I’m pretty certain, based on experiences and study, that a very big majority of US Americans who understand the need for progressive, substantive, systemic change—tens of millions of us—believe that we should try to live “nonviolent lives” as much as possible. We should do so when it comes to actions that we organize and the way that we organize and interact with other people. We should do our best, day by day, hour by hour, to treat those in our family, our neighbors, our friends, those we work with, in a loving and nonviolent way.

We should be “nonviolent” in the way we talk with each other, doing our best not to put other people down or hurt them emotionally or spiritually, not just physically.

This kind of nonviolence is really more accurately described as “love.” We should be loving individuals, of ourselves and those we come into contact with, even our enemies. Our interactions with them are likely to be sometimes intense and emotional, even physical, but our intention should be to try to get those we are communicating with to realize the error of their ways and do some serious thinking.

I think of something I learned about decades ago, that in the Cuban civil war in the late 1950’s to overthrow the Batista dictatorship by force of arms, the revolutionaries, after a battle, would take care of wounded enemy soldiers, help them to get on a healing road, and then release them. THIS is a very good example of nonviolence and love for enemies, refusing to allow them to defeat us, standing up and fighting, while appreciating that, ultimately, people can change.

Which brings me to the issue of “nonviolent tactics.”

During the 17 months since Trump and the MAGA’s were elected, I’ve occasionally heard people or seen people write as if what we should be doing to defeat them is to get guns. For some it’s not just that, it’s getting with other people who are doing the same, to be prepared for the worst when it comes to defending ourselves and our peoples.

Fortunately, from what I’ve observed, this is NOT an approach which is widespread within the ranks of the millions of us who are resisting the Trumpfascists. Our actions, from on-the-ground resistance to ICE, to organizing on the many issues we need to fight on, to the national days of coordinated action on the same day organized by 50501, May Day Strong, No Kings and others–all are consciously and openly nonviolent. This has made a difference as far as how they have been covered by mass media and how they have been responded to by our Trumpfascist enemies. The former have been predominantly positive or at least objective; the latter, so far, have been apparently confused and thrown off.

Does this mean that our tactics should always and everywhere be nonviolent, physically unarmed? The more I’ve thought about this in the context of who now runs the federal government, the more I’ve come to answer NO.

The USA is a big and diverse country. In this context, I mean “diverse” mainly as far as ideologically. There are states and/or parts of states where a definite majority of the people are conservative. Some of those people are overtly racist, sexist, heterosexist and militaristic, though some, I’d say a majority, are not. These people may view things pretty much that way but they’re not overt about it.

It’s those racist/sexist/heterosexist/militaristic ones that we have to be concerned about. It’s not that we should hide from them. For progressive white people in particular, we should be willing to take risks to take on these people ideologically. I know from experience, and others’ experiences, that some of these people are reachable, if we go about this work in the right way.

But others aren’t. Others are already organized into armed rightist groups. In areas of the country where these people are relatively strong politically, I am unwilling to take an absolutist position that it is wrong to have a gun or to be organized for community self-defense. It may be the right thing to do so, based upon realities on the ground.

What I will say, however, is that I don’t support “our side”, armed, openly and ostentatiously going public and essentially being provocative. That doesn’t make sense to me practically or politically.

Once again: the United States of America is a big country. Though our overall approach everywhere right now has to be one based on a commitment to nonviolence, to love, in the best sense, tactically and personally, I do not think, tactically, self-defense via guns is necessarily out of the question everywhere and always.

Ted Glick

Ted Glick has devoted his life to the progressive social change movement. After a year of student activism as a sophomore at Grinnell College in Iowa, he left college in 1969 to work full time against the Vietnam War. As a Selective Service draft resister, he spent 11 months in prison. In 1973, he co-founded the National Committee to Impeach Nixon and worked as a national coordinator on grassroots street actions around the country, keeping the heat on Nixon until his August 1974 resignation. Since late 2003, Ted has played a national leadership role in the effort to stabilize our climate and for a renewable energy revolution. He was a co-founder in 2004 of the Climate Crisis Coalition and in 2005 coordinated the USA Join the World effort leading up to December actions during the United Nations Climate Change conference in Montreal. In May 2006, he began working with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and was CCAN National Campaign Coordinator until his retirement in October 2015. He is a co-founder (2014) and one of the leaders of the group Beyond Extreme Energy. He is President of the group 350NJ/Rockland, on the steering committee of the DivestNJ Coalition and on the leadership group of the Climate Reality Check network.