Summer/Fall 2017: The Training Issue (sample)

A MAGAZINE FOR PRACTICAL IDEALISTS

Summer/Fall 2017

the training issue

Interviews: GEORGE LAKEY ALI ABU AWWAD

KAZU HAGA

nonviolence as a practice

RIVERA SUN

harnessing social media

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The print version of nonviolence is published biannually by the Metta Center for Nonviolence, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that provides educational resources on the safe and effective use of nonviolence, advances a higher image of humankind and empowers people to explore the question: How does nonviolence work, and how can I actively contribute to a happier, more peaceful society? To learn more, visit nonviolence.org and mettacenter.org.

Courage, complemented by the knowledge of skillful nonviolence, as provided in this handbook, is a recipe for a world of peace and justice. ~ Ann Wright, Col. US Army (ret) and recipient of the US State Department Award for Heroism

Support your local bookseller with your purchase of a print copy.

Nonviolence Handbook: A Guide for Practical Action is also available as Amazon Audible and Kindle books.

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applause The Metta Center for Nonviolence, publisher of Nonviolence, thanks all the volunteers who share their love and help spread the mission of creating a nonviolent future.

This issue of Nonviolence was made possible, in part, by generous support from the following people: MAJA BENGTSON TODD DIEHL ANNA IKEDA BARBARA BRIGGS-LETSON JOHN LEWIS NANDU MENON RICH MEYER MICHAEL & VICKI MILLICAN MICHAEL NAGLER TAL PALMAN LORIN PETERS JAMES PHOENIX BERT SACKS JEANINE SAPERSTEIN JIM SCHUYLER JOHN WADE SUSAN FISCHER WILHELM LOU & JILL ZWEIER

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featured inside

Principle & Strategy

Person Power & Unity

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30 A Personal Theory of Change

New Story & Training Michael N. Nagler makes a case for familiarizing activists with the New Story.

10 How to Use the New Story

36 Meditation: Soul of Peace

12 Ten Lessons Learned

62 The Kung Fu of Nonviolence

The Metta Center for Nonviolence offers robust tips on telling the New Story.

David Hartsough shares insights from his lifelong experiments in nonviolence.

18 Conflict Analysis & Actor Mapping Tiffany Ornelas de Tool outlines a process for seeing an initiative’s bigger picture.

Nonviolence is not glamorous, and you don’t see the effects right away. ~ Julia Bacha

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Maja Bengtson looks at the power of rewriting our personal narratives.

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Michael N. Nagler sees meditation as the most effective training at our disposal.

Kazu Haga emphasizes why (and how) nonviolence is first and foremost a practice.

Photo: Ming Lai and Laura-Marie Taylor

Photo: Lou Zweier

Interviews & Insights

Scholarship & Culture

20 Q&A: Ali Abu Awwad

32 Training for the Revolution

24 Answering the Skeptics

38 When You See Something: Act

40 Q&A: George Lakey

46 For Six & Under

50 Social Media for Social Change

54 Building the Movement

58 A Look at Swaraj Peeth Trust

56 Case Study: 1000 Trainings

The Palestinian peace activist talks about his life and work with Michael N. Nagler.

The Metta Center reveals how to address common objections about nonviolence.

Lou Zweier picks George Lakey’s brain about training for campaign success.

Rivera Sun identifies ways to improve your engagement and outreach efforts.

Rajiv Vora gives us a bird-eye’s view of this Gandhian center’s work in India.

Mary L. Hanna reflects on the encouraging upswing in nonviolence trainings.

Rose Marie Berger explains how to be an active bystander when the moment arises.

Stephanie Van Hook reminds us that nonviolence is not just for adults but children too.

Soneile Hymn and Stephanie Steiner round up learning and dialogue resources.

Ryan Hall illustrates what went into building the Nonviolence Training Hub platform.

60 Satyagraha: A New Term Poetry

Michael N. Nagler traces the history of the Sanskrit word and its relevance today.

17 Breathing For Peace Poem by Ira Batra Garde

29 @ this point

Poem by James Phoenix

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nonviolence PUBLISHER The Metta Center for Nonviolence

EDITOR & CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kimberlyn David

SUMMER/FALL 2017 CONTRIBUTORS Designer Proofreader Writers

Poets Photographer

Miroslava Sobot Todd Diehl Maja Bengtson Rose Marie Berger Kazu Haga Ryan Hall Mary L. Hanna David Hartsough Soneile Hymn Michael N. Nagler Tiffany Ornelas de Tool Stephanie Steiner Rivera Sun Stephanie Van Hook Rajiv Vora Lou Zweier Ira Batra Garde James Phoenix Lou Zweier

HOW TO REACH US MAILING ADDRESS The Metta Center for Nonviolence PO Box 98, Petaluma, CA, 94953 PHONE NUMBER 707-774-6299 WEBSITE www.mettacenter.org All contributors maintain the rights to their work as they choose, though the publisher generally uses Creative Commons licensing (CC BY-NC-ND).

Please request permission to reproduce any part of Nonviolence, in whole or part.

For info about permissions, advertising or submissions, email the editor: nonviolencemag@mettacenter.org.

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editor’s letter Nonviolence is power, but it is the right and good use of power. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. Photo: channing.wu, via Flickr

Nonviolence is not a solo adventure, yet for it to succeed, each of us must be practicing it.

The road ahead is paved with opportunities to create the kinds of changes needed to build a sane and just world—if we’re adequately prepared to meet and overcome the challenges. Since Brexit and the 2016 elections in the United States, we’ve seen a horrifying rise in xenophobia, racism and international tensions.

At the same time, the demand for nonviolence trainings has never been higher.

We therefore turn our spotlight on training for this issue, drawing from a wide range of expertise and scholarship in the field of nonviolence. You’ll likely recognize some of the notable voices featured throughout these pages, from Kazu Haga and Mary L. Hanna to David Hartsough and George Lakey.

Understanding how to tell the right story about nonviolence trainings—and how to illustrate their importance in effective activism—is invaluable. Digital forms of communication offer us easy, and often free, ways to spread the word. Rivera Sun’s “Social Media for Social Change” provides plenty of sound tips on engaging, informing and inspiring people through platforms like Facebook and Twitter. On a related note, Ryan Hall’s “Case Study: 1000 Trainings” discusses a purposeful web-based tool for posting and learning about nonviolence trainings.

“To practice nonviolence, first of all we must learn to deal peacefully with ourselves,” as famed Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh has said. Maja Bengtson’s “A Theory of Personal Change” offers one prescription for doing that.

Do you lead nonviolence trainings, or have you participated in a life-changing one? We’re eager to share stories about training experiences/results at nonviolencemag.org. Email your stories to: nonviolencemag@mettacenter.org.

KIMBERLYN DAVID Editor & Creative Director

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Principle & Strategy

Where the New Story Meets Training

by MICHAEL N. NAGLER

Two things are necessary to build and sustain an unstoppable movement: training and strategic planning. Training is busting out all over. People like myself who have been in the peace movement for a lifetime have never seen anything like this outpouring.

Strategy is another matter, and it will be the subject of a future issue of Nonviolence.

What is nonviolence training? Many things; yet I will argue that we need to include at least one more aspect.

The classic, iconic type of training developed in the United States was what Rev. Jim Lawson offered to participants in the varied actions of the Civil Rights movement. Many of us will have seen those grainy black-and-white videos of Lawson working with activists in church basements somewhere in the South. The main techniques were, and still are, role-plays, in which some participants played the part of abusive segregationists while others practiced techniques of defusing their aggression without giving in. A special type was called “hassle lines,” where participants form two parallel lines of equal number (and sometimes a third to be observers) and then play out how they would respond in some typical conflict situations. Here is one set of role-plays recommended by the venerable War Resisters International (note the last role, which is particularly pertinent for the kind of conflict demonstrators are facing right now, and which, in my view, we must find a solution for if we are to continue): ▪ Someone planning to engage in nonviolent action/ someone close to them who is opposed to their participation ▪ Blockading a weapons or government facility/ angry worker ▪ Protester/counter-protester or angry passer-by ▪ Protester committed to nonviolence guidelines/ protestor breaking nonviolent guidelines.

While the term “training” is applied to everything from spiritual techniques that make us adept at “soft

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New Story Training requires very little organization. activism” to how to organize a movement (Bill Moyer), conduct meetings (Nonviolent Communication) and prepare for jail (Ruckus Society), the vast majority of the trainings springing up today concentrate on the moment of interaction between oneself as activist and some kind of pushback. One example in this regard is how to intervene to protect someone from some kind of attack, either by an irate person emboldened by the US president or US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These are real, needed skills that help us deal with the very conflicts we’re facing. The more of this the better.

At the same time, I see room for an added dimension that would enable us to not only deal more skillfully with the conflict at hand but turn it into an opportunity to advance the revolution. I call it New Story Training.

It requires very little organization.

As a civilization, we are in the throes of a paradigm shift from what’s called the “Old Story” (OS) of materialism and separateness to a “New Story” (NS) of spirituality and “interbeing,” to use the wonderful term coined by Thich Nhat Hahn. “Old” and “New” apply very well to the science dimension of the impending shift. Quantum theorists and others now use the term “classical science” for the paradigm that prevailed in the West at least since Descartes and Bacon to the present day, for a reductionist model of the world as consisting of objects, be they molecules or galaxies, interacting randomly to create the reality we experience. However, the descriptions “Old” and “New” are a bit misleading for the other main source of the NS, the consensus wisdom of the ages that Huston Smith and others called the Wisdom Tradition, which includes contributions from indigenous as well as advanced civilizations.

The “old story” is an enabling factor, if not a primary cause, of every form of violence we have to deal with.

Think of it: If you are aware of your connectedness with others, how could you exploit them, not to mention hurt or kill them? If you are aware of your real needs and the potent inner resources you have to fill them, why would you rape the environment?

If you have some sense of truth—that there is a Truth underlying life and you are capable of getting some grasp of it—how could you be swayed by “alternative facts,” misinformation, outright lies or a crazy ideology that’s divorced from reality?

There’s a famous story about Aaron Russo, a goodhearted guy who became successful financially and befriended a scion of one of America’s wealthiest families. The friends turned into investment buddies, and one day the person in question proposed a joint venture as, in effect, “economic hit men,” so they could get even richer, at the expense of some Central American country. Russo balked, and the friend asked him, in classic OS fashion, “Why do you care about those people?” Ugh. Imagine if Russo had calmly said, “Well they’re not really ðthose people.’ In a way, they’re my own people because we’re all in this together.”

Would the friend have seen the light and turned his life around? Not likely, from one encounter. But a seed would have been planted that, when it grew, would have redressed not only this but many forms of ongoing cruelty.

The ‘old story’ is an enabling factor, if not a primary cause, of every form of violence we have to deal with.

In addition to the other kinds of training, why not help activists familiarize themselves with the NS and some simple, non-threatening ways of telling it? After all, as the late Donnella Meadows said, “The most powerful leverage point in a system is ðchanging the dream.’”

This is not just a metaphor—visions have power.

The NS has a powerful advantage that will eventually tell heavily in our favor: it happens to be true. n

Michael N. Nagler is Founder of the Metta Center for Nonviolence and author of The Nonviolence Handbook: A Guide to Practical Action.

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Principle & Strategy

How to Use the New Story by the METTA CENTER FOR NONVIOLENCE

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To change the direction of politics we have to change the implicit narrative, or “story” that it’s based on, and today we have a great opportunity to do that. All of us can be involved in this critical change.

We are deeply interconnected.

The “old story” that came to dominate our thinking (in the West) about the time of the industrial revolution held that everything consists of matter, and several assumptions followed. For example, the universe being inert matter, is naturally meaningless. Evolution (for those who believe in it!) was or is a series of random events; there is no way to explain how human beings can think and feel, and most importantly, we are separate from one another and the planet, which keeps us always on the verge of competition—if not outright violence—because we can only be satisfied by more and more outside resources. Finally, there is no way to change this situation; we are the result of our genes, or physical brain or outside forces.

We have untapped inner resources.

This story encountered a severe shock with Einstein’s theories of relativity, and especially with Max Planck’s discovery that what we thought was solid matter is in fact an indeterminate field of possibilities that resembles consciousness more than “stuff ”—and the entire universe is deeply interconnected. Thus science came back into alignment with timeless traditions of human wisdom that had always maintained that human beings are body, mind and spirit with an as yet unrealized destiny.

This “new” story, a consensus of modern science and ancient wisdom, is an invaluable resource for social change activists. At the Metta Center, we recommend becoming familiar with this inspiring story and take to telling it wherever you get a chance. Doing so will greatly help turn the tide and make the key values of peace, justice and nonviolence far easier to implement.

The core of the story is about human nature. Please adapt the key points as you see fit.

Our happiness is bound up with the happiness of others, and our real fulfillment comes from our adding to their happiness. As Swami Vivekananda said, “Western civilization has in vain endeavored to find a reason for altruism. Here it is. I am my brother, and his pain is mine. I cannot injure him without injuring myself, or do ill to other beings without bringing that ill upon my own soul.”

Once our basic needs for food, clothing and shelter are met (and as Gandhi said, “there is enough in the world for everyone’s need”), happiness does not come from exploiting the earth (much less others) but from building relationships toward loving community.

No conflict is unresolvable.

We can never be secure by punishing “criminals” or defeating “enemies.” The only real security comes from rehabilitating those who may have committed an offense and reconciling with those with whom we have a disagreement. Conflicts are about wants, not needs, and they often provide opportunities to learn from and grow closer to one another.

We are active agents in our destiny.

We are still evolving, if not physically then mentally and spiritually, and this is not merely a passive process: we can learn to unfold the capacities within us, particularly the capacity for nonviolence. People like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. have done just that. They are pioneers in human evolution, as the capacity for nonviolence is, as Gandhi said, “the hallmark of our species.” n

The Metta Center for Nonviolence provides educational resources on the safe and effective use of nonviolence, with the recognition that it’s not about putting the right person in power but awakening the right kind of power in people.

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Principle & Strategy

Ten Lessons Learned from My Life of Activism

by DAVID HARTSOUGH

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book Waging Peace: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist, by David Hartsough (with Joyce Hollyday). Inspired by the work of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Hartsough has spent his life experimenting with the power of active nonviolence. Waging Peace is a testament to the difference one person can make. Here we share his insights on taking effective action in the world—without losing hope or steam.

David Hartsough and friend. Photo: Nonviolent Peaceforce, via Flickr

1. Vision. It is important that we take the time to envision the community, nation and world we would like to live in, and create for our children and grandchildren. This long-term view, or vision statement, will be a continual source of inspiration.

Then we can explore practical ways we can work with others who share our vision to create that kind of world. I personally envision a world without war— where there is justice for all, love for one another, peaceful resolution of conflicts and environmental sustainability.

2. The oneness of all life. We are one human family.

We need to understand that deep in our souls, and act on that conviction. I believe that through compassion, love, forgiveness, recognition of our oneness as a global community and our willingness to struggle for that kind of world, we WILL realize worldwide justice and peace.

3. Nonviolence, a powerful force. As Gandhi said, nonviolence is the most powerful force in the world, and it is “an idea whose time has come.” People all over the world are organizing nonviolent movements to bring about change. In Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolence Conflict, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan have documented that over the past 110 years, nonviolent movements have been twice as likely to succeed as violent movements, and much more likely to help create democratic societies, without reverting to dictatorships and/or civil war.

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When we confront violence and injustice, it is our spiritual practices that help us discover our inner resources.

David Hartsough (sitting far right) at a June 1960 lunch counter sit-in at a People‘s Drugstore in Arlington, VA. Photo courtesy of David Hartsough

4. Nurture your spirit. Through nature, music, friends, meditation, reading and other practices of personal and spiritual development, I have learned the importance of nurturing our spirits and pacing ourselves for the long haul. When we confront violence and injustice, it is our spiritual practices that help us discover our inner resources, and enable us to move forward with the courage of our deepest convictions.

“Only from the heart can you touch the sky.” ¢quote

by Rumi£

Ordinary people can make change. The most successful campaigns I have participated in were with friends who shared concerns and organized together to make changes in the larger society. Our schools, churches and community organizations are excellent places to develop such support groups. Although one person can make a difference, it can be very challenging working alone. However, together, we can overcome!

5. Small, committed groups can create change.

Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

In times of doubt and discouragement about the current situation, those words, and my own life experiences, have re-inspired me with the certainty that we can make a difference!

6. Sustained struggle. Every major movement that I have studied, or been a part of, required sustained struggle over months, and even years, to bring about fundamental changes in our society. Examples include the Abolitionist movement, the movement for women’s suffrage, the Civil Rights movement, the Anti-Vietnam War movement, the United Farm Workers movement, the Sanctuary movement and many others. All had the common thread of sustained resistance, energy and vision.

Even a few committed students can make substantial change, as we did during our lunch counter sitins ¢in Arlington, VA, 1960£. We had been inspired by four African American freshmen who sat down at Woolworth’s “Whites Only” lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their action sparked many sit-ins like ours, and led to the desegregation of lunch counters throughout the South.

7. Good strategy. Yes, holding a sign and putting a bumper sticker on our car is important, but if we want to bring about fundamental change in our society, we need to create long-range goals that build toward our vision for the future, and then develop good strategy and sustained campaigns to achieve those goals. (See George Lakey’s Toward a Living Revolution: A Five-Stage Framework for Creating Radical Social Change).

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David Hartsough speaking. Photo: Nonviolent Peaceforce, via Flickr

8. Overcome our fear. Do everything you can to avoid being ruled by fear. Governments and other systems try to instill fear in us to control and immobilize us. Claiming that Iraq had concealed weapons of mass destruction scared people and gave the Bush administration justification to invade Iraq, even though no such weapons were found.

10. Telling our stories. Sharing our stories and experiments with truth is critically important. We can empower one another with our stories. There are many inspiring accounts of active nonviolent movements, such as those portrayed in A Force More Powerful: A Century of Non-violent Conflict, by Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall. n

We must not fall into the traps of disinformation set by the authorities. Fear is a major impediment to speaking truth to power, to acting to stop wars and injustice and to whistle blowing. The more we overcome it, the more powerful and united we become. A supportive community is very important in overcoming our fears.

9. Truth. As Gandhi said, “Let your lives be experiments with Truth.” We must experiment with active nonviolence, and keep hope alive. I share Gandhi’s conviction: “Things undreamt of are daily being seen; the impossible is ever becoming possible.

We are constantly being astonished these days at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence.”

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David Hartsough is Executive Director of Peaceworkers, Cofounder of the Nonviolent Peaceforce and an initiator of the World Beyond War movement. Learn more about his work at peaceworkersus.org.

A JUST & SUSTAINABLE WORLD We all want a more peaceful and equitable society.

Imagine what we can accomplish by strategically building a movement of movements together.

To facilitate that, Metta Center for Nonviolence created Roadmap, a set of tools to:

• Develop strategic thinking toward the realization of campaign goals • Connect with others • Train in nonviolence principles

Avoid the commercial mass media

Learn about nonviolence

Develop a spiritual practice

Share the New Story

Build personable relationships

Roadmap provides the unity, strategy and nonviolent power for an unstoppable movement.

Organizations are endorsing Roadmap and helping build the movement of movements.

For details on how your organization, community group or even yourself can collaborate, email Metta Center for Nonviolence: info@mettacenter.org.

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