September 99
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor
2161 Massachusetts Ave.
Telephone number:
Fax number: pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
A Culture of Peace? You Must Be Kidding!
Michael True, who teaches a course on the nonviolent tradition and American literature at Holy Cross College, edited The Frontiers of Nonviolence (1998) with Chaiwat Satha-Anand.
"Whenever I hear the phrase 'culture of peace,' my eyes glaze over," an experienced peace activist said to me recently. Skeptical of anything "full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse," as Prufrock said of himself, she might find it useful, nonetheless, to take a closer look at the Culture of Peace Programme, endorsed by the UN Security Council. What is the UN Year/Decade for the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World all about? Its purpose is to ensure a common understanding and shared objectives of what is meant by "peace." Based upon UN resolutions and earlier UNESCO initiatives, the Programme recommends six key values or dimensions of peace: (1) nonviolent strategies for social change; (2) understanding and solidarity through citizen diplomacy; (3) people's participation in all decisions affecting their lives; (4) freedom and sharing of information among everyone involved; (5) engagement and empowerment of women in the peace-building process; (6) social justice and sustainable development for all. Viewed in isolation, the UN Culture of Peace Programme may appear somewhat abstract. But building, as it does, on communal efforts for social justice, often against impossible odds, it offers a new impetus for concrete action "to make peace and nonviolence part of daily life for all human beings." The Year/Decade for the Culture of Peace offers a unique opportunity, I think, to make the language of peace and nonviolence central to activist and educational discourse. Immersed in this culture of violence, we seldom possess a clear, dynamic vision of a culture of peace. Although we speak "against" violence, we project few positive images "for" peace: that "presence," that "energy field more intense than war," as Denise Levertov called it. During the coming academic year, schools, unions, and community and professional organizations are encouraged to make the following resources available to their members in meetings and staff development programs: The Fellowship of Reconciliation has published a handsome brochure and resource packet on the Decade of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World (available from FOR, P.O. Box 271, Nyack, NY 10960 or email: pti@forusa.org), and UNESCO provides other information on the internet: www.unesco.org. New England Educators for Peace is publishing a speakers' brochure listing activists and researchers available for panels and workshops on topics related to the Culture of Peace (Educators for Peace, 4 Westland St., Worcester, MA 0l602; 508/757-8228; mtrue@eve.assumption.edu) "Peace, once defined as the lack of war," according to UNESCO and a Culture of Peace (1994), "is coming to be seen as a much broader, dynamic process." Together with the UN Declaration of Human Rights and international law, the Programme condemns the use of violence in all its forms and endorses active peacemaking, including the reconstitution of war-torn communities. Although the United Nations Association in the US has yet to make the Programme a priority for the coming year, countries in Africa and Europe have already gathered millions of signatures endorsing the Culture of Peace Manifesto, in time for its official inauguration on September 14 at UN Headquarters in New York. |
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