The Trouble with Nonviolence.

• Author: Oladimu, Leo
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

I want to respond to Bill Lueders's remarks on antifascism (Comment) and Erik Gunn's piece on Arno Michaelis ("Overcoming Hate"), both in the December 2017/January 2018 issue.

I have nothing but love and respect for Arno, but I have two problems with his logic. First, he says, "When you violently oppose Nazis, you make them stronger." As a matter of objective reality, principled nonviolence played exactly zero role in defeating the Nazis. A war was fought against them.

Fascism and other varieties of white racism have almost never been defeated by means of peaceful protest. Even the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, wherein pacifism played a high-profile part, ultimately succeeded only to the extent that it resulted in governmental edicts being issued against white supremacy--from the Brown v. Board of Education ruling through the various voting rights and civil rights laws that followed. These edicts were put into effect not by peaceful or pacifist means, but by force, sometimes...