People have resisted oppression and injustice nonviolently for generations. Dictators have been brought down, colonisers humbled and systems of oppressions lifted thanks to nonviolence. Some of the most famous examples where nonviolence played a crucial role include the Arab Spring in 2011, the fall of the communist regimes in East and Central Europe in 1989, Gandhi’s struggle for an independent India in the 1920s and ‘30s, the US civil rights movement in the United States in the 1950s and ‘60s and in the long struggle against Apartheid in South Africa.
When we teach nonviolence we always include many examples of practical and successful use of nonviolence. We discuss theory and philosophy, what makes nonviolence effective and the differences between principled and pragmatic understandings of nonviolence.