Gene Sharp (born 21 January 1928) is a political scientist, author and founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organisation which studies and promotes the use of nonviolent action. January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Albert Einstein Institution is a US-based non-profit organization that specializes in the study of the methods of non-violent resistance. ... Nonviolent resistance (or nonviolent action) is the practice of applying power to achieve socio-political goals through symbolic protests, economic or political noncooperation, civil disobedience and other methods, without the use of physical violence. ...

Sharp's influence on struggles world-wide

Sharp's scholarship has influenced resistance organizations around the world. Most recently and notably, his work has affected youth movements in the Eastern European color revolutions. Sharp's handbook From Dictatorship to Democracy served as a basis for the campaigns of Serbia's Otpor (who were also directly trained by the Albert Einstein Institute), Georgia's Kmara, Ukraine's Pora, Kyrgyzstan's KelKel and Belarus' Zubr. Eastern Europe is, by convention, a region defined geographically as that part of Europe covering the eastern part of the continent. ... Color revolutions or Flower revolutions are the names given collectively to a series of related movements that have developed in post_communist societies in Eastern Europe and are possibly spreading elsewhere. ... Motto: none Anthem: Bože pravde (English: God of Justice) Capital Belgrade Largest city Belgrade Official language(s) Serbian1 Government Republic  - President Boris Tadić  - Prime Minister Vojislav KoÅ¡tunica Formation and independence    - Formation of Serbia 814   - Formation of the Serbian Empire 1345   - Independence from the Ottoman Empire July 13, 1878... Otpor! (Cyrillic: ОТПОР!, in English: Resistance!) was a pro-democracy youth movement in Serbia which has been widely credited for leading the eventually successful struggle to overthrow Slobodan MiloÅ¡ević in 2000. ... Kmara flag Kmara (Georgian: კმარა) is a civic resistance movement in the republic of Georgia which undermined the government of Eduard Shevardnadze. ... The rising sun of Pora! symbolizes a new dawn Pora! (Ukrainian: ), meaning ITS TIME! in Ukrainian, is a civic youth organization in Ukraine espousing nonviolent resistance and advocating increased national democracy, in opposition to what they claimed was the authoritarian governing style of Ukraines president Leonid Kuchma. ... KelKel is a youth resistance movement in the republic of Kyrgyzstan. ... Zubr (Belarusian: ЗУБР) is a civic youth organization in Belarus in opposition to President Aleksandr Lukashenko. ...

As Pora's Oleh Kyriyenko said in a 2004 interview with Radio Netherlands, The rising sun of Pora! symbolizes a new dawn Pora! (Ukrainian: ), meaning ITS TIME! in Ukrainian, is a civic youth organization in Ukraine espousing nonviolent resistance and advocating increased national democracy, in opposition to what they claimed was the authoritarian governing style of Ukraines president Leonid Kuchma. ...

"The bible of Pora has been the book of Gene Sharp, also used by Otpor, it's called: From Dictatorship to Democracy. Pora activists have translated it by themselves. We have written to Mr Sharp and to the Albert Einstein Institute in the United States, and he became very sympathetic towards our initiative, and the Institution provided funding to print over 12,000 copies of this book for free."[1]

Sharp may also have influenced the Orange Alternative movement fighting communism in the People's Republic of Poland (founded 1983), since it used methods mentioned by Sharp, though it's not clear whether its founders knew of his work. Sharp's book Civilian-based Defense, was used by the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian governments during their separation from the Soviet Union in 1991. Orange Alternative (Pomarańczowa Alternatywa) is a name for an underground anarchist movement which was started and led by Waldemar Fydrych (sometimes misspelled as Frydrych), known then as Major (Commander of the Festung Breslau), in Wroclaw in 1983. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... The Peoples Republic of Poland or Polish Peoples Republic (Polish: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1989, during its period of rule by the Communist party, officially called the Polish United Workers Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, or PZPR). ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Some people see Sharp's work as primarily anti-Communist, claiming that the majority of his effort has been spent helping topple Communist or left-leaning governments. For instance, it is said that the Albert Einstein Institution recently advised opposition forces in Venezuela as how they should proceed in the effort to recall Hugo Chávez[2][3]. Critics also complain that the Albert Einstein Institution has received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy[4][5] — an organization of which one of its founders, Allen Weinstein, said "...a lot of what we do today was done covertly by the CIA 25 years ago." Anti-communism is opposition to communist ideology, organization, or government, on either a theoretical or practical level. ... The term recall has a number of meanings: Product recall A recall election Recall to employment after a layoff Recall from memory. ... Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (IPA: ) (born July 28, 1954) is the 53rd[1] and current President of Venezuela. ... The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is non-profit organization which claims to help train people in democracy and manages money grants to that effect, which was founded in 1983. ... Allen Weinstein is the Archivist of the United States. ...

The Albert Einstein Institution's web site contains many works by Gene Sharp, in English and in over sixty translations.

Sharp's theory of nonviolent resistance

Sharp's best known book, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (1973), provides a pragmatic political analysis of nonviolent action as a method for applying power in a conflict. 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

Sharp's key insight is that power is not monolithic; that is, it does not derive from some intrinsic quality of those who are in power. For Sharp, political power, the power of any state - regardless of its particular structural organization - is derived from the subjects of the state. His fundamental belief is that any power structure is based on the subjects' obedience to the orders of the ruler(s). Therefore, if subjects do not obey, leaders have no power.

In Sharp's view all effective power structures have systems by which they encourage or extract obedience from their subjects. States have particularly complex systems for keeping subjects obedient. These systems include specific institutions (police, courts, regulatory bodies) but may also involve cultural dimensions that inspire obedience by implying that power is monolithic (the god cult of the Egyptian pharaohs, the dignity of the office of the President, moral or ethical norms and taboos). Through these systems, subjects are presented with a system of sanctions (imprisonment, fines, ostracization) and rewards (titles, wealth, fame) which influence the extent of their obedience.

This is ultimately related to nonviolent resistance because it is supposed to provide subjects with a window of opportunity for affecting change within a state. Sharp cites the insight of Étienne de La Boétie, that if the subjects of a particular state recognize that they are the source of the state's power they can refuse their obedience and their leader(s) will be left without power. Étienne de La Boétie (Sarlat, November 1st, 1530 - Germignan, August 18, 1563) was a French judge and writer, friend of Montaigne, author of the Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (Discours de la servitude volontaire). ...

The 18th century philosopher David Hume wrote about the same concept in his Essay 4: Of the First Principles of Government. Noam Chomsky refers to this point of view as Hume's paradox [6]. David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776)[1] was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian, as well as an important figure of Western philosophy and of the Scottish Enlightenment. ... Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ...

Gene Sharp's latest work, Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potentialwas published in June, 2005. It builds on his earlier written works by documenting case studies where non violent action has been applied, and the lessons learned from those applications, and contains unprecedented information on strategically planning nonviolent struggle to make it more effective.

Some of Sharp's books are available from Extending Horizons Books, an imprint of Porter Sargent Publishers Inc.

External links

• Albert Einstein Institution website
• 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action (PDF file)
• Gene Sharp: A Biographical Profile
• Interview with New Internationalist
• Interview with Peace Magazine
• [7] U.S. Advice Guided Milosevic Opposition (Washington Post)
• [8] Radio Netherlands interview -- Ukraine: The Resistance Will Not Stop
• An article linking the Albert Einstein Institution to the CIA
• Coup d'État in Disguise: Washington's New World Order "Democratization" Template
• US Democracy Expert Teaches Venezuelan Opposition