War Resisters' International nonviolence programme

WRI homepage > Programme Areas > Nonviolence > Programme description

Introduction

At the War Resisters' International Council meeting in Ohrid, Macedonia, in June 2004, it was decided to merge the WRI programmes "Nonviolence and Social Empowerment"[1] and "Globalisation and Militarism"[2] to a new programme called "Nonviolence Programme".

The Nonviolence and Social Empowerment Programme goes back to the mid-1990s, and had focused on the Nonviolence and Social Empowerment Study Conference[3], which took place in Puri, India, in February 2001. At present, the main project in this programme is the Women's Trainers' Consultation, which will be held in October 2004 in Thailand[4]. This is a joint project of WRI's Women's Working Group and the International Fellowship of Reconciliation's Women Peacemakers Program.

The Globalisation and Militarism programme goes back to the WRI Triennial Conference in Dublin. Its present focus is the European Social Forum, which will take place in London from 14-17 October 2004[5].

Both programmes were in the past "network programmes", run entirely by working groups and volunteers, with no or little involvement of central office staff. The Nonviolence and Social Empowerment programme relied on two part-time staff to organise the Nonviolence and Social Empowerment Study Conference. Merging these two programme areas into a staffed position makes a number of new projects possible.

Why a Nonviolence Programme

War Resisters' International is based on the declaration:

War is a crime against humanity.
I am therefore determined not to support any kind of war,
and to strive for the removal of all causes of war.

WRI exists to promote nonviolence. The Statement of Principles explains: "Nonviolence can combine active resistance, including civil disobedience, with dialogue; it can combine non-cooperation -- withdrawal of support from a system of oppression -- with constructive work to build alternatives. As a way of engaging in conflict, sometimes nonviolence attempts to bring reconciliation with it: strengthening the social fabric, empowering those at the bottom of society, and including people from different sides in seeking a solution."[6] WRI realises that for "some, nonviolence is a way of life. For all of us, it is a form of action that affirms life, speaks out against oppression, and acknowledges the value of each person".

WRI also exists to promote antimilitarism, which means not supporting any kind of war, and the mechanism that make war possible. In September 2001, War Resisters' International issued a statement titled "Say No!", calling for conscientious objection and nonviolent resistance to war[7].

WRI's Statement of Functions defines as WRI's functions:

Linking people together: WRI sets out to link together people committed to its principles. By organising conferences and other events, by publishing magazines, pamphlets and books, and by providing information by computer, WRI brings people in contact with one another.
Initiating campaigns and action projects: WRI offers an international perspective on issues. Promoting and coordinating actions or projects at an international level, nonviolence lies at the heart of every action and campaign. WRI seeks to create a stable base for any action project it initiates by involving other organisations, groups and individuals who can then carry through the project, realising the importance of local support.
Support actions: WRI supports organisations, groups and individuals addressing the causes of war and refusing to support any kind of war. This support takes various forms, depending on means and circumstances. The Prisoners for Peace list, attending trials, organising speaking tours, and fundraising for specific campaigns are examples of this work.
Promotion and public education: WRI promotes nonviolence as a means of social transformation. By organising study conferences, publishing articles and books, and by stimulating discussions, WRI sets out to deepen the thinking about nonviolence and analysis from the point of view of nonviolence.

Within this framework, WRI's Nonviolence Programme will work towards these goals:

promote nonviolence within the new social movements, especially the movement for global justice ("anti-globalisation movement"), and the wider peace movement;
raise awareness of the connection between corporations and militarism, promoting the analysis that war profiteers are a cause of war through a new WRI campaign;
educate the WRI network and the wider peace movement about the issues raised by the movement for global justice, deepening the understanding of the connection between militarism and economics.

The Nonviolence Programme

The overarching aim of the Nonviolence Programme is to strengthen and deepen our understanding of nonviolence, nonviolent strategies, and nonviolent campaigning, and to develop and provide tools and support to groups using nonviolence. It builds on the former Nonviolence and Social Empowerment programme: "Social Empowerment is a process in which people find back to their own power, the power to shape their own lives and to influence the course of events around them. They start to practice this power against oppression and exclusion, for participation, peace and human rights."[8]

The key aspects of the Nonviolence and Social Empowerment project remain valid for the Nonviolence Programme:

"the dimension of social empowerment should be a key element in considering the impact of any social movement activity;
that the framework of social empowerment offers a perspective for cooperation between hitherto competing or even conflicting approaches;
that strategies of empowerment are intrinsic to the effectiveness of nonviolent movements;
that the methodology of nonviolence offers specific insights into social empowerment."[9]

This is also reflected in WRI's approach to globalisation from below, as expressed in its 2001 statement: "A strategy of nonviolence needs to involve building our own strength as a movement, and developing alternatives to economic globalisation and corporate rule. A strategy of nonviolence needs to involve making use of the rich heritage of nonviolent movements from all over the world in preparing for nonviolent confrontation, drawing from experience in nonviolence training from the US Civil Rights Movement, the Gandhian movement in India, the landless movement in Brazil, the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa, among many others."[10]

There are three interconnected aspects of the Nonviolence Programme:

Development and distribution of resources on nonviolence and nonviolent strategies for use by the WRI network and the wider movement. Such resources include a handbook for nonviolent action, a collection of case studies of nonviolent campaigns[11], nonviolence training and campaign development materials.
In cooperation with WRI's Nonviolence Training Working Group and WRI affiliates, and building on the work of the former Nonviolence and Social Empowerment Programme, the programme will collect and develop resources on nonviolence, nonviolent action, nonviolent strategies, and nonviolent training, which draw on the experiences of nonviolent struggles from different countries and different movements. A first project could be the collection and publication of a "Handbook for Nonviolent Action", which can serve as a cross-cultural introduction to nonviolence and nonviolent action[12]. Such a publication should be made available in print and online, in several languages.
War Resisters' International commissioned several case studies prior to the Nonviolence and Social Empowerment Study Conference. These case studies can form the base for a broader collection of case studies, and should also be made available in several languages online. The questionnaire developed for these case studies can serve as a starting point for the commissioning of more case studies of recent movements/campaigns.
Networking with groups interested in using nonviolence for social change, coordination of workshops at gatherings such as Social Forums, making WRI's resources available to grassroots activists doing anti-militarist and globalisation from below work.
In 2002, WRI Council member Oscar Huenchunao represented WRI at the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre, as did WRI Council member Jørgen Johansen, who also participated in 2003, and in Mumbai 2004. A number of WRI affiliates and other nonviolent groups are present at Social Fora, and other major events, or are involved in major activities of the movement for globalisation from below, such as Seattle, Genoa, and others.
For the first time War Resisters' International will coordinate a pacifist and antimilitarist presence at a Social Forum, this year at the European Social Forum in London in October 2004. It will be an important aspect of the Nonviolence Programme to expand on these activities, and to network much more actively with groups from the WRI network and beyond. It is important to make resources on nonviolence available to all those willing to use them, such as WRI affiliate War Resisters League did prior to the protests at the WTO meeting in Seattle, when it printed and distributed 6,000 copies of its "Handbook for Nonviolent Action."
Development of resources for WRI's war profiteering campaign. Networking with WRI affiliates working on such campaigns, supporting and coordinating nonviolent campaigns against war profiteers.
At the World Social Forum in Mumbai Arundhati Roy called for the movement "to be the resistance to the occupation of Iraq", and to focus on two major corporations profiteering from the occupation. WRI's war profiteering campaign will take up Arundhati Roy's call, and will raise awareness for war profiteers as a cause of war, from a clearly antimilitarist point of view. The campaign needs to be based in the WRI network, bringing groups together that work on war profiteers, and providing resources and campaign materials. The Nonviolence Programme can provide some form of coordination and strategy development for the campaign, but the campaign itself will not be a mainly office run campaign.
As a first step WRI is offering a workshop on the campaign at the European Social Forum in London in October 2004.

Notes

[1] http://wri-irg.org/archive/nvse2001/nvsehome.htm
[2] The former Globalisation and Militarism homepage has been incorporated into the current page.
[3] http://wri-irg.org/archive/nvse2001/nvse/nvserept-en.htm
[4] http://wri-irg.org/news/2004/wwg-consult04-en.htm
[5] http://wri-irg.org/news/2004/esfhome.htm
[6] Statement of Principles, adopted by the WRI Council in Carmaux, France, 1997, http://wri-irg.org/statemnt/stprinc-en.htm
[7] http://wri-irg.org/statemnt/sayno.htm
[8] War Resisters' International: Nonviolent Social Empowerment, http://wri-irg.org/archive/nvse2001/nvse/nvse0001-en.htm
[9] Julia Kraft and Andreas Speck, Nonviolence and Social Empowerment, 2000, http://wri-irg.org/archive/nvse2001/nvse/nvse-2-en.htm
[10] Facing the challenges of the anti-globalisation struggle, WRI Statement, August 2001 http://wri-irg.org/statemnt/globstat.htm
[11] Some case studies have been carried out as part of the Nonviolence and Social Empowerment programme: http://wri-irg.org/archive/nvse2001/nvse/nvsecase-en.htm
[12] War Resisters' International's staff is repeatedly asked for materials which can serve as an introduction to nonviolence/nonviolent action, by activists from a wide range of countries and cultural backgrounds. Existing materials are mostly based in the experience of one country only, or not easily accessible for small groups of activists, as they deal with nonviolence on a mass scale.