Nonviolence Training

Activists from Peace Action Wellington (PAW) organised two days of nonviolent direct actions against the annual Weapons Conference held in New Zealand (NZ) last November. Following their peaceful protests, dozens were arrested and taken to court. 26 activists returned to court on 18 February to defend their right to peaceful demonstration. As an outcome, 25 protesters are still facing charges and were remanded to appear again on 11th March.

“Every bomb that is dropped, every bullet that is fired, has to be made somewhere. And wherever that is, it can be resisted.”

Smash EDO

For anyone involved in anti-militarist campaigning, the Seeds of Hope action has almost mythical status. Not only as an extremely radical and inspiring action; but as an example of how a jury's verdict can be decided on moral grounds on the basis of trying to prevent a greater crime. I have been running direct action trainings for a few years and I don't think there's a single one where Seeds of Hope didn't get mentioned, and its reach extends far beyond the anti-militarist movement.

Originally published on WRI's antimili-youth.net website

Activists from Peace Action Wellington (PAW) organised two days of nonviolent direct actions against the annual Weapons Conference held in New Zealand (NZ) last November. Following their peaceful protests, 27 activists - 26 of whom keep fighting charges - were arrested and taken to court. On 18 February they are standing trial again, defending their right to peaceful demonstration for peace and justice.

Sending our solidarity messages to the activists in Wellington, we reached Valerie Morse from PAW and asked her about their campaign Stop the Weapons Conference as well as many other questions on militarism and the antimilitarist movement in New Zealand.

The second edition of the Handbook for Nonviolent for Campaigns was first released in English in 2014, at WRI's International Conference in Cape Town. The book has now been translated into Spanish via the support of a crowdfunding campaign, and is available from the WRI webshop here: http://www.wri-irg.org/node/24916

New Zealand is a place often associated with its nuclear-free position, and it rates highly on the global peace index. In spite of a relatively bucolic lifestyle downunder, New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, plays host to an annual weapons conference in November where about 550 delegates representing 165 companies converge for an annual weapons conference. Activists blockade the entrance to the weapons conference

War profiteering

We live in a world where people profit from war. In 2014, Global military expenditure was estimated to be $1776 billion. Lockheed Martin - the world's biggest arms company - sold more than $45.6 billion worth of equipment. The war in Iraq wrenched open the country's economy to contractors of all shapes and sizes.

Arms companies profit from every bomb that falls, and every bullet that's fired. Through occupation, companies have the opportunity to exploit cheap land and lax labour laws. Conflict zones give fossil fuel giants access to new resources to exploit. Militarism means that research funding goes towards developing weapons of war, not finding solutions to global challenges like climate change.

In October, War Resisters' International and our South Korean affiliate World Without War will host an international seminar with a specific focus on skill sharing for taking action against war profiteering. “Stopping the War Business” will take place on 16th and 17th October, in Seoul, South Korea. The seminar will be followed by nonviolence training, and then an action to oppose the ADEX arms fair, which will be taking place the following week.

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Planning and facilitating nonviolence training requires a range of tasks that a number of people should share.

First, campaign organisers need to be aware of when and what training is needed. Does the group need training in strategic campaign development or gender sensitivity? Is training needed to prepare a new group of people to participate in nonviolent actions or for an experienced group to achieve new skills? Do affinity groups need training in group process?

Once a decision is made to have a training, trainers are needed. As stated in 'Nonviolence Training', if trainers are not available, create a team of co-facilitators to do the training. This section has check-lists to help organise, plan, and facilitate trainings.

Organisers and trainers need to talk together before working on their own tasks. A lack of clarity and assumptions made by trainers or organisers can result in an ineffective training. A training can be an important opportunity to test plans, to find weaknesses in the group, or to bring more people into the process. A trainer must be open to those goals.

If the trainers are part of the group, they need to be clear about their role as trainers. While they understand the context, the group, the campaign, the action scenario, etc. better than an outside facilitator, trainers deeply involved in the work can have difficulty stepping into a different role; clarifying roles should help in that process.

The 'Nonviolent Campaigns' and 'Organising for Effective Nonviolent Actions' sections include information that can help trainers and organisers understand what they need to do and what they may need to train for.

 

The new handbook is available from the WRI webshop, here:

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At the 'Small Actions, Big Movements' conference in South Africa, War Resisters' International released the new edition of the 'Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns'. At a launch event, different contributors read from the handbook, described the inspiration behind creating a new edition, and explained their various contributions.

The handbook aims to show how a group can achieve their goals by developing a strategy (a plan as to how they will exert the necessary pressure to make change), before exploring what strategy looks like in reality. The handbook was written by over 30 people from countries all over the world, and aims to reflect and empower nonviolent activists internationally.

On 27 June, representatives of the Moroccan government have prohibited entry to 4 representatives of the Basque Support Network to the National Union of Saharawi Women. These were Rosa Baltar Cabo, Amaia Cabero Saizar and two colleagues from the United Kingdom. They travelled with the objective of building networks between the women of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic,territory illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975, and those residing in the refugee camps. In this visit they planned to exchange and share common learning about feminist solidarity.

The delegation from the Basque network denouces this ill-treatment of solidarity and friendship with the Saharawi people. “They were waiting for us, they knew we were travelling and they didn't even let us off the plane nor did they explain why they denied us entry.” Today is a clear example of how Morocco is opposed to the rights of women, and they intend to remain so. The Basque Support Network to the National Union of Saharawi Women affirms it will continue to work with women on both sides of the wall and makes a call to the international community to work together to put an end to Morocco's Occupation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Telephone contact: +34 619988945 (Rosa)

Ever asked yourself the question: what does it take to have successful nonviolence training? Nonviolence - people power for social change - takes many forms. Likewise, nonviolence traininga may take different approaches to provide individuals and groups tools to challenge social injustice.