Books

Jacqui Boulle, Lawrence Sibisi and Rob Goldman

Julio Quan

Julio Quan, originally from Guatemala, now works in Costa Rica. He was instrumental in the November 1988 consultations with the Nicaraguan government on social defence. The following are excerpts from an interview with Julio, as well as comments he made during various workshops on low intensity conflict and on applying social defence in Third World countries.

Vanessa Griffen

On 14 May 1987, the elected government of Dr Timoci Bavadra was forcibly removed by a military coup, led by then Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka. Bavadra's coalition government, consisting of the predominantly Indian-supported National Federation Party and the newly formed (1985) Fiji National Labour Party, represented the first substantial change in government since Fiji became independent in 1970.

Elzbieta Rawicz-Oledzka

Fernando Aliaga Rojas

Following his defeat in a national referendum, Chilean president General Augosto Pinochet was forced to call free presidential elections for 14 December 1989. The candidate of the democratic opposition, Patrício Aylwin, scored an easy victory over Pinochet's designated successor.
Fernando Aliaga Rojas works with Servicio Paz y Justicia both in Chile and at the international level.

Leung Wing Yue, Lau Bing Sum, and Liu Wei Ping

Narayan Desai

Narayan Desai has had a long experience with nonviolence -- his father was Gandhi's personal secretary, and Narayan was raised in Gandhi's ashram. Narayan lives at his own ashram, the Institute for Total Revolution, and at the time of conference was Chair of War Resisters' International. In his opening address to the Conference, he analysed four contemporary examples of Indian nonviolence.

I will talk about four recent cases of people's power and nonviolent action. Two can be considered successful, or at least immediate successes.

Jan Kavan, Ruth Sormova, and Michaela Neubauerova

Andrew Rigand Nafez Assaily

Maria Serena I Diokno

Maria Serena I Diokno is the executive director of the José W Diokno Foundation, a human rights organisation. As were most conference participants, she was heartened by the examples of nonviolent changes in Eastern Europe, but had a warning: the initial impulse of people's power must be organised and sustained if real change is to continue. Diokno was also sceptical about applying Western ideas about nonviolence and social defence to situations in the South.
Notes to the text:

Marko Hren

Marko Hren was active in the Ljubljana Peace Movement Working Group throughout the '80s and has recently been involved in setting up both a Centre for the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence and a Peace Research Institute. A member of the WRI Council, he initiated the campaign for Slovenia Without an Army.

Gene Sharp

Gene Sharp is president of the Albert Einstein Institution in Boston, Massachussetts, and is the author of numerous books on nonviolence and civilian-based defence.

What are the more likely ways by which a shift from military-based defence to a civilian-based defence system might be actually implemented? That question is the focus of this paper.