Why nonviolence?

The Easter protests at Baxter brought another wave of confrontations with police and security staff. The 'us' and 'them' construct deliberately sets up possibilities for violent protest. This plays into a wedge 'sand trap' managed by spin doctors - angry crowds are 'extremists' or 'radicals' disrupting the business of government and inciting civil unrest. The age old strategem of 'divide and rule' continues to succeed as it did in the time of Jesus.
Another famous nonviolent protester, Mahatma Gandhi (see my book Gandhi and his Ashrams), saw politically motivated violence and exploitation as a failure to recognise the truly organic nature of existence. He proffered an alternative to the tendency of the modern centralist state to over regulate people's lives and to resist public accountability. Rather than tolerate abuse of authority, he orchestrated a series of nonviolent civil disobedience campaigns in South Africa and India against unjust laws and repressive government.

Gandhi encouraged his followers to see humanity as a whole, not a collection of individuals with narrow loyalties. Spirituality and politics don't mix I hear you say. Gandhi disagreed and spoke of satyagraha or 'truthforce' in politics as the pursuit of a humanism transcending clan, class, national and racial barriers. His ideal of a nonviolent polity that affords equal opportunity to all, based on mutual rights and responsibilities and respect for the individual, is resonant with the ideas of Jesus and other great spiritual teachers. Gandhi in turn influenced nonviolent activists such as Martin Luther King.

Gandhi recognised that means adopted today will determine the nature of ends. He demonstrated there are effective ways to protest actively without falling into the violence trap.