Review of the book “How nonviolence protects the state”, from Peter Gelderloos

Abstract

The book written by Peter Gelderloos in 2007 and published in Brazil in 2011, has as main objective to discuss the political shortcomings and the unsustainability of practice of non-violence project as instrument of political action. This contract extends over six chapters in which the author discusses the reasons why non-violence is an ineffective method, racist, statist, patriarchal, strategically lower, and illusory. The points raised and discussed by Peter Gelderloos throughout the book can be condensed into two major argumentative axes: one that treats violence as an instrument monopolized by the state and by the white man; and another which states that non-violent actions do not bear fruit able to significantly change social dynamics.

Keywords

• Não violência
• violência política
• pacifismo
• teoria anarquista