Session VI: Developing Tactics to Defeat Coups

SESSION VI

DEVELOPING TACTICS TO DEFEAT COUPS

PURPOSE OF THIS SESSION: (1) To explore specific tactics that can be used in nonviolent defense against coups; (2) To give participants some practical experience in planning anti-coup tactics.

MATERIALS NEEDED: (1) Flip-chart stand; (2) Pad of Newsprint; (3) Magic markers.

ESTIMATED TIME: 2 hours, including 20 minute break.

THE MEANING OF “TACTICS” (Trainer’s talk – 2 minutes)

1) If STRATEGY is a general plan of action for realizing one’s objectives, TACTICS are the individual methods or specific forms of action used to implement the strategy.

a) A STRATEGY might say, “This is the plan of nonviolent non-cooperation for each significant social group.”

b) A TACTIC might say, “In the mass media sector, newspaper editors will refuse to follow censorship rules ordered by the coup.”

2) Tactics are vitally important.

a) The struggle against a coup cannot be won just with strategy, a grand plan.

b) Specific tactics must be developed that are appropriate for every person and every institution involved in the resistance.

c) Analogy to military conflict:

i) In a military engagement, “strategy” is the generals’ overall battle plan; “tactics” are the weapons and maneuvers used by the fighting troops.

ii) In nonviolent struggle, “strategy” is the action plan developed by leaders; “tactics” are the specific nonviolent methods used to resist the coup.

d) We have already looked at a long list of 198 nonviolent methods or tactics. In this session, we will talk about how to apply them in the resistance against the coup.

THE GOAL OF STRATEGY AND TACTICS (Trainer’s talk – 3 minutes)

3) The OVERALL GOAL that our strategy and tactics are trying to achieve is the following:

a) To get as many parts of the society to say “NO!” to the plotters and to say “YES!” to our constitutional government and to a free, democratic way of life.

b) We want to make each institution of our society into resistance organizations against the coup.

c) We want people to maintain the control and self-direction of their own society, rather than giving over that control to the conspirators.

4) How can we achieve this? What tactics can we use to achieve this goal?

5) Think of this society as made up of many different units or sectors – political, economic, social, etc. The society has the military, police, judges, journalists, bureaucrats, technicians, shopkeepers, workers, farmers, taxi drivers, religious groups, intellectuals, artists, sports figures, and so on. Effective nonviolent resistance should try to have an action plan appropriate for each sector.

6) In this session, we will first consider what we want to say to ALL these sectors TOGETHER – what they can do IN COMMON to resist a coup. Second, we will consider what we want to say to EACH sector – how each sector can organize ITSELF effectively to make it own unique contribution to the resistance.

WHAT DO WE WANT TO SAY TO ALL THE SECTORS TOGETHER? WHAT IS THE MESSAGE WE WANT TO GET OUT TO EVERYONE? (Trainer’s talk – 5 minutes)

Each sector or institution must have it own unique action plan and tactics appropriate to its unique place in society. But every sector should be taking some common, general stands together, enabling each to work as one. These common stands or positions are:

* “Repudiate the coup and its leaders as illegitimate and meriting only rejection as a new government.”

* “Refuse to give legitimacy to the conspirators in any way.”

* “Look upon all decrees and orders from the rebels as illegal. Disobey them. Continue to act in accord with the pre-coup constitution, laws, and policies of the legal government.”

* “Do not cooperate in any way with the rebels.”

* “Make the place where you live and work a center of resistance and non-cooperation. If removed, continue normal operation from other locations.”

* “Participate in rallies, demonstrations, strikes, and other protests to show massive repudiation of the coup.”

* “Do not supply the rebels with information, supplies, equipment, communications, transportation, or anything else that will aid them. Hide these resources if necessary.

* “Keep all resistance strictly nonviolent. Refuse to be provoked into violence.”

* “While continuing resistance, show good will toward the functionaries serving the coup. Talk to them. Urge them to see their mistake. Explain that the defenders respect their lives and will not be violent toward them. Urge them to follow the constitutional government, to disobey the orders of mutinous officers, and to defect peacefully to the defenders’ side.”

WHAT DO WE WANT TO SAY TO EACH SECTOR BY ITSELF? (Trainer’s talk – 15 minutes)

1) Now we will look at the different sectors or social institutions that make up this society. What SPECIFIC resistance and non-cooperation can EACH group engage in, given its role and position in society?

2) We trainers will suggest just a few possible actions for a number of key sectors, then ask YOU to make plans for these sectors. Hopefully, you will be able to add more out of your experience.

NOTE TO TRAINERS: The suggested actions below are only a few examples. Feel free to add others from your own experience.

SECTOR OR INSTITUTION

MASS MEDIA (journalists, broadcasters, technicians, printers…)

1. Use your newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV stations to put out a call to resistance as soon as a coup begins. Continue issuing the call – and reporting on resistance actions – as long as possible. Keep up the morale of the resistance.

2. Do everything possible not to cooperate with the coup and its directives. Do not publish its propaganda or its lies. Tell the truth. Be a source of accurate information.

3. Do not follow the coup’s censorship rules. If forced, publish newspapers with blank spaces in protest, as Russian papers did in August 1991.

4. Try creative non-collaboration. For example, if forced to broadcast from your radio station at the point of a gun, do so with “broken” transmitter that will not carry the message. Make parts disappear.

5. Try to report and publicize all instances of resistance to the coup and the calls to resistance from defenders of the existing government.

6. If shut down, forced out of buildings, etc., continue “underground” media August 1991, employees of 11 banned Soviet newspapers united to publish a “general newspaper” using photocopiers, laser printers and mimeograph machines. These were pasted on walls at metros, bus stops and street corners. Example: During the 5-year Nazi occupation of Denmark during World War II, the resistance published 538 illegal newspapers with a combined circulation of over ten million readers.)

7. In preparation for underground operation, be ready to set up stocks of newsprint, equipment, broadcast facilities, etc. in secret locations.

GOVERNMENT (leaders, civil servants, bureaucracy, judges…)

1. In preparation, have resistance plans at every level of government – from national to local.

2. Put out a call to resistance as soon as the coup starts. Remind people that the most important thing is to say “No!” to the coup, while not using violence against its functionaries. Instead try to convince them of their mistake.

3. Stay in official buildings if possible (e.g. with help of human barricades), but if arrest seems imminent, be prepared to move elsewhere and continue operations.

4. Do not cooperate with orders or decrees of the coup. Judges should not participate in any trials organized by the coup; civil servants should not follow orders (or should do so ineffectively). Follow the legitimate government.

TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

1. Do not cooperate in any way with the coup.

2. Defy curfews by operating your vehicles as long as possible.

3. Do not transmit coup messages.

4. Do not use railroads, buses, planes, etc. to transport the coup’s troops or equipment. (Example: After the February 1917 “bourgeois” revolution in Russia, General Kornilov attempted a coup. It was foiled by the refusal of the Union of Railroad Employees to work the railways carrying his troops to Petrograd.)

TRADE UNIONS AND THE ECONOMIC SECTOR

1. Do not cooperate in any way with the coup. Do not join new unions set up by the coup or attend its meeting.

2. Be prepared to strike (short symbolic strike or general strike) to protest the coup. Do not follow coup bans on strikes.

3. If the coup tries to operate economic facilities, refuse their orders. If forced, “call in sick,” or operate inefficiently.

SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES

1. Do not cooperate in any way with the coup.

2. Speak out against the coup, encourage students and teachers to join demonstrations, protests.

3. Use departments of universities to aid the resistance, e.g. art dept. to make banners. Medical school to aid people injured in the resistance.

4. Refuse to teach the coup’s propaganda or to use their materials.

FARMERS AND FOOD TRANSPORTERS

1. Do not cooperate with orders from the coup.

2. Supply food to the resistance and not to the forces of the coup.

CHURCHES, SYNAGOGUES, MOSQUES

1. Priests and ministers encourage resistance among their people and speak out against the coup in sermons and rallies.

2. Join demonstrations, rallies, and parades and encourage followers to turn out for protests.

3. Allow church facilities to be used for anti-coup rallies, meetings, clandestine radio station, sheltering opposition figures, etc.

4. Encourage nonviolence and goodwill toward opponents, based on “love your enemies” spirit.

COORDINATION OF ANTI-COUP EFFORTS

SOME IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS

1. Set up close cooperation with each sector and especially with legitimate government leadership.

2. Prepare effective means of communications, both “high tech” and “low tech,” so you can keep in touch with various parts of resistance and continue to get out your message even if the coup blocks normal means. These might include:

a. Storage of material to publish underground newspapers, leaflets, etc.

b. Photocopies, printers, computers.

c. Cell phones, fax machines, short-wave radios (in case inner-city telephone lines are cut).

d. A computer communications network.

e. “Low tech” means of communication, like having messages carried by taxi, bus drivers, and couriers on foot or bike.

3. Be prepared to “go underground” in case the coup attempts to arrest or assassinate resistance leaders.

BREAK: 20 MINUTES

SMALL GROUP EXERCISE: PLANNING FOR EACH SECTOR (Trainer and small group exercise – 1 hour, 15 minutes)

1. Trainer to group

a. Having given some of our ideas for what kinds of nonviolent non-cooperation can take place in each sector, we want to give you a chance to express your ideas.

b. We are going to divide you into small groups according to sectors and then ask you to discuss four questions.

c. Please name a recorder in each small group to write down the most important points of your discussion and to be prepared to report back to the full meeting.

2. Trainer – divide participants into small groups by sector.

a. Trainer writes the following sectors on newsprint:

MASS MEDIA
GOVERNMENT
TRANSPORTATION
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
TRADE UNIONS
ECONOMIC SECTOR
SCHOOLS & UNIVERSITIES
FARMERS AND FOOD TRANS.
VETERANS’ ORGANIZATIONS CHURCHES, SYNAGOGUES AND MOSQUES
MILITARY, POLICE, PRISONS
POLITICAL PARTIES/MOVEMENTS
INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC
SPORTS
INTERNATIONAL POPULACE AS A WHOLE

b. Add any other sectors to the list that the participants feel are important.

c. If the number of participants is too small to split up into all the above small groups, some of the above sectors can be combined into the same group, e.g. “Military, Police, Prisons and Veterans’ Organizations.”

d. If possible, place members in each small group who are familiar with that sector, e.g., reporters in the “Mass Media” group, factory workers in the “Trade Unions” group,” teachers in “Schools and Universities,” etc.

3. Questions for each small group. (Trainer writes the four questions on the newsprint.)

a. What methods are coup plotters likely to use to try to control or neutralize your sector?

b. How can your sector prepare itself to say “No!” to the coup plotters’ attempt to control or neutralize it?

c. What resources for resistance does your sector already have that can be strengthened or built upon?

d. What forms of nonviolent non-cooperation and what nonviolent tactics can best be utilized by this sector to resist the coup attempt?

Session VI: Developing Tactics to Defeat Coups

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