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Gene Sharp
ing, and too dangerous. The population feels incapable of winning against such great odds. Instead, the population is largely focused on the simple efforts required to live as best they can. The oppressed population is then largely passive. This condition has been erroneously called “apathy.” The condition is really helplessness. Care is needed in recommending action when people feel helpless. If at this stage people are nevertheless prodded into public opposition beyond their capacity, their predictable defeat will prove to them that their weakness is even greater than they had realized. It will be a long time before they are able to act again. However, limited action within their capacity is a different matter. That is more possible. During a major phase of the struggle against apartheid rule in South Africa, it was impossible to mobilize the African population for action against the overwhelming domination, Mosiuoa Patrick Lekota reported in 1990.19 In this situation, Africans created civic organizations, such as the Soweto Civic Association, to struggle for limited objectives, Lekota continued. These “civics” picked up on specific issues, such as “there is no water, or . . . there is not sufficient electricity. The word ‘politics’ had to stay out of it . . . People can afford to say ‘the government must give us water. . .’” Accordingly, the Africans in one location were encouraged to organize to get a well to provide clean water. Both the adults and their children had previously been sickened by drinking polluted water. On that single issue the Africans acted and won. By their own action they became empowered, gaining confidence that they could achieve larger goals. The lesson is that when struggling against great oppression it is often wise to fight on a limited specific expression of the large problem. The limited focus for the attack must then be made carefully. Possible foci that can easily be dismissed as undesirable need to be rejected. The selected specific issue must be seen to be obviMosiuoa Patrick Lekota, then of the United Democratic Front, speaking at the National Conference on Nonviolent Santions in Conflict and Defense, February 8-11, 1990. Cambridge, Massachusetts, sponsored by the Albert Einstein Institution. 19