How Nonviolence Protects the State

In his book How Nonviolence Protects the State, anarchist Peter Gelderloos criticizes nonviolence as being ineffective, racist, statist, patriarchal, tactically and strategical inferior to militant activism, and deluded. Gelderloos claims that traditional histories whitewash the impact of nonviolence, ignoring the involvement of militants in such movements as the Indian independence movement and the Civil Rights movement and falsely showing Gandhi and King as being their respective movements' most successful activists. He further argues that nonviolence is generally advocated by privileged white people who expect "oppressed people, many of whom are people of color, to suffer patiently under an inconceivably greater violence, until such show more time as the Great White Father is swayed by the movement's demands or the pacifists achieve that legendary 'critical mass.'" show less

Though it won’t necessarily cause you to pick up a Molotov cocktail or an AK-47, this little book will cause you to at least question some of your assumptions about past successes from nonviolence movements. From Gandhi to MLK to the anti-Vietnam movement, there have always been more militant groups working at the same time. These more militant groups through either actual violent acts or through the threat of violence may have done as much to change policy as the nonviolent groups that we feel more comfortable focusing on. Plus as an added bonus, we guarantee an FBI file to be created with every purchase!

This book helped confirm my nagging feeling that nonviolent activism doesn't really help further any type of real revolutionary agenda. The author does a great job explaining why this is so and what alternatives exist to counter ineffective pacifism.

"He who writes this book in which hate is not hidden was formerly a pacifist...to him no disilusionment was ever greater or more sudden. it struck him with such violence that he thought himself no longer the same man. And yet, as it seems to him, that in this state of hatred his conciense bceomes diminished, he dedicates these pages, with emotion, to the man he used to be" - Emile Verhaeran, A Belgian writing after witnessing the German invasion and ransacking of his country in August of 1918.

"pacifism simply does not resonate in the reality of peoples everyday lives, unless those people live in some extravagent bubble of tranquility, from which all forms of civilizations pandemic reactive violence have been pushed out by the systematic show more and less visible violence of police and military forces." - Peter Gelderloos. show less

its a decent collection of argumentative lines, but is so poorly composed

gelderloos has this unfortunate style which is simultaneously too polemical to convince any opponents and too pretentious to inspire any allies

Proposition de Nicolas Casaux.