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Stories and Strategies:
Nonviolent Resistance and Peace-building
Areport by Rob Fairmichael (August 2002)
To assess something which you're intimately involved with
is difficult. While I was out of the main Dublin-London axis
for the War Resister's International Triennial Conference,
'Stories and strategies - nonviolent resistance and social
change', I was nevertheless centrally involved. This meant
that while aware of much of what was happening, beforehand
I was not so much in the whirlwind and during it I was too
busy to engage in some of the conference. But in any case
a large conference like this has many different personal experiences
depending on the sessions people choose to go with, who they
interact with, the language groups they can be part of, et
cetera.
Some general comments first. In general it worked.
There were less people than anticipated, a couple of hundred
in total. A conclusion on the content might be that there
were too many stories and not enough strategies. DCU (Dublin
City University|) as a venue worked all right in general but
at times the bureaucracy (particularly with some people unavailable
on a bank holiday weekend) made life difficult. While involvement
from Ireland was lower than I would have liked, I got the
impression that those who did come and engage got a tremendous
amount out of it, and I hope that INNATE will be able to maintain
a relationship with most of these people. The workcampers
(provided by SCI/VSI) were tremendous. I will explore some
of these points in more detail during this article.
On a personal level I was pleased both to survive
and feel that I had risen to the challenges put before me
as well as I could. For example, the day before the free afternoon
it was pointed out that this is usually used for interaction
between locals and internationals. How could I set up programme
overnight? The day it was happening I first told the plenary
session that we had been worked on the programme for the free
afternoon "for months, ever since I started talking to
people about it last night". I explained an English language
proverb; it was organised on 'a wing and a prayer', I said,
but as the WRI is a secular organisation, it was just organised
on a wing (well, Dorie Wilsnack thought that was funny). A
'marketplace' where locals offered and internationals sought
out what they wanted to do led to various trips in various
directions around Dublin. I led a group of twenty of more
on a guided tour around the centre of Dublin, giving the socio-political
spin from Parnell Square to Kildare Street along with personal
anecdotes. Not having had any time to prepare, would I have
enough to say? Yes, and more if I did it again (I forgot to
tell them about the time the car we were in was swooped on
outside the GPO, one special branch car in front, one behind,
and we were questioned - all for being dangerous disarmament
activists in a 'neutral' state!).
The morning plenary start, as usual, included somebody telling
their own personal story in 15 or 20 minutes. These are always
an inspiring start to the day. We all face difficult struggles
of varying kinds; some may be more mundane, some more dangerous
and risky, some more varied, but all represent the struggle
of an individual to be true to themselves and to overcome
violence and live nonviolence. Siva Ramamoorthy's journey
from non-violence to violence and on to nonviolence in Sri
Lanka was one; the gun which he felt would liberate him became
with time a burden and a pain. But keeping the faith in the
face of the mundane can be difficult in a different way. While
we listened to people who might be considered to have a particularly
interesting story I hope that part of the message is - anyone
there could be sitting in the hot seat telling their story.
We all have a story. And that was part of the Triennial message
as well.
The theme groups which participants followed
for four mornings in a row were at the heart of the Triennial
conference. This was where people had a chance to really get
to grips with one topic. I couldn't attempt to summarise what
I don't know about but the theme group I attended, on 'International
peace operations: what they are and what they could be' with
Howard Clark and Christine Schweitzer in general worked well.
In a field where there are currently different initiatives
it was good to get to grips with a bit more - and to see Christine's
typology of different kinds of operation, and how conventional
and non-violent initiatives have developed. I still feel ignorant
but less ignorant than before! And with more knowledge about
where to find out more.
After lunch there was an opportunity to take
part in workshops which anyone could offer, i.e. if you wanted
to put on a workshop you put on a workshop and people voted
with their feet. This is an important counterpoint to the
morning programme in that it allows everyone an equal opportunity.
There were a few people from around Ireland that I was involved
in specifically inviting to run workshops. Again I would assume
a very varied response but there was a broad choice so hopefully
something for everyone. And there was also an opportunity
for specialist interest groups regarding work with women,
or nonviolence training, to get together.
The evening plenaries, after dinner, were a
time when people were already getting tired but an opportunity
for everyone to hear usually a few presentations and engage
in plenary debate. As well as different aspects of story-telling
and strategising from several continents, this included Glencree
talking about their work primarily with victims and combatants
of the Northern Ireland Troubles. One interesting story that
I heard from Michael Randle in the evening plenary was the
origin of the CND symbol (also featured in the current Peace
News in a piece by Andrew Rigby) - use that next time someone
accuses it of being a 'broken cross'! Florencia Mallon's point
about honouring the stories that don't make it into the history
books was an important one. Analysis was made of changes since
11th September 2001. And it is always is a privilege to hear
directly the stories of struggles that people are engaged
in, whether in West Papua, Vieques, Israel or elsewhere.
There is a difficult act to do in arranging enough social
and cultural programme and not too much. After a day's work,
with an ending time for plenaries at 9.30 pm, 10.00 pm is
a realistic starting time and this is already late for many
people, particularly for those not native (English language)
speakers for whom listening to English as lingua franca was
tiring.
Unfortunately the fact that we had less space
than we expected in the Hub (the student centre in DCU) for
social and cultural activities led to problems. An excellent
local drama production (The Day the Music Died by a community
drama group from Finglas) did not get the space they deserved
for both their performance and the audience was smaller. I
feared that it might take a simplistic view of Bloody Sunday,
at some level; instead it was an amazingly human, and at times
humorous (without detracting at all from the seriousness of
the topic) look at a seminal event in the Troubles in the
North. Really impressive, both play and presentation. Also
impressive in a different way was Mary Begley and friends
leading traditional music sessions several evenings (a number
of participants contributed songs). But the lack of space
meant those who just wanted to chat had to stand around or
sit on the floor in the hallway of the Hub. And there were
rumblings of discontent also from those who weren't into Irish
traditional music (ochone!)....but it is difficult to please
all the people.
My own contribution was playing the music (on
CD and tape) to a written paper I had produced which everyone
received, 'Musical musings on Irish history and culture'.
This was intended (in 22 or 23 pieces over a couple of hours,
in fact presented over two evenings) to both run through various
aspects of Irish history and culture, and to introduce a range
of Irish musicians, singers and groups so people had a quick
introduction. It was two and a half thousand years of Irish
history and culture in two and a half hours.
For the final celebration/party evening in future
I would recommend the business programme ending at 6.00 pm
so people get a decent evening of it. Tommy Sands was great,
I thought, but with his session ending after midnight (the
final plenary went to 9.30 pm) it was too late for some people
to attend or perform in the extempore performances which we
hoped. That said, it did not prevent inveterate night owls
partaking in a drumming session (courtesy of Cormac Griffith)
which kept on until nearly 3 a.m. - I was pleasantly surprised
that DCU's security men let it run until then. We were certainly
going out with a bang.
But meeting old friends and making new ones
is an essential part of such a gathering. That and the craic
and story telling that goes along with it. How could you not
be amused as Gernot Lennert 'proves' that Ireland is really
Turkish? Or laugh with the antics of assorted performances,
intentionally humorous or not. Why, it nearly makes up for
all the panic of being an organiser.
I was also responsible for a home stay programme which enabled
Triennial goers to stay with Irish hosts for a few days. At
one stage it looked like I would have too many visitors and
not enough hosts but a number of the enquiries fell through.
Then in fact some of the 'more organised' enquirers either
couldn't come or didn't have additional time (after ten days
away). In fact what happened was that many people were fixed
up with accommodation during the Triennial for afterwards
either informally or through the WRI structures; this was
bound to happen. But despite the relatively small numbers
for the pre-organised home stay programme I think it was important
to offer it, both for those who wanted to be organised and
for those who might not get to meet people who offered them
accommodation. The opportunity to stay in homes was an important
component of being in Ireland and it is something I would
like to see for future Triennials (staying in the country
concerned - not in Ireland!). We had a small but useful seminar
in Belfast, with WRI Triennial attenders from four continents,
the Monday after the Triennial ended.
Business sessions topped and tailed the Triennial. One question
of debate was whether the next Council (annual meeting) should
take place in Columbia or whether it should be a stand alone
conference. So it was a question of how to engage with the
Colombian situation, and engage with Colombian activists,
rather than whether to (it was decided to hold the 2003 Council
there). Another piece of business encouraged engagement on
the anniversary of the attacks on the USA on 11th September.
You need your head examined to want to host a big international
conference. Prior to the decision being made for Ireland as
the venue, I had opposed it coming on the ground that the
infrastructure was too weak. Unfortunately I proved to be
right; that is not to apportion blame since a) it had to happen
somewhere, and b) most of the Dublin groups are very small
and have to work hard to keep their heads above water. As
the involvement in the organisational logistics by supporting
groups in Dublin was less than anticipated, most everything
local fell to Siva Ramamoorthy and Pat Barrett to do. They
did remarkably well to survive. Thank you, Pat and Siva, and
to the WRI International Office for coping with what I would
consider uncopeable. What we did we did and what we didn't
we didn't. And if we wanted to do what we didn't do then we
should have planned to do something different. To do a mighty
focus in a large general gathering is very difficult. Maybe
that should be looked at for the future. I leave it to others
to make overall judgements but my inclination would be to
agree with the statement at the start of this piece that not
enough strategies emerged. Would it have been unrealistic
to expect more? Probably, unless the input and orientation
had been different. A planning fault? Quite possibly.
As to why the event was smaller than expected
I have no one answer. There were people we knew wanted to
come (i.e. people we had links with) who were not granted
visas, e.g. from Kinshasa, Congo. The Department of Foreign
Affairs' ruling that people had to have travelled outside
their own country before (and returned) before getting a visa
to Ireland was both insulting and illogical - but we did know
there were people who wanted to get a booking simply to get
into the country. If Foreign Affairs used as part of the criteria
whether people had links with the organisation concerned,
or shown involvement in the same field, then they would have
been on more solid ground.
It is also true that Dublin is not cheap and
accommodation at DCU, while reasonable by Irish standards,
was not cheap either (and Dublin is now officially more expensive
than Paris). Neither was to it possible to provide camping
as a low budget option, which some Triennials have been able
to do, not did fundraising and its lack of success provide
the possibility of bursaries. Dublin is not now that difficult
to get to, courtesy of Ryanair et al, but it is not as handy
for most as the European mainland (for example).
There were many, many great people there. I
include in this very substantially the workcampers, provided
through Voluntary Service International (SCI) who were impressive
and did a fantastic job; without them the logistics could
not have functioned. Likewise the interpreters who kept Babel
babbling on. The daily magazine provided an instant record
and news of what was happening that day. Ordinary activists
and individuals from around the globe were often inspiring.
The WRI staff kept their remarkable cool throughout. And after
all was said and done I did feel privileged that the Triennial
had come to Ireland and to have been part of such an event.
But it's just as well such an event only comes to a small
country once in a lifetime....and in the unlikely event that
it were to be more than once in my lifetime my answer would
probably again be 'no'!
- Comments on the WRI Triennial are
welcome to be included in the next issue; by phone, fax
or e-mail.
- Some material including the daily
paper at the Triennial are already on the WRI website at
www.wri-irg.org and
more will appear there in due course.
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