Open Letter in Support of Gene Sharp and Strategic Nonviolent Action

As scholars and activists in longstanding opposition to efforts by the U.S. government – either directly or indirectly – to overthrow, undermine, subvert, or otherwise intervene in the internal affairs of other nations, we wish to go on record in defense of Dr. Gene Sharp and the Albert Einstein Institution.

Dr. Sharp is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on strategic nonviolent action.  He serves as the founder and senior scholar of the Albert Einstein Institution, a small nonprofit organization advancing the study and utilization of nonviolent conflict in defense of freedom, justice and democracy. 

During the past year and a half, Dr. Sharp and the Albert Einstein Institution have been subjected to a series of false accusations by a number of foreign governments of receiving guidance and financial support from the Bush administration, working with the CIA, and engaging in activities designed to promote U.S. imperialism.  These and other groundless charges have also appeared in a series of articles which have been posted in recent months on a number of progressive web sites and elsewhere as if they were true. 

We, however, reject such claims categorically.

We are aware of, and are adamantly opposed to, efforts by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the International Republican Institute (IRI) and other U.S. government-funded efforts to advance U.S. strategic and economic objectives under the guise of “democracy promotion.” We recognize, however, that Dr. Sharp and the Albert Einstein Institution are not part of such an agenda. 

Rather than being a tool of imperialism, Dr. Sharp’s research and writings have inspired generations of progressive peace, labor, feminist, human rights, environmental, and social justice activists in the United States and around the world.  

There have also been a small number of individuals who have taken advantage of resources offered by Dr. Sharp and the Albert Einstein Institution whose commitment to justice and equality are questionable. The nature of the Institution’s work, however, is transpartisan, cutting across political boundaries and conceptions, making its resources available to virtually anyone who is interested in learning about strategic nonviolent action.  Providing educational materials and consultation on strategic nonviolent action to particular individuals, therefore, should not be misinterpreted as endorsing their ideological agenda or as evidence of collaboration with any government.

As with similar false charges which have recently appeared regarding the work of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), the Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS), and similar groups, critics confuse the Albert Einstein Institution’s willingness to provide generic information on the history and dynamics of strategic nonviolent action with nefarious efforts by the U.S. government to undermine foreign governments critical of U.S. hegemonic goals and neo-liberal economic policies.

Except for receiving a couple of small one-time grants from the NED and IRI (well prior to the Bush administration coming to office) in order to translate some of Dr. Sharp’s theoretical writings, the Albert Einstein Institution has never received any money from any government or government-funded entity.  Nor does Dr. Sharp or the Albert Einstein Institution collaborate with the CIA, the NED, or any U.S. government or government-funded agencies; nor has Dr. Sharp or the Albert Einstein Institution ever provided financial or logistical support to any opposition groups in any country; nor has Dr. Sharp or the Albert Einstein Institution ever taken sides in political conflicts or engaged in strategic planning with any group.

The Albert Einstein Institution operates with a very minimal budget out of Dr. Sharp’s home with a staff consisting of two people – Dr. Sharp and a young administrator – and is quite incapable of carrying out the foreign intrigues of which it has been falsely accused.

Unlike some U.S.-funded “democracy-promotion” projects which assist pro-Western elites in top-down institution-building efforts and sophisticated political campaigns with the goal of seizing power, the Albert Einstein Institution, ICNC, CANVAS and related groups work primarily with grassroots activists who seek to empower civil society through nonviolent direct action regardless of their particular government’s relations with the United States. 

More fundamentally, these recent attacks against Dr. Sharp, the Albert Einstein Institution and similar groups represent a gross misunderstanding of the nature of strategic nonviolent action in the struggle for political freedom.

Indeed, those who attempt to dismiss recent popular nonviolent struggles against autocratic regimes as somehow being instigated and controlled by Western powers invalidate the ability of the millions of people who have placed their bodies on the line for freedom and justice to think for themselves or play a decisive role in determining their own nations’ future.  The United States is no more responsible for the recent nonviolent liberal democratic revolutions in Eastern Europe than the Soviet Union was responsible for earlier armed leftist revolutions in Central America.

Every successful popular nonviolent insurrection has been rooted in the belief by the majority of people that their rulers were illegitimate and the current political system was incapable of redressing injustice, thereby no longer deserving their obedience or cooperation.  Unlike a military coup or other U.S.-backed efforts at “regime change,” it is virtually impossible for any nonviolent insurrection to succeed when the movement’s leadership and agenda does not have the backing of the majority of the population.  

The popular nonviolent uprisings which led to the overthrow of corrupt and undemocratic regimes in Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine earlier this decade – like similar movements which ousted U.S.-backed dictatorships in the Philippines, Chile, Mali, Bolivia, and other countries in previous decades – were a result of independent actions by the people of those nations struggling for their rights. As a result, neither Gene Sharp nor any other foreign individual, organization or government deserves the credit or the blame for their victories.

Nonviolent struggle has historically been the weapon of the poor and disenfranchised through which they can gain an advantage over powerful and wealthy elites whose capacity to use violence against them is usually far superior. It is therefore ironic that some of those who view themselves as champions of oppressed peoples mischaracterize these popular nonviolent movements simply as tools of U.S. imperialism and global capital.

We therefore call upon people of conscience to reject the false allegations leveled against Gene Sharp, the Albert Einstein Institute and other groups promoting strategic nonviolent action; to continue to struggle against U.S. imperialism in all of its manifestations; and, to support popular democratic movements engaging in nonviolent action in the cause of human rights and social justice in the United States and throughout the world.

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Signatories - organizations for identification purposes only

Howard Zinn
Author, historian

Noam Chomsky
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

George Lakey
Swarthmore College

Paul Ortiz
University of California - Santa Cruz

Mary Bull
Greenwood Earth Alliance

Richard Deats
Fellowship of Reconciliation

Mubarak Awad
Nonviolence International

Scott Kennedy
Resource Center for Nonviolence

Patrick Coy
Kent State University

David Hartsough
Peaceworkers

Stephen Zunes
University of San Francisco

Frida Berrigan
World Policy Institute

Bill Sutherland
Pan-Africanist activist

Greg Bates
Common Courage Press

Elizabeth McAllister
Jonah House

Sandino Gomez
Brown Berets

Matt Meyer
Peace & Justice Studies Association

Michael Beer
Nonviolence International

Seelan Palay
Artist & Activist

Dr Clinton Fernandes
University of New South Wales

Daniel Hunter
Training for Change

Evan Weissman
Playwright, Nonviolence Teacher

Nanlouise Wolfe
Resource Center for Nonviolence

Kathleen S Pearce
Private citizen

Howard Clark
War Resisters'' International

Daniel Ellsberg
Truth-telling Project

Bert Garskof
Quinnipiac University

Joseph J. Fahey
Manhattan College

Sam Diener
Co-Editor, Peacework Magazine, AFSC

Randy Schutt
Vernal Education Project

Marc Pilisuk
Saybrook Graduate School

David Finke
Peace & Civil Rights activist

Barry L. Gan
St. Bonaventure University

Esther Franklin
Retired Ed. Consultant

Jacob Freeze
http://jacobfreeze.com

Christine Schweitzer
Institute for Peace Work and Nonviolent Conflict Transformation, Germany

andrew rigby
coventry university, uk

Jørgen Johansen
Coventry University

Martin Arnold
Arbeitsgruppe Guetekraft

bob manizza
citizen

Shel Horowitz
Business Ethics Pledge

Karen Monroe
vsyr

John Sniegocki
Xavier University - Cincinnati

James A. Joyce
retired professor of Peace and Justice studies.

Dan Clore
The Soylent Green Party

B. Allan Ross
United Gay Force

Stephen R. Shalom
William Paterson University

Galia Goodman
Galia Graphics

Herbert Standing
Iowa historian

Robert A. Irwin
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Jacqueline Haessly
Peacemaking Associates

George & Lillian Willoughby
60 years nonviolent social change activism

Steve Chase
Antioch University''s Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program

Patty Lyman
Seattle Labor Chorus

Frances Delahanty
Pace University

Fred V. Cook
Social Movement Empowerment Project

Martyn Lowe
Peace Activist & Information Worker

Alice Maes
Vinegar Lane Associates

Ellie Clement
Commonweal Collection, Bradford, UK

Emmett J Murphy
Sarasota Friends Meeting

Detlef Beck
Trainer for constrctive conflict resolution and mediator

Martha Dickinson
Ellsworth (ME) Area Peace and Justice

John M Miller
War Resisters League

Paul A. Olson
University of Nebraska

Herb Ettel
Activist Media

Joan H. Drake
Women''s International League for Peace & Freedom

Shodo Spring
Buddhist Peace Fellowship

Michael D. Adams
Swamp Fox Brigade - npcia@bellsouth.net

Gayle Davies
-

Matthew Rothschild
The Progressive magazine

John Feffer
Foreign Policy In Focus

Dr Michael Randle
Writer & Researcher, formerly Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Peace Studies, Bradford Unversity, UK

Anne Wright
--

Paul Loeb
Author, Soul of a Citizen

Lynn Grasberg
Humor Relations Associates

Christian Büttner
Archiv Aktiv e.V.

Gerald W. Schlabach
University of St. Thomas (MN)

John Braxton
Philadelphia branch, US Labor Against the War

Paul Engler
The Center For the Working Poor

Larry Dansinger
Resources for Organizing and Social Change, Monroe, ME

Gordon Fellman
Brandeis University

Amentahru Wahlrab
Illinois State University

Ira Chernus
University of Colorado

Louis Kriesberg
Conflict resolution analyst

Leo R. Sandy
Plymouth State University

David Swanson
AfterDowningStreet.org

Parke Burgess
www.ourtragicflaw.com

Anthony Newkirk
American School of Kuwait

Dion Economopoulos
AGX

Lo Auer
Dandelion Salad blog

Tammy Murphy
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London & Arcadia University

Scott J. MacDonald
U.S.A.

Chris Hables Gray
The Union Institute and University

Greg Guma
Author, journalist

Kelly Rae Kraemer
College of St. Benedict/St. John''s University

B. Beth Cohen
Ithaca, NY

Michael Nagler
Metta Center

Michael Bass
SOA Watch

Frank Kolwicz
none

Leyre Alejaldre Biel
UNIS

Pete Perry
Washington Peace Center

mark lance
philosopher, activist

John W Lango
Hunter College

Rene Wadlow
Association of World Citizens

Dr Stellan Vinthagen, Senior Lecturer
School pf Global Studies

Nina Huizinga
United for Peace and Justice

Rubén Campos Palarea
Complutense University (Madrid-Spain)

Binesh Hassanpour
Univeristy of Toronto

Donald Grayston
Simon Fraser University

Philippe Duhamel
Via Strategia

Cynthia Boaz
Sonoma State University

Kurt Schock
Rutgers University - Newark

Catherine Morris
Peacemakers Trust

Dr Janet Cherry
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

Nathan Stoltzfus
Florida State University

Peter R Neumann
King''s College London

David Hartsough
PEACEWROKERS

Carolyn Scarr
Ecumenical Peace Institute/CALC

Jason C. Waite
United Aid |UA|

Jean Marichez
Ecole de la Paix Grenoble

Ray Torres
Witness for Peace

Prof. Dr. Theodor Ebert
Otto-Suhr Institut, Free University of Berlin

Dr. Ute Finckh
Bund für Soziale Verteidigung/Federation for Social Defense, Germany

Brian Martin
University of Wollongong

Kathrin Vogler
Federation for Social Defence - Germany

Veronique Dudouet
Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management, Berlin

Anthony Kelly
Australian Nonviolence Network

Markley Morris
Activist

Lisa Clark
Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Charles Johnson
Molinari Institute

Daniel Buk
Manhattan College

Joseph Tonan
Private Individual

Clark Rieke
none

Metta Spencer
Peace Magazine

Ken Simons
Peace Magazine

Lee Smithey
Swarthmore College

dr. premraj pushpakaran, Pranavam, Kotte canal rd, Kochi - 682018, Kerala, India,
pranavam research

Jason MacLeod
the Change Agency