Challenging capitalism requires constructive, workable alternatives. Are worker-owned co-ops a viable solution? In this episode of Nonviolence Radio, Stephanie and Michael speak with Kristen Barker, co-founder of Co-Op Cincy, an organization that nurtures and supports a network of worker-owned co-ops in the Greater Cincinnati area. Applying principles from the Mondragon cooperative in Spain, Co-Op Cincy’s network reinforces that cooperatives are not just good for people and the planet, they are good for business. And nonviolence is at its heart: being together in constructive solution-building requires both the vision and skills of nonviolence. 

All of the challenges encourage us to recognize that we can choose – again and again – to exercise nonviolence in our lives. We can choose to see the world not as a fixed external entity that often seems out to harm us, but rather as an ongoing dynamic process which we actively co-create. Though these seven terms are aptly called challenges, ultimately they can be a tremendous source of inspiration and empowerment. And they are available to each and every one of us right now.

"I want to go back to saying we are alive because of the peace economy. We are not alive because of the war economy. It is killing us, our community, and the planet. But in our minds, somehow, we think it's giving us life because it has convinced us of that. But really, the thing that is rich about life is the things we give each other, is the way we care for each other, is the way we create space of trust and care. That's where life thrives."

We forget that this peace economy is available to us by simply being present, by consciously being where we are right now, and responding with genuine attention to those around us. This moment we are in can be exactly where we can all start to build the peace economy – it is here where our true ‘potency arises from’ and it is where we can make a difference, together.

It's what the philosopher Aristotle would have called our built-in telos. That a telos means an end goal, but it's an end goal which is embedded within us and needs to be unpacked and understood and developed. So, you can, in this sense, look at evolution and, of course, our human evolution, as a drive towards manifesting that telos, that nonviolent capacity within us. And that, I believe, is why nonviolence is so powerful."

During this episode of Nonviolence Radio, Stephanie and Michael welcome Cassie King, from Direct Action Everywhere, to talk about our relationship with animals, and more specifically about proposed legislation in California that aims to end factory farming. Together they explore the way our treatment of animals reflects and in fact is an expression of how we treat each other and ourselves. The depths of the cruelty with which animals are treated is revealed when we look inside ‘factory farms’ or CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). In this kind of a profit driven environment, everyone suffers: workers, owners and animals:

"When you have over 700 cows [in a CAFO], I mean, can you imagine having 700 dogs and trying to care for them with a handful of people who, you know, are running a business and don't have all day to provide that care? And there's also a profit incentive not to provide whatever medical care they need if it's going to exceed the costs of what you can get in return from that animal. That's just how business works."

Through this new Sonoma County legislation, Measure J, activists like Cassie are hoping to make people aware of the brutality of factory farming and offer some clear steps and support on the way to ending it. In doing so, Cassie suggests we can transform our relationship to those with whom we share this planet from one of violence and domination to one of harmony and deep respect.

"One of the things that's really interesting is that once you start looking, you start finding these [radical interracial] communities all over the place – including in places like the rural South, where you wouldn't necessarily expect them to be. So that kind of communal experimentation, the interest in prefigurative politics, the constructive program…Usually, historians of the long civil rights movement really talk about it as dating to the 1930s. The relationship between the labor movement and the Civil Rights Movement is really important to understand coming out of the radicalism of the 1930s. … some of the experimentations in radical nonviolence, radical pacifism, really emerged in the late 1930s. And then it goes through the 1970s."

Our capacity to see nonviolence as a viable choice to challenge injustice in the world grows in part from seeing its many facets (active resistance and constructive program) as well as the many times dedicated men and women have proven it to be a powerful and effective force. Victoria’s book, and this conversation, illuminate just that.

To hear Amira’s story is to hear the story of so many Palestinians who are struggling for equality and peace through nonviolence in the most heartbreaking and horrific of circumstances. Her story is an urgent call-to-action for all of us to be courageous and work in solidarity with activists on the front lines of the world’s more critical struggles for justice.

"Well, I think every person has the potential to respond to nonviolence. The problem is most of us never try. And that's certainly not what people get taught in the schools. It's not what our newspapers tell us. It's not what our president and vice president or congress people tell us. But I think the people that were in the civil rights and the freedom movement in the 60s realized that."

Nonviolence doesn’t ask us to be anything but our most human and humane selves – and while not difficult, it does call on us to find models and examples of behavior outside of what much of our current media reports.

…in quantum physics, forces, which is the way that we change people, subjugate people to our way of thinking, by applying a force, that's Newtonian. But in quantum physics, forces can only give you possibilities to choose from, and you don't have to choose that one [the violent one]. You can choose also persuasion.

So, in quantum physics, force is a place by choice. The other is choosing the violent way. So, you can change your choice by being humble, by being persuasive, by being straightforward, by being authentic, by exemplifying what you are saying, not using violence.

When we're presented with these kinds of situations [of violent conflict], we have been fed, so often, that the only way to deal with that is by bringing in the drones and the jets and the 2,000-pound bombs, that we see what is counterintuitive. When we see entire neighborhoods blown up, and blown up, and blown up and the response by policymakers is, let's do it more, that's counterintuitive. And so, what we're doing is rational and intuitive and speaks to the core of the human spirit.

UCP, already practiced (though rarely reported) by organizations and individuals all over the world, has been successful in Sudan, in the Philippines, in Colombia – even in parts of Palestine – to name only a few places. UCP meets violence with the courage to create a different path, and in this reminds us of our core decency, kindness and the incredible strength we show when we choose to act from love.

"I think in listening to somebody who you believe was your enemy and listening to his story, not necessarily saying it's all true, I don’t agree with everything, but really trying to understand how they've come to that position that made them – is the beginning of a transformation away from that sort of simple label of ‘you are my enemy’, towards you are a human being."

It is only with a renewed sense that we are all human – albeit, with very different backgrounds and experiences – that we can act decently, hold ourselves and others accountable and truly forgive. 

Mel Duncan has written an excellent article on the possibilities of inserting peace teams into the West Bank in Israel-Palestine.

Educational institutions have agreed to divest from investments that go to Israel.

In Central India, 90 villages have formed Maha Gramsabha.

Gandhi Research Foundation is offering a postgraduate diploma in Sustainable Rural Reconstruction from a Gandhian perspective.

Operazione Colomba, active in Colombia, Albania, and Gaza to guarantee unarmed civilian protection to war victims.

World BEYOND War, is offering a six-week online course on unarmed civilian defense.

International Peace Training Institute is doing projects in 33 countries, training hundreds of women in civilian-based defense. 

Unarmed Civilian Defense course by Eli McCarthy.

International Institute for Strategic Studies has documented the highest number of armed conflict that they've been able to document in three decades. “This all makes this one of the most perilous moments for global geopolitics.”

The IDF has made allowance for 100 civilian deaths in Gaza for every Hamas official that they are targeting by an error-prone AI system.

The  International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice have issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister and military chief of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

Residents in a Tibetan threatened mountain community are showing the world through videos their resistance to the building of a Chinese dam.

Time to Let Youth Lead

Nonviolence News

In this episode of Nonviolence Radio we speak with Mike Fraidenburg who is a mediator and co-author of The Art of Mediation  about how this work has changed him, and how it can change the world if we do more of it.

Identifying the central role of nonviolence in Moravian theology at that time illuminates its long historical roots, extending the community of those committed to nonviolence far into the past and in this, strengthening and legitimizing a tradition which – as seen in the Nonviolence Report at the end of the show – continues to grow today. 

"I think part of loving is to deeply understand who the other is and where they're coming from and what motivates them to behave the way they behave and do the things they do. And in that love and care and compassion, creates space for transformation and healing. And I think that is definitely much more powerful than fear, and is key. But it's a journey." - Sami Awad

… it’s insufficient to just say, “Okay, we're just going to resettle folks,” right? And there are a number of different ways to resettle folks. Once folks are resettled or in the process, you also then have to be making sure that they have access to justice. That’s such a philosopher thing to say, but I think it’s true. And having access to justice is having somebody check up. Ii is understanding your rights, responsibilities, obligations, and opportunities; that there’s someone you can go to, that this is the kind of thing that shouldn’t be happening to you. And I think that’s why it’s so important to work through the details, to say, What does justice demand of us in this case? Because I think it actually demands a lot more than we would like to believe. I think it does. We owe it to folks, not as a matter of compassion or as a matter of mercy, but as a matter of justice because they're people too, you know, and we owe it to them.

All of us in the global community have a responsibility to step up to the big work of taking care of each other, especially those who, like refugees, are vulnerable and without recourse to the rights and support they deserve. This is not a small endeavor, but it is an important one and a necessary one. In Jen’s words, “Sometimes we are responsible for fixing things we did not break.”  

Tariq Habash, from the US Department of Education resigns over the war in Gaza.

Good Shepherd Collective campaign called No Ceasefire, No Votes.

800 government employees from the US and other 12 nations published a letter protesting Israeli policies and stating that the leaders of their countries could be complicit in war crimes in Gaza.

USAID, a thousand of their employees have released an open letter with the same concern.

Hundreds of thousands of Germans rallied in a hundred cities against the plan that the AfD developed to deport people.

Marlene Engelhorn has recently drawn attention to herself by giving away or preparing to give away 90% of her wealth. She said, “I’m creating the tax I would want to pay.”

But there’s a bill before the Senate and the House which would make nonviolent protests a federal crime called the “Safe and Open Streets Act.”

Mexico has brought seven US gun manufacturers to court.

Truthforce.works

Solutionary climate fiction

Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping and Accompaniment — worldwide meeting, 61 organizations representing 24 countries in Geneva who called themselves the Community of Practice.

Nonviolent Peaceforce are offering a trip to the Philippines.

Pace e Bene — $1000 grant for innovative projects that address community violence. Apply soon!

This month is the 40th anniversary of the MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, Movement of Landless Workers.

The original idea when social media started was to increase the commons so that you're meeting people in different parts of the world, or even in your country, your state, who you normally wouldn’t have encountered. [At this point, the aim of AI must be] to hold on to that and to try to leverage these tools to be able to do that. And to make connections and to build grassroots support.

We need not fear the potential damage AI could cause so long as we work deliberately to build its capacity to bring people together, to gather and spread reliable information as a way to promote peace, increase understanding and sustain communities throughout the world.

            Our friend Georgia Kelly has been an ardent student and friend of this fascinating place for many years, taking tour groups there almost annually (Their next Mondragon seminar is scheduled for May 11 - 18, 2025.)  She is, like us here at Metta, interested in all aspects of the ‘experiment’ of Father José Maria Arizmendiarrieta, remarkable because of its size, longevity (how many communes have lasted more than a few decades?), and thorough reorganization, or rather alternative organization of economy, politics, and 𑁋 yes 𑁋 conflict management.  And, as mentioned, its success.  All in all, a fascinating human experiment.
- Michael Nagler

As part of a constructive effort to challenge and offer redress for the ongoing harms of identity suppression through language erasure within indigenous communities around the world, Bay Area educator and somatic coach Margarita Acosta’s Tierra Indigena Montessori is a shining light. Their work “facilitates reparations to Indigenous Peoples by supporting them in establishing educational spaces that maintain, strengthen, and revitalize their ancestral languages and cultures through the Montessori Method.”

She makes the case that language revitalization ought to be a front-and-center topic for our collective concern, no matter which language we speak and know ourselves through. All languages enrich our understanding of our world, and concepts embedded within our various linguistic homes can help us resolve personal and global crises and challenges. Losing language is a loss of our collective potential, and its revitalization becomes an expression of our creative and collective power as well as of reparations and healing.

Nonviolence is happening all over, even if we don’t often or always read about it in the mass media. Rivera Sun joins Nonviolence Radio to share a recap of hope and energy from Campaign Nonviolence’s Action Days which ran from the International Day of Peace to the International Day of Nonviolence. 

One day after our interview, Dr. Cassif was punished by the Knesset with a 45 day ban from participating in Knesset sessions due to his critical interviews with international media and comments condemning the State of Israel for the crisis in Gaza. 

In this episode, we speak with Zeiad Shamrouch. He’s the Executive Director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance and he speaks to us about the work out they’re doing in Gaza, about the humanitarian and conflict crisis taking place within Gaza, as well as within Israel-Palestine and how people can get involved and support their work in Gaza. 

…what does the practice of meditation give you? It quiets that linearity across time. It quiets the cells giving you language. It quiets all those wonderful things that the left brain does so that you can have this expansive experience and peaceful moment of the instant of being at one with all that is.

This fundamental experience of oneness, of being fully in the present and in loving relationship with all other beings, reflects what part of our brains – our neurons and cells – do naturally; it is just a matter of learning to get out of the way to let them do it.

"… in the Old Testament, there’s a commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Then Jesus says, ‘Turn the other cheek if someone strikes you.’ And the Beatitudes say, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ And it just struck me as, ‘Wait a minute? How can I go to church and believe these things and then come out on this field and tell people to kill?’ It just didn’t seem right."

Cary’s courage to stand up and say no to war, to the military, to force and violence – to a way of life that for so many around him commanded respect and conferred honor is remarkable. The fact that he did so while fully entrenched in – and excelling within – that world is more remarkable still.  Equally inspiring is his continued commitment to nonviolence and his deliberate and public effort, not only to show another path forward but to take active part in clearing the way so that more people can walk on it.

Despite the size of this problem (to date, dED has uncovered over £1.3 billion worth of UK university partnerships with the military and defense sector), Jinsella remains motivated and optimistic. She sees dED as a “part of a much larger mission for the reevaluation of education…it’s a part of the decolonization movement. It’s the part of the fossil free movement. All these things that we want to see shift in our economics are represented within the higher education spaces.” 

And Jinsella pushes beyond even the realm of higher education, her hope and conviction that a better, more peaceful and just world is possible has led her to set aside a time each week in which anyone anywhere can join her to:

simply hold the space for us to imagine peace together. Imagine world peace. Imagine what that means for our economies and care-based systems. And we meditate and actually make space for our minds to start prioritizing peace as the universal principle that we can all stand behind.

 Article by Miki Kashtan 

 Mother Pelican Blog 

 Break Through 

 Popular Resistance – School 

 Israeli Reservists Protest 

 Bronx Anti-War Coalition 

 Cop City 

 Illegal Pipeline in Yaqui Community 

 Line 5 Pipeline Trespass 

 Campaign Nonviolence Action Week 

 Black Prisoners Caucus 

 Code Pink

Erik Olson Fernández is proud that while he has had many years of experience organizing for nonviolent social change as a community organizer and in the labor movement with healthcare and public education unions, he began his training like Gandhi, as an attorney. Committed to bringing out the true sense of “union” in his union organizing work, he is currently working with the California Teachers’ Association and educators in Sonoma County, California, emphasizing systemic change within unions and the social structures that target the most vulnerable. 

 I originally got into labor organizing when I was doing community organizing work. I had gone to law school, but I had always focused more on organizing people, having grown up poor in the United States with a single mother from Mexico who struggled economically.

I was looking for a way in which to change the social structure that created the poverty that I grew up in and that others were forced to live with. So, I began studying previous social movements and looked to Gandhi and King as models and studied how they did the organizing. You know, what Gandhi did in South Africa, what King, and particularly the young leaders in the 1960s Freedom Movement, did to organize their communities in the South.

On this episode of Nonviolence Radio, Erik discusses the power of Unions when they are woven through and through with the principles and strategies of nonviolence. 

[From my grandfather] I realized that nonviolence was not just about not fighting, it was about not exploiting, and not wasting, and not harming people in different ways. Actually, it’s passive violence, non-physical or passive violence that fuels the fire of physical violence. So logical, if we want to put out that fire of physical violence, we have to cut off the fuel supply. And since the fuel supply comes from each one of us, we have to become the change we wish to see in the world.

These selections from Arun Gandhi’s interview are followed by lots of good news in the Nonviolence Report.

...we’ve outsourced our support systems to authorities, and they’re not equipped. And there’s a lot of other reasons that we don’t want to use authorities for all our conflicts. Like it leads to this punishment cycle and many of us are not actually getting support with our conflicts when we go to authorities. We're getting just more entrance into a system that causes more harm.

Rather than fuel this broken system, Gwen suggests that we approach conflict with a sense of curiosity and confidence, remembering that each of us has the capacity to find resolution. And while resolution does not demand interference from a formal authority, it is greatly helped with support from others, more specifically, third parties who can “hold space for you in a way that helps you get creative and constructive about your conflict instead of jumping on an anger bandwagon.”

Traute Lafrenze and the White Rose 

Traute Lafrenz who passed away at her home in South Carolina. She was 103 and the last surviving member of the White Rose.

Zan, Zindagi Azadi – Woman, Life, Freedom 

Alliance for Democracy and Freedom in Iran 

Alliance for Democracy and Freedom in Iran

Charter of Solidarity and Alliance for Freedom

USPS Upgrading to Electric Fleet 

Conscientious Objectors in Israel 

Comment from Shimri Zameret

Global Gandhian Movement for Swaraj 

Earth4All 

Earth4All has been praised because it’s very clear-eyed on the impending destruction of the environment, the economy, as it lays out five paths to a systematic rescue.

Mediation Response Units

Mediation Response Unit are having a series of online breakfasts

This realistic and hopeful discussion is followed by the Nonviolence Report where Michael reviews expressions of nonviolence at play today, including a candid conversation with Amos Oluwatoye – speaker, philosopher and nonviolent activist –  on the promising activities of Nigeria’s Obi-dient movement and its attempt to ensure fair and just elections.

Rage Against War

Positive Peace - International Holocaust Remembrance Association -

Compassionomics

Le Chambon - Lest Innocent Blood be Shed

Indigenous Communities Gaining Titles to Territories

Chipko to EQAT

Composting in San Francisco

Peru and the Paradox of Repression

Constructive Programs

"One of my favorite moments in one of the Nashville demonstrations is a guy spit in a demonstrator’s face. And the demonstrator had been trained – when somebody spits in your face, ask the guy for a handkerchief. And the mob – this guy assaulting the kid, reached in his pocket for a handkerchief and then said, “Hell no.” But for that one moment, there had been human connection."

Ultimately, nonviolence is founded on precisely this human connection, our innate and enduring kinship with one another. This conversation reveals the way that nonviolence can become a powerful force, sometimes fueled by anger at senseless suffering, cruelty, racism and discrimination. But nonviolence does not merely unleash a torrent of rage, instead it carefully and consciously channels anger towards a justice that belongs to everyone.

"To supplement courses and blogs, there is now a database dedicated to collecting examples of nonviolent action in Latin America. This powerful resource highlights not only the wide range of nonviolent actions that are at play in this part of the world, providing activists with concrete examples of practices that work, but also reveals its long history: 

we decided to create this database, to promote the research for other scholars, but also for the activists to see new tactics, different tactics, as Jeff mentioned, not just protest. Because strategic nonviolent action is not just protest in the streets, but all the different actions that people, in their own country, that speak their own language, are doing – or they have been doing in the last 20 years."

The work done by Maria and Jeff and their organizations helps to show how communities in conflict  already have a tremendous amount of strength and knowledge which can be channeled towards peace.

These four speakers, given their distinct perspectives, enlarge and enrich our understanding of nonviolence and reveal it to be a dynamic and powerful force, one with a long past and an increasingly mighty present.

Francesca and Stephanie explore the concept of ‘self-religion’, the subject of Francesca’s chapter in the upcoming book, Religion and Peace. Self-religion, as Francesca describes it, is a deliberately chosen religious outlook drawn from diverse religious sources. This kind of ‘pick and mix’ religion reveals in individuals an ‘ability to hold multiple religious authorities or multiple worldviews in their ideology’. And this, Francesca suggests, plays a key role in conflict resolution as the ability to acknowledge a range of different authorities allows people to recognize divergent beliefs as legitimate and valuable. 

Stephanie and Michael’s second interview takes a deep dive into various aspects of an economics of peace. David and Jared explain some of the activities carried out at the Schumacher Center for New Economics, from local currencies to community land trusts. Together they discuss and start to illuminate a different vision of economics, one which is grounded in smaller, local communities where people are empowered to make choices as to how they want their societies to be structured and which values will serve as their foundations. The Schumacher Center offers resources, information and support as we endeavor to create communities ‘where people can develop their own economy that isn’t reliant on degrading anybody or degrading the natural resources, and is really meant to uplift everybody’.

We have to cultivate a nonjudgmental attitude in order to accept that there are many truths that, you know, listen to other people, not to come to the table with the idea that you have all the answers. But rather to come to the table to be able to listen, and with humility, with compassion, to understand and grow that understanding.
-Ela Gandhi 

With special thanks to HumanityRising.org

Having been raised in the throes of both the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the Iran-Iraq War which followed shortly after, Leila uses her personal experience to illuminate the radical socio-economic, cultural, and religious shifts that the Iranian people have experienced in such a short time period, and how this impacts what is being expressed by women and young people on the streets today. Together, Stephanie and Leila discuss the possibilities in this context for creative, nonviolent solutions, when there are also active and destabilizing risks like widespread anger, devastating sanctions, and threats of armament. In spite of this, at Nonviolence Radio we know that one thing is for certain– wherever there is conflict and violence, we will find nonviolence in action, even if it's small. There’s always something we can do.

For more on nonviolence in Iran visit the Metta Center.

At the root of these protests is the call for revolution, no less than the complete reversal of the Islamic Republic instituted in 1979 with the ousting of the Shah, while others simply hope that some aspects of the repressive regime will subside.

In part one of this two-part Nonviolence Radio episode, we interview Mehdi Aminrazavi for his perspective on the protest movement and what he is hearing from his friends and family in Iran. Born in Mashhad, Iran, Dr. Aminrazavi participated in the protest movement to oust the Shah. Now a scholar of philosophy and mysticism, he is the Kurt Leidecker Chair in Asian Studies, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies Program, and professor of religion and philosophy at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

In part two (which will come later in a separate post), we will speak with Leila Zand, who was born and raised in Tehran, and is now working on her dissertation about Track 2 Diplomacy for Iran/U.S. relations. She is a leader for Citizen Diplomacy with Code Pink.

For more on nonviolence in Iran visit the Metta Center.

“Because the internet generation, even though they lived in Tehran and Mashhad and Shiraz and Isfahan, but they really were a part of this global culture that was very different from their parents. Whereas I or my wife would listen to these morality police and their advice and say, ‘Oh, sorry. It won’t happen again.’ These kids, 15 and 16-year-olds, wouldn't listen. They would confront them. They would fight with them. They would get arrested. They would be imprisoned and tortured and so on.

And so, as the younger generation came up, they not only looked down on my generation, as to, “Why did you do this to this country? You know, change is good, but for better, not worse. And you took the country back centuries. Why?” And so, they became more defiant and more defiant.” – Mehdi Aminrazavi

In this week's episode of Nonviolence Radio, Stephanie and Michael speak with Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury about the UN Culture of Peace and Nonviolence, its history, and the challenges that it faces within the UN system. He rejects the framing of nonviolence as idealism, and instead embraces it as a practical plan of action that, over the long term, leads to the self-transformation of individuals and societies, and is thus fundamental to the realization of the UN's broader goals. At the same time, he warns that a UN consumed by bureaucracy, internal politics and putting out daily fires, is one which loses its capacity for this long-term vision. As the conscience of humanity, civil society must therefore continue pushing for peace and nonviolence as fundamental not only to preserving the UN’s relevance, but also to bringing about peace for future generations.

To draw it all together, Ruba describes why the 2019 Tishreen movement insists upon a governance model that is democratic and representative on the basis of merit, as opposed to sectarianism, and what the current protests led by Muqtada al-Sadr might mean for Iraqi people as they conflict with these goals. Despite the deeply unpredictable future of the country, she draws hopefully on the nonviolent and feminist means utilized by the Tishreen activists and considers how the movement elevated public consciousness, while also challenging the status quo and legitimacy of violence as a political tool.

"But this is another phase, another stage in this revolution. And I think it’s still continuing, in a way. Many people claim that the protest movement has been crushed. But just because there are no street protests, it doesn’t mean that the momentum has been lost. .... There’s greater thirst for knowledge about the constitution, about their rights. ... And now we're seeing more dialogue amongst the people. Politicians are not necessarily engaging in dialogue, but the people are, both online and offline. They’re thinking. And the protest movement has caused a shift in the public consciousness, in the collective consciousness. And this shift will be there for a long time to come. Iraq is not the same after the 2019 October Movement, and I don’t think it ever will be."

Music by: Farida Mohammed Ali -- Maqam al hanabat

Lawrence Cox continues the discussion about colonization, but through the lens of Burma. His interview ends with some hopeful conclusions about the end of empire. Despite the ongoing and profound injustice we see in Burma and in the world, Lawrence speaks optimistically about the future. He encourages us to acknowledge that there may be no single path out of our present difficulties, perhaps though, a single, clear route is not the right way to conceive of the way forward:

…there’s something really quite liberating about stepping slightly back from that and going, “Some of the time, it may be okay not to have an exact plan. Either a vision of what the future world we want will be, or of the exact steps that will get it there.” And then even, you know, as in Asia, to find out that there wasn’t one path out of empire. There were lots of different ones. And some of them, in retrospect, we might think that was a better way out. Others, we might think that was not a great way out. But actually, there were lots of different routes out of empire.

The possibility of many roads out of current difficulties creates space for creative and surprising approaches, ones which arise in response to particular circumstances, empowering local actors to establish genuine and lasting change.

In the Nonviolence Report, Michael Nagler begins with the importance of “Thou Shall Not Kill” in the cultures of the world, and how that message is critical to counter America’s rising violent gun culture.

We also hear Amos reflect on the history and tradition of nonviolence within his ethnic group, the Yoruba. He talks about the Yoruba practice of respecting elders and describes one beautiful method of conflict resolution: 

"If there is a conflict in a community, to set time, the first set of people should go and meet the traditional rulers. We still have elders that resolve conflicts. They have various strategies and tactics. We start with storytelling. If there is a conflict between one family and another, concerning who possesses a particular land, an elder can start with a story of how the forefathers of the conflicting partners – how they were friends in the olden days, what they did together."

Listening to our elders (and more broadly, listening to each other), learning through stories – these are simple yet powerful practices that Amos brings to life, revealing them to be accessible and effective nonviolent strategies for all of us.

… right now, inside Ukraine, in towns, villages, cities that have been invaded and occupied by Russian forces, you are seeing actions by ordinary unarmed civilians to stop, thwart, and slow the invasion of Russian troops, tanks, convoys, including these scenes in Kherson and Melitopol, where you've had literally people putting their bodies in front of tanks and convoys. In some cases, forcing them to turn around and leave the cities or towns.

Given past work on Syria, Maria understands the nuances of nonviolent tactics such as sanctions and is able to explain how they might be used constructively, as a way gradually to dismantle ‘key pillars’ of power within Putin’s regime. Her sense of hope, her conviction that nonviolence truly works, rests on concrete evidence that is too often overlooked by mainstream media. 

Michael’s Nonviolence Report following Maria’s talk is also firmly grounded in evidence, the evidence of hard science. Instead of the usual round-up of nonviolent action taking place across the globe, Michael offers us a cogent and compelling account of how contemporary physics dovetails with the ancient Vedanta tradition, revealing our individual consciousness – here and now – to be a vital force in shaping the world we inhabit.

Building off the legacy of Bacha Khan’s interpretation of the Pashtunwali, the Pashtun Protection Movement reflects a sense of justice that does not devolve into an endless cycle of retribution and revenge but one which continues to grow through concrete practices, through “deradicalizing, countering violent extremism, through literature, through education, and through contact – like making study circles, groups, seminars, conferences, workshops.” Because of this ongoing formative education in nonviolence, youth today see that “the response to this violence should be nonviolence.”

Qamar explains some key elements of effective nonviolence in the Pashtun Protection Movement today: inclusion of women, of victims, of children’s voices; use of local knowledge recognizing and relying on the expertise of indigenous people; establishing both practical networks on the ground as well as formal legal support, and turning to modern social media to bypass distorted reports from state run media outlets. After all, it is through contact with one another that we see our common humanity and the very real possibilities we have to make peace.

Real change in Palestine-Israel relations, Osama suggests, calls for a dramatic shift in perspective: we must see the process itself as the end and we must realize that the foundation of the conflict resolution process is the rehumanization of our perceived enemies:

"…we are honored to plant this seed of different ideas for resistance. If it doesn’t work now, it will work in the future. We are sure the situation will change in the future. And we want to tell our grandchildren in the future, if they ask us about what we have done to end this conflict, we want to say that yes, we saw each other as human beings. "

This profound yet simple idea can take many forms and Michael talks about how it can be expressed in a range of nonviolent tactics. He encourages us to see that these tactics are already at work all around us, they are simply often overlooked. By becoming more conscious of the many creative forms nonviolent action now takes, we can choose take part ourselves, to strengthen existing expressions of nonviolence and enlarge its scope:

"We want people to realize that nonviolent action is used in every country in the world, almost every single day. It’s used on a vast scale. And we want people around the world to realize that there’s an enormous toolbox of actions and tactics that people can consider to use. "

Osama and Michael ask that we open our eyes to the reality of persistent violence in the world, that we become aware of suffering, whether or not it is on the front pages. But most important, they show us the ways in which nonviolent action is simultaneously powerful and accessible – by taking small steps, we can all work nonviolently to bring about change.

Instead of retribution what we want is restorative justice. It’s the kind of thing that Martin Luther King talked about when he was asked about violence, and when you’d have discussions of KAMU and others. Vengeance or retribution only leads to more violence. King, when he talked about colonialism, he would say, the objective of African Americans is not to separate in a separate colony or to kick whites out of the country as in colonial Africa, but to live in the same country. To reconcile with white Americans -- and to have that, you need restorative justice not retribution.

If we think, as Professor Henry suggests, of reparations as a process instead of a payment, it can become the basis for an ongoing, dynamic, harmonious relationship with our history and with each other. 

Thich Nhat Hanh passed away at the age of 95 on Friday, January 22, and leaves a legacy that goes beyond Buddhism and into the heart of what it means to be human, and how to put compassion and nonviolence into practice. 

His teachings have shaped many lives and will continue to do so. 

We are pleased to be able to share with you, thanks to receiving permission from his monastery, Plum Village, this dharma talk by Thay, entitled The Art of Being Peace from May 13, 2008 at the 5th International Buddhist Conference. The talk includes chanting and a meditation at the end. 

Sher and Colleen manage to shed light on this worrisome situation due to their long relationships with the country and their steadfast commitment to uncovering the truth about the events now taking place.

“I’ve always believed that individual actions are the on-ramp to larger collective action and participation. It’s the way we get introduced to a new way of thinking and ideas…the first actions that [those involved in the project] take are around emergency preparedness. Because as we move into this climate disruption, we are going to see more – as we have already over the last four or five years, more fires, more floods, you know, depending on where you are in the country. All kinds of reasons that it’s helpful to be prepared. And why it’s so helpful to have those relationships with your neighbors so that you can take care of each other. You can know who to look out for on the block and how to share resources.And that’s such an easy in-road for people. It’s not political. It’s – everybody understands that everybody has been experiencing it. So, it’s just a really great place to start”

Natasha also encourages us to be deliberate in the language we use as we talk about making change. Words like “combat” or “make war” – even in relation to the real problems we hope to overcome – seep into our psyches and can lead us away from our true aims, which involve not fighting but “growing,” “coordinating,” “creating” and “enjoying.”

"...the draft sort of makes it us vs. the government. It’s very frightening just individually to face the government and all the power it has. But the communities that we developed helped to give us the kind of strength that we really needed in order to do that confrontation.

I know that I never would have – I don't know what I would have done. I mean, you never can tell. But it made it really much, much easier to do something as part of a community rather than just simply doing it individually."

Robert’s discussion of his work in the 60s reveals how groups like those opposing the war in Vietnam came together with the Civil Rights Movement to create a power that finally ‘overwhelmed’ the US government, pushing it to end the war and change some of its racist policies. We are seeing strong echoes of this kind of collaboration today, as shown in Michael’s nonviolence report at the end of the show: diverse groups dedicated to nonviolence in many different forms, directed at many causes are coming together, joining hands and actively building a better world.

"First of all, I think we need to do what you and Michael have advocated in the Metta Center for a long time. We have to find the courage to control our fears. We have to become a public that isn’t so whipped-up into being afraid of this group, afraid of that group, that we will continue to bankroll efforts to kind of eliminate that group so that we don’t have to be afraid of them anymore. That’s one thing.I think it’s really important to keep on building up our sense of controlling our fears. 

"A second thing, very practically, is to get to know the people who are bearing the consequences of our wars and our displacement...My young friends in Afghanistan were emblematic of people who wanted to reach out to people on the other side of the divide. They talked about a border-free world. They wanted to have interethnic projects."

Only when we truly look at Afghanistan, when we see it and its people in all their rich complexity can we come to a better understanding of what they want and need. Only by actively listening to individuals and groups on the ground will we learn how we might be able to join them in finding ways to resolve conflicts and rebuild. And all this depends on a firm commitment to nonviolence, genuine humility and honest self-reflection:

"...nononviolence is truth force. We have to tell the truth and look at ourselves in the mirror. And what I’ve just said is really, really hard to look at. But I think that it’s required to better understand who we are and how we can actually say, “We're sorry. We're so very sorry,” and make reparations that say we are not going to continue this."

[Music from DAF Records]

"...at Phoenix Settlement, we encouraged people to do their own growing of vegetables and so on. That was one way in which people became self-sufficient. Also, in little skills to make them less dependent on the mainline economy. This is building up your own economic activity so that you become self-sufficient, so that you're not dependent on the people who are actually exploiting you. That’s the one thing.

The second thing is that you are not supporting the exploitative mechanism. By becoming independent or dependent on yourself rather than on these economic giants, you’re making a statement and you’re also showing that, at the end of the day, they depend on us as consumers. And if we stop consuming what they produce, then it makes them think, it makes them reassess what they are doing. That’s one of the ways in which one indicates to people that we are unhappy about the way you are doing things."

“Constructive program” emerges as one of the most empowering and effective tools nonviolent activists can use to push back against oppressive forces and set up a more just and peaceful world. 

We need, Kelly insists, to listen to the voices of those who have been unjustly pushed into lives of violence and battle. More broadly, we need to push back against this worldview and reckon with the impact it has, not only on soldiers but on all of us, collectively, as human beings.

What I would like to call for is for members of the nonviolence community to really become much more sophisticated in terms of seeing these kinds of dynamics and calling them out, calling out the exploitation of the use of sacrificial verses in the Bible and the way that they are used in war culture; calling out the language and the logic of sacrifice, and actually lifting up the destructive consequences of actual sacrificial dynamics that are endemic to war culture.

I think that as people who care about nonviolence and who are, frankly, so often characterized as naïve about the world and about the dangers of the world -- nonviolent actors -- I would love to see them become much more sophisticated about calling out the naivety of those who claim that violence works, and those who unashamedly resort to these kinds of references to religion, to sacralize, undergird, and frankly, conceal the real process and the real consequences of the use of violence.

[End music by Nimo Patel - https://soundcloud.com/emptyhandsmusicnimo/ode-to-women]

We invited Dr. Michael Allen to Nonviolence Radio to offer a short but meaningful “teach-in” about the foundations of Western economic thought in Thomas Hobbes and its revolutionary contrast in the economics of Mahatma Gandhi. 

People are figuring out, you know, and being coached by their friends and their family and their spiritual advisors and so forth, that in order to live their best lives, they’re going to have to release some of these injustices, despite the fact that it’s completely unfair, right? Like police departments pulling over people just because of the color of their skin or just because they’ve profiled them to match descriptions of whatever prejudicial bias they would like to monitor. But being angry about it, staying angry about it, is having harmful consequences.

In that capacity, the police officer is just following orders and we know that just following orders has been used as a defence about some of the most heinous crimes in history. But it really is. It’s the system or the structure that’s creating those outcomes. I don't know how much the student is aware that what they're doing is forgiving the racism in America, but I do know that they are aware that if they stay angry, then they’ll be unemployed. And they’re finding ways to get over that – at least to the degree that they're able to function, you know?

It’s challenging stuff. I think that there are some people that would say that that’s not really forgiveness. I would. I do. I think that I’ve learned a lot from my students sharing their experiences and their practices for how they get through the critical injustices in the world.

Wim’s work with students in prison and all over the world illuminates the way in which forgiving plays an essential role in helping individuals to release anger so that they can live more freely and fully. At the level of society, Wim shows how forgiving can work to dismantle power structures that allow for, even encourage cruel, unjust and violent actions. Forgiving is not easy, but it is a powerful force which, when harnessed, allows for deep and lasting transformation.

Michael Nagler begins the show with his Nonviolence Report for the week. 

In this episode of Nonviolence Radio we speak with Timothy Anderson, a full-time resident of a nonviolence-oriented community in the South of France, founded by Lanza del Vasto, an Italian follower of the Gandhian path. 

In the Nonviolence Report, Michael Nagler makes the radical case for restorative justice because of the impact of retribution on the human psyche and our societal development; and Stephanie shares an article from Waging Nonviolence by Robert Levering about Daniel Ellsberg’s conversion to nonviolence, and a press release from the Shanti Sena Network on their upcoming gathering, to which all are invited! 

On today’s show, we speak with P. Anand Rao who is a professor of Communications and Digital Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

In the Nonviolence Report Michael Nagler reflects upon Derek Chauvin's conviction and gives resources for further training.

According to Emily May, Hollaback!’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, 

“It’s something that all of us can do to take care of each other when harassment happens that slowly but surely chips away at the institutions that underlie it – the institutions of racism and sexism and homophobia that allow it to proliferate to the extent to which it has.” She adds, however, that bystander intervention is only one piece of the solution, noting that we have to also turn to restorative and transformative justice, and “solutions we haven’t even imagined yet.”

I had the opportunity to speak with May from her Brooklyn office for Nonviolence Radio about showing up for community, the 5 Ds, why they don’t recommend calling the police, the power of sharing our stories (they have an App for that!), and the importance of ‘resourcing’ organizations like Hollaback!

Following the interview, Michael Nagler gives the Nonviolence Report for the first week of April, 2021.

According to Emily May, Hollaback!’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, 

“It’s something that all of us can do to take care of each other when harassment happens that slowly but surely chips away at the institutions that underlie it – the institutions of racism and sexism and homophobia that allow it to proliferate to the extent to which it has.” She adds, however, that bystander intervention is only one piece of the solution, noting that we have to also turn to restorative and transformative justice, and “solutions we haven’t even imagined yet.”

I had the opportunity to speak with May from her Brooklyn office for Nonviolence Radio about showing up for community, the 5 Ds, why they don’t recommend calling the police, the power sharing our stories (they have an App for that!), and the importance of ‘resourcing’ organizations like Hollaback!  

DC Peace Team Capitol Report

Meta Peace Team going to Israel-Palestine

Basic Training for UCP

Peace and Justice Studies Association

Nonviolence International webinar

Myanmar protestors killed. 

Principled Nonviolence 

Obstructive program 

Constructive program

Abdul Ghaffar Khan -- My Life and Struggle

Pace e Bene workshop

Glossary of Civil Resistance

Ecuador’s Green Movement Victory

Peace Alliance

Restorative Justice Workshop 

Stories From the Front Line

Protests in Myanmar 

A dilemma action

Line 3 Pipeline

Institute for Local Self Reliance

Life Affirming Economies 

What is restorative justice? It is a worldview, rooted in indigenous principles, and a theory of justice that emphasizes bringing together everyone affected by wrongdoing to address their needs and responsibilities and to heal the harm as much as possible. To heal the harm as much as possible. It is a worldview rooted in indigenous principles and a theory of justice.

Our prevailing justice system is based on a Roman notion of just desserts. If I do harm, the scales of justice become imbalanced and the only way to rebalance is to do harm to me. 

Restorative justice invites a paradigm shift. 

The three questions retributive justice asks are, “What rule was broken? Who broke it? And what punishment is deserved?”

The three questions restorative justice asks are, “Who was harmed? What are the needs and responsibilities of everyone impacted? And how do all impacted come together to address needs and responsibilities and heal the harm?

By drawing on her strengths as both a (wisdom, spiritual) warrior and a healer, Dr. Davis has helped bring about massive changes in the Oakland public schools. The use of restorative justice practices has raised graduation rates, drastically decreased the numbers of suspensions and absences and is starting to loosen the tight grip of racism on the education system and our society. The possibility of genuine healing depends on making space -- creating a circle -- where every voice matters and every voice is heard. 

Instead of retribution what we want is restorative justice. It’s the kind of thing that Martin Luther King talked about when he was asked about violence, and when you’d have discussions of KAMU and others. Vengeance or retribution only leads to more violence. King, when he talked about colonialism, he would say, the objective of African Americans is not to separate in a separate colony or to kick whites out of the country as in colonial Africa, but to live in the same country. To reconcile with white Americans -- and to have that, you need restorative justice not retribution.

If we think, as Professor Henry suggests, of reparations as a process instead of a payment, it can become the basis for an ongoing, dynamic, harmonious relationship with our history and with each other. 

You have this combination of people who have shown a willingness to hit the streets and a willingness to be willing to face arrest and to engage in massive noncooperation. There was one thing that was really important about these trainings: it emphasized the importance of noncooperation that underscores what Gene Sharp and a lot of other people – Gandhi and so many other people that I’ve talked about before – governments are only as strong as people’s willingness to cooperate.

The nonviolent response on January 6 to the violent challenge to the American democracy could only have happened given a growing commitment to nonviolence, one that we have every right to expect will continue should greater threats emerge in the future. And it is precisely this commitment that, with effort and dedication, will allow us to listen better and come together as citizens who may disagree on this or that policy, but ultimately care deeply about each other as human beings.

“So what I would suggest is that when we go back and look at Martin Luther King's question, “Where do we go from here?”, that it's very possible that gaining citizenship rights has made us very complacent about human rights. We are secure and very happy in our rights as Americans in terms of citizenship because those are the rights that we expect our government to protect.

But there's a realm of rights which is constantly being evolved in the world. A realm of rights that belongs to people as people. And it's those rights that serve as a standard for citizenship rights. As we expand -- what is our ideal for what rights should be?-- that comes when we look at Martin Luther King. It's very clear that his ideal for what rights should be is not grounded on a piece of paper, it’s not grounded on a constitution, it’s not grounded on law itself. It's grounded on Christianity, the Judeo-Christian tradition, the prophetic tradition, the notion of justice.”

Mel speaks of the powerful work the Nonviolent Peaceforce has accomplished in conflict areas around the globe by identifying 77 best practices to prevent violence, protect civilians, saving lives, and promoting peace through the unique tool of Unarmed Civilian Protection.

In all his work, whether as an educator, an author, a director, Michael has been a passionate advocate for nonviolence and his efforts to reveal and celebrate its power has been a source of inspiration for many.

Let the pain not spread
Build a porous wall around it
Lest it seep into the soil
Harvest it
Plant flowers in it
Lest it rise in a tightened fist, gritty scowl, hardened stare
Or fall,

                                driving a buoyant angel

from the sky

Shuffling, Professor Woldense explains, is best thought of as “a technology. What it does is it recognizes that the fuel for cliques to form is people being in close proximity to each other, having an opportunity to get to know each other. Shuffling disrupts that process: as people are getting to know each other, but before that relationship matures, what you do is you divorce people from one another by essentially having them move into different parts of the regime. They're still part of the government, but they never get a chance to get too close to each other.”

While this may help to solve the clique/coup problem, it also seems inevitably to preclude the possibility of experts -- no one has time to acquire the experience needed to be competent in any government role! Thus shuffling tends to undermine the aim of a well-run regime.

Professor Woldense explores these issues in their own right and also shares the way he explains this complex dynamic to his students through a role-playing game that places each one in a position where action must be taken despite the fact that information is limited. 

• The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence.
• Gandhi Research Foundation.
• Single mothers in Philadelphia are taking over abandoned public buildings.
• Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegation Pushes Deutsche Bank for Fossil Fuel Divestment Amidst Pipeline Shutdowns, a Global Pandemic and the Climate Crisis
• Reparations Procession
• Mary King's tribute to John Lewis

Michael Nagler, UC Berkeley emeritus professor and President of the Metta Center for Nonviolence, responds to powell and offers his regular Nonviolence Report.

Transcript available here.

 For over 21 years, feminist activist and scholar Sally Eck has been leading workshops on “interruptions,” and “calling-in.” She offers empowerment, tools, and strategy for interrupting oppressive attitudes and language. Listen in here for her interview and the Nonviolence Report, news from the world of nonviolence with Michael Nagler.

In the full interview, you will hear Rajiv describe some of the hard-won lessons nonviolence he has learned experientially while working in a high-intensity conflict zone. Niyati will describe her own experience as someone who had to leave Kashmir because of the violence and how she became interested in nonviolence. 

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