AAOP staff gathered over the weekend of Dec 2nd and 3rd for an intensive two-day training on Nonviolent Direct Action led by Organizer Kalaya’an Mendoza from Across Frontlines, who has been fighting in various movements ranging from LGBT rights to anti-racist organizing to Tibetan independence for the past 20 years.
Activities such as the nonviolent-violent spectrogram gave a visual representation of the participating members’ views on what a nonviolent and violent action might look like.
“The training was intensive and emotional,” AAOP Community Organizer Wilson Yang says, “but there were also many moments that allowed for reflection and vulnerability.”
Participants even got the chance to put into practice what they learned at the end of the workshop through a stimulation.
“We had to organize our community to go and talk with our legislators/local council members about their immigration policy,” Community Organizer Pashie Vang says, describing the simulation. “The legislator/local council members were mean, demeaning of our community, and did not want to listen to us.”
“That really triggered and motivated me to say something,” Pashie adds. “I was frustrated and angry at the fact that these legislators/local council members were name-calling our community without knowing anything about us.”
The workshop also allowed participants to think strategically about how to influence change in a nonviolent way. Organizing Fellow Vangxor says that with this simulation, they had to decide as a community what was the best way to navigate this situation.
Wilson says the training was fundamental to his understanding on nonviolent direct actions, allowing him to recenter and reconnect with the motivations behind his community work.
“I hope that when the time arises, I can use this training to help facilitate direct actions to make impactful changes in my community,” Wilson says.
For Pashie, the training helped her find her grounding in her work.
“I want to to take this lesson to bring into my work, to find what grounds me to do my work and organize when my community is in crisis mode, or when there is an attack on my community. I think being able to find my grounding is what makes the situation better,” she says.
“What I’ve gain from this experience is that there are emotional places that I’ve yet to tap into and use as a source of power for this kind of work,” Vangxor adds. “During the training, I was able to tap into this side of me that I didn’t knew existed; it was so powerful, re-invigorating, and energizing. If I allow myself to feel everything, I can do everything.”