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Readings in Nonviolence: New Patterns of Conflict and the Weakness of Peace Movements

Introduction

Just as military generals can often be portrayed as fighting ‘the last war’, so peace activists can be caught out in thinking which is outdated and inadequate to address current realities. In this thoughtful and insightful editorial from the 29/8/22 issue of Transcend Media Service, Richard Rubenstein addresses some of the questions and issues arising from the Russian-Ukrainian war and from ongoing global conflicts or rivalries. His thoughts on imperialism are also very relevant to Ireland and the question of neutrality; is Ireland simply going to buy in wholesale to EU and NATO imperialisms or neo-imperialisms? Avoiding being a world at war is a difficult task but we need clear analysis to take the right paths in working for peace.

By Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service

No.760. https://www.transcend.org/tms/

The beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war in February 2022 dramatized a transition already underway to a new and highly dangerous period of global conflict. The war itself was mainly a Western affair, of primary interest to the immediate parties and the Ukrainians’ European and North American suppliers. But it erupted in the context of a rapidly deteriorating relationship between the United States, which continues to claim global hegemony, and its former Cold War adversaries, Russia and China. As a result, a regional conflict that might have been resolved either by conventional negotiation or problem-solving dialogues between the immediate parties became relatively intractable, with no immediate solutions in sight.

Temporarily, at least, the struggle between Russia and Ukraine solidified the relationship between the United States and Europe, while reinforcing the U.S.’s dominant role in that “partnership.” While the parties to what some termed a “new Cold War” increased their military spending and ideological fervor, other aspirants to Great Power status such as Turkey, India, Iran, and Japan maneuvered for temporary advantage. Meanwhile, the Ukraine war began to assume the status of a “frozen conflict,” with Russia succeeding in occupying most of the restive, Russian-speaking Donbas region, while the U.S. poured billions of dollars in high-tech weaponry, intelligence, and training into the Kiev regime’s armory.

As often happens, the emergence of new patterns of conflict caught analysts by surprise, their theoretical equipment having been designed to explain earlier forms of struggle.  As a result, the changed environment was not well understood and conflict resolution efforts were virtually nonexistent.  With regard to the Ukraine war, for example, the conventional wisdom was that a “mutually hurting stalemate,” with neither party able to win a total victory but with each side suffering greatly, would render this sort of conflict “ripe for resolution” via negotiation. (see I. William Zartman, Ripeness Promoting Strategies). But there were two problems with this formulation:

  • New forms of limited warfare featuring the relatively restrained use of high-tech weapons, while killing or wounding thousands and causing serious damage to property and the environment, still lessened the amount of suffering that might otherwise have been expected in a war between neighbors. While the Donbas region exploded, consumers dined out in Kiev. While Russian casualties mounted and the West imposed sanctions on the Putin regime, citizens of the RFSR enjoyed a relatively peaceful and prosperous existence.

Moreover, contrary to Western propaganda, with a few tragic exceptions Russia did not undertake large-scale indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population of Ukraine, nor did the Ukrainians launch many attacks on targets outside the Donbas. This relative restraint on both sides (not to understate the horror caused by thousands of unnecessary deaths) appears to have reduced the massive “hurt” needed to produce a “mutually hurting stalemate.” This movement toward what might be called “partial warfare” can be seen as a feature of the military transformation that began in the U.S. following the Vietnam War with the replacement of conscripted soldiers by “volunteers” and the replacement of ground troops by high-tech air, artillery, and naval weapons. Ironically, limiting the intolerable suffering caused by war has opened the door to partial warfare as a tolerable, potentially permanent feature of Great Power foreign policy.

  • The local struggle in Ukraine intersected with a revival of imperial conflicts globally, particularly when the United States decided to embrace the anti-Russian cause and to pour billions of dollars in advanced weapons and intelligence into the Kiev regime’s coffers. The stated reason for this militancy, according to top officials of the Biden regime, was to “weaken” Russia as a global competitor and to warn China that the U.S. would resist any Chinese moves against Taiwan or other Asian targets that it considered aggressive. Its result was to embolden the Ukrainian leader, Zelensky, to declare that his nation would never compromise with Russia on disputed issues (not even on the issue of Crimea), and that his nation’s goal was “victory.” One never knows, of course, when a leader who preaches victory at any price will decide that his/her nation as paid enough and that it is time to talk about cutting losses and maximizing benefits.  Nevertheless, at this writing, neither Mr. Putin nor Mr. Zelensky is willing to say a word about ending this apparently endless conflict.

This second theoretical deficiency has proved even more costly to the cause of peace than the misunderstanding of partial warfare. While advocates of Western hegemony find ways to justify U.S. and European military support of “democracies” against “autocracies” and Russian ideologues such as Alexander Dugin dream of a revived Great Russia, most peace and conflict studies scholars remain devoted to the analysis of identity-group struggles as a way of understanding both global conflict and internal polarization. Some peace scholars have identified important new sources of conflict such as environmental destruction, global medical crises, and climate change, but a great many continue to ignore the problem of empire and the emergence of new conflicts between would-be hegemons. (An outstanding exception to this shortsightedness is the work of Johan Galtung, whose 2009 book, The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What? TRANSCEND University Press, now seems prophetic.)

This general lack of attention to imperialism and its vicissitudes has reasons rooted in the history of the conflict studies field, but its political dimensions need to be identified if we hope to overcome the obvious weaknesses of peace movements when confronted by conflicts like Russia vs. Ukraine and NATO or the U.S. and its allies vs. China.  Particularly in the West, the current polarization of politics tends to produce two major tendencies: a right-wing populism whose ideological commitments are ethno-nationalist and isolationist, and a left-leaning centrism whose ideology is cosmopolitan and globalist. Neither tendency understands the emerging patterns of global conflict or has any real interest in creating the conditions for global peace. The Right advocates avoiding unnecessary wars, but its nationalism trumps its isolationism; thus, right-wing leaders preach maximum military preparedness and advocate “defense” against traditional national enemies. The Left is consciously or unconsciously imperialist, a view that it expresses using the language of international “leadership” and “responsibility” as well as under the rubrics of “peace through strength” and “responsibility to protect.”

Most Democratic Party supporters in the U.S. fail to recognize that the current Biden Administration is a ferocious advocate of American imperial interests and  supports war preparations aimed at China and Russia; or else they do understand this, but view it as a minor issue compared with the threat of domestic neo-fascism a la Donald Trump. Similarly, most supporters of left and left-center parties in Europe fail to understand that NATO is currently a branch of the U.S. military machine and potentially the military-industrial establishment of a new European empire. Or else they suspect this but view the rise and expansion of NATO through lenses of hatred and suspicion of the Russians and fear of right-populist movements like those of Viktor Orban and Marine Le Pen. In either case, the result is that advocates of global peace tend to be separated from the domestic constituencies with which they might otherwise ally.

This isolation has been particularly notable in the case of the movement for peace through negotiations in Ukraine, which has yet to obtain any real traction in any Western nation. Indeed, the strongest advocates for immediate peace negotiations, aside from officials of the United Nations, tend to be figures associated with Middle Eastern and Asian nations like Turkey, India, and China.  From a Western perspective, then, the question most vexed and most in need of an answer is how to overcome the isolation of peace movements.

Two answers suggest themselves, but each produces problems that generate a need for further discussion:

The first answer: establish an alliance between left-wing and right-wing peace advocates. Anti-war liberals and socialists could unite with conservative isolationists and libertarians to create a cross-party coalition against foreign wars.  In fact, this sort of coalition sometimes comes into existence spontaneously, as in the United States during the period following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The difficulty, of course, is that this is precisely what Marxists call a “rotten bloc” – a political organization that, because it finds common cause on only one issue, is bound to break apart when other issues become salient. In addition, if anti-war work means uprooting the causes of war as well as opposing some current military mobilization, the elements of a “rotten bloc” are unlikely to agree on how to identify and remove those causes.

The second answer: convert the left-liberal party to the perspective of anti-imperial peace advocacy, or split the putative left into pro-war and anti-war constituencies and work to secure the latter’s supremacy. The obstacle to doing this is not only the general fear of a right-wing takeover noted above but the weakness of the peace camp within the left-wing milieu. In the U.S., most “progressives” (including self-anointed Democratic Socialists) have been eerily silent on the war in Ukraine, either out of fear of isolating themselves on domestic issues or because they accept the conventional justifications for a war against “Russian aggression.”  This suggests the need to break with the empire-builders and to build anti-capitalist organizations committed to ending imperialism and making global peace. This is the solution to the problem, at least in theory, but whether people can be mobilized in large enough numbers to enact it during the period of “partial war” is doubtful.

This suggests a connection between the two emerging forms of violent conflict discussed earlier. Partial wars of the sort being fought out in Ukraine can intersect inter-imperial struggles like that between the U.S./Europe alliance and Russia. When this occurs they become “frozen” conflicts which, however, have the capacity to escalate dramatically – that is, to move toward total war – if either side faces a disastrous defeat, or if inter-imperial conflict intensifies significantly. Inter-imperial conflict itself can be conceived of either as a revival of the Cold War manageable, to some extent, by the processes of mutual deterrence developed during the earlier era, or as a new type of struggle posing new risks, including a much greater danger that nuclear arms (starting with low-yield weapons) will be used either by the major parties or by their allies. My own view, to be presented in a later editorial, is that it represents a new type of struggle that greatly increases the danger of all-out nuclear war.

The immediate conclusion that one may draw from this is that there is an urgent need for peace scholars to recognize emerging forms of global conflict, analyze the new conflict dynamics, and draw practical conclusions from this analysis.  At the same time, peace activists urgently need to identify the causes of their current weakness and isolation and to devise methods to increase their influence greatly among members of the public and reachable decision-makers. In these efforts international conversations and actions will be of critical importance, since the world as a whole is finally, and rightfully, slipping out of the control of the West.

https://www.transcend.org/tms/2022/08/new-patterns-of-conflict-and-the-weakness-of-peace-movements/

Readings in Nonviolence: It doesn’t say in the papers

by Rob Fairmichael

All media have a bias – Nonviolent News certainly does, and saying you are ‘unbiased’ is a bit like saying you don’t have an accent; as Oscar Wilde said, ‘Vulgarity is the conduct of other people’. Of course you can be unbiased between particular options but that is also a position. In the same way, Irish neutrality is a position, at its best a strong stand against militarism and for peaceful approaches to conflict.

In putting together these letters sent to The Irish Times, mainly from the INNATE email account as coordinator of INNATE (except where marked as from a personal account) this collection serves as a commentary not just on what appeared in said paper but also on issues in relation to Ukraine, militarism and neutrality. It can be seen as a reflection on what countercultural views can make it into mainstream media; letters were unpublished except as noted.

Most of the points made in these unpublished letters were not made by anyone else, and in some cases no critical comments were published in relation to editorial content referred to. Anyone interested can follow up with searches on The Irish Times website (which permits a limited number of reads before going behind a paywall).

The Irish Times is regarded as the nearest thing to an Irish ‘paper of record’. There can of course be hundreds of reasons why letters are not published; irrelevance, incoherence, repetition, being considered ‘off the wall’ (though one person’s ‘wall’ can be part of another person’s ‘home’), and practical reasons concerning lack of space. Being perceived to be ‘self serving’ (having a narrow personal or vested interest) can also be a factor though arguably all ‘letters to the editor’ are ‘self serving’ in some way.

There are a number of ‘regular correspondents’ published and it cannot be said that the newspaper in question does not publish letters from this correspondent – four were published in the time frame represented here. However, whatever editorial or sub-editorial policies are in place, publication or non-publication can make a difference as to whether letters and accepted (or commissioned) articles are seen as as being definitive or controversial.

Peace movements (e.g. in the USA) and their viewpoints can be invisible to the general public not because they don’t exist but because their work and positions are not easily accessible in the mass media – and this invisibility can be true even in this era of social media where you can’t see the wood for the trees unless you make a conscious effort. However coverage in ‘social media’, as with the publication of these letters, can be a slight antidote to the lack of representation of alternative views in the mainstream. But it also represents the struggle which alternative views have to go through to get their voice heard.

The layout of letters published may vary from what was sent.

l13/12/21 from personal email a/c

Helen Haughton asks is anyone interested in Ireland being an Island of Peace. Yes is the answer but you would not know it from the political parties or media.

On 7th December there was the start of a major peace initiative relating to both sides of the border, the Downpatrick Declaration, with the launch including Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire. There was a stunning lack of coverage in the national media. Meanwhile when two men forcefully stop a bus in Newtownards, threaten the driver and burn the bus, it receives blanket coverage.

Some contradiction here?

[No responses to Helen Haughton’s letter were published]

l10/2/22 Published 12/2/22 [with last sentence/question omitted]

We have now had the report from the Commission on the Defence Forces. It is to be hoped we will soon have a Commission on Peacemaking to examine how Ireland can contribute, and in what meaningful ways, to peace in the world given Article 29 of Bunreacht na hÉireann which commits Ireland to peace and the pacific resolution of international disputes. And if not, why not?

l2/3/22

There is an anti-war movement in Ireland (Owen Jones, 2nd March) consisting of a wide variety of different groups. The fact that this is not very visible is not the fault of said groups, and, like the anti-war movement in the USA, tends to be ignored by the media.

l6/3/22

Nonviolent resistance to invasion and repression is also possible. Military action and NATO are not the only game in town. If we don’t realise this and learn about it then we do the people of Ukraine – and ourselves – a great disservice, especially as Russia tries to bomb Ukraine and its people out of existence.

l7/3/22 Published 8/4/22

Seamus Murphy is quite right (7th March) that Irish neutrality, as practised by Irish governments in recent times, has been immoral. To back the USA’s warmaking in Afghanistan and Iraq, with the massive loss of life and destruction involved, through the US military use of Shannon Airport is unforgivable. Ireland should be much more active in developing a positive neutrality and, perhaps, if a guarantee of neutrality by Ukraine had been made then Putin would not have felt he had enough of an excuse to launch his murderous invasion of that country.

While many are rushing in a militarist direction, there is a need for cool heads and work to head off violent conflict in the future. That is a positive role for Irish neutrality which polls have consistently shown as by far the preferred option by citizens; it needs developed considerably, not cast aside.

l15/3/22

Fintan O’Toole (15th March) is simply wrong to state that “There is no viable immediate response to the violence unleashed by Putin that does not include the counter-violence of Ukrainians resisting the annihilation of their country.” The longer this war goes on the more of the country’s people and infrastructure will be annihilated by Putin’s orders. Nonviolent resistance to invasion and oppression is not easy but it is possible, in such circumstances, in many different ways including disguised disobedience. That is a lesson that Ireland, in looking at its strategic defence, should also consider.

Nonviolent resistance tends to happen spontaneously, and has been taking place in areas already taken by Russian forces. How much more effective might it be if prepared for? Yes, the Russians could take the territory but Ukrainians could remain unbowed and live to struggle for their freedom. Military forces and their commanders, including macho militarist Putin, do not know how to deal with nonviolent resistance which research has shown to be more effective than violence in resistance campaigns.

l16/3/22

Elizabeth Cullen’s suggestion of an Irish centre for the non-violent resolution of conflict (16th March) is an excellent suggestion which would be fully in accord with the constitution and its spirit. However I would suggest that such a centre could go further, beyond anything stipulated in Bunreacht na hÉireann, to explore the possibilities of nonviolent resistance.

There are a myriad of possibilities for the latter, including for the purposes of resistance to invasion, and this would also add to the chances of the ‘pacific settlement of international disputes’. Research shows that nonviolent resistance in campaigns is more effective that violent.

l20/3/22

At last someone has uttered the word ‘non-violence’ (or nonviolence) in your pages (Breda O’Brien, 19th March). All that those who believe in nonviolence and nonviolent resistance ask is that it is judged equally with violent resistance and the Stephan and Chenoweth study that Breda O’Brien refers to does that. There are others beyond the late Gene Sharp who have been developing both the study of concrete historical examples and the outlining of possibilities for the future. Gene Sharp came up with a listing of 198 varieties of nonviolent tactics; it could be 19,800.

In the case of Ireland there is much that we can learn from all this in terms of our security. While I would personally go for a totally nonviolent defence, if we collectively continue to believe in ‘non-offensive defence’ then we could actually combine major elements of nonviolent defence in the mix.


l3/4/22

Ronan McGreevy (2nd April) points to the danger of nuclear war but makes the hoary old ‘popular wisdom’ statement that nuclear weapons and the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction “have done more to keep the peace” since WW2. Than what? And what about the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, the Iran-Iraq war, and in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or now Ukraine? A balance of terror does not, and did not, make for ‘peace’ or prevent wars.

Furthermore nuclear weapons are illegal in international law since the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into effect early in 2021 – although this has been ignored by nuclear-armed states (including our neighbours Britain and France) and their fellow travellers, not least in NATO.

l10/4/22

Pat Leahy (9th April) speaks of the Government being likely to argue for an “evolution” of neutrality. “Evolution” in this context might be understood as the same kind of thing as when the asteroid hit earth and wiped out the dinosaurs, i.e. annihilation. And Pat Leahy does not do justice to the possibilities of a fearless and positive neutrality as a force for peace on the world stage; we need an exploration of this to put alongside cosying up to NATO and its divisiveness.

l20/4/22 Published 23/4/22

While public opinion remains steadfastly in favour of Irish neutrality, we have not even begun to scratch the surface of the possibilities of a positive neutrality policy in relation to peace in the world. NATO is in the business of military confrontation, including the nuclear option (now illegal in international law), whereas Ireland could, and should, be doing so much more for peace internationally.

Government policy for decades has been to whittle away at neutrality in the hope that it could finally be ditched. What is needed is rapid progress in the opposite direction. A citizens’ assembly on the issue might be the opportunity to explore all these possibilities but it can be expected that, given current public opinion, even at a time of such belligerence in Europe, the government will now shy away from that option because it knows it would not get the result it wants.

l22/4/22

Edward Horgan is quite right (22nd April) to make a strong connection between the EU and NATO and it can be argued that the EU is becoming the European wing of NATO. But what is a shocking new departure for the EU is its active support for the violent and corrupt arms trade – a field in which the government supports Irish firms getting involved. Ireland is a case study in a recent report Fanning the Flames: How the European Union is fuelling a new arms race” through its European Defence Fund.

Thales arms company in Belfast proudly proclaims its equipment being used by Ukraine; it is less keen to publicise that its equipment is also used in Russian war planes and tanks, illustrating that the arms trade will make profits wherever it can. Meanwhile Ireland has not even begun to explore the peacemaking possibilities of active neutrality.

l26/4/22

There are many practical as well as ethical issues about the arms trade; just one is that it is an extremely poor producer of jobs for the investment involved (compared to other sectors). But to take a contemporary issue, the big French owned arms company Thales, which has a major arms production plant in Belfast, is fighting on both sides in the Ukraine war. Thales has components in Russian war planes and tanks as well as equipping Ukraine with anti-tank weapons but perhaps that is the arms trade definition of success, making ‘a killing’ from both sides. And a purchaser is not necessarily the end point for arms; it is notoriously difficult to control where arms go once sold.

Conor Gallagher (25th April) mentioned the existence of an arms trade industry body, IDSA, but he did not mention the existence of an all-island network opposing the involvement of Ireland in the arms trade, StoP/Swords to Ploughshares. And in the light of the recent Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the pain and suffering involved, surely it is evident that Ireland needs the arms trade like it needs a hole in the head.

l27/4/22

There is more than one way to stop a tank despite Rebecca Crowley stating (27th April) that “the only thing which can stop an advancing tank is an anti-tank missile”. How about not producing them to begin with (and Russian tanks have western components including from Thales which has an arms production plant in Belfast), or ensuring demilitarisation on the part of our perceived ‘enemies’ through arms reduction? And if that doesn’t work then nonviolent resistance, of many kinds, including the likes of Prague in 1968.

Nazi generals interrogated after the Second World War were clearly at a loss as to how they could deal with nonviolent resistance, as British officer Basil Liddell Hart attested. It is wholly understandable that Ukraine chose to resist Russian aggression militarily. But while those believing in nonviolent resistance are sometimes categorised as naive or simplistic, as the war goes on perhaps it is those who believe in violent resistance against superior (if in the case of Russia, poorly organised) forces that are being simplistic as the horrifying human cost of the war continues to mount.

l18/5/22

Derek Scally (18th May) is highly insulting to the majority of the population of this island in saying that “those in Ireland who oppose investment in defence are peace squanderers.” It happens that those who want to develop Irish neutrality in a positive direction have a very different vision of what peace should entail and how we should achieve it. Nonviolent civilian defence is ideally suited to the Irish situation while billions could (will?) be spent on the Irish military and not make Ireland one jot safer.

What Russia is doing in Ukraine is beyond reprehensible. But the idea that Ireland is under military threat from Russia, or anyone else, is ludicrous and the Russians cannot even inflict defeat on their neighbours in Ukraine let alone think about military escapades elsewhere in Europe. Ireland can play a very different and extremely constructive role on the European and world stages but only if it avoids both NATO and EU militarisation – it is the latter which is stealthily gaining ground. And Ireland’s role just became more important as Finland and Sweden join NATO.

l23/5/22

Again correspondents that you publish (23rd May) assume that the only international security protection Ireland can have is military. This is quite false. Adopting a fearless policy of proper neutrality and standing up for justice and against repression will make many friends and it would establish Ireland as a country which does not adhere to misguided doctrines of peace through military strength.

A competent and sophisticated policy of nonviolent civilian defence is possible which would mean that an erstwhile invader would know that any invasion would be a pyrrhic victory. It would make any possible invader (and who might that be?) think twice. The Nazi generals interrogated at the end of World War II did not know how to deal with nonviolent resistance. Ireland is ideally placed geographically to undertake such a policy and avoid the trap of military escalation which contributes to an international armed insecurity race.

l25/522 From personal email a/c

It is perhaps ironic that Tom Hogan (25th May) should accuse proponents of Irish military non-alignment of a lack of imagination. Surely it is those who would support joining NATO or favour EU military developments who are entering an imagination straitjacket and accepting military confrontation and the severe curtailing of a positive role for Ireland in contributing to peace. And regarding Irish security the lack of exploration of nonviolent civilian defence portrays a lack of imagination and vision.

Irish neutrality could be developed in so many imaginative and positive ways. This could include: Monitoring teams for conflict hotspots and ‘early warning’ purposes, support for or promotion of accompaniment organisations such as Peace Brigades International and other ‘early intervention’ organisations, building up international mediation teams, education work nationally and internationally on nonviolent organising and struggle (which Stephan and Chenoweth found so effective compared to violent resistance), the development of facilitation and dialogue at a diplomatic level, work on causes of injustice and violence, and so on.

All such possibilities are effectively dependent on Ireland being neutral. And everything mentioned above could be done for a small fraction of the cost it looks like will go on military developments.

l27/5/22

Stephen Collins is quite right in stating (27th May) that there is an issue about what role Ireland should play in EU defence. However his assumption that this should necessarily be military is a non sequitur as Ireland could play an important role in mediation and facilitation in the cause of peace as a non-aligned country (and many other tasks for peace as well). Of course something like protecting against cyber attacks comes in to this. However defence can be non-military, including nonviolent civilian defence, and ‘human security’ is more important than military security (we were not prepared for Covid, we are not prepared to deal with global warming).

Unfortunately Stephen Collins could not resist an attack on the defenders of Irish neutrality which was unfair and unjust. To try to tar those who believe in neutrality as supporters of Putin is far from the truth, even if he only accuses “some of the most vociferous defenders” of neutrality. Also, the injustice and brutality of the Russian attack on Ukraine should not blind us to the fact that while NATO and ‘the West’ have invaded no one (at least not in this particular case and time) they contributed to Russian insecurity and isolation.

l30/6/22 Published 1/7/22

We do need a new vocabulary about security, as David O’Sullivan envisages (Opinion, 30th June). The most effective term in relation to this is the concept of ‘human security’ – what do we need to be secure in our lives? O’Sullivan refers to many different factors but none – including the Russian invasion of Ukraine – necessitate a more militarist approach by Ireland; of course we should offer appropriate support to Ukraine but the idea that Russia is a military threat here is risible, and the contribution we can make to peace in Europe could best be done in non-violent ways.

Runaway climate change is the greatest threat we face and after the effects of Covid-19 we cannot consider pandemics to be something to be ignored. Militarism contributes considerably to global warming and medical rather than military bodies are the most appropriate for dealing with pandemics.

In relation to NATO and EU militarisation, why is geographical security only thought about in military terms? There are other ways to ensure security and nonviolent civilian defence is one which is eminently suitable for Ireland but has not been explored at all. We should be looking to build structures for peace not military confrontation.

Readings in Nonviolence: Irish neutrality – What path are we on?

By Elizabeth Cullen

Introduction

This paper will discuss the implications of Ireland’s involvement in EU related military activities and discuss an alternative, namely the adoption of an independent foreign policy. Ireland joined the European Economic Community, or “Common Market” as it was referred to then, in 1973 along with the UK and Denmark. At that stage the EEC was portrayed to Irish voters as a large market and the benefits to Ireland of being a part of it were extolled for both farmers and industrialists, who were expected to benefit from the demands of a large European market. The prospect of high farm prices, increased farm exports and higher employment was a big economic attraction of EEC membership, and the entire country was expected to prosper as a result of joining the EEC. However, the story did not unfold as many had expected. This paper relates to the impact on our military policy

Militarism and the EU

There has been a steady but silent progression to participation in military alliances. The Single European Act of 1987 referred to cooperation in a supra-national foreign policy (*1) and the more recent Lisbon Treaty in 2009 led to the “progressive framing of a common defence policy that might lead to a common defence” and thereby the foundation of a Common Foreign and Security Policy6 (*6) It is of concern that unlike Ireland, Denmark obtained an exclusion from participation in military issues before signing this Treaty. A common defence is an army. Ireland joined the European Defence Agency (EDA) six years later. (*2) This agency, established by the Lisbon Treaty, supports the weapons industry. Total spending by the EDA was 198 billion euros in 2020, “the highest level ever recorded” since the EDA records began in 2006. (*3)

There have been two more recent developments in our military related activities, namely PESCO and EU Battle groups. We joined PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation) in 2017. PESCO was established by the EU Commission and arose from the Lisbon Treaty and was developed by a policy group known as the “Group of Personalities” (*4). This group included arms industrialists intent on finding ways for EU Governments to navigate around national sovereignty and neutrality clauses in order to foster greater EU military integration (*12).

In December 2017 after just a 2-hour debate in the Dáil, members voted 75 to 42 in favour of Ireland signing up to PESCO (*5). PESCO aims to establish an EU-wide arms industry, and the EU’s European Defence Agency will tell PESCO members, including Ireland, what weapons to buy (*6). Lobbying by the arms industry is shaping the European Union’s approach to security and defence (*7). We also committed ourselves to spending 20% of our total defence budget on military equipment and research (*12). The commitments made by countries under PESCO are legally binding in nature (*8) and include commitments:

– To regularly increase defence budgets in real terms,

– To increase defence expenditure in order to fill “strategic capability gaps”

– To aim for a “fast-tracked political commitment at national level, including possibly reviewing their national decision-making procedures”

– To simplify and standardise cross border military transport in Europe for enabling rapid deployment of military materiel and personnel

– To ensure that all projects “make the European defence industry more competitive via an appropriate industrial policy which avoids unnecessary overlap

– To commit to “agree on common technical and operational standards of forces acknowledging that they need to ensure interoperability with NATO”

In relation to the last point, regarding “interoperability” with NATO, the EU and NATO signed the second joint declaration on EU-NATO cooperation in July 2018 (*9). After this meeting NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg stated: “We just finished a fruitful meeting on NATO-EU cooperation. Over the past two years we have achieved unprecedented levels of cooperation and we have been working together in 74 concrete areas.” (*10) The summit characterised the EU as a “unique and essential partner for NATO,” and agreed that the capabilities developed under PESCO would be available to NATO and be “complementary and interoperable’(*18). Alongside conventional and missile defence forces, nuclear weapons are a core component of NATO’s overall capabilities for deterrence and defence (*11).

According to our Irish National Development Plan, spending on defence capital projects will increase from €77m in 2018 to €125m in 2022 (*12). Annual assessments will be conducted by the “High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy” (a position created by the Lisbon Treaty) (*13) to ensure that Ireland is honouring these commitments. The Lisbon Treaty does not ban weapons of mass destruction and it does not demand that military operations will only be in self-defence or when there is a UN mandate. (*14)

The move to militarism is clear and this is acknowledged by the European Union External Action department, the EU’s diplomatic service (*15),which states that “Collectively, Europe is a very large military spender. But it is far from being a large military power. This is because of inefficiencies in spending and the so far largely untapped potential of working together on planning, procurement or research, to name but a few of the issues” (*16).

This level of ignorance among EU citizens about the EU’s CSDP and PESCO is concerning; only 12% of European citizens claim to be aware of the mutual defence clause and to know what it is. (*14)

An independent foreign policy

The long-standing government definition of so-called “military neutrality” as “non-participation in military alliances” has been described as nonsensical in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty ratification (*17). Can we be reassured by Leo Varadkar’s statement in 2018 that “We are not going to be buying aircraft carriers; we are not going to be buying fighter jets; and we are not going to be shopping around military trade fairs.”? (*20)

Despite Varadkar’s assurance, Ireland’s neutral or independent foreign policy is seriously at risk. Professor John Maguire writes (*18), “let us look at the list of “nothing-to-see-here”: with Irish government acquiescence we have yielded an EU Common Defence Fund; a joint EU military HQ; EU Battle Groups (in which Ireland participates); a centralised EU military budget and research programme, and a European Defence Agency (on whose board Ireland sits) promoting ‘a single market for defence’. And of course everyone signed up to PESCO gets a CARD: Co-ordinated Annual Review of Defence”. In Operation Sophia, which Ireland joined in 2015, 25 EU states combined to return refugees to the hell they have just attempted to escape; Minister Paul Kehoe explained to the Dáil that Ireland was now participating in “a military mission”. (*26)

A further four statements illustrate the intention of the EU to militarize:

– In 2000, Romano Prodi (then president of the European Commission) stated: “When I was talking about the European army, I was not joking. If you don’t want to call it a European army, don’t call it a European army. You can call it “Margaret”. You can call it “Mary Ann”. You can call it any name”.(*19)

– In 2017, Jean Claude Juncker, EU Commission President proclaimed that: “By 2025 we need a fully-fledged European Defence Union. We need it. And NATO wants it.” (*18).

– In 2018, Angela Merkel stated:But I also have to say, seeing the developments of recent years, that we have to work on a vision to establish a real European army one day.”  (*26).

– And more recently, Ursula von der Leyen, the current President of the European Commission, is reported as saying: “The exit of Great Britain from the EU opens up new possibilities for intensifying military cooperation among the member states”. (*27)

While the Schumann declaration declares a desire for peace, Commission President Romano Prodi stated that “The two pillars of the Nation state are the sword and the currency, and we have changed that” (*22).

The characteristics of “active” neutrality have been outlined by Devine and include the primacy of the UN, peace promotion and maintaining Ireland’s independence, identity, and independent foreign policy25. Sovereignty is the ability of a country to make its own laws and to decide its relationship with other countries. This becomes even more critical when one considers that the former German Defence Minister and now President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen has called on a number of occasions during the last year for decisions under the EU’s Common Security and Defence (CSDP) to be made by qualified majority voting (QMV) rather than unanimously. “We are thinking about perhaps moving towards a majority vote in diplomacy and foreign affairs so that we can respond rapidly to crises and speak with one voice, one European voice,” she said recently; ‘and so you cannot be blocked by one country”. (*23)

The question has to be asked why we have not gone down the road of using the United Nations as a mean of addressing international conflict issues. The UN Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It has 15 members, and Ireland is one such member. The Security Council is mandated to take the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or an act of aggression. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of settlement. It may resort to imposing sanctions or even authorize the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security (*24) .

We need to strengthen and support the UN. It is of paramount importance that we call a halt to the creeping militarization of the EU, or at least Ireland’s role in it. And there is support for this. An MRBI poll in June 2001 showed 72% of Irish people supported Irish neutrality (*25). While a Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll (*26) in March 2022 revealed that 49% of the population agreed with the statement that “the original concept of Irish neutrality was out-of date”, nevertheless, 63% of the same sample agreed with the statement that “Ireland should remain militarily neutral in the war waged by Russia against Ukraine”. More recently still, an Irish times/Ipsos poll (*27) in April 2022 found “overwhelming support” among the Irish population to retain our current model of neutrality, with two thirds of voters not wanting to see any change.

What needs to be done?

Three things need to be done.. Firstly and most importantly, we must stand up for what we believe in. As Devine states, “Neutrality is not for the faint-hearted; rather, it is a courageous non-aggressive stance in a world in which most small states simply “bandwagon” with an aggressor, as opposed to striking an independent path for peace”.25 (*25) It is vital that we incorporate a constitutional provision on neutrality into our constitution and a referendum has been called for to enshrine the Triple Lock (*28) in that; as Farrell states, (*23) Not to do so leaves the way open for a future Irish government to try to dispose of the requirement for a UN mandate, leaving only cabinet and Dáil approval, a foregone conclusion in the current political set-up”.

Secondly, we could reject being part of the military development of the EU and obtain a defence opt-out like Denmark has done i.e. the Danish people support the “opt-out” clause that prevents Denmark being involved in the militarization of the EU. The Irish Government could utilise the simple process, namelynotify its intention to the Council, which shall take note that the Member State in question has ceased to participate.”. (*18). The Danish taxpayer does not pay for EU military projects, and Danish soldiers do not wear EU uniforms or participate in EU military operations (*22). Saying NO to the EU defence policy does not prevent Ireland from being a responsible independent nation that works for peace globally. Ireland can still participate in the UN’s peace missions around the world. We can help to remove land mines in former war zones and we can stop the weapons trade to countries that constantly violate human rights (*22). Bring neutral does not mean being silent.

Conclusion

It is of vital importance that we review the impact that membership of the EU is having on our foreign policy, and our membership of military alliances. Doing nothing about our current situation will allow Ireland to drift into an EU super-state over which it will have no control. In effect, EU membership has fundamentally subverted the national independence of Ireland and is in direct opposition to the proclamation of “unfettered control of Irish destinies” in 1916. Democracy can only exist at the level of the nation state, where there is solidarity and mutual interest.

When we were warned not to let Ireland be in the “slow lane” of Europe, and to vote for several European treaties, we were not told where the fast lane of Europe was leading to. There is no shame in admitting a mistake. These is however, dishonour in knowingly and wilfully bringing Irish people down a path that they do not wish to be brought.

(*1) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM%3Axy0027 Summary of the Single European Act Accessed 9th Feb. 2021.

(*2) “The road to the EU army” https://www.pana.ie/download/Factsheet-EU-Army.pdf Accessed 9th Feb. 2021 and Article 5 of the NATO Pact says countries have a defence pact to go to war if one member state of NATO is attached. A more specific mention of the use of nuclear weapons can be read via the NATO Nuclear Policy Directorate.

(*3) https://eda.europa.eu/news-and-events/news/2021/12/06/eda-finds-record-european-defence-spending-in-2020-with-slump-in-collaborative-expenditure Accessed 14/5/2022

(*4) “PESCO, Industry and War!” Thomas Pringle TD in Clare Daly et al, PESCO: Irish Neutrality and the Militarisation of the EU (Dublin 2019). Available from post@people.ie

(*5) PESCO and Militarisation. Mick Wallace TD in Clare Daly et al, PESCO: Irish Neutrality and the Militarisation of the EU (Dublin 2019). Available from post@people.ie

(*6) “PESCO is not about peace, it is about preparing for EU wars”. https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-30833488.html Accessed 9th Feb.2021

(*7) https://corporateeurope.org/en/power-lobbies/2017/12/arms-industry-lobbying-and-militarisation-eu Accessed 9th Feb.2021

(*8) https://pesco.europa.eu/binding-commitments/ Accessed 9th Feb.2021

(*9) Accessed 9th Feb.2021https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-europe-as-a-stronger-global-actor/file-european-defence-union

(*10) The Militarisation of the EU! Frank Keoghan. in Clare Daly et al, PESCO: Irish Neutrality and the Militarisation of the EU (Dublin 2019). Available from post@people.ie

(*11) https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_50068.htm Accessed 9th Feb. 2021

(*12) “One year on – the price of joining PESCO, Paul Cunningham https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2018/1230/1019537-pesco-ireland/ Accessed 9th Feb. 2021

(*13) Notifications on PESCO to the council and to the High Representative of the Union for foreign affairs and security policy https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/31511/171113-pesco-notification.pdf Accessed 9th Feb. 2021

(*14) “Denmark has rejected participation in the militarisation of the EU. Hopefully Ireland will do the same!” Lave K. Broch, in Clare Daly et al, PESCO: Irish Neutrality and the Militarisation of the EU (Dublin 2019). Available from post@people.ie

(*15) https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/82/about-european-external-action-service-eeas_en Accessed 9th Feb.2021

(*16) https://euro-sd.com/2019/11/articles/15087/eu-defence-cooperation-programmes/attachment/europe-is-a-very-large-military-spender/ Accessed 9th Feb. 2021

(*17) Dr Karen Devine of Dublin City University, https://www.pai.ie/201711irish-neutrality/ Accessed 9th Feb. 2021

(*18) “A vivid impression: The repressed potential of Irish neutrality” John Maguire in Clare Daly et al, PESCO: Irish Neutrality and the Militarisation of the EU (Dublin 2019). Available from post@people.ie

(*19) Independent, 4 February 2000 quoted in https://www.julianlewis.net/essays-and-topics/2967:military-mayhem-36

(*20) https://www.politico.eu/article/angela-merkel-emmanuel-macron-eu-army-to-complement-nato/Accessed 9th Feb. 2021

(*21) http://www.defenceviewpoints.co.uk/military-operations/an-eu-army-fantasy-fact-or-folly-2 Accessed 9th Feb. 2021

(*22) “1916 values diverted”, The Village magazine, https://villagemagazine.ie/1916-values-diverted/ Accessed 9th Feb. 2021

(*23) Niall Farrell in Clare Daly et al, PESCO: Irish Neutrality and the Militarisation of the EU (Dublin 2019). Available from post@people.ie

(*24) https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/ Accessed 9th Feb. 2021

(*25) https://www.pana.ie/idn/neutral.html. Accessed 9th Feb. 2021

(*26) https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/poll-sands-beginning-to-shift-on-irish-neutrality-41416077.html

(*27) https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/overwhelming-support-for-retention-of-ireland-s-military-neutrality-1.4853176

(*28) The Triple Lock was to ensure that, where the size of a Defence Forces contribution was more than 12 personnel, Irish soldiers would not serve abroad unless there was a UN Security Council mandate, along with Dáil and government approval. But it has effectively been abolished by the Irish government so as to ensure full participation by the Irish Army in the EU Battlegroups.

– This is an updated version of an article which first appeared in People’s News, the newsletter of the People’s Movement https://www.people.ie/

Arts and Peace series:

Who has power in the room?

Interview with Andrea Montgomery

Andrea Montgomery of Terra Nova Productions is a bilingual Canadian playwright and director who has created projects across the UK, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. She has committed to living in Northern Ireland since 2002.

Fifteen years ago Andrea set up Terra Nova Productions, Northern Ireland’s intercultural theatre company. Their mission is “to create excellent theatre where different cultures meet, people explore and the world is changed.” Their vision is “to put the wonder back into the world we all share.” They place community engagement at the heart of many of their projects.

Since then, Andrea has produced, written and directed projects with international colleagues in Hong Kong, Macau, London, Tehran, Vancouver, and Nuuk, Greenland. Her work for Terra Nova includes The Ulster Kama Sutra which she co-wrote and directed, All at Once I Saw A Crowd with partners in Vancouver, Nuuk and Macau. For Terra Nova’s Arrivals she developed and directed 10 short plays, followed by the immersive Mi Mundo which she wrote, and Me You Us Them, which she wrote and directed. She also adapted the script and directed The Belfast Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Terra Nova’s large-scale site-specific Shakespeare projects involving over 120-150 community participants working alongside teams of 40+ professionals.

http://www.terranovaproductions.net/

This interview was conducted by Stefania Gualberti

Stefania – How did your background and experiences lead to your involvement in intercultural theatre?

Andrea – It was a very direct connection. My parents were Canadian diplomats. We lived all over the world. The hunger you have, if you grow up that way, is to fit in. I think that’s probably not uncommon for people who grew up the way I did. I’m a third culture individual. The definition of that identity is that you can never go home; you’re at home nowhere and everywhere. It takes a certain maturity before you start to think: ‘hang on a minute, maybe this background is quite useful. Maybe I can do something with this.’

It’s now 15 years since I set up Terra Nova. I was coming out of being a venue manager, and I realised that what I wanted to do was to set up an intercultural Theatre Company. It was more instinctive than clearly articulated to begin with. I looked around the Northern Ireland scene and thought: ‘What’s missing?’

Oh, nobody’s making those connections. That’s something easy for me to do. I can do that.’

In March 2007, I went to a conference in Hong Kong out of a desire to reconnect with Asia. I grew up in Thailand and Indonesia and was missing Asia. In Hong Kong I met a couple who had established a theatre company in Macau and we set up and ran a three year programme there together. But I came home and I wrote a sketch comedy with songs with Nuala McKeever and Anthony Toner called “It’s Not All Rain and Potatoes”, looking at modern Northern Ireland from the outsider’s perspective. I didn’t think about it as intercultural theatre, I just liked bringing an outsider’s take to things. From the very beginning I said that I wanted to work with the world. I knew that. But the real clarity around what interculturality meant to me probably took 18 – 24 months to come into focus. The repeated experiences in Macau helped. Then I was invited to go to Iran in 2009, to the Fajr Festival just a few months before the Green Revolution. It was inspiring. My thinking started to gel.

I just gradually realised “Oh, this is the closest fit between who I am as a person and the kind of art I want to make”.

Stefania – What do you feel is special about arts and especially theatre to transform conflict, connect and build peace?

Andrea – I think theatre has a unique capacity to do those three things. But it’s not an absolute given. It’s not that in theatre that happens automatically. Absolutely not. But if one does put one’s mind to those issues, theatre then can give one unique tools.

I believe that what is unique about theatre is the fact that, as we make it, we are trying to create imaginary worlds. This is true of any theatre piece. One might be making a broad-brush romantic comedy, but one is trying to create a believable world so that emotionally, one’s self and one’s audience engage in that world together for the duration of the piece.

Theatre doesn’t automatically build peace, but if one takes that ‘world creation capacity’, and one then brings it to the place where one is trying to build connection and build peace, putting that conscious effort into it, then that ‘world building capacity’ can allow one to build something that feels like a real emotionally viable peaceful imaginary world.

One has to include it from the ground up, building it into the themes of one’s work: into the way one treats the material and the content that one is working on. It also must underpin how one runs one’s rehearsal room. Learning how to do that, to run a rehearsal room underpinned by conflict resolution and power sharing – that’s been an iterative process. I keep going through the process, learning new things, and trying to apply them.

An important piece of learning for me recently, when working interracially, with multiple religions, different ethnicities and different cultures, was the importance of reflection on power.

In the second half of 2019 I spent a lot of time thinking about power and who has power in the room. There’s a song from Hamilton, “The room where it happens”. The character talks about wanting to be in ‘the room where it happens’ in politics. I would now say it is not enough to be in the room where it happens, what matters is who has power in the room once we are gathered there. I try to shape my rehearsal and commissioning processes to look at that, and to provide equity.

The rehearsal process has to echo the messages in the thing one is trying to create. This should be a given, but unfortunately it’s often not. According to research completed by Anne Marie Quigg ten years ago, the Arts in the UK have some of the highest instances of bullying of any industries. If there’s peace woven into the theme of one’s play, or if interculturalism, or mutual respect, or any of those issues are embedded in the play, noticing that is stage number one, but then one has to let those themes guide one’s ethics for creating theatre.

I also believe it is important to engage with the concept of intersectionality, of gender, race, language, class, age, education, wealth, health and ability. I’m white, older, dyslexic, a woman, an immigrant, not a member of a recognised organised religion, educated to post-graduate level. Knowing how these thing intersect will give you an understanding of where I access or am denied power. An analysis of intersectionality and where power lies is important and one needs to address it in the room.

One of the things that I have done most recently is to consider power preference questionnaires, in which I ask people to think about where they like to lead and where they like to follow on the stages of a project. The responses, and my own reaction to them were really surprising. I remember, one of my actors (indigenous Irish, mixed race, straight, male) mentioned he really likes to be a leader in the early stages and then, as the thing develops, he just wants to be a follower. We chatted informally; I looked at him and said:

Really? I want to lead all the time! At the culmination of the project, when it’s all getting really tense, that’s when I want to lead the most.’

He just laughed at me and said: ‘We’re different Andrea.’ Which of course is the whole point.

If one don’t ask, then one don’t know, and one can’t build in the opportunity for people to lead when people need it. But also, it doesn’t work to assume that everybody wants to lead all the time.

Speaking of leading, it is a short step to ‘representing’. I must just add that I believe one of the worst things one can do is to ask colleagues of different races or different religions to stand in and represent their entire ethnicity, religion or nationality. They may want to lead at a particular point, or represent a particular point of view, but let them choose. One needs to find out what is of interest to colleagues, and how their individual and collective identities intersect.

Stefania – How can intercultural theatre help tackle racism and sectarianism locally?

Andrea – Well, I suppose that wherever one makes it, intercultural theatre becomes local. In my view, it is quite important for the local dominant culture not to instrumentalise artists as tools to tackle racism and sectarianism locally; not to see them as only having value as tools for that task. It is also important to understand that tackling racism and exclusion does not mean just inviting people to learn how to be part of the dominant culture, however well meaning the desire to help them ‘learn to fit in’ may be. At its worst this says to migrant artists: learn how to be like us or shut up.

I value using the methodologies of theatre to give people an understanding of what it’s like to belong to a dominant culture, and what it’s like to have to try to integrate into a dominant culture. And of course the thing about theatre is it’s just play. It’s incredibly loaded, because people invest in it emotionally, but it isn’t real life, so it is playful, ultimately, as long as one takes care of people.

Theatre can give people a chance to try on the coat of difference in a safe place. But it is more than that. Together we theatre makers are aiming to create a work of art. Ultimately each of us working in this area has to think about what we want the end product to be. My end product is not just the process. I want both: I want a good piece of theatre AND I want ethical process. I borrow from many other practitioners who are specialist in ethical engagement and knit their ideas together with my own in order to take artists and participants through a process, but the journey is leading to a final artwork that they can be proud of.

Combining those two elements is what works for me locally.

Stefania – Working with communities and large groups, who might have different levels of expertise, how do you overcome the barriers, especially with participants who don’t consider themselves as actors or theatre experts?

Andrea – Thank you for asking.

I’ve spent a lot of time working out methodologies for people to actively direct and influence the work without being professionals themselves.

I have developed a methodology to create projects where people come together as equals and have the opportunity to undertake personal development using artistic skills. They are connected to a writer and actors who investigate their stories with them, led by a director and dramaturg [a literary advisor or editor- Ed]. They help work on the script, they discuss it, become dramaturgs themselves; they are invited and invited back again into rehearsal, to see the thing is on its feet, they influence and guide development and even staging; they then come to the show, discuss it, bring others to see it if they wish. Together we celebrate at the end: we all feast and post mortem. Quite often some time later we meet again to review discuss assess.

I just don’t want to be excluded from the ranks of professional artists because I am interested in this kind of deep engagement with my community.

One of the things that happens to immigrants and visible minorities in the Arts in Northern Ireland, is that we get labelled as ‘community practitioners’, thereby less valuable as ‘theatre experts’ as you call them. We are instrumentalised to deal with the post conflict environment in which we exist. And we don’t necessarily have the same freedom just to go and be an artist. We can’t write any play, we have to write an immigration play, or a trauma play, because that is what we can get support or interest for. We become tools of the necessity for peacebuilding. It’s problematic because you don’t have the freedom that is afforded to members of the dominant culture. I feel that I have allies so have been able to successfully fight this, but I have seen others struggle.

This is a facet of the dominant culture exerting its power to decide what is valuable. For example, I did a piece, probably about ten years ago, with a group of asylum-seeking and immigrant women. We were doing stop motion animation. The idea was to work and learn about each other’s cultures and as a result, enjoy making a piece: a small stop motion animation about whatever we wanted. The participants said they wanted to feel joy and pleasure and they wanted to do comedy. They made a piece about winning the lottery and running off to Acapulco with their baby and leaving their husbands behind. That got a big laugh. But I can remember the reaction from the funder was:

Oh, no, no, no, we funded you to go through the process of working with them as refugee and asylum-seeking women, to tell THAT story’

And I was pushing back saying: ‘No, no, they have control.’

I defended their right to decide the story they wanted to tell; this Acapulco Abscondment is what they wanted to do. My job was to make sure process of intercultural skills building was integrated into the development of fun Acapulco story they chose. But there are certain stories that the dominant culture wants to hear. There are certain roles that the dominant culture wants immigrant artists to play. If we have intercultural competency, it is partially because we’ve come from an outside culture, and we’ve arrived in the monoculture that is the two tribes of Northern Ireland. There can be a tendency to push us into particular types of art therapy, community engagement, peacebuilding. It’s not that it’s not valuable, but sometimes I might want to write a play about winning the lottery and running off to Acapulco.

Even if the peacebuilding process is built into the project, the participants should decide to make what they want. That’s freedom and self-determination.

So, that’s why I have real concern about how things are perceived. What is important?

This story is important, that story is not important’.

The power doesn’t always reside with the global majority or immigrant artists and the power doesn’t always reside with a global majority or immigrant participant, it often resides with the funder. And that often mean one is governed by the dominant culture’s notion of what one should be working on. That can end up driving people back into telling the stories of their trauma, re-traumatizing people.

In one project I undertook last year, with Syrian refugees, they decided they wanted to work on recreating a perfectly happy day from their past, because they felt that they were always being boxed in as survivors of the war. They wanted to show their culture, which was ancient, and of which they were very proud. We tried to create that in sound art. We couldn’t go to Syria and record because the gardens they wanted to spend their perfect day in were destroyed. So, we figured out how to recreate them, and then together we built that perfect day.

One must facilitate people to tell the stories they want to tell, the way they want to tell them, then work together to forge a work of art.

Stefania – You talk about the danger of re-traumatizing people but how do you think the creative process can have healing trauma at both individual and collective level?

Andrea – I believe one can heal some trauma, because we can all have power in the imaginary world of theatre. As long as one has power, one has control. Participants decide on the themes and direction of the story and then they work with professional artists to realise it. I think the key thing about not re-traumatising people, is that one respects them, goes slowly, and ensures they determine pace and direction of travel. It’s an adult-to-adult engagement and one defends them from those who would wish to cherry pick the stories that they’re going to tell.

The second example I wanted to give you was of a wonderful funder who give Terra Nova funds to commission individual artists from immigrant or global majority backgrounds who had links to Northern Ireland. Some lived here, some just had links.

The funder wanted to work with communities who had particularly suffered because of COVID. We made the case in 2020 that global majority communities in the UK and Northern Ireland had experienced higher pandemic mortality rates, and that immigrants have been more cut off through lockdown. Immigrants’ support networks might be in Peru or in Canada. Lockdown was harder on them, was tougher, because they have less of a close network to support them. The funder agreed, but a condition was that the commissioned artists must work with ‘their communities’ to develop the work of art. Terra Nova agreed, as long as the artists could choose what ‘their communities’ meant to them. It must not default along the lines of ethnicity, or even nationality. Allowing the artist to define ‘their communities’ in lockdown put the power into the hands of the individual, not the dominant culture’s notion of what that individual’s identity was.

Stefania – Is there a particular project or engagement that you want to talk about in relation to this conversation on art and peacebuilding?

Andrea – I wouldn’t mind just adding a wee bit about the intercultural process that I value.

I think it’s quite important to articulate the difference between what I would call multicultural work and intercultural work.

Multicultural work is when we have an opportunity to observe elements of each other’s cultural expression, artistically. We show, we unpack and explain, and we enjoy learning about each other’s expertise in each of our cultural arenas. That’s lovely. It’s like a mosaic.

However, Intercultural work is where we work slowly to come together in a new way, to forge a new joint culture, acknowledging that the process cannot be rushed. It is through this process that we learn to understand the value differences that underpin our different cultures. Cultures can differ a lot around values. There will be unwritten rules about things like how one treats one’s parents, how one treats one’s children, how genders interact, whether one speaks directly or indirectly, how one uses eye contact, one’s perception of time. How does one deal with status and saving face? How much personal space does one need? How, when and where may one touch somebody else? What is professional? These are the differences one has learn about when working interculturally.

I have a methodology that I go through, where we explore our differences and assumptions, and we start to unpick them. I get people to pay attention when they find themselves reacting to another human, judging, and thinking:

All good people know that you must…’ or:

All polite people know that you do…”

I say: ‘If you notice those kinds of thoughts, you’re in an intercultural hotspot’.

I work that into early explorations. Then we will work on the play, and we’ll look at how interculturality happens in the play, and we’ll work on ourselves. About two thirds of the way through the process, I do a thing that I’ve now called the “heart of the art”, where we stop and check our values. We notice whether we still remember them. We review if we are acting on them. We check how we’re dealing with the difference.

I talk about value dissonance. How do we sit in value dissonance and not say: ‘I hate your values, so I hate you?’ For example, in talking about whether one was ‘leave’ or ‘remain’ on Brexit.

These really ‘hot’ issues are fantastic for exploring value. If one does that work, and one stops and embeds that in the creation of the play, and one works on the power structures, then one creates real intercultural theatre. Intercultural in the rehearsal room, in the relationships, on stage, in the content and the way it’s presented. And then what I find is, if one asks people how they’re feeling or how they’ve been affected, this is where they tend to say: ‘my mind has been opened’.

It takes a long time to build this kind of theatre. I don’t find it exhausting, because I love to be in an intercultural space, that feels comfortable, but it takes a lot of work.

Of course the real challenge is when people break the rules we have co-created. You need to set the boundaries for the work to be done. You need to hold people accountable.

Stefania – Could you share some of the learnings you have encountered in your years of experience?

Andrea – Remember that this work is an iterative process. I think of it as being like a tower. You’re climbing the tower walking up that spiral staircase, and you get around in the front and you look at the view. A year later, after more climbing, you might be higher up, looking at the same view, but with more knowledge. One must keep asking the same questions again and again: What matters? Who had power? Was it shared? What did we do? Did we communicate appropriately? Did we set the boundaries? Did we take care? Did we listen?

I spend a lot of time on that.

The thing I struggle with is how to feed the learning back into the system, the society I am a part of. Some of the evaluative mechanisms just don’t work.

The funders want to measure change, and currently they ask one to interviews at the entry point and at the exit point. Fair enough. But you can imagine if I am standing there in a room in rural Northern Ireland, with my Jamaican colleague and my Canadian accent, and I have to start by distributing a form with a set question like:

Do you like people of different cultures being in Northern Ireland?’

Well, the entry questionnaire is going to be corrupted by the fact that we’re the ones asking. Northern Irish people don’t want to ‘send you away with a sore heart’. They know they’re going to be putting their ‘anonymous questionnaire’ down on a table in front of me, and that I’ve probably noticed their handwriting and the colour of pen they are using.

I think our system of measurement around peace, racism, and sectarianism is broken. The evaluation process, its entry questionnaires can break the fragile trust one seeks to build at the start of theatre peace projects.

I would like to take that learning back into the system and try to improve evaluation somehow. The system is not entirely functioning, but I don’t know how to fix it.

The system also engenders compassion fatigue. Fifteen years in and I find myself asking how do we nurture the artists in the process? Who is taking care of them?

If we don’t ask these questions, we end up using people. Nobody is paying artists to take time to reflect and evaluate or even to use our art to express what we have learnt in our projects and create a work of art about it. The focus is all on the participants. Our current mechanisms just move artists on into the next peacebuilding project. Those projects are extremely valuable, and one can feel moved and grateful, but one can also end up feeling exhausted.

I want to consider: ‘How are we doing what we are doing?’

Can we get together and reflect on that? Can we evolve into a new stage into this artistic peacebuilding and anti-sectarian work? Is that possible?

Ukraine and democracy, Ukraine and unarmed resistance, Jesus and nonviolence

Ukraine: Was our adversarial democracy part of the problem?

Beware the ambitious”

by Peter Emerson

The de Borda Institute   www.deborda.org

His name was Boris. He had no ideas, no beliefs, no principles… but he did have ambition. So he adjusted his policies to suit this ambition, stabbed his mentor in the back, caused the break-up of the union, and all for the one fixed goal: to get the top job. There were two such individuals, and both were called Boris.

We go first to Moscow, the capital of a federation of numerous ethnicities, only one of which is Slav. Most of the latter live in Europe, in Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine etc., and many of them too are in European Russia, along with the Komis and Udmurts, for example, two of a few non-Slav peoples who are also west of the Urals, as well as the Chechens and Dagestanis etc. in the northern Caucasus. And there are other ethnicities – the official figure in Soviet times was somewhere between 60 and 120 – ranging from the Buryats near Lake Baikal to the Chukchis on the Bering Straits, non-Slavs the lot of them.

Now in 1985, remember, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power talking of liberalisation, privatisation and democratisation. At the time, the West (a) respected all borders, implying that none should change; this was partly because of the Helsinki Agreements for peace and stability and all that, (about which there was lots of grand rhetoric), and partly because of… er… oil, (umm, better say nothing). At the same time, there was (b) the right of self-determination, which meant that borders can change. So (a) contradicted (b). More silence. In effect, the law is an ass.

Now democracy, we said, was majoritarianism – (the Russian word for which, by the way, is ‘bolshevism’; it comes from ‘bolshinstvo’ (большинство), meaning majority, so a ‘bolshevik’ is ‘a member of the majority’, while a ‘menshevik’ is in the minority, ‘menshinstvo’ (меньшинство). In effect, therefore, the right of self-determination means that a border can change, even if only 50% + 1 want it to. But “why should I be in the minority in your state, when you could be in the minority in mine?” asked one Vladimir Grigorov in what was still Yugoslavia. Democracy, as defined – or rather as undefined but practised – was and still is part of the problem; it is just so adversarial, so divisive, and so primitive.

Secondly, self-determination is a bit like those famous Russian dolls, the ‘matryoshki’ (матрёшки): inside every big doll (majority), there’s a little doll (minority). So if Ireland, Georgia or Bosnia opts out of the UK, USSR or Yugoslavia… then maybe Northern Ireland, South Ossetia or Republika Srpska can opt out of Ireland, Georgia or Bosnia… and maybe West Belfast, Akhalgori (*1) and Srebrenica could opt out of opting out and… ad infinitum.

The law really is an ass. (*2)

The first inter-ethnic clashes in the USSR took place in Nagorno-Karabakh in August 1988. “Vot, nash Ol’ster!” (Вот, наш Ольстер!) was the headline in Pravda (*3) the next morning: ‘This is our Northern Ireland.’ And it was indeed true! There followed, initially in the Baltic States and the Caucasus, later in Ukraine and Central Asia, and even abroad in the Balkans, other calls for self-determination… arguments over borders… more clashes… and deaths.

There was violence in Baku and Tbilisi, and in 1991, the disturbances reached Vilnius, albeit at a lower level than down in the Caucasus. At this point the West changed its mind, from (a) to (b). In effect, it now supported the break-up of the USSR, so it decided to support the break-up of Yugoslavia as well. The two were considered to be very similar: after all, both were communist, both were federations, (both were spelt with the letter ‘you’), and so on.

So the West ditched Gorbachev and supported Boris Yeltsin instead. It was a huge mistake. But (while I argued with the Irish Times correspondent), the latter and other western journalists sang Boris’s praises, and this adulation was definitely a factor in his subsequent election. Simultaneously, the West ditched Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade, after all, he was an extreme nationalist, and supported Franjo Tudjman in Zagreb instead, who was an extreme nationalist. It was another huge mistake; the two, Gorbachev and Milošević, were not at all similar.

In Russia, the Boris coup was (not the but) a cause of the 1994 and ’99 wars in Chechnya, and the rise to power in Moscow during that second war of another autocrat: Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, in the Balkans, referendums were held, sometimes on the insistence of the EU, and Yugoslavia imploded. On the more positive side, along with all the other former Republics in the USSR, Ukraine became independent in 1991; and the Russian/Soviet empire was now ‘only’ a Russian empire, stretching all the way from Belarus to the Pacific Ocean. Its demise is a historical necessity.

The word ‘Ukraine’, by the way, comes from the same root as the Yugoslav (Serbo-Croat) word, ‘krajina’ – ‘kraj’ (край), meaning borderland. There were three krajinas in Croatia, areas first settled by Orthodox Slavs as a bulwark against the Ottomans. But – {rule (b)} – self-determination meant that Croatia could opt out of Yugoslavia; in 1991, a referendum was planned; by the same logic, surely, the krajinas could opt out of Croatia, so another referendum was planned, in the Krajina, one week before the big one in Croatia as a whole. The result of these two mutually contradictory ballots was war.

Worse was to follow. The 1991 Bosnian election (or sectarian head-count), a single preference two-round system TRS election – ‘this candidate’ good, ‘those’ not good; here too voting was Orwellian in its simplicity – had split a unified secular state into three – 40:30:20, Moslem:Orthodox:Catholic – although all of them, Bosniak, Croat and Serb, share the same Slav ethnicity. Now, look at the maths: 40:30:20. So there was no majority. But any two – 40+30, 40+20 or 30+20 – could beat the other one. Short division. The EU’s Badinter Commission nevertheless demanded a (binary) referendum – how mad can you get? – which, sure enough, started the war: on the day of the vote, the “barricades were thrown up” in Sarajevo (Glenny 1992: 163). {Our own efforts to warn of this danger – the New Ireland Group invited a native of Sarajevo to a cross-community conference in Belfast in Oct. 1991, six months before the referendum – were ignored.} Robert Badinter said afterwards, in effect, je ne regrette rien. (*4)

But back to Ukraine, where ‘democracy’– majoritarianism – had other consequences. In 1991, just as the West would have wanted, Kiev adopted the French TRS electoral system and the ubiquitous majority vote decision-making system, for binary majority rule. Initially, throughout eastern Europe, emerging democracies started off the democratic process with a plethora of political parties, and if the electoral system allowed (as TRS does), maybe too a large number of independents. Ukraine’s 1994 parliamentary election was no exception: while half of the seats went to a second round, the first-round successes saw 14 parties gain representation; the largest one won a mere 13% of the seats; six parties had only one or two MPs; and the ‘winner’ was a group of independents, who amassed 51% of the seats, a majority, a disparate bunch of individuals from all over. This rather put the kibosh on those westerners who advocated majority rule and coalition government. For parliamentary elections, Ukraine therefore moved to a parallel system in 1998, half FPTP and half PR; to a system of all PR, PR-list, in 2006, so no more independents; but back to a parallel system in 2012, when just a score or two of independent candidates were again in the mix.

For presidential elections, however, it was still the divisive TRS. Accordingly, in 2004, Ukraine divided: the one country of mainly Christian Slavs split into two halves, one of Orthodox Russian-speakers, the other of Catholic/Uniate Ukrainian speakers. This is a gross over-simplification which ignores the fact that, in any case, these differences are miniscule. But, in majoritarianism, no matter how small or relevant, any difference will do. The winner, by a mere whisker, was Viktor Yushchenko; he was pro-West, so Brussels thought everything – 50% + 1 and all that – was just fine.

He led a coalition government, but they argued, and split… as do so many groups which rely on the divisive majority vote. As a result, in 2010, the main pro-western candidate was now Yulia Timoshenko who headed her own political party, Block Yulia Timoshenko, (because its acronym spelt BYuT, as in ‘beauty’ – one of a few English words, sex, love, ok, macdonalds, which every Ukrainian knows), but she lost, and by a similarly tiny margin Viktor Yanukovich now won, … and he was pro-Moscow.

There followed the protests in Maidan, which in Feb. 2014 turned violent, whereupon the EU changed its mind, again, totally, another (a)-to-(b)-type swing from one policy to its opposite: it no longer supported majority rule, no no, it advocated power-sharing. The western ‘definition’ of democracy is another great big ass – partly because it doesn’t exist, and politicians tend to ‘define’ and ‘redefine’ the word (*5) as they go along. But, too late; the EU delegation arrived in Kiev on the very day that Yanukovich ran into exile.

Now we already knew that our own 1973 NI border poll had been at least unwise; and secondly, that “all the wars in the former Yugoslavia [had] started with a referendum,” (Oslobodjenje, Sarajevo’s famous newspaper, 7.2.1999). Sadly however, as a general rule, western media and academia do not question binary vote decision-making, and a binary referendum is still regarded as perfectly democratic… in Ireland, Scotland, Catalonia, Taiwan and elsewhere. In March 2014 – events were moving fast – yet another ‘false flag’ plebiscite was held, this time in Crimea. We also knew that the Crimea had already held a referendum, in 1991, when all of Ukraine, the entire country, oblast by oblast (county by county), all voted in favour. Well, they now had another referendum – the sort of thing that is catered for in the Belfast Agreement, repeat referendums or a ‘never-end-em’. (*6)

There then followed some other referendums, in Donetsk and Luhansk. Well, if Ukraine (Ireland/Croatia) can opt out of the USSR (UK/Yugoslavia), then surely Donetsk (Northern Ireland, Krajina) can opt out of Ukraine (Ireland, Croatia); and, by the same logic, surely an even smaller unit called Dobropillia and Krasnoarmiisk (West Belfast or Akhalgori) can opt out of Donetsk (Northern Ireland or South Ossetia) and go into Dnepropetrovsk. They tried. The law really is an ass. More to the point, in 2014, as I mentioned in Nonviolent News 297, the word ‘Scotland’ (Shotlandiya) was used by Russian separatists in Luhansk; (at the time, Scotland was due to hold its referendum in September). We are all part of the problem!

It really is extraordinary. Many people criticise the horrible acts of violence which are part of the war in Ukraine, but say nothing against those practices which were a cause of that violence, especially if to do so might cause a scintilla of inconvenience here at home. There has now been yet another call for a referendum in Luhansk, this time by Leonid Pasechnik, (the ‘leader’ of the ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’) who wants to break up Ukraine; other calls in Republika Srpska by its leader Milorad Dodik, who wants to break up Bosnia, and he too is rattling his sabres; and yet other moves for a referendum in South Ossetia to join Russia, and that could reignite the war there. Yet all too few in Ireland and Scotland, (or Catalonia, or Taiwan), or in the UK generally, are prepared to question the fact that a binary referendum might actually be a false flag… a cause of war.

Which brings us now to London and the other Boris. Oh but you know about that braggard already.

References

(*1) A valley in the eastern side of South Ossetia, largely inhabited (or was at the time of two referendums in 2006), by Georgians. The first ballot was pro-Ossetia so the Georgians abstained, while in the valley the Ossetians abstained… in a land where, yet again, as always, umpteen families are mixed.

(*2) Interestingly enough, the Russians used to call the right of self-determination ‘matryoshki nationalism’, because they were worried about the Buryats and Chukchis etc… but that was before they themselves saw the ‘advantage’ of a referendum vote as a ‘democratic’ false flag.

(*3) The Russian newspaper founded by Lenin; the word means ‘the truth’.

(*4) Private correspondence.

(*5) My article – Democracy, the most Undefined word in the World – was published in Ukraine’s national University’s journal, Maгiсteрiym, in 2002.

(*6) Come the vote, the Crimean Tatars abstained; after all, there were only two options, neither of which respected their aspirations

Glernny, M, 1992, The Fall of Yugoslavia, Penguin, London.

– – – – – –

Ukraine and unarmed resistance

Ukrainians could defeat a Russian occupation by scaling up unarmed resistance

By Craig Brown, Jørgen Johansen, Majken Jul Sørensen, and Stellan Vinthagen

As scholars of nonviolent resistance, we see four key ways Ukrainians can organize and expand the civil resistance that’s already happening.

As peace, conflict and resistance scholars, we ask ourselves the same question as many other people these days: What would we do if we were Ukrainians? We hope we would be brave, selfless and fight for a free Ukraine based on the knowledge we have. Resistance always requires self-sacrifice. Yet there are effective ways to resist invasion and occupation that don’t involve arming ourselves or others, and will lead to fewer Ukrainian deaths than military resistance.

We thought about how — if we were living in Ukraine and had just been invaded — we would best defend the Ukrainian people and culture. We understand the logic behind the Ukrainian government’s appeal for weapons and soldiers from abroad. However, we conclude that such a strategy will only prolong the pain and lead to even greater death and destruction. We recall the wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq and Libya, and we would aim to avoid such a situation in Ukraine.

The question then remains: What would we do instead to protect the Ukrainian people and culture? We look with respect at all soldiers and brave civilians fighting for Ukraine; how can this powerful willingness to fight and die for a free Ukraine serve as a real defense of Ukrainian society? Already, people all over Ukraine are spontaneously using nonviolent means to fight the invasion; we would do our best to organize a systematic and strategic civil resistance. We would use the weeks — and maybe even months — that some areas of western Ukraine may remain less affected by military fighting to prepare ourselves and other civilians for what lies ahead.

Instead of investing our hope in military means, we would immediately set about training as many people as possible in civil resistance, and aim to better organize and coordinate the civil resistance that is already happening spontaneously. Research in this area shows that unarmed civil resistance under many circumstances is more effective than armed struggle. Fighting an occupying power is always difficult, no matter what means are used. However, in Ukraine, there is knowledge and experience that peaceful means can lead to change, as during the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Maidan Revolution in 2014. While the circumstances are very different now, Ukrainian people can use the coming weeks to learn more, spread this knowledge and build networks, organizations and infrastructure that fight for Ukrainian independence in the most effective way.

Today there is comprehensive international solidarity with Ukraine — support we can count on being extended to unarmed resistance in the future. With this in mind, we would focus our efforts on four areas.

1. We would establish and continue relations with Russian civil society groups and members that are supporting Ukraine. Even though they are under severe pressure, there are human rights groups, independent journalists and ordinary citizens taking big risks in order to resist the war. It is important that we know how to keep in touch with them through encrypted communication, and we need knowledge and infrastructure on how to do this. Our greatest hope for a free Ukraine is that the Russian population overthrow Putin and his regime through a nonviolent revolution. We also acknowledge the brave resistance to Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko and his regime, encouraging continued connection and coordination with activists in that country.

2. We would disseminate knowledge about the principles of nonviolent resistance. Nonviolent resistance is based on a certain logic, and adhering to a principled line of nonviolence is an important part of this. We are not just talking about morality, but about what is most effective under the circumstances. Some of us might have been tempted to kill Russian soldiers if we saw the opportunity, but we understand that it is not in our interest in the long run. Killing only a few Russian soldiers will not lead to any military success, but is likely to delegitimize everyone involved in civil resistance. It will make it harder for our Russian friends to stand on our side and easier for Putin to claim we are terrorists. When it comes to violence, Putin has all the cards in his hand, so our best chance is to play a completely different game. Ordinary Russians have learned to think of Ukrainians as their brothers and sisters, and we should take maximum advantage of this. If Russian soldiers are forced to kill many peaceful Ukrainians who resist in a courageous manner, the morale of the occupying soldiers will greatly decrease, desertion will increase, and the Russian opposition will be strengthened. This solidarity from ordinary Russians is our biggest trump card, meaning we must do everything we can to ensure that Putin’s regime does not have the opportunity to change this perception of Ukrainians.

3. We would disseminate knowledge about methods of nonviolent resistance, especially those that have been used with success during invasions and occupations. In those areas of Ukraine already occupied by Russia, and in the event of a prolonged Russian occupation, we would want ourselves and other civilians to be prepared to continue the struggle. An occupying power needs stability, calm and cooperation in order to carry out the occupation with the least amount of resources. Nonviolent resistance during occupation is about noncooperation with all aspects of the occupation. Depending on what aspects of the occupation are most despised, potential opportunities for nonviolent resistance include strikes in the factories, building a parallel school system, or refusing to cooperate with the administration. Some nonviolent methods are about gathering many people in visible protests, although during an occupation, this can be associated with great risk. It is probably not the time for the large demonstrations that characterized Ukraine’s previous nonviolent revolutions. Instead, we would focus on more dispersed actions that are less risky, such as boycotts of Russian propaganda events, or coordinated stay at home days, which could bring the economy to a standstill. The possibilities are endless, and we can draw inspiration from countries occupied by the Nazis during World War II, from East Timor’s independence struggle or other countries occupied today, such as West Papua or Western Sahara. The fact that Ukraine’s situation is unique does not preclude us from learning from others.

4. We would establish contact with international organizations such as Peace Brigades International or Nonviolent Peaceforce. Over the past 40 years, organizations like these have learned how international observers can make a significant difference to local human rights activists living with threats to their lives. Their experience from countries such as Guatemala, Colombia, Sudan, Palestine and Sri Lanka can potentially be developed to fit the circumstances in Ukraine. It might take a while to implement, yet over the long term, they could be able to organize and send Russian civilians to Ukraine as “unarmed bodyguards,” as part of international teams. It will be more difficult for Putin’s regime to commit atrocities against the Ukrainian civilian population if Russian civilians witness it, or if witnesses are citizens of countries that are maintaining friendly relations with his regime — for example China, Serbia or Venezuela.

If we had the Ukrainian government’s backing for this strategy, as well as access to the same economic resources and technological expertise that now goes to military defense, the strategy we propose would have been easier to implement. If we had started preparing a year ago, we would have been much better equipped today. Nevertheless, we believe unarmed civil resistance has a good chance of defeating a potential future occupation. For the Russian regime, carrying out an occupation will require money and personnel. Maintaining an occupation will be even more costly if the Ukrainian population engages in massive non-cooperation. Meanwhile, the more peaceful the resistance, the more difficult it is to legitimize the oppression of those who resist. Such resistance would also ensure good relations with Russia in the future, which will always be the best guarantee of Ukraine’s security with this powerful neighbor in the East.

Of course, we who are living abroad in safety have no right to tell Ukrainians what to do, but if we were Ukrainians today, this is the path we would choose. There is no easy way, and innocent people are going to die. However, they are already dying, and if only the Russian side is using military force, the chances of preserving Ukrainian lives, culture and society are much higher.

– This piece was published at https://wagingnonviolence.org/rs/ on 28th March 2022. Used by permission.

– – – – – –

Jesus and Nonviolence

By Rev. John Dear

This is the text of a talk which was presented remotely at a Belfast seminar as part of the Four Corners Festival https://4cornersfestival.com/ on 1st February 2022.

Let me begin with four basic theses, and then I will walk through the life of Jesus from the perspective of Gandhian/Kingian nonviolence.

First, we have to connect the dots between every form of violence. We are up against one big global pandemic of violence, one big global spectrum of systemic, structured, institutionalized violence, which has infected all of us in all its forms from interior violence, violence in our relationships, violence against creatures and Earth to racism, sexism, gun violence, executions, corporate greed, extreme poverty, permanent war, nuclear weapons and environmental destruction. Violence is everywhere and in everyone.

Second, nonviolence is the way forward. Violence has failed us; it doesn’t work, so we need to figure out how to become nonviolent people, to use Gandhi’s clumsy word, and to create a culture of nonviolence, to educate every human being on the planet in nonviolent conflict resolution as well as the theology and spirituality of nonviolence, and fund & build new structures of nonviolence. The only way real positive social change happens is through bottom up, people power, grassroots movements of nonviolence. Nonviolence is not a utopian ideal or impractical; it is very practical, the only realistic way forward. Study the great scholar Dr. Erica Chenoweth and her book “Why Civil Resistance Works.” Her book proves nonviolence works.

Third, the scandal of the Gospel is that Jesus was totally nonviolent, that God is a God of total nonviolence, universal love, boundless compassion and infinite peace; and that the Gospel of Jesus demands that we all become totally nonviolent too, as nonviolent as Gandhi, King and Day. That means, as I wrote in my book “The Nonviolent Life,” we have to be nonviolent to ourselves, toward all people, all creatures, and Mother Earth, and join the grassroots movement of nonviolence as our practice of discipleship to the nonviolent Jesus.

Fourth, the church is supposed to be a global community of nonviolence, a global community of followers of the nonviolent Jesus, not a church that supports war or violence of any kind. But since 315, when the Roman emperor became Christian and legalized Christianity, which had been a nonviolent underground movement, we have rejected the Sermon on the Mount, and created some pagan justification for mass murder called the just war theory. If the church approves and blesses the bombing and killing of children, which it has for 1700 years, then it does not care about child abuse or women or racism, or the destruction of the earth. Once Catholics and Christians bless war and nuclear weapons, then all hell breaks out. We are trying to change the church, or rather, help the church return to its earliest days as a movement of active Gospel nonviolence. That means, we all have to turn back to the nonviolent Jesus, non-cooperate with the culture of violence, and spend the rest of our lives working for a new culture of nonviolence, and also teach our priests, ministers, bishops, families and friends that Jesus is nonviolent.

If Jesus was violent, I submit, we don’t need him; he’s no help whatsoever; he’s not saving us. He’s just another violent messiah. So we created a church of violence, that worships a false god of violence; that teaches a false spirituality of violence and war; the just war theory, saying violence and warfare are justified, and that led to a kind of holy nationalism and fundamentalism, and then every other kind of insane, absurd religious endorsement for killing.

I propose that it’s the only thing we can say for sure about Jesus–that he practised total nonviolence, that he taught total nonviolence, that he announced God was totally nonviolent, and that he called all of us to be totally nonviolent, and therefore that the church is a community of total nonviolence. No one before him in history spoke about nonviolence like him; we know for example that there is no recorded writing in history before the Gospels of anyone ever saying the words “Love your enemies.”

Gandhi once said that Jesus was the most active practitioner of nonviolence in the history of the world, and then went on to say in effect, and the only people who don’t know Jesus was nonviolent are Christians. When Gandhi says Jesus was nonviolent, he means Jesus never hurt anyone, never supported hurting or killing anyone, and then because he was totally nonviolent, he was and had to be totally against the Roman empire, which killed millions of people, and the religious establishment, which collaborated with the empire, blessed its wars and occupations, and helped oppress millions of people and steal their money in the name of God. And because he was totally nonviolent, he could not be passive, he practised active nonviolence and built a campaign of active nonviolence to resist injustice and so he was arrested and executed.

Anyone can be violent; but it takes courage and power and trust in God and Godliness to be totally nonviolent. That’s what Jesus was all about and that’s what we are called to be about too, to follow Jesus on the path of total nonviolence and become, like him, people of deep inner nonviolence, people who are gentle and humble of heart, and agents of nonviolent change, for the disarmament of the world, for justice for the poor, for racial equality and dignity, for an end to the killings and guns and weapons and poverty and greed and destruction of the environment. We don’t have to be successful or have lots of big results; we just have to be faithful to his way of nonviolence.

When I was about 22, I asked my friend Daniel Berrigan the meaning of life, and he said: “All you have to do is to make your story fit into Jesus’ story.” That was one of the great teachings of my life, and that’s what I want us to reflect on, to take another look at the story of the nonviolent Jesus, and then to make whatever changes so our story fits into his story. I have a new organization, “The Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus,” with zoom workshops about Jesus, which I hope you will visit www.beatitudescenter.org

So I have 10 points about the life of Jesus and Gospel nonviolence for your consideration. As I’m going through them, here are my questions for you: how are you trying to make your story fit into Jesus’ story of spectacular, total nonviolence? Where does the nonviolent Jesus touch you most, what is he saying to you, what he is calling you to do, what are you afraid of?

First, he walks into the empire and announces, “The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the Gospel.” Remember after every Roman victory, the Roman troops would come into a town and announce the Gospel of Caesar, we’ve killed another thousand people and taken over their town. But here he’s saying there really is good news: the days of the culture of violence and war are over. The empire is falling. A new world of nonviolence, the kingdom of God is at hand, here and now if we want it. Turn away from the culture of violence, and war and empire, and live in the kingdom of God, and believe this Gospel. As he went around proclaiming this, he also modelled it by healing people wounded by the culture of violence; he expelled the demons of violence; he formed a community of nonviolence, and he welcomed all the outsiders, the disenfranchised and marginalized. He hung out with all the wrong people and broke every rule and law and custom there was. How are you living full time in the Kingdom of God, and how are you announcing it?

Second, all his teachings call us to total nonviolence. He commands us to love our neighbors, love one another, show compassion to everyone, seek justice for the poor, forgive everyone, do unto others as we would have them do unto us, Turn the other cheek, take up the cross in the struggle for justice and peace, and lay down our lives in love for humanity. Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me. You can get my book on the Sermon on the Mount, called The Beatitudes of Peace, or listen to my podcasts, but let me just point out the climax of the Beatitudes “Blessed are the peacemakers; they will be called the sons and daughters of the God of peace.” This is our vocation, this is our core identity, we are the sons and daughters of the God of peace, so for the rest of our lives we try to be peacemakers and end war.

Then he goes on in the Sermon on the Mount, with his various commandments of nonviolence: “You have heard it said, thou halt not kill; but I say to you, do not even get angry at another. Instead, go be reconciled. You have heard it said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ but I say to you: ‘offer no violent resistance to one who does evil.’ Tolstoy spent the last 25 years of his life preaching that one verse. Gandhi read this commandment every day for the last 45 years of his life. Wow. Then Jesus says, “You have heard it said, love your countrymen and hate your enemies, but I say love your enemies and pray for your persecutors then you will be sons and daughters of the God who lets the sun rise on the good and the bad and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”

Notice he does not say: “However, if they are really bad, and you follow these 7 conditions, bomb the hell out of them.” Notice too that in this the most political sentence in the entire bible, which not only outlaws war and killing and the whole nation state system but commands universal nonviolent love, Jesus describes the nature of God as totally nonviolent. Here again he calls us to our true identity: if you practice universal nonviolent love, then you will really be the beloved sons and daughters of the God of universal nonviolent love. This is what you and I are called to do, and practice and teach. So how do you offer nonviolent resistance to evil and love your enemies? Is your God a God of peace and universal love? Do you think God is totally nonviolent?

Third, he organizes a campaign of nonviolence, like a nonviolent military campaign, like Gandhi’s Salt March, like Dr. King in Birmingham and sends 72 people ahead of him, saying, “I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” He forms a grassroots, underground, nonviolent movement. We’re to heal all those wounded by the culture of violence; expel all the demons of violence, get rid of their allegiance to the empire or America, to war and weapons, free them into the new life of nonviolence; and proclaim that God’s reign of peace and nonviolence is at hand and invite everyone to start living in total nonviolence. So that is our job description: we go forth innocent, gentle and nonviolent as a lamb into the midst of wolves to proclaim God’s reign of total nonviolence and universal love. How’s that going for you?

Fourth, as he gets closer to Jerusalem, he breaks down sobbing and says “If today you had only understood the things that make for peace.” So that is what we are trying to do, from now on: to learn the things that make for peace. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70. Today Jerusalem has become the whole world, and we are trying to destroy the whole world with war, nuclear weapons and environmental destruction, so we have to learn and teach the things that make for peace. What are they for you? I think they’re all about nonviolence.

Fifth, he walks into the Temple, the center of systemic injustice, where the religious authorities work with the imperial forces to get people to pay all their money to worship god in a total racket, and turns over the tables of the moneychangers in nonviolent civil disobedience. He doesn’t hurt anyone, kill anyone, or bomb anyone, but he is not passive. He takes direct nonviolent action against imperial systemic injustice and accepts the consequences. This is what his followers are supposed to do. If he was upset by the Temple, what would he say about our wars and destruction of the earth? What bold public nonviolent action are you going to take as a disciple?

Sixth, it’s Passover, they’re in the upper room, he takes the bread and says “My body broken for you.” He takes the cup and says, “My blood shed for you.” If he were a good Roman, a good American, a Russian dictator, he should have said, “Go break their bodies for me; go shed their blood for me.” No, he says, “My body broken for you, my blood shed for you, do this.” Every time we share in the Eucharist, we enter into the new covenant of nonviolence, that’s the methodology of Jesus. So how are you making the Eucharist from now on a sharing in the mission of Jesus’ nonviolence?

Seventh, he’s in Gethsemani, the soldiers arrive, and Peter thinks, “They’re going to arrest our guy, we can’t let this happen; we’ve got to protect the holy one. If there was ever a just war in history, if violence was ever divinely sanctioned—this is the moment,” and he’s right. And just as he takes up the sword to kill to protect the holy one, the commandment comes down, “Put down the sword.”

Dear friends, these are the last words of Jesus to his community, to the church, before he was killed; it’s the last thing they heard him say; and it’s the first time they understood how serious he is about nonviolence, so they all run away, they all abandon him. So Jesus is arrested, mocked and tortured by 600 drunken soldiers, and never once retaliates or even gets angry. The nonviolent Jesus was the bravest, most courageous person who ever lived. How have you run away from Jesus because of his serious nonviolence? How do you need to put down the sword?

Eighth, in front of Pilate, Jesus explains everything clearly: “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Judeans. But as it is my kingdom is not here.” This is the only difference between the world of violence, war and empire, from Pilate to Trump, and Jesus and the reign of God. Your world of empire and war uses violence; my world of peace and love uses nonviolence. My attendants are not allowed to fight; they are nonviolent, because I am nonviolent and God is nonviolent and God’s reign is a new realm of total nonviolence and universal love.

Question: do you want to be an attendant of the nonviolent Jesus? A disciple? If so, then like the nonviolent Jesus, we have to practice total nonviolence. I think this is the best thing we can do with our lives, become nonviolent attendants of the nonviolent Jesus.

Ninth, the empire executes him and he dies in perfect nonviolence, saying, “The violence stops here in my body. You are all forgiven, but from now on, you are not allowed to kill.” And God raises him from the dead and he returns as gentle and nonviolent as before and says, now you carry on my campaign of nonviolence.

So Jesus teaches us NOT how to kill or wage war or make money or be afraid, but how to love, how to make peace, how to be compassionate, how to forgive, how to be nonviolent, how to pray, and how to suffer and die. So as Christians we practice peace, love and nonviolence; we don’t kill anyone, we don’t support killing. We don’t kill those who kill to show that killing is wrong. From now on, our position is: there is no cause however noble for which we will ever again support the taking of a single human life. In fact, like Jesus, we try to give our lives to stop the killing and the forces of death. We prefer to undergo death rather than inflict it on anyone.

Lastly, Jesus rises from the dead and offers us his resurrection gift of peace. The whole world has rejected that gift, but you and I want to accept it, and welcome it, take it to heart, and try to live in that peace from now on.

Resurrection means having nothing to do with death, or violence. Resurrection means nonviolence! With the resurrection of the nonviolent Jesus, we know that death does not get the last word; that our survival is already guaranteed, that total nonviolence is the way forward into the fullness of life, and that the more we practice and deepen into nonviolence, the more we practice resurrection. So as disciples of the risen, nonviolent Jesus, from now on we pledge to be as nonviolent as possible and to go forward into the world of violence and war, proclaim the way of nonviolence and peace, and do what we can to disarm one another and the world, to make the world more nonviolent.

****

Rev. John Dear is an internationally recognized voice and leader for peace and nonviolence. A priest, activist and author, he served as the director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation USA and been arrested some 85 times for nonviolent civil disobedience actions. He helped draft Pope Francis’ J 1st January 2017 World Day of Peace message on nonviolence, and is the director of www.beatitudescenter.org where he offers and hosts zoom workshops on Gospel nonviolence. His many books include: The Beatitudes of Peace; They Will Inherit the Earth; The Nonviolent Life; Walking the Way; A Persistent Peace; Living Peace; The Questions of Jesus; The God of Peace; Jesus the Rebel; and Peace Behind Bars. Archbishop Desmond Tutu nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. See: www.johndear.org

Another paper presented at the same seminar by Johnston McMaster, on Jesus and nonviolence in Ireland, is available on the Corrymeela website at https://www.corrymeela.org/news/220/jesus-and-nonviolence-a-new and a photo of another presentation of the same paper is on the INNATE photo site at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/51988133747/in/dateposted/

Nonviolent resistance to invasion, occupation and coups d’état

by Rob Fairmichael

References are given at the end to facilitate follow up and further reading.

Introduction

Where is the discussion of the possibilities of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance to be seen in relation to the war on Ukraine and after that started? Almost nowhere. (*1) And yet you had the ludicrous example of a few people asking why Ireland (Republic) was not sending arms to Ukraine, as if anything Ireland could have sent would have made any difference in the military fight between it and Russia. And arms components from Belfast firm Thales are being used on both sides of the war in Ukraine! Most people are simply and totally unaware of the possibilities of nonviolent resistance, or, if they even think of it, dismiss it out of hand, particularly in relation to ‘hard’ situations like an invasion.

But people do not dismiss violent resistance out of hand, even where it fails, dismally or heroically, or would fail – as with Irish military resistance to invasion by a major power. In Ukraine violent resistance has been heroic in the military tradition and certainly successful in slowing the Russian invasion (which was very poorly planned), and even able to push back in some areas, but it has also been also costly in terms of lives lost and homes and infrastructure destroyed as well as massive displacement of people, either as internal or external refugees. The trauma is massive. We don’t know how the war in Ukraine will end but at the moment it is not looking good for avoiding Russian control in eastern and south-eastern Ukraine. Nonviolent resistance needs to be judged by the same measurements as violent. And it needs to be brought out of the shadows to be able to stand in the position it deserves.

I wrote an 8-page paper on “An alternative defence for Ireland: Some considerations and a model of defence without arms for the Irish people” in late 1983 (*2), some years before the fall of Russian communism. Little did I think that almost four decades later I would be writing a piece about the same matter in the context of a war started by still autocratic but crony-capitalist Russia. I also attended and wrote about a WRI-IFOR conference on the less-statist concept of ‘Social defence’ (see definition later) in Bradford in 1990. (*3) However this article has two main geographical points of reference, to two very different situations and locations within Europe, Ukraine and Ireland. I would stress that it is a relatively short exploration of the matter and much further work can be done or referred to.

What is nonviolent civilian resistance and social defence?

Perhaps we need a few definitions at the start. But it also needs clarified that, as always, different people can use the same term differently, or even the same people give a different emphasis from time to time.

Civilian-based defence is non-military defence of a state or territory. Adam Roberts (*4) in a classic 1960s study states that he made certain assumptions about its implementation “that it is accepted as government policy; that it is adopted on its own rather than in combination with military defence; and that it is employed in defence of a country with a reasonably high degree of social cohesion and with independent political parties, trade unions and press.” Particularly considering the first phrase of this quote, this places it quite close to ‘social defence’ as defined below.

Gene Sharp has said of the policy of civilian-based defence that “the whole population and the society’s institutions become the fighting forces. Their weaponry consists of a vast variety of forms of psychological, economic, social, and political resistance and counter-attack. This policy aims to deter attacks and to defend against them by preparations to make the society unrulable by would-be tyrants and aggressors…..In addition, where possible, the defending country would aim to create maximum international problems for the attackers and to subvert the reliability of their troops and functionaries”. (*5)

Social defence is a term which has tended to be used, perhaps mainly within the peace movement, to mean “the nonviolent protection of a society and its way of life, either from an outside invader or an unjust domestic situation” (*6) This definition highlights the key difference in social defence as opposed to civilian-based defence in that it pinpoints the importance of people being able to resist internal repression as well as external aggression; it explicitly includes being used for dealing with despotic rule internally as much as external aggression and invasion.

This point about the internal (within a state or territory) relevance of social defence is well explored in the best recent book on social defence, by Jørgen Johansen and Brian Martin. (*7) In this its is stated “Social defence involves increasing the capacity of ordinary people to resist external aggression, and this necessarily means increasing the capacity to resist their own government. Hence social defence provides a guide for community empowerment that can challenge many different types of domination….”

But their more general definition is that ““Social defence is nonviolent community resistance to repression and aggression, as an alternative to military forces. “Nonviolent” means using rallies, strikes, boycotts and other such methods that do not involve physical violence against others. Social defence has other names, including nonviolent defence, civilian-based defence and defence by civil resistance.” (*8)

Transarmament is another useful term which can be defined as “the gradual transition from one type of defence – armed and nuclear – to another type of defence – popular and nonviolent.” (*9) ‘Nonviolent resistance’ can be used in the context of invasion and occupation but it can be applied to any nonviolent action against injustice and oppression.

In Mohandas Gandhi’s categorisation of resistance to violence and injustice, there were three broad categories; passivity or cowardice, violence, and nonviolence. He went so far as to say “where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence” but qualified that by saying “I believe that nonviolence is infinitely superior to violence…” (*10) and a sign of strength and certainly not weakness. While the term ‘passive resistance’ has been used for nonviolent resistance (Gandhi’s ‘satyagraha’ = ‘truth force’ is a strong contrast) it is very misleading as the concept is anything but ‘passive’ – it is active, engaged and challenging; the term ‘passive resistance’ is therefore best avoided.

Parameters and historical experiences of nonviolent civilian and social defence

It is clear that in Russian occupied parts of Ukraine currently, Ukrainians have still been able, in very difficult circumstances, to assert their right to independence and, while not to get Russian troops out of the country, to get them out of the immediate environs of their town or village. (*11) The allegation that nonviolent action is impossible in difficult and repressive circumstances is simply not true as Basil Liddell Hart wrote in relation to interrogation of German generals following the Second World War: “Their evidence also showed the effectiveness of non-violent resistance as practised in Denmark, Holland and Norway – and, to some extent, in France and Belgium. Even clearer was their inability to cope with it. They were experts in violence, and had been trained to deal with opponents who used that method. But other forms of resistance baffled them – and all the more as the methods were subtle and concealed.” (*12)

The second volume of Gene Sharp’s landmark publication “The Politics of Nonviolent Action” (*13) on “The Methods of Nonviolent Action” largely consists of historical examples of nonviolent action fitting his 198 “Methods of nonviolent protest and persuasion”. Some speak of incredibly brave and imaginative actions in very difficult circumstances. But others are of more mundane examples – even letter writing or petitions – which can take on much greater significance than normal because of the context. In relation to Russian control of Eastern Europe, once control had been ceded at the Yalta allies conference, there was no chance of the successful military overthrow of such control; nonviolent resistance, however, in Czechoslovakia in 1968, in Poland subsequently, and eventually in the successful overthrow of control by the USSR from 1989 during glasnost, was the best method people could use with the highest chance of success.

Some people thought that Russian control of Eastern Europe was a permanent feature of geopolitical life; it wasn’t and was overthrown by largely nonviolent action and organisation. Some people thought that the apartheid system in South Africa could only be overthrown by violence; it wasn’t and it was largely nonviolent action and organisation, at home and abroad, which made the transformation to democratic rule.

In Johansen and Martin’s book on social defence they conclude in relation to one of their historical examples, Czechoslovakia resisting a Russian invasion in 1968 when Russia was trying to keep control of this part of their eastern European empire, that “(1) remaining nonviolent is crucial; (2) resistance organised by the people is stronger than resistance directed by the government;(3) fraternisation is a powerful technique; (4) resilient communication systems providing accurate information are vital: (5) maintaining unity of the resistance is vital: (6) leaders need to understand the dynamics of nonviolent resistance.” (* 14)

There is of course the possibility of combining military and civil resistance, but there are dangers in this such and Johansen and Martin make the point “remaining nonviolent is crucial”. One of the dangers in combining the two is that civil resistance “often depends on a reluctance by the authorities to resort to wholesale repression, a reluctance that may itself spring from an uncertainty about the effect on the morale of their troops and security forces of being ordered to attack civilians. But these inhibitions and constraints can quickly break down where there is the constant danger of ambushes, assassinations, bomb attacks and so on, and above all where the distinction between combatant and non-combatant begins to disappear” (*15)

A nonviolent response also facilitates fraternisation as a positive policy to influence invaders. In Czechoslovakia in 1968 some Russian troops had to be withdrawn, and replaced by far-eastern USSR troops who were not Russian speakers, so successful had citizen interactions with soldiers been in persuading them that they were not liberators but oppressors. And in the context of the Cold war the well known British Christian minister and peace activist Donald Soper said “Russians who appear to be impervious to threats and the Cold War may well be susceptible and responsive to friendliness and the warm heart” (*16)

Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweths famous study (*17) of the comparative success rates of violent and nonviolent resistance is instructive here too. They state “Our findings show that major nonviolent campaigns have achieved success 53 percent of the time, compared with 26 percent for violent resistance campaigns. There are two reasons for this success. First, a campaign’s commitment to nonviolent methods enhances its domestic and international legitimacy and encourages more broad-based participation in the resistance, which translates into increased pressure being brought to bear on the target……..Second, whereas governments easily justify violent counterattacks against armed insurgents, regime violence against nonviolent movements is more likely to backfire against the regime…..” (*18) They state that “Our findings challenge the conventional wisdom that violent resistance against conventionally superior adversaries is the most effective way for resistance groups to achieve policy goals.”

Given that Stephan and Chenoweth studied campaigns from 1900 to 2006 this is a fairly comprehensive study. It is to be noted that their conclusions apply to democratic and non-democratic societies. They also indicate that it is irrelevant whether the nonviolence comes from strategic (pragmatic) as opposed to principled nonviolence (*19) although “the vast majority of participants in nonviolent struggles have not been devoted to principled nonviolence”. There is a slight risk in their terminological use of ‘principled nonviolence’ in relation to people who have a religious or ethical commitment to nonviolence that those who just use it pragmatically could be ‘unprincipled’ but that is obviously not their intention. Their point that “Nonviolent resistance achieves demands against the will of the opponent by seizing control of the conflict through widespread noncooperation and defiance” is a short statement illustrating the power of nonviolence.

However it can be objected that they were looking at ‘organised civilian populations’ interacting with states and not international warfare. This is certainly a qualification to Stephan and Chenoweth’s conclusions, certainly in relation to inter-state warfare. However it can also be said that many of the cases studied were of a scale and in situations which replicated some of the conditions of inter-state relations. In considering the situation in relation to the war in Ukraine it can also be said that Russia and Ukraine are two countries with close relations, historically and personally, and therefore have less of the ‘distant’ feeling about an opposing country than international warfare can have; the people of the two countries are, literally and metaphorically, cousins.

It cannot be assumed that just because resistance is nonviolent that the regime being opposed will keel over. Stephan and Chenoweth’s relative success for nonviolent campaigns is often in the context of long and arduous struggles. Gene Sharp put it this way about what he termed some ‘naive conceptions’: “It is not true that if opponents of a regime struggle nonviolently the oppressive regime will be nonviolent too, and quietly acquiesce. It is not true that by being nonviolent one avoids suffering and sacrifices. It is not true that if the opponent reacts with brutal, violent repression, the struggle has been lost and the movement defeated. It is not true that the nonviolent way is an easy way.” (*20)

Nevertheless Sharp, in name and perceptions, also covers the weaknesses of dictatorships. (*21) The crucial task of identifying the weaknesses in any regime is key to success; what may work in relation to one may be water off a duck’s back for another. Intense engagement with the cultural norms and parameters of the culture concerned may be required, and obviously using the weaknesses that exist to maximum effect.

One of the more general issues in relation to violence and nonviolence is the perceived lack of choice in ‘having to’ choose violence. Helen Steven put it this way: “The problem is that so often we are presented with an apparently clear choice: use military intervention or do nothing – “Let Bosnia/Kosovo/East Timor burn”. The nonviolent choice is never between doing violence and doing nothing. Nonviolence is about finding the creative alternative and always standing up against evil and oppression….” (* 22)

Ukraine

Ukrainian military resistance has worked better than almost anyone believed, and the Russian military attack has been more shambolic than almost anyone believed. The result has been very limited success for Russia although its greatest success has been in the east and south-east where it is most interested in success (apart from its stalled attempt to take Kyiv/Kiev). However the longer the war goes on the more that Russia, with its air and artillery dominance can batter Ukraine’s towns and cities, and their people, into the ground.

The situation is quite disastrous for Ukraine. If ten to fifteen thousand Russian soldiers have been killed to date, the total Ukrainian casualty list is probably not too far behind, counting both soldiers and civilians.

It is for the people of any country to decide how they should defend their autonomy. The danger for Ukraine is that a long war of attrition will lead to more Mariupols in terms of death and destruction. Vladimir Putin is obviously willing to sacrifice however many of his soldiers he thinks necessary to attain whatever he considers are his minimum demands in Ukraine although these have not been clear. If it is almost certain that he expected a speedy victory in Ukraine, it is then true that military resistance has led to him and Russia having to scale back their expectations and demands but Russia can continue to inflict brutal pain on Ukraine for a considerable time.

It is in this context that nonviolent resistance could be considered by Ukraine after a ceasefire, either in relation to the whole country or in relation to possible attempts to cleave off parts of the south and south-east to be ceded to Russia. Neither path is easy, violent or nonviolent, but nonviolent resistance would arguably have a greater chance of success in the long run given the superior military strength of Russia compared to Ukraine, notwithstanding Ukrainian relative success to date in withstanding Russian onslaughts. It would certainly prevent massive death rates and destruction. There would not need to be a time limit on nonviolent resistance because it could be hoped that ‘normal’ aspects of civilian life which were not seen to be compromised by the Russian invasion could continue.

One problem in switching to nonviolent resistance is that it could be conceived by those fighting the Russians, and by the general population, as capitulation and defeat. Instead it should be seen as switching to a different means of struggle and a new chapter in resistance.

Neutrality for Ukraine needs to be defined and accepted by Ukraine, Russia and NATO. Neutrality should have been a policy adopted back in time. The expectation that Russia should accept NATO on its doorstep flies in the face of what the USA would accept in its vicinity; in 1962 the USA threatened nuclear obliteration to get Russian missiles removed from Cuba. ‘Neutrality with guarantees’ could have been an alternative in general in Eastern Europe to NATO going against its fall-of-Russian-communism promise not to expand eastwards in Europe. It is certainly understandable that certain countries might want to join NATO but that does not mean it was the correct decision in building peaceful détente in Europe (aside from other questions about NATO’s general role in the world, nuclear policies, and first use of violence). It is NATO which has been most responsible for the militarisation of Europe.

Ireland

The war in Ukraine has raised numerous debates about Irish neutrality and whether it is still justified. There are many issues involved. One such issue is the strategic position of Ireland. A published letter writer pointing out in horror that Ireland (Republic of) would have no defence against Russian ships manoeuvring in the Atlantic coming in to take Irish ports was expressing a naive view that Ireland could or should have such a defence. The reality is of course that Russia has no interest whatsoever in getting control of Ireland – it has major problems in winning a war against Ukraine on its doorstep. However, as in the Second World War, successful Irish military resistance against any major power invader is unrealistic even today if it met PESCO-warranted expenditure on the military and dramatically increased the strength of the Irish ‘defence forces’.

There are two major issues here. One is how can Ireland minimise the remote chance of invasion, or deal with such an event. The other is how it could, and should, provide solidarity to other countries and work for peace in the world.

Concerning Irish strategic security, I would argue that a planned nonviolent defence of the country, along with a positively neutral and peaceful foreign policy, is the best defence the country could have. A positive neutrality would avoid making enemies as much as possible, not as an aim, because the aim should be international justice, but as a by product.

The policy would include civilian preparation and training; this would involve the general civilian preparation for such an eventuality but also specific tasks for certain groups and organisations in the event of invasion. It would also include the scuttling/destruction or putting beyond use of key facilities and resources that any invader might want to use. The preparedness of the population to use nonviolent resistance, and deny use of facilities to an invader, would be publicised (though not specific details). Other measures would include food and energy security so that in times of trouble internationally, Ireland could be self sufficient.

If any major power did decide to take Ireland militarily it would likely only be in the context of a major military conflagration where there was basically another world war. The chances of anyone wanting to have a military invasion of Ireland in other contexts is slim but there is no harm, and perhaps more peace of mind, in being prepared. I strongly believe that a nonviolent civilian defence policy, allied to a positive neutrality, is the best choice in relation to this.

Now for the question of international solidarity. Those who favour joining NATO tend to speak of the ‘mutual protection’ aspect of it, i.e. an attack against one is considered an attack against all. There are problems with this argument, and more generally with NATO policies and the idea that because the Republic is in the EU it should ‘defend’ its neighbours. But what if, as I believe, NATO policies frequently exacerbate tensions, as with Russia, and its nuclear warfare policy is part of a threat hanging over the whole of humanity? Do we want to hide under a nuclear umbrella? Do we want to engage in confrontational military policies? Do we want to support militarist solutions to the world’s problems when the military are often the problem (and an issue in terms of their expense which denies expenditure on the things which humanity needs)?

There is a simplistic belief about that to be ‘good Europeans’ we have to support whatever direction the EU is going in; this is simple nonsense, and the EU is increasingly becoming the European arm of NATO. We should do what we consider good for humanity and a militarised EU risks being another belligerent in resource wars in the later 21st century.

A belief in human security rather than military security would entail dealing with issues of injustice, political and economic, and settling on tacking health inequalities worldwide (e.g. Covid vaccinations) and transitioning to green energy and ecological living as fast as possible to avoid the disasters of global warming.

Ireland has played a positive role on the world stage at different times, including Eamon de Valera with the League of Nations. Ireland has contributed significantly to nuclear non-proliferation work and to the banning of landmines and cluster weapons. A general question regarding NATO is whether you believe peace can be achieved through the barrel of a gun or the controls of a military drone. If the best humanity can achieve is armed stand-offs of highly militarised countries this has many risks, not least that if countries have expensive weapons systems and strong armies that they feel they should be used occasionally. Humanity had enough experience of the threatened terrors of armed conflict during the Cold War, and on a number of occasions narrowly missed nuclear conflagration. How can this situation be considered ‘safe’ or involvement in NATO be seen as contributing to Irish safety? The opposite is the case.

But a question for Ireland is also whether it wants to be just another cog in a big military machine (NATO and/or its European presence in terms of an increasingly militarised EU) or to take a different and far more rewarding, peaceful path, a path less chosen perhaps but with great potential. Why has Ireland not been involved in a mediation process regarding Ukraine? Or Yemen? Why does Irish foreign policy slavishly follow the EU? What can we do for peace not just in Europe but worldwide?

As a former colonised country on the edge of Europe, without many axes to grind in geopolitical terms, why is Ireland not saying “We can strive to be a peacemaker”? The Irish constitution refers to affirming its adherence to the principle of the pacific settlement of international disputes – what does this mean in concrete terms? How can that be operationalised – what can we do about it? No, joining a military alliance and ‘picking sides’ militarily is not adding to this in any way, very much the opposite.

The world needs neutral countries to stand aside from military conflicts and build peace. As Irish involvement in welcoming Ukrainian refugees shows, you can exercise solidarity in non-military ways. We need to build a world of solidarity without militarism and continually looking for ways to get rid of the risk and costs associated with it.

Ireland has the opportunity to have a non-military defence policy. At the very least it should develop its peacemaking capacity while maintaining a non-offensive defence policy (joining NATO would destroy that). Ireland is small but we can be not just an example but a builder of peace in a real way. It is also a question of whether we believe in a better, more just, demilitarised world or a fearful world of unjust armed blocks. The choice is ours.

Conclusions

It suits those who believe in militarism to speak of those who reject the ways of violence as people who simply want to roll over and accept whatever injustice is meted out, and they may also use a term like ‘simplistic’ for those supporting such a nonviolent option. It can be argued that it is those who slavishly think that violent resistance is the only possible methodology in difficult circumstances are the ones who are really being simplistic. Nonviolent resistance and social defence, as this article attests, can be a highly sophisticated form of social and political action which has the greatest chance of success. But it also bears the seeds of breaking into circles and cycles of violence to build a more peaceful world and avoid visiting another cycle of violence on our children, grandchildren and successive generations.

Historical nonviolent resistance to invasion and occupation has tended to be spontaneous rather than planned well in advance, before the occupation took place. It can be rightly argued that if significant preparation or civilian resistance and defence is made before any such invasion it will a) have a deterrent effect, and b) if invasion does take place, be more successful because the underground networks and preparation have already been fashioned, the strategy and tactics worked out and citizens are not having to simply improvise under very trying circumstances.

Nonviolent civilian resistance is a real and effective option for Ireland which has a strong civil society and collective identification. Not to see that reality is to have militarist-shaded spectacles on and most likely to be simplistic in a belief in the efficacy of violence and its western advocate and practitioner, NATO. We can do much, much better.

References and further reading

(*1) And on the rare occasion such coverage happens the media may not permit discussion and follow up e.g. The Irish Times article by Breda O’Brien 19/3/22 https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/non-violence-is-not-naive-unrealistic-or-useless-1.4829737 on “Non-violence is not naive, unrealistic or uselesshad no follow up letters published.

(*2) An alternative defence for Ireland: Some considerations and a model of defence without arms for the Irish people, Dawn magazine No.95-96, December 1983. Available in the pamphlets section of the INNATE website at https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/pamphlets/ In that 1983 piece I give some consideration to Northern Ireland’s position in relation to UK membership of NATO; however in this article I have deliberately not done so in order to allow the length to be manageable and keep the main focus. But the North being in NATO is an issue.

(*3) “Social defence” in Dawn Train No.10, page 18, 1991, available on the INNATE website at https://innatenonviolence.org/dawntrain/index.shtml I quote Gene Sharp at this Bradford conference saying he used the term ‘civilian based defence’ rather than ‘social defence’ which he indicated was used for anything and everything nonviolent. The WRI/War Resisters International, co-sponsors of the conference with IFOR/International Fellowship of Reconciliation published the book “Nonviolent Struggle and Social Defence” in 1991, edited by Shelley Anderson and Janet Larmore; the text is available at https://wri-irg.org/en/nonviolence/nvsd.shtml

(*4) ”Civilian Resistance as a National Defence: Non-violent Action Against Aggression”, ed. Adam Roberts, page 249, Pelican, 1969, first published by Faber and Faber 1967.

(*5) Gene Sharp, “Making Europe Unconquerable: The potential of civilian-based deterrence and defence”, page 2, Taylor and Francis, 1985. Sharp includes consideration of Czechoslovak resistance to Russian control/invasion in 1968-69, page 47, stating that (he was writing in 1985) it “constitutes perhaps the most significant civilian struggle for national defence purposes. Ultimately, the attempt was defeated, but not quickly. For eight months, the Czechs and Slovaks prevented the Russians from achieving their political objective – a regime responsive to Soviet wishes.”

(*6) Quoted from IFOR’s “Reconciliation International”, date unknown, cited in (*2) above.

(*7) “Social defence”, by Jørgen Johansen and Brian Martin, Irene Publishing, 2019, page 158, reviewed in Nonviolent News 282 https://www.innatenonviolence.org/readings/2020_09.shtml

(*8) Ibid, page 13.

(*9) Translated from Hugues Colle in “Non-violence politique”, No.60, June 1983; the same definition was used by Gene Sharp.

(*10) https://www.mkgandhi.org/nonviolence/phil8.htm

(*11) E-mail information from Yurii Sheliazhenko and also https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/26/russian-soldiers-release-ukraine-towns-mayor-and-agree-to-leave-after-protests

(*12) Basil Liddell Hart in Civilian Resistance as a National Defence”, ed. Adam Roberts, Pelican, 1969, pages 239-240.

(*13) Gene Sharp, “The Politics of Nonviolent Action”, 3 volumes, Porter Sargent, 1973.

(*14) Johansen and Martin, 2019, page 56.

(*15) Defence without the Bomb: The report of the Alternative Defence Commission” (Britain), page 229, Taylor and Francis, 1983.

(*16) Quoted in “What to do about Hitler – a pacifist symposium”, privately published by Philip Dransfield, England, 1989.

(*17) “Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflictby Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare, 320 pages, and online article from International Security”, Vol.33, No.1, Summer 2008, pages 7-44 for which word search ‘stephan chenoweth civil resistance’. ‘Readings in Nonviolence’ in Nonviolent News 277 https://www.innatenonviolence.org/readings/2020_03.shtml gives a review summary.

(*18) Ibid, pages 8 – 9 of online article.

(*19) Ibid, page 10

(*20) Gene Sharp, “Social power and Political Freedom”, page 167, Porter Sargent, 1980.

(*21) Gene Sharp, “From Dictatorship to Democracy”, pages 39-40, Serpent’s Tail, London, 2012; this is his work most associated with the ‘Arab Spring’ and it has appeared in various editions and languages.

(*22) Helen Steven in No alternative? Nonviolent responses to repressive regimes”, ed. John Lampen, page 110, Williams Sessions Ltd, 2000. Incidentally, East Timor is one of the cases considered by Stephan and Chenoweth.

Another short work worth looking out for is “Capital defence: Social defence for Canberra”, a 72 page pamphlet written by Jacki Quilty. Lynne Dickins, Phil Anderson and Brian Martin”, Canberra Peacemakers, 1986, which is a clear and concise exploration of possibilities in a particular, Australian, context.

A significant amount of the material above is from the 1980s and 1990s because there was more of a focus on the issue at that time – however it is also an idea whose time is coming again.

Readings in Nonviolence: Irish statements about the war on Ukraine

So many words have been written and spoken about the Russian invasion of Ukraine that it is impossible to give an adequate summary. Amid almost universal condemnation and an extreme amount of bellicosity there are some that point out the hypocrisy of ‘the west’ in totally opposing “someone’s else’s” war while engaging in warfare and preparation for warfare, and being uncritical of their own warlike actions. The following is our selection of statements and letters from groups and individuals in Ireland who support a peaceful resolution; these are mainly extracts from statements rather than the whole statement.

– On 18th February, before Russia had invaded Ukraine, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire issued an open letter to Presidents Biden and Putin. “…….People of the world are afraid and many depressed. They need hope. They need to believe in themselves and others. They need a ‘light of peace’. People need to see there are people of love and courage who take risks for ‘humanity’ and follow their conscience to do the right thing. Please, Mr. Presidents, be such a light in a dark and dangerous world. Give the people hope.

Please meet each other in friendship and in respect for each other, and the sake of the great peoples of your countries, USA and Russia. Such a meeting of fraternity amongst the leaders of your nations would give hope to millions – especially young people who inherit a world so much in need of peace and reconciliation and based on love and respect……” http://www.peacepeople.com/open-letter-to-presidents-biden-and-putin/

– The Irish Anti-War Movement said “The Irish Anti War Movement (IAWM) condemns the invasion of Ukraine this morning by the Russian military and we send solidarity to the people of Ukraine at this dangerous time. We also stand with those people in Russia and Ukraine who want diplomacy and peace instead of war.

This is a completely unjustified invasion by Russia but not totally unprovoked. We have heard much in the western media about extensive western diplomacy. With the exception of efforts by the French and German Governments this is not true. Other NATO members, particularly the US and Britain, have been stoking tensions if not conducting open warmongering. They have refused point blank to consider Russia’s genuine security concerns about the further eastward expansion of NATO. They have sent military arsenal to Ukraine and troops to neighbouring NATO countries.  They withdrew their monitors in the OSCE from Eastern Ukraine weeks ago, the very people who could have advised of infringements of the ceasefire agreed under the Minsk 2 Agreement. It is clear that Governments of certain NATO countries want a war with Russia, albeit a proxy one using the Ukrainians as pawns……….” https://www.irishantiwar.org/

– Roger Cole of PANA, the Peace And Neutrality Alliance, stated “ the Peace and Neutrality Alliance is opposed to the illegal invasion and occupation of Ukraine by Russia in the same way as we opposed the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq by the US back in 2003. “Disputes around the legitimacy and the borders of nation states must be resolved in accordance with the UN Charter and international law, not by unilateral use of force.

PANA call for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces, alongside the resumption of diplomatic negotiations to resolve the crisis.

The situation in Ukraine is bringing the world to the brink of a nuclear war. No matter whose propaganda you believe, the USA and Russia have over 10,000 nuclear weapons between them. Never forget that a war fought with even 100 nuclear weapons will destroy human civilization as we know it and devastate all lifeforms on our planet.

The Irish government could play a genuine neutral role in this conflict;

Encourage a return to the Minsk II Accord, negotiated by France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) that recognized historical/cultural divisions and sought a political resolution.

US war planes continue to refuel at Shannon Airport, so how can we ensure that weapons transiting here don’t end up in the hands of militias and fascists, used to perpetrate war crimes such as the massacre at the Trade Unions House in Odessa, 2014.

This is an ideal time for our Minister of Foreign Affairs to advance Irish neutrality by de-escalating the warmongering, with an update on that old Irish Citizen Army slogan “We serve neither NATO nor Russia, but Ireland”. “ https://www.pana.ie/

– An Irish CND/Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament statement said “Many people across not just Europe but the entire world will have reacted with shock, fear, horror and even despair at the news that Russian armed forces have launched a multi-pronged attack on Ukraine. A major act of military aggression by a nuclear-armed power raises the prospect of huge civilian casualties and a humanitarian disaster for the population of Ukraine, even without the use of nuclear weapons. The real possibility that nuclear weapons could be engaged in any ongoing conflict risks damage to human life and the environment on an unprecedented, terrifying and utterly catastrophic level……..

Irish CND joins with our colleagues in the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and veiled threats to use nuclear weapons:“We urge the international community to strongly pressure Russia to engage in dialogue and diplomacy, to return to compliance with the UN Charter, respect international humanitarian and human rights law and join relevant treaties to reduce nuclear weapons risks, including the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”

Irish CND calls on the Irish government to use Ireland’s influence as a neutral country and as a member of the United Nations Security Council, to take a courageous, self-determined stance to promote peace through all available and appropriate international fora.“ http://irishcnd.blogspot.ie/

– In a statement Afri said “Afri condemns the Russian onslaught on Ukraine. Nothing can justify such aggressive action, nor can that action resolve any valid grievance. ……Afri does not believe that the rhetoric of ‘unshakable Western unity and solidarity’ is helpful, playing as it does into Putin’s hands by suggesting a united threat against Russia. The so-called ‘Security Architecture’ resulting from the EU’s alignment with NATO has tragically failed (not for the first time) to prevent war in our common European home. Our Government and our political establishment have acquiesced in so-called ‘threat diplomacy’ while weapons were poured by all sides into a conflict zone. Shamefully, some of those weapons may well have transited through Shannon airport.

It is nonsense to claim that we are ‘militarily non-aligned’ when we have made Shannon available to US forces, when we have colluded with every step of EU militarisation, and when we now plan to produce weapons to sell to yet more warzones.

Successive governments have betrayed our constitutional commitment, in Article 29, to peaceful settlement of international disputes under international law. Our Foreign and Defence Minister Coveney ignores the support of the vast majority of Irish people for genuine, active Neutrality. That grounds the condemnation of Russian aggression against Ukraine. It also informs our opposition to Israeli aggression against Palestine and Saudi aggression against Yemen, to mention just two current examples, both of them supported by the Western powers with which we are urged to align ourselves.” https://www.afri.ie/

Galway Alliance Against War (GAAW) stated “We oppose the invasion by Russia of the Ukraine. We are deeply concerned at the loss of life, which could have been prevented through negotiation. As we have seen in conflicts the world over, most recently in Afghanistan, at the end of the day negotiations will have to take place. The way forward is for Russia to cease its military actions, withdraw its troops and for representatives of all the countries of Europe to come together and negotiate a European peace settlement.

It has to be made clear that if NATO had kept to its 1991 agreement with Soviet President Gorbachev  and not sought to expand eastwards, this conflict would never have arisen. NATO like the Warsaw Pact should have disbanded. Washington’s duplicity lies at the heart of this crisis. Its plan to surround Russia on its borders with NATO bases and missiles pose a genuine threat to that country. This needs to be recognised. We must all recognise that no country, most especially the USA, would countenance enemy bases and missile sites on its borders.

In late 2021 Moscow formally presented to its US counterpart a peace treaty. What it got in return was an avalanche of anti-Russian propaganda, which was subsequently parroted by many Western European governments, including Ireland. This does not justify Russia’s invasion of its neighbour. Nevertheless, these peace proposals need to be treated seriously by all the countries in Europe, those within the EU and those outside it.

What we demand from the government in Dublin is that it act like the neutral country we are and seek a peaceful resolution to this conflict. The crux of this conflict is guaranteeing the security of all European countries, including the Ukraine and Russia. There is little doubt in our minds that the dissolution of the NATO war alliance must be top of the agenda.

This appalling invasion is not in the interests of the people of the Ukraine nor the countries of Europe, which Russia is also an integral part. This crisis is only to the advantage of the USA and in particular its parasitical arms industry.

It is time for all the European states, East and West, to assemble and work out a peaceful resolution.” https://www.facebook.com/groups/312442090965

Adi Roche, Founder and Voluntary CEO of Chernobyl Children International, invoked the Hague Conventions on the conduct of war, appealing to all warring forces in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, not to make the Radioactive Chernobyl Exclusion Zone a Zone of War.

‘I appeal on behalf of all humanity, but mostly on behalf of the citizens of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, and indeed on behalf of the citizens of Europe, to the warring armies, under the Hague Conventions, that the highly contaminated area around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, with its thousands of tons and gallons of highly radioactive material, not be targeted, or used as areas of shelling, bombardment, and ground fighting.

My worst nightmare in this conflict is that the tragedy of the Chernobyl disaster could be re-released on the world.  I fear that this area, a sacred area, an area of utter vulnerability and danger, a special area of human tragedy, could once again, have deadly radioactive contamination released, which would spread everywhere, like a great and uncontrollable monster.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has vast silos of nuclear waste and water, which are highly dangerous and volatile.  Along with hundreds of shallow ‘nuclear graves’, which are scattered throughout the Exclusion Zone, holding the contents of thousands of houses, machinery, buses and trucks, all of which have been buried there to keep the radiation underground. Should a bomb, missile, a shot-down plane or helicopter crash into this area, the consequences could be disastrous.

In the name of humanity, in the name of the children, please stop this war and declare the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone as a ‘No War Zone’.” https://www.chernobyl-international.com/

World Beyond War Ireland said “…..Wars start on the battlefield but end at the diplomacy table, so we call for an immediate return to diplomacy and international law.

Russia’s unjustifiable military response, however, is still a response to something. So when considering a way out of this situation, and that is surely what we all want, we must consider all the players who contributed to the passage to this point. If we want to retrace our steps from destroying lives to creating a climate of peace where lives can be lived then we must all ask ourselves questions. What do we cheer for from our own couches? What do our elected officials call for in our name and in the name of our security? ….

We are now hearing the international community’s, including the Irish Government’s, justified outrage over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But why was there, and why is there, no such outrage on behalf of the peoples of Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere? What is this outrage going to be used to justify? Another crusade style war? More dead children and women? ……

In accordance with its apparent ethics, Ireland should also withdraw from military cooperation with any of the players in this amoral situation. It should end all NATO cooperation, and deny use of its territories to all foreign militaries immediately. Let’s hold warmakers to the rule of law in the place where it should be done, the courts. Only a neutral Ireland can have such a positive effect in the world. “

– In a letter to the papers John Maguire said “Please don’t anyone tell me yet again that we should embed further with NATO-compatible EU structures such as PESCO. Or that we should consider formally joining NATO – our ‘sophisticated security partners’ (Defence Green Paper 2013). Or that we should now be conveying lethal weapons into the conflict in Ukraine.

Please just tell me how any of the above is compatible with our Peace Process’s bedrock of ‘exclusively democratic and peaceful means of resolving differences’, or our Constitution’s commitment to ‘the pacific settlement of international disputes by international arbitration or judicial determination’ (Article 29), or the UN Charter’s primary task ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’.”

– Also in a letter to the papers Edward Horgan said “Some commentators have been using the tragedy of the Ukraine conflict to attack those who have been promoting neutrality and peace. Words like hypocrisy have been bandied about. Criticising the criminality and recklessness of Russia is fully justified, and all genuine peace activists do so, but one dare not mention the wars and sanctions (in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen) that have cost the lives of up five million people since the first Gulf War in 1991, including the deaths of about one million children due to war related reasons. Daring to mention these gets one accused of ‘ah but whataboutery’. Our adopted Irish/American leaders can do no wrong. Bill Clinton was US president when NATO attacked Serbia in breach of the UN Charter in 1999. Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and went on to order drone attacks and targeted assassinations that killed thousands of innocent civilians. Joe Biden as US vice-president actively supported the US wars in the Middle East. All illegal killing and all wars are dreadful. Is it not hypocrisy to focus only on Russian breaches of international laws that are killing Europeans, while playing down or ignoring equally serious, or more serious, breaches of international laws by the US and NATO, when such illegal regime-change wars have caused the deaths of so many non-Europeans? All lives matter. These Middle East wars and NATO’s expansion up to Russia’s borders have been a significant background factor, but not justification, for Russian criminality. Neutrality should have been the solution for the Ukrainian crisis.”

In a statement StoP/Swords to Ploughshares network stated “Swords to Ploughshares (StoP) condemns Russian military aggression against Ukraine. This Russian attack on Ukraine is a violation of international law and is having devastating consequences in the form of death and destruction for the people of Ukraine. We also express our solidarity with those courageous citizens of Russia who have taken to the streets to protest Putin’s war on Ukraine.


This aggression demonstrates the dangers of military confrontation and competition between two military blocs armed with nuclear weapons, NATO and Russia. NATO’s eastward expansion since the end of the Cold War has undermined security for the people of Europe and has created the context for Putin’s aggression against Ukraine. NATO, like all military alliances, has provided the conditions for war rather than preventing its occurrence.

We must resist efforts to use Russian aggression against Ukraine as an excuse for supporting Ireland’s ongoing collusion with the U.S. and NATO through the use of Shannon airport by the U.S. military, as an opportunity to increase Ireland’s involvement with EU militarisation, and to boost weapons production anywhere on the island of Ireland. It is important to protect Irish neutrality as a basis for the peaceful resolution of conflict in accordance with Article 29 of the Irish constitution and the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement…….” https://www.facebook.com/SToP-111249554830507/ and https://www.swordstoploughshares-ireland.com/

Amnesty International has been monitoring and publicising human rights abuses in the war including the use of cluster munitions in an attack on a preschool in north-eastern Ukraine which was hit on the morning of 25th February while civilians took shelter inside, killing three of them, including a child, and wounding another child. https://www.amnesty.ie/russia-cluster-munitions-kill-child/

Readings in Nonviolence: A rehearsal for reality – An interview with Karen McFarlane

Art and peace series

Karen McFarlane has been involved in community relations and social theatre for years. She works with Partisan Productions, a professional Theatre and Film production company (core funded by CRC and ACNI) committed to creating socially engaged art working with communities on social and political issues.

Interview conducted by Stefania Gualberti

Stefania – How did your background and experiences lead to your involvement in social theatre?

Karen – None of it was intended. Everything happened – for a reason – accidentally. I did my degree in English and film studies. My focus at school when younger was science based. My mum died when I was 16 which didn’t impact on me consciously for a long time, but later I realised that it completely changed my focus and direction more toward the arts.

I have been very lucky in my career. My first full time job after graduating was with the first branch of Waterstones in Belfast. Setting it up from a shell of a building to a fully functioning book store and I was put in charge of running the Children’s section which I really enjoyed as I had become a mum during my time at University. I progressed well for a number of years but became disillusioned as it moved from the love of books and recommendations to the realisation that money making was paramount to the organisation. It wasn’t my cup of tea. After a few changes in the book trade I then became redundant and unemployed for many months – it was a difficult time.

I eventually found an ad in the paper looking for unemployed women to take part in a film training programme – friends and family thought it sounded dodgy but I went for it anyway and it opened up a number of opportunities for me. It was a training course for film festival management, being run by Cinemagic under the auspices of The Nerve Centre. It was a year-long programme studying every aspect of managing and running a film festival. It was a really enjoyable art programme that tied into my degree in English and Film Studies. The festival exposed young people to foreign movies and offered opportunities to attend workshops with actors, directors, writers etc.

Most of the audience would have been children brought by schools or sometimes by parents, but they would have been mostly middle class pupils and families. I was more interested in trying to reach less privileged young people and eventually went from administrator in Cinemagic to Outreach coordinator, which was the start of what I am doing now in many ways. I was bringing projector, screen, films by taxis and buses out to different community centres, traveller camps, youth clubs etc showing films, talking about films and giving the young people access to films they wouldn’t see anywhere else. Most of the children I was interested to reach out to would have never been to the cinema to see any films.

When funding ran out for my post, I started to work in Ballynafeigh Community Development Association (BCDA) surprisingly as I hadn’t had a community development background. We were looking at Ballynafeigh as a shared neighbourhood working with other communities in Northern Ireland who identified as shared and what lessons we could all learn from each other particularly in a post conflict society. As part of that project, we employed Partisan Productions to do a piece of Forum Theatre and that was the start of my interest in social theatre. It was a very difficult project negotiating the conflicts between the needs of the community and the artistic aesthetic. One example of the issue tackled was of flags going up in a neighbourhood which was supposed to be shared.

Forum theatre terrified me at first. A short piece of theatre is constructed, in this case 45 minutes long, which brings up the issues that have been researched with people in advance (through interviews or workshops in the community). This production was called “Stevie’s Big Game” and focused on shared neighbourhood issues. In forum theatre after the piece has been played for the audience, it is played again and the audience is asked if they want to change anything, find solutions. You are completely reliant on audience participating and they can decide to shout some suggestions from their seats or get up on stage and replace the actor in acting solutions to the problem they are facing. Every night in the side wings we were worried that nobody would get up, but every night we were inundated really.

In every experience I always found that there is somebody willing to get up, to give it a go and try this format and it astounded me every time. In this format of forum theatre there is a figure called a joker which interfaces between the audience and the character on stage. They are the ones who will encourage the audience to participate, at least to start shouting suggestions about what they want to happen and then encourage people to get up on stage. Sometimes you would have people who are reluctant to get up on stage but never to shout out suggestions. We will never force anyone to get up on stage or do something they wouldn’t feel comfortable doing. Even if you end up in a discussion you are still looking at issues and finding solutions. After this experience I trained in Dundalk on Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed which forum theatre is an integral part of.

Stefania What do you feel is special about art and especially theatre to transform conflict, connect and build peace?

Karen – Forum theatre is very powerful. At the time when I was first involved with social theatre, we were doing some work with young people. The relaxed atmosphere that they brought to the show was hilarious. They all brought lots of sweets, crisps, juice but they were really engaged. The issues they chose were very different from the ones the adults chose. Their sense of morality was very different. There was a scene where there was a potential affair happening between two people, flirting and the young people were outraged, they hated it: if you are married to one person you can’t be flirting with another. The issue never came up with the adults.

From the ridiculous to the more sublime; the flag issues. There was a scene where the main character is trying to sell his mothers house and he doesn’t have an issue with the flag per se as he is from the same background, but the flag going up is going to affect the price of the house. When the kids were asked what they would do in that situation one of them suggested the use of physical violence. When he was invited on stage to perform it, he knew he was going to look ridiculous if he tried to hurt the actor, so he engaged him in a conversation. He had to try and find different ways. Just this example for me showed how powerful this format is. The conversation didn’t go as he had thought it was going to go, he had to think what else can I do here? He realized he had different options.

Stefania – How can socially engaged theatre help tackle racism and sectarianism locally or build relationships?

Karen –The idea of tackling racism and sectarianism is very funding lead. There is a certain amount of dishonesty that comes with that. Because you can’t tackle sectarianism and racism doing just a workshop. You need continuous work and you need to be able to build relationships and chip away at some of these issues, then you have some hope. I don’t know if the young person I was talking about earlier had a positive impact from participating in our project, but I know his life turned around. I can’t tell you if it had an impact on him at all, but I would like to think that maybe it did.

I think we all need to think about the language we use when doing this work. For instance we have been working with a group called ‘Stop Attacks’. We are all familiar with the term ‘punishment beatings’, but this has all sorts of connotations, not least that the young people deserve the violence that is used to control and manipulate them. It is ultimately child abuse though and we are working with this group to bring awareness about the brutality and coerciveness of such practices.

Social theatre gives you a way of building relationships and looking at things from different perspectives. It offers you the opportunity to realise there are always different options and choices.

Five or six years ago, there was a theatre production we did in East Belfast, “East Belfast Boy”; a traditional piece of theatre based on community research and what young men were experiencing in the area. Young men on the 12th of July with their aspirations and/or lack of aspirations.

East Belfast boy” was very successful, we had to turn people away every night. We don’t charge for tickets. Sometimes we work on donations but mostly is just free in. Board members didn’t even get in to see it, we really didn’t expect to have so many people. It was a massive success. It was only a couple of years later we were told a couple of the men working in the community centre had a bet that nobody was going to show up to this theatre production in their area. They were gobsmacked and admitted that they were wrong and pleasantly surprised.

Stefania – Why did you think it was so successful?

A lot of the issues you find in one community are relevant to many other communities and are also rarely explored within the local areas. We make a real effort to transform buildings – in this instance a somewhat dilapidated community centre – into what looks and feels like a real theatre which impacts on the local community and creates a word of mouth pull to our events. This was also part of the Eastside festival which helped.

A journalist (Robert) came along and wrote an article in the Irish News. His story says everything about what we are trying to do. He talked about coming into the venue to see the show and almost turning his car away as in the area there are murals, flags and is very well identified as a unionist, loyalist area which made him feel very uncomfortable. He made himself overcome the fear and went in anyway. The article said how fantastic the show was, but the most important thing was about his experience. After going in he met a person from the Arts Council, myself and the writer/director Fintan and some of the people from the community centre. As he walked out, he realized he had left the programme behind and he went back to get it and he describes it as “it felt like going home” because he had met such nice people and felt so welcomed there. His opinion of what he was about to experience had completely changed. To me that says everything about the power of art, and how transformative it can be.

Stefania – How do you overcome the barriers in groups especially people who would not consider themselves as actors or theatre experts?

Karen –There are a lot of barriers when it comes to theatre as it is surrounded by snobbery. There are rigid rules in theatre but in our projects, we try to make it accessible. I am not suggesting that our projects would make people go to the theatre more, but we bring the theatre to them.

We always present the productions in the community, but we try to transform the space into a theatre space. We worked in West Belfast- Poleglass- on a show about suicide, there was an epidemic in the area at the time amongst young men in particular. “I Never See the Prettiest Thing” was staged at the Brook recreation centre, a massive sport centre in the middle of the community, and we completely transformed the space. We brought in a full light kit, projectors for digital imaging, full set and staging and made it as professional as we possibly could. Another journalist interviewed us and said I didn’t even know this theatre existed. She thought she was in a real theatre. We like to transform spaces. 99% of our audience would have never been to a show so it is important for our audience to see something in their area which has changed the community into something different.

Stefania – How do you think the creative process can help healing trauma at both individual and collective levels?

Karen – I have real difficulty with this question because I’m not sure that it can. There are obviously art therapists who do fantastic work. And art can be very therapeutic and can be used to help people overcome trauma. We would never claim that we do that. There are some processes that claim to be healing trauma and I feel very uncomfortable with that, as I think they can potentially re-traumatise people. In our workshops we are always careful that people are not playing themselves and if someone wants to bring their story, we are careful that somebody else would play the character to create that distance. To understand you have different choices in life, you need some sort of distance. If you are emotionally involved, it is very difficult to come up with options. I know some people use art and theatre as a form of therapy, but it is not our approach.

The intention is not healing trauma but I am aware in the piece we did about suicide the audience were very affected but in a positive way. We had comment cards and everyone came back with positive feedback about the show and on how people related to experiences of suicide somewhere in their lives, family or friends. One of the youth groups that came along to the production said that even if a lot of young people had experiences of suicide, they were never able to talk about it before the show but did talk openly after. Social theatre has the power to make people more aware and create opportunity for discussion. If it makes a difference to some of the participants and audiences that’s good enough for me.

Stefania – Is there a particular project or engagement that you want to talk about in relation to this conversation on art and peacebuilding?

Karen – I have named quite a few. One takes us to a different level. Before the pandemic we worked with young men and what makes some of them join paramilitary organisations and we had really started getting into the depth of some of the issues. We had a show called “Time of my life”. The Department of Justice became really interested in this piece of theatre as some of them came to see it in the community organisations. They and PSNI funded us to tour it. In 2019 we went to Newtownabbey, Dundonald, Carrickfergus, and other community organisations. The plan was to take it into the North-West, Derry was interested but because of the pandemic we had to cancel it.

It looked at how little some of these lads have a lack of hopes, lack of aspirations, education system letting them down, community organisations letting them down. Debt and drugs being massive issues that lead them into getting involved with paramilitaries. We also collaborated with the youth detention centre.

We looked at all of these issues during the discussions after the performance and it was very interesting to look at the different perspectives the various audiences had. When we invited statutory bodies to participate, their input was very different from the young people in the community centres. It indicated the massive gap between the perspectives of what happens on the ground and the perception of statutory bodies. They are trying to influence the issues which are very far from their reality. The people from the local community could watch, laugh, empathise. The statutory body would sympathise but felt they couldn’t laugh. The suggestions on what can be done were more effective from the community, while the statutory bodies were confined to policy issues. The relationship is top-down. It’s a pity the programme was interrupted but fingers crossed we will be able to continue because it had a real potential to impact on both the community level and on policy.

Stefania – Could you share some of the learnings you have encountered in your years of experience?

Karen – One of the learnings is about how a lot of the problems we are trying to deal with are systemic. How can we influence policy? That’s tricky, it is not easy to do, and you need to know how the system works to have an impact on it. That is probably a challenge and a learning for the future.

In Forum theatre we talk a lot about power. Who has power? When we are doing our workshops, we deal with power at a very basic interpersonal level, it is not legislative theatre which tries to impact on policy.

To go back to the language used -often the discourse goes towards “we are all be the same, we are all human”. That really annoys me. We are not all the same, and we shouldn’t. We should celebrate the differences. I was asked to do some workshops in a diverse parent group. They all lived in the same area and their kids go to the same school. The kids play with each other and have no issues with diversity, the parents didn’t know how to talk with each other. Do I say hello to the woman with the scarf? With the fear to offend, we do not communicate.

I think we need some more honesty with this kind of work as none of these issues are going away any time soon.

One learning that I think we all forget too often is how important it is to have fun with what we are doing. Working with Women’s Groups taught me this more than anything. The groups tend to come into the room talking about their worries – caring for children, grandchildren, lack of money, health issues etc. And for the short time they are concentrating on the games and exercises in a workshop they forget about all of that and have fun. As adults we forget how much we learn from enjoying ourselves.

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Readings in Nonviolence:

The excuse of job creation in military investments: the case of Spain

Introduction

This piece is being used here for several reasons. As the Irish state strongly backs military production in Ireland (Northern Ireland is even better linked to the military-industrial complex) a counterweight to their spurious arguments is needed. And one of the most important points – for those thinking in terms of jobs – is that investment in military production is a poor, indeed pathetic, job creator; just look at the figures quoted below. This should be noted aside from questions of morality and selling weapons to countries which cannot afford them and may use them for nefarious purposes. And the arms industry is notoriously corrupt; bribing politicians to buy particular armaments is not only corrupt but deeply, deeply reprehensible at every level.

We thought it would also be interesting to take this Spanish example, a country about whose army and arms industry most people in Ireland – and elsewhere – probably know little. But it portrays and analyses a typical example of many believing the hype which is touted about the military and arms production.

From Pressenza International Press Agency https://www.pressenza.com/2021/11/the-excuse-of-job-creation-in-military-investments/ accessed via Transcend Media Service

When the General State Budget is presented, the Minister of Defence of the day insists that the multimillion-dollar expenditure dedicated to the purchase of armaments generates employment. But, as the authors point out, a comparison of the jobs created in the military and in other areas allows us to question the dominant narrative.

Military investments are usually justified by the jobs they create. The latest example is the army’s logistics base. Several municipalities competed to host the installation and, in the end, the Ministry of Defence decided to install it in Cordoba, as it was the option that offered the most advantages. The choice of this city as the site of the base has had the support of all the city’s political, economic and university sectors. Even the political left has joined the municipal initiative with little debate. The initiative has not been questioned, at least not publicly.

The base is part of the plan for the Concentration of the Army’s Central Logistical Organs, which aims to concentrate the current twelve army logistical centres into three. It is estimated that the future Cordoba base will require an investment of 350 million euros. The Cordoba City Council approved an allocation of 28 million euros (with the corresponding modification of the municipal budget). The Andalusian regional government has pledged to contribute 100 million euros to the project. All this with the aim, they say, of “creating employment”.

It is very significant that, in the Moncloa press release announcing the construction of the base, a very visible box highlights that the base “will contribute to the creation of more than 1,600 jobs”.

When the General State Budget is presented, the Defence Minister of the day, whether from the PP or the PSOE, insists that the multi-million-dollar expenditure dedicated to the purchase of armaments generates employment. Job creation is also used to justify arms exports, even the most controversial ones. The military industry, and those who promote it, insist that their activity generates employment. All of this, surely, to counteract, silence or attenuate the majority rejection of arms manufacturing among the civilian population. Unfortunately, as a rule, they succeed.

Any industrial investment generates employment. But in many cases, this is not enough to justify certain activities, such as those that have undesirable impacts on people or the environment. Fortunately, on some occasions, projects have been stopped for precisely these reasons thanks to the denunciation and pressure of organised civil society.

A given investment in the health sector generates 2.8 times more jobs (almost three times more!) than the same amount invested in the military sector.

Every economic actor, including the military, should be accountable to society for its activities. And while it is true that military investments generate employment, the harmful effects on people and the environment should be included in their assessment. We cannot forget the direct effects of the use of weapons (people killed, wounded, disabled, with physical and psychological consequences, etc., as well as serious damage to the environment). In addition, however, the promotion of the military industry increases the militarisation of society, so that armed and violent conflict resolution is encouraged instead of mediation and peaceful conflict resolution. And how does the military industry evaluate these pernicious effects – should it only take into account the jobs created? But even the military industry’s much-vaunted job creation is questionable; let’s look at it.

In a study by Heidi Garrett-Peltier, published by the Watson Institute at Brown University, employment multipliers are calculated for a million-dollar investment in different sectors, including the military sector. The results are compelling.

According to the study, for every million dollars of investment in the military sector, 5.8 jobs would be generated in the military industry and another 1.1 indirect jobs, most of which would be jobs associated with the supply chain. That is a total of 6.9 jobs per million of investment.

In contrast, if the same investment were made in the renewable energy sector, a total of 8.4 jobs would be created in the case of wind energy and 9.5 in the case of solar energy. Retrofitting to improve energy efficiency would provide 10.6 jobs for every $1 million of investment.

Infrastructure investment (construction of streets, roads, bridges, schools, public buildings, etc.) would create 9.8 jobs per $1 million.

Job creation in the education and health sectors is even higher. Thus, for each million dollars of investment, 14.3 jobs would be generated if the investment were directed towards health and 19.2 if the investment were made in primary and secondary education.

In other words, according to the study, a given investment in the health sector generates 2.8 times as many jobs (almost three times as many!) as the same amount invested in the military sector.

Thus, according to this report, if the objective of an investment is job creation, investments in the military sector are the worst option. It is surprising that this fact is not taken into account in the discussion of military investments.

In Spain, the arms industry plays an important role. In recent decades, Spain has been one of the world’s largest arms exporters. According to Sipri data, Spain was the seventh largest arms exporter in the period 2016-2020. But its export activity in other sectors is not so relevant; according to World Bank data, Spain is the 16th largest exporter in the world.

Why does the Spanish state occupy such a prominent role in arms exports while it lags behind in exports as a whole? The answer lies in the notorious support given to arms exports by the different governments, whether of the PP or the PSOE. This support has even included the direct intervention of the Royal Household. The arms industry is therefore a matter of state. Surely, being among the main arms exporters is of geostrategic value for Spain and gives it international prestige among its allies. It is not, therefore, only a question of job creation.

Let us remember that some of these exports, such as those to Saudi Arabia, are particularly controversial and have been denounced by several organisations, which believe that they should be considered illegal under Spanish and European legislation on arms exports. And we cannot forget the corruption related to the arms trade; we cite as an example the case of the Defex company (51% state-controlled through SEPI) selling arms to Saudi Arabia.

Public investments should pursue the public good and the improvement of people’s lives and the preservation (and repair) of the environment. Investing in sectors such as education, health, renewable energy and infrastructure would satisfy the needs and demands of the population and generate many more jobs than the same investment in the military industry. Moreover, military investments cause an opportunity cost, i.e. they reduce the benefits that would be obtained if the investment were directed to other sectors that would create more jobs.

Moreover, do we really need so many weapons? The recent pandemic has highlighted the weakness of the health, care and education sectors in Spain. Would it not be more beneficial for the population to invest in these sectors rather than in the military sector? Given the current situation, immersed in a social and environmental crisis, would it not be more appropriate to invest in housing rehabilitation, the installation of renewable energies, the hiring of more teachers and health personnel? In this way, in addition to generating more jobs, it would improve people’s quality of life.

– – – – – –

Readings in Nonviolence

Looking back to look forward

Introduction

As campaigning on the ecological crisis continues apace at the time of COP26, we thought it relevant to share a section from the WRI/War Resisters’ International Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns, specifically a section on studying particular campaigns in order to learn from them – and, as stated below, it can also be used in advance to mark issues which need considered in organising a campaign.

Some campaigns are, of course, small and limited rather than societal, national or international in scale. The extent to which some of the questions below are relevant will vary but that is fine. We can see what is relevant and reflect on those. And if we don’t ask the right questions we certainly can’t arrive at the ‘right’, or most appropriate, answers.

INNATE is also currently doing some work on Irish peace movement history, admittedly – given its resources – in a very limited way, and the questions here can be relevant for any political campaign.

This Handbook contains enough wisdom and practical advice to last us, and challenge us, for a very long time. It is available on the WRI website at https://www.nonviolence.wri-irg.org/en/resources/2008/nonviolence-handbook and paper copies can also be ordered.

Campaign case study guide

It is important to document campaigns so people can learn from them. Just as we have learned from the nonviolent campaigns of people throughout time and around the world, documenting our own struggles and stories may help people in other times and places. This guide, created for WRI’s Nonviolent Social Empowerment case studies, can be used by an individual or group to determine the information needed to construct a case study of a campaign. This guide can also be used to remind us of what we need to consider in organising a campaign.

Overview

  • Nature of the campaign – what was/is the issue? when did it start/finish?

  • Geographical and (brief) historical context

  • Participants – who (analysis of class, race/ethnic, gender, religious group, age, sexuality, ability, other) – did this change at different phases of the movement?

Chronology

  • Starting point

  • Were there (have there been) distinct phases?

  • Were there particular moments of expansion?

  • What were the peaks?

  • What were other key events?

Nonviolence

  • Was there a public profile of wanting to avoid violence?

  • Was there a declared public policy of nonviolence?

  • If so, what was meant by nonviolence?

  • Was there consensus around this? What kind of differences around this?

  • What measures were taken to implement a policy of nonviolence?

  • Was there nonviolence training? Were there nonviolence guidelines?

  • Was the campaign seen as shifting the values of society more towards nonviolence?

  • Were there particular sources of inspiration for types of action or ways of organising?

Means

  • What use was made of official channels, lobbying, electoral processes, constitutional mechanisms, and with what impact?

  • How was the mainstream media used?

  • What role or influence did they have?

  • How did they try to develop or use their own public media or alternative media? With what impact?

  • Did the campaign try to establish alternatives? Were they meant to be temporary or permanent? What happened?

  • What kind of means did they use to build a movement culture or sense of connectedness? To what effect?

  • Did they use withdrawal of cooperation as a tactic? At what stage? With what effect?

  • Did they try to directly disrupt of obstruct an activity they were campaigning against? At what stage? With what focus? With what participation? With what effect?

  • How did they use conventional means of protest? How did they combine them with other methods?

Organisation

  • Did the campaign agree on a formal structure?

  • What informal structures played an important role?

  • Was the campaign concerned to have a participatory structure of organisation and decision-making? If so, how were people trained in the process?

  • How did the campaign link with other groups/movements?

  • What importance did you give to coalition-building? With what criteria for alliances?

  • How did the campaign address the needs of activists to learn, to grow, to rest, to sustain their commitment?

  • How did the campaign address the possible contradiction between the needs of security and the desire for participation?

  • What kind of repression did the movement expect to face? What provision did they make to support the people most affected?

  • Did the campaign have a clear time frame and concept of strategic development?

  • How did the campaign develop its resources (human, social, economic)?

Goals and outcomes

  • What were the initial goals?

  • How have the goals evolved? Why?

  • Was it an aim to empower participants? In what way?

  • How were the goals framed – e.g. with what type of slogan?

  • Was there the flexibility to revise goals, e.g. to respond to particular events, or to build on success?

  • How did they expect the institution holding power of those who ‘benefit’ from being dominant to change? (e.g. to be converted, to accommodate some of your demands, to be coerced into accepting the demands, or to disintegrate/dissolve)

  • To what extent did they achieve their goals? – short, medium, long term

  • With what side effects? – positive and negative

  • Did their adversary make any mistakes that significantly helped their cause?

Empowerment

All the questions have some kind of link with empowerment. This concluding section returns to some themes but with more focus. Answers need to encompass the dimensions of power within, power- with and power-in-relation to.

  • Who was empowered? to be or do what? (to join in, to share responsibility, to take

initiative, to maintain their activism)

  • What contributed to this sense of empowerment? (e.g. training, group confidence,

achieving strategic goals)

  • How did the experience of different phases of a movement affected the sense of

empowerment?

  • What about people involved who did not feel empowered?

  • How were strategies of empowerment discussed / constructed? personal, group,

social?

  • Was any participant/group disempowered – how? How did this effect the campaign?

  • Nature of the campaign – what was/is the issue? when did it start/finish?

  • Geographical and (brief) historical context

  • Participants – who (analysis of class, race/ethnic, gender, religious group, age, sexuality, ability, other) – did this change at different phases of the movement?