This pamphlet by Belfast woman Laura Coulter reflects on her long and varied career in peacebuilding in Northern Ireland. Click on https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Laura-C-Building-Bridges-final-amended.pdf to download this 14 page pamphlet.
A variety of other pamphlets and broadsheets are available on the INNATE website at https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/pamphlets/
Troubles victims: CAJ report on reform of ICRIR
With the change in government in Britain, what is Labour going to do concerning the infamous Northern Ireland Legacy Act which it promised to repeal, and the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) established by it? Since coming to power Labour have announced they will keep the ICRIR (which already has an enormous number of staff) but with some changes, including ensuring its independence; this detailed 98 page report examines what substantive root and branch reform of the ICRIR might look like and whether it would be sufficient to gain public confidence and ensure ECHR compatibility. The report includes comparison with the Stormont House Agreement proposed HIU/Historical Investigations Unit and it is extremely valuable and detailed commentary.
https://caj.org.uk/publications/reports/what-could-substantive-root-and-branch-reform-of-the-icrir-look-like-and-would-it-be-enough/
PANA: Deliberate confusion in FF, FG election manifestos
In a press release in November well before the election, PANA/Peace And Neutrality Alliance, pointed to pieces in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael manifestos which are “very vague and confusing”. Fianna Fáil in its manifesto says it will “‘continue to protect and promote Ireland’s military neutrality including sensible reform of the ‘Triple Lock’ legislation.’ PANA goes on to say “Abandoning the Triple Lock signifies a serious diminution of our commitment to the UN system, to UN peace-keeping efforts, and to multilateralism. This was borne out in the government’s March 2023 decision to withdraw approximately 130 defence personnel from the Golan Heights to ‘ensure that the Defence Forces have the capacity to fulfil their commitment to the EU Battlegroup 2024/2025’. “ Regarding Fine Gael, PANA goes on to say “Fine Gael appears more open in their support for this emerging EU military structure, through EU Battlegroups, and the PESCO agreement. …. the Fine Gael General Election 2024 Manifesto states, ‘we will enhance cooperation between our Defence Forces and international partners, including the United Nations, European Union, and NATO’. “ PANA website is at www.pana.ie
Building bridges, bridging gaps – Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland
A new 14-page PDF pamphlet from INNATE chronicles the journey of Belfast woman Laura Coulter through a wide variety of peacebuilding activities in the Northern Ireland context, and in one case abroad, in Nepal. In this pamphlet Laura Coulter looks at how she became involved in the first place and the very different contexts she has worked in – before and during the ‘peace process’ in the North. It is on the INNATE website under Pamphlets, click on ‘Much more’ on the menu bar, or download directly at https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Laura-Coulter-Building-Bridges-Final-24.12.pdf
Gaza, Palestine, Ireland
Afri have published a short but very powerful pamphlet ‘Palestine, Gaza and Ireland: a Shared History of Colonial Persecution’. The booklet contains the texts from the 2024 Afri Doolough Famine Walk leaders Faten Sourani and Donal O’Kelly, and a talk given by Iain Atack at Afri’s Féile na Beatha in Carlow. The publication is available on the Afri website in their publications section at https://www.afri.ie/publications/education-publications/
Afri also runs a solar lights campaign for Africa, see https://www.afri.ie/donate/
l A reflection by Centre for Global Education (CGE) director Stephen McCloskey after a year of the war in Gaza appears in Z at https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-year-of-israels-genocide-in-gaza-a-reflection/ The CGE website is at https://www.centreforglobaleducation.com/
Election asks, party analysis from ICCL, FOE
While the general election in the Republic is over, ICCL/Irish Council for Civil Liberties’ election asks or manifesto https://www.iccl.ie/2024/iccl-2024-ge-manifesto/ and analysis of the political parties’ policies/manifestos https://www.iccl.ie/digital-data/general-election-manifestos-iccls-human-rights-analysis/ make for very informative reading.
lMeanwhile Friends of the Earth’s analysis of party positions is at https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/news/five-party-leaders-pledge-faster-and-fairer-climate-action-i/ but as FOE director Oisín Coghlan concludes there, “After the election it will be the negotiations on a Programme from Government that will actually determine the direction of Irish climate action.”
Corrymeela: Belfast office, appeal
While the Belfast office of Corrymeela acts primarily as work space for Belfast based staff, this is now at the Skainos Centre, 239 Newtownards Road, Belfast BT4 1AF (Ballycastle remains the primary centre). You can see and support Corrymeela’s ‘Shine a light for peace’ appeal at https://www.corrymeela.org/donate/shine-a-light-for-peace with full info on Corrymeela’s work at https://www.corrymeela.org/
Glencree 50, call for new directors
The Glencree Centre for Reconciliation has been marking the 50th anniversary of its founding. This has included a dialogue on ‘Between Memory and Legacy, Navigating The Dark Past of Irish History’ with a recording available at https://glencree.ie/events/glencree50-event-the-glencree-dialogue-series/ This reference also includes links to reports of an event which took place marking Glencree founder and prominent member Una O’Higgins O’Malley and to a reunion weekend which was held for former volunteers.
Glencree is seeking to add three new Trustees to its Board of Directors to continue leading on the work of the Board in line with its strategic plan; these are voluntary posts and they are particularly looking for people with experience in peacebuilding, marketing and communications, fundraising, and IT. The closing date is 15th December and details are at https://glencree.ie/featured/call-for-board-director/
Chernobyl Children International – address change, appeal
Chernobyl Children International’s address has changed….they have moved just three doors away from their previous home. Their postal address is now 4 The Stables, Alfred Street, Cork T23 VPX2 but other details remain the same. Meanwhile you can support their Christmas appeal at https://www.chernobyl-international.com/donate/
Mitchell Institute annual review
The comprehensive 2023-2024 annual review from the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast can be found at https://mailchi.mp/qub/annual-review-2023-2024?e=0cc0f657e5
16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence
This campaign continues until 10th December (Human Rights Day) and has already been marked in different locations in Ireland. See e.g. https://www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/16-days-of-activism and https://www.who.int/campaigns/16-days-of-activism-against-gender-based-violence/2024
Muck map of the North
Friends of the Earth in the UK and others have produced a ‘muck map’ concerning intensive and factory farming waste, including coverage of Northern Ireland and how rivers and loughs are affected https://friendsoftheearth.uk/nature/muck-map-how-much-factory-farm-waste-does-your-area-produce NI firm Moy Park (whose ultimate owner is Brazilian) appears among the worst offenders. Most of the North appears as high on the production scale, and Lough Neagh is one of the worst affected areas. FOE-NI is at https://friendsoftheearth.uk/northern-ireland and https://www.facebook.com/foenorthernireland/
Church and Peace: Resisting war today
Reports and material from Church and Peace, a peace church network, on their European conference in October, “Resisting War Today – Preparing Collective Nonviolent Alternatives” can be found on their website at
https://www.church-and-peace.org/en/european-conference-2024/
‘Cultivating Solidarity and Hope in a Fractured World‘
The Social Change Initiative (SCI) has a webinar on this topic with with Eric Ward and Deepa Iyer, leading social justice activists from the United States, taking place on Wednesday, 4th December at 4:00 pm Irish Time with the platform being Zoom. Book at https://tinyurl.com/2k3xsevk The SCI website is at https://www.socialchangeinitiative.com/
Death of Derick Wilson
We regret to record the death of Derick Wilson, a major figure for many many years in the peace and reconciliation scene in the North, a mentor to many, and also a major figure in both youth work training and initiatives on conflict. Among his many inolvements he was Corrymeela Centre Director from 1978 to 1985 and co–founder of the Understanding Conflict Trust. The Corrymeela page about him is at https://www.corrymeela.org/news/248/derick-wilson-19472024 with links to a couple of tributes given at his memorial service. There is a photo of him at Corrymeela in 2015 at https://tinyurl.com/52cm6b8p
AI-NI annual lecture, on genocide in Palestine
Francesca Albanese will give Amnesty Northern Ireland’s annual lecture on the topic of Israeli genocide in the Occupied Palestinian Territory; online on Tuesday 3 December (6pm). Free registration is available at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/genocide-as-colonial-erasure-tickets-1086907111429
In the Odyssey Centre in Belfast there is a children’s educational-entertainment or “interactive discovery” centre named W5 – standing for WhoWhatWhereWhenWhy. In this piece we are going to look at some “why’s” concerning both parts of Ireland with some very simple answers on different aspects of conflict.
Q1. Why has the conflict in Northern Ireland lasted so long?
A. Because conflict can be not only multigenerational but exist over many centuries. Despite all the changes which have taken place in life since the 17th century and the Plantation of Ulster, the two main groupings from then, cultural Catholics and cultural Protestants, continue as fairly distinct entities in the North. Of course there are ‘betweeners’ of various kinds, and opportunities for ‘betweendom’ are increasing, but they are a minority. The original conflict arose by settlers taking the land and property of the then native Catholic Irish as part of an organised takeover.
Q2. Why do ‘good relations’ and peace activists in the North believe things can change?
A. Apart from a commitment to positive change it is because they have already changed significantly since the start of the Troubles and especially since the Good Friday Agreement. The powersharing political arrangements at Stormont are not ideal, nor are they a necessarily fit for the long term, but they are a start, and are a vast change from the time of the hunger strikes, the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, or indeed the ‘one party rule’ (elected) prior to 1972.
Q3. If peace came to Northern Ireland through dialogue, of various kinds, why have people not extrapolated from this to broader questions of conflict?
A. A difficult question. The British have certainly ignored how peace came to Northern Ireland in their dealings with Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and elsewhere, and within Northern Ireland wanted ‘business as usual’, e.g. with military recruitment. Within the North, both nationalists/republicans and unionists/loyalists have not connected how peace came about with how they think of international issues and unionists/loyalists are especially prone to simple identifying with things ‘British’, including military policies.
Q4. Why do paramilitaries still exist in Northern Ireland?
A. For a variety of reasons. While participants in these may often think of them as a line of ‘defence’, others see them as a line of ‘attack’. The small paramilitary groups on the republican side are still committed to armed struggle for a united Ireland based on their belief that this is the only way, and justified by history. Loyalist paramilitary groups still exist in a much greater way; for individual members this may be a badge of meaning, identity and commitment as British – or of power and enrichment (for some leaders) through extortion and other crime.
Q5. Why have people from bodies formerly, or indeed, currently linked to paramilitarism not apologised for past violence?
A. To do so would be to disown their raison d’etre and undermine their existence. While there were some apologies at the time of the ceasefires, e.g. from Gusty Spence, paramilitaries and Sinn Féin generally refuse to apologise for using armed struggle since they regard it as justified during the Troubles. In addition, Gerry Adams and others worked to ‘take people with them’ in moving to discard the ‘armalite’ and this entailed not disowning the past. Individual incidents of violence are sometimes apologised for, but not armed action per se.
Q6. Why do those who still espouse violence (including the British state internationally) not see the possibilities of nonviolence?
A. A mixture of reasons including adherence to the cult and culture of violence (the perception of it efficacy despite evidence to the contrary) and a lack of imagination and creativity. Nonviolence is seen as weak and ineffective whereas violence is seen as the ‘strong’, natural option.
Q7. Why do a majority of young people in Northern Ireland want to leave if they have a suitable opportunity?
A. Largely because of the divisions that exist but also for economic reasons. In the Republic people are much more likely to leave because of difficulties in acquiring housing. In both cases this is a sad reflection on realities, where people leave for reasons other than ‘spreading their wings’.
Q7. Why is there not a majority for a united Ireland if cultural Catholics are now in a slight majority in the North?
A. Feeling culturally Irish may not trump uncertainties about a different kind of future, and the risks involved – better the divil you know than the divil you don’t. And some Catholics identify as ‘Northern Irish’ rather than plain ‘Irish’, and a few perhaps even as British.
Q8. Why has the Irish government, with its supposed commitment to a united Ireland, not made greater plans towards this end?
A. While some people have broached this, e.g. Leo Varadkar, there is also a reluctance to rock the peace boat in the North and a desire to let Northern ‘sleeping dogs lie’. However the uncertainties about what might eventually appear on the table do not help serious debate and consideration of the issues. In addition, most people in the Republic have not seriously considered what unification might mean – in terms of cost or political change.
Q9. Why do the older established political parties in the Republic (Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael) and the establishment support joining NATO or being a fellow traveller of same?
A. A number of reasons pertain including subservience to the USA (for economic and cultural-political reasons) and the totally false perception that to be a ‘good European’ you have to get militarily involved with EU and NATO militarism and the ‘defence’ of (western) Europe.
Q10. Why is the ‘Russian threat’ used as an excuse to advocate Ireland getting closer to NATO?
A. As well as Russian militarist expansionism in relation to Ukraine, NATO creates a divisive fear about Russian intentions and ignores the role it played itself in creating division with Russia through expansion in eastern Europe – which it had promised not to do. Aside from any international facilities (e.g. undersea cabling) which might be targetted by Russia as part of more general conflict, any danger to Ireland comes precisely because of identification with NATO.
Q11. Why does Ireland currently not not have a positive neutral stance, given its history?
A. Independent Ireland has a considerable record of positive neutral action from de Valera in the League of Nations, work for nuclear non-proliferation, military peacekeeping with the UN, and involvement in banning landmines and cluster munitions. However the establishment (in various forms) considers it should throw in its lot with the former imperialist powers in Europe as well as the USA. This shows a severe lack of both imagination and understanding of conflict and conflict escalation. See also Q9.
Q12. Why has Ireland, North and Republic, largely been a laggard in dealing with climate change issues despite the grave seriousness of the situation?
A. There are a variety of reasons. When something is everyone’s responsibility (in the world, but particularly the rich countries who have largely created the crisis) then it can become no one’s. It has not been a top issue for most citizens. And Ireland has seen itself as less at risk than others – despite increased risks of severe storm damage and the climate becoming like Newfoundland if the ‘Gulf Stream’ stops, and a worldwide cause of severe conflict.
Larry Speight brings us his monthly column –
The economic power and cultural influence of the United States gives it global reach which means that the outcome of the country’s presidential elections affect people across the world including everyone on this small island. While the polls suggested there would be a close outcome in this year’s election the scale of Donald Trump’s win astounded many. He secured more votes than his contender Kamala Harris in almost every demographic and received a sizeable number of votes in constituencies he offended. One such was the Puerto Rican community whose country a comedian at Trump’s Madison Square rally described as a “floating island of garbage”.
What accounts for Trump’s clear win? The polls indicate that the majority of people who voted for him did so because they thought that the economy was not serving them well in terms of the price of groceries and other day-to-day items. The intriguing thing is why did his supporters not realize that to put up tariffs on imported goods, as Trump has pledged he will, can only but lead to a steep rise in the cost of living. (*1)
Why did so many people from Central and South America vote for Trump when he was adamant that he was going to summarily deport undocumented immigrants who he said are not people but “animals” who were “poisoning the blood” of the country. (*2) Most of the undocumented he was referring to come from south of the US border which means that people originating from there will be continually asked by government officials and law enforcement officers to verify their status. This can only mean a life of anxiety and harassment and grief when family and friends are deported.
Voters troubled about the cost of living should not only have been concerned about Trump’s pledge to raise tariffs but his intention to deport undocumented immigrants as it is these people, thought to number between 11 and 20 million, who make up more than half the workforce in agriculture and food processing. (*3) Their removal will lead to deprivations and higher prices.
In other words, whatever the demographic, including millionaires, to vote for Trump was to vote against one’s interests which is a form of self-harm. This is counter to one of the cardinal views held about humans since the Age of the Enlightenment and is central to the capitalist construct which is that we are primarily creatures of self-interest. The reason why the wealthy won’t, in the long term, benefit from the triumph of Trumpism is because they, like every living entity on the planet, are dependent on the climatic conditions we have enjoyed since the end of the last ice age.
A reliable indicator of what Donald Trump’s second presidential term will be like can be gauged from his first term when he annulled over 100 rules and regulations that had been enacted to protect the country’s web of ecosystems from coast to coast, desert to forest. The rules and regulations included ones governing clear air, water, wildlife and toxic chemicals all critical to the health and wellbeing not only of people in the United States but the entire planet as global warming emissions affect us all. A special report by the New York School of Law, March 2019, found that annulling these rules and regulations caused thousands of premature deaths in the United States and a significant increase in chronic illnesses, the majority occurring among those on low incomes.
Akin to the double-think of the ruling elite in George Orwell’s novel 1984 this roll back of rules designed to protect nonhuman life, the integrity of ecosystems and the health of the nation was carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The evidence suggests that during his second presidential term Trump will wage war against nonhuman nature with a vengeance as the person he has nominated as Administrator of the EPA is former New York Republican congressman Lee Zeldin. It is expected that top of Zeldin’s to do list will be to rescind the EPA’s most effective measures to reduce global warming emissions from vehicle exhaust pipes, power stations, oil and gas wells. Further, he will likely make many of the agency’s scientific advisors and researchers redundant.
As to be expected other Trump nominations share his worldview. Notable among these is Chris Wright who has been nominated as Energy Secretary. Wright is a fossil fuel executive who is an evangelist for the oil and gas industry and a vocal critic of efforts to reduce global warming emissions.
Given that Trump regards the United States as an extension of himself and made it clear that he would align the country with his imperialist paradigm if elected why did he receive the broad mandate he did? The answer, to quote William Shakespeare in his play Julius Caesar, is that “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves ..”
Simply put Trump is not the problem as his second term as president is the will of the electorate. The fault, as in many countries including this archipelago, is that those who voted for him passively ingested what they were told by someone who presented themselves as their Saviour who could create Heaven on Earth, or in secular terms, Make America Great Again. As Trump told his audience and the world in his victory speech:
“Many people have told me that God saved my life for a reason. The reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness.” (*4)
Leaving aside the question of when the United States could be said to have been great the fact that neither the electorate or media questioned the meaning of the term underscores the body politics’ unwillingness or inability to analyse competing paradigms. A plausible reason is that many peoples’ beliefs are enmeshed in their sense of identity and intuitively know that if the former is undermined or invalidated so is the latter. I suspect that for many of Trump’s fervent supporters invalidation would result in them feeling existentially lost and/or socially ostracised and that their dread of both is on a par with their dread of their or a loved one’s death. Sadly, this means that for this cohort of supporters arguments about the folly of voting for Trump are likely to result in reinforcing their support for him in an attempt to prevent themselves being lost in an existential wilderness.
This defensive if not passive disposition likely originates in educational, media and ecclesiastic cultures that discourage people from critically examining ideas, scrutinising orthodoxy and questioning taboos. Clearly those who voted for Trump never joined the dots and were not cognisant that we live in an interconnected, interdependent, consequential world in which it is healthy and astute to continually review one’s ideas towards the end of being a thoughtful neighbour and a good ancestor.
–
References:
(*1) Trumponomics tees off, The Economist, 16th-22nd November 2024
(*2) Maggie Astor, New York Times, 17 March 2024.
(*3) Trumponomics tees off, The Economist, 16th-22nd November 2024.
(*4) Harvest Prude, Donald Trump Takes the White House Again, Christianity Today, 6 November 2024.
– – – – –
Gene Sharp – A life devoted to exploring nonviolent actions, edited by Craig S. Brown, Irene Publishing, 2024, 256 pages, price c. UK£22. https://irenepublishing.com/
Reviewed by Rob Fairmichael
In reading this book, I expected to learn a bit more about Gene Sharp, what shaped his life and work, and some more about things like his theory of power. I was wrong. While some of it is not an easy read, particularly if you are new to nonviolent theories, I found it also contained a massive amount of very useful information and reflections on many different aspects of nonviolence. So, while it is not a primer on nonviolence the contents from the different writers – including Christine Schweitzer, Brian Martin and Craig Brown himself – cover a very considerable number of issues in the field of peace and nonviolence.
I have been a fan, hopefully not an uncritical fan (a ‘Sharpie’?), of Gene Sharp for many years. While it is possible to overstate his role, see below, and he was a theorist more than an activist, even if a theorist of action – that does not mean he is not one of the most important figures in nonviolence in the second half of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first. Brian Martin says “Sharp’s pioneering contributions have shaped the study and understanding of nonviolent action today. Among his most influential ideas are the classification and documentation of hundreds of nonviolent methods, a theory of power to explain why the methods work, and a strategic, agency-oriented framework for understanding nonviolent campaigns. These are facets of what is commonly called the ‘pragmatic approach’ to nonviolent action, providing an argument that nonviolent action is more effective than violence.” (pages 55-56)
The training/exploration workshop which INNATE has used the most is one on nonviolent tactics and this has Sharp’s “198 varieties” of nonviolent action tactics at its core (from his 1973 “The Politics of Nonviolent Action”). This workshop takes participants through some relevant historical examples from Sharp – and he has numerous Irish ones – before doing individual ‘risk lists’ (the kind of things people feel comfortable doing or could at least could push themselves to do with support and preparation) and then moving on to brainstorm on the particular issue or issues of concern that those present wish to address. It thus expands people’s horizons on nonviolent possibilities before personalising it and focussing on the matter for which people are together. https://innatenonviolence.org/workshops/workshop1.shtml
I met and heard Gene Sharp just once, at a conference in Bradford on social defence in 1990 (see Dawn Train No.10, page 18, available at https://innatenonviolence.org/dawntrain/index.shtml ). I was not perturbed by the issue for which some peace activists would criticise him, namely that he was only advocating nonviolence for pragmatic and not moral grounds (for ‘moral’ here, read also philosophical and religious/spiritual). Since in general I see no contradiction between the positions of being morally or pragmatically committed to nonviolence, and this informs my practice despite being morally committed to nonviolence as well as pragmatically, I was certainly not worried about this aspect of Sharp’s stand.
One of Craig Brown’s conclusions on this area is that “it is notable that Sharp suggested the ‘pragmatic-principled’ split in nonviolence is overstated, seeing the dynamics of both being mutually reinforcing and advocating a ‘mixed motivation’ of ‘practical considerations’ and ‘relative moral preference.” (page 158)
However it is clear from this book, and to a considerable extent the earlier part of Gene Sharp’s life, that deep down there was very considerable commitment to a moral stand against war and violence. Michael Randle in his piece states, (page 9), that “In later years, Gene declared he was no longer a pacifist, but there is no reason to believe his thinking changed on this point.” He did, however, distance himself from the peace movement to a considerable extent and would have been critical of ‘them’. Part of Michael Randle’s conclusion in his chapter is that “The thread that links the earlier pacifist Gene with the more pragmatic Gene of the latter period is the commitment to the same basic values, to developing nonviolent action as a strategy against dictatorship and oppression, and as an alternative to reliance on the military for national defence.” (page 20).
The book also demythologises the deification of Sharp and his role in relation to the 2010/2011 revolutions in MENA/WANA countries, the ‘Arab spring’. It is not saying he had no influence here, or in Baltic countries throwing off the rule of the USSR, but that these revolutions and movements were largely situated within indigenous forms of protest, and western emphasis on Sharp’s work and thinking was misplaced. The distribution or knowledge of work by Sharp was not a major factor in these revolutions; that does not make Sharp a less important figure on the world stage in working for peace and justice.
Especially in a chapter by Craig Brown himself (which has been available previously), this work effectively defends Sharp against the accusation that he was a tool of neoliberalism and US foreign policy. While there is the possible interpretation that he may have been naive at times in relation to arms of the US state, or others (which of us has not been naive?), it would seem to clear him unequivocally of the accusation of him being neoliberal or assisting neoliberalism, indeed positing him as closer to anarchist traditions.
I want now to examine some more detailed aspects of the book, mainly working from start to finish. The first two chapters, by Michael Randle and Andrew Rigby, are very interesting reflections on some of Gene Sharp’s early life, especially his time in Britain – he became an assistant editor of Peace News in 1955. Admittedly in you are not interested in Gene Sharp you are perhaps not going to be interested in this – but then if you are not interested in Gene Sharp you are unlikely to read this book. One fascinating aspect of the coverage here of 1950s British action is, perhaps tragically, how modern much of it feels – like it could be action taken today (and some of the issues were the same or very similar).
One point I learnt was that Sharp had taken his typification of the mechanisms of change, or different ways nonviolence can be successful – conversion, accommodation or coercion (the last has been controversial for some pacifists) from George Lakey, though Sharp added a fourth point, disintegration (of the oppressor or coercer), page 10. The realisation that nonviolent action is not the preserve of pacifists (page 25) – a key point in perhaps all of Sharp’s work – is so fundamental, and yet so ignored, that it is likely to be an essential understanding in any nonviolent movement for change. However that should not mean ignoring the importance of the involvement of nonviolent activists in keeping a movement nonviolent (page 41).
I often quote Sue Williams about there always being people, in the most violent of situations, trying to deal peacefully with the issue concerned. This comes to mind in the coverage of ‘islands of peace’ in civil wars (page 42) in Christine Schweitzer’s piece where she considers key factors in such phenomena including anticipation of the coming conflict, choosing a ‘non-war’ identity, a legitimate leadership structure, and contact with the different belligerents. It would be interesting to apply this broadly to what took place in the Troubles in Northern Ireland and peace efforts there. In relation to civil strife and war, she goes on to point out that, since we all have to live together in peace again, and that this is much easier if there has been no massive bloodshed, “…..still, what is needed is conflict transformation, not just winning a conflict like a war is being won. This is an aspect that does not play a big role, if any, in Sharp’s writings.” (page 46)
Christine Schweitzer’s chapter is on social defence (a less statist approach to protecting civilian populations which is covered in the concepts of nonviolent or civilian based defence). It is difficult to underestimate the importance of making progress in this area for avoiding the plague of wars which currently exist, and the risks of widespread annihilation which threaten. In this area, Sharp is your man, while of course others have taken the issue forward, though progress is slow and intermittent.
The deliberate avoidance of this issue by the Irish Government’s ‘Consultative Forum on International Security Policy’ in 2023, called by Micheál Martin, is almost criminal negligence – and if I hadn’t voluntarily left under protest a Dublin Castle session of this ‘Forum’ I would have been thrown out for trying to point out this wilful ignoring of the matter. They seem incapable of thinking outside an EU/NATO box and static military thinking. https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/53003786126/in/dateposted/ Or am I being simply as naive as Sharp is sometimes accused of in expecting real interest from governments? (see above.) And a question arising is if the government of a relatively non-militarist ‘neutral’ state cannot or will not, refuses to, see the real possibilities here, what hope is there of others? But we must live in hope (and effort…).
A valid criticism of Sharp by Brian Martin, page 77, is that he “…never made an analysis of strategy to transform the military-industrial complex. He somehow assumed that defence policy-makers are primarily concerned with their nominal tasks, defence against foreign enemies.” And while the long interview with Gene Sharp in the book by Jørgen Johansen and Stellan Vinthagen has many useful takeaway points, it also shows the extent to which Sharp had neither studied nor claimed to have answers to many questions. But he was also being very honest.
One aspect of Sharp’s thinking, as shown in the Johansen-Vinthagen interview, is portraying two levels in Gandhi’s thinking, lifestyle and spiritual discipline compared to the political level, and the confusion this sometimes caused as to what level he was operating on. (page 93). Sharp elucidated this in response to a question about Gandhi’s influence on him – and he had a book exclusively on Gandhi, “Gandhi as a Political Strategist”.
When asked in the interview about the universal applicability of nonviolence, with an interviewer saying he has the feeling that Sharp is suggesting that “nonviolent techniques are a universal technique that is possible to apply more or less everywhere”, Sharp responds to say “I am not sure I would put it that way. I think they are universal in the sense that they have been so widely practiced. But there may be certain kinds of situations in which they would not be effective for achieving the ends that a particular group might want to achieve…..” I think this is probably an important qualification in avoiding the impression that ‘one size fits all’ and that you can simply transfer a technique from one situation and culture to another; perhaps you can, perhaps you can’t. (page 119)
The interviewers also critique peace research departments in universities saying that “With extremely few exceptions they study everything but peace…”, and Sharp then shares his frustration with peace researchers. (page 129)
Craig Brown critically examines Sharp’s influence, or lack of it, in relation the independence of the Baltic states (page 138 and following) and “The So-called Arab Spring” (page 158), the conclusion in relation to the latter being that “Sharp’s purported influence was overblown and overstated.” (page 159). The lack of economic analysis in Sharp’s work is acknowledged. (page 153)
Before a listing of Gene Sharp’s writings in a final chapter or appendix, two relatively short, old works of Sharp’s are reproduced. The first is a study of nonviolence, and nonviolent possibilities, in relation to the Welsh nationalist adoption of nonviolence; this was written in 1957 when he was in Britain. It is entitled “Which way to freedom? A study in non-violence”.
The second short work, published in 1958 in serial form in ‘Peace News’, focuses on the history of Norwegian teachers’ resistance to the fascist government of Vidkun Quisling, installed by the German Nazi regime. Sharp spent quite some time researching this and it is a fascinating account of resistance in a harsh environment, both politically and in relation to physical cold. It is a tremendous example of nonviolent resistance when violent resistance was impossible and where the enemy could be extremely brutal. The end result, or part of the end, is typified by Quisling’s well known quote that “You teachers have ruined everything for me!” This writing is an important telling of an extraordinary, stunning piece of resistance.
Gene Sharp wasn’t necessarily sharp in his writing style, in this book his writing is described as prosaic, but he is also depicted as the most influential figure in modern times on nonviolence. While centred on the person of Sharp this is a book which includes, admittedly sometime in summary form, a huge number of the issues in relation to nonviolence. And if you are trying to get to grips with Sharp’s thinking it is certainly a book to read; it is also, by itself, a valuable addition to thinking about nonviolence and its role in building peace and social or political change, wherever you are.
Billy King shares his monthly thoughts
Hello again, I start off on a culinary note this month, the first item being particularly relevant to the season that’s in it. Whatever about cooking from books, I am not in favour of cooking the books though I was just thinking that if a carload of chefs got done for speeding it would be booking the cooks…..
However before that I will make a comment or two about the elect-shuns in the Re:Public. It looks like we are back to the previous status quo with FF + FG in the driving seat and with others in place of the disappearing Greens (who, incidentally, didn’t come out greenest in the FOE study of election manifestos). I note the quotes from FF + FG in the news item from PANA in the new section of this issue. FF states that it will “continue to protect and promote Ireland’s military neutrality including sensible reform of the ‘Triple Lock’ legislation.” I take it ‘sensible reform’ here is a euphemism for ‘total removal’ since if you remove the UN approval part of deploying Irish troops overseas, as Micheál Martin is gunning (sic) to do, it just leaves the government/cabinet and Dáil. Once more the establishment is lying to the Irish people about the diminunition and removal of Irish neutrality.
Quizine
Why, with a title like ‘Quizine’, is this not a quiz about cuisine and only a question about the title? Why indeed, that is the question. The answer is of course my addiction to puns. Anyway, I begin below with a seasonal drink and proceed to something for a light meal, and another dish which is a meal in itself. It may have been Prussian king Frederick the Great who was the first recorded person saying “An army marches on its stomach” – to which I can add that a member of a ‘shanti sena’, satyagrahi or peace activist goes to work on their stomach, and they have to have a stomach for many things. I haven’t shared anything culinary for a while so ……
Mulling it over
‘Tis the season to be merry (or the season to be Mary if you are a young child chosen to be Jesus’ mother in a nativity play). Less people are inclined to drink alcohol these days, or if they do then they tend to do so in more specific circumstances. Catering for everyone can a nightmare but there is an easy mulled fruit juice drink which you can enjoy yourself or serve to guests, and in my experience it goes down very well, a very pleasant alternative to mulled wine – which I personally don’t go for that much. And one of the handiest things about it is that it is non-alcoholic but you can add alcohol (I use gin) at point of serving so it caters both for those enjoying alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. I usually serve it hot but it is also a very pleasant drink served cold, you could even try it chilled for a summer party.
It needs to be boiled up once before you heat it to serve – this is to allow the flavours to properly penetrate the liquid and be absorbed. You don’t need a precise recipe (I don’t usually believe in them anyway) and can adjust as you go along. For ‘a crowd’ I use 2 litres of grape juice mixed with 2 litres of apple juice; you could experiment with a mixture of other juices but this works very well (grape juice by itself would probably be too sweet). Add a couple of mulled wine sachets (if you don’t have these simply add more of the other flavourings), a cinnamon stick or two (these vary greatly in size), 15 or so whole cloves, and a sliced lemon. I use an organic lemon if I can get one so you are not adding the chemicals which the skin of the usual ones are sprayed with. You can experiment with adding other spices.
Bring the mixture to the boil and simmer, lid closed, for 15-20 minutes. Leave it with the lid closed. Reheat when it is to be served. I serve it just below boiling point in wine glasses which seem to take the heat well – I wouldn’t use your most precious glasses though just in case the heat would crack them. You can use a small jug or ladle to put the mulled juice into the glass. I give guests a choice of alcoholic or non-alcoholic punch as well as whatever other drinks you have on offer; a majority seem to go for the punch at Christmas time.
If serving this with alcohol you simply add the measure of alcohol you are using, and I use gin, before pouring in the punch. Last year, having received a bottle of non-alcoholic spirit/’gin’, having a measure of that in the drink was another choice for those having it as non-alcoholic. If it looks like you will need more punch then you can add more juice, and if necessary flavourings, as you go along, simmering it as you go – if serving over a period of time you need to heat it periodically anyway.
It will keep unrefrigerated for some time, certainly a number of days, and I tend to use the same batch for Christmas and the days after, even for new year depending on how much has been used, maybe with some more juice and flavouring added. I am sure you will be pleased as punch with the result. And if you keep it non-alcoholic you certainly won’t be punch drunk. And even the non-alcoholic version has a bit of a punch.
Vegan French toast
French toast, usually sweet, is made with egg and milk, but there is no reason it cannot be savoury too, or indeed vegan. And this is a vegan savoury recipe using gram flour, that old staple stand by for vegans wanting to go on a batter (or indeed for people who are coeliac and can’t take gluten). For this basically you are making the same kind of mixture as for pakoras or bhajis but with more water. With gram flour you always need to sieve it to start or you end up with lumps, so don’t take the shortcut of not sieving it.
80 grams of gram flour (how appropriate to weigh it in metric measure!) should be sufficient for a couple of good sized slices of bread. Add half a teaspoon of chilli powder, a teaspoon of cumin powder, a teaspoon of ajwain (I use seeds but you can also used ground), a small amount of asofoetida if you have it (look or ask in your Asian store for this and ajwain, a k a “bishop’s weed” – maybe with that title it is a ‘high’ church bishop!), and half a teaspoon of bread soda to help the mixture rise. If you don’t have these spices, improvise, even just use curry powder. Salt is up to yourself, you can do this without. Then add cold water to make it slightly thicker than a pancake batter mix. Soak your bread in the mix so it is completely covered and then fry in oil until golden brown, being careful to lift or move it frequently and gently with a slice/implement to stop it sticking to the pan. Serve as is or with some tomato and/or chutney, or whatever else takes your fancy.
If you wanted a sweet vegan French toast, you could use apple juice instead of water, and maybe add honey (which is not vegan), sugar, agave or whatever is your favourite sweetener or syrup is, to add to plain gram flour. And maybe a bit of cinnamon and or amchoor (dried green mango powder). And if you omit the bread then you can have savoury or sweet pancakes with similar mixtures. You can serve the sweet versions as is or with your favourite jam or fruit.
Potato and chick pea pot
This is a fast, easy, nutritious and tasty dish – what more could you ask for, and my take on a recipe received in a free magazine with another subscription, adapted a bit….. as usual I am, deliberately, lax on exact recipe directions.
Chop into medium pieces about 750g of potatoes and cook and drain them, their being cooked can coincide with the 20 – 25 minutes or so you need for doing the rest of the dish. Take a wok or heavy pot and add a couple of tablespoons of oil then for 30 seconds or so, when hot, cook 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds (if you don’t have cumin seeds you can omit this stage and add the same amount of cumin powder at any stage although the effect won’t quite be the same). Then add 1 or 2 chopped chillis, according to your taste, and 3 medium chopped onions and a couple of chopped garlic cloves, again according to taste.
When the onion is fairly well cooked and brown, add well chopped tomatoes, I would use 5 or 6 fresh but you can alternatively use tinned tomatoes, and possibly add some tomato puree. Reduce the heat under your pot and let this simmer until you have basically a tomato sauce. Add salt or soya sauce if you like. Then add a drained tin of chickpeas, or equivalent you have cooked yourself – not so difficult if you soak them and use a pressure cooker. Mix well. Finally, dump your drained cooked potato on top and half mash them into the mixture…..you want some of the potato to disappear into the mix and some to be still pieces of potato.
Serve and enjoy. This amount should serve 4 or 5 people by itself or possibly more if doing other things with it. But it is self sufficient as a meal, perhaps serving it with your favourite pickles or chutneys,
Talking about Frederick the Great as I was at the start of this piece, INNATE downloadable print-it-yourself posters https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/posters/ include another quote from said nongentleman – “If my soldiers began to think, not one would remain in the ranks.” Think about that. [The ‘Billy King Cookbook’ – it is not called that – can be found in the Pamphlets section of the INNATE website https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/pamphlets/ – Ed]
Dawn 50
Amazingly, some people still fondly remember ‘Dawn’ magazine though it is 50 years since it started (1974) and nearly 40 since the monthly publication ended. https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72157609617432905/ Producing a publication then was an incredible amount of work in the pre-computer era and before desk top publishing (even that term seems dated or outdated because it is so much an assumed part of modern life and producing anything for others to read). One jokey slogan was that “Getting up for ‘Dawn’ leaves you exhausted by tea-time”!
The production quality of early “Dawns” was appalling by modern standards, sometimes only just legible. For the first nearly two years most of the magazine was duplicated, a cut-a-stencil system with the stencil being placed on an inked drum duplicator machine to run off the pages. As the attempt was to produce the magazine over a weekend, graphics were copied beforehand onto a stencil in a specialist shop, cut out and adhered to a cut hole in the typed stencil using correcting fluid as a glue. The hope then was that the stencil would hold together long enough to do the print run. Primitive or what? It sounds prehistoric now but it more or less worked.
With the magazine having found its feet, just about (at the end of its legs), it then moved to offset litho printing, see e.g. https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/3048496288/in/album-72157609617432905 This entailed even more work over a longer time frame since even if layout was completed in the production weekend, which usually didn’t happen, it still had to be printed, collated and distributed. A key point in the process was not to lose any of the many bits of paper with the typing which were then stuck on a larger sheet with headings and graphics. The personnel involved changed somewhat – including through the tragic early death of lovely gentle man and key member Dermot Hurley in Dublin – but the enterprise had run out of steam after just over a decade.
To some extent INNATE picked up where Dawn laid off but it wasn’t a simple process or transfer and INNATE didn’t produce a monthly publication until 1994 (Nonviolent News had begun as an occasional publication in 1990), some years after its ‘dawn’ in 1987. Like INNATE, the Dawn group wasn’t just about producing a publication but had a wider remit on nonviolence, peace, and progressive social change. But certainly modern technology makes life, and publication production, far simpler. The good old days? Good grief.
The ace of Trump’s
The Donald’s victory in the US presidential election has been pored (and poured?) over enough in the mainstream media that I won’t say too much about it here. Part of it is that some people prefer compelling lies to prosaic truth, or are partial to partial truths. Part of it is that in the presidential election the Democrats were poor on vision and vague on detail, and both Democrats and Republicans are in hock to big business and the military-industrial complex so a plague on both their houses on that – but Trump was seen to offer more hope on economic matters for many despite what economic analysts might say. The effects for Ireland of the Trumpian victory for Ireland, and the Irish multinational goldmine, remain to be seen.
There are of course a huge number of dangers in a Trump presidency, the worst probably being his refusal to acknowledge, and act on, global heating. With the USA just as vulnerable to climate change as anywhere else, and with the results already manifesting themselves, it requires very particular shortsightedness or stupidity to ignore it. [I think you can add greed to that – Ed]. While Trump may have a certain astuteness in relation to some things, the previous two qualities are undoubtedly his much of the time. Perhaps MAGA could be spelt out as Make America Great Amadáns. But of course there are also the people who do know the risks/results of global heating but still refuse to take action.
One point where President Trump may well be better than the Democrats is a possible reluctance to go to war or support wars abroad. This is from his isolationist, US-first, MAGA standpoint. If he had a greater reluctance to go to or support war but also a greater commitment to global justice and peace then he could have done great things – I write in the past tense because I am making judgements about his future behaviour based on his past performance. Perhaps, just perhaps, his reluctance to commit millions of $ to warmaking abroad could yield some peace dividends but that is not likely in relation to the Israeli genocide in Gaza since Trump is even more supportive of Israel than the ‘send arms first and ask occasional polite questions afterwards’ Biden. Donald Trump’s greatest commitment is of course to Donald Trump and he will continue to serve that cause fearlessly.
Traditional and modern mediation
We sometimes forget that most – if not all – traditional societies had or have their own conflict resolution techniques, and these usually involved sitting down and talking – and listening, often with particular ritual or formats attached. Even the Brehon laws had the aim of restitution rather than retribution. You may think of modern mediation methods as having particular ‘stages’ that need to be completed before moving on to the next one but this is no less ritualistic than traditional society methods, only different and having more of a theoretical base.
I was sad to learn of the death of an old colleague-of-a-kind, Ali Gohar, who died in Bradford (England) at the end of September. He visited and talked for INNATE https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/5044664047/in/photolist-7rJkCS-8FMdSk a decade and a half ago. Though living in Bradford for some years he was of Pashtun origin – the main ethnicity in Afghanistan – but from Pakistan. Part of what made Ali wax lyrical was the jirga, the traditional Pashtun elders council meeting to deal with conflict and work for restorative justice, and also for consultation – but updating it to the modern age by expanding it and including women was also part of it. A word search for Ali Gohar and ‘jirga’ will throw up material and a couple of books, one of them online.
Because of wars in Afghanistan and the current dire situation for women and human rights in general, Pashtun culture is sometimes considered intrinsically violent. Ali Gohar would refer to Abdul Ghaffar Khan, that great nonviolent leader who was sometimes referred to as ‘the frontier Gandhi’. Khan was a devout Muslim and a pacifist, and leader in his part of the world of a nonviolent movement for independence from Britain – but stood for Hindu-Muslim unity and against the partition of India. There is one remarkable quote from Abdul Ghaffar Khan, which Ali used to quote: “Is not the Pashtun amenable to love and reason? He will go with you to hell if you can win his heart, but you cannot force him even to go to heaven” – this definition of their strength and determination is one that that both the Russkies and the Yanquis would have been wise to heed, and might have led to much better outcomes for everyone in that part of the world.
There are many strands to mediation and in our complex world we should not rule out any method of mediation and dealing with conflict, including shuttle mediation which has at times been part of dealing with issues in Norn Iron. Nor should we abandon hope if mediation is impossible; longer term conciliation efforts (think Quaker House in Belfast) are possible as are approaches to conflict which don’t involve mediation, see e.g. https://innatenonviolence.org/workshops/anotherroad.shtml The only limitations are our imagination and our perseverance.
Bordering
Rowel Friers was a fairly gentle cartoonist but certainly the best or one of the very best in Norn Iron in the mid-20th century and through the Troubles (he died in 1998). One cartoon of his showed two decorators together, one of whom has just had a tin of paint poured over his head. This unfortunate house painter states – “All I said was I thought they would be better off without the border”!
But speaking of ‘borders’, and decisions about borders, there is also the de Borda institute on inclusive voting methodologies headed up by Peter Emerson. www.deborda.org The said gentleman is an inveterate overland traveller across borders, even over long distances, and having meaningful interactions as he goes. I am advised that his blog on his current travel to China can be found at https://deborda.substack.com/p/debordaabroad2 and you may be interested to Czech it out though Georgia is more on his mind, at least when I looked. Meanwhile his thoughts on democracy in Israel and the Middle East currently can be found at http://www.deborda.org/home/2024/10/17/2024-23-the-middle-east.html
–
Well, that’s me for now and I will be back with you at the start of February (in January there is just a short news supplement to Nonviolent News and no Billy King column, awwwww). In the mean time I wish you a peaceful Christmas period – something denied to a huge number of people around the world, not just through wars but economic injustice and the effects of global heating. And is my wont I also wish you a Preposterous New Year – Billy.
Please note Corrymeela’s Christmas open day at Ballycastle with Santa, refreshments, crafts, story time, movies, and stalls will now take place on Saturday 30th November from 1 – 4pm and not the following day as previously advertised (and as mentioned previously in Nonviolent News). Admission free. https://www.corrymeela.org/events/257/christmas-open-day
Triple Lock and the election
With a general election happening in the Republic, there are many issues on which citizens will try to get commitments from prospective politicians. One such is the Triple Lock which the outgoing government, and in particular Micheál Martin, have been trying to ditch but which is a guarantee that Ireland will not get mixed up in wars fought by NATO or, forthcoming, the EU. See the StoP website at https://swordstoploughsharesireland.org/
Nonviolence and empowerment, nonviolence and democracy
Iranian-Canadian political philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo will be visiting Northern Ireland in late November and providing programme for different organisations, including INNATE. Ramin Jahanbegloo has written many books including a number on Gandhi and on nonviolence (a word search will show up bio details and YouTube interviews).
On Thursday 28th November at 3pm he will speak on ‘Nonviolence and empowerment’ at a meeting in Belfast, venue to be finalised, sponsored by Conflict Textiles, the Hume O’Neill Chair in Peace (Ulster University), and INNATE. Bookings to https://tinyurl.com/raminnonviolence and the INNATE website will have the venue as soon as it is finalised. The same evening, at 7.30pm on 28th November he will contribute to an online webinar on ‘Nonviolence and democracy building’; this is open to anyone interested, anywhere, and bookings should come to the INNATE email address, innate@ntlworld.com with the subject heading ‘Ramin Jahanbegloo webinar’. PDF flyers with more info sent out with email edition of Nonviolent News and are on the website.
Corrymeela
The Corrymeela website at https://www.corrymeela.org/ has a full listing of upcoming open events as well as full information on programmes (sectarianism, public theology, nurturing hope, marginalisation, legacies of conflict). On Saturday 30th* November from 1 – 4 pm there is a Christmas open day with Santa, refreshments, crafts, story time, movies, and stalls. [Please note this is a change from Corrymeela’s previous notice of it happening the following day, 1st December. Admission free] The next Dialogue for Peaceful Change (DpC) training is from 24th – 28th March; this is a four–day immersive experience designed to provide participants with practical tools for managing and transforming conflict. Details on the website at https://www.corrymeela.org/events/255/dialogue-for-peaceful-change-training
Sign up to Lex Innocentium 21st Century
Lex Innocentium 21st Century, a modern take on Adomnán’s 697 CE ‘Law of the Innocents’, is now taking online signatures at https://lexinnocentium21.ie/ and there is full information there. Lex Innocentium, 21st Century states itself to be “a bottom-up, soft-power, moral people’s law that declares that War is a Crime against Humanity, War is a Crime against the Earth, War is a Crime against the Future”. As well as a general video of the day, the talks and messages from the launch are available, see under ‘About us’ on the website.
CAJ: Hiring communications officer, report on policing of protest
CAJ, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, is hiring a communications officer to co-ordinate communications, promotional and PR activity for CAJ, including related stakeholder engagement, CAJ’s online presence, publications, events and other products; they will join the current team of seven. Deadline is 8th November. https://caj.org.uk/latest/caj-is-recruiting-2/ Meanwhile a short report on the CAJ and ICCL joint conference last March on “The Policing of Protest: A Shifting Landscape?” is available via https://caj.org.uk/publications/reports/the-policing-of-protest-a-shifting-landscape/ This concludes that “there is much work to be done to ensure that the PSNI and An Garda Síochána fully protect, respect and fulfil the right to protest on an equal basis for all protesters. Perceptions of uneven and biased responses to protest are strong and undermine public trust and public confidence in both services.”
SCI: Changing perspectives in the North, and dealing with that
SCI/the Social Change Initiative has worked with a range of community leaders to delve into data emerging from the World Values Survey in Northern Ireland and a new 20 page report is available which draws on the lessons learned from the experience of supporting communities to use data to think about values and to unpack why people hold particular views. Using the WVS data, five segments of NI society were identified – disaffected pessimists, anti-establishment urbanities, comfortable progressives, moderate traditionalists and confident individualists (obviously this way beyond the usual and traditional NI designations). The report is available at https://issuu.com/sci_belfast/docs/sci_lessons_learned and may help thinking about how to move issues forward in the North. It states, for example, that “Although Northern Ireland remains a deeply divided society…there has in fact been considerable attitudinal, political and demographic change in the last 25 years. This shift is not always apparent in the public narrative, which often fails to reflect the plurality of perspectives and identities that exist…”
Cork: Strong support for closure of Collins Aerospace
30th October saw another strong demonstration at Collins Aerospace in Cork demanding its closure; it was organised by Action Against War, Cork Neutrality League and the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Collins Aerospace is a Cork subsidiary of RTX Corporation – formerly Raytheon, one of the world’s largest armaments manfacturers. Among other military entanglements Collins Aerospace has a role in the development of a new NATO helicopter. Contact: Dominic Carroll corkneutralityleague@gmail.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/action.against.war_/
Hate crime law passes Dáil
After various controversies and impasses, the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Bill 2022 passed all stages in the Oireachtas, meaning that it can now be signed into law; it will provide for increased prison sentences for certain crimes, where proven to be motivated by hatred, or where hatred is demonstrated. Hate speech elements were not included in the final legislation. Various groups have campaigned for hate crime laws for years. The Hate Crime Coalition previously stated “much more needs to be done in support of it, including enhanced training for criminal justice actors, improved reporting, better monitoring and data collection, enhanced victim supports, and public awareness campaigns on the legislation and the specific nature and impact of hate crime. Ultimately, we should all be working towards preventing hate crime from happening in the first place, including through education and awareness raising.” [Quote source; ICCL www.iccl.ie press release for Coalition Against Hate Crime]
Harland & Wolff: Green energy not battle ships?
A proposal has been made about iconic Belfast shipyard Harland & Wolff which went into administration in September. The Common Wealth think tank in Britain has proposed an arms length company be set up by the British government to buy the shipyard and re-orient towards offshore wind energy production. This proposal is part of Common Wealth’s “A Lucas Plan for the Twenty First Century” https://www.common-wealth.org/publications/a-lucas-plan-for-the-twenty-first-century-from-asset-manager-arsenal-to-green-industrial-strategy and see also https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/18/uk-should-repurpose-belfast-shipyard-to-make-green-infrastructure?CMP=share_btn_url
Quaker hub in Belfast
Frederick Street Friends Meeting House (FMH) in central Belfast is positioned in an emerging vibrant part of Belfast with Ulster University’s new main campus right beside. It is undergoing a major development including Quaker Service moving to be based there and the intention to make it a Quaker hub; there is a fundraising appeal for this, see https://quakers-in-ireland.ie/2024/10/10/appeal-for-frederick-street-quaker-hub/ for more information and contacts. See also Billy King item in email and web editions.
FOE: Climate justice day of action
Friends of the Earth Ireland has a Climate Justice Day of Action on Tuesday 12th November where they invite people to get out into their communities and talk to neighbours, friends, family or indeed local politicians about the most pressing climate justice issues of the day. See https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/events/climate-justice-day-of-action/
Housmans Diary 2025
The end is nigh, of 2024 at least, and time for those who use a paper diary to consider what they want. For the peace activist, Housmans Peace Diary with its World Peace Directory is an obvious choice – handy if you find yourself in Armenia or Australia to only cover a couple of the ‘A’s, or you want contacts there. It has a week to a view, quotations, and dates for celebration or protest and in the directory over 1,400 peace, environmental and human rights groups around the world. UK£9.95 plus postage, discount on 10 or more in UK postal area. Order at https://housmans.com/peace-diary/
l A more extensive version of the World Peace Directory in the Diary is available online at http://www.housmans.info/wpd/ It is worth reading the background information on the site home page to get the best use out of it.
CCI: Continuing developments in its Chernobyl work
Chernobyl Children International (CCI) continually strives to improve the services it provides in Chernobyl affected regions, e.g. their Hospice and Community Care team partnered with their Nursing team for a specialised training, where they expanded their knowledge in therapeutic massage and physical therapy. A 5-minute video on Chernobyl and the work of CCI is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0MUmRcrDaY See also the CCI website at https://www.chernobyl-international.com/
Although coming at it from very different angles, both peace activists of the nonviolent persuasion and paramilitaries view the legitimacy of state sanctioned violence as inadequate. Those of the nonviolent persuasion do not go along with the legitimacy of state sanctioned lethal force whereas paramilitaries feel that military-type action outside of the state is legitimate. Nonviolent activists would view both state sanctioned violence and paramilitary violence as immoral and/or unnecessary.
That is not to say that state forces should not be held to higher account than paramilitaries. In the North, the announcement of a long promised tribunal of enquiry to look at the circumstances of Pat Finucane’s killing had a reaction from some on the unionist and loyalist side that this was favouritism to republicans and discrimination against other victims. Leaving aside the fact that Pat Finucane as a lawyer represented loyalists as well as republicans, the state had long ago promised an enquiry, a promise it continually reneged on, and the particular circumstances of his murder – with very considerable issues of both state collusion and parliamentary ‘fingering’ of him – fully justifies such an enquiry.
More general questions of the legacy of violence remain, by paramilitaries as well as state. How do we deal with the very real issues for survivors and families of victims? Certainly not by sweeping it all under the carpet as the last British Conservative government tried to do with its Legacy Act (in order to protect former British soldiers and the state). The extent to which current Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn is moving away from that model is still being defined – and challenged.
However paramilitarism and militarism are still major issues in the North. Small republican paramilitary groups still exist and could pose a threat to individuals but they have very little support. However some loyalist paramilitary infrastructure has continued unbroken through the peace process and beyond; it is estimated that there are still well over ten thousand members of loyalist paramilitaries which is a lot – the PSNI has 6,300 officers and 2,200 support staff, in total certainly below the number of loyalist paramilitaries.
The extent to which loyalist paramilitaries are involved in extortion (such as protection rackets) and drug dealing varies but is very significant and a continuing blight on the North. There have been various attempts, more carrots than sticks, to encourage paramilitaries out of crime and militarism but they have largely been unsuccessful and there is also a certain amount of incredulity that, two and a half decades after the Good Friday Agreement, they still exist and still recruit. It is estimated that up to a third of organised crime has paramilitary links. The carrots and sticks need to have a time limit.
The failure of loyalism to gain political traction, in the way Sinn Féin did for republicanism, is certainly regarded as one factor in loyalist paramilitaries having a niche – while the DUP has often had an ambiguous relationship with militant and military loyalism, it cannot be regarded as adequately representing working class loyalism (e.g. on school selection where working class Protestant boys are the lowest achievers). But other factors are simply power, greed, and fear for the future of Northern Ireland.
A recent independent pro-unionist report from the ‘Northern Ireland Development Group’ addressed this whole issue. There are difficulties, obviously, and the report called for more carrots and sticks. Some of the authors stated “A clear distinction between ex-combatants, community workers and criminals is needed to bolster loyalists who are trying to move on, and to distinguish between them and those who want to use fear to maintain their own reputations and self-serving advantage.” (Irish Times 11/10/24). The attention given to the Loyalist Communities Council, representing the views of a variety of paramilitary groups, by some ministers has also caused anger; however it should be a question of what attention is given to them but whether what they say is justified – and you cannot attempt to ‘bring people in from the cold’ by ignoring them.
On a wider scale we need to challenge both paramilitarism and militarism. They might not be two sides of the same coin but they are both stuck in the same hole. Paramilitary and guerrilla fighters (a k a ‘terrorists) typically inflict harm and death in multiples of ten or a hundred; there are occasional exceptions such as 9/11 when the unit was thousands but that is not typical. Deaths and injuries from state forces are typically numbered in ten of thousands or even millions. And yet most of the time people accept the actions of states, even ones as egregious as Israel’s in Gaza where it has slaughtered upwards of 50,000 people and probably caused the deaths of several times that through the effects of the onslaught on health, nutrition, homelessness and fear.
Paramilitarism takes a military model and uses it for its own purposes within a state. Militarism threatens the globe, directly and indirectly through death, misuse of resources, its major contribution to global heating and pollution, and so on including the very real risk of nuclear annihilation. Humanity needs to move on. There are alternatives but militarism, with its associated symbols of statehood, appeal to politicians (and many other people besides) and they fail to even comprehend that there are alternatives, or examine what these are.
The possibilities of nonviolence are endless. They do require work and people but their costs would be tiny compared to the cost of armies and militarism. When will we start to learn?