Resistance Campaigns Research Articles

Gandhi and nationalism: the path to Indian independence

Gandhi's nationalism seems simple and straightforward: he wanted an independent Indian nation state and freedom from British colonial rule. But in reality his nationalism rested on complex and sophisticated moral philosophy. His Indian state and nation were based on no shallow ethnic or religious communalism, despite his claim to be Hindu to his very core, but were grounded on his concept of swaraj - enlightened self-control and self-development leading to harmony and tolerance among all communities in the new India. He aimed at moral regeneration, not just the ending of colonial rule. Simone Panter-Brick's perceptive and original portrayal of Gandhi's nationalism analyses his spiritual and political programme. She follows his often tortuous path, as a principal spiritual and political leader of the Indian Congress, through his famous campaigns of non-violent resistance and negotiations with the Government of India leading to Independence and, sadly for Gandhi, the Partition in 1947. Gandhi's nationalism was, in Wm Roger Louis's phrase, 'larger than the struggle for independence'. He sought a tolerant and unified state that included all communities within a 'Mother India'. Panter-Brick's work will be essential reading for all scholars and students of Indian history and political ideas.

Manufacturing Dissent: Economic Structure and the Onset of Major Nonviolent Resistance Campaigns

A rapidly growing research field examines the conditions under which major nonviolent resistance campaigns – that is, popular-based nonviolent uprisings for regime or territorial change within a state – are successful. However, previous research has paid little attention to why nonviolent resistance campaigns are initiated in the first place. This study explains the onset of nonviolent conflict, comparing the determinants of nonviolent conflict onset with those of violent conflict. We argue that pre-existing, cross-cutting mobilization structures allow activists to overcome collective action problems and leverage the participation advantage of nonviolence and that this infrastructure is more likely to be present in states that depend upon organized labor for revenue. Global quantitative analysis of the onset of violent and nonviolent campaigns from 1960-2006 (NAVCO), and nationwide protest events in Africa from 1989-2009 (SCAD) show that states where manufacturing makes up a high proportion of GDP are more likely to witness nonviolent conflict onsets.

The 1946–1948 Passive Resistance Campaign in Natal, South Africa: Origins and Results

This article presents an anatomy of the 1946–48 Passive Resistance campaign. It does this by looking at its historical antecedent, the 1913 strike and then more immediately at the battles between the so-called “moderates” and “radicals” for control of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) through the first half of the 1940s. It shows how the “radicals” gained control of the NIC and how this laid the basis for a more confrontational approach that drew on Gandhi's idea of passive resistance. Against this backdrop, the article seeks to understand why the 1946–48 campaign failed to have any major impact on the South African government. The final part of the article brings into focus the similarities between the 1913 and 1946 campaigns and shows how the latter marked the beginning of the end of a particular line of march for Gandhism. The final part of the article makes some tentative conclusions about the longer term consequences of the 1946–48 campaign.

The Egyptian revolution seen through the eyes of a psychiatrist

The 2011-12 Egyptian revolution (thawret 25 yanāyir, revolution of 25 January) took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday 25 January 2011 and is still continuing. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance. In this revolution the participants have proved that if resistance begins with sincerity and unity, it may yet achieve victory.

The Egyptian revolution seen through the eyes of a psychiatrist

The 2011–12 Egyptian revolution (thawret 25 yanãyir, revolution of 25 January) took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday 25 January 2011 and is still continuing. The uprising was mainly a campaign of nonviolent civil resistance. In this revolution the participants have proved that if resistance begins with sincerity and unity, it may yet achieve victory.

The African National Congress centenary: a long and difficult journey

The African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa was formed under difficult conditions, facing a Union government bent on extending racist laws and an unsympathetic British government to whom repeated petitions were addressed without success. By the 1930s petitioning had run its course and the organization collapsed. In the 1940s, however, structures were established which laid the basis for mass activities in the following decade. In the 1950s a range of campaigns of resistance gave rise to a large ANC constituency. It also elaborated an alternative democratic vision through adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1955, after a process of lengthy consultation. The document became a rallying point for a range of democratic organizations. After the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 the ANC was banned, but continued to operate illegally. It embarked on short-lived armed activities, leading to the arrest and exile of its leading figures. The years that followed saw further setbacks as the organization sought to establish itself outside, and in small underground units inside, the country. After the Soweto uprising of 1976, many young people joined the ANC's armed wing and carried out attacks on apartheid installations. Significantly, this period also saw the revival of mass public political activities on an unprecedented scale. A combination of internal and external pressures against apartheid paved the way for negotiations, resulting in democratic elections in 1994. The ANC now governs, having fundamentally, albeit unevenly, transformed the lives of many—but continued poverty, unemployment, extensive corruption and criminality risk leading to a deep systemic crisis affecting governance as a whole.

Defending white democracy: the making of a segregationist movement and the remaking of racial politics, 1936-1965

After the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in 1954, white backlash seemed to explode overnight. Journalists profiled the rise of a movement committed to preserving the southern way of life through a campaign of massive resistance. In Defending White Democracy , Jason Morgan Ward reconsiders the origins of this white resistance, arguing that conservatives began mobilizing against civil rights some years earlier, in the era before World War II, when the New Deal politics of the mid-1930s threatened the monopoly on power that whites held in the South. As Ward shows, years before segregationist became a badge of honor for civil rights opponents, many white southerners resisted racial change at every turn--launching a preemptive campaign aimed at preserving a social order that they saw as under siege. By the time of the Brown decision, segregationists had amassed an arsenal of tested tactics and arguments to deploy against the civil rights movement in the coming battles. Connecting the racial controversies of the New Deal era to the more familiar confrontations of the 1950s and 1960s, Ward uncovers a parallel history of opposition that mirrors the new focus on the long civil rights movement and raises troubling questions about the enduring influence of segregation's defenders. |After the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in 1954, white backlash seemed to explode overnight. However, Jason Morgan Ward argues that conservatives began mobilizing against civil rights some years earlier, when the New Deal politics of the mid-1930s threatened the monopoly on power that whites held in the South. Ward uncovers a parallel history of opposition that mirrors the new focus on the long civil rights movement.

Why civil resistance works: the strategic logic of nonviolent conflict

The historical record indicates that nonviolent campaigns have been more successful than armed campaigns in achieving ultimate goals in political struggles, even when used against similar opponents and in the face of repression. Nonviolent campaigns are more likely to win legitimacy, attract widespread domestic and international support, neutralize the opponent's security forces, and compel loyalty shifts among erstwhile opponent supporters than are armed campaigns, which enjoin the active support of a relatively small number of people, offer the opponent a justification for violent counterattacks, and are less likely to prompt loyalty shifts and defections. An original, aggregate data set of all known major nonviolent and violent resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006 is used to test these claims. These dynamics are further explored in case studies of resistance campaigns in Southeast Asia that have featured periods of both violent and nonviolent resistance.

Campañas de resistencia y necesidad de formación para la gobernabilidad y el etnodesarrollo en territorios ancestrales de comunidades negras/afrocolombianas

Desde un marco histórico, político, económico, cultural y ambiental del Territorio Región del Pacífico en Colombia, el artículo da cuenta de los problemas ecológicos y ambientales causados por la minería ilegal en el Pacífico Caucano, y describe de una de las campañas de resistencia de las organizaciones y comunidades negras/afrocolombianas por la defensa de su patrimonio territorial. En ese horizonte, se propone una apuesta formativa, de acompañamiento y de apoyo institucional y gubernamental a este tipo de iniciativas.

Khalil Gibran International Academy: Racism and a Campaign of Resistance

This article appears in two parts. "The Story of Khalil Gibran International Academy" is Debbie Almontaser's account of the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hysteria that was whipped up when she helped found the first Arabic Dual Language public school in New York City. Instead of backing her against the attacks, the Department of Education turned on Almontaser and forced her to resign. However, she fought in the courts, who in the end ruled in her favor. Donna Nevel's "The Campaign of Resistance" describes the organizing campaign that emerged in support of Almontaser, which was a coalition of Arab, Muslim, Jewish, immigrant, labor, and peace groups. They engaged in extensive outreach and mounted a media-intensive counterattack in defense of the school and its principal. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

The Story of Khalil Gibran International Academy: Racism and a Campaign of Resistance

This article appears in two parts. “The Story of Khalil Gibran International Academy” is Debbie Almontaser’s account of the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hysteria that was whipped up when she helped found the first Arabic Dual Language public school in New York City. Instead of backing her against the attacks, the Department of Education turned on Almontaser and forced her to resign. However, she fought in the courts, who in the end ruled in her favor. Donna Nevel’s “The Campaign of Resistance” describes the organizing campaign that emerged in support of Almontaser, which was a coalition of Arab, Muslim, Jewish, immigrant, labor, and peace groups. They engaged in extensive outreach and mounted a media-intensive counterattack in defense of the school and its principal. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Plantations, Resistance and the Greening of the Agrarian Question in Coastal Ecuador

Worldwide, industrial tree plantations are at the origin of a growing number of conflicts between local populations and commercial planters. Such conflicts – which often turn out to be ‘environmental’– have largely remained understudied. By focusing on the establishment of an industrial eucalypt monoculture in a coastal Ecuadorian canton, this paper investigates the effects of the penetration of capital into the rural sphere, emphasizing the resulting resistance campaign of a local NGO originating from a peasant organization. We analyse the evolution of land conflicts in the region – historically as well as operationally during the latest eucalypt campaign. We find that displacement of local peasants is a recurrent theme, while environmental issues have recently been incorporated into the resistance to landowners. We thus argue that the agrarian question also includes – now perhaps more than ever – an environmental dimension, thereby providing space for a fruitful dialogue between political ecologists and students of agrarian conflicts.

Just doing it: enjoying commodity fetishism with Lacan

Despite prolonged resistance campaigns against what are regarded as unethical production practices of companies such as Nike, people around the world still seem to be happy to spend a lot of money buying expensive consumer products. Why is this so? In this article we discuss this question through the lens of the concept of fetishism. By discussing texts by Freud and Marx, amongst others, we first explore the genealogy of the concept of fetishism. We then develop a Lacanian reading to understand how processes of fetishization dominate today’s capitalist society, producing a modern subject that constantly desires to consume more in order to constitute itself. We argue—with Lacan—that at the heart of this process of the constitution of the subject through consumption is enjoyment or, what Lacan calls, jouissance. Capitalism—as any other socio-economic regime—can thus be understood as a system of enjoyment.

Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict

The historical record indicates that nonviolent campaigns have been more successful than armed campaigns in achieving ultimate goals in political struggles, even when used against similar opponents and in the face of repression. Nonviolent campaigns are more likely to win legitimacy, attract widespread domestic and international support, neutralize the opponent's security forces, and compel loyalty shifts among erstwhile opponent supporters than are armed campaigns, which enjoin the active support of a relatively small number of people, offer the opponent a justification for violent counterattacks, and are less likely to prompt loyalty shifts and defections. An original, aggregate data set of all known major nonviolent and violent resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006 is used to test these claims. These dynamics are further explored in case studies of resistance campaigns in Southeast Asia that have featured periods of both violent and nonviolent resistance.

NOTORIOUS SUBJECTS, INVISIBLE CITIZENS: NORTH CAUCASIAN RESISTANCE TO THE TURKISH NATIONAL MOVEMENT IN NORTHWESTERN ANATOLIA, 1919–23

This piece raises the historical and contemporary importance of a little-known campaign of resistance to the ascendancy of the Turkish National Movement (a movement that would later spawn the Republic of Turkey) during the Turkish War of Independence. Unlike other acts of resistance carried out by Ottoman Christians and Kurds, the rebellion profiled here was largely led and populated by members of the north Caucasian or Circassian diaspora of northwestern Anatolia. As a population that became economically and socially disjointed through settlement along the southern littoral of the Marmara Sea, a significant component of this exile community repeatedly rejected forces led by Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk). This article approaches the Circassian rebels' provincial origins and motivations and offers new insights into localist, as opposed to nationalist, forces that have both shaped and resisted the formation of the Republic of Turkey.

Spinning for India’s Independence

THIS PHOTOGRAPH OF Mohandas K. Gandhi (October 2, 1869–January 30, 1948), dressed only in a loincloth and working at his spinning wheel on the deck of the SS Rajputana, was taken in 1931 as Gandhi traveled to London to attend a high-level roundtable conference with British officials.1 Gandhi was leader of the Indian National Congress and the major force in its drive for independence. He had already led successful non-violent civil disobedience and tax resistance campaigns against British rule, culminating in the 250-mile “Salt March” from Ahmedabad to the Indian Ocean at Dandi (March 12–April 6, 1930).2 After violently assaulting the marchers, the British imprisoned Gandhi and 60000 supporters. Because of adverse worldwide publicity, the British eventually released Gandhi and in March 1931 negotiated an agreement with him for the release of the remaining political prisoners in exchange for the suspension of civil disobedience. The British invited Gandhi to London in late 1931, supposedly to discuss the transfer of power. The conference disappointed Gandhi but provided him with opportunities to win popular support. In 1930, he had already been declared Time’s “Man of the Year”; in 1931, he won over such leading figures in London as George Bernard Shaw, Maria Montessori, and Charlie Chaplin. His every move was followed closely by the press, and after an audience at Buckingham Palace, he was asked if he had felt underdressed. His widely reported comment, expressed with typical Gandhian wit, was, “The king had on enough for both of us.”3(p258) Gandhi’s manner of dress and commitment to hand spinning were essential elements of his philosophy and politics. He chose the traditional loincloth as a rejection of Western culture and a symbolic identification with the poor of India. His personal choice became a powerful political gesture as he urged his more privileged followers to copy his example and discard—or even burn—their European-style clothing and return with pride to their ancient, precolonial culture.4 Gandhi claimed that spinning thread in the traditional manner also had material advantages, as it would create the basis for economic independence and the possibility of survival for India’s impoverished rural multitudes.5 This commitment to traditional cloth making was also part of a larger swadeshi movement, which aimed for the boycott of all British goods. As Gandhi explained to Charlie Chaplin in 1931, the return to spinning did not mean a rejection of all modern technology but of the exploitive and controlling economic and political system in which textile manufacture had become entangled. Gandhi said, “Machinery in the past has made us dependent on England, and the only way we can rid ourselves of the dependence is to boycott all goods made by machinery. This is why we have made it the patriotic duty of every Indian to spin his own cotton and weave his own cloth.”6(p48) The image of the emaciated, almost naked, and obviously nonviolent Gandhi hard at work at his spinning wheel had an electric effect on millions in India and across the world. He was hailed as the father of Indian independence, and starting in 1931, his traditional spinning wheel became the primary symbol on the flag of the Provisional Government of Free India. Figure 1 Mohandas K. Gandhi

Hungarian Nonviolent Resistance against Austria and Its Place in the History of Nonviolence

The Hungarian nonviolent resistance campaign against the Austrian absolutist rule in the 1850s and 1860s has been credited with being the “first mass or corporate form of non-violent resistance,” yet it has received little scholarly attention in the nonviolence literature. In its usual portrayal, the movement is epitomized as a forerunner of Gandhi's later mass satyagraha campaigns, and its leader Ferenc Deak as a prototype Mahatma. In reality, the campaign was far more complex and less organized. However, it did demonstrate that even such campaigns can lead to the achievement of the aimed for goals when outside events and deeper internal economic and social drivers come together to unite the oppressed and weaken the position of the oppressor. As recent major studies of nonviolent struggle have shown, the Hungarian example illustrates what can be achieved when the oppressed withdraw their consent to be ruled and undermine state power by targeting areas of particular vulnerability of their oppressor.

Anti-Americanism in Latin America and the Caribbean

.an excellent collection.Like any good collection, the articles raise as many questions as they answer.[that] highlight the value of the collection for use in undergraduate courses on Latin American history, inter-American relations or U.S. foreign policy. Liberal use of appropriate political cartoons adds spice to the readings. * Hispanic American Historical Review ..a very interesting collection of nine original essays, plus an extensive introduction by the editor.[whose]concluding remarks leave room for future debates. [It] could help undergraduate students in many disciplines, from international relations and American Studies to history and geopolitics.[It] must be seen as a fundamental addendum to any bibliography on the study of anti-Americanism. * The Latin Americanist volume addresses an important topic and does so very effectively. All of the essays take on a high level of quality. All the essays are well written and well researched. They also show a high level of methodological and conceptual sophistication. They effectively deal with uniformities and differences in manifestations of anti-Americanism from time to time and from place to place. * Mark Gilderhus, Texas Christian University .the collection succeeds in generating a number of stimulating explorations of anti-Americanism, providing an important starting point for further re-examination of a phenomenon that continues to grow in significance in the contemporary global environment. * Journal of Latin American Studies Whether rising up from fiery leaders such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro or from angry masses of Brazilian workers and Mexican peasants, anti U.S. sentiment in Latin America and the Caribbean today is arguably stronger than ever. It is also a threat to U.S. leadership in the hemisphere and the world. Where has this resentment come from? Has it arisen naturally from imperialism and globalization, from economic and social frustrations? Has it served opportunistic politicians? Does Latin America have its own style of anti Americanism? What about national variations? How does cultural anti Americanism affect politics, and vice versa? What roles have religion, literature, or cartoons played in whipping up sentiment against 'el yanqui'? Finally, how has the United States reacted to all this? This book brings leaders in the field of U.S. Latin American relations together with the most promising young scholars to shed historical light on the present implications of hostility to the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean. In essays that carry the reader from Revolutionary Mexico to Peronist Argentina, from Panama in the nineteenth century to the West Indies' mid century independence movement, and from Colombian drug runners to liberation theologists, the authors unearth little known campaigns of resistance and probe deeper into episodes we thought we knew well. They argue that, for well over a century, identifying the United States as the enemy has rung true to Latin Americans and has translated into compelling political strategies. Combining history with political and cultural analysis, this collection breaks the mold of traditional diplomatic history by seeing anti Americanism through the eyes of those who expressed it. It makes clear that anti Americanism, far from being a post 9/11 buzzword, is rather a real force that casts a long shadow over U.S. Latin American relations. Alan McPherson teaches history at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He is the author of Yankee No! Anti Americanism in U.S. Latin American Relations (2003). He is at work on a survey of U.S. Latin American relations since 1945 and on a study of Caribbean anti U.S. movements from 1912 to 1934.

Trials of Nation Making: Liberalism, Race, and Ethnicity in the Andes, 1810-1910

Trials of Nation Making: Liberalism, Race, and Ethnicity in the Andes, 1810-1910

The Chinese Sultanate

David G. Atwill’s recent historical work joins in the anthropological streamof studying the ethnic groups of China’s Yunnan province. This book presentsa history of the violence in nineteenth-century Yunnan, to which ethnicity,economics, culture, environment, and politics all contributed. It consistsof ten chapters, the first of which discusses the bloody history of the Hui(Muslim) genocide by the Han (Chinese). In this chapter, Atwill identifieswhy the Han resent the Hui and refutes conventional assumptions about thePanthay rebellion (1856-72). The second chapter situates nineteenth-centuryYunnan in mosaic landscapes of region, commerce, ethnicity, and geographyand provides the context for understanding the ensuing violence. The thirdchapter presents the history, communities, and networks of Muslims inmultiethnic Yunnan, and the fourth chapter discusses Han trouble-makers(Hanjianism) in Yunnan’s borderlands and presents a history of non-Hanresistance to Han expansion.The fifth and sixth chapters concentrate on Han hostility toward the Huiand documents in detail the massacre of Muslims by Han officials and militiaas well as major Hui resistance campaigns: rebellions in Yunnan’s eastern,southern, and western regions. The seventh chapter discusses divisionsamong Yunnan’s Hui, which were largely due to differences in region, religion,and personal ambitions, along with the Qing policy of using some Huito control other Hui. The eighth chapter focuses on the Dali regime (1856-72), which Atwill surprisingly labels as “Sultanate,” and discusses its multiethniccharacter. The ninth chapter presents the back-and-forth battlesbetween the Dali Sultanate and the Qing, and the fall of the Dali regime. Thetenth chapter, as an epilogue, critiques the existing scholarship, which failsto note the facts of the Han massacre of the Hui and the multiethnic backingof the Dali regime. It also restates that the Panthay rebellion was primarilya Hui-led indigenous multiethnic resistance to the Han immigrants’ hunger ...