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Taking a lesson from the past.
After he retired several years ago, Shel Trapp asked me - as the director of the National Training and Information Center - to write a promotional blurb, which he used as a quote on the back cover of his book Dynamics of Organizing. What I wrote is based on my view of the role of NPA and how I see neighborhood-based community organizing, which is “This is war.” As a student of history who believes that “past is prologue,” it should come as no surprise that I would invite General Hannibal Barca, the retired Carthaginian military commander, to stop by the NPA national leadership meeting on Aug. 14 to spend a few minutes to listen and talk about his strategies for coalition building and winning.
At our meeting, he was both amused that some staff members were wearing under garments (we had to explain the concept of a t-shirt) and amazed by the slogan emblazoned on the front: “I fight evil for a living.”
He told his story to a rapt audience.
“My dad Hamilcar was also a general who, years earlier, fought the Romans over control of the island of Sicily. He beat back the Romans and they agreed to a peace treaty with them. The Romans suddenly changed their minds and broke their word with us and demanded more land from our country. This made my dad very bitter and mistrustful of Romans – so much so that when I was 21 he made me swear an oath on the altar of our gods that I would never be a friend of Rome because of how evil they were in oppressing and raping our community. I can identify with your slogan, and while we never had the t-shirts – as you call them – I have been there, done that, and lived out that slogan.
“Six years later, the Romans killed my dad and I was asked to step up and command our armies. It is never easy stepping up to leadership and there was much debate in our city. Those Carthaginians who were my enemies said that I was too young and did not have the skill to take charge of the troops.
“My strategy against the Romans had three parts. The first was to build a coalition. Any tribe or ethnic group who had an issue with Rome was welcome in our army and it was the more the merrier. Our army was a rag tag one composed of many different ethnic groups: Spanish, Semitic, Greek and African warriors. We were not as sophisticated or organized as the Romans were, with their soldiers organized in legions. The Roman legion was always made up of 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry. Our army was made up of whatever groups were able to show up. I understand that while the thing you call National People’s Action or NPA is an army that uses nonviolent direct action – your coalition is extraordinarily diverse and without rules that slow you down. As I have often said ‘whatever works.’
“The second element of my strategy was to do the unexpected. Having elephants in our cavalry is one example. The smell and size of the elephants always panicked the horses in the Roman cavalry. Everyone probably knows that another example is that the Romans did not expect us to bring the fight to them and least of all to attack them by crossing the Alps. They said it would be impossible. Well, we did it – without even maps or roads. We had a saying that we would either find a way or make a way. In watching the strange machine and thing you called a “DVD” about your work and in hearing your stories in this meeting – it seems to me that NPA also does the unexpected, just like we did.
“The third element of our strategy was to attack, attack and attack. Our army always faced numerically superior Roman armies. In our first major attack we had 35,000 foot soldiers in the infantry and 10,000 cavalry. We faced what the Romans called a “double consular army” with 80,000 troops and about 6,000 cavalry. I won’t go into all the details, but suffice to say that we beat them and we beat them good. For many years in our campaign, we were able to defeat other Roman armies and the city-state of Rome was in a panic over what to do. It seems to me that NPA has a similar strategy as it has also been attacking, attacking and attacking – not to mention winning - for 35 years.
“The Roman general named Fabius Cunctator adopted a strategy of retreat. General Fabius would never engage our army in a fight when we came on the field. This strategy wore us down; we were not able to maintain our supply lines so far from Africa and so we ultimately ‘ran out of gas’ as you now say. By the way, I understand that George Washington, who was the commander of your Continental Army used this same Roman strategy – which became known as a “fabian” or retreat strategy - against the superior British redcoat army in your revolutionary war. This strategy taught me something. If I had it to do over again, I would have spent some time reflecting on how I needed to spend more time building my base as well as leadership teams and would not have always been on the run."
As a follow-up to Hannibal’s conversation that day, you can find out what course of action the NPA leadership decided upon by reading the open letter from NPA co-chairperson Inez Killingsworth, located in this issue of Disclosure.
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