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             Mass movements in Poland, the Philippines, South Africa, the Soviet
             Union, and China have in recent years challenged established
             governments by nonviolent resistance and rebellion -- sometimes
             alongside violence and sometimes to its virtual exclusion.

             Similar movements have occurred in the past in Iran (1978-1979),
             Czechoslovakia (1968-1969), the U.S. Deep South (1950s and 1960s),
             India (1920s to 1940s), and in many other regions.

             Journalists from newspapers, radio and television have reported on
             these struggles, and they have usually recognized their nonviolent
             character.. But they have not always described nonviolent action in
             clear terms:

             Powerful, dynamic struggles have been sometimes labeled "passive"
             simply because no violence was used.

             - Demonstrations of thousands of persons who were strictly nonviolent
             have been labeled "violent" as a whole because of a small isolated act
             by a handful of persons -- or even because the disciplined nonviolent
             demonstrators were violently attacked by police or troops!

             - The term "nonviolence" has itself often been used carelessly to
             describe very different phenomena, ranging from passivity and
             submission to Amish pacifism to the beliefs of Corazon Aquino.

             - Other terms have also been used to describe nonviolent struggles
             without attention to clarity of meaning: people power, civil
             resistance, passive resistance, satyagraha, and the like.

             Journalists, editors, commentators, and headline writers need more
             precise terms with which to describe action and ideas in this field.

             We have prepared this pamphlet to encourage journalists to continue
             thoughtful coverage of nonviolent struggles, as their incidence grows
             in frequency and political significance.

             KEY TERMS

             Bloodless coup: A successful coup d'etat in which there is no killing.
             Not to be confused with nonviolent struggle, although such a coup
             sometimes follows nonviolent protest and resistance against the
             government.

             Boycott: Social, economic, or political noncooperation.

             Civic Strike: A collective suspension of normal activities --
             economic, social, and political -- by an entire society to achieve a
             common political objective.

             Civil disobedience: Deliberate, open, and peaceful violation of
             particular laws, decrees, regulations, military or police orders, or
             other governmental directives. The command may be disobeyed because it
             is seen as itself illegitimate or immoral, or because it is a symbol
             of other policies which are opposed. Civil disobedience may be
             practiced by individuals, groups, or masses of people.

             Civilian-based defense: A national defense policy to deter and defeat
             aggression, both internal (i.e., coups d'etat) and external (i.e.,
             invasions) by preparing the population and institutions for massive
             nonviolent resistance and defiance. The broad strategy is to deny the
             attackers' objections, block establishment of their government, and
             subvert their troops. This policy, alone or in combination with
             military means, has received governmental or military attention in
             several European countries.

             Civilian insurrection: A nonviolent uprising against a dictatorship,
             or other unpopular regime, usually involving widespread repudiation of
             the regime as illegitimate, mass strikes, massive demonstrations, an
             economic shut-down, and widespread political noncooperation. Political
             noncooperation may include action by government employees and mutiny
             by police and troops. In the final stages, a parallel government often
             emerges.

             If successful, a civilian insurrection may disintegrate the
             established regime in days or weeks, as opposed to a long-term
             struggle of many months or years. Civilian insurrections often end
             with the departure of the deposed rulers from the country.

             The ousters of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and the Shah of Iran in 1979
             are examples.

             Also called "nonviolent insurrection."

             Economic boycott: The withdrawal or withholding of economic
             cooperation in the form of buying, selling, or handling of goods or
             services, often accompanied by efforts to induce others to do
             likewise. It may be practiced on local, regional, national, or
             international levels.

             Economic noncooperation: The use of economic boycotts or strikes, or
             both, against an opponent.

             Economic sanctions: Usually, the imposition of international economic
             boycotts and embargoes. The term can also be used in domestic
             conflicts to refer to labor strikes and economic boycotts, shutdowns,
             and intervention.

             Economic shutdown: a suspension of the economic activities of a city,
             area, or country on a sufficient scale to produce economic paralysis.
             It combines a general strike by workers with a closing of businesses
             by their owners and managers.

             Embargo: An economic boycott initiated and enforced by a government.

             Fast: Deliberate abstention from certain or all food. When applied in
             a social or political conflict, it may be combined with a moral appeal
             seeking to change attitudes. It may also be intended simply to force
             the opponent to grant certain objections, in which case it is called a
             hunger strike.

             Force: Either: (1) an application of power (including threatened or
             imposed sanctions, which may be violent or nonviolent). As, "the force
             generated by the civil disobedience movement." Or: (2) The body or
             group applying force as defined in (1), usually used in the plural.
             As, "the forces at the government's disposal.

             General Strike: A work stoppage by a majority of workers in the more
             important industries of an area or country, intended to produce an
             economic standstill to achieve political or economic objectives.
             Certain vital services, as health, food, and water, may be exempted.
             Such strikes may be symbolic, lasting only an hour, to communicate an
             opinion, or may be intended to produce economic paralysis in order to
             force concessions from the opponent.

             Hunger strike: See "fast."

             Mutiny: Refusal by police or troops to obey orders. It can in extreme
             cases entail individual or group desertion. It is a method of
             nonviolent action unless the mutineers resort to violence.

             Noncooperation: Acts that deliberately restrict, withhold, or
             discontinue social, economic, or political cooperation with an
             institution, policy, or government. A general class of methods of
             nonviolent action.

             Nonviolence: Either, (1) The behavior of people who in a conflict
             refrain from violent acts. Or, (2) Any of several belief systems that
             reject violence on principle, not just as impractical.

             Otherwise, the term is best not used, since it often contributes to
             ambiguity and confusion. To describe specific actions or movements,
             the recommended terms are: "nonviolent action," "nonviolent
             resistance," or "nonviolent struggle."

             Nonviolent action: A technique of action in conflicts in which
             participants conduct the struggle by doing -- or refusing to do --
             certain acts without using physical violence. It is an alternative to
             both passive submission and violence. The technique includes many
             specific methods, which are grouped into three main classes:
             nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation, and nonviolent
             intervention.

             The technique's variables include the motives for using it, the
             objectives, the intended way success is to be accomplished
             (mechanism), and the relation between nonviolent action and other
             forms of action.

             Nonviolent discipline: Orderly adherence to the planned strategy and
             tactics of an action and to nonviolent behavior even in face of
             repression. This is a major factor contributing to the success of a
             nonviolent struggle movement.

             Nonviolent resistance: Nonviolent struggle, conducted largely by
             noncooperation, in reaction to a disapproved act, policy, or
             government. The broader terms "nonviolent action: and "nonviolent
             struggle" are therefore preferred to refer to the overall nonviolent
             technique of action and to action in which the nonviolent group also
             takes the initiative or intervenes, as in a sit-in.

             Nonviolent sanctions: The methods of the technique of nonviolent
             action. The term is used especially when one wishes to make clear that
             these methods are not merely expressive behavior but are ways to wield
             power, exercise influence, inflict punishments, and impose costs.

             Nonviolent struggle: A synonym for "nonviolent action." This term may
             be used also to indicate that the nonviolent action in a conflict is
             particularly purposeful or aggressive. "Nonviolent struggle" is
             especially useful to describe nonviolent action against determined and
             resourceful opponents who use repressive measures and countermeasures.
 

             Pacifism: Several types of belief systems of principled rejection of
             violence. Pacifism is distinct from the technique of nonviolent
             action, which is usually applied as a practical way to act by people
             who are not pacifists. Pacifist belief systems, at a minimum, reject
             participation in all international or civil wars, or violent
             revolutions. Pacifists may support nonviolent struggle, or may oppose
             it on ethical grounds as too conflictual.

             Passive resistance: A nineteenth century term once used to describe
             nonviolent struggle.. The term is now in disfavor and rejected because
             "passive" is plainly inaccurate to describe recent cases of nonviolent
             noncooperation and defiance.

             People power: The power capacity of a mobilized population and its
             institutions using nonviolent forms of struggle. The term was
             especially used during the 1986 Philippine nonviolent insurrection.

             Political boycott: See "political noncooperation."

             Political noncooperation: The withholding of usual obedience to, or
             participation in, the political system. The aim may be to correct a
             specific grievance or to disintegrate a government. Political
             noncooperation can take a great variety of forms, including
             withholding of allegiance, civil disobedience of "illegitimate" laws,
             and governmental refusal of diplomatic recognition. A synonym for
             "political boycott."

             See also "noncooperation."

             Sanctions: Punishments or reprisals, violent or nonviolent, for either
             failure to act in the expected or desired manner or for acting in an
             unexpected or prohibited manner. Nonviolent sanctions are less likely
             than violent ones to be simple reprisals and more likely to be
             intended to achieve a given objective.

             See also "nonviolent sanctions."

             Satyagraha: M.K. Gandhi's version of nonviolent action, and also his
             fuller belief system enjoining nonviolent personal behavior and social
             responsibility. Pronounced sat-ya-graha.

             Strike: A group's deliberate restriction or suspension of work,
             usually temporary, to put pressure on employers or sometimes the
             government. Strikes take many forms and range widely in extent and
             duration.

             See also "economic noncooperation."

             Transarmament: The process of incrementally building up a nation's
             civilian-based defense capacity and gradually phasing out its military
             defense capacity. "Transarmament" is contrasted to "disarmament" which
             involves a simple reduction or abandonment of military capacity
             without providing a substitute means for national defense.

             See also "civilian-based defense."

             Violence: The infliction on people of physical injury or death, or the
             threat to do so. All behavior cannot be neatly classified as either
             "violence" or "nonviolence," and several categories fall between these
             two extremes, including "destruction of property."

             In reporting a demonstration or resistance movement which is primarily
             or exclusively nonviolent, care is required to distinguish it, for
             example, from the acts of violence by small numbers of persons (who
             may be undisciplined or deliberately disruptive for political reasons
             or as agents provocateurs). Similarly, a demonstration should not be
             described as "violent" when it is violently attacked by police or
             troops but nevertheless maintains its nonviolent discipline.

             FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

             Journalists' inquiries about the history, nature, and dynamics of
             nonviolent struggle may be addressed to:

             The Albert Einstein Institution 1430 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge,
             MA 02138 (617) 876-0311

             The Albert Einstein Institution is a nonprofit organization which
             supports work on the strategic uses of nonviolent sanctions in
             relation to problems of political violence. Independent and
             nonsectarian, it does not endorse political candidates and is not an
             advocate of any political organization.