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Monday, February 13, 2023


Just Finished Reading: This Is An Uprising – How Nonviolent Revolt is Shaping the Twenty-First Century by Mark Engler and Paul Engler (FP: 2016) [304pp] 

Non-violent resistance to perceived oppression has a long and fruitful history. Used with surprising effectiveness in diverse situations from Gandi's India to the Civil Rights marches of MLK and others to the present day in Egypt, Serbia and Hong Kong, non-violence is a tactic that can be used against both democratic and non-democratic governments. But does it always work? Why does it sometimes fail? Is it more effective against oppressive regimes or is a free media a force multiplier than cannot be ignored? Are non-violent protests simply a product of random factors used by protestors in an ad hoc fashion or can ‘trigger events’ be created at will for maximum effect? What happens after the protest is over? Can long term change really be achieved by non-violent action? These are some of the questions addressed in this interesting book – even if the subtitle is rather misleading! 

Despite using case studies from Serbia and India, a major focus of this book is the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s in the US. Time and again aspects of the struggle – both the long running organisational side and the ‘sudden’ outbursts of protests on specific and local issues – are highlighted to illuminate the well thought out points the authors are trying to make. Looking at things from both a practical, on the ground, perspective and the theory of protest (proposed at the time by those involved or tangential to the events and also later in academic circles) lessons learnt are translated and applied to later protests from the ‘Occupy’ movement, the Arab Spring and beyond.  

Although not exactly a by-the-numbers work book for effective protests this is still a useful reference guide to draw on if you’re in the protest business and is, I think, especially effective in understanding why some movements or stand-alone protests either fail to work or appear to fail to do so. Forcing an issue and bringing it into the consciousness of the media is all very well but without an effective organisation behind it to do the follow up work things are much more likely to fall apart – as the example of the Occupy movement shows. Likewise, the disconnect between the street protestors in the Arab Spring, especially in Egypt, and the political spade work required to change the system in much needed ways failed to produce the results many so desperately hoped for. 

The nature of the misleading subtitle is all very simple – the thrust of the book is very much about the past and there’s little here about the future. It does show the foundations of future protest and does give any future movement leaders, organisers or ‘political officers’ advice on building a useful library of texts and some good advice on the does and, more importantly, don’ts of successful protest but doesn’t really show or speculate much on how things will be as the century progresses. Nevertheless, this was a very interesting look at how non-violent protest has evolved over the last 50+ years and highlights the many lessons learnt along the way. As such this definitely belongs on the shelves of any serious thinking radical. Recommended. 

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3 comments:

Marian H said...

Ahhh this sounds right up my alley for this year's reading. I am going to find a copy! Did they talk about Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution at all? Honestly I barely know anything about the Arab Spring (embarrassingly) so this would be really informative.

CyberKitten said...

Yes, it does mention the Velvet Revolution as well as other 'uprisings' both pre and post the breakup of the Soviet Union - but only really in passing. If you want to read more about the Arab Spring I can recommend:

The Arab Uprisings – The People Want the Fall of the Regime by Jeremy Bowen

Fractured Lands – How the Arab World came Apart by Scott Anderson

Why it’s Still Kicking Off Everywhere - The New Global Revolutions by Paul Mason

Marian H said...

Cool, thanks!!