By David Swanson. This article was first published on War is not a Crime.

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The Coalition Against NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda has nothing on its website about using nonviolence, supporting nonviolence, or opposing violence.

The G8 and NATO Protest also has nothing like that, but does have this:

A month ago I blogged that I would not endorse Occupy the RNC or DNC because both groups were refusing to state that they opposed violence.

Occupy the RNC has now put this on its website:

Not how I would have put it. Nor would I have added:

But foreswearing violence and calling it stupid is enough for me. I wish Occupy DNC could bring itself to do as much. Better yet, just add “We oppose violence and will not use it.”

That would be ideal, smart, strategic, and beneficial to the movement.

When the cops start a riot in Chicago on May 20th, raise your hand if you think CNN will base its coverage on your Youtube of what really happened and ignore that statement above about “space between divergent tactics.”

Back in November, some good activists working with Occupy Wall Street wrote:

In other words, it’s not consensus. It’s minority rule. Most of us favor an openly nonviolent movement, publicly commited to nonviolence. When I question organizers of these protests, they practically scream that that is indeed what they favor, but that they want to be inclusive and not allow the 1% to divide us. Is destroying us better than dividing us? Is scaring away the majority of the 99% a price worth paying to be inclusive of 10 people who want to smash windows and 2 guys who want to smash police officers? What about the openness lost by embracing tactics that require secrecy?

Between now and May 20th in Chicago would be an ideal time to spread understanding of this.

David Swanson’s books include “War Is A Lie.” He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for the online activist organization http://rootsaction.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio