Peter Gelderloos is an anarchist author from Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is best known for his 2005 book, How Nonviolence Protects the State.

Gelderloos was arrested in 2001 while attending a protest at the Georgia-based Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, a controversial school that trains Central and South American soldiers and police.^[1] He was sentenced in 2002 to six months in prison.

In How Nonviolence Protects the State How Nonviolence Protects the State Gelderloos sets out to "[debunk] the notion that non-violent activism is the only acceptable and effective method of struggle."^[2] The resulting work has been frequently compared to Ward Churchill's Pacifism as Pathology.^[3]

In May of 2007, Gelderloos was arrested in Spain and charged with public disorder and illegal demonstration during a squatters' protest. Police have accused Gelderloos of playing a leadership role within the protest - a claim which he calls "fairly absurd." Although released on bond, Gelderloos has been unable to return to the United States as a result of his impending trial. His family contends that it will not be possible for him to receive a fair trial in Spain, citing a judges assertion that "the United States would put him in Guantanamo for what he had done."^[4]

See also

• Issues in anarchism: Ends and means

References

Further reading

• Gelderloos, Peter. My Arrest in Spain: The Easy Road from Tourism to Terrorism. Counterpunch (May 2007).
• Gelderloos, Peter. Arms and the Movement. Utne Reader (June 2007).
• Book Review. How Nonviolence Protects the State (July 2007).