Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence by José-Antonio Orosco

Author:José-Antonio Orosco [Orosco, José-Antonio]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Philosophy, Political Ideologies, Social Science, Political Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9780826343758
Google: oaiJp3EoXWAC
Goodreads: 2569804
Publisher: UNM Press
Published: 2008-01-15T06:58:35+00:00

Conclusion

Chavez’s conception of nonviolent direct action is committed to the view that those theorists who favor property destruction as a justified form of social protest fail to understand the dynamics of violence as a political tactic and how that failure mitigates the utility of violence as a strategy for achieving social justice. Violent civil disobedience, from Chavez’s standpoint, threatens to compromise the moral principles of a social justice movement and to unleash repression from dominant groups that disproportionately affects the most poor and marginalized members of society. And although violence may occasionally alter power relationships in society, there is no guarantee that the new arrangement will benefit subordinate groups. Indeed, there is reason to think that social change brought about by violent means will have a harder time establishing a stable system of democratic will formation. Nonetheless, there is a wide variety of tactics that might be used in a nonviolent campaign, including some actions that are clandestine, disruptive, and a hindrance to profit making. Chavez’s overall lesson is that the struggle for social justice should be about empowering and training the disadvantaged to be able to take control of their own lives and to have influence in the institutions that directly affect them. Violent protest, no matter how effective as a tactic in upsetting the balance of power in society, is not a substitute for this kind of training in democratic action. The extent to which violent civil disobedience attracts state repression is the extent to which it contributes to further oppression of the most disadvantaged members of our community.

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