nonviolence

Guest post by Jennifer Kuiper of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. FOR is partnering nationally and locally with Peaceful Tomorrows to support La'Onf.

Today in Iraq, there is a growing movement of citizens pursuing an end to violence, occupation and corruption through nonviolent means. La’Onf is a network of men and women and over 100 Iraqi organizations, from across the country and across religious and ethnic groups, who have joined together to promote nonviolence as the most effective way to struggle for an independent, democratic, and peaceful Iraq.

Starting TOMORROW October 11, La’Onf members will hold their 3rd annual campaign, the Iraqi Week of Nonviolence, in which they will advocate through nonviolent action for measures to ensure the freedom and security of Iraqis who will exercise their right to vote during Iraq’s upcoming provincial elections.

Tomorrow, Mahatma Gandhi's birthday will be observed and honored across the globe through the International Day of Nonviolence, as initiated by the United Nations. Just a few months before his assassination, which occurred exactly 60 years ago (January 30, 1948), Gandhi delivered a rare speech in English that was recorded. It is one of only two of his speeches delivered in English which is known to have been preserved in audio form (many of his public speeches were given in Hindi or regional Indian dialects), and until recently was basically unknown. Click here to read about that speech and to find a link to listen to it.

This summer, I had the great opportunity to meet George Lakey, someone who is renowned in the peace and justice community for his lifetime of activism and his teachings. George and I were both speakers at the 2008 Seabeck conference in the Seattle, Washington, area. He had just been announced as the awardee for this year's Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize, so there was a special connection when we met, and just a few weeks later we reconnected via the phone to talk more about his work through the years.

With the world's eyes on the conflict between Russia and Georgia during the past few days, I've heard from two friends who have a special connection to that region. Both of them have joined the chorus of voices appealing for a stronger role of the international community to stopping the fighting -- while the two nations have officially ceased hostilities at this time, there are strong allegations that some Russian forces are continuing to foment violence in the disputed regions.

One, my closest friend during childhood, had just returned last week from a week-long musical singing tour of Georgia, which concluded only a couple days before the fighting began. He shared with me a blog that addresses Georgia and issues of civil society and news stories.

FOR is partnering with our long-time friends at September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows in an effort to support an innovative Iraqi nonviolence initiative.

LaOnf ("nonviolence" in Arabic) is organized by men and women across Iraq, from every ethnic and religious group. They are working to advocate "non-violence as the most effective way to struggle for an independent, democratic, peaceful Iraq." LaOnf has organized nonviolence trainings all around Iraq, and is preparing to hold the third annual Week of Nonviolence, in concert with upcoming regional elections this fall.

I just received the Spring/Summer issue of WIN magazine, the quarterly publication of the War Resisters League, one of our sister organizations, and it looks fantastic. Titled "Where To From Here?" the issue is a compilation of excerpts from some 90 interviews that WRL leaders did with a wide range of activists in the peace and justice movement, all across the United States, over the past year. What a resource!

I was particularly excited to see that my colleague Maryrose Dolezal, FOR's co-director of Youth & Militarism, was quoted in a couple places in the issue. In the section titled "What does (or what could) base-building look like in antiwar organizing?" Maryrose's quote is blown up in a large eye-catching font, and reads:

Today is the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, the long-time leader of the African National Congress and the first president of a democratic South Africa. He is to me -- as to so many millions of people -- one of the greatest heroes of the past century. I will proudly wear my Mandela t-shirt today!

Born in the late 1960s, I went to high school and college in the 1980s, and was swept up in the anti-apartheid movement that had taken over the peace and justice activist scene during that era. At home, my family's Episcopal Church had a sister relationship with an Anglican parish in the (then-)Diocese of Johannesburg helped lead me to deep involvement on campus (at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut).

From Friday through Sunday, June 20-22, 2008, the National Council (governing board) and national staff of the U.S. Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR-USA), held its semi-annual meeting in Nyack, New York. In response to the deepening political crisis in Zimbabwe and a call from FOR-Zimbabwe for support, FOR-USA issued the following statement by unanimous acclamation:

Earlier this year, on the sixth anniversary of the day that the first group of prisoners were incarcerated at the Guantanamo Bay camp in 2002, a couple hundred protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. Thirty-four of them then walked up the steps and engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience. They were arrested, and when that happened they did not provide the Capitol Police their "given" names but rather the names of individuals who have been held at Guantanamo for years and who have never received trial. They sought to be names and faces for the nameless and faceless.