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Muir Report: A Tale of Two Cities

The demonstration in San Fran featured the usual
suspects, mostly older, mostly white, mostly middle
class people, cavorting with the casually dressed
police, carrying cleverly written signs, adorned with
little smiley faces, and featuring many more cute,
smartly dressed children than snarling pit bulls. The
kind of people who show up for a tax rally are usually
people who pay their taxes. They wanted to see Mr.
Trumps tax returns as they believed there might be
some mysterious plot revealed which could lead to immediate impeachment,
exile or worse, as if we needed more information on why this whole Trump
affair was at the very least, ill advised. On the other hand, the Berkeley crowd
consisted of angry, red faced, helmeted, and masked participants on both
sides of the ubiquitous orange plastic fence, last seen in the town square in
Garberville. Were they here to demonstrate or catch a United Airlines flight?
The police, borrowed from Oakland, wore full battle gear, which included gas
masks and bullet proof vests. The Trumpsters appeared to be larger and had
much better T-shirts, featuring Donald Trump's snarling face. At first, both
sides were on their opposite sides of the fence with the police separating
them in the small strip of no man's land in the middle. At first it was insults
hurled at each other, mocking clothing, female body hair, and poorly etched
tattoos, then a few stale bagels from the anti Trump side sailed over the barri-
ers, thrown by a group called the black bloc,
consisting of skinny kids with kerchiefs hiding
their faces. The volley was returned with rocks, which landed upon helmeted
heads, the crowds moved forward, punches were thrown, a guy in a wheel
chair yelled out the N-word and the melee was on, sporadic fights broke out
everywhere, the police were overwhelmed, small groups would battle vi-
ciously, M-80 rockets were shot off, paper spray filled the air and tear gas fol-
lowed as the park emptied into the streets of downtown Berkeley, leaving a
mess of bottles, garbage and ripped clothing in it's wake.
One of the lighter moments was watching a can of pepsi fly through the air,
mimicking the now famous commercial of a Kardasian girl giving soda to a
policeman to quell a riot. Of course, this being Berkeley, there remained a tent
featuring cuddles, hugs and compromise, staffed by the only sane people in
the area. The tension that filled the air provided some much needed relief
from years of marching and not being heard, at the very least, there would be
plenty of stories and lots of hot sex following this arousal of senses. At ex-
actly two p.m. hostilities seemed to miraculously cease and the combatants,
filled with mutual respect for the others martial abilities, started to dialogue
and walk off together, reminiscent of athletes hugging each other at the con-
clusion of a well played game. Could this be a bad thing? maybe a little blood
letting is just what we need to recognize we are both on the same side. Aside
from one stabbing and some minor contusions, a lot was accomplished and a
good time was had by all.
-Muir Walker

Nonviolence in Syria: FIRST & LAST

Six years into a civil war whose humanitarian
and geo-political consequences have been
devastating, it is easy to forget that the Syrian
revolution began nonviolently. In March 2011,
after a group of kids in Deraa province (close to the Jordanian border)
painted graffiti calling for the fall of the Assad regime, the local police tortured
them and abused their families. In response, protests broke out in Deraa and
across the country. More moderate calls to end regime impunity and corrup-
tion quickly gave way to demands that the Assad regime step down.
Inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Syrians were ea-
ger to free themselves of the shackles of Assad family dictatorship. The first
eight months of the revolution were dominated by massive rallies, celebratory
dance protests in the streets, puppet shows that dramatized the corruption
and repression of the regime, sit-ins led by lawyers and students, and red dye
applied to fountains to dramatize the blood shed by the Assad regime
these were staples of the nonviolent resistance. During this phase of the
struggle, although the majority of protesters were Sunni, members of minority
groups, including Christians, Kurds, Druze and Alawites (an off-shoot of
Shiism and the sect of the ruling Assad family) protested in disproportion-
ately high numbers.
A decentralized network of Local Coordination Committees quickly took root
inside Syria and took the lead in organizing the protests and demonstrations.
Later, local councils were established and focused on civilian representation
and service provision. Eventually, as regime violence escalated and the oppo-
sition increasingly turned to armed resistance, forming the Free Syrian Army
and other militant factions, the civilian structures focused increasingly on lo-
cal administration and humanitarian operations.
Once the nonviolent uprising began, Bashar al-Assad ordered lethal violence
against peaceful protesters and employed armed thugs, called shabiha, to
kill individuals during demonstrations. The Syrian Electronic Army and regime
security forces infamously tracked down, arrested, tortured and killed thou-
sands of the best nonviolent organizers and activists. Eventually, Syrian army
mortar attacks and bombings proved to be devastating for the nonviolent re-
sistance.
Once the violence intensified, minority sects participation in the resistance
dropped significantly, while the Assad regimes propaganda machine por-
trayed the resistance as foreign-backed Sunni terrorists. Eventually, terrorist
groups like Al Qaeda, Nusra Front and ISIS filled the political vacuum in rebel-
held areas, and the nonviolent Syrian activists were forced to resist violence
and extremism from both the regime and armed opposition groups.
In the case of Syria, it is difficult to imagine the civil war ending without a re-
gional agreement involving those countries Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey,
United Arab Emirates and Qatar which are backing various factions in the
civil war. Then, alas, there is the necessary buy-in from Russia and the United
States. Peace agreements, when they are reached, usually only take hold
when guaranteed by peacekeeping boots on the ground. In the case of Syria,
such a force will be challenging to assemble.
Still, civil wars always end, whether in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Liberia,
Guatemala, Mozambique or, most recently, in Colombia. In each of these
cases, a combination of war weariness and persistent civil society mobiliza-
tion and pressure on state and non-state armed groups were critical ingredi-
ents in ending the armed conflict. Organized pressure by women and religious
leaders, notably, helped accelerate the path to peace in each of those places.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a film about the role played by Liberian women
in ending that countrys civil war (through sustained nonviolent pressure and
gutsy noncooperation with the status quo) has been seen by many Syrians.
I predict that similar dynamics will play out in Syria. For this reason, those
nonviolent, Syrian-led organizations that are struggling to keep people alive at
the same time that they build a counter-force to violence, tyranny and extrem-
ism deserve robust outside support. These groups are creating womens-led
peace circles inside Syria, reporting on atrocities committed by various
armed factions, providing education and trauma healing for refugee children,
challenging ISIS and other extremist groups and planning the elements of an
eventual transition.
Thanks to Maria J. Stephan wagingnonviolence.org

Whitethorn Eugene ED Denson

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