• ••:.*;- A STUDY OF TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION IN THE UNITED STATES A Thesis Presented to The Faculty Martin Luther King, Jr., School of Social Change In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master o± Social Change by Enid Lynne Shivers June 1969 "Of course there must be organized resistance to evil. The difficulty arises when the organizers of Satyagraha try to imitate the organizers of evil. I tried and failed hopelessly. The way of organizing forces for good must be opposite to the evil way, What it exactly is I do not yet know fully.... But I am still groping." ----Gandhi, as quoted in Chakravarty's A Saint at Work. ...the readiness is all." ----From Hamlet TABTR OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION ....... ..iv I.THE PROBLEM OF TRAINING PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 1 Considerations. • . • * . 0 . 0 . 1 Qualities in A Nonviolent Campaign Participant. 4 Comparison of Training for Nonviolence with Training for Violence or War. 5 Nonviolence as Ethic or Political Strategy. * . 7 II. A REVIEW OF TRAINING EFFORTS TO DATE * . * . Free India Movement *00040 000* 0 009 American Civil Rights Movement. 0 . 0 . 10 American Peace Movement 0 . ... 0 • 11 Present Training Programs . • * * • a a . 12 Present Nonviolent Campaigns and Training Programs. a • 14 III* FUNCTIONS TO BE FILLED . a a • a 0 *a a . 0 . a 17 General Leadership. a . * • . .. • .. • 17 Exemplar. a • 0 *a a a a a aaa a 41 a a a 17 Resource-person . ..• * * •.. 18 Organizer a 0 . 1100•4 000000 , 0 00• 19 Strategist, . * • . • • • . a • • . • 0 19 Tactician . 0 .... • • . a 20 Combatant • • . ....•...0 21 I . TECHNIQUES OF TRAINING 0 . 0 * . • • • a . 22V Theoretical Understandings. , 0 . 22 Training in Specific Practical Skills . * 23 Roleplaying • * . 0 0 . 24 Constructive Program. 0 . • . r)6 Training for Individual Discipline. • 0 , 0 27 Training for Group Discipline * . 28 Principles of Group Dynamics. , a . 28 V. STRUCTURES AND DIMENSIONS OF THE TRAINING PROCESS. 31 Two General Outlooks on Training. • 31 Structure of the Learning Process . 0 . 0 . • 31 Five Dimensions of Training . .. 0 34 Conclusion. ..... 0 . 37 ARI)ENDIX I: STUDY OF THE FRIENDS PEACE COPNITTEE TRAINING PROGRAM . • • . • . .. • 0 • 40 APPENDIX TI SURVEY OF WRITTEN DISCIPLINES . * . 43 APPENDIX III: ADDENDUM STUDY OF THE INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF NONVIOLENCE . * * . L6 APPENDIX IV: ADDENDUM STUDY OF THE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL CHANGE 47 • APPENDIX V: ADDENDUM STUDY OF THE FENDLE HILL PROGRAM. FnOTNOTES 53 BIBLIOGRAPHY * . 4 iv A STUDY OF TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION IN THE UNITED STATES INTRODUCTION Training programs have not always accompanied nonviolent direct action campaigns, and this fact has led to their detriment and, sometimes, failure to achieve significant social change. With the advent of important and frequently successful nonviolent campaigns in both the civil rights and peace movements in this country, and with the increased interest in academic and scholarly study of nonviolence, however; a parallel interest has developed in the training of participants for such campaigns. The paucity of references on nonviolent training documents the point of lact of seriousness regarding nonviolent training. Literature on nonviolent training to date is valuable in establish- ing goals, but as a whole does not tell us how to procede in actually starting the training process. Richard Gregg writes about the need and value of training, often in loving terms. He also discusses the qualities of a nonviolent campaigner. Thirty-one Hours, a description of the 1965 Grindstone Island experiment, is must reading for those interested in marathon roleplaying. Oppenheimer and Lakey's Manual for Direct Action (slated for revision) is still valuable for a general overview of organizing for direct action. But many situations for direct actionists have changed in four years so that many guidelines they purpose are outdated. For example, some of the roleplay scenarios are no longer the kinds of situations that actionists face in 1969 or will likely face again. Charles Walker's booklet, Organizing for Nonviolent Diredt Action, is a key work, outlining in specific details what should go into planning conferences, steps in a non- violent campaign, jobs that need to be done, and so on. Works by Sibley, Miller, Bondurant, and others on explication of nonviolent theory are necessary in their place, but they help very little in thinking through the problems of training. Smaller works by War Resisters International concentrate more on training for a world without war than for nonviolent campaigns. The Friends Peace Committee's booklet on nonviolence is a theoretical guideline, emphasizing qualities and points of view. Desalts Handbook for Shanti Sainiks focuses too specifically on Indian conditions to be very helpful in this country. Adam Roberts' work called Civilian Resistance As A National Defense deals specifically with civilian defense, which is somewhat different from nonviolent training. Although this thesis deals with American training programs and problems, we have included material from the Free India Move- ment because of its impact in this country. This thesis proposes a list of dimensions with which to study training programs for nonviolent campaigns. To this end, we examine past training efforts; qualities, skills, and bodies of knowledge deemed necessary or valuable for participants to have or be; what functions are essential to be filled during a nonviolent • campaign, and what training techniques are useful to develop these functions. The numerous small and large controversies discussed here indicate to what great extent the problem of training is still in its infancy. It is hoped that this thesis will stimulate more experienced people and more perceptive minds to explore those disputed issues. Erich Fromm describes a theory of necrophilia-biophilia which helps to explain why people act the way they do. The necrophiliac is a person who is in love with death; he talks about death, dwells with the past, loves force and control, is attracted to meqanical things, idolizes "law and order," and craves for certainty. The biophiliaa tends to preserve life and to fight against death, tends to integrg.t and unite, and wants to influence by love, reason, or example. A person is not one or the other, but a combination; and it is the degree of behavior which determines whether a person would be classsified necrophiliac or biophiliac. Relevance to social problems, social change, and training for nonviolence is enormous but complex. It might provide a fascinating topic for further study. Because training programs have frequently been taken lightly, we do not really know what training techniques are successful in preparing participants intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually for hurdles involved in a nonviolent campaign. We do not yet completely understand the. relationship between cause and effect, preparation and actuality. For these reasons, and because few records have been taken as to what training methods were actually helpful in preparing .participants, some of our conclusions are based more on theory than on exPerience. Some of the conclusions are not based on what preparation was valuable to participants, simply because those questions were not asked. And here lies the gravest weakness of the thesis. More research is needed to explore what training methods have been used, which were valuable according to participants, and which are valuable according to educational theorists. Another area for fruitful study is training programs of parallel groups, i.e., training programs for military and para- military troops, and types of police groups. Although it is as yet unclear just exactly what is their relevance to nonviolence training programs, the problems are similar: how to train people for meeting conflict, end potentially violent situations. - This study has many limitations which will appear all too evident upon its reading. To this we can only hand the challenge to others and hope that continued study of this vital area of knowledge and experience will uncover more answers than questions. Acknowledgements are gladly given to Theodore Jones, Director of the King School of Social Change for his help in providing financial assistance to enlarge the scope of research; to John Thomas for early moral and financial support; to George Willoughby for continual inspiration and assistance; to George Hardin of the Philadelphia Friends Peace Committee; and to George Lakey, who struggled with me (nonviolently, of course) to find fruitful avenues of thought. Most valualbe, however, were frequent bull sessions and conversations with King school students about the problems of nonviolent training; many of their perceptions and concerns about training in particular and the world in general are represented here. 2 An example of the effectiveness and need for nonviolence training is in order. A group of activists in their teens and twentie6 were taking pert in a nonviolent training course co-sponsored by Philadelphia Friends Peace Committee and the Pasadena American Friends Service Committee. For purposes of examing tactics, we rolepIayed a picket line; when the director asked who would play the roles of picket line captain, marshals, and so on, the participants insisted that these roles were unnecessary and irrelevant. As the scenario started, the director coached the "disrupters" to take their roles seriously As a result, the picket line