The Secret To Effective Nonviolent Protest By Jamila Raqib

Peaceful action allows a community to not only highlight the injustices of society, but to create a solution to the problem. To ensure the success of a nonviolent campaign, one must consider the sources of power of the opponent and the need for unity among the protesters. For example, in her Ted Talk, “The Secret to Effective Nonviolent Protest,” Jamila Raqib employs a graphic of a block tower, representing ISIS, with each block representing a necessary component of ISIS’s power, such as skilled labor. As these blocks are removed one by one, the structure of the tower crumbles, and ultimately collapses. Raqib uses a cause-and-effect relationship to illustrate how depriving opponents of their vital resources and institutions allows protesters to attack the oppressors at their foundation to break them from the ground up.
In his essay “Resistance to Civil Government,” Thoreau criticizes men who claim to oppose the Mexican-American war and refuse to fight, but “directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly by their money, furnished a substitute.” This statement demonstrates his belief that the government obtains its power through taxes, which are used to fund an unjust war. In the same way the withdrawal of vital institutions can devastate ISIS, the refusal to pay taxes would immobilize the government’s push for war because there would be no money to pay for