David and Goliath

Occupy Wall Street October 5, 2011 licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license Photograph by David Shankbone

Question: Why was the U.S. government so terrified of the nonviolent Occupy Wall Street movement (and its spinoffs) that it squelched the movement?

Answer: Perhaps they were aware of the “Rules of Revolt” identified by the inimitable Chris Hedges.

Here is a Checklist of the principal lessons derived by Hedges from his analysis of the student occupation of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. Which of these principles applied to the United States during the Occupy movement in 2011? Which apply now?

• “A nonviolent movement that disrupts the machinery of state and speaks a truth a state hopes to suppress has the force to terrify authority and create deep fissures within the power structure.”

 “An uprising or a revolution … is ignited not by the poor but by middle-class and elite families’ sons and daughters, often college-educated… who are being denied opportunities to advance socially and economically.”

• ” Radical mass movements often begin by appealing respectfully to authority for minimal reforms.”

 “Once déclassé intellectuals make alliances with the working class a regime is in serious danger.”

 “The most potent weapon in the hands of nonviolent rebels is fraternizing with and educating civil servants as well as the police and soldiers…”

 “When a major authority figure, even in secret, denounces calls to crush a resistance movement the ruling elites are thrown into panic.”

• “The state seeks to isolate and indoctrinate soldiers and police before sending them to violently quash any movement.”

• “The state on the eve of breaking a rebellion with force seeks to make police and soldiers frightened of the protesters. It does this by sending in agents provocateurs to direct acts of violence against symbols of state authority.”

Hedges reminds us that conducting a revolt nonviolently does not protect one from violence from the state and other groups, noting that nonviolence  requires “deep reserves of physical and moral courage.” We can also ask whether we are assured protection from violence if we ignore and acquiesce in social injustice.