The World Revolution:  Introduction & Overview



“In this age of wonders, no one will say that an idea is worthless because it is new.  To say it is impossible because it is difficult is again not in consonance with the spirit of the age.  Things undreamt of are daily being seen.  The impossible is ever becoming possible.”  -- Mahatma Gandhi



The World Revolution is an idea for a new, global grassroots social movement for progressive social change.   It attempts to resolve in a definitive and comprehensive manner the major social problems of our world and our era.  The following is an overview of major aspects of the World Revolution, as it has been initially conceived.

The State of the World: Overview of Global Issues

The World Revolution is conceived as a response to our current global crisis and to the whole array of critical problems and issues, throughout various parts of the planet, facing human beings and facing the natural environment.

The problems are serious. But they should be no new news to anyone who reads the newspapers or has the courage to look at the world with candid and honest eyes. For a majority of the world's people, these problems and the consequent hardships are self-evident facts of life and lie within the domain of immediate personal experience.

The following is an overview of major global issues and problems.  They have been grouped here into 4 major areas: Peace, Human Rights, Environment and Development – this grouping helps to conceptualize the various different issues.

This basic grouping and “classification” of issues has been used by many people, including Richard Falk of the World Order Models Project, Anup Shah of the GlobalIssues.org website, and also in the United Nations Millennium Declaration.

Peace, War & Conflict

War & Conflict - Since the end of the Second World War in 1945 there have been over 250 major wars in which over 23 million people have been killed, tens of millions made homeless, and countless millions injured and bereaved.   In the history of warfare the twentieth century stands out as the bloodiest and most brutal - three times more people have been killed in wars in the last ninety years than in all the previous five hundred. (War: An Overview, Peace Pledge Union)

One year into the new millennium the world still wrestles with a welter of problems left over from the 20th century. There are still more than three dozen major active conflicts (those with over 1,000 casualties, both military and civilian) in the world. (Center for Defence Information, The Defence Monitor)

In armed conflicts since 1945, 90 per cent of casualties have been civilians.  (New Internationalist - Issue 311 "Peace")  3 out of 4 fatalities of war are women and children. (Source: UN World Food Programme, 1998.)

War and internal conflicts in the 1990s forced 50 million people to flee their homes.  (UNDP Human Development Report 2000)

Children and War - In the wars of the last decade, more children were killed than soldiers. Child victims of war include an estimated 2 million killed, 4 to 5 million disabled, 12 million left homeless, and more than 1 million orphaned.  (Source: UNICEF, State of the World’s Children, 1995, p. 2.)

Child Soldiers - In dozens of countries around the world, children have become direct participants in war. Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, some 300,000 children are serving as soldiers in current armed conflicts. These young combatants participate in all aspects of contemporary warfare. Because of their immaturity and lack of experience, child soldiers suffer higher casualties than their adult counterparts.  (Human Rights Watch)

Women and War - During armed conflict, women and girls are continually threatened by rape, domestic violence, sexual exploitation, trafficking, sexual humiliation and mutilation. They are at heightened risk in all settings, whether at home, in flight or in camps for displaced people.  (UNIFEM, Women, Peace & Security)

Landmines - The global landmine crisis is one of the most pervasive problems facing the world today. It is estimated that there are between 60 and 70 million landmines in the ground in at least 70 countries. Landmines maim or kill approximately 26,000 civilians every year, including 8,000 to 10,000 children. At least 75% of landmine victims are civilians.  (Adopt-a-Minefield (www.landmines.org))

Small Arms and Light Weapons - More than 500 million small arms and light weapons are in circulation around the world – one for about every 12 people. They were the weapons of choice in 46 out of 49 major conflicts since 1990, causing four million deaths – about 90 per cent of them civilians, and 80 per cent women and children. (UN Conference Brochure - Illicit trade in Small Arms, 2001)

Nuclear Weapons - The threat of nuclear weapons has been a fact of life on earth for more than half of the 20th century. The size of nuclear arsenals worldwide peaked in the 1980s and remains at approximately 30,000 warheads today, including strategic and tactical weapons. Despite the end of the Cold War, some 5,000 nuclear weapons are on hair-trigger alert, ready to be launched on a few minutes notice.  (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War)

Military Spending - Current global military spending has reached $781 billion annually; more than the total income of the poorest 45% of the global population.  (Source: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Report, The State of the World's Children, 1999. World Bank, World Development Indicators, 1998.)  

Human Rights & Social Justice

Children - Children suffer many of the same human rights abuses as adults, but may also be targeted simply because they are dependent and vulnerable. Children are tortured and mistreated by state officials; they are detained, lawfully or arbitrarily, often in appalling conditions; in some countries they are subjected to the death penalty. Countless thousands are killed or maimed in armed conflicts; many more have fled their homes to become refugees. Children forced by poverty or abuse to live on the streets are sometimes detained, attacked and even killed in the name of social cleansing. Many millions of children work at exploitative or hazardous jobs, or are the victims of child trafficking and forced prostitution. (Amnesty International Report - Children: The Future Starts Here)

Child Labor - At least 250 million children between the ages of five and 14 are working in developing countries. Approximately 120 million of these children work full time, and tens of millions of these work under exploitative and harmful conditions. (U.S. Department of Labor, By the Sweat and Toil of Children)


Violence Against Women - Violence against women and girls is a major health and human rights concern.  Between 10% and 50% of women report they have been physically abused by an intimate partner in their lifetime.  Between 12 and 25% of women have experienced attempted or completed forced sex by an intimate partner or ex-partner at some time in their lives.  Forced prostitution, trafficking for sex and sex tourism appear to be growing. Studies on the trafficking of women and children estimated 500,000 women entering the European Union in 1995.  (WHO Fact Sheet, Violence Against Women)

Worldwide, a quarter of all women are raped during their lifetime. Depending on the country, 25 to 75 percent of women are regularly beaten at home. Over 120 million women have undergone female genital mutilation. (UNIFEM Press Release, 1999)

Women and Decision-Making - Women hold only 12% of parliamentary seats worldwide. In the least developed countries it can be as low as 8.5%.  (Equality In Practice, DFiD Report, 2000, Womankind Worldwide)

Women hold only 1% of executive positions in the world's biggest international corporations.  (Focus on Women, UN, 1995, Womankind Worldwide)

Women and Education - There are 876 million illiterate people in the world - two thirds of them are women. This figure is not expected to decrease significantly in the next 20 years.  Two thirds of school-age children in the developing world without access to education are girls.  (World's Women 2000, UN, Womankind Worldwide)

Refugees - Today, no continent, and barely any country, in the world is untouched by the global refugee crisis. At the beginning of 2000 an estimated 14 million people were living as refugees, uprooted from their homes and forced to cross an international border. Huge though they are, the global refugee numbers hide an even greater displacement crisis: that of the internally displaced, those people who are forced to flee their homes, often for the very same reasons as refugees - war, civil conflict, political strife, and gross human rights abuse - but who remain within their own country, do not cross an international border, and hence are not eligible for protection under the same international system as refugees. There are an estimated 30 million internally displaced persons in the world - the number may be even higher.  (Human Rights Watch)

Labor Rights

Bonded Labor - Bonded labour – or debt bondage – is probably the least known form of slavery today, and yet it is the most widely used method of enslaving people. A person becomes a bonded labourer when his or her labour is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan.  It is estimated that some 20 million people are held in bonded labour around the world.  Bonded labourers are routinely threatened with and subjected to physical and sexual violence. They are kept under various forms of surveillance, in some cases by armed guards.  (Anti-Slavery International)

Sweatshops - A sweatshop is a workplace where workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including the absence of a living wage or benefits, poor working conditions, and arbitrary discipline, such as verbal and physical abuse. Sweatshops are continuously being discovered all over the world. In the U.S., these conditions exist in many low wage industries that employ immigrants, such as the garment industry.  (Sweatshop Watch)

Environment & Nature

Forests - Half of the forests that originally covered 46% of the Earth's land surface are gone. Only one-fifth of the Earth's original forests remain pristine and undisturbed.  (Natural Resources Defense Council (? / Rainforest Action Network))

Forests cover about a quarter of the world's land surface, excluding Greenland and Antarctica. Global forest cover has been reduced by 20 percent since pre-agricultural times, and possibly as much as 50 percent.  Less than 40 percent of forests globally are relatively undisturbed by human action. (World Resources Institute)

Rainforests - Rainforests cover 2% of the Earth's surface, or 6% of its land mass, yet they house over half the plant and animal species on Earth. They originally covered at least twice that area.  Rainforests are being destroyed at a staggering rate. Despite the small land area they cover, rainforests are home to about half of the 5 to 10 million plant and animal species on the globe. Rainforests also support 90,000 of the 250,000 identified plant species.  (Rainforest Action Network)

Global Warming & Climate Change - If present rates of emissions of carbon dioxide continue, the Earth will experience a lC (1.8F) warming by 2030 at the latest, and a 3C (5.4F) increase in temperature before the end of the next century. This amounts to a warming rate 10 to 100 times more rapid than the fastest warming period in the last 10,000 years.  Global warming would have tremendous consequences including: Widespread extinction of plant and animal species. Sea level rise and coastal flooding. Adverse impact on agriculture. Increases in severe storms such as hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons.  (Rainforest Action Network)

Biodiversity & Species Extinction - The Earth's species are dying out at an alarming rate, up to 1000 times faster than their natural rate of extinction. Some scientists estimate that as many as 137 species disappear from the Earth each day, which adds up to an astounding 50,000 species disappearing every year.  (Rainforest Action Network)

Species have been disappearing at 50-100 times the natural rate, and this is predicted to rise dramatically. Based on current trends, an estimated 34,000 plant and 5,200 animal species - including one in eight of the world's bird species - face extinction. (Convention on Biological Diversity)

The best estimates are that between 10 and 20 percent of all species will be driven to extinction in the next 20 to 50 years. The current and impending rate of human-caused extinctions is conservatively estimated to be 100 to 1,000 times the background extinction rate. (Union of Concerned Scientists)

Oceans & Marine Ecosystems  - We are in the midst of a global marine crisis. Earth's coastal and marine resources, and the ecosystems upon which they depend, are showing signs of collapse. (World Resources Institute)

As a result of destructive human activity, the health of our oceans and the life they support is in jeopardy. Commercial whaling much reduced from its former scale but still in existence, has severely depleted whale populations worldwide, driving some to the brink of extinction. Fish stocks are plummeting in virtually every ocean and sea. Seabirds, hundreds of thousands of sea turtles and marine mammals are entangled and drowned by irresponsible fishing practices every year.  (Greenpeace USA)

Coral Reefs - Covering less than 0.2% of the ocean floor, coral reefs contain perhaps 1/4 of all marine species.  Coral reefs are among the most endangered ecosystems on earth. Coral reefs in 93 of the 109 countries containing them have been damaged or destroyed by human activities. In addition, human impacts may have directly or indirectly caused the death of 5-10% of the world's living reefs, and if the pace of destruction is maintained, another 60% could be lost in the next 20-40 years. (Environmental Defense Fund)

Freshwater Systems - The world's freshwater systems are so degraded that its ability to support human, plant and animal life is greatly in peril. As a result, many freshwater species are facing rapid population decline or extinction, and an increasing number of people will face serious water shortages.  By 2025, at least 3.5 billion people or nearly 50 percent of the world's population will face water scarcity.  More than 20 percent of the world's known 10,000 freshwater fish species have become extinct, been threatened, or endangered in recent decades.  (World Resources Institute)

Overfishing  - World fisheries face a grim forecast. Forty-five years of increasing fishing pressure have left many major fish stocks depleted or in decline. Sixty percent of the world's important fish stocks are "in urgent need of management" to rehabilitate them or keep them from being overfished.  (World Resources Institute, Resources at Risk)

Wilderness & Land

Desertification - Desertification threatens nearly one quarter of the land surface of the globe.  The environmental impacts of desertification include a reduction in crop yields, a loss of plants and a deterioration in the quality of plant foodstuffs available to humans and animals. (The Guardian newspaper, Desertification special report, The Arid Expansion)

Wildlife - Thousands of species of plants and animals are under increasing threat. Every day, added pressures such as loss of habitat, illegal trade, over-hunting, pollution, and the effects of climate change and economic development take their toll on the world's wildlife.  (World Wide Fund for Nature, Species Program)

Urban Growth - The current pace and scale of change—over 60 million people are added to urban populations each year—often strain the capacity of local and national governments to provide even the most basic services to urban residents. An estimated 25 to 50 percent of urban inhabitants in developing countries live in impoverished slums and squatter settlements, with little or no access to adequate water, sanitation, or refuse collection. (World Resources Institute)

Transportation  - Transportation of all types already accounts for more than one quarter of the world's commercial energy use.  Vehicles are major sources of urban air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.  In developing countries, the growing use of internal combustion vehicles, especially in urban areas, will increase congestion, raise the demand for oil, worsen air pollution, and increase emissions of a variety of greenhouse gases, including methane, ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and, most important, CO2.  Worldwide, motor vehicle emissions account for more than 15 percent of global fossil fuel CO2 releases. Because of their large vehicle fleets, developed countries are responsible for a commensurately large share of emissions. In 1993, developed countries accounted for about two thirds of total world CO2 emissions from motor vehicles, although these countries represented only 16 percent of the world's population. (World Resources Institute)

Economic Development, Poverty & Inequality

Poverty - Although poverty has been dramatically reduced in many parts of the world, a quarter of the world's people remain in severe poverty. In a global economy of $25 trillion, this is a scandal - reflecting shameful inequalities and inexcusable failures of national and international policy.  (UNDP Human Development Report 1997)

Half the world's people live on less than $2 a day. 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 per day.  (World Bank)

Women and Poverty - Millions of women in developing countries live in poverty. Women are still the poorest of the world's poor, representing 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people who live in absolute poverty. Narly 900 million women have incomes of less than $1 a day.  (UNIFM, Strengthening Women's Economic Capacity)

Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half of the world's food, and yet earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property.  (World Development Indicators, 1997, Womankind Worldwide)

Education - Today, there are still 125 million children who never attend school.  Another 150 million children of primary age start school, but drop out before they can read or write.  One in four adults in the developing world – 872 million people – is illiterate, and the numbers are growing.  Girls account for two-thirds of the children not in school. Oxfam UK - Education Now Campaign- the issues

Debt Crisis - The debt burden is the biggest single barrier to development in the Third World, the most powerful tool that western nations use to keep whole countries in bondage.  It is estimated that the Third World pays the developed North nine times more in debt repayments than they receive in aid. Africa alone spends four times more on repaying its debts than it spends on health care.  (DebtChannel.org - OneWorld.net - Beginner's guide to debt)

In 1997 the foreign debts of ‘developing’ countries were more than two trillion (million million) US dollars and still growing. The result is a debt of $400 for every man, woman and child in the developing world – where average income in the very poorest countries is less than a dollar a day.  (New Internationalist - Issue 312 "Debt")

Inequality - The assets of the 200 richest people in 1998 were more than the total annual income of 41% of the world’s people. (UNDP Human Development Report 1999)

Three families – Bill Gates, the Sultan of Brunei and the Walton family – have a combined wealth of some $135 billion. Their value equal the annual income of 600 million people living in the world’s poorest countries.  (World Development Movement. WDM in Action, Winter 1999, Rebecca McQullan (article))

Global Inequality / Inequality between countries - The richest 20% of the world population now receives 150 times the income of the poorest 20%.  (UNDP Human Development Report 1992)

The richest one-fifth of the world:
UNDP Human Development Report 1998

The income gap between the richest fifth of the world's people and the poorest fifth, measured by average national income per head, increased from 30 to one in 1960, to 74 to one in 1997.  (Human Development Report, United Nations Development Program, 1999.)

Inequality within countries - Within nations, the income gap has been growing as well. Russia now has the world's greatest inequality, with the richest 20% having 11 times the income of the bottom 20%. Income inequalities have also grown dramatically in China, Indonesia, Thailand, other East and South-East Asian countries, and in the industrialized countries, especially Sweden, Britain, and the United States.  ("The State of the World," Stephen R. Shalom)

Food & Hunger - Hunger continues to plague an estimated 793 million people around the world. Every day, 24,000 people die from hunger and other preventable causes.  Nearly 160 million children are malnourished worldwide.   (Oxfam America - Hunger Fact Sheet)

Health - 880 million people lack access to basic healthcare, and 1.3 billion lack access to safe drinking water.  17 million people die each year from curable diseases, including diarrhea, malaria and tuberculosis.  5 million of these people die due to water contamination. (Oxfam America - Fact Sheet)

Each day in the developing world, 30,500 children die from preventable diseases such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections or malaria. Malnutrition is associated with over half of those deaths.  (Bread for the World (UNICEF, World Health Organization))

The World Revolution as a Social Movement

The World Revolution is intended to be a large-scale, mass social movement.  By social movement we mean several of the following things:

Social Movement.  The World Revolution is intended to follow in the tradition of past social movements.  Examples of exemplary past social movements include:  the Indian independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi;  the African-American civil rights movement in America in the 1960’s led by Martin Luther King, Jr.;  the Women’s rights and liberation movement; the labor movement; and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa with leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.  Furthermore, a social movement means large numbers of people mobilized to advocate certain political objectives.  It is different from a formal organization or institution such as traditional NGO’s.

Kinds of activity.  As a social movement, we envision certain kinds of activity, such as protests, marches, sustained campaigns, and activism.  Specific kinds of organizing and activism include protests, marches, letter-writing campaigns, petitions, media activism, public education & awareness, picketing, distributing literature, holding events and meetings, civil disobedience, direct action, sit-ins, etc.

More organized and coordinated.  We envision the WR to be more organized and more coordinated than traditional social movements.  This would include having more structure and more complexity of organization than traditional social movements.  For example, there might be a network and system of “WR Project Groups” which form the basic organizational unit of the World Revolution.  And there might be major sectors of activity to differentiate the different kinds of a work of the World Revolution, such as Planning, Resources, Recruitment, Communications and Activism.

Popular and grassroots.  By social movement we also mean a popular and grassroots movement.  This means ordinary people, concerned citizens, and activists working together in large numbers to create social and political changes.  This is as opposed to traditional non-profit organizations and NGO’s which have hired, professional staff who do high-level work, but who do not necessarily involve the general public or even their supporters in the actual work which they do.

Larger than traditional movements.  Also, we envision the World Revolution to be much larger than traditional movements.  Whereas traditional social movements have largely been focused on either a particular issue or a particular country or region, the World Revolution aims to encompass multiple issues and multiple locales.  We envision the WR as a mass social movement operating globally and involving thousands and ultimately millions of people.

Advocacy movement.  Furthermore, it is likely that the World Revolution will largely be an advocacy movement.  That is, it will be attempting to advocate and promote certain causes, aims and goals.  Thus, it will be aiming to create the political will to effect changes in social policy.

The Nature and Elements of the
World Revolution

Not an official organization – a free and open movement

The World Revolution is not an official organization, but rather a free and open social movement.  Official organizations are formal institutions that oftentimes have a board of directors, more structure, are registered with the government of their host country, have paid and salaried staff, and strict budgets.  They often time focus on a particular issues in a  particular region.  The World Revolution, however, is intended to be a free and open social movement.  This means it is a less formal and less structured entity – and is a free association of individuals working together for a common cause.

Financing & Resources

The World Revolution will have to depend largely upon voluntary contributions, donations and financial support, wherever such support is needed.  The mechanism for soliciting and managing such financial support have yet to be worked out.

However, we feel that much work and activity can be done without depending upon financial support and without serious financial resources, through the voluntary efforts of participating activists.

The World Revolution Agenda

The World Revolution will most likely have a comprehensive agenda for social change.  By agenda we mean a complete list of issues and objectives, including specific policy objectives, that the World Revolution aims to advocate and implement.  The basic issues of the agenda are the same as those listed in the “State of the World” section above.  To restate those aims, there are four major areas: Peace, Human Rights, Environment, and Development.  The WR Agenda will most likely be a central aspect of the World Revolution – it will be a comprehensive platform of objectives and action that will define the World Revolution and the focus of its activities.  The WR Agenda will have to be developed and will have to evolve over time, undergoing a continuous process of revision and updating.  This will have to be done through an ongoing process of deliberation by any and all WR activists who are interested in being a part of this process.  A basic, initial version of the WR Agenda can quite easily be drafted by simply outlining the same list of issues that are listed in the “State of the World” section above.

Global, international

The World Revolution is intended to be global and international in it’s scope and scale.  Oftentimes revolutions are considered within a framework of national politics.  The World Revolution is unique in this respect – it aims to effect changes on a global scale and its realm of concern is the whole world. 

Unification of efforts

One of the central aspects and goals of the World Revolution is to promote the unification of efforts of the whole international community of organizations and activists working on various different issues and causes.  The World Revolution is based on the belief that there exists a “unity of the causes” – that all the various issues and concerns, such as those listed in the “State of the World” section above, are part of the same single, unified goal and broad objective of building a better, more human and just world.

Furthermore, it is strongly believed that by unifying the efforts and activities of all the various organizations and activists working on these issues, we can become much more effective in creating positive social changes and be more effective in reaching our common goals.  As a unified movement, our voices will be louder and our actions stronger and more effective.  To state a possible slogan for the World Revolution, “Activists of the World, Unite!”

Long-term, yet urgent

The World Revolution is a long-term project, yet urgent at the same time.  The initial estimate for the length of the project is 25-50 years.  We consider this an urgent time-frame for achieving comprehensive social change and transformation.  The United Nations has itself created definite goals of solving major problems within this time frame.  One example is their goal of reducing global poverty by half by the year 2015.  This would mean reducing all of poverty by 2030 – or in 30 years, which is a similar time frame that we are projecting and striving for.  Obviously this is a long time-frame, but we consider this to be appropriate considering the scale and magnitude of the problems that we are trying to resolve, the scope of the changes that we are trying to achieve.  The World Revolution is attempting to effect comprehensive social and global change, including widespread changes in the global political system – 25-50 years would be an appropriate and realistic time frame for such objectives.  50-100 years might be a more conservative estimate, and we feel that 25-50 years is a more urgent, yet attainable estimate.


The World Revolution aims to effect comprehensive social change on a global scale.  This is one of the unique and defining characteristics of the World Revolution.  Whereas many existing organizations, groups and movements focus on a particular issue or narrow subset of issues, the World Revolution aims to resolve global issues and create social changes in a comprehensive manner.

By comprehensive we also mean that that the WR aims to work on multiple issues together and concurrently.  It aims to look at the whole spectrum of issues and consider them together as part of a unified set of concerns.  Therefore, the World Revolution can be called a “multi-issue” social movement.


The World Revolution aims to be definitive in its efficacy.  This means the World Revolution aims to achieve its objectives and achieve lasting solutions to major global problems in a definite and effective manner.  There are many organizations and groups working on various global issues – but they have yet to achieve definite solutions to the world’s problems.  The World Revolution aims to bring about definite changes and lasting solutions.

Critical mass

The idea of critical mass is another concept central the World Revolution.  Critical mass is the idea that true change will only come about when the number of people advocating certain causes reaches a certain level or threshold.  When these numbers of people are sufficiently large, then change begins to take place.  Thus, the World Revolution aims to consolidate an initial world revolutionary constituency -- with sufficient numbers of people so as to be able to influence the values of the rest of the populace as well as to effect national opinion and policy. 


The ideology or ideological perspective of the World Revolution is based upon and includes several different perspectives and elements.

Leftist and progressive political perspective.  The ideological perspective of the World Revolution is largely a leftist and progressive perspective on questions of politics and society.  The characteristics of a leftist and progressive political perspective include: an emphasis upon solidarity and concern for the oppressed and those who are suffering, disadvantaged, poor, or downtrodden; a concern for equality of all peoples and, hence, and emphasis on justice and fairness in social relations; a disapproval of violence, organized violence, oppression, and domination; and placing a priority on human welfare and on life in general above other concerns such as the pursuit of wealth.  Furthermore, a leftist and progressive political perspective is concerned with such concepts as peace, justice, freedom, equality, human rights, and ecology.

Commitment to moral and ethical principles.  Second, there is a commitment and a belief in principles of philosophical and social ethics such as truth, justice, love, compassion, harmony, and equality.  These can be called moral, ethical and social principles and values.

Social concern and engagment.  Third, there is a commitment to social awareness, concern, responsibility and engagement. 

Global perspective.  This includes thinking globally and having a concern for the world and the human family as a whole.

Violence vs. Nonviolence

A question regarding strategy and tactics for the World Revolution is whether we are to use violent and non-violent means.

We envision a predominantly peaceful, non-violent revolution.  Non-violent tactics include marches, protests, demonstrations, vigils – even civil disobedience and direct action.  This is as opposed to armed rebellion and resistance.  We do not feel, however, that it is necessary to advocate an absolute commitment to non-violence.            

It is possible that violence is not necessarily an effective strategy and tactic – in the face of a militarized opposition, it is possible that violence will only result in a stronger backlash, repression, and counter-violence.  It is also possible that violence may not be necessary to achieve the goals for which we are striving.  If it is possible to achieve our goals non-violently, then we should pursue that path.  It is possible that society can be changed largely through the use of persuasion, pressure, and advocacy.  One argument against the use of violence as a tactic is that violence is one of the things that we are fighting against and trying to allievate from society.

The term ‘World Revolution’

There is a question as to whether the term “World Revolution” is appropriate and desirable as a name for the project of building a mass social movement for global change.  We believe it is appropriate for several of the following reasons.

First, we believe that the term “World Revolution” is inspiring.  It creates a sense of excitement.  Second, we believe that it is empowering.  It gives people the sense that they are part of something significant, powerful and strong.  Third, we feel that it is an accurate and true description of what we are trying to achieve and create.  Michael Albert of Znet and Z Magazine has written about this question in an article entitled “Resurrect the R-word”.  The following is a quote which helps support our view on this question:

“Embarrassment on hearing the R-word conveys that liberated human history is impossible. Equating the R-word with "blood-lust" accepts that struggle for change can yield only minimal gains or, if we get too ambitious, worse than what we already have. To debate the propriety of "revolution" reflects timidity about truth. We must no longer debate the R-word as if humanity may after all be able to flourish within the dictates of capitalism, patriarchy, racism, and authoritarianism.

In face of the horrors we all know so well, it does not evidence maturity, pragmatism, or wisdom to dismiss revolutionary desires as strange. It evidences ignorance, defeatism, or even lack of humanity. Don't whisper the R-word.

We can't win what we won't even name. Resistance is good. But to get to liberation, in speaking, writing, thought, and action—resurrect the R word.”