Major point Major point
Alternatives to Violence skills learned at the personal level have counterparts that apply to community problems. 
to remember. to remember.

Because consensus is vital to solving group problems, let's review by examining some pros and cons:

"MORE ABOUT THE CONSENSUS PROCESS":

What is good about consensus? 
  1. It assures a thorough investigation and study of all facets of the problem.
  2. Everyone feels ownership and hence supports the decision. The “losers” do not undermine the program as so often happens when an election is lost.
  3. The value of the decision and its effectiveness are greatly enhanced because the knowledge, experience and ideas of everyone involved have contributed.
  4. Consensus really is the only decision-making method completely consistent with nonviolence, which always seeks a win-win outcome. Compromise, because each side has to give up something, has a mild lose-lose aspect. Voting is clearly win-lose.
What is bad about consensus?
  1. It usually takes more time than any of the other decision-making processes. 
  2. It takes more sincere effort on the part of everyone. 
  3. Not being accustomed to employing it, some people do not understand its operation sufficiently to use consensus well. Either training or considerable experience, or both, in consensus decision making probably is needed for attaining competency in its application.
  4. In the case of an emergency, reaching consensus may take too long. 

Let's move on to applying group roles, skills, and strategies to local community issues.

1. What is a good example of  a community problem?

Did you think of any of the following...

Examples include:

  • Garbage collection and recycling
  • Local school issues 
  • Repairing infrastructure like roads, bridges, sewers, etc.
  • Property lines, codes, zones, and taxes
  • Traffic congestion
  • Etc.
2. What skills are needed to solve community problems?

The following article may help focus our thoughts

"Applying Nonviolence to Solving Community Problems" Part 1

"At the community level, no one can do everything but, and this is the key, everyone can do something. When enough become engaged, then change takes place. Mainly we need the guidelines, the confidence and the will to act. This session seeks to motivate us in that direction."
Applying Nonviolence to Solving Problems FULL TEXT
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This article was written by John Looney.
It took 75 years for the Women's Suffrage movement to grow from community to community until in 1920 women gained the Right to Vote in the USA. 

Let's read and listen to a case study and video about one key female activist. 

Case Study:

WOMEN SUFFRAGISTS ASK:
Make the world safe for whom?

The first time the White House was ever picketed was in 1917 by Women’s Suffragists. They began picketing Woodrow Wilson during the patriotic fervor of World War I: President Wilson was spurring people on with the slogan, "Make the World Safe For Democracy," when half the adult citizens of the United States were denied their voting rights on the basis of sex.

At first no one interfered officially, but when picketers were still there after six months, more and more women were arrested. Jail sentences were progressively lengthened.

But public sympathy began to grow. People who objected to Women’s Suffrage objected even more strongly to the cruel way the Suffragists were treated.

Wilson's stands for "Democracy" but against women’s right to vote presented such a dilemma to him that he was finally forced to include suffrage as one of his war aims.

As Alice Paul, one of the militant leaders, explained the dilemma strategy, "If a creditor stands before a man’s house all day long, demanding payment of his bill, the man must either remove the creditor or pay the bill.”

See The Politics of Nonviolent Action (Sharp), pp. 133, 141+ 735.

"Alice Stokes Paul: 
The Women's Suffrage Movement"




According to Applying Nonviolence to Solving Community Problems, part 1, "...no one can do everything but, and this is the key, everyone can do something."  The many voices of those working for women's rights where impossible to ignore. Also, the truth that  "we are all one" came through in their efforts. The humanity of the women suffragists became more overt as they became bonded with their sympathizers through their imprisonment. 

"Applying Nonviolence to Solving Community Problems", part 2

To break the cycle, there are certain key elements which can work to favor our success:
  1. Human beings have more in common than they do differences.
  2. The differences are not inherent. They are culturally learned which means they can be unlearned. New educational and informational approaches become essential.
  3. The oppressed, of all kinds, have mutual interests. Those can be used to draw them together to be more empowered for greater impact and effectiveness, and
  4. From such an improved power position, the oppressor more easily can be induced to join the oppressors in improving conditions.

To achieve such results, the principles and skills taught in Alternatives to Violence are basic tools. As Arnold Toynbee, the famous historian once said, “The quest for alternatives to violence ought to be given the first place on 'humanity’s' crowded agenda. It should come first because it is the most urgent of all and is also the most difficult. It is urgent because . . . violence has become suicidal . . . . "

This article was written by John Looney.
 
Applying Nonviolence to Solving Community Problems part 2
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The Civil Rights Movement started with small, but courageous, community actions and took decades to gain momentum. Here is a sample case of courage.

Case Study:

BATTLE OF NERVES
What stopped the swing of a meat cleaver?
In 1961 Leon Green, an eighteen year-old black university freshman, participated in a sit-in protesting segregation at an Atlanta lunch counter. He sat still and held the menu in both hands.

The enraged manager grabbed a meat cleaver and yelled, ”Get your hands off that counter or I'll cut off one of them.” He ripped the menu from Leon’s hands and raised the knife.

Leon firmly held what was left of the menu and looked straight ahead. They both had a hard time during the next few seconds of silence. Then the manager turned and walked back to the kitchen to think it over.

See The Quiet Battle (Sibley), pp. 291-299 and Courage in Both Hands (Hunter), pp. 84-85
Leon Green was no longer willing to accept the status quo and he attempted to break the cycle of acceptance by participating in the sit-in protest against segregation. The manager was then forced to think about his stance after his outburst against Leon shocked the manager into self reflection about what is right. Leon's act on a personal level was for the benefit of the larger community issue and an unjust society, harboring unshared power and unequal distribution of resources.  
  

Try these community actions to address community problems named earlier in this session:

Here to move slide

We must always remember the following prerequisites of a just society. These qualities or features can reduce violence to a minimum and work for their own implementation. 

What Makes a Society Just?

(Click on image for full screen view)
(Click on image for full screen view)
Theory and diagram by Robert Terry and Jean Alvarez.

Review and Reflect

Major Point to Remember:

Alternatives to Violence skills learned at the personal level have counterparts that apply to community problems. 

To Reflect: Optional Activities
Materials located on the "Extra" page for applications #1 & #2

#1: Analyze at least two Case Studies: 13C, 13D, 13F 
#2: Movie Assignment: View "Iron Jawed Angels" and answer the corresponding questions
#3: Application:

In a readership survey the strongest motivation for reading the editorial and opinion pages was “to feel I am participating in current events.” This was followed by “to keep up with the latest events,” “ to determine what is important,” “to use in discussions with my friends,” “to help me make decisions on issues,” “to strengthen my arguments on issues,” and “to help me form opinions about things going on around me.” The fact that reading the editorial page can be considered a form of participation in current events indicates its value as a forum for the public expression of ideas. 

After reading this article, if you are not motivated to write to your hometown paper perhaps you will appreciate people who do write.
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    Session 8 Survey
Please remember to participate in the forum.
Reviewed April 2022