Title: Building a Better Strategy for the Peace Movement
1Building a Better Strategy for the Peace Movement
by Peter Bergel Oregon PeaceWorks
2Whats the Current Strategy?
- We depend largely on 3 tactics
- Education
- Demonstrations
- Lobbying/Electoral Work
Lets take an honest look at these tactics.
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3The Education Tactic
- This is where our movement shines.
- We are good at assembling the facts, getting them
out, and overcoming establishment biases. - We are often able to change conventional wisdom
about foreign policy within a couple of years, as
the current public attitude toward Afghanistan
shows. - Yet we rarely manage to transform public support
into access to the levers of power.
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4The Demonstration Tactic
- Once an enormously effective tactic,
demonstrations and protests now - Draw relatively few people,
- Are largely ignored by the media so few people
know they are taking place, - Are frequently herded into so-called free speech
zones where they are not seen, - Therefore do not put our issues on the map.
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5The Lobbying Tactic
This tactic, as we currently use it, pits our
weakness against our adversaries strength.
- We can never hope to match their money.
- We can never hope to match their army of paid
lobbyists. - Without the help of the media, we have little
clout with most elected officials.
5
6Other Strategic Problems
- We are not, and really have never been, a peace
movement. We are almost exclusively an anti-war
movement. - Almost everything we devote major resources to is
negative stop a war, a weapons system, racism,
nuclear weapons, etc., but what are we for? We
promote no comprehensive vision. - We place little emphasis on pointing out the
flaws in the whole war system. - We have not been effective in stopping wars once
they get rolling and we dont plan far enough in
advance to get ahead of the curve.
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7More Strategic Problems
- We criticize the military for pouring resources
into failed strategies, yet we are doing the same
thing. - Most of our tactics are the same ones weve used
for 50 years. Our opponents have learned to
neutralize them. - As a movement, we are not taking advantage of new
technologies like Facebook and Twitter well or at
all.
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8How Can We Develop a Better Strategy?
- Strategy is a plan for getting from where we are
to where we want to go. - This implies that we know where we want to go.
- However, the peace movement indeed, the entire
progressive movement has no agreed-upon vision
of what peace would look like if it were to
break out. - Thus, a comprehensive peace vision is where we
need to start.
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9Restructuring is Needed
- True compassion is more than flinging a coin to
a beggar it comes to see that an edifice which
produces beggars needs restructuring. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
10How Can We Develop a Comprehensive Peace Vision?
- Start thinking outside the box. Dont be
limited by the way we did it before. - Resist impatience and the mentality of crisis.
Doing the visioning, developing a new strategy
and implementing it will take time.
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11The Goal Sustainable World Community
- We want to work together, even as we work on
different issues. Our strength is in our
diversity! - Thus we need to see how all our issues promote a
common vision that is defined and agreed upon. - We need unity of vision, not unity of action.
- A common vision can provide the basis for
worldwide cooperation with each group still doing
its own strategizing.
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12Lets do some visioneering here and now.
- If peace broke out,
- what would it look like?
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13Q If peace broke out, what would it look like?
- Homes dwellings
- Energy sources and distribution
- Farms and food distribution
- Transportation and shipping
- Environmental protection
- Conflict resolution local, regional, global
- Security without war
- Learning and teaching
- Playing and enjoying life
- Business and economics
- Medical care/wellness/healthy lifestyles
- Government
- Justice/crime/human rights/civil liberties
- Media
- Family, Spiritual
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14Imagine . . .
- If a majority of groups working to create a
better world did two things - Agreed to a comprehensive common vision of the
world we want to create and live in and used that
vision to develop its own strategy. - Agreed to lift up the common vision every time
they did anything public.
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15Transformation!
- The vision would be bubbling up from every corner
of the country. - The general public would soon be seeing a unity
they had no idea existed. - Many more would want to get involved.
- A sense that YES, WE CAN change the world might
take hold. - Dare we risk it?
- What have we got to lose?
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16I have GREAT news!
17This visioning work has already been done! Its
called The Earth Charter
18And I think youre going to LIKE IT!
19The Earth Charter
- Comprehensive
- Well thought out
- Inclusive
- Global in scope
- Already underway
- Connected to the United Nations
Look at your copy now
20Earth Charter Content
- Preamble
- Earth, Our Home
- The Global Situation
- The Challenges Ahead
- Universal Responsibility
21Earth Charter Content
- Principles
- Respect and care for the community of life
- Ecological integrity
- Social and economic justice
- Democracy, nonviolence, and peace
22How You Can Participate
- ... in the Earth Charter Initiative
1. Disseminate the Earth Charter and raise
awareness about it among your friends and in your
local community.
23How You Can Participate
... in the Earth Charter Initiative
- 2. Endorse the Earth Charter and encourage the
organizations to which you belong and your local
and national governments to use and endorse the
Earth Charter.
24How You Can Participate
... in the Earth Charter Initiative
- 3. Start an Earth Charter study group and explore
how to use the Earth Charter and apply its
principles in your home, work place, and local
community.
25How You Can Participate
... in the Earth Charter Initiative
- 4. Collaborate with Earth Charter Partners and
Affiliates and with other organizations that have
endorsed the Earth Charter in your region.
26How You Can Participate
... in the Earth Charter Initiative
- 5. Make financial contributions or provide other
resources and needed services in support of Earth
Charter International and other Earth Charter
projects.
27How You Can Participate
... in the Earth Charter Initiative
- 6. Consult and follow the Action Guidelines for
Decentralized Expansion of the Earth Charter
Initiative, which may be found on the Earth
Charter website.
www.earthcharterinaction.org
28Brainstorming Project
Hold brainstorming sessions around Oregon asking
the same question and harvesting the responses by
sector. Find a vehicle, such as the Peace Trek
poster of the 1980s, to share the vision.
29Salems MyPeace Project
- Come up with an answer to the
- question If peace broke out,
- what would it look like?
- Express the answer using some form of art.
- Last October, the MyPeace Project presented the
collective vision to the community through a
series of events. - Visit www.mypeaceproject.org for details.
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30Brainstorming Project
- Hold brainstorming sessions like this one around
Oregon asking the same question and harvesting
responses by sector. - Find a vehicle to articulate and share the vision.
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31Virtual Think Tank
- A working group of visioneers based around the
country who take on the job of - reviewing existing and emerging visionary
materials, - creating a comprehensive vision,
- shopping the vision around to progressives
everywhere - soliciting wide ownership.
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32Oregon PeaceWorks View of Peace
- The peace we seek is more than the absence of
war. It embraces an active, nonviolent approach
to problems, the understanding that all people
have a right to share the resources of the earth
in a sustainable manner, a commitment to fair
play and a role for every person in the decisions
that affect their lives.
33Contact Oregon PeaceWorks
- Oregon PeaceWorks
- 104 Commercial St. NE
- Salem, OR 97301
- info_at_oregonpeaceworks.org
- 503-585-2767 Fax 503-588-0088
- www.oregonpeaceworks.org
- To join the Virtual Think Tank, visit
- www.groups.google.com/group/peace-visioning-think-
tank
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