When Peter Ackerman was a student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he became interested in political conflicts around the world. Little did he know that this interest would spawn a PBS documentary and a book, both released last month.
Ackerman's dissertation, entitled A Force More Powerful, served as the springboard for the documentary. As a Fletcher student, his dissertation focused on strategic aspects of nonviolent resistance movements.
"I compared the first Russian revolution, which was filled with strikes and other forms of nonviolent resistance but was largely spontaneous, to the Indian independence movement that was highly planned and strictly nonviolent as a strategy," Ackerman said. "The conclusion I came to was that having a strategy of nonviolent resistance can be important to success."
Ackerman said that, like many doctoral candidates, he thought that his ideas on nonviolent conflicts would flourish in the foreign policy world. But to his disappointment, this was not the case. Instead, he used his thoughts on the subject to co-author a book with Christopher Kruegler called Strategic Nonviolent Conflict, published in 1994.
The book compared and contrasted more cases of nonviolent resistance movements. These cases led Ackerman and Kreugler to outline 12 principles that determine success or failure in these movements.
Writing this book was what really got the wheels rolling towards making the documentary. Award-winning documentary producer Steve York read Strategic Nonviolent Conflict and envisioned the stories as a documentary film.
York approached Ackerman and asked for his assistance in making the film. Ackerman said that he "would only help if, by virtue of [York's] artistry, that the public would see that even though the events [took place] in different decades, that the events were similar and that they told of a force more powerful."
The filmmaking process took off after this, and Ackerman served as series editor and principal content advisor for the project. WETA, Washington, DC's PBS (Public Broadcasting System) station, agreed to sponsor the documentary.
After three years and an immense amount of work, A Force More Powerful was finally completed. To gather footage, York traveled all over the world, interviewing and filming people in countries where nonviolent resistance movements have taken place, including India, South Africa, Chile, Poland, Denmark, the Philippines, Germany, and Russia.
A Force More Powerful aired in two parts, on Sept. 18 and 25. The documentary itself is divided into six segments, each focusing on a different movement and featuring interviews with witnesses, survivors, and unsung heroes.
The documentary profiles Rev. James Lawson, Jr., a leader in the 1960 movement in Nashville, Tenn. to desegregate the city's downtown business district. Lawson held training workshops for college students that taught techniques of nonviolent resistance, such as sit-ins and boycotts.
Mohandas Gandhi, an influential figure in the history of nonviolent resistance, is studied as well. His Salt March of 1930 brought Indians together to protest the British salt monopoly, and this served as a turning point of India's independence from Britain. Gandhi favored a plan of "noncooperation," which included mass demonstrations, strikes, and the boycott of British goods.
Mkhuseli Jack, a young activist in South Africa in the mid-1980s, led the consumer boycott campaign against apartheid in the black townships of the country's Eastern Cape Province. He also founded the Port Elizabeth Youth Congress in addition to leading strikes, boycotts, and other grassroots efforts that led to the eventual destruction of apartheid and the freeing of Nelson Mandela.
Denmark endured a five-year Nazi occupation during World War II. The Danes practiced noncooperation and undermined the Germans' attempt to exploit the nation for food and war supplies. Many citizens committed sabotage acts and staged general strikes. Through the Danes' underground resistance movement, they were able to rescue all but a few hundred of Denmark's 7,000 Jews from the Holocaust.
In 1980 in Poland, Lech Walesa, a shipyard electrician, was able to triumph as leader of the Gdansk Shipyard strike. The successful protest won Poles the right to have free trade unions, and launched the Solidarity movement. Walesa earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and after the fall of communism in the country, he was elected president.
The final nonviolent conflict featured in A Force More Powerful is the national protest led by Chilean copper miners in 1983. These protesters were able to overcome a great fear of their leader, and showed that public opposition to General Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship was possible. These opposition forces were finally able to remove Pinochet's military government in a 1988 referendum.
In September, Ackerman released a companion book (also titled A Force More Powerful) with the documentary, co-authored by Jack DuVall. The book goes into greater detail about each of the conflicts presented in the documentary as well as featuring conflicts not included in the documentary.
Both the documentary and the book have received praise among critics. Ackerman was asked to make a presentation before the United Nations yesterday about the documentary, where highlights from A Force More Powerful were shown. About the book, former president Jimmy Carter said, "These are powerful stories about truth overcoming lies, love dissolving evil, and life eclipsing death. Nonviolent valor can end oppression, and the world of the 21st century will be safer, freer, and more humane if it heeds the lessons of this book."
Already, Ackerman has received a great response about the documentary. "We're getting calls from all over the world for materials," he said. Requests for information have come from Burma, the Balkans, Iraq, and China. There was also a request that the tapes be translated into Farsi.
Right now, besides serving as the chairman of the Board of Overseers at the Fletcher School, Ackerman has been working on projects related to A Force More Powerful. A conference sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace is in the works. Here, dissident groups trying to deal with authoritarian leaders in their country will be brought together with groups who have had successful resistance movements. At the conference, they will be able to share their thoughts, ideas, and strategies.
