Threat or Opportunity: non-violent protest?

[davidbfpo]

Via an academic website 'The Conversation' and with a long title, a different view of recent events in Catalonia:

Violent scenes in Catalan referendum were not the return of Spain’s Francoist police

The author adds, sympathetically:

But it did not make much sense to send 10,000 police to stop two million protesters and oversee 4,000 polling stations – a useless and impossible task that could only inflame the situation and discredit the police.

Link:https://theconversation.com/violent-...-police-85073?

[davidbfpo]

This thinker on non-violence appears in several posts here, so it is fitting to add two obituaries:https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...sharp-obituary and https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/o...ies-at-90.html

[davidbfpo]

The link is to a collection of articles, from around the world, which present alternative viewpoints and are explained as:

Public mobilisations, social protest and human rights are intertwined. Firstly because people generally take to the streets to reject state violence and protest against violations of their rights: to land, to food, to work, to housing, to religious freedom, and so on. Secondly, the act of protest itself entails exercising rights, such as to freedom of expression and the rights of assembly, petition and dissent. Democracies are enriched by protests because of their expressive nature, but also their deliberative and confrontational tone.

Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/protest?

I have clashed with the lady author on tear gas at an academic venue. She could not see any legitimate use for tear gas IIRC.