Oppression (or perceived oppression) is one of the most common factors driving violence and intractable conflicts today. More and more, oppressed people are rising up and fighting back, but they seldom do so in an effective, nonviolent way. Much more common is violent opposition, which tends to increase repression and counter-violence, drives the escalation spiral, and diminishes human rights and security, rather than increasing them.

The challenge for peacebuilders is thus two-fold:

• First, developing effective ways for suppressed people to challenge oppression nonviolently, and
• Second, getting people to understand why nonviolent approaches are more effective and then getting them to use them instead of violence.

Social scientists know a great deal about the processes of oppression and methods — both violent and nonviolent — that have been used for challenging it. Although violent challenges are much more common and familiar, some nonviolent challenges have become well known in the last several decades. Perhaps the best known example — after Gandhi's movement to free India from British rule and Martin Luther King's nonviolent quest for equal rights for African Americans — is the nonviolent fall of the Soviet Union and the Communist governments of many of its client states.

These essays discuss what is known about the problem of oppression.

• Oppression — Introduction
  This is an introductory essay that links to an entire section of essays on the problem of oppression and alternatives for overcoming it.

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• The Nature and Origins of Oppression
  The beginning of oppression can be traced back to the invention of agriculture. This essay outlines the history of oppression.
• Forms of Oppression
  This essay defines five types of injustice that leads to oppression: distributive injustice, procedural injustice, retributive injustice, moral exclusion, and cultural imperialism.
• Maintaining Oppression
  In this essay, the author considers factors that keep oppression in place including power, the social production of meaning, self-fulfilling prophecies and distorted relationships.
• Power Inequities
  This essay deals with the power inequities that have existed in almost all human societies, and are perpetuated by systems of oppression.
• Post-Colonialism
  Many of today's ethnic conflicts were caused, at least to some degree, by artificial boundaries, identities, and role relationships that were established by colonizing powers decades or even centuries before. Though the colonial power has most often left the scene, the social and political landscape that was left behind is fraught with tensions, often leading to intractable violent conflicts. This essay explores the link between colonization and later ethnic tension and violence, usually related to continued oppression of some groups by others.
• Human Rights Violations
  Oppression often leads to the abuse of human rights. This abuse then leads to conflict, which often results in more human rights violations. Thus, human rights abuses are often at the center of wars, while overcoming oppression and the protection of human rights is central to conflict resolution and peace.

These articles discuss various methods of overcoming oppression — both violent and nonviolent.

• Overcoming Oppression: Awakening the Sense of Injustice - Awareness of injustice is a precondition for overcoming it. This essay discusses why people often aren't aware of their own and others' oppression.
• Overcoming Oppression through Persuasion - This essay examines how low power groups can appeal to the oppressive group's moral values, self interests, and self realization to convince them to change their relationship with the other group(s).
• Overcoming Oppression with Power - This essay discusses various forms of power — both violent and nonviolent — and illustrates how both can be used effectively to overcome violence. It cautions, however, that violence can be a very dangerous approach, and urges its use carefully and in limited ways if it is to avoid a severe backlash.
• Nonviolence and Nonviolent Direct Action - Nonviolent direct action is action, usually undertaken by a group of people, to persuade someone else to change their behavior. Examples include strikes, boycotts, marches, and demonstrations — social, economic, or political acts that are intended to convince the opponent to change their behavior without using violent force.
• Drama in Conflict Transformation - In The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Friere argued the need for dialogic education as an essential element of emancipation from the oppression of hierarchical education laden with the presuppositions of prevailing power. Drama, Arendshorst observes, is one way to do that.

Book Summaries:

• Beyond Retribution: Seeking Justice in the Shadows of War
  Rama Mani
  Establishing justice in post-conflict societies entails three inter-related projects: legal justice, rectifactory justice and distributive justice. Mani examines each of these in turn.
• Human Security Report 2005: War and Peace in the 21st Century
  Human Security Centre
  This is the result of a University of British Columbia research project, which examined patterns of armed conflict, human rights abuses, and genocide around the world. It concludes that all forms of political violence (except terrorism) have been in dramatic decline since the end of the Cold War, largely as a result of intentional interventions by the UN.
• Strategic Nonviolent Conflict
  Peter Ackerman and Christopher Kruegler
  A practitioner's choice of strategies is key to the success of nonviolent actions. Useful strategies, and the principles that guide them, are introduced here in an effort to explore the potential uses of nonviolent action in contemporary contexts.
• Power and Struggle
  by Gene Sharp
  Though the control of political power is often associated with violent coercion, there are effective alternatives. Nonviolent political alternatives are discussed and illustrated by historical examples.
• Exploring Nonviolent Alternatives
  Gene Sharp
  Nonviolent action withholds the assistance and cooperation necessary to exercise control over a population. Sharp discusses the techniques of nonviolent action and their implications for national defense.
• Methods of Nonviolent Action
  Gene Sharp
  Nonviolent action puts violent opponents in a “double-bind.” If they fail to oppress the nonviolent actors, then their position is undermined. On the other hand, if they do take oppressive action, then sympathy for the nonviolent actors is increased. This book details various nonviolent methods under the general categories of protests, non-cooperation, and intervention techniques.
• The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action
  Gene Sharp
  Nonviolent action exposes the violence of an opponent’s repression in a sort of political jiu-jitsu. Sharp elaborates on this process, describing how to deal with repression, gain solidarity, and deal with the inherent risks of nonviolent action.
• Why Men Rebel
  Ted Gurr

Case Study:

Case Study: Women as Active Partners: Building Peace in Afghanistan
Alicia Simoni
This article examines how women have successfully overcome decades of violent conflict and brutal oppression in Afghanistan.

Closely linked to oppression is disempowerment, but they are not one and the same. Almost all societies have some social hierarchy, with some people at the top and others at the bottom. The people at the bottom tend to be poor, lacking in education, skills, good jobs, and political power (or voice). Often, these powerless people are actively oppressed; other times, they are victims of what is called "structural violence" — a social structure that perpetuates their low status and prevents them from moving up within the social hierarchy. The challenge for peacebuilders is to empower the disempowered so that they can improve their own lives, as well as enable them to play a constructive role in the social, economic, and political systems of their communities and nations.

What We Know: The problem of power disparties has been a topic of sociological inquiry for a long time, though such disparities seem very resistant to successful amelioration. The following essays discuss the problem; a second set of essays discuss alternative solutions.

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• Power Inequities - Plutarch wrote, "An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics." This essay deals with the power inequities that have existed in almost all human societies.
• Social Status Conflicts - Social status is intrinsically linked with ideas of power, humiliation, dignity and hierarchy. In many societies, there is a perpetual struggle between those at the top and those at the bottom, with equality a very elusive goal.

Book Summary:

• Spoiler Problems in Peace Processes
  Stephen John Stedman
  Spoilers are individuals and groups who, often, are disempowered or fear they will become disempowered if peace breaks out. They therefore use violence to undermine the peace. This article attempts to improve our understanding of spoilers and to aid "custodians of peace" in managing them.

The notion of empowerment has been a "hot topic" both academically and practically since at least the 1960s. The following articles discuss various empowerment strategies:

• Empowerment - Saul Alinsky wrote, "I tell people to hell with charity, the only thing you'll get is what you're strong enough to get." This essay discusses what empowerment is, how it can be accomplished, who should do it, when, and what the outcomes might be.
• Voice - Those whose voices are most often silenced include women, children, minority groups, indigenous peoples, and the poor. This article explains the importance of having a voice, whether it
• Capacity Building In order to negotiate effectively, parties sometimes need to build their own or others' capacity to respond to their situation effectively by building knowledge, providing resources, or both. Capacity building is one key to empowerment.

Book Summaries

• Mediation, Citizen Empowerment and Transformational Politics
  Edward W. Schwerin
  Transformational politics seeks to empower individuals and communities in an effort to facilitate positive structural change. Schwerin attempts to clarify the concept of empowerment, and begins to develop a theory of empowerment as a paradigm for broad social movements.
• Negotiating at an Uneven Table: A Practical Approach to Working with Difference and Diversity
  Phyllis Beck Kritek
  Negotiations are often conducted within a framework of unequal power relations. This book draws on Kritek’s personal experience to present a range of options to empower the disempowered in a negotiation process.
• Strategic Nonviolent Conflict
  Peter Ackerman and Christopher Kruegler
  A practitioner's choice of non-violent strategies is key to the success of nonviolent actions. Such strategies, and principals to guide such strategies, are introduced in an effort to explore the potential uses of non-violent action in the contemporary context.
• Power and Struggle
  Gene Sharp
  Though the control of political power is often associated with violent coercion, there are effective alternatives. Nonviolent political alternatives are discussed and illustrated by historical examples.
• The Resolution of Conflict
  Morton Deutsch
  Conflicts based on the unequal distribution of material wealth can be resolved with either constructive or destructive consequences. In this classic book, comparing constructive and destructive approaches to conflict, strategies and tactics are discussed to empower the “have-nots” with constructive consequences including the development of personal resources, social cohesion, and social organizations.
• Exploring Nonviolent Alternatives
  Gene Sharp
  Nonviolent action withholds the assistance and cooperation necessary to exercise control over a population. Sharp discusses the techniques of nonviolent action and their implications for national defense.
• Methods of Nonviolent Action
  Gene Sharp
  Nonviolent action puts violent opponents in a "double-bind." If they fail to oppress the nonviolent actors, then their position is undermined. On the other hand, if they do take oppressive action, then sympathy for the nonviolent actors is increased. This book details various nonviolent methods under the general categories of protests, non-cooperation, and intervention techniques.
• The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action
  Gene Sharp
  Nonviolent action exposes the violence of an opponent’s repression in a sort of political jui-jitsu. Sharp elaborates on this process describing how to deal with repression, gain solidarity and deal with the inherent risks of nonviolent action.
• Power Sharing and International Mediation in Ethnic Conflicts
  Timothy D. Sisk
  The creation of sovereign states for every ethnic group currently demanding self-determination is impractical, if not impossible. Instead, demands for autonomy must be met within power-sharing political systems. Various power-sharing systems are discussed along with the general nature of ethnic conflict and the preferred role of the international community.

Other Resources of Interest:

• Fiske, E.B., and H.F. Ladd. Elusive Equity: Education Reform in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Washington, DC: Brookings, 2004.
  Publisher's Description
• Harvey, Jane. Civilized Oppression. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1999.
  Publisher's Description
• Gil, D.G. Confronting Injustice and Oppression. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
  Publisher's Description
• Noel, Lise. Intolerance: A General Survey. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994.
  Consortium Abstract   External Review
• Young, M.I. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.
  Publisher's Description
• Sidanus, J. and F. Pratto. Social Dominance: An Intergroup Theory of Social Hierarchy and Oppression. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  Vendor's Description
• Kenneth Boulding, Three Faces of Power. Calif.: Sage Publications, 1989.
  Consortium Abstract
• Humm, Andy. "The Activists Who Shaped a Century." Social Policy, Vol. 30 Issue 2 (Winter 1999): p2.
  Publisher's Description
• Lalloo, Kiran. "Arenas of Contested Citizenship: Housing Policy in South Africa." Habitat International, vol. 23 issue 1 (March 1998): 35-47.
  Author's Description
• Social Justice Education Lessons and advocacy opportunities for social justice and learning to organize for social change.
• Strategic nonviolent conflict
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• Overcoming oppression through nonviolence
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