Resistance against Poverty, Hunger and Inequality: Say No to Corporate Raj and Government Corruption

RAPHI

(RESISTANCE AGAINST POVERTY, HUNGER AND INEQUALITY)

SAY NO TO CORPORATE RAJ

&

GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION

(C) All Rights Reserved.  Pencil Sketch By Muhammad Ishaaq.

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Below work is based on self created scenarios, not real. All of the characters and parties are assumed. 

(© All Rights Reserved)Please note that the work cannot be shared, published or reproduced in any form without prior permission of the author.) 

The following work can be useful for people to understand how to organize non violence movement against the oppressive and powerful structures and systems. 

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Name of the Group: RAPHI (Resistance Against Poverty Hunger & Inequality) 

Flag of RAPHI: Green Flag (with painting of a person dreaming and map of Dominant-land)

Symbol of the Movement: Green Stripes

Song of the Movement:

We are the inhabitants of the land, we want change to eat and live

We want freedom, we want freedom, we want freedom

No more corruption, No more suppression, No more Oppression

We love you, We love our coming generations

Love for us and love for you

Stop Corruption!

Slogan of the Movement:

No to Corporate Raj

No Government Corruption

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A)    Brief analysis of  RAPHI’s conflict, injustice or grievance

Economic situation of Dominant-land is not encouraging, 66.3% of Dominant-land's population lives on under $2 a day and 22.6 % under $1 a day (Report, 2011). Dominant-land's Human development Index (HDI) is 0.504, which gives the country a rank of 155 out of 187 countries with comparable data. The HDI of a region increased from 0.366 in 1980 to 0.548 today, placing Dominant-land below the regional average. The HDI represents a push for a broader definition of well-being and provides a composite measure of three basic dimensions of human development: health, education and income. The above data shows extreme economic problems in Dominant-land, causing people to face poverty, hunger, illiteracy and ill health.  In Dominant-land I see a lot of people sleeping on roads and living in slums in extreme poverty.

One of the reasons is that the country is depending more on foreign aid and less on its own resources. Tax collection systems are not well structured and most of the people evade from paying the taxes. According to Ministry of Finance, Dominant-land Report 2010, only 2.75 million Dominant-land's, or 2.6 percent of the country’s estimated 190 million people, are registered tax-payers and posses the National Tax Numbers (NTN), Federal Borad of Revenue report said. Out of these NTN holders, only around two million people file their returns to the tax authorities, the report said. “The compliance ratio has always been below. The share of taxpayers to population is low when compared with the few selected developing and developed countries, where the share ranges between 5.7percent and 86.4 percent.” The report said that in India, the share of taxpayers to population is 4.7 percent, in Argentina 16.5 percent, France around 58 percent. “The share of taxpayers belonging to non-corporate sector is close to 99 percent in the total return filers. On the other hand, the corporate sector that contributes around 66 percent in the total income-tax collection has a share of only one percent in the income tax base.” (Ministry of Finance)

B)    Preparation for the Movement

            All of the dialogic methods used by the group have failed. Corporate sector is still evading taxes, government institutions are corrupt and spending on military has increased. Now it’s time to take action and to mobilize the masses to ask for reforms so that we can liberate ourselves from the oppression of deficit democracy. Most of the members of the group were initially confused as some were saying that direct actions in the nonviolent campaigns must not be included as now we have a democratic government. But I persuaded them with my arguments based on April Carter chapter , “Democratic Argument on Direct Action” in which she maps out that ‘direct action/ non-violence resistance’ as an expression of democracy and active citizenship by justifying its importance within different democratic systems and within global context. In doing so she argues that the direct action is an expression of democratic power to challenge the democratic deficit, violations of human rights, gross inequalities of wealth, social, cultural and political resources. Moreover, she also contends that the direct action is not a power of an individual rather it is a collective power of the poor, weak or marginalized that countervails oppressive powers like governments, discriminatory laws & policies, corrupt institutions, deficit or discursive democracies or  neoliberal economic markets etc. (Carter, 2005). 

            But still some were reluctant as they believed that non-violent methods cannot bring solution to the problem and proposed a combination of violent and non violent method. One of us told the group that violence will give legitimacy to the government to crackdown against the group and very soon the group would lose its power and strength. Moreover, in case of violence woman, children and old would not be able to join us. International community may consider us as a rebel group. So, all agreed that violence is a contaminant in non violent struggle (L.Helvey, 2004).  As Gene Sharp says, “Nonviolent struggle is identified by what people do, not by what people believe.” (Waging Non Violent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Centuary Potentail, 2005).

I shared with my fellows about Dr. Martin Luther King,

As King saw nonviolent struggle at the time, it was comprised of five elements. First, Non Violent resistance is not the method of cowards…. It is the way of strong…. {and} it is not the method of stagnant passivity.’ Second, it does not seek the humiliation or defeat of the opponent but, rather, understanding and awakening of a sense of morality. Third, it is aimed at the evil that is trying to expunge, not at the person involved. Fourth, the willingness to suffer any consequence is transformational. Fifth, the resister refuses to use violence but also rejects inward violence of spirit and hate, choosing instead to reach the struggle.

(King, Mahatama Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. : Thr Power of Non Violent Action, 2002)

In the meeting we decided that we would meet once a week to prepare ourselves about the non violence resistance, as it needs a complete knowledge. In the mean time the group also organized study circles to prepare the members about the themes of launching the movement on non violence struggle lines. The training of the members for the movement proved to be very important. We studied various non violent struggles around the world and come to know that nonviolent struggles are more probable to succeed as compared to violent struggles. We found that independence struggle in Kashmir is unsuccessful for more than sixty years but Estonia a very small country got their struggle through singing thus it was called Singing Revolution. They used wonderful tactics like integration through singing, making the human chain, protecting the television by forming human shields in front of Soviet Soldiers. In Estonia revolution was not brought by Forest Brothers but through singing and non-violent actions.

Orange revolution in Ukraine motivated the group as in that we observed that in a nonviolent struggle can rectify the corruption and even the worse oppressor can lose its power if people decide not to be silent. At the point one of the comrades also shared that silence gives the oppressor more power as Havel asserted, “We cannot remain silent in the face of evil or violence; silence merely encourages them” (King, The New York Times on Emerging Democracies in Eastern Europe, 2009) and as Dr. Martin Luther King had remarked that the freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor: it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Role of Otpor group in Serbian movement to bring down the Milosevic- the dictator allowed us to understand that we need to form sub-strategies to counteract the oppressors. We then decided to not have our organizational structural under a single command and rather to make several leaders throughout the country so that the arrest or execution of the leader must not hamper the movement. As we had observed that in case of Ogani tribe movement the death of Saro Wiva also caused an irreparable damage.

On the basis of the above observation we decided to have decentralized organizational structure and to develop various sub strategies. We devised a complete strategy to convert police and security forces to be on our side. A comprehensive media strategy was also made. Methods of Nonviolence Resistance and pillars of support by Gene Sharp helped us in the formulation of grand strategy and sub strategies. 

GOAL

Sustainable Human Development Reforms in Dominant-land to end hunger, poverty and inequality in Dominant-land

Objectives

         To demand corporate sector to invest in the communities from where they are earning

         To introduce strict measures against corporate sector to pay taxes

         To end corruption from the government by brining strict monitoring and accountability measures

Our goal and objectives are very clear, we do not want to overthrow the government but we demand the change of system that has repressed and oppressed the poor of Dominant-land. We want to end the exploitation of the people of Dominant-land, we demand to end hunger, poverty and Inequality. We are the voice of poor, hungry and marginalized people of Dominant-land. Our name is RAPHI (Resistance Against Poverty Hunger & Inequality). 

We know that the judicial system shall be our strength as the lawyer community is struggling for the prosperity of Dominant-land and trying to stop government from corruption. Our movement shall be a boast to the processes. But still the government is very strong. 

C)    Mechanism of Change

We are seeking for Conversion and accommodation: Conversion in case of parliament and representatives of government, accommodation for the corporate sector. Corruption cannot be eradicated without conversion. If hearts and minds are corrupt, best policies and laws can be broken or new ways of corruption can be devised {as Dr. King said that Persuasion is ultimately more effective than coercion. The objective of non violence is to win the victory over the conflict situation, to persuade the opponent, not to triumph over him (King, Mahatama Gandhi and Martin Luthir Kin, Jr: The Power of Non Violent Action, 2002)} So, we want the simply conversion, RAPHI wants its leaders to be honest. On other hand we cannot convert the corporate sector so we are aiming at accommodations. So they should pay taxes and do invest in the areas from which they are earning.

D)    Power Analysis

Pillars of Support	Sources of Power	Authority	Material Resources	Human Resources	Skills and Knowledge	Intangible Factors	Sanctions
Business community							
Civil Servants							
Cultural and Issue Oriented Organizations						
News Media							
Military							
NGOs				
Police							
Political parties						
Religious Organizations							
Student Unions							
Workers and Labour Organizations							

(Christopher A Mille, 2006)

Sources of Power	RAPHI Non Violent Movement	Opponent or Target Group
Authority	-3	+2
Material Resources	+2	+5
Human Resources	2	-2
Skills and Knowledge	+6	+4
Intangible Factors	-3	+1
Sanctions	-5	+7

From the above power analysis we come to realize that there is a big power difference between the oppressor and us. We need to mobilize financial and human resources. As we are against the corporate sector, so there will be huge difference of resources. Judicial System can give us extra edge over the authority of the opponent. The opponent has a tremendous support from the business community and major portion is from corporate sector. Huge bulk of money is injected into the corrupt channels of government by the corporate sector.

Political Space

As discussed earlier RAPHI is pretty much sure that the Judicial System shall completely cooperate with us as far as we would remain peaceful. Moreover, by running and mobilizing the campaign in every district and decentralized structure of the movement shall be an extra edge to RAPHI. But in any case we need to remain peaceful……. Means and ends must be consistent (King, Mahatama Gandhi and Martin Luthir Kin, Jr: The Power of Non Violent Action, 2002).

E)    Non-Violent Methods (Methods of Non violence resistance by Gene Sharp)

During the campaign we have sequenced our campaign non-violent methods as:

1.      The Method of Non Violent Protest and Persuasion:

  Formal Statements

i)                    Formal speeches

ii)                  Letters of Support

iii)                Mass Petition

  Communication with wider audience

i)                    Slogans, caricatures, and symbols

ii)                  Banners, posters and displayed communication

iii)                Leaflets, pamphlets and books

iv)               Sky writing

  Symbolic Public Acts

i)                    Displaying of flags and symbolic colours

ii)                  Paint as protests

iii)                Symbolic Sounds

  Pressures on Individuals

i)                    Fraternization

  Drama and Music

i)                    Humorous skits and pranks

ii)                  Performance of Play and Music

  Withdrawal and renunciation

i)                    Silence

ii)                  Renouncing honors

2.      The Methods of Economic Noncooperation

  Action by Consumers

i)                    Consumers boycott

ii)                  National consumers’ boycott

iii)                International Consumers’ boycott

  Action by workers and producers

i)                    Workmen’s boycott

  Action by middlemen

i)                    Suppliers and handlers boycott

  Strikes by Special Groups

i)                    Professional strikes

  Combination of Strikes and economic closures

i)                    Hartal

ii)                  Economic shutdown

3.      The Methods of Political Noncooperation

  Rejection of authority

Literature and Speeches advocating resistance

  Citizens’ alternative to obedience

Popular non-obedience

  Action by government personnel

General administrative noncooperation

Judicial Non cooperation

Humor, Music, Satire, Slogans, Messaging and Branding

From our exposure to trainings and various nonviolent struggles we know that people do count in nonviolent struggle, we want people in the struggle. We are trying to get the support of huge masses.

Humor and Drama From our knowledge of Otpor tactics we are completely aware that humour and drama can really raise the issue and can be a very useful resource in positive increase of conflict.

There are various volunteer issue based drama performers, stage actors and groups, we are in contact with them and hope that they would join us.

Along with district points of RAPHI, we are planning to adjunct drama clubs and theatres, so that in the beginning of the campaign we are able to highlight the issues in a humorous manner. Moreover, in the tense phases it would be a chance to get through the mental barriers of the opponent paying way for conversion.

On a private TV channel there is a drama, “We All are Optimist” is a wonderful program watched by most of Dominant-landi’s, in which parody of politicians is done. Our group is in process of lobbying with the writer and director of the program. We are trying our best to use this celebrated drama for our movement.

Printing and distribution of the Pamphlets to make masses aware about the oddities of the system. The pamphlets shall contain i) the figures of profit that corporate sector is generating from each district of Dominant-land, ii) The heading shall be Corporate Raj and We the Poor iii) The amount of money that is lost every year because of Government corruption. iv) The part of budget spent on military and its comparison with budget reserved for Health and Education. And ending with a question, “What is Security?”  Do we want to spend on War or on Ourselves? The decision is in our own hands.

Preparing for provocation, arrests, injuries or worse

During our training sessions and power analysis we are accessing the fact that there will be extreme repression by security forces and secret agencies. We are expecting arrests, killings, fractured bones and even abduction. Keeping all this in view, we have decided to have a decentralized leadership, so that arresting or even killing of few leaders could not affect the movement. Moreover, we have started lobbying with lawyers and judges so that we can get easy bail after being caught and can be well prepared before any action and can seek legal means and solutions. Support and judicial system can be very upsetting for the opposition. Moreover, we are devising a comprehensive media strategy in order to highlight the issues quickly and swiftly. So, the arrests and repression by the opposition will become a paradoxical repression. Viewing the extreme conflicts in the final stages of the campaign, when we will act for economic shutdown and judicial non cooperation then we are expecting a ban on free media, for that we are also preparing for the clandestine press for Samizdat. 

Mobilization of Financial Resources

In the mean time we are designing the movement to be self sustaining by mobilizing people to donate and by organizing fund raising events. Again, decentralized system shall help us for spending the least.

To be Continued......................................................... 

Bibliography

Bob, C. (2005). The Marketting of Rebellion-Insurgents, Media, and International Activism. NewYork: Cambridge.

Carter, A. (2005). Direct Action and Democracy Today. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Christopher A Mille, e. M. (2006). Strategic Non Violent Struggle. Boston: University for Peace.

King, M. E. (2002). Mahatama Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. : Thr Power of Non Violent Action. New Dehli: Metha Publishers and Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

King, M. E. (2002). Mahatama Gandhi and Martin Luthir Kin, Jr: The Power of Non Violent Action. New Dehli: Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Mehta Publishers.

King, M. E. (2009). Mary E. King. Washington DC: CQ Press.

King, M. E. (2009). The New York Times on Emerging Democracies in Eastern Europe. Washington DC: CQ Press.

L.Helvey, R. (2004). On Strategic Non Violent Conflict: Thinking About the Fundamentals. Boston: Albert Einstein Institution.

Waging Non Violent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Centuary Potentail. (2005). Bostan: Porter Sargent Publishers.