Richard Falk's Doctrine of Conditional Non-Violence

Richard Falk (advocate of leftism and non-violence, author of many books, one of the intellectual leaders of the movement against the Vietnam War) has an interesting article, entitled "Global Civil Society and the Democratic Prospect" in: Barry Holden, ed., Global Democracy: Key Debates. London-New York: Routledge, 2000.

Falk's purpose in this article is "to offer a proposal for a unifying ideology capable of unifying and mobilizing the disparate social forces that constitute global civil society, and to galvanize the political energy that is associated with globalization-from-below." (p.171) Observing the various ideological currents in contemporary "civil society" movements, he finds various normative-ideological principles common to most of them, namely: " * consent of citizenry . . .* rule of law . . .* human rights . . .* participation . . .* accountability . . .* public goods: a restored social agenda that corrects the growing imbalances. . .* transparency. . . * non-violence" (p. 172-4)

Conditional Non-Violence

His elaboration of the concept of "non-violence" is very important; it differs from a position of absolute pacifism (as, e.g., practiced by the group of the Amish) and differs, to some extent, from the Gandhian concept of non-violence. Falk explains: "non-violence: underpinning globalization-from-below and the promotion of substantive democracy is a conditional commitment to non-violent politics and conflict resolution; such a commitment does not nullify rights of self-defense as protected in international law, strictly and narrowly construed, nor does it necessarily invalidate limited recourse to violence by oppressed peoples; such an ethos of non-violence clearly imposes on governments an obligation to renounce weaponry of mass destruction and to negotiate phased disarmament arrangements, but also encourages maximum commitments to demilitarizing approaches to peace and security at all levels of social interaction, including peace and security at the level of city and neighbourhood, such commitments suggest the rejection of capital punishment as an option of government, and an overall commitment to peaceful forms of dispute settlement and conflict resolution." (p. 174)

Comment: This position is not compatible with the Leninist doctrine of permanent "civil war"(1) between the proletarian party and its bourgeois, petty bourgeois, Kautsky-type-socialist, church, etc. enemies. On the other hand, the combination of non-violence "in principle" with defensive violence "in certain cases" renders Falk's doctrine more practical and suitable for movement activism than a doctrine of absolute non-violence. The option of a recourse to defensive violence by groups, peoples, or countries adds an element of deterrence and defense to the overall non-violent stance.

Note (1): the expression "civil war" ("Buergerkrieg") in this sense can be found, for example, in Lenin's introduction to the 1920 German and French editions of his book "Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism"