News and upcoming events
Nonviolence Summer School
Sydney, Australia. January, 2009
Course convenor: Dr Lynda-ann Blanchard
Civil Rights in the US; the fall of the Berlin Wall – now, a brighter future for the people of Burma? Nonviolence has inspired, triggered or brought about the most momentous political changes of our lifetimes More...
Summer Short Course in “Nonviolent Social Change in the Contemporary World”.
Monday 9 February to Thursday 12 February 2009 at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW
The University of New England’s Centre for Peace Studies is pleased to announce a Summer Short Course aimed at anyone who is interested (and passionate) about creating a better world through nonviolent means. More...
Hammered by the Irish" - new book by Harry Browne tells Story of Shannon "Disarmament", Acquittal
But the story of the Shannon Five has hardly been told, until now. For the first time, a new book reveals the inside story of an intrepid act. On February 3rd, 2003, five Catholic Worker peace activists, calling themselves the Pitstop Ploughshares, broke into a hangar at Shannon Airport and, swinging hammers and a pickaxe, did more than $2.5 million to a US Navy transport plane. More...
More event details at Events
New website for International Nonviolent Action news
Nonviolence International has recently established a new web portal at www.nonviolentaction.net for news on nonviolent movements and news throughout the world.
The new website aims to develop a stronger global community of activists/scholars sharing information and create a resource to explore new practices and approaches in the field of nonviolence. It also hopes to enable responses to nonviolent activists who face dire threats.
The site is comprehensive and in a blog format so discussions, feedback and dialogue can develop over time. It's certainly a valuable contribution to international networking around nonviolent struggle.
Please visit and contribute by reporting upon, sharing and discussing Australian nonviolent struggles and campaigns.
The network supports a diversity of points of view about nonviolent action and nonviolence.www.nonviolentaction.net
Interested in Nonviolence in Australia?
Nonviolencenet is the only national networking email list for people involved with or interested in nonviolent social change in Australia. Nonviolencenet helps to facilitate discussion and to share info about nonviolence events, trainings, and important messages from international networks such as IFOR, PBI, Nonviolence International and the Nonviolent Peaceforce. For more info see the Group's site at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nonviolencenet/
About the Nonviolence Training Project
Nonviolence is often described as the ‘politics of ordinary people’. As a means of radical social change, nonviolence draws on a rich history of people’s struggles from around the world. Grassroots people’s movements have brought down dictators, stopped armies, undermined corporations and halted entire industries with nonviolent resistance. Nonviolence can be applied personally as a way of life, or collectively as a method of transforming conflict and building peace.
As a strategic and grassroots approach to social change, nonviolent campaigns apply a huge array of creative protest actions, mass nonco-operation and nonviolent interventions with the aim of redistributing power in society. Revolutionary nonviolence aims to create conditions for just, peaceful and sustainable societies that meet the needs of all people. At its core is a recognition of the shared humanity of all people and the value of life itself.
In Australia, nonviolence has a long association with the movements for environmental protection, nuclear disarmament and international solidarity. Nonviolent tactics including strikes, boycotts, marches, sit-ins and blockades have played a key role in movements for the rights of women, workers and indigenous Australians.
Nonviolence training has a role to play in all cultures because so few human institutions teach us how to deal constructively with conflict. Usually, we are taught to avoid it or leave it to the authorities. Neither of these paths are open to people who actively confront violent conflict or injustice. More ...