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What They Don't Want You To Know -- Nonviolence Works! Why don't we hear of the triumphs of Nonviolence -- the "people power" that tumbles oppressive regimes? Why don’t we hear about the “Velvet Revolution” in Czechoslovakia, the “Orange Revolution” in the Ukraine, the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the dethroning of oppression in the Philippines, in East Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, in Latin America? All over the world lasting, positive change is the result not of trillion-dollar armies, but of Nonviolent people power. Why don’t we hear about these remarkable revolutions? The information blackout is no accident. Perhaps we don’t learn about Nonviolent revolution because… it works! Nonviolent people power can change the world. That’s a scary thought for the miniscule minority hanging on for dear life to the helm of power. For a group to remain in power without representing the true will of the people, they must maintain power by manipulation and by force -- military force -- a worldwide police state. This is why some of the most out-of-touch and top-heavy governments in the world have to maintain and use an over-the-top show of force. What if the secret got out? What if people knew that Nonviolence works? What if they knew that they didn’t need big muscles and guns and the inhumanity to use them? What if people stopped giving their power away to the oppressor? What if the power suddenly shifted back to the people? It would mean the creation of a world reflective of the values of the people. And for the most part, those values (truth, justice, freedom, kindness, compassion, goodwill toward people, toward the planet and toward animals, etc.) are good. What an amazing world this could be… and it could happen practically overnight if we organized around our values.

Regan also articulates his firm belief that ‘moral philosophy is no substitute for political action’, but insists, ‘still, it can make a contribution. Its currency is ideas’. This assertion was made many years ago in 1983. However, it appears that large sections of the animal advocacy movement was not (and is not) listening to this important message. Many factions in the modern animal protection movement do not agree that a well worked out philosophical position assists in the furtherance of altering the moral standing of nonhuman animals. Moreover, many of those that do seem to agree with the general point that social movements require a solid basis for claims-making, appear not to accept the case for animal rights in the first place. Recent developments in the animal movement tends to confirm such a view. For example, Francione [4] states that ‘the modern animal “rights” movement has explicitly rejected the doctrine of animal rights’. In fact, it might be tempting to claim, analogous to Gilroy’s [5] declaration that ‘there ain’t no black in the Union Jack’, that there ain’t much rights in ‘animal rights’ either. This tends to beg the question, if not rights violations, what do modern animal advocates substantially rely upon in order to make claims on behalf of nonhuman animals? Francione argues that the contemporary animal movement appears content to rely on a new formulation of traditional ideas, which he labels ‘new welfarism’. He describes this conception of new welfarism as a ‘hybrid position’ which may be understood to be a more progressive, or in Francione’s terms, a ‘modified’ welfare position compared with traditional animal welfarism, especially in the sense that this ‘version of animal welfare…accepts animal rights as an ideal state of affairs that can be achieved only through continued adherence to animal welfare measures’.

However, for Francione, new welfarists – despite what sets them apart from traditionalists of the genre - should be regarded as committed to the endorsement of measures ‘indistinguishable’ from policies put forward by those ‘who accept the legitimacy of animal exploitation’.

Advocates who wish to pursue a position based on rights thinking are very few in number and, furthermore, do not often feature in ‘leadership’ positions within the current animal protection movement.