Violence & nonviolence
The last two years have seen a remarkable development in a new peace movement – the local anti-militarism campaigns. Following a model developed in Brighton back in 2004, people across the country are beginning to focus on the arms dealers and weapons manufacturers in their own backyards.
Lacking a commitment to pacifism or legality, the methods and motives of these new campaigns have been questioned by the older, more established peace movement (not least the co-editor of this…
ZZZ: We try to walk the walk, whether we are challenging the Israeli occupation or resolving conflicts locally.
We're living in a pressure cooker. When you are confined to your home or your bantustan, when the economic situation is deteriorating, unemployment is skyrocketing, and trauma among children is increasing, abnormal conditions create abnormal relationships among people. They create displaced anger against each other.
Yesterday we were mediating conflicts between…
Over the last few years there has been a growing critique in the West of committed nonviolence (see the G8 article on the Wales page). There are now at least three English-language books whose main purpose is to criticise nonviolence.
The key text is Ward Churchill's Pacifism as Pathology (1986) which has had a number of responses, including by George Lakey (available online).
The latest addition is Peter Gelderloos's How Nonviolence Protects the State (…
Coskun, you were imprisoned for almost 12 years, from 1979 to 1991, when the rest of your sentence was changed to a suspended sentence. What was important for you in prison and where did you get your strength from ?
The most important source of strength was my belief in being right. But this wasn’t a blind belief. I was objecting to exploitation and human rights violations. I desired democratic and economic development in our country. These were quite simple demands, compared to…
The Arab Spring appears to be having positive results for Palestinians, notably the rapprochement between the main Palestinian political parties Fatah and Hamas, and the re-opening, after four years, of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
However, the antipathy between Fatah and Hamas persists and it remains to be seen whether they will indeed form a joint government and hold elections in 2012. And the re-opening of Rafah on 28 May was only partial: commercial traffic is not…
Given how frequently the international community uses violence to resolve political conflicts, it is perhaps not surprising that film and TV reflect this. The myth of redemptive violence is a powerful and familiar cultural theme, and, as the excellent documentary Tough Guise (Media Education Foundation) points out, our heroes get tougher and stronger, carrying bigger weapons each year. So it’s always refreshing to find a TV programme prepared to accept that life is more complex than this.…
Originally published (for Burmese dissidents) in 1993, From Dictatorship to Democracy has since been translated into at least 28 other languages, and has now been reprinted in English by Housmans Peace Bookshop.
Sharp’s analysis – and this short book in particular – has reportedly played a significant inspirational role in a whole series of nonviolent uprisings, from Serbia to Egypt. Nonetheless, his leaden prose, the extremely general nature of much of the analysis and the lack of…
“On December 23, April 6 activist xxxxxxxxxxxx … alleged that several opposition parties and movements have accepted an unwritten plan for democratic transition by 2011; we are doubtful of this claim” – secret cable from the US Embassy in Cairo to Washington [1]
“Nonviolent action is not just about non-violence, but also about joy and happiness … [People] saw in Tahrir what Egypt could possibly be in the future and they wanted to be part of this new Egypt” – Wael Adel,…
Thanks for your considered letter last issue. Yes, we can certainly agree that we should struggle for an end to class division: maybe we still disagree about the need for a proletarian dictatorship. Who knows?
Trying to create a nonviolent revolution, like working for Swaraj in India, carries risks. That we might end up with civil war is one of these risks. Given the atrocities of war, everywhere, I sincerely hope PN continues to preach nonviolent revolution.
Village Life
by Gill Knight
from PN 2532, April 2011
During my time working with the International Women’s Peace Service I have witnessed many human rights abuses in the West Bank Palestine – house demolitions, settler violence, army and settler destruction of olive trees and fields, army intimidation of workers – the list goes on.
But none has been more heart rending than the Israeli attempt to crush the nonviolent Popular Resistance to the Occupation in the small…
Ten years ago the Quaker project Turning the Tide (TtT) commissioned this short documentary which follows three activists – Trident Ploughshares activist Ellen Moxley, environmental activist Martin Shaw, and student campaigner Alison Matthias – as they take part in a variety of demonstrations and examines some of the core issues around protest, democracy and nonviolence. Can violence be effective? Is property damage justifiable and if so under what circumstances? Is civil disobedience anti-…
This letter is to add my voice to the many which will no doubt be raised in protest against your response to George Paxton in Dec/Jan PN.
My initial thought, on reading your letter, was to cancel my subscription to PN. It was apparent to me that Gandhi’s integrity was under attack. Surely you must accept that to support a move towards civil war would mean everything he stood for – like Satyagraha – was no more than window dressing. Peace News often comes across as promoting class…
People close to Batasuna, the political wing of ETA, the Basque separatist guerrilla group, launched a new nonviolent political party on 7 February. The separatists hope that the new party, Sortu, will be recognised and allowed to stand in elections – Batasuna itself is banned. ETA declared a ceasefire in September and made the ceasefire permanent in January. The Spanish government has refused to reciprocate in any way.
Chris’ recent stay in Wandsworth Prison has led to some interesting conversations lately. And that’s got me thinking about when I became a pacifist and why I still am one.
I’m not sure I can pinpoint an exact moment in my life when pacifism made sense to me. But I know the milestones. The first was reading the World War 1 poets – particularly Wilfred Owen - whose lines in…
There have been strong reactions to the student protests at Millbank on 10 November (see p8). Overwhelmingly, mainstream figures have condemned the “despicable” behaviour of the protesters – the word used by Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students.
From the left, in contrast, came a statement signed by Hilary Wainwright, Billy Bragg, Naomi Klein and a number of student activists saying: “We reject any attempt to characterise the Millbank protest as small, “…
