George Lakey

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George Lakey
Born
George Russell Lakey

(1937-11-02) November 2, 1937 (age 87)
Bangor, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma mater Cheyney University
University of Oslo
Occupation(s)Activist, sociologist, writer
Spouse
Berit Mathiesen
​
(m. 1960)​

George Russell Lakey (born November 2, 1937) is an activist, sociologist, and writer who added academic underpinning to the concept of nonviolent revolution. [1] He also refined the practice of experiential training for activists which he calls "Direct Education". [2] A Quaker, he has co-founded and led numerous organizations and campaigns for justice and peace. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Lakey was born to Dora M. and Russell George Lakey, a slate miner, in Bangor, Pennsylvania. [4] He was identified as a prospective child preacher for his church, and at age 12, he gave a sermon promoting racial equality as the will of God, although his sermon was not well-received at the time. [5] He graduated from Cheyney University in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, and also studied at the University of Oslo in Norway, where he married Berit Mathiesen in 1960 and taught at an Oslo high school. He continued his sociology studies at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.[ citation needed ]

Career

Activism

In the late 1950s, Lakey was active in the ban-the-bomb movement, [6] then participated in the civil rights movement, in 1963 being arrested in a sit-in. [3] The following year he was a trainer for Mississippi Freedom Summer and co-authored his first book, A Manual for Direct Action, which was widely used in the South by the civil rights movement. [7] In 1966 he co-founded the national body A Quaker Action Group (AQAG), whose activities took him in 1967 to Vietnam to participate in the sailing ship Phoenix's protest action in South Vietnam seeking to give medical supplies to the anti-war Buddhist movement there. [8]

In 1970, Lakey was active within AQAG in the successful direct action in the Puerto Rican struggle to stop the U.S. Navy from using the island of Culebra for target practice. [9] In 1971 he helped found Movement for a New Society (MNS), a network of autonomous groups working for a nonviolent revolution. [10] The network featured living collectives and co-ops as well as participation in national movements of the 1970s and '80s. The network's training program at the Philadelphia Life Center Association became highly influential in the US and abroad in spreading Paulo Freire's Popular education and other participatory training methods. [11]

During the 1970s, he also gave national leadership to the Campaign to Stop the B-1 Bomber and Promote Peace Conversion, [12] which succeeded in persuading Congress and President Carter to de-fund this Air Force program. [13] In 1976 he co-organized Men Against Patriarchy, a pioneering anti-sexism movement for men. In 1982 he organized the Pennsylvania section of a national labor/community coalition named "Jobs with Peace" and directed that effort for seven years. [14]

In 1973, Lakey came out in public as a gay man, and joined the LGBT movement, becoming part of what he later would call "Gay Liberation's early visionary days." [15] [16]

In 1991, he co-founded with Philadelphia activist Barbara Smith, Training for Change (TfC). Building on previous training at the Martin Luther King Jr. School for Social Change and Movement for a New Society, Training for Change developed a new pedagogy called "Direct Education". Training for Change did trainings and consultations for activists and nongovernmental organizations in 20 countries. [17]

In 2009, Lakey co-founded Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT), to build a just and sustainable economy through nonviolent direct action campaigns. The group won its first campaign, forcing PNC Bank to stop financing mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. In that campaign, while in his seventies, Lakey was arrested and also led a 200-mile march. [18]

Academia

Lakey's first teaching post in higher education was in the Martin Luther King Jr. School of Social Change, a division of Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. [19] Lakey helped formulate the curriculum and then taught there for its first four years, 1965–1969. [20] In this period he systematized the field of "Experiential Nonviolence Training" and the students were supported in efforts to connect field training with theory in direct actions. [21]

He joined the Peace Studies program at the University of Pennsylvania, successfully expanding its undergraduate offerings and the participation of minority students. In addition, he helped lead a University of Pennsylvania group dynamics lab promoting innovative feminist leadership. He also taught peace studies at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania.[ citation needed ]

He later taught at Temple University and much later he accepted the endowed Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professorship in Issues of Social Change at Swarthmore College. He continued at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania as a Lang Professor and then as a research professor until his retirement.[ citation needed ]

In 2010, Lakey was named by the National Peace and Justice Studies Association as "Peace Educator of the Year".

Works

Internet Development and Writing:

Over 1,000 researched cases from nearly 200 countries with focus on campaigns back to ancient Egypt that used nonviolent direct action. Searchable, and includes a narrative for each case. Developed by George Lakey with Swarthmore and other university students, with Swarthmore's Peace and Conflict Studies, the Peace Collection, and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility. [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonviolence</span> Principle or practice of not causing harm to others

Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosophy of abstention from violence. It may be based on moral, religious or spiritual principles, or the reasons for it may be strategic or pragmatic. Failure to distinguish between the two types of nonviolent approaches can lead to distortion in the concept's meaning and effectiveness, which can subsequently result in confusion among the audience. Although both principled and pragmatic nonviolent approaches preach for nonviolence, they may have distinct motives, goals, philosophies, and techniques. However, rather than debating the best practice between the two approaches, both can indicate alternative paths for those who do not want to use violence.

Anarcho-pacifism, also referred to as anarchist pacifism and pacifist anarchism, is an anarchist school of thought that advocates for the use of peaceful, non-violent forms of resistance in the struggle for social change. Anarcho-pacifism rejects the principle of violence which is seen as a form of power and therefore as contradictory to key anarchist ideals such as the rejection of hierarchy and dominance. Many anarcho-pacifists are also Christian anarchists, who reject war and the use of violence.

The War Resisters League (WRL) is the oldest secular pacifist organization in the United States, having been founded in 1923.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries. They are linked by affiliation to the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR).

The Movement for a New Society (MNS) was a U.S.-based network of social activist collectives, committed to the principles of nonviolence, who played a key role in social movements of the 1970s and 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Sharp</span> American political scientist (1928–2018)

Gene Sharp was an American political scientist. He was the founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the study of nonviolent action, and professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He was known for his extensive writings on nonviolent struggle, which have influenced numerous anti-government resistance movements around the world.

Bill Moyer was a United States social change activist who was a principal organizer in the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement. He was an author, and a founding member of the Movement for a New Society.

The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) is a non-governmental organization founded in 1914 in response to the horrors of war in Europe. Today IFOR counts 71 branches, groups and affiliates in 48 countries on all continents. IFOR members promote nonviolence, human rights and reconciliation through public education efforts, training programs and campaigns. The IFOR International Secretariat in Utrecht, Netherlands facilitates communication among IFOR members, links branches to capacity building resources, provides training in gender-sensitive nonviolence through the Women Peacemakers Program, and helps coordinate international campaigns, delegations and urgent actions. IFOR has ECOSOC status at the United Nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chuck Fager</span> American writer

Charles Eugene Fager, known as Chuck Fager, is an American activist, author, editor, publisher and an outspoken and prominent member of the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers. He is known for his work in both the Civil Rights Movement and in the Peace movement. His written works include religious and political essays, humor, adult fiction, and juvenile fiction, and he is best known for his 1974 book Selma 1965: The March That Changed the South, his in-depth history of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement, which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

A nonviolent revolution is a revolution conducted primarily by unarmed civilians using tactics of civil resistance, including various forms of nonviolent protest, to bring about the departure of governments seen as entrenched and authoritarian without the use or threat of violence. While many campaigns of civil resistance are intended for much more limited goals than revolution, generally a nonviolent revolution is characterized by simultaneous advocacy of democracy, human rights, and national independence in the country concerned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonviolence International</span> Resource center for non-violence and non-violent resistance

Nonviolence International (NI) acts as a network of resource centers that promote the use of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance. They have maintained relationships with activists in a number of countries, with their most recent projects taking place in Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine. They partnered with International Center on Nonviolent Conflict to update Gene Sharp's seminal work on 198 methods of nonviolent action through a book publication. NI has also produced a comprehensive database of nonviolence tactics, which stands as the largest collection of nonviolent tactics in the world. They partner with Rutgers University to provide the largest collection of nonviolence training materials in the world.

Civil resistance is a form of political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: it can involve systematic attempts to undermine or expose the adversary's sources of power. Forms of action have included demonstrations, vigils and petitions; strikes, go-slows, boycotts and emigration movements; and sit-ins, occupations, constructive program, and the creation of parallel institutions of government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Cortright</span> American peace studies scholar (1946-)

David Cortright is an American scholar and peace activist. He is a Vietnam veteran who is currently Professor Emeritus and special adviser for policy studies at the Keough School of Global Affairs and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 22 books. Cortright has a long history of public advocacy for disarmament and the prevention of war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonviolent resistance</span> Act of protest through nonviolent means

Nonviolent resistance, or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, constructive program, or other methods, while refraining from violence and the threat of violence. This type of action highlights the desires of an individual or group that feels that something needs to change to improve the current condition of the resisting person or group.

George Willoughby was a Quaker activist who advocated for world peace, and conducted nonviolent protests against war and preparations for war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Srđa Popović (activist)</span> Serbian political activist and leader of Otpor

Srđa Popović is a Serbian political activist. He was a leader of the student movement Otpor that helped topple Serbian president Slobodan Milošević. After briefly pursuing a political career in Serbia, he established the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) in 2003 and published Blueprint for Revolution in 2015. CANVAS has worked with pro-democracy activists from more than 50 countries, promoting the use of non-violent resistance in achieving political and social goals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies</span> Educational institute

The Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) is a non-profit, non-governmental, educational institution focused on the use of nonviolent conflict, based in Belgrade, Serbia. It was founded in 2004 by Srđa Popović and the CEO of Orion Telecom, Slobodan Đinović. Both were former members of the Serbian youth resistance movement, Otpor!, which supported the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in October 2000. Drawing upon the Serbian experience, CANVAS seeks to educate pro-democracy activists around the world in what it regards as the universal principles for success in nonviolent struggle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Coates Walker</span> American Quaker activist (1920–2004)

Charles Coates Walker was an American Quaker activist and trainer for nonviolent direct action in both the civil rights and peace movements. He worked throughout his life to bring segregation, racial injustice, nuclear and biological weapons, and war to public awareness. He used Gandhian methods of nonviolence, writing training materials and organizing marches, vigils, protest demonstrations, conferences and campaigns in different parts of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Steven</span> Scottish Quaker peace activist

Helen Steven was a Scottish Quaker peace activist and one of the founders of the Scottish Centre for Nonviolence. Her opposition to the nuclear submarine base in Scotland was recognised with the Gandhi International Peace Award in 2004.

David Hartsough is an American Quaker peace activist. Formerly a long-time employee of the American Friends Service Committee, he is a co-founder of the Nonviolent Peaceforce.

References

  1. ↑ "Book Review: Of Gravlax and Power Grids". Bloomberg L.P. July 7, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Key Insights from George Lakey's book, "Facilitating Group Learning" | Daryn R. Cambridge". Daryncambridge.com. December 17, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Preaching Peace and Justice: An Interview with George Lakey". afsc.org. April 9, 2012. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Rebel Energy – Swarthmore College Bulletin". swarthmore.edu. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  5. ↑ Rushe, Dominic (March 3, 2019). "Civil rights legend George Lakey on how progressives can win". The Guardian . Archived from the original on March 3, 2019.
  6. ↑ "George Lakey – Quaker Ranter". quakerranter.org. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Nonviolent Action: How It Works – Pendle Hill Quaker Books & Pamphlets". pendlehill.org. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  8. ↑ "How a Modest Wooden Boat Became an International Icon During the Vietnam War, Then Disappeared". atlasobscura.com. October 11, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Puerto Ricans expel United States Navy from Culebra Island, 1970–1974 – Global Nonviolent Action Database". swarthmore.edu. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Movement for a New Society – Lokashakti Encyclopedia". lokashakti.org. Archived from the original on December 13, 2017. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Anarchism and the Movement for a New Society: Direct Action and Prefigurative Community in the 1970s and 80s By Andrew Cornell – The Institute for Anarchist Studies". mayfirst.org. Archived from the original on December 25, 2017. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Spirit in Conflict: George Lakey". clarityfacilitation.com. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  13. ↑ "The Occupy Movement Stands at the Crossroads: Street Spirit Interview with George Lakey". thestreetspirit.org. March 8, 2012. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  14. ↑ Spirituality, Religion, and Peace Education, By Edward J. Brantmeier, Jing Lin, INFORMATION AGE PUBLISHING, John P. Miller, pg 90
  15. ↑ "Lessons from the LGBT equality movement – Waging Nonviolence". wagingnonviolence.org. April 2, 2013. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  16. ↑ "What white allies can learn from allies in the gay rights struggle". wagingnonviolence.org. July 4, 2015. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  17. ↑ Cornell, Andrew (January 1, 2011). Oppose and Propose!: Lessons from Movement for a New Society. AK Press. ISBN   9781849350662 . Retrieved December 3, 2016– via Google Books.
  18. ↑ "Earth Quaker Action Team Campaigns Against PNC Bank for Financing Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining 2010–2015 – Global Nonviolent Action Database". swarthmore.edu. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Talk and Book Signing – "Viking Economics"". ticketleap.com. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  20. ↑ "Pacifists' Visit – NZETC". victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  21. ↑ "Satyagraha Foundation " Blog Archive " Nonviolent Peace Training as a Means of Linking Research and Action". satyagrahafoundation.org. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  22. ↑ S, Roger Powers (November 12, 2012). Protest, Power, and Change: An Encyclopedia of Nonviolent Action from ACT-UP to Women's Suffrage. Routledge. ISBN   9781136764820 . Retrieved December 3, 2016– via Google Books.
  23. ↑ Butigan, Ken (September 22, 2011). "Global Nonviolent Action Database launched". Waging Nonviolence. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  24. ↑ "Who made the database? – Global Nonviolent Action Database". swarthmore.edu. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
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