Hey all,
for those who cannot wait to do something against war, there is a world-wide effort running right now again to stop money being spent on military actions.
The demilitarize.org webpage thankfully created a list with organizers and details of activities around the globe for you to join in and get more details:
http://demilitarize.org/action-events/
View full article » Category: Antimilitarism
Hey all,
for those who cannot wait to do something against war, there is a world-wide effort running right now again to stop money being spent on military actions.
The demilitarize.org webpage thankfully created a list with organizers and details of activities around the globe for you to join in and get more details:
http://demilitarize.org/action-events/
View full article » 
The situation in Syria is dire and saddening. From the outside there is not much insight into the situation itself still. And the insight we are getting is slowly turning into calls for war, either by spreading the horror stories from the killers themselves or by the Syrian National Council, who seems to be calling for armed resistance as well, which could only help multiply killers instead of stopping the murder.
Should that wish be fulfilled? Certainly not, past experience has shown that
a) the number of casualties will increase a lot when weapons are brought into the country and an open civil war is furthered.
Further b) the participation of civil society would diminuish and the success chance of the uprising, which is linked to the participation of the population would go down while at the same time offering the brutal Syrian government even more 'excuses' for military intervention against its own people.
Additionally c) it would strengthen Assad's narrative that the uprising is directed by foreign countries and therefore resistance would be a legitimate way of dealing with the 'terrorists'. View full article »
Interview with Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan on their current research on the power and superior efficiency of nonviolent protest: http://t.co/22HvAoc5
Some short snippets from the interview:
"nonviolent resistance campaigns were twice as likely to achieve success compared to their violent counterparts" "particularly against dictatorships, that nonviolent resistance is overwhelmingly more effective than armed struggle" "the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance is actually increasing over time (...) people are learning, not only that it works but how it works"
Here I present a video recording of a speech by Erica Chenoweth focusing on her research and that of others on why civil resistance works. Erica Chenoweth presents her findings including data on nonviolent resistance, creating a strong link between successful resistance against violence and using nonviolent methodology:
Here comes 15 minutes of a very insightful speech by Paul Chappell. This excerpt is mostly about the lengths, armies would go to to make people kill others and how many techniques, tricks and manipulations you actually need to achieve that. "What is the greatest problem of armies...? ... Keeping in mind armies have lots of problems, food, supply, logistics, recruiting... getting soldiers to kill is a big problem. But there is an even bigger problem... it is getting soldiers to die ... our flight response is far more powerful than our fight response. Most peoples natural reaction is to run away as far as they can as fast as they can."
You can find the full about an hour speech over here.
The effects of war are tremendous, me myself never having experienced one thankfully, those who do and speak out about it, are both courageous and changed by it.
Here some former soldiers from Serbia are exchanging short personal stories and statements about the aftermath of war for their personal lives:
Some former US combatants from USA speak about some more general issues, partly concentrating on the practice of redeployng, sending already traumatized soldiers back into combat zones: View full article »
Amidst the joyful scenes in Tripoli and the satisfaction that Gaddafi’s 40-year-old dictatorship rule has finally come to an end (so reminiscent of the initial joy that greeted the fall & execution of Saddam in Iraq!?), there are, at the same time, some serious questions to be asked to our Western leaders: Is the NATO formula, as some would have us believe, the ideal solution for promoting peace in our modern world?
At first sight, the NATO triumph in Libya (and there can be no doubt that NATO and its individual members have played a leading role in removing the Libyan government) might indeed be celebrated as a victory for peace & democracy. On closer inspection, however, the question still has to be asked whether this formula is really the guarantee for human progress. Of course I do not expect everyone to agree with what I am about to argue, but I do hope that my following comments might evoke some critical thinking and even serious doubts on the legitimacy and efficacy of such a policy. View full article »
The last months have seen remarkably results of nonviolent protests in Tunesia and Egypt. Yemen may finally see a nonviolent solution to its people's struggle, after many lives were lost in the last days.
The people of other countries were not so lucky (yet) - and probably not as experienced in nonviolent protest as the people in Egypt.
Right now, the UN security council resolution 1973 regarding Libya based on chapter 7 of the UN Charter calls all UN member states to help the people against their own government. The resolution mainly consists of the following tools:
- Immediate cease-fire
- facilitate dialogue to lead to the political reforms necessaryto find a peaceful and sustainable solution
- establish a No Fly Zone
- Enforce the arms embargo
- Asset freezing View full article »
Just stumbled upon an article on the Guardian, a British newspaper, reporting on a call for boycott on the annual census in Great Brittain. I was intrigued and read further... it turns out, one of the biggest war profiters of Earth, Lockheed Martin with it's headquarter in the USA was chosen to conduct part of the census, by that earning around 150.000.000 pounds.
Now, why would anyone bother about that? Two reasons at least:
1. By doing contracts with arms producers, the war machine is supported and furthered.
2. Privacy security concerns, since US companies were used in the past to gather informations on foreign countries and companies. And what better information source than a nation wide census, right? This was already discussed in 2008 actually, when the contract went under way - as BBC is reporting.
View full article »
How cool is that! :D
Found a new handbook on how to create nonviolent campaigns created by war resisters international. They provide detailed informations and discussions around several important topics starting with an introduction to nonviolence, tasks and tools for doing trainings, talking about the effect of campaigns, presenting success stories and 21 pages of exercises!
Just to quote some interesting parts:
Found a new handbook on how to create nonviolent campaigns created by war resisters international. They provide detailed informations and discussions around several important topics starting with an introduction to nonviolence, tasks and tools for doing trainings, talking about the effect of campaigns, presenting success stories and 21 pages of exercises!
Just to quote some interesting parts:
Nonviolence strengthens a campaign in three ways:1. Among participants in a campaign. In fostering trust and solidarity amongparticipants, they (ideally) are put in touch with the sources of their ownpower to act in the situation. Many people don’t realise how creative theycan be until they have support of others in trying something new.
