Star Wars Satyagraha, a general practice for actions during Keep Space for Peace Week

Preparation:

How to run a safe brainstorm: facilitator reviews quickly the ground rules that all short ideas be shared aloud, but it is the behavior of the facilitator and recorder that set the tone for it to be non evaluative yet still fun. Remind the group there is to be no evaluative comments, only a list! People are to give short ideas (a few words at most) one at a time for the benefit of the record keeper, no matter how silly or dark. The facilitator must keep a poker face being encouraging to all, and is assisted by someone willing to record the items with a nonjudgmental response to each item (neither positive nor negative, but supportive of the process and of the participants taking risks).

How to create a safe role play:Sometimes things can get out of hand in a role play or hassle line and it is the trainer’s job to make sure all the parties are safe. I check in frequently with participants if they look uncomfortable beyond the role they are playing. If something dangerous or hurtful is occurring, it is the responsibility of the trainer to stop the action immediately and address the problem. This training has a group create a role play, however if the trainers are uncomfortable with that level of spontaneous role play, by all means develop a role play before the training to use. I like making up the role play with the group at the end because I have always found the group comes up with a better idea to practice than I thought of, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a plan B role play in case people at the training really can’t think of one (that has never happened to me yet!).

Background training for trainers and bibliography available at

Stories of nonviolent success and resistance since 1945

The Power of Nonviolence by Richard Gregg which can be used in the training, and to locate a library where the book is available you can go to Pages pg 40- 42 outline moral jiu-jitsu or you can read my favorite incident Vykom pg 9 to the bottom of p 10, can be used in the training for storytelling as well.

Is War Good for Nonviolence?

Story telling from the trainers themselves or invited guests to the training makes the training come alive. Some success stories are:

Greenham Common told at

Vieques

Notes from the International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases, held in Ecuador 2007 US bases out

or see these examples

Or the Clamshell

Or Faslane

Small Trident action with only two people

Of course there are a zillion more, email and add yours!

Locatea legal expert in the case of an affinity group planning a cd action. You could have this person available to meet with cd/da planners at a future date or you as the trainer can be prepared. Because legal rules differ by location, please be aware trainers have a responsibility for at being aware of legal ramifications of actions, and that without proper instruction in the legal ramifications of cd/da solidarity and momentum can be broken.

Locatea large space that you can be relaxed in, that is comfortable and it is ok to be really noisy in. It sounds extravagant but I think the training will be easiest if there is access to the internet with a large screen to display web resources, such as the global network film, which occurs halfway thru the training. A DVD player could play the Global Network DVD if web access is awkward and A Force More Powerful requires a video player. Either a TV or a large screen projection system would also work. If the web access is not available, and there is no access to mediatrainers can tailor the training using the resources below and can email me at if there is any way I can help with your training. I also make a packet for participants and include in the packet the MLK six elements, a model nonviolence code, Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, Feelings and Needs, Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms and Global Network talking points list, the one page legal summary from Midnight Special Law Collective, Circle consensus guidelines and principles, Responses to Violence, Self Defense and How Solidarity Works by Starhawk. In addition you can include any materials you feel are relevant to the issues, such as the map of the Star Wars expansion into space and perhaps additional info on Keep Space for Peace Week, or local anti base information that is essential talking points for participants.The pages in the packet should be arranged in the order that they will be addressed by the agenda so people can follow along easily and are not distracted as each topic comes up. Small notepads or scrap sheets of paper need to be provided to participants for note taking as well as a pen or pencil. These should also be under the chair. A sign up sheet should be provided for those interested in future trainings or to connect with Global Network or the local training sponsoring groups. Trainers should bring large markers and large paper for recording as well as a stop watch for timing the activities. One trainer should in addition be appointed as the time keeper to keep the training on time. Additionally trainers should provide snacks and water if possible and a KOSH ball or easy to grab soft small ball. Other preparations for the trainers include providing props that may be needed for the role play, such as rolled newspaper as police batons, having markers and a flip chart or some way to display information on a white board or smartboard.

Packet materials can be:

MLK six elements:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote that the philosophy and practice of nonviolence has six basic elements.

First, nonviolence is resistance to evil and oppression. It is a human way to fight.

Second, it does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his/ her friendship and understanding.

Third, the nonviolent method is an attack on the forces of evil rather than against persons doing the evil. It seeks to defeat the evil and not the persons doing the evil and injustice.

Fourth, it is the willingness to accept suffering without retaliation.

Fifth, a nonviolent resister avoids both external physical and internal spiritual violence- not only refuses to shoot, but also to hate, an opponent. The ethic of real love is at the center of nonviolence.

Sixth, the believer in nonviolence has a deep faith in the future and the forces in the universe are seen to be on the side of justice.

SAMPLE MODEL GUIDELINES FOR PUBLIC ACTION:

Nonviolence seeks to create social change through truth-force, or love. It is the willingness to undergo suffering rather than inflict it, and excludes retaliation. It is essential that we separate the individual from the role that they play. The enemy is the system that casts people in oppressive roles.

Non-violence cannot guarantee your safety.

Yet, we try to protect one another with practice in nonviolence and the study of Satyagraha. We ask that all people considering civil disobedience go to direct action civil disobedience training and join an affinity group.

At the march and rally, we ask that all people act according to the love and caring we intend to create. Individual or group actions that endanger the physical wellbeing of other demonstrators should not be done. Actions that might endanger others include:

a)Physical or verbal violence directed against others, including the police, bystanders, counter-protestors, and our fellow participants. We refuse to hate or objectify anyone.

b)Actions that cause panic such as running, or carrying objects that could be construed as weapons.

c)Any action that requires secrecy. Our group does/does not condone property damage.

If you have any questions about non-violence, or want to know more, contact (insert local contact information).

A printout of Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action

Marshall Rosenberg’s (2 total lists) feelings and needs lists:

Suggested Talking Points from Global Network Darmstadt Meeting

  • unilateralism is against democracy and should be defined as a junta or a dictatorship and that currently the EU is mixing military and civilian solutions under the umbrella of “homeland security”. The EU must not be a satellite of the US but humane and civil.
  • Give background information to scientists, who often have only a limited area of expertise
  • Find a starting place for dialogue that understands where scientists are and understand the different levels of rationalization- why do they do this work, and begin the dialogue with understanding.
  • Provide talking points that are developed to speak to different populations and to different degrees of understanding of the issues. Meet people with the information that is where they are as a starting point.
  • Reclaim the meaning of words, specifically, peace has been defined as the absence of outright aggression by abusive governments and the peace community has a definition that precludes any force. Reclaim the meaning of language from the status quo by using our own definitions: it is Star Wars, (offensive) and not “missile defense”, not the “Iraq war” but the Iraqi occupation by the US.

Use as talking pointsbelow and the 4 freedoms of Roosevelt: speech, worship, from want, from fear. Text of four freedoms follows list:

  • Share concerns for the future with scientists
  • In the UK the Oxford Research Group explains that by the time a weapon system is up for a vote already 15 years have gone into the momentum and we must go back to the beginning to question how it has been made, who made it and the measurable effects of the development.
  • Raise awareness of politicians of their own manipulation for others gain.
  • Address ethics in science
  • Show the absurdity of the lack of funding for education so people volunteer for military service (same in Australia as in US) to pay for education (wouldn’t it be better just to make education available?)
  • Use humor like the Billionaires for Bush, Mischief for a Nuclear Free World (a citizens group that does nuclear inspections) and tools like cd and PR.
  • The military has failed to solve problems and has no solutions to offer and this is shown by the failure of the military in Iraq.
  • Help people to understand that the military can not make safety happen in a world of climate change, bird flu, etc.
  • Make issues clear that we have real problems to solve in EU and there is no real military threat!
  • Make the science make sense to laypersons and translate it into easy to understand language
  • Remind people NV resistance to war profiteering companies is a tradition (tell the stories of resistance)
  • Link space domination with on the ground GIs (like no funds for VA treatment, 400,000 cases backlogged by the VA currently, wait time is 165 days to even be seen by the VA) also, high tech war requires more land for exercises, etc.
  • Do people know there are still 72 US bases in Germany?
  • Educate about removing US weapons from NATO
  • Expose hypocrisy of US
  • The military is a pollution maker, link the military with the environment
  • The biosphere failed years ago and proved that humans can not live on the moon or mars
  • Make it clear that this is a human right issue as 80% of the nuclear fuel cycle (mining, production, testing, and storage) takes place on indigenous lands.

Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms

“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change -- in a perpetual peaceful revolution -- a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions -- without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.

This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.

To that high concept there can be no end save victory.

From Congressional Record, 1941, Vol. 87, Pt. I.

Retrieved from

Midnight Law Collective One page summary

Starhawk’s responses to violence

  • Prepare, look for exit
  • stay calm
  • become active: match energy, change energy, change situation, step-in
  • don't accept victim role
  • keep contact to attacker,
  • talk (tone of voice)
  • don't threaten or insult
  • get help
  • do the unexpected
  • avoid physical contact

In the moment of confrontation, nonviolent self defense means we:

  • Know what our intention is for the action: literally stopping a meeting? Building alliances? Drawing attention to an issue? The specific choices we make will depend on our intention.
  • Convey that intention clearly to the group as best we can, so that everyone understands the reasons behind the choices we may make.
  • Oppose the power of violence with the power of our radical imagination. Remember that every act we take is a choice, and that we have choices in any situation.
  • Seek to undermine dehumanization, by not ourselves dehumanizing our opponents, for when we do we simply reinforce the mindset and energetic patterns that encourage violence.
  • Remain human ourselves, staying calm, centered, and not giving way to fear.
  • Act in unexpected ways, not doing the dance of violence and intimidation, but writing our own steps and music.
  • Bring art, music, drums, seeds, masks, puppets and magic into confrontation to embody our vision and hope.
  • Seek to broaden the awareness of our opponents that they are also making choices, that their behavior is not predetermined.
  • Use humor and surprise.
  • Know what may escalate the tension in a situation, and what may de-escalate it, and make a conscious choice about which to do.
  • Act to strengthen our group solidarity and support.

How solidarity works:

We have more power when we act together than when we act alone. Solidarity is the way we protect each other in our struggles, share the consequences and mitigate the suffering we encounter when confronting oppressive power. The purpose of solidarity is to build our movement, and to embody our mutual care and concern for justice.

Solidarity works best when we respect each other's differing needs and life circumstances, understand that there are many ways of being in solidarity, and co-ordinate our responses. It does not work when we attempt to coerce shame or inflict guilt upon each other, even subtly.

Through solidarity, we can pressure the system to treat us fairly and justly, to protect the physical safety and health of jailed protestors, to treat arrested protestors equally, to prevent individuals from being singled out, to improve jail conditions, to resist harsh or unequal punishment or sentences that would constrict our future freedom.

Solidarity puts pressure on the system by raising the social and political costs of its oppressive acts, raising the economic costs of holding us in jail or bringing us to trial, and by interfering with the smooth running of the system.

Solidarity can be extremely effective, but it is always exercised at a cost. Before deciding on a solidarity strategy, we need to know what our intentions and goals are for any given action. By Starhawk, see

Cirlce Guidelines for affinity groups download a nicer copy at

  • Create a circle.
  • Consider it a sacred space.
  • One person speaks at a time.
  • Speak and listen from the heart.
  • Encourage and welcome diverse points of view.
  • Listen with discernment instead of judgment.
  • Share leadershipand resources.
  • Decide together how decisions will be made.
  • Work toward consensus when possible.
  • Offer experience instead of advice.
  • When in doubt or need, pause and silently ask for guidance.
  • Decide together what is to be held in confidence.
  • Speak from your own experience and beliefs rather than speaking for others.
  • Open and close the circle by hearing each voice. (Check-ins and check-outs.)

Again download a nicer copy at