I tried to send the following to Carl Olsen of Envoy magazine regarding a letter sent by the Archdiocese of Portland.
Posted by Bob at January 22, 2003 12:08 PMI know what they mean by active non-violence. My lessons in the radical lefist lexicon began as a study of Earth First! and its bible The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey.
The radical left is an overlapping blend of environmentalists, communists, anarchists, anti-capitalists, civil rights advocates, animal rights advocates, anti-West/anti-American groups, and anti-war groups.
They share a similar lexicon. When talking about non-violence they usually invoke Gandi, and sometimes invoke MLK.
When they talk about non-violence they mean that they will not injure people, animals or trees (this is not necessarily their order of priorties). There seems to be a debate raging, but non-violence does not exclude the destruction of property.
When they talk about active non-violence they are talking about some form of monkeywrenching (gumming up the works). I usually encounter the term as non-violent direct action.
I'm guessing, since I've never heard of contemplative non-violence, that it's a passive non-violence as opposed to active non-violence.
The following links may bring you up to speed (note: I just discovered the satyagraha site today):