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Hello. I'm here to have a personal conversation with you about active non-violence. Let's talk about just three things. First, an overview of active non-violence. Second, some strategies and tactics that we could use to engage in active non-violence. And third, how we can work towards a balanced spirituality of active non-violence in our everyday lives.
Let me begin with a story. A story that's 35 years old, but it's, I think, very applicable even today. This is the story, and I thank him. This is the story of Renez Andres, our current director of the Ateneo Residence Halls. It was a story of EDSA, when the Jeshic novices went to EDSA during People Power One. That was in February 1986. And he actively led some civilians during People Power.
So, imagine the setting. Um, on the corner of Bonny Serrano and Katipunan Extension, that that corner, I think many of us guru passed this place, this area, coming from aquatic and going to school, going to Ateneo. So, on one side, we have military troops armed with M16s, with Armalites, and some had M30 machine guns and bazookas. And then, on the other side, there were civilians who were quietly seated on the ground. Civilians and religious. And there was a leader with a megaphone saying, and the leader also reminded them to do, capitalizing this way, you know. Um, the missing was to let them be solidly united so that just in case the troops charge, they wouldn't just fall down or or disperse. They would also occasionally sing the Amain in prayer.
Now, just, um, a side story to this story. At one point, imagine the the civilians and religious seated six rows in front of the troops. At one point, the troops started throwing canisters of tear gas. So, when the tear gas just erupted among the civilians, somehow the three lines at the back dispersed, and there were three lines remaining. And then, according to the next story, they decided to to go back to to leave that place and to regroup somewhere else. Uh, but that was not really a big problem because behind them were some buses that were also blocking the way. So the troops couldn't go forward. And to add to that interesting event, when the troops threw the tear gas, the wind blew towards the troops. And fortunately or unfortunately for them, they pull up and call with no. So they didn't wear face masks. And so the tear gas sort of like, uh, went all went around the the troop area. And so, um, there was a standoff. That's the end of the story for now.
Now, that's an event that showed how people can be actively non-violent in the face of highly militarized attacks. Let me, let's, let's trace back the history, very, very short, um, history of active non-violence. It sort of starts historically. It comes into into the forefront of of the world stage with Mahatma Gandhi, where when he when he led the the Indians against the occupation of the British, uh, in in India. And let's listen to our, um, leader, our ANV role model. He said, "In a gentle way, you can shake the world." And he wasn't the only one who who who pushed for active non-violence. In more recent times, we have our beloved Cardinal Sin, who called the civilians to EDSA during People Power One in 1986. Cardinal Sin says, "Strength without compassion is violence. Justice without love is Marxism. And love without justice is baloney." We have a third role model, Martin Luther King. And he's his, um, his life is again something to emulate. And then his words are still remembered by those who are struggling now against racism in the United States, who who are in this Black Lives Matter movement. And Martin Luther King says, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
So, just, uh, briefly, non-violence, as we see here, it's, it, it has a variety of meanings. It's derived from Sanskrit words. "Ahimsa" means no harm, non-harm. "Satya" is force or strength. So it needs some kind of power. And "Draya" is truth or soul. So it's a power, it's a soul kind of power.
What are the features of active non-violence? First, we first derive strength from both external collective strength and internal spiritual rootedness. It produces non-violent social strain to change unjust social conditions. That's the second one. Third, the third feature is that A and V is collective. It's not singular. So we need to network, to mobilize, and to conscientize. And fourth, the protest against social deceit and abuses is in the public sphere. It's not only in private conversations or chat groups. It's out in the public.
Now, what are some strategies and tactics that might help us get through this active non-violent protest? We imagine it can go from mild to strong. If the mild doesn't work, it can go a bit not so mild, and then it can become very strong. On the mild end, we have non-violent protest and persuasion. Here is when public collective actions which voice peaceful opposition to a policy or a law are are said out loud in the public sphere. For example, protest rallies or Facebook public protest posts. Recent examples are, let me see, maybe Rappler's truth-telling, Inquirer editorials against extrajudicial killings, Senator Leila De Lima's open criticism of our government's strong-headed ways, and Father Jed Villareal's statement against the forced shutdown of ABS-CBN last May 2020. Now, all these, uh, protests and persuasions try to diminish the legitimacy and power of the opponent.
But if they don't work, we can escalate that a bit to non-cooperation. So from protests to non-cooperation, which is a stronger form of AMV. Non-cooperation entails stronger actions which involve refusal to do things that are normally done to help a person, group, or institution, or a government which one is trying to to to be in conflict with and to pressure to change. An example that comes to my mind is during martial days, we boycotted the government crony's businesses. Like, uh, when we were doing anti-Marcos protests, Cory Aquino called for a boycott of San Miguel products because the company was at that time owned by Marcos cronies. And Dean Covanco, God bless his soul, God bless their souls.
Now, the strongest kind of, let's go to the third kind of, um, A and V tactic. The first is protest and persuasion, the non-cooperation, and in the end, it's non-violent intervention, where we interrupt an ongoing activity or process of the opponent. For example, when the A and V on EDSA just sat down when the Marcos troops were charging, they just sat down on the on the highway. And behind them, the buses, they just stayed there and blockaded EDSA. So they interrupted the ongoing process of the Marcos troops charging.
Let me give you some very one very recent example. In May of 2017, Bishop David of Kalookan addressed his parishioners in the diocese, and especially those affected by EJK. And he said, "If you are part of my diocese and if you want your stories to be documented with the hope of being able to eventually file a case with the court with the help of volunteer lawyers and no expense, please visit your parish priest. The priest will advise you what to do and how to do it." So that is a kind of intervention, a kind of legal intervention using the courts to stop EJKs.
Now, let's go to ways by which we can produce these strategies and tactics in an effective yet humane and spiritually deep way. If we look at the screen, the line goes from mild to strong interventions. On the mild end of A and V, the power source for that is external strength. The skills needed are conscientizing, networking, mobilizing, and now today's world, mass communication skills, like the people here who know how to use social media and how to use communication. What are these skills learned? Usually, skills are learned on the streets. And those who are good at communication and in social media.
But as we go from mild confrontations to stronger ones, the power source for that is becomes more internal, without letting go of the external strengths, becomes more internal and spiritual. What skills are these? Management of internal emotions to change from fear to courage, from anger toward the transgressor to love of the victim, from being impatient to change things to patience with the self, with others, and with the situation. And from ideological righteous pride to firm humility. And from despair to hope. Here, we have to dig in, dig into ourselves to get these kinds of changes within us. Where are these additional skills learned nowadays? I could say, just offhand, maybe in in church-based movements and in moderate social movements who are discerning and supporting each other in small groups.
Okay, now let's see how we can work towards a balanced spirituality for active non-violence. To have a balanced, balance between what is inside us and what is outside us, where strength comes from both inside and outside. Now, this balance, for those for developing what is inside us, one needs to have a be consistent between public initiations and one's own private morality. One also has to be mellow, mellowness of heart and soul, to be fueled by gratitude, not anger and bitterness. But internal strength is definitely not enough for active non-violence. One has to know how to produce power in the external environment. One requirement is to have a goal for social justice. Always think of that. How do we produce social justice in this situation? And another feature, another feature that would strengthen this kind of spirituality is one's acknowledgement that one needs to get involved and committed in the public sphere, public, not private sphere only.
But we can be out balanced or imbalanced as we work towards the spirituality of non-violence. This is natural. We're only human. This is a struggle of humans, not of angels, not of saints. So sometimes we go towards over-internalizing our meanings of peace and we disregard our external struggles and the demands of the external world. So this kind of imbalance puts us in situations where we find ourselves, okay, consistent with our public initiations and private morality. Maybe we have really good personal moral integrity, and we are honest, but and we also have mellowness of heart and soul, but there is no social justice desire. One can say scripts of this could could be, "I often pray for our country. I pray for the poor. Politics is too dirty for me. The individual well-being of the poor doesn't matter in the bigger picture. The police are just doing their jobs." Or we could also say, in this kind of imbalance where there's too much internal concentration, we can say, "Oh, talking, criticizing our government in private conversations is more than enough. Nasa public, daming metopaksa anti-government movements or anti-government groups are so disorganized, so weak, so self-interested."
So we could go to the other other side of the imbalance where there's too much over-externalizing of the struggle of peace and we disregard internal struggles. Here we find people who are social justice stalwarts. They're at the forefront of social justice struggles, and they are committed and involved in the public sphere, but there is not too much attention to what is going on internally. For this kind of imbalance, we can hear words or narratives like, "I am too busy for sacred silence," or "Political effectiveness against our government also requires immoral acts on my part. Anyway, no one will know I'm doing this," or "What's wrong with having sex with many women? It helps reduce my stress," or something like, "I am so wounded and tired. EJKs are so rampant. Our government is so bad. My anger and bitterness are justified. I will let others carry my cross of anger and bitterness."
So, in summary, the political psychology of active non-violence is political because it engages with social power. It's psychological because it involves personal and collective mental processes and behaviors. It's active because it acts upon conditions of massive deceit and distress. And it is non-violent; it does no harm, it does not kill.
Let me end with a prayer prayed by El Salvador Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was murdered while he was saying Mass in El Salvador. "One must not love oneself so much as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that this enables us to do something and to do it very, very well. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and worker. We are workers, we are not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future that is not our own."
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