Historical overview of nonviolence

From 1870 to 1909Étienne Godinot

Translation : Claudia McKenny-Engström15.07.2015

Clemens August von Galen

(1878-1946). German, Bishop of Münster in Westphalia, known as “the lion of Münster” due to his opposition to the Nazis.

During the summer 1941, condemns the brutalities perpetrated by the Gestapo*, lodges a complaint for the crimes committed in his diocese, forcefully denounces the Aktion 4 assassination of the mentally ill plan.

His preaches circulate within Germany up to the front lines. Bormann wants his assassination, but Goebbels refuses, because the Westphalian population would be lost for the end of the war.

In August 1941, Hitler puts an end to the murder of the mentally ill.

* GeStaPo : GeheimeStaatsPolizei, Nazi secret police

Pierre Ceresole

(1879-1945), Swiss, studies in Zürich, travels to the USA, engineer in Japan.

In 1915, is deeply impressed by the “refusal to serve” of John Baudraz, teacher from the Canton de Vaud, and by the absence of position taken by the Church towards him. Refuses to pay the “military tax” (replacing participation in the army, Ceresole being exempted due to health issues). First sentence to one day imprisonment. In November 1917, calls to refuse “national idolatry”.

In 1919, co-founder in the Netherlands of the International Movement for Reconciliation. Becomes the first secretary general of this new Christian international refusing war.

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Pierre Ceresole

In 1920, creates the International Civil Service, and opens close to Verdun, together with German , Austrian and British friends, the first construction works (5 months). In 1924, first construction works of civil service in Switzerland.

Meets Gandhi several times in India.

Becomes a member of the Quakers in 1936. Twice, in 1924 and 1944, walk to Germany. Again he is sentenced to imprisonment.

“ Better be banned by all parties than an accomplice ”.

“ This idea that justice can triumph in violence will seem one day to be as stupid and wrong as using torture to obtain the truth ”.

Morihei Ueshiba

(1883-1969). Japanese, founding-master of Ai-Kido. Influenced by Sokaku Takeda, Jujutsu Grand master, then by OnisaburoDeguchi, co-founder of the Omoto religion inspired by Shintoism.

One of his greatest motivations was to promote a nonviolent resolution of conflicts by teaching an art accessible to all and grounded on the refusal of violence, the union of forces and not their opposition.

“ A defence technique that is not based on an attitude of attack, a martial art that practices nonviolence (…). It is not fighting against another, but with the adversary, profiting from the others energy to make him or her renounce. Ai-Kido proves the uselessness of physical force, which only meets a void ”.

Jean François Blanchon

Louis Massignon

(1883-1962), French professor and Islam specialist. After a period of atheism and agnosticism, becomes friends with Charles de Foucauldand reconnects with the faith of his childhood. Walks into Jerusalem, freed from the Turks, next to Lawrence of Arabia. In 1922, defends a thesis on mysticism around the Sufi martyr Mansur al-Hallaj, crucified in Bagdad in 922. Major actor in the establishment of a dialogue between Islam and the Catholic Church. Is fully involved in the recognition of Palestine after 1948.

President of the Friends of Gandhi society, denounces, together with Lanza del Vasto, François Mauriac and the Abbé Pierre, during the war in Algeria, French exactions against Algerians. Arrested and held for one night in 1960, at the age of 70.

“ At worse, we do not live down here to conquer, but to testify, and pass the message on to younger generations ”.

Armin Wegner

(1886-1978), German photographer, poet, professor in law, writer. Voluntarily engaged as nurse in the German army, is confronted to the distress of the Armenians in the Mesopotamian desert. In 1915, despite formal prohibition, takes pictures of the genocide, one of the first sources held today. Publishes in 1919 texts written there and writes to Wilson a letter calling for the creation of an Armenian State.

Founds in 1919 with Helene Stöcker, Magnus Schwantje and others the Bund der Kriegsdienstgegner (Union of conscientious objectors).

Protests against the persecutions against Jews in Nazi Germany. In April 1933, writes an open letter to Hitler against anti Semite legislation. Arrested by the Gestapo, incarcerated in several prisons and concentration camps, manages to escape to Italy.

Georges Bernanos

(1888-1948), French writer. Passionate Catholic and Monarchist, breaks from Maurras and the Action Française in 1932. Violently denounces a perverse patriotism which humiliates the German enemy in defeat, engages against Franco dictatorship in Spain. Living in Brazil, supports La France Libre in 1940. Is disgusted by the cleansing after the liberation.

In his last years, denounces man’s inconsistency before unleashed technical progress which he will be unable to master, the perversions of industrial capitalism, relentlessly protests against the atomic bomb and the “civilisation of the atomic bomb”.

“ To a world of violence and injustice, a world of the atomic bomb, we can only oppose our conscience, the conscience of as many as possible ”.

“ The threatening polytechnical violence only has our conscience to stand up against it ”.

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Georges Bernanos

“ I have believed for a long time now that if one day, more and more efficient methods of destruction come to eradicate our species from the planet, it will not be cruelty that is the cause of this, and even less so the indignation that such cruelty raises, and not even repression and revenge, but docility, absence of responsibility of the modern man, his vile and servile acceptance of the public decree.The horrors that we witness, the more and more appalling horrors that we will now witness, do not only signal that rebels, unsubordinated, refractors, are more and more numerous in the world, but rather that there are more and more docile and obedient men ”.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

(1891-1956, a.k.a Babasaheb Ambedkar), Lawyer and Indian politician, of Mahar Untouchable origin. Doctorate in Economy at Columbia University, USA. Disagrees with Gandhi on the question of a separate assembly for Dalits (or Untouchables) and on the principle of a positive discrimination law in favour of them. To give the Untouchable rights, launches a movement of civil disobedience, namely consisting in allowing them to enter temples and drink water in fountains, which was forbidden by the Brahmans.

Minister of Justice in the first Indian government after the independence, is put in charge by Nehru of writing the new Constitution. Convinced that untouchability, linked to the system of casts, is consubstantial to Hinduism, organises, right before his death, the first mass conversion of his companions to Buddhism – 380 000 Untouchables gather in Nagpur. Writes 22 wishes the converted should pronounce.

Martin Niemöller

(1892-1984), Lutheran pastor and German theologian. Submarine officer during the first World War. Ordained pastor in 1924.

In 1933, calls pastors hostile to anti Semite legislation to unite within a new organisation, the Pfarrernotbund (Emergency Alliance of Pastors), respectful of the principles of tolerance taught in the Bible. At the end of 1933, 6000 pastors, that is 1/3 of protestant pastors, have joined this dissident group. Removed from his functions in November 1933.

At the fall of 1934, joins Karl Barth, Dietrich Bohnhoeffer, etc., to found the Bekennende Kirche (Confessing Church),protestant anti-Nazi group.

Photos :

- - Niemöller as submarine officer; - Catholic bishops during a meeting organised by the Nazi party in Berlin Neuköln Stadium in August 1933.

Martin Niemöller

Arrested in 1937, he sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and then to Dachau and Süd Tyrol.

Freed by the Americans in June 1945 after a 44 day hunger strike, he dedicates his life to the reconstruction of the protestant church in Germany. Preaches that any German rebirth is conditioned by the Germans recognising their guilt.

President in 1961 of the World Council of Churches. He is an activist for nuclear disarmament and against the war in Vietnam.

“ When they came to get the communists, I said nothing, I wasn’t a communist. When they came to get the trade unionists, I said nothing, I wasn’t a trade unionist. When they came to get the Jews, I said nothing, I wasn’t a Jew. And then they came for me, and there was no one left to protest ” (1942).

Member card of the Bekennende Kische (Confessing Church)

Joseph Cornelius Kumarappa

(1892-1960), Indian Christian Economist, friend and disciple of Gandhi. Studied economy in the USA. Presented by Historian Ramachandra Guha as the “green Gandhi”, founder of modern ecology in India. His book The economy of permanence : A quest for social order based on nonviolence, was written is prison during the Quit India movement.

Identifies 5 types of economy of different nature : parasitical, predator, of enterprise, gregarious and of services. An economy of services is the highest form of economy.

According to him, contemporary economy, dominated by the infinite quest for growth, generating degradation of the environment and social unrest, is transitory and without future.

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Joseph Cornelius Kumarappa

Travels in China, eastern Europe and Japan to study rural economic systems. Co-founder in 1935 of the All India Village Industries Association.

The Kumarappa Institute of Gram Swaraj or KIGS, was created after his death in 1967, in Jaipur. He elaborates and practices his methods for an autonomous and equilibrated development.

His first focus goes on women, Untouchables and tribal populations, poor and marginalised farmers. The micro-development projects rest on the basic needs of a population (agriculture, animal farming, crafts, energy, water supply, small industry, hygiene) and the creation of village councils.

Abdul Ghaffar Khan

(1892-1988). Central character the political life of India, and then Pakistan. Chief of a traditionally warrior people, the Pachtuns, present in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Known as the BadshahKhan, “King of chiefs”, or the “Gandhi of the border”.

One of Gandhi’s closest companions from 1919, probably the most precious element in uniting the Muslims and Hindus during the non-cooperation campaigns.

Following him, thousands of warriors accepted to abandon their weapons for a red shirt, distinctive sign of the pacific army he created, the Servants of God.

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Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Imprisoned for 15 years by the English colonisers.

After the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan, believes Pachtun rights are unjustly baffled. Is again incarcerated for 16 years in Pakistan, between 1947 and 1976.

Takes refuge in Afghanistan in 1976, but the Soviet occupation forbids him from rest.

He dies under house arrest.

“ I was born a soldier, I will die a soldier ”.

Stephen King Hall

(1893-1966), British, marine officer for 20 years of his life. Fights German submarines under water during the First World War. Sits in the Chamber of Commons from 1939 to 1945. Author of 40 books, 3 about strategy.

Believes the nuclear weapon opens a new era, and that defence must be totally rethought. In 1958, criticises nuclear dissuasion and recommends unilateral disarmament of his country and the establishment of a nonviolent civil defence system.

“ It would be wrong to assimilate the psychological aspect of our civil defence to passive resistance, but to think it rather as a true offensive launched against the minds of the occupation forces ”.

Basil Liddell Hart

(1895-1970), English Historian, theorist of military thought, considered by Raymond Aron as “the greatest military author of our time”. Wounded twice in 1916-1917.

Leaves the army in 1927 and works as specialist on military issues for the Daily Telegraph and Times. Develops a theory of indirect approach, which privileges harassing supply channels and “going round” rather than frontal attack of enemy positions.

After the Second World War, was able to interrogate, during their captivity, more than 100 German generals or officers who had commanded occupation troupes in Europe, on the diverse forms of resistance they had encountered.

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Basil Liddell Hart

In 1967, brings an essential contribution to a collaborative book edited by Adam Roberts :

“ The generals’ declarations revealed the efficiency of nonviolent resistance (…). According to their own declarations, they were incapable of dealing with them.They were experts in violence, had been trained to confront an adversary using violent methods.But so many forms of resistance troubled them, and what’s more since the means used were subtle and secret.They were relieved when resistance became violent and when, to nonviolent methods, were added guerrilla type actions. Because it was much easier to apply severe repression measures against both forms of resistance at the same time ”.

Acharya Vinoba Bhave

(1895-1982). Indian activist, close to and heir of Gandhi, wanting to establish a society based on sardovaya (the wellbeing of all, the promotion of the poor).

Creates in 1951 the boodhan movement (“gift of the Earth”), which organises the redistribution of farmland between rich and poor. Following exhortation marches in villages, 5 million hectares are given to the poorest.

Creates in 1952 the Gramdan movement (“gift of the village”), which organises villages economically (cooperatives), politically (village councils) and culturally.

Dorothy Day

(1897-1980), American journalist and activist. From 1917, demands that women imprisoned for having demonstrated for the right to vote benefit from the status of political prisoner. Arrested in turn, goes on a 10 day hunger strike in prison.

In 1933, creates with Peter Maurin the Catholic Worker Movement, which carries the aspirations of social Christianity, radical activism and nonviolent anarchism, promotes direct mutual help, solidarity towards the poorest. Pleads for the right to conscientious objection, against the war in Vietnam and nuclear trials. Invites her fellow citizens to non-cooperation and to refuse tax payment.

At the age of 75, spends 12 days in prison for having participated in a boycott with Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers.

Albert Luthuli

(1897-1867). South African politician, Zulu literature professor, then tribe chief. Becomes president of the African national Congress in 1952, organisation which adopted, since its foundation in 1912, a nonviolent strategy.

Imprisoned for one year in 1956. Boycott of busses in 1957, general strike in 1958, long struggle after the obligation to carry a pass (right of passage) was carried out in 1959. Nobel Prize for Peace in 1960, year of the massacre in Sharpeville by the police (68 dead, 118 wounded).

Accidentally (?) run over by a train in 1967.

“ Economic boycott of South Africa will undoubtedly lead to a difficult period for us all. But if this method is the way to stop the massacre, our sufferance is a price we are willing to pay ”.

Henri Roser

(1899-1981), French protestant pastor. In January 1923, as the French army occupies the Ruhr, sends his military papers back in the name of the Bible. Revoked from his officer charge, and declares himself conscientious objector. In 1925, year of his marriage, becomes secretary of MIR for France, and then Europe.

In 1939, opposition to the war, sentenced to 4 years imprisonment for refusal to obey and insubmission, is released after the defeat in 1940. Saves Jewish children in Aubervilliers, contacts emissaries of the General de Gaulle.

Takes position against the repression in Madagascar in 1947, against the war in Indochina, against the war in Algeria and torture, against rearmament is Europe and nuclear trials.

Presides the Blue Cross during 25 years, a national association dedicated to the help and treatment of alcoholics.

Aldo Capitini

(1899 -1968). Italian philosopher, educator, poet, political activist, imprisoned twice for anti-fascist activities in 1942 and 1943. Sometimes called the “Italian Gandhi”, as one of the first Italians to take Gandhi’s actions seriously and working in favour of their recognition. Defends a secular spirituality.

In 1952, organises an international conference for nonviolence and creates an International Centre for the coordination of nonviolence. The same year, holds a conference in Perugia to study nonviolence towards vegetal and animal life.

Founder of the Movimiento Nonviolento and the AzioneNonviolenta review.

Joseph Lanza del Vasto

(1901-1981). Author, poet, artist, philosopher and activist, of Sicilian father and Flemish mother. In 1936, spends several months with Gandhi who calls him Shantidas (“servant of peace”). In June 1937, in pilgrimage at the source of the Ganges in the Himalayas, has a vision telling him “Go home and found!”. In 1954, participates in the Vinoba Bhave campaign for land redistribution.

Founds in 1948 in France a spiritual, worker and nonviolent order, the Arch, whose great axes are : respect of nature, social restructuring (maximal economic autonomy), nonviolent resolution of conflicts, spiritual conversion, interreligious dialogue.

The Arch leads nonviolent struggles (during the war in Algeria, against nuclear armament, side by side with the farmers in the Larzac, against GMO, etc.) and develops in several countries.

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Joseph Lanza del Vasto

For him, in Man, between sensitivity and intelligence, there is an equilibrium, a harmony to find, thanks to a third faculty that makes their unity : will. That is the “spiritual trinity”.

Denounces the “four evils” of contemporary humanity (war, sedition, misery, servitude) which rest on avidity. Man’s enslavement to economy and technique, separated from wisdom that manifests itself in stultifying chain work and culminates in the atomic bomb.

“ Historical examples of nonviolent action teach us that recourse to violence, dubious of all time, today disastrous, and now useless (…). With the atomic bomb, nonviolence is the major discovery of the XXthcentury, one answering the other and obliging humanity to choose between death and life ”.

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Joseph Lanza del Vasto

“ Think that those people who are preparing the bomb tell us about all the security measures they have put into place to avoid accidents, and that they didn’t even imagine what the result would be if those installations were bombed ! (…).Last year, I was in New York, on Wall Street, where there are all those banks, all those towers full of dollars, those beautiful towers, shining and black ! I told myself : a simple bomb landing where I stood, what would that result in ? (…). Naturally, if we have the bomb, we are safe from all that ! ” (interview, 1978).

“ Me, I see the day when the nonviolents will have to hide the technicians, engineers and thinkers that the people will accuse of having led to catastrophes, realising where mortal perils come from ”.

André et Magda Trocmé

(1901-1971), French Pastor and protestant theologian, one of the founders of the Collège Cévénol.

In 1934, appointed in the village of Chambon-sur-Lignon (Haute-Loire, France). Calls the population to active nonviolent resistance and organises it.

With his spouse Magda, the protestant community, the SCI, the Salvation Army, the Quakers, the CIMADE, etc., makes of Chambona place of refuge for Jewish refugees, anti-Nazi Germans, Frenchmen escaping the STO : fund raising, false identity papers fabrication, warning network, escape channels, open a school.

It is estimated at 5 000 the number of Jews saved.../..

André Trocmé

After the war, becomes the itinerant secretary of the International Movement for Reconciliation in Europe.

“ Nonviolence means in daily life a choice between two alternatives, one of which is closer than the other to the words of Jesus Christ. It is the one that must adopted no matter what, even if it contrary to the rules of the State. No government can oblige us to kill. We must find a way to resist Nazism without killing men ”.

Photos : - André Trocmé- The film by Jean-Louis Lorenzi (1994) inspired by the experience in

Chambon-sur-Lignon.

Théodore Monod

(1902-2000). French philosopher, naturalist, professor and researcher at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, walked across the African deserts looking for meteorites, fossils, skeletons, plants and minerals. Gathered, listed and analysed over 20 000 samples.

Nonviolent activist, takes part in the movements against the war in Algeria, apartheid, exclusion. Vegetarian, involved against corrida, hunting for leisure, vivisection, bleeding of animals and all other forms of animal ill-treatment.

Theologian of protestant tradition, president of the Unitarian Christians Brotherly Assembly. Member of the International Fellowship for Reconciliation (IFOR-MIR), believes that the “Christian era”, or defined as such, ended on 5th August 1945 with the Hiroshima bombings.

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Théodore Monod

Fast against the nuclear weapon each year from 6th to 9th

August close the PC nuclear power plant in Taverny, holding a poster “Preparation of the crime is a crime”.

“ All bombs are naturally reprehensible and must be banned, but the atomic bomb is diabolical, inexpiable…”

“ Christianity has not failed : it hasn’t tried yet ! If we applied the Gospel, it would be an extraordinary revolution ”.

Jayaprakash Narajan

(1902-1979), known as JP. Gandhian activist and Indian politician. Imprisoned several times during the fight for independence.

Witnessing the Congress’ departure from Gandhi’s teaching from 1948, founds the Praja party and engages for a while with Vinoba Bhave in the movement for land redistribution.

When Nehru doesn’t recognise the sovereignty of Tibet nor the Dalai-Lama’s government in exile, leads the Lok Sabha(Chamber of the people) socialists in a pro-Tibetan pressure group.

Founds in the 70’ the citizens for Democracy and Peoples Unions for Civil Liberties movements.

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Jayaprakash Narajan

Pleads for a social transformation programme that respects Gandhi’s teaching, which he calls the sampurna kranti (“total revolution”), and becomes the true political conscience of India.

When Indira Gandhi declares the state of emergency, organises in June 1975 a demonstration that gathers 100 000 people in Patna. Imprisoned for a few months. Founds the Janata Party, which will sign the fall of Indira Gandhi in the 1977 elections.

“ One of the negative consequences of violent revolution is the fact that power ends up being usurped by the ones who led the revolution. This is inevitable when power is gained with weapons in hand, since weapons are not in the hands of the middle layers of society. That is why a violent revolution has always led to a dictatorship of one form or another. ”

Isaac Bashevis Singer

(1902-1991), Polish and Jewish writer. To flee anti-Semitism, leaves Poland for the USA in 1935 with his brother Joshua and becomes an American citizen in 1943. In the 70’, establishes links between human behaviour towards the animal world and the one of Nazis towards the Jews during the Second World War, and becomes a vegetarian activist. Nobel Prize for peace in 1978.To a woman who asks him if he avoids eating chicken “for health reasons” he says “Yes, for the chicken’s health ! ”

“ Everything the Nazis did to the Jews, we do it every day to animals. One day, our grand-children will ask us : where were you during the holocaust of animals? What did you do against those terrible crimes ? ”.

“ There is no better way to serve the creator that to be good to his creatures (…). Vegetarianism is my religion, my protest ”.

Bruno Bettelheim

(1903-1990). Psychoanalyst and American pedagogue of Austrian Jewish origin. Director during 30 years of the family planning (“orthogenie”) school at the University of Chicago.

Following his experience in a concentration camp, writes on psychological phenomena between prisoners and torturers.

“ The SS State would never had functioned without the cooperation of its victims. More specifically, the SS would have been incapable of holding the camps together without the collaboration of a great number of prisoners, generally involuntarily, in some cases with repugnance, but far too often, with promptness (…). Retrospectively, it clearly appears that only a total refusal to collaborate from the Jews could have given a small chance to force Hitler to a different solution ”.

Éric Weil

(1904-1977), French Philosopher of German and Jewish origin, fled Nazism in 1933.

Founds the review Critique with Georges Bataille. Literature Professor at the universities of Lille and then Nice. Loyal to Kant’s conception of duty and moral, his entire work is based on a reflection on violence and nonviolence, but his decisive mistake was to fail to see the difference between strength and violence.

“ The philosopher wants violence to disappear from this world. Philosophy is realised and ends in action (…). All escape is made impossible.Nonviolence is the starting point and the goal of philosophy.Progress towards nonviolence defines for politics the meaning of history ”.

Emmanuel Mounier

(1905-1950), one of the first French philosophers to integrate nonviolence in his thinking.Founder in 1932 of the review Esprit, which presents itself as the third force between capitalism and marxism, and develops the concept of “personalisation”.

Participates during the second world war in the newspaper Combat, and later in the Franco-German reconciliation.

Together with his spiritual leader Jacques Martin, takes interest in philosophy and political action of Gandhi.

Defines nonviolence as the “ a politics of power virtue that rejects all form of alliance with fear and weakness ”, claims “ an insurrectional nonviolent right against unjust laws ”.

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Emmanuel Mounier

“Nonviolence is not a state of tranquillity that is reached below violence, it is a state of control and tension that is reached beyond violence. Only the one who is capable of violence, and on top of it, to refrain from using violence, is capable of nonviolence”.

It is important “ to study and experience the unexplored field of nonviolent methods, without ever forgetting their efficiency and in an attempt to make up for the lost time”.

Mounier doesn’t reject the possibility of counter-violence, but “we will have beforehand heroically tried all other nonviolent means at our disposal, and will only accept violence as last resort ”.

“ We know how to fight fire, the plague, theft, but not yet how to fight war in equal terms ”.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

(1906-1945), Lutheran evangelist pastor, German theologian and writer. Assistant in the Universities of Berlin, one year in New York and one in London.

In 1935, joins the Bekennende Kirche (Confessing Church), opposed to Nazism, dissolved in 1937. Is forbidden to teach, directs a clandestine pastoral seminar. In Stockholm, gives the British a proof of the Jewish extermination and asks for their help to eliminate Hitler.

Arrested on 5th April 1943 for “weakening the war potential of Germany”, imprisoned in Tegel military jail in Berlin and then in Buchenwald. Sentenced to death by the martial court, akin Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and General Hans Oster, hanged in Flossenburg camp on 9th April 1945. ../..

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“ Stupidity is a far worse enemy than evil. We can protest against evil, make it visible and stop it using force (…). Whatever deployment of exterior force, political or religious, afflicts a great part of humanity. The strength of a few requires the stupidity of many ”. 1st January 1943.

“ Sticking to duty, you never run the risk of a responsible action which could in itself strike evil at its heart and defeat it (…). We lacked a fundamental element: the one of necessary free and responsible action, even in opposition to a mission or order that was commanded (…). Civic courage can only be born from a free man’s free will and responsibility ”.

Photo below : a bronze statue of Bonhoeffer in Hamburg.

Franz Jägerstätter

(1907-1943), Austrian farmer and conscientious objector. In 1938, after Hitler’s troupes invaded Austria, is the only one in his village to vote against the Anschluss.

Father of three daughters, is called to fight in February 1943. Refuses to fight for the Third Reich. Imprisoned in Linz, and then Berlin, sentenced to death by a military tribunal, decapitated on 9th

August 1943 in Brandenburg prison.

Beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in Linz Cathedral on 26th October 2007, Austrian National day.

“ If God had not given me grace and strength to die, if necessary, to defend my faith, I might have done what a majority of people did ”.

Photo below : stone in his memory in Berlin.

Jacques de Bollardière

(1907-1986). French general. Norwegian campaign. Sentenced to death by a military tribunal of the Vichy regime. Battles in Egypt, Erythre, Libya, the Ardennes maquis, Holland. Companion of the Liberation.

In Indochina, realises he is participating in a colonial war.

Colonel during the Algerian war, creates the Special Administrative Section (SAS) to replace a failing administration in inaccessible zones, establishes “black commandos”, formed by 7 or 8 volunteers who share the life of the local population, opposes torture.

Sentenced to 60 days imprisonment in a fortress for having confirmed the writings of Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber after the putsch of the Generals. Manager and social animator in Britany.

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Jacques de Bollardière

Discovers nonviolence in 1970 during a conference by Jean Marie Muller where he brings his wife Simone. Demonstrates in Mururoahis opposition to French nuclear trials in 1973, sends back his title of Grand Officer of the Legion d’Honneur. Co-founder of the Movement for a nonviolent alternative (MAN) in 1974. Recommends a civil nonviolent defence, supports the farmers in the Larzac threatened by expropriation, engages in ecological struggles.

While fighting cancer, defends Jean-Louis Cahu, nuclear missiles officer who deserted the Albion plateau, in a trial in 1985.

“ I am scandalised by the fact that (nonviolent civil resistance) methods are not openly presented in the various French institutions thinking France’s military strategy ”.

Photo below : inauguration of the General Jacques de la Bollardière intersection in Paris by Bertrand Delanoé, Mayor, in the presence of Simone de Bollardière.

Mahmoud Muhammad Taha

(1908-1985), Hydraulic engineer, sometimes nicknamed “the Sudanese Gandhi”. Imprisoned for two years in 1938 for having opposed himself to the British during the colonisation of Sudan.

Creates the communities of men and women, the Republican Brothers, under the sign of the sharing of goods, prayer, reflection, debating ideas. Suggests to abandon the Sharia pronounced by Mahommet of Medina (war against the unfaithful) to reinstall the Sharia of the Mecca (nonviolent fight against selfishness and violence).

Sentenced in 1968 as heretic by religious hierarchy. Opposes General Nimeiry after the promulgation of a criminal code in conformity with the shariah. Sentenced to death for “having acted against the government” and is hanged in January 1985 in a Khartoum prison.

Piotr Grigorenko

(1907-1987), Ukrainian, veteran of the Second World War, divisionary General in the Red Army.

In 1961, criticises Khrushchev’s political action, is appointed as punishment in the extreme east of the country. Becomes a member of the Helsinki Watch Group in Moscow. Sentenced to psychiatric imprisonment in 1964-1965, is deposed from his military position, medals and retirement pension. Leader in the Human rights movement.

Arrested in May 1969 and interned for 5 years diagnosed with “paranoiac schizophrenia” in a medical hospital in Chernyakhovsk. In 1977, after medical treatment in the USA, is deposed from his Russian nationality.

“ Convictions are not like gloves, they cannot be easily turned over ”.

Jean Lasserre

(1908-1983), French pastor in the French Reformed Church. During his theology studies in New York, meets and influences Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Pastor in various cities between 1953 and 1961, then itinerant secretary of the International Movement for Reconciliation, editor of his own review, the Cahiers de la reconciliation for many years.

Activist against alcoholism, prostitution, racism. Participates in many nonviolent actions, is part of the team which greeted Martin Luther King in Lyon in 1966.

Animates numerous groups and gives conferences in francophone countries (France, Belgium, Switzerland) on themes dear to him : dishonour war, violence and exploitation of all forms, promote conscientious objection and active evangelical nonviolence, mutual aid and solidarity.

Simone Weil

(1909-1943), French writer and philosopher born in a Jewish but agnostic family. Studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, PHD in Philosophy and then factory worker, Franco regime and Nazi resistant.

Denounces the violence of the industrial system, in collective life mechanisms (political parties, criminal system, etc.), nationalism and militarism, and even in liberation movement. Her experience of the Spanish civil war showed her the perversity of the use of means in contradiction with the end sought for.

Outraged by the collusion between Christianity and violence, to the point of refusing baptism after her conversion.

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Simone Weil

Whether we exercise or suffer under violence “ either way, its contact petrifies and transforms man into thing ”.

“ To hit or be hit, is the same stain. The coldness of steel is as mortal as the fist and point ”.

We kill “ to avenge our mortality ”.

“ Do everything to become nonviolent (…). Do everything to substitute more and more in the world nonviolence to violence ”.

“ Love makes war as much as peace. Love goes to war more naturally than to peace, due to that fanatism that grounds tyranny (…). Peace is not grounded on love but on thought ”.

“ Plenitude of love for my brother, is simply being able to ask him: what is your tourment ? ”

“ Religion as source of consolation is an obstacle to true faith, and in that sense, atheism is a purification ”.

Saul Alinsky

(1909-1972). American sociologist, man of action and strategist, son of Russian Jews. Dedicates his life to the organisation of the poorest areas of Chicago, and then in other American cities. Teaches how conflict can be source of empowerment.

His book on nonviolent action teaches how to weaken the adversary by disorganising his power and force him to negotiate, using democracy and pragmatism.

“ One must be politically insane to think that power is at the point of a gun when it is the adversary who is in possession of all the weapons ”.

“ If there is (a heaven) something after the death, I will go to hell, but before walking in, I will start by organising the most deprived I find there. They are my brothers ! ”.

Helder Camara

(1909-1999). Brazilian, Bishop of Olinda and Recife from 1964 to 1985. Leaves his Episcopal palace and settles down in a modest house at the heart of a slum. Human rights defender, important person in Liberation theology, engages for the poorest.

Marginalised by the Brazilian clergy namely due to his opposition to the dictatorship of the Generals between 1964 and 1985, tours European countries where he holds conferences denouncing torture, dictatorship, misery, the war in Vietnam, sale of weapons.

Referring to Gandhi and Martin Luther King, puts into place a pastoral directed towards the service of the poor, wishes priests be trained in social action as much as in theology.

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Dom Helder Camara

His successor nominated by John Paul II, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, will destroy all of his predecessor’s work.

“ When I feed the poor, they call me a Saint. When I ask why there are poor people, I am treated as a communist ”.

“ There are three types of violence.The first, mother of all others, is institutional violence, the one that legalises and sustains dominations, oppression and exploitation. The second is revolutionary violence, born from the first. The third is repressive violence, which aims at strangle the second by becoming accomplice of the first ”.

Kwame Nkrumah

(1909-1972), Politician for the independence of Ghana (ex-Gold Coast) and pan-African. Studies in England and the USA.

Secretary general of the independence party UGCC (United Gold Coast Convention), which he leaves to found a mass party, the Convention People’s Party (CPP). Call to boycott and civil disobedience. Imprisoned by the British authorities until 1951.

Prime minister of the Independent Ghana (1957-1960), then President (1960-1966). Becomes dictator after 1961, ruining his sole to the contemplation of his own grandeur, calls himself Osagyefo (the redemptor).

Easy target of a military coup, exiled in Guinea with his friends Ahmed Sekou Touré, another dictator.

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