War has been a part of my life since I can remember. I was born in Afghanistan, just six months after the Soviets invaded, and even though I was too young to understand what was happening, I had a deep sense of the suffering and the fear around me.
Rat je dio mog života od kad znam za sebe. Rođena sam u Afganistanu, tek šest mjeseci kasnije, Rusi su napali. Iako sam bila premlada da bih shvatila što se događa, duboko sam osjećala patnju i strah oko sebe.
Those early experiences had a major impact on how I now think about war and conflict. I learned that when people have a fundamental issue at stake, for most of them, giving in is not an option. For these types conflicts -- when people's rights are violated, when their countries are occupied, when they're oppressed and humiliated -- they need a powerful way to resist and to fight back. Which means that no matter how destructive and terrible violence is, if people see it as their only choice, they will use it. Most of us are concerned with the level of violence in the world. But we're not going to end war by telling people that violence is morally wrong. Instead, we must offer them a tool that's at least as powerful and as effective as violence.
Ta rana iskustva su imala veliki utjecaj na to kako razmišljam o ratu i sukobu. Naučila sam da kada ljudi imaju ugroženo osnovno pitanje, za većinu njih, predaja nije opcija. Za takve vrste sukoba -- kada su ljudska prava ugrožena, kada su njihove države okupirane, kada su potlačeni i poniženi -- trebaju moćan način da se odupru i uzvrate udarac. To znači da bez obzira koliko je nasilje destruktivno i strašno, ako ga ljudi vide kao svoj jedini izbor, oni će ga iskoristiti. Većina nas je zabrinuta zbog razine nasilja u svijetu. Ali mi nećemo zaustaviti rat tako da kažemo ljudima da je nasilje moralno pogrešno. Umjesto toga, moramo im ponuditi oruđe koje je barem jednako snažno i učinkovito kao nasilje.
This is the work I do. For the past 13 years, I've been teaching people in some of the most difficult situations around the world how they can use nonviolent struggle to conduct conflict. Most people associate this type of action with Gandhi and Martin Luther King. But people have been using nonviolent action for thousands of years. In fact, most of the rights that we have today in this country -- as women, as minorities, as workers, as people of different sexual orientations and citizens concerned with the environment -- these rights weren't handed to us. They were won by people who fought for them and who sacrificed for them. But because we haven't learned from this history, nonviolent struggle as a technique is widely misunderstood.
To je ono što ja radim Zadnjih 13 godina, učim ljude u nekim od najtežih situacija diljem svijeta kako koristiti nenasilnu borbu u upravljanju sukobom. Većina ljudi povezuje ovu vrstu djelovanja s Gandhijem i Martinom Lutherom Kingom. Ali ljudi koriste nenasilno djelovanje već tisućama godina. Zapravo, većina prava koja mi imamo danas u ovoj državi -- kao žene, kao manjine, kao radnici, kao ljudi različitih spolnih orijentacija i građani zabrinuti za okoliš -- ova prava nam nisu dodijeljena. Stekli su ih ljudi koji su se borili za njih i koji su se žrtvovali za njih. Ali s obzirom da nismo naučili iz ove povijesti, nenasilna borba je kao tehnika općenito pogrešno shvaćena.
I met recently with a group of Ethiopian activists, and they told me something that I hear a lot. They said they'd already tried nonviolent action, and it hadn't worked. Years ago they held a protest. The government arrested everyone, and that was the end of that. The idea that nonviolent struggle is equivalent to street protests is a real problem. Because although protests can be a great way to show that people want change, on their own, they don't actually create change -- at least change that is fundamental.
Nedavno sam upoznala grupu Etijopijskih aktivista, i oni su mi rekli nešto što često čujem. Rekli su mi da su već pokušali nenasilno djelovanje, ali nije uspjelo. Godinama ranije su održali prosvijed. Vlada je uhitila sve, i to je bio kraj tome. Ideja da je nenasilna borba isto što i ulični protest je pravi problem. Jer iako protesti mogu biti odličan način da ljudi pokažu kako žele promjenu, oni sami po sebi, ne čine promjenu -- barem ne promjenu koja je temeljna.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Powerful opponents are not going to give people what they want just because they asked nicely ... or even not so nicely.
Moćni protivnici neće dati ljudima ono što oni žele samo zato jer su pristojno pitali... ili čak ne tako pristojno.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Nonviolent struggle works by destroying an opponent, not physically, but by identifying the institutions that an opponent needs to survive, and then denying them those sources of power. Nonviolent activists can neutralize the military by causing soldiers to defect. They can disrupt the economy through strikes and boycotts. And they can challenge government propaganda by creating alternative media.
Nenasilna borba funkcionira na način da uništava protivnika, ne fizički, već identificirajući institucije koje protivniku trebaju kako bi opstao, a potom im uskraćujući te izvore moći. Nenasilni aktivisti mogu neutralizirati vojsku potičući vojnike na dezerterstvo. Mogu poremetiti ekonomiju kroz štrajkove i bojkote. Mogu izazvati vladinu propagandu stvarajući alternativne medije.
There are a variety of methods that can be used to do this. My colleague and mentor, Gene Sharp, has identified 198 methods of nonviolent action. And protest is only one. Let me give you a recent example.
Postoje različite metode koje se mogu koristiti kako bi se to postiglo. Moja kolegica i mentorica, Gene Sharp, je identificirala 198 metoda nenasilnoga djelovanja. Prosvjed je tek jedna. Dopustite mi da vam dam nedavni primjer.
Until a few months ago, Guatemala was ruled by corrupt former military officials with ties to organized crime. People were generally aware of this, but most of them felt powerless to do anything about it -- until one group of citizens, just 12 regular people, put out a call on Facebook to their friends to meet in the central plaza, holding signs with a message: "Renuncia YA" -- resign already. To their surprise, 30,000 people showed up. They stayed there for months as protests spread throughout the country. At one point, the organizers delivered hundreds of eggs to various government buildings with a message: "If you don't have the huevos" -- the balls -- "to stop corrupt candidates from running for office, you can borrow ours."
Do prije nekoliko mjeseci, Guatemalom su vladali korumpirani bivši vojni dužnosnici s vezama s organiziranim kriminalom. Ljudi su bili općenito svjesni toga, ali ih se većina osjećala nemoćnima da nešto učine po tom pitanju -- sve dok jedna grupa građana, tek 12 običnih ljudi, nisu poslali poziv na Facebooku svojim prijateljima da se nađu na centralnom trgu, držeći znakove s porukom: "Renuncia YA" -- daj više ostavku. Na njihovo iznenađenje, pojavilo se 30 000 ljudi. Ostali su tu mjesecima jer se prosvjed proširio na cijelu zemlju. U jednom trenutku, organizatori su donijeli tisuće jaja ispred različitih vladinih zgrada s porukom: "Ako vi nemate huevos" -- jaja "da zaustavite korumpirane u kandidaturi za ministarstva, možete posuditi naša."
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
President Molina responded by vowing that he would never step down. And the activists realized that they couldn't just keep protesting and ask the president to resign. They needed to leave him no choice. So they organized a general strike, in which people throughout the country refused to work. In Guatemala City alone, over 400 businesses and schools shut their doors. Meanwhile, farmers throughout the country blocked major roads. Within five days, the president, along with dozens of other government officials, resigned already.
Predsjednik Molina je odgovorio zaklinjući se da se nikad neće povući. Aktivisti su shvatili da ne mogu samo nastaviti prosvjedovati i tražiti od predsjednika ostavku. Trebali su ga ostaviti bez izbora. Stoga su organizirali opći štrajk, u kojem su ljudi diljem zemlje odbili raditi. Samo u Guatemala Cityju, preko 400 tvrtki i škola su zatvorili svoja vrata. U međuvremenu, farmeri diljem zemlje su blokirali glavne ceste. Kroz pet dana, predsjednik, zajedno s desetcima ostalih vladinih dužnosnika, su napokon dali ostavku.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
I've been greatly inspired by the creativity and bravery of people using nonviolent action in nearly every country in the world. For example, recently a group of activists in Uganda released a crate of pigs in the streets. You can see here that the police are confused about what to do with them.
Inspirirana sam kreativnošću i hrabrošću ljudi koji koriste nenasilno djelovanje u gotovo svakoj državi u svijetu. Primjerice, nedavno je grupa aktivista u Ugandi pustila sanduk svinja na ulice. Možete vidjeti ovdje kako je policija zbunjena jer ne znaju što učiniti s njima.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
The pigs were painted the color of the ruling party. One pig was even wearing a hat, a hat that people recognized.
Svinje su obojene u boju vladajuće stranke. Jedna svinja je čak nosila šešir, šešir kojeg ljudi prepoznaju.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Activists around the world are getting better at grabbing headlines, but these isolated actions do very little if they're not part of a larger strategy. A general wouldn't march his troops into battle unless he had a plan to win the war. Yet this is how most of the world's nonviolent movements operate. Nonviolent struggle is just as complex as military warfare, if not more. Its participants must be well-trained and have clear objectives, and its leaders must have a strategy of how to achieve those objectives.
Aktivisti diljem svijeta su sve bolji u osvajanju naslovnica, ali te izolirane akcije ne čine mnogo ako nisu dio veće strategije. Vojskovođa ne vodi svoje trupe u bitku ako nema plan kako dobiti rat. Ipak, to je način na koji većina nenasilnih pokreta djeluje. Nenasilna borba je jednako kompleksna kao i vojno ratovanje, ako ne i više. Njeni sudionici moraju biti dobro obučeni i imati jasne ciljeve, a njeni vođe moraju imati strategiju kako doći do tih ciljeva.
The technique of war has been developed over thousands of years with massive resources and some of our best minds dedicated to understanding and improving how it works. Meanwhile, nonviolent struggle is rarely systematically studied, and even though the number is growing, there are still only a few dozen people in the world who are teaching it. This is dangerous, because we now know that our old approaches of dealing with conflict are not adequate for the new challenges that we're facing.
Tehnika ratovanja je razvijana tisućama godina s ogromnim resursima i nekima od najvećih umova odlučnih u razumijevanju i unaprjeđivanju njenog djelovanja. U međuvremenu, nenasilna borba je rijetko sistematično proučavana, i iako broj raste, još uvijek tek nekoliko desetaka ljudi u svijetu je podučavaju. To je opasno, jer znamo da naši stari načini suočavanja sa sukobom nisu adekvatni novim izazovima s kojima smo suočeni.
The US government recently admitted that it's in a stalemate in its war against ISIS. But what most people don't know is that people have stood up to ISIS using nonviolent action. When ISIS captured Mosul in June 2014, they announced that they were putting in place a new public school curriculum, based on their own extremist ideology. But on the first day of school, not a single child showed up. Parents simply refused to send them. They told journalists they would rather homeschool their children than to have them brainwashed.
Vlada SAD-a je nedavno priznala da je u pat poziciji u ratu protiv ISISa. No ono što većina ljudi ne zna je da su se ljudi suprotstavili ISISu koristeći nenasilno djelovanje. Kad je ISIS okupirao Mosul u lipnju 2014. godine, najavili su da će uvesti u škole novi kurikulum za državno obrazovanje, koji se temelji na njihovoj ekstremističkoj ideologiji. Ali za prvi dan nastave, ni jedno dijete se nije pojavilo. Roditelji su jednostavno odbili poslati ih u školu. Rekli su novinarima da će radije podučavati svoju djecu kod kuće nego da im se ispire mozak.
This is an example of just one act of defiance in just one city. But what if it was coordinated with the dozens of other acts of nonviolent resistance that have taken place against ISIS? What if the parents' boycott was part of a larger strategy to identify and cut off the resources that ISIS needs to function; the skilled labor needed to produce food; the engineers needed to extract and refine oil; the media infrastructure and communications networks and transportation systems, and the local businesses that ISIS relies on? It may be difficult to imagine defeating ISIS with action that is nonviolent. But it's time we challenge the way we think about conflict and the choices we have in facing it.
To je primjer samo jednog čina neposluha u samo jednom gradu. Ali što da je koordiniran s desecima drugih činova nenasilnog otpora koji se vode protiv ISISa? Što da je bojkot roditelja bio dio veće strategije kako bi identificirali i odsjekli resurse koje ISIS treba kako bi djelovao; radne snage koje su potrebne za proizvodnju hrane inženjeri koji su potrebni za izdvajanje i pročišćavanje nafte; medijska infrastruktura i komunikacijske mreže prijevozni sustavi, i lokalne tvrtke na koje se ISIS oslanja? Može biti teško zamisliti pobjedu nad ISISom s djelovanjem koje nije nasilno. Ali, vrijeme je da dovedemo u pitanje način razmišljanja o sukobu i izborima koje imamo u suočavanju s njim.
Here's an idea worth spreading: let's learn more about where nonviolent action has worked and how we can make it more powerful, just like we do with other systems and technologies that are constantly being refined to better meet human needs. It may be that we can improve nonviolent action to a point where it is increasingly used in place of war. Violence as a tool of conflict could then be abandoned in the same way that bows and arrows were, because we have replaced them with weapons that are more effective. With human innovation, we can make nonviolent struggle more powerful than the newest and latest technologies of war. The greatest hope for humanity lies not in condemning violence but in making violence obsolete.
Evo ideja koja je vrijedna širenja: idemo naučiti o tome gdje je nenasilno djelovanje uspjelo i kako ga možemo učiniti moćnijim, kao što činimo s ostalim sustavima i tehnologijama koje se stalno prerađuju kako bi bolje odgovarale ljudskim potrebama. Možda možemo poboljšati nenasilno djelovanje do točke gdje se češće koriste umjesto rata. Nasilje kao oruđe konflikta bi moglo biti posve napušteno na isti način kao što su luk i strijele, jer smo ih zamijenili oružjem koje je mnogo efikasnije. S ljudskim inovacijama, možemo učiniti nenasilnu borbu još moćnijom od najnovijih i posljednjih tehnologija ratovanja. Najveća nada za čovječanstvo ne leži u osudi nasilja već čineći nasilje zastarjelim.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)