A MAGAZINE FOR PRACTICAL IDEALISTS Summer/Fall 2017 the training issue KAZU HAGA Interviews: nonviolence as a practice GEORGE LAKEY RIVERA SUN ALI ABU AWWAD harnessing social media Support nonviolence A MAGAZINE FOR PRACTICAL IDEALISTS Help us bring more stories about peacebuilding, person power, social justice and climate protection into the world: Become a donor or sponsorship partner. In upholding a positive image of human beings while looking deeply into the issues of our time, nonviolence fills a gap largely ignored by corporate media. With your support, we can send magazines to places that would appreciate them: high school classes, prisons, nonviolence trainings, college libraries, yoga service programs. Email us for more information about nonviolence donations and sponsorships: [email protected] Thanks in advance for the wonderful support! 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. 2 nonviolence 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 nonviolence 3 featured inside Principle & Strategy Person Power & Unity 8 New Story & Training 30 A Personal Theory of Change Michael N. Nagler makes a case for familiarizing Maja Bengtson looks at the power of rewriting activists with the New Story. our personal narratives. 10 How to Use the New Story 36 Meditation: Soul of Peace The Metta Center for Nonviolence offers robust Michael N. Nagler sees meditation as the most tips on telling the New Story. effective training at our disposal. 12 Ten Lessons Learned 62 The Kung Fu of Nonviolence David Hartsough shares insights from his Kazu Haga emphasizes why (and how) lifelong experiments in nonviolence. nonviolence is first and foremost a practice. 18 Conflict Analysis & Actor Mapping Tiffany Ornelas de Tool outlines a process Photo: Ming Lai and Laura-Marie Taylor for seeing an initiative’s bigger picture. Nonviolence is not glamorous, and you don’t see the effects right away. ~ Julia Bacha 4 nonviolence Photo: Lou Zweier Interviews & Insights Scholarship & Culture 20 Q&A: Ali Abu Awwad 32 Training for the Revolution The Palestinian peace activist talks about his life Mary L. Hanna reflects on the encouraging and work with Michael N. Nagler. upswing in nonviolence trainings. 24 Answering the Skeptics 38 When You See Something: Act The Metta Center reveals how to address Rose Marie Berger explains how to be an active common objections about nonviolence. bystander when the moment arises. 40 Q&A: George Lakey 46 For Six & Under Lou Zweier picks George Lakey’s brain about Stephanie Van Hook reminds us that nonviolence training for campaign success. is not just for adults but children too. 50 Social Media for Social Change 54 Building the Movement Rivera Sun identifies ways to improve your Soneile Hymn and Stephanie Steiner round up engagement and outreach efforts. learning and dialogue resources. 58 A Look at Swaraj Peeth Trust 56 Case Study: 1000 Trainings Rajiv Vora gives us a bird-eye’s view of this Ryan Hall illustrates what went into building the Gandhian center’s work in India. Nonviolence Training Hub platform. 60 Satyagraha: A New Term Michael N. Nagler traces the history of the Poetry Sanskrit word and its relevance today. 17 Breathing For Peace Poem by Ira Batra Garde 29 @ this point Poem by James Phoenix nonviolence 5 nonviolence PUBLISHER The Metta Center for Nonviolence EDITOR & CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kimberlyn David SUMMER/FALL 2017 CONTRIBUTORS Designer Miroslava Sobot Proofreader Todd Diehl Writers 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 Poets Ira Batra Garde James Phoenix Photographer 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: [email protected]. 6 nonviolence 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 The road ahead is paved with opportunities to create the kinds a solo adventure, of changes needed to build a sane and just world—if we’re yet for it to succeed, adequately prepared to meet and overcome the challenges. Since each of us must be Brexit and the 2016 elections in the United States, we’ve seen a practicing it. 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: [email protected]. KIMBERLYN DAVID Editor & Creative Director nonviolence 7 Principle & Strategy Where the New Story Meets Training by MICHAEL N. NAGLER Two things are necessary to build and sustain an New Story Training unstoppable movement: training and strategic requires very little planning. Training is busting out all over. People like myself who have been in the peace movement for a organization. lifetime have never seen anything like this outpouring. Strategy is another matter, and it will be the subject of a future issue of Nonviolence. activism” to how to organize a movement (Bill Moyer), What is nonviolence training? Many things; yet I will conduct meetings (Nonviolent Communication) and argue that we need to include at least one more aspect. prepare for jail (Ruckus Society), the vast majority of the trainings springing up today concentrate on the The classic, iconic type of training developed in the moment of interaction between oneself as activist and United States was what Rev. Jim Lawson offered to some kind of pushback. One example in this regard participants in the varied actions of the Civil Rights is how to intervene to protect someone from some movement. Many of us will have seen those grainy kind of attack, either by an irate person emboldened black-and-white videos of Lawson working with activists by the US president or US Immigration and Customs in church basements somewhere in the South. The Enforcement. These are real, needed skills that help us main techniques were, and still are, role-plays, in deal with the very conflicts we’re facing. The more of which some participants played the part of abusive this the better. segregationists while others practiced techniques of defusing their aggression without giving in. A special At the same time, I see room for an added dimension type was called “hassle lines,” where participants form that would enable us to not only deal more skillfully two parallel lines of equal number (and sometimes with the conflict at hand but turn it into an opportunity a third to be observers) and then play out how they to advance the revolution. I call it New Story Training. would respond in some typical conflict situations. Here It requires very little organization. is one set of role-plays recommended by the venerable As a civilization, we are in the throes of a paradigm shift War Resisters International (note the last role, which from what’s called the “Old Story” (OS) of materialism is particularly pertinent for the kind of conflict and separateness to a “New Story” (NS) of spirituality demonstrators are facing right now, and which, in my and “interbeing,” to use the wonderful term coined by view, we must find a solution for if we are to continue): Thich Nhat Hahn.