Where Does Nonviolence International Fit In? Human beings have been using nonviolence since before recorded history. We spend the most part of our lives cooperating and noncooperating with those around us. Consciously or not, we agree to converse in the local language. We follow the local custom about which side of the road to drive on. And we obey most of the laws of our society and customs of our culture almost automatically. Just think what would happen if we did not. As infants we learned how to use crying and bawling - forms of nonviolent protest - very effectively before we could even talk. Gene Sharp points out that as young adults many of us refused to eat our peas (we intuited how to start a hunger strike) or we were lax in cleaning up our rooms (the beginnings of a refuse workers strike) or we pretended we didn't hear our parent's request (social noncooperation). Even animals understand how to use nonviolence, as Gene illustrates with stories about how his dogs, two large Great Danes, will ignore his commands to get into the back seat of his truck - they prefer the front seat. They even go limp when he has to resort to physically pushing them into the back seat. Yet, when, as nations and communities, and sometimes even as individuals, we are faced with acute conflicts of interest or disagreements, or we feel it is long past time for change, we very frequently resort to violent means to "resolve" those conflicts, to "defend" our interests, to force the changes. Why is this? And does it need to be so? One of the reasons violence perpetuates is that the culture and institutions which surround us condone and support, even train us to use, violence. Television and movies, our society's use of police and armed forces, the language we use, the history we read - all these things, in blatant and subtle ways, inculcate us with the idea that using violence against our fellow beings is OK. Where are the books and histories that inspire us with the stories of how battles were won nonviolently? How acute differences were used to build a more creative society? Where are the institutions to teach us how to "fight" with respect for our opponents? To whom can we turn when we need assistance with resolving our conflicts peacefully? Where do we go if we need to defend ourselves but we don't want to pick up a gun? Where are the masters and tacticians who have studied nonviolent methods and can teach us the fine points? Everywhere in our societies there are people and institutions that support violence. Where are the ones that support nonviolence? In the past five or ten years a few such institutions have been formed, and more and more people are studying and learning about nonviolent alternatives to conflict. However, they are still few and far between. Nonviolence International was founded in 1989 to provide education and assistance to individuals, organizations, and governments seeking nonviolent means to resolve or wage conflict. We are one of those institutions and we are filling a particular niche in the cycle of learning about nonviolence. The cycle looks like this: 1. People use nonviolence in a spontaneous, improvised fashion to struggle for something urgent in their lives. They use nonviolence for one or more reasons, either because they want peace, they have a religious or moral commitment to not harming others, they are sick and tired of violence, and/or they may have no other way to struggle - their opponent may control all the weapons. The people involved in the struggle usually have very little, if any knowledge of how to organize to use nonviolence effectively. They may only have vague recollections of stories they've heard, or images they may have seen on television of people marching or standing or sitting in a square. 2. Scholars and activist leaders start to write about how people have used nonviolent methods. They begin to catalogue and document the variety of nonviolent actions and methods people have invented. Slowly they start to amass more detailed histories and case studies. 3. Research programs and institutions are created and begin to systematically analyse the use of nonviolent methods. More thorough case histories are developed. Conferences bring scholars and activists together to compare notes. Lessons to be learned are extracted and theories begin to emerge. 4. Informed by some of the more scholarly work, popular books and training manuals are developed. Educational materials about nonviolent strategy and campaign design are produced. More in-depth trainings are conducted. Trainers and materials are disseminated more widely, reaching "hot spots" and potential activists. Grassroots and popular leaders are now aware of and more familiar with the power potential of nonviolent methods, not just from seeing demonstrations on CNN, but also because they are in touch with institutions, scholars, consultants and trainers who are familiar with a wide variety of cases. So their use of nonviolent methods is now informed by what people have learned about what works and does not work. It doesn't guarantee success, but it does mean the leaders have the potential to make better decisions. In the past decade alone we have been able to observe on television various facets of nonviolent struggles as dictators in Haiti and the Philippines were deposed, communist regimes in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, East Germany - the Berlin Wall fell! - were disintegrated, and attempts to restore a more totalitarian form of government in Russia were foiled by nonviolent resistance to the August 1991 coup attempt. A number of books about the use of nonviolence around the world have been written in the last ten to twenty years. For example, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (3 vols). 1973. (by Gene Sharp) Resistance, Politics, and the American Struggle for Independence, 1765-1775. 1986. (edited by Walter Conser, Ronald McCarthy, David Toscano, and Gene Sharp). The Power of the People: Active Nonviolence in the United States. 1977. (edited by Robert Cooney and Helen Michalowski) Arab Nonviolent Political Struggle in the Middle East. 1990. (edited by Ralph Crow, Philip Grant, and Saad Ibrahim). Nonviolent Struggle and Social Defence. 1991. (by Brian Martin and others; edited by Shelley Anderson and Janet Larmore). Relentless Persistence: Nonviolent Action in Latin America, edited by Philip McManus, and Gerald Schlabach, 1991. Nonviolent Insurrection in El Salvador: The Fall of Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez. 1988. (by Patricia Parkman). A number of institutions whose sole focus is the study or application of nonviolence have been created recently, ranging from the academic research program on Nonviolent Sanctions at Harvard University to the Civilian-Based Defense Association which is promoting a nonviolent form of national defense. Other research institutions exist around the world, and there has been an explosion of "peace studies" programs created at universities in the United States and elsewhere. Also, more and more universities and communities are investing in conflict resolution and dispute mediation programs. Gene Sharp's current home, the Albert Einstein Institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is continuing to conduct historical studies, but also is facilitating the development of theories and more practical knowledge of how to apply nonviolent methods. Through consulting and conferences the staff are sharing the fruits of their historical studies, and Einstein's Chris Kruegler and Peter Ackerman are about to publish a book which will be the first serious effort to extract some lessons and "DOs and DON'Ts" from a systematic analysis of a small handful of nonviolent case studies. Nonviolence International's activities are concerned with sharing the knowledge gained from these academic studies and from experience in the field with people around the world who are seeking less-than-violent ways to conduct their struggles and resolve their conflicts. Our projects, from our booklet publishing efforts, to our trainers' database, and the various nonviolence training workshops and consultations we do, are all designed to increase the availability of knowledge about nonviolent methods around the world. It's an exciting endeavour, and we are meeting many courageous and inspiring people along the way. Philip Bogdonoff from the Pegasus conference nonviolent.action