be totally disarming of the tensions. At that moment, I felt a bodily knowledge that I was safer because I was unarmed than I would have been armed. No one had any reason to be afraid of me, so I was not in personal danger. From that morning on, until the villagers decided to move from their village into a refugee camp, we were able to provide a protective presence to the people and they felt a sense of security that the Navy, which was supposedly responsible for their security, could not provide.

You are one person. What makes you hopeful that you can make a difference?

After 9/11, I couldn’t sit still. I felt a longing to get into some sort of action to take a stronger stand than I had ever taken before. In the 10 years of my life that I portray in my book, I don’t know concretely how much of a difference my actions made in the bigger picture. Like the Afghan Peace Volunteers I spent time with in Afghanistan, I don’t necessarily expect to see the changes I am committed to working toward come about in my lifetime. But I believe that I have to work toward those changes anyway. It is like the line in the song “The Impossible Dream” that says, “And I know if I’ll only be true to this glorious quest, that my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I’m laid to my rest; and the world will be better for this.”

On another level, if I see something out there in the world that is not okay with me, I believe that if I look inside myself and ask something like, “Where is that violence in me?” then I have a place within myself that I can work to heal. Maybe that is the only place where I really have the power to make a difference. I do believe that that little bit of healing does contribute to the healing that’s needed in the world.

I have been inspired by the words of the poet Clarissa Pinkola Estes, when she says, “Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely … We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small determined group who will not give up.”

Your book is about transforming fear into nonviolent power. Fearlessness was one of Gandhi’s key characteristics of the nonviolent soul, or satyagrahi. In his 1928 work, “Satyagraha in South Africa,” he said, “A satyagrahi bids goodbye to fear.” What role do you think fear plays in perpetuating violence in our world?

I see that the powers of domination that seem to be in control of the world today thrive on creating and perpetuating a culture of fear. Fear is contagious and easily blown out of proportion by our imaginations. I see that especially when it is at a distance. For example, people who don’t live in California are afraid of earthquakes and since I have never been in a tornado I fear that. I realized when I was preparing for my first trip — which was to Israel/Palestine — that for everyone back home it would seem like I would be in danger all the time. But in reality, there were only a few moments that were quite scary, and the rest of the time was not.

We can learn to let fears be our teachers and when we accept, or even embrace, a fear and let ourselves learn what we have to learn from it, it has less control over us. It’s not that we ever get rid of fear, it is just that we can be with fear in a different way. The more I am able to be with my fears, the more freedom I have to do what my heart is calling me to do, and the more alive I feel in the end.

Do you recommend that everyone travel to conflict zones as you have?

I encourage people to recognize that they don’t have to do what I did, but that their own hearts have unique callings that are right for them. I trust that if each of us does that, it can lead to solutions that we can’t find when we only think about the problems from our heads and from the perspective of what we’ve done before.

Revolution on Granite

Posted on October 16, 2014

by Metta Center

By: Mercedes Mack

In 1989, students in Kiev, Ukraine, had had enough of Soviet occupation and politics. Two student groups, the Student Brotherhood (March 1989) and later the Ukrainian Students Union (December 1989) formed a coalition against Soviet influence. Initially, student groups staged protests and strikes in response to concerns regarding higher education-abolish compulsory courses in Marxism-Leninism, ban on campus operations of KGB and CPSU, protect students from persecution for political activities, etc. Demonstrations by students and Ukrainians included- taking an oath of allegiance to an independent Ukraine, and demonstrations outside KGB headquarters. Responding to a call from opposition parties on Sept 30, 1990, 100,000 students gathered in Kiev in solidarity against a proposed Union Treaty (a proposition by the Kremlin to strengthen ties among republics of the Soviet Union).

On Oct 1, 1990, on the first day of the Soviet Supreme’s second session, 20,000 people protested in the streets and workers organized a one day warning strike. Taking note of the political climate and wave of support, the student coalition regrouped and formed an achievable list of demands, inclusive to that of the grievances of Ukrainians.

*Resignation of Soviet Premier and establishment of multi-party elections.

*Abolition of the proposed Union Treaty.

*A law ensuring Ukrainian military conscripts only delivered military service within Ukraine.

*Nationalization of Communist Party property.

On Oct 2, 1990 a group of 200 coalition students launched civil disobedience in support of their demands. The students occupied what they renamed Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Freedom Square), official name Lenin Square, in Kiev, initially erecting about 50 tents. This is the same square that would be later occupied by the Orange Revolution some fourteen years later. A core group of 200 students participated directly in the hunger strike, while many others joined to participate in the general strike over the next several days, increasing support to thousands of people. Opposition members of Parliament also joined, and solidarity swelled to about 15,000. Students were inspired by the student demonstrations in Tienanmen Square, and adopted similar tactics, namely nonviolent techniques of hunger strike and occupation. Having witnessed the severe crackdown of the People’s Republic of China, organizers were resolved in their nonviolent methods.

Student hunger strike, ‘Independence Square’, Kyiv, October 1990

“We went in with cold minds, prepared for any kind of conflict, but with the conviction that the only real path open to the government was peaceful.”

The movement continued to gain support at an alarming rate. Workers from the Arsenal factory (a pro-communist establishment) in Kiev declared support for the students. Students all over Ukraine had either joined the strike in Kiev, or staged sit-ins in solidarity at their local universities.By mid October, universities had become paralyzed due to lack of student attendance.

On Oct 15, movement demands were read aloud outside of parliament by one of the student organizers, Olis Doniy and nationally broadcast. Government acquiesced within two weeks of 15 days of the initiation of the hunger strike. On October 17, 1990, Parliament agreed to restrict the Soviet military within Ukraine (volunteers excepted), dropped consideration of the proposed Union Treaty, and several months later, Prime Minister Vitaliy Masol resigned and the Supreme Soviet agreed to allow multi-party electio ns.

Although successful in getting most of their demands specifically met, the government did not keep their promises long term. Youth were shut out from participating in politics in any official capacity. Government imposed age limits on candidates and leaders that were able to participate faced great difficulty entering a majoritarian political system.

Olis Doniy reflects, “At that time young political leaders had the possibility to realize their ideas, just as there was also the possibility for the state to incorporate them. Unfortunately, the state squandered the opportunity… in fact, ideas about the complex social and political reforms in Ukraine were to be found exclusively within the young political elite, in the student organizations.” I would add one more thing to Doniy’s reflection- that the students were also partner to the post revolution events. An option for the Granite Revolution could have been to go back to civil resistance when government acted in ways that went back on their promises. Gandhi used this strategy many times during his movement for Indian Independence. He would stop satyagraha when the British cooperated and was always open to constructive dialogue, but when the British went back on their word, or were not willing to cooperate, he would resume satyagraha. This is reflective of the fluid nature of civil disobedience-there are many victories and many setbacks, but the movement should never hesitate to re-initiate satyagraha when it becomes apparent that the adversary is no longer keeping their promise.

For more reading:Youth As An Agent For Change: The Next Generation In Ukraine

Peace Profile: Malala, a Heroine Resurrected

Posted on October 12, 2014

by Metta Center

by: Pallavi Vishwanath

Video: Malala Day video tells the #StrongerThan story through children’s voices

Many people in history have been met by violence due to their courage. Not many, though, are 15. And only one received the Nobel Prize for Peace two years later! Malala Yousafazai is not your typical teenage girl.

She hails from the Swat Valley region of Pakistan. Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, the largest faction of the Pakistani Taliban, had seized control of the capital, Mingora, in 2007. They governed Malala’s hometown relying on extremist references to the Quran, Islamic history and Shariah, Islamic law. The offense that struck Malala to the core was their ban on young girls attending school in 2008. BBC decided to take advantage of our technological age in order to cover the effects of the Taliban among the civilians of the Valley. Taking pages from AnneFranks’ diary, BBC thought finding a schoolgirl to blog anonymously would be revolutionary in giving the common victims of violence a voice. The dangers that accompanied such a noble task kept many families from allowing their children to take the responsibility. Then, 11 year old Malala stepped up to the challenge, beginning by discussing bans on self expression such as television and music along with forbidding girls’ education and women from going outdoors unnecessarily.

Those who defied the militant’s strict codes of Islam were publicly punished and corpses decorated Mingora’s main square, which became known as Bloody Square. Battles in the Swat raged, and fewer girls were showing up to school. Malala continued with her secret blog, criticizing the violent lifestyle of the militants and the resulting boredom from the lack of books (see: Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl). The blog opened many other doors for Malala including documentaries, radio station interviews, and appearances on Aaj Daily, AVT Khyber, and Capital Talk. After the documentary, Malala became even more emboldened as she hosted foreign diplomats, held news conferences on peace and education, and won a variety of peace awards, all along with her continued attendance at school. These opportunities were all constantly revealing her identity as an advocate for women’s education and peace. Prominent community leaders, including Malala’s activist father, symbolized the unyielding resistance to the Taliban and were constant targets of death. As Malala became more recognized publicly, death threats were slipped under her door, sent to her on Facebook, announced on ‘Radio Mullah”, and were published in local newspapers.

Over the summer of 2012, the Taliban leaders unanimously agreed to put an end to the young freedom fighter. Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, stated, “It’s a clear command of Shariah that any female that by any means plays a role in war against mujahideen (holy warriors) should be killed. Malala Yousafzai was playing a vital role in bucking up the emotions of Murtad (apostate) army and Government of Pakistan, and was inviting Muslims to hate mujahideen. If anyone thinks…that Malala is targeted because of education, that’s absolutely wrong, and propaganda of the Media. Malala is targeted because of her pioneer role in preaching secularism and so called enlightened moderation.” Various other references from the Quran were cited as obligatory actions, to kill children and women if they were engaged in rebellion against Islamic law.

Malala envisioned the confrontation with the Taliban and stated, “Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.” Through the threats, she planned on creating the Malala Yousafzai Education Foundation in Swat —and it received its first grant in 2013.

One October morning, after successfully taking her exams, Malala rode the bus home like any other day. A masked gunman got onboard and shouted, “Which one of you is Malala? Speak up otherwise I will shoot you all.” “I didn’t get a chance to answer their question or I would have explained to them why they should let us girls go to school as well as their own sisters and daughters.” The bullet entered through Malala’s head, zipped through her neck, and came to a rest in her shoulder beside her spinal cord. As the world responded to the tragic and cowardly idea that a force of bullets can silence the fight for peace, Malala continued to fight through her coma and reconstructive surgeries. (See also: LETTER FROM THE TALIBAN TO MALALA). Pakistan’s most powerful official issued a statement at Malala’s bedside, the final words emphasized in capital letters, “WE REFUSE TO BOW BEFORE TERROR. WE WILL FIGHT, REGARDLESS OF THE COST, WE WILL PREVAIL INSHA ALLAH (God willing). What was the silent majority now openly wear “I am Malala” headbands and tshirts, defying Taliban threats and identifying with Malala’s call for integrity.

Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global education, visited Malala at the hospital in 2012 and launched a petition with the slogan “I am Malala”. It demands Pakistan to agree to a plan to deliver education for every child, all countries to outlaw discrimination against girls, and for international organizations to ensure the world’s 61 million out of school children are in an institute of education by the end of 2015. A new civil rights struggle is certainly underway, led by the potentials of social media and the youth. Online information from other countries shows that education is now insisted as a universal right and obstacles such as child labor, marriage, trafficking, and discrimination against girls must be overcome.

Malala unified world leaders, celebrities, reporters, as well as “ordinary” people over the world by showing us the true obscenities and injustices that accompany the brutal force of violence, by becoming a victim to it herself, and continuing to prevail and work against it afterwards. The Pakistan military moved into the swat region to “drive out” the Taliban. There have been plans for three permanent military bases in the Swat. Although these endeavors may have began with the right intention of driving out the Taliban, it has created a new pool of Swat victims in its rain of violence to combat violence. There is a surge of orphans who need support. Their exposure to so much violence will continue the vicious cycle of militant endeavors if their trauma isn’t properly treated. These events have caused the people of Swat to divide in their feelings towards the raging militants, Taliban or army. Some want the army to leave while others fear Taliban resurgence. Although some progress has been made since 2009 the violence has smothered the revival of the local economy and fear still reigns.

Malala isn’t your average teenager, because she speaks with such power and passion as one of the millions of women and girls who are denied education by being subjected to violence ( See: THE WORLDS’ OTHER MALALAS). She boldly reveals, “Education is the power for women and that’s why the terrorists are afraid of education. They do not want women to get education because then women would become more powerful.” Malala is the symbol of freedom that oppressive powers should fear. Her birthday, July 12 is now known as Malala Day. On her site, malala.org, she states that, “It is a day when we come together to raise our voices, so that those without a voice can be heard.” The 17 year old continues to travel the world and fight for equality, justice, and education for all girls and boys. Her bravery is a greatness that has brought much needed strength for justice and peace movements against terrorism and bloodshed.

Malala exemplifies nonviolent leadership, recognizing where the movement for justice needed to head and lead society accordingly. When this meant putting her life on the line without raising violence in protest, she abided. When asked if she could have used some force against her attacker, Malala replied, “If you hit a Talib … then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat another with that much cruelty and that much harshly. You must fight others, but through peace and through dialogue and through education. Then I’ll tell him how important education is and that I even want education for your children as well. And I’ll tell him, ‘That’s what I want to tell you. Now do what you want.’

Other Resources:

My Daughter Malala TedTalk: https://archive.org/details/ZiauddinYousafzai_2014

“At night when I used to sleep, I was thinking all the time that shall I put a knife under my pillow. The time was of fear, but some people can overcome fear and some people can fight fear.”

“I have the right of education,” she said in a 2011 interview with CNN. “I have the right to play. I have the right to sing. I have the right to talk. I have the right to go to market. I have the right to speak up.”

“God will ask you on the day of judgment, ‘Where were you when your people were asking you … when your school fellows were asking you and when your school was asking you …’Why I am being blown up?'”

O’Donnell: “Is it true that when you spoke with President Obama, that you talked about your concern that drone attacks are fueling terrorism?”

Yousafzai: “The first thing is that, it is true that when there’s a drone attack those — that the — the terrorists are killed, it’s true. But 500 and 5,000 more people rises against it and more terrorism occurs, and more — more bomb blasts occurs. … I think the best way to fight against terrorism is to do it through (a) peaceful way, not through war. Because I believe that a war can never be ended by a war.”

O’Donnell: “And you said that to President Obama?”

“Yes, of course.”

Her memoir is I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban. All Pakistan Private Schools Federation banned it due to it disrespecting Islam and its potential “negative” influence.

In her address to the UN, Malala cited Badshah Khan as one of her nonviolent heroes. Read his amazing life in Eknath Easwaran’s biography, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam (Nilgiri Press) or here on our site.

Not Just Umbrellas

Posted on October 9, 2014

by Metta Center

The Umbrella Revolution

By Mercedes Mack

Some historical and strategic nonviolent context of what is now called the Umbrella Revolution-Hong Kong’s demand for democracy.

Outside government headquarters, a protestor raised a sign reading “Occupy Central”

Brief History of Democratization Demands in Hong Kong

Protests in Hong Kong have been occurring on and off since June 2003 when 500,000 protesters marched against Article 23, a proposed law affecting national security. Students objected because this law, aimed at enacting legislation restricting activities of “political organizations or bodies” against the Central People’s Government, but students felt this law was really aimed at preventing organized dissent and an attempt to prevent any anti-China opposition. Protests were successful and the law was not passed. In April of 2004, 15,000 people marched in protest against China’s declaration that there would be no direct election of Hong Kong’s head of government. After another protest in December of 2007, China promised a timeline for direct elections in Hong Kong-direct votes of Chief Executive in 2017, and all its lawmakers by 2020.

The Umbrella Revolution

Recent protests have been in response to China’s increasing authoritative measures on Hong Kong’s autonomy. In July, the People’s Republic of China released a “White Paper” to Hong Kong reaffirming its “power to run local affairs as authorized by central leadership” , i.e. the People’s Republic of China, by mandating that all candidates in Hong Kong’s election be vetted by a nomination committee set up by the People’s Republic of China.

In July of 2014, hundreds of thousands of people marched and then sat-in overnight demanding direct elections. On September 22, 2014, thousands of university students, part of the Scholarism movement, coordinated protests and massive sit-ins in key government and financial districts in the city.

Protests started again on Sunday Sept 28 as mostly student protestors blocked streets and rallied in front of government buildings. The protests have continued despite police response with tear gas and rubber bullets. Occupy Central with Love and Peace, the local Occupy, had scheduled a massive protest for Oct 1, a national holiday to celebrate the People’s Republic of China, but instead joined the student protests in solidarity.

Aspects of Strategic Nonviolence in the Umbrella Revolution

The Umbrella Revolution seems to be an organized nonviolent movement with much promise. Members are prepared and disciplined as well as diverse-different age groups, socio-economic status, gender,and religion. Movement organizers prepared for a police response with tear gas, and instructing protesters to wear goggles, and bring umbrellas (what has become iconic to the movement) to protect against the streams of tear gas. All reports indicate that protests have maintained nonviolence, even in the face of police resistance. There are sit- ins and sleep- ins in strategic financial and governmental locations in Hong Kong. There is also some constructive programming occurring within the student facet of the movement. Students have created their own lesson plans during the movement under the slogan “boycott classes and keep learning”. Organizers have created open and mobile classrooms, libraries and introduced public lectures by academics.

Protestors in Hong Kong during a rainstorm on Tuesday, Sept 30, 2014

Deliberately or not, the movement seems decentralized, lacking a single charismatic leader. The Umbrella Revolution is largely associated with Occupy Central with Love and Peace, a local Occupy movement started by Benny Tai Yiu-ting, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong in January 2013 with a specific directive instructing protesters to block roads and paralyze Hong Kong’s financial district to demand democracy in Hong Kong. Tai Yiu-ting and several other co-leaders in the movement have created a nonviolent directive for Occupy based on the activism of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Another prominent group associated with the Umbrella Revolution is the student group Scholarism led by Joshua Wong Chi-fung.

In a recent NYTimes video titled Scenes of Chaos in Hong Kong, a protester commented in reaction to police destruction of tents, “They tried to remove this tent, we think this is our last place to go. If this place falls, we all fall”. In this sense, the act of occupying downtown Hong Kong, ie the tents, have become a symbol of the movement. To believe that the movement will fail if it is driven out of the downtown is not only wrong, but dangerous to the survival of the movement. Michael Nagler comments on the danger of clinging to symbols and draws a comparison to the Tienanmen Square demonstrations in 1989. In essence once the movement was driven out of the square, it ended. Nonviolent movements are much more than an occupation or demonstration. To channel the movement’s energy outside occupation of the downtown area and maintain pressure on government, the movement must diversify its tactics. This could include the implementation of constructive programs, education of the public, and lightening protests.

The Umbrella Revolution has put caught The People’s Republic of China by what’s called a dilemma action-—they can either brutally squash the protests and risk de-legitimizing their government or acquiesce to protestors’ demands and potentially open the doors for protest within the People’s Republic of China; which is exactly where Hong Kong wants them to be.

For more information about the various groups associated with the Umbrella Revolution see: Who Guides Hong Kong’s “Umbrella Revolution” pro democracy movement?

For a map of the Areas of Protest, see the NY Times website.

For a great synopsis of the Umbrella Revolution, check out: Everything You Need To Know About Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution.

See NYTimes Images of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution.

Our new look, from Metta’s Director.

Posted on October 7, 2014

by Stephanie Van Hook

www.mettacenter.org

Dearly Beloved Community,

Welcome to our updated website. Since this site truly serves as our window to the wider world community who come to us for resources and materials on the “greatest power at the disposal of humankind,” we wanted to make sure it was at its best.

It will now be much simpler to find the materials you need to study and get involved in our work. We also hope that the site will serve as a basic primer in nonviolence education itself — when you leave for the day (planning to come back to further your studies of course), you have a better idea what Satyagraha means, how constructive program works, and have picked up some key ideas around nonviolence strategy, for starters.

You will notice a phrase at the top of the site: nonviolence begins with you. It is a reminder that we practice nonviolence because it will take every single one of us to dismantle the violence in our world, and the time to start is now. We are not waiting for others (remember MLK: “we will take direct action against injustice without waiting for other agencies to act”), we will bring them along with us. This requires a constructive commitment to practice nonviolence not only in our social actions but in our daily lives, and we all know that this is long-term work. It asks for the true spirit of practice and a faith that the effect of our actions will ripple outward, even if we cannot see the results or connect the dots. When we use nonviolence effectively, it is felt by those involved in the interaction, even if the results aren’t visible — but they usually are!

The work of the Metta Center is to fulfill this great vision: to work with you and to strengthen and support your own “experiments with truth,” as Gandhi called his ever and on-going nonviolence practice.

Please take a few minutes and navigate around the site to appreciate its clarity. If you feel inspired, we would love to know what you think.

Interested in getting involved? Send us your articles! We are currently seeking interested persons to blog in some of our categories listed on the homepage, including film reviews, nonviolence for daily living, nonviolence in the news, news from around the movement, gender eyes, and inspiration. If you would like to support Metta in this way, we would love to talk with you.

How do we do it? The work of the Metta Center is undoubtably a labor of love by all those involved in the day to day workings of the organization. It is also supported by the individuals who find value and inspiration–and, we even hear, nourishment, from the work that we do every day here to make nonviolence resources available. The website update was an expense we were happy to undertake because it benefits so many people around the world who are doing such wonderful work, like yourself. If you’re in a position to do so, please consider making a one-time or monthly contribution to Metta’s work in celebration and appreciation of our efforts to facilitate the spread of nonviolence worldwide.

Finally, we are immensely grateful to Ryan McCoy of Jammin Web Designs for his creativity, patience and loving work. We recommend that if you are looking for web and design work to contact him. We send him our heartfelt thanks, blessings and deep appreciation for his participation in our shared vision for a gentler, healthier and more nonviolent world.

In heart unity, Stephanie Van Hook, Executive Director

The Ultimate Love Story

Posted on October 3, 2014

by Kimberlyn David

In this blog-series accompanying our project of updating the Peace and Conflict Studies lectures (we call it PACS 164-c), Kimberlyn David reviews some of the key material of the course from a personal lens in an effort to generate personal reflection and the application of course content.

“We are only as brave as the stories we tell ourselves.” ~ Metta Center for Nonviolence

Do you get paid what you’re worth? Pause on this question for a few moments, lingering on the word “worth.” What comes up for you?

Last week, a copywriting client told me that she’d like to give away her yoga and life coaching services—she doesn’t need to work because her husband makes enough money to support their family. “But,” she said with a confident calm, “I want to get paid what I’m worth.”

I’ve said similar words countless times, primarily out of fear about my finances and fretting about clients who’ve tried priming me for unsustainable rates (“I’m thinking of outsourcing this to Fivvr.”) The fear and fretting were of course counterproductive: the current game of capitalism requires its players to squeeze as much as they can out of people and planet for as little expense as possible. A productive avenue leads away from fear and blame to analyzing what the economic system, invented by humans, imposes on the quality of life.

For it is an imposition—on all of life. This morning’s news includes a story about the plight of walruses in Alaska. Some 35,000 of these marine creatures have been forced ashore because the ice floes they use for rest stops are disappearing, melting into the warming North Pacific. The Independent quotes Margaret Williams, the managing director of World Wildlife Federation’s Arctic program:

“The walruses are telling us what the polar bears have told us and what many indigenous people have told us in the high Arctic, and that is that the Arctic environment is changing extremely rapidly and it is time for the rest of the world to take notice and also to take action to address the root causes of climate change.”

The root causes of climate change lie with us, with how and why we consume. Therefore, the roots to reducing emissions and preventing catastrophe lie with us too.

* * *

I’m currently living in Panama, and all eyes here are on the inauguration of the Biomuseo, a museum designed by famed architect Frank Gehry and that highlights the importance of Panama to the planet’s biodiversity. Upon rising from the sea 3 million years ago, the isthmus of Panama bridged North and South America, and it divided one sea into two, the Pacific and the Caribbean. Panama’s emergence led to the proliferation of flora and fauna between neighboring continents, and Panama remains home to one of the world’s greatest diversity in birds, mammals and reptiles.

While the museum will serve as an important educational resource, I’m wondering whether the irony of building a museum devoted to biodiversity while wiping out environments vital to biodiversity is overlooked. Panama’s earth, seas and skies are under the plunder of development booms—luxury high rises that go largely unoccupied, the construction of unnecessary roads, over air-conditioned shopping malls, the mushrooming of American fast food chains. From the Biomuseo, you can see where mangrove forests have been cleared for what will be residential developments and airport fuel tanks.

Amidst all this “first-world” development, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find spaces of connection and inner development. Life revolves around the car and commerce. And wages for most Panamanians stagnate as the cost of housing unjustifiably skyrockets.

* * *

“The deepest crises experienced by any society are those moments of change when the story becomes inadequate for meeting the survival needs of a present situation,” said Thomas Berry. We’re facing multiple deep crises—wars, poverty, climate changes. The prevailing story of monetary value equaling worth is failing us and everything that lives on this planet.

As Berry’s quote highlights, crises aren’t hopeless. They provide us with opportunities to grow, to create the new stories of who we are and can be. Life cannot be reduced to a spreadsheet and quantified in monetary terms. The problems we face now beg us to find and cultivate a radically different story.

We could borrow from Thich Nhat Hanh, who told the Guardian that love is our way out of climate change, because love feeds us the courage and compassion needed to make a difference. At the leadership level in governments and businesses, the fear of losing one’s status can trump wise decisions.

Then there’s the individual love we put into play for the health of our communities and the planet’s. The Climate March in New York, brought to life by 400,000 people, expressed this love.

The New Story might very well be the ultimate love story: one of sacrificing material-based self-interest for an interest in all of life and our place in it. Sacrifice isn’t scary or painful—we’re already quite familiar with it, as genuine love grows from the seeds of cherishing. Parents set aside their own interests and cherish their children’s; the tens of thousands of people marching and occupying government buildings in Hong Kong are setting aside their individual concerns for the sake of the political freedoms they cherish.

Love is constructive. It builds up our human goodness, connecting us at the heart level. “We need a United People, not a United Nations,” Professor Nagler says, and it’s human unity that’s energizing people to build new institutions, from banking to food growing. Gandhi coined a term for nonviolent organizing and society building: Constructive Programme. Constructive Programme honors individual creativity and potential while providing practical strategies for eliminating war, crime and poverty.

Telling a love story helps us break free from the chains of “earning” a living—or getting paid what we’re worth. We’re alive, and in those regards, there’s nothing for any of us to earn or be worthy of.

No amount of money can ever pay us what we’re worth, because life cannot be measured according to financial wealth, which has a limited value. Our lives, full of the ability to create and love, hold limitless value. As Metta Center puts it: “Human dignity rests upon the fact that we are body, mind and spirit.”

Coming Together in Mass Nonviolent Protest

Posted on October 1, 2014

by Metta Center

Post NYC Climate March, the effects of symbolic movement and what happens next.

by Mercedes Mack

About 400,000 people marched in the largest Climate March in history on Sunday September 21, 2014 in New York and other locations around the world, in a collective call to action as world leaders converged for the UN Climate Summit. As a strategy employed in nonviolence, mass marches serve as an important function for several reasons. At a very basic level, it creates solidarity within the community, or in this Climate March’s case, the global community. It highlights that there is an issue that needs to be addressed. Mass protests can also be used in part of an obstructive program to initiate civil disobedience and apply pressure for change.

Mass protests can also expand the influence of a nonviolent movement. When used strategically as part of an ongoing nonviolent movement, as the Salt March was employed during the movement for India’s independence, it can be a significant push towards success. Gandhi pursued the Salt March with intention of implementing specific mechanisms that made it impossible for Britain to keep ruling India. His march drew in millions of Indian supporters, and as a strategically employed method of civil disobedience, it became a defining moment in swaying Britain’s attitude towards India’s eventual independence.

While incorporating the use of nonviolent mass protest, the Climate March as per their purpose, seeks to make the collective desire for climate change highly visible in order to create a platform for discussion on the topic; in this way it can be recognized as a symbolic movement. In the Climate March, the circular nature of environmental degradation was highlighted through the diversity of participants and the concerns raised. Labor unions marched in protest of the dangers to public health caused by climate change. The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice marched to protest the increase of typhoons caused by climate change. The Union Theological Seminary marched to recognize climate change as a social justice issue. When stepping back and looking at the protest as a whole, we can see underlying currents of shared values in the global community can be seen.

The platform has been created, but now what?

Coinciding with the Climate March, several corporations, namely Google, Facebook, Yum! Brands, Rockefeller Brother’s Fund, as well as churches of various faiths have responded to public support and joined the divestment movement away from fossil fuels and companies that do not have sustainable practices. After the march, protestors organized in a Flood Wall Street protest outside of Wall Street in New York to protest capitalism and call attention to Wall Street’s role as a key institution in the climate crisis.

The 400,000 people marching the streets of New York Sunday make it clear that obstructive and constructive programs are needed and will be supported by the global community. What kind of steps can we take, collectively and individually to create changes that support environmental sustainability? Creating or joining alternative systems that support our environmental agenda is a very effective form of constructive program. As constructive programs grow and replace key areas in the system or injustice, they can also function as an obstructive program. Withdrawing participation and support in detrimental institutions will apply pressure to those institutions to change. By no longer engaging in systems or behaviors we don’t like, and creating new ones that promote our community values, we intentionally make an unsupportive system obsolete.

For more information on the Climate March and the organizations involved, please see the Climate March’s website.

Newsweek Magazine photo op: Photos: NYC Climate Change March Rallies

Listen to this episode of Clearing the FOG radio with PopularResistance.org organizers, Zeese and Flowers on the next steps in solving the climate crisis.