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First 'Intergalactic' Resistance Studies Conference

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

June 18-21, 2026 

Building Resilience to Repression in Nonviolent Resistance Struggles

Jason MacLeod
Year of publication: 2015
DOI: 10.63961/2025.016
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Abstract

Nonviolent movements are more effective than violent ones and casualties will be fewer than if the resistance was waged through armed struggle. However, nonviolent movements are still not immune to repression. This article presents a new framework that orders theory and practice – how nonviolent resistance movements can effectively respond to repression by opponents – across five dimensions: strategy, tactics, organisational structure, individual activists, and advance preparation and planning. The framework is applied to the situation in West Papua, arguably an exemplar of a ‘worst case scenario’ – an internationally isolated Indigenous population resisting an extremely ruthless opponent – and is supplemented with examples from other nonviolent resistance movements. A proactive and systematic response to repression by opponents makes it more likely that acts of violence against activists will function to strengthen the movement and weaken the opponent.

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