As a nonviolent activist, perhaps I should have been offended by the title of How Nonviolence Protects the State, And yet upon finishing this book, which attempts to systematically tear down many of the values and strategies to which I've devoted the last 20 years of my life, I found myself strangely exhilarated: the revolution is alive.

--Sue Frankel-Streit, Richmond IndyMedia

Since the civil rights era, the doctrine of nonviolence has enjoyed near-universal acceptance among social activists in the US. Even those who merely question the strategic or political value of exclusive nonviolence are routinely marginalized. Bound to spark vigorous debate across movements, How Nonviolence Protects the State turns a critical eye on nonviolent activism and explores the costs of a strictly pacifist doctrine. Peter Gelderloos urges us to reconsider nonviolence's elevated status as an unwareing principled position, even when it perpetuates the same structural injustices activists seek to dismantle.

Activists on all sides of the arguement will discover their ideas challenged by this provocative work.

I am deeply grateful to Peter Gelderloos for having the courage to show the cult of pacifism for what it is: a racist, patriarchal ally of state power. How Nonviolence Protects the State is a necessary book on a necessary subject: how shall we resist.

--Derrick Jensen, author, A Languague Older Than Words

How Nonviolence Protects the State makes a strong arguement for the diversity of tactics, while illuminating how the ideology of pacifism leads us not to social justice, but rather the peace one finds in cemeteries.

--Ann Hansen, author,Direct Action: Memoirs of an Urban Guerilla

It will be a shame if How Nonviolence Protects the State isn't read and discussed by people who disagree with it.

--CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective

Peter Gelderloos is the author of Consensus: A New Handbook for Grassroots Political, Social, and Environmental Groups and a contributor to Letters From Young Activists. He is the co-facilitator of a workshop on the prison system, and is also involved in independent media, copwatching, anti-oppression work, and anarchist organizing.

Since the civil rights era, the doctrine of nonviolence has enjoyed near-universal acceptance by the US Left. Today protest is often shaped by cooperation with state authorities-even organizers of rallies against police brutality apply for police permits, and anti-imperialists usually stop short of supporting self-defense and armed resistance. How Nonviolence Protects the Statechallenges the belief that nonviolence is the only way to fight for a better world. In a call bound to stir controversy and lively debate, Peter Gelderloos invites activists to consider diverse tactics, passionately arguing that exclusive nonviolence often acts to reinforce the same structures of oppression that activists seek to overthrow.

Contemporary movements for social change face plenty of difficult questions, but sometimes matters of strategy and tactics receive low priority. Many North American activists fail to scrutinize the role of nonviolence, never posing essential questions:

Is nonviolence effective at ending systems of oppression?

Does nonviolence intersect with white privilege and the dominance of North over South?

How does pacifism reinforce the same power dynamic as patriarchy?

Ultimately, does nonviolence protect the state?

Peter Gelderloosis a radical community organizer. He is the author of Consensus: A New Handbook for Grassroots Political, Social, and Environmental Groupsand a contributor to Letters From Young Activists.He is the co-facilitator of a workshop on the prison system, and is also involved in independent media, copwatching, anti-oppression work, and anarchist organizing.

Peter Gelderloos is a radical community organizer. He is the author of Consensus: A New Handbook for Grassroots Political, Social, and Environmental Groups and a contributor to Letters From Young Activists. He is the co-facilitator of a workshop on the prison system, and is also involved in independent media, copwatching, anti-oppression work, and anarchist organizing.