Structural Violence is…

Who, What, When, Where, How, Why…

and… So What?

Great Korean song for some understanding of Structural Violence

Was A Man – by Lucid Fall

사람이었네 – 루시드 폴 (앨범 “국경의 밤” 2007)
Was A Man – Lucid Fall (Album “Night At The Border” 2007)

English Translation by KMLA Senior, Eom Tae-Gyung (class of 2012)

Excerpt:

붉게 화려한 루비
벌거벗은 청년이 되어
돌처럼 굳은 손을 내밀며
내 빈 가슴 좀 보라고
A red, splendid ruby
Becomes a naked man
Shows me his hand hard like a stone
Asks me to look at his empty chest

난 심장이었네
탄광 속에서 반지가 되어 팔려왔지만
“I was a heart”
Though became a ring in a mine and got sold

난 심장이었네
어느날 문득 반지가 되어 팔려왔지만
“I was a heart”
Though became a ring one day and got sold

난 사람이었네
사람이었네, 사람이었네, 사람이었네
“I was a man”
Was a man, was a man, was a man

For full lyrics and video visit Eom Tae-Gyung’s blog “barbershop“

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**Structural Violence is*… who, what, when, where, why, and How? and… So What?***

On this page, I am gathering the rudiments of a definition of Structural Violence, in order to deliniate the nature of the disequilibrium, towards moving in the direction of resolving that disequilibrium. So for the time being, this material will constitute a resource page–with comments inserted from time to time, here and there.

The terminology “Structural Violence” was coined by Johan Galtung.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Galtung

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Structural Violence: Can we find genuine peace in a world with inequitable distribution of wealth among nations? by Robert Gilman One of the articles in The Foundations Of Peace (IC#4) Autumn 1983, Page 8 Copyright (c)1983, 1997 by Context Institute

(Excerpt)

“THE HUMAN TENDENCY toward, and preparations for, open warfare are certainly the most spectacular obstacles to peace, but they are not the only challenges we face. For much of the world’s population, hunger, not war, is the pressing issue, and it is hard to imagine a genuine peace that did not overcome our current global pattern of extensive poverty in the midst of plenty.

“Hunger and poverty are two prime examples of what is described as “structural violence,” that is, physical and psychological harm that results from exploitive and unjust social, political and economic systems. It is something that most of us know is going on, some of us have experienced, but in its starker forms, it is sufficiently distant from most North American lives that it is often hard to get a good perspective on it. I’ve come across an approach that seems to help provide that perspective, and I’d like to describe it….”

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC04/Gilman1.htm

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Structural Violence and the International Political Economy — Craig A. Brannagan

http://www.monitor.upeace.org/archive.cfm?id_article=320

“In the contemporary world, the phenomenon we call globalization has brought to life ideas and predictions previously thought impossible. There has been a global diffusion of information technologies and communications, such as the internet, cell phones and satellite television; the facility of international travel; the increased accessibility of consumer goods and services; and the sharing of unique cultures and customs. While on the surface these realizations seem undoubtedly advantageous, they are not without their own serious downsides. Most notable is the fact that as globalization gained influence in the world, largely throughout the 1990s, the actual number of people living in poverty had increased by almost 100 million(1).

“To make sense of this dark irony, this increasing polarization between haves and have-nots, we must examine the underlying causes and systems driving the distribution of wealth and debt in the twenty-first century. Broadly, such a system might be referred to as the international political economy (IPE)…”

And National Self-Interest?

Within each nation there is a concern for how to be competitive (relative to the competitive advantage that every other nation is pursuing for its own national self interest, as well). What do we do with the dilemma that Silicon Valley manifests? …

Andy Grove (former head of Intel) writes:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_28/b4186048358596_page_2.htm

Until a recent spate of suicides at Foxconn’s giant factory complex in Shenzhen, China, few Americans had heard of the company. But most know the products it makes: computers for Dell and HP, Nokia (NOK) cell phones, Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles, Intel motherboards, and countless other familiar gadgets. Some 250,000 Foxconn employees in southern China produce Apple’s products. Apple, meanwhile, has about 25,000 employees in the U.S. That means for every Apple worker in the U.S. there are 10 people in China working on iMacs, iPods, and iPhones. The same roughly 10-to-1 relationship holds for Dell, disk-drive maker Seagate Technology (STX), and other U.S. tech companies.

You could say, as many do, that shipping jobs overseas is no big deal because the high-value work—and much of the profits—remain in the U.S. That may well be so. But what kind of a society are we going to have if it consists of highly paid people doing high-value-added work—and masses of unemployed?

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While, American self-interest requires an answer to that question (including an “equitable” solution that brings forth employment for the masses of these masses of disgruntled unemployed in America), that answer cannot all together ignore the need obviated by the increasing number of people living in poverty, worldwide.

Globalization and Violence: The Challenge to Ethics

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, Jan, 2009 by Edward Demenchonok, Richard Peterson http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_1_68/ai_n31584655/?tag=untagged

Globalization of Structural Violence

… The problem of violence is itself extremely difficult to untangle, in part because what some thinkers treat as a matter of human nature has been shown by others not to be a constant of human societies, and by still others to be something that evolves dramatically with historical change. (1) Nevertheless, within this multifaceted problem, two aspects are becoming more obvious and disturbing: one is the globalization of violence; the other is the spread of structural violence.

First, the complex of change associated with the idea of globalization, despite all its benefits and promise, is itself frequently a very violent business. One may think, indeed, that the underside of globalization is itself a host of old and new kinds of violence. We can see this in the new kinds of wars that accompany structural change pushed forward by global economic pressures, (2) in the new weapons of destruction that flow through global networks that often mix together the movement of arms and illegal drugs, (3) as well as in the new kinds of terrorist violence associated with the idea of a global network. (4) One can think also of new kinds of weapons systems associated with space weapons, including not just missiles bur satellite technology, laser-operated devices, and so on. (5) And these observations only consider violence in the familiar sense of actual or threatened harms imposed on bodies and populations.

In addition to its direct manifestations, violence in a broader sense has many indirect and subtle forms. If we think of structural violence, for example, we can see that many of the economic and environmental changes taking place raise questions of violence as well. (6) The term “structural violence” does not refer to all the kinds of physical and psychological suffering caused by the workings of social institutions. Rather, it refers to those institutionally caused harms that are not only predictable but have been predicted and debated, and for which preventive measures could be taken. The moral force of the notion of violence is preserved in the case of structural violence when we see that agents have knowingly permitted predictable harms, even though they have not intended them, as is the case with direct violence.

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Cultural anthropology: the human challenge – Google Books Result

William A. Haviland, Harald E. L. Prins, Dana Walrath – 2007 – 424 pages — So it is that more than 250 million people can no longer grow crops on … these victims of structural violence have no choice but to remain where they are, … books.google.com/books?isbn=0495095613…

PROBLEMS OF STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE — Population and Poverty; Hunger and Obesity; Pollution (PCBs in Arctic Breast Milk, Probo Koala’s Dirty Secret); The Culture of Discontent, etc….

PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS, HUMAN RIGHTS AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ; Persistent Organic Pollutants: A Global Issue, A Global Response

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Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21st Century

Daniel J. Christie (Author), Richard V. Wagner (Author), Deborah DuNann Winter (Author) http://www.amazon.com/Peace-Conflict-Violence-Psychology-Century/dp/0130968218/

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Global Healing: Essays and Interviews on Structural Violence, Social Development and Spiritual Transformation

Sulak Sivaraksa Sulak Sivaraksa (Author), Michael Sheehy (Editor), Ravindra Varma (Foreword) http://www.amazon.com/Global-Healing-Interviews-Development-Transformation/dp/9742601569/

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Who Benefits from Global Violence and War: Uncovering a Destructive System

(Contemporary Psychology) [Hardcover] Marc Pilisuk (Author)… http://www.amazon.com/Who-Benefits-Global-Violence-War/dp/027599435X/

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The Predator Culture: The Systemic Roots and Intent of Organised Violence

Fred Harrison (Author) · Publisher: Shepheard-Walwyn (June 1, 2010) Language: English · ISBN-10: 0856832731 · ISBN-13: 978-0856832734 http://www.amazon.com/Predator-Culture-Systemic-Organised-Violence/dp/0856832731/

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Macrohistory and Macrohistorians: Perspectives on Individual, Social, and Civilizational Change

[Hardcover] Johan Galtung (Editor), Sohail Inayatullah (Editor) · Publisher: Praeger Publishers (Sept, 1997) · Language: English · ISBN-10: 0275957551 ISBN-13: 978-0275957551 http://www.amazon.com/Macrohistory-Macrohistorians-Perspectives-Individual-Civilizational/dp/0275957551/

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Blowbacks that happen when the truth is held from the American public

I Had Ray Davis’s Job, in Laos 30 Years Ago — Same Cover, Same Lies –By ROBERT ANDERSON — http://counterpunch.org/anderson02282011.html

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Jobs? Where are they?

(Who is doing the most, hurting the most?) Where are jobs needed most? Can there ever be enough?

What if there will Never be Enough Jobs?

6:30 AM, Feb 16, 2011 | by Steffen Schmidt http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/02/16/what-if-there-will-never-be-enough-jobs/

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Will there be enough jobs?

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Unlocking the Employment Potential in the Middle East and North Africa: Toward a New Social Contract

(Orientations in Development,) [Paperback] World Bank (Author) · Publisher: World Bank Publications (April 2004) · Language: English · ISBN-10: 082135678X · ISBN-13: 978-0821356784 http://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Employment-Potential-Middle-Africa/dp/082135678X/

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Sustainable Development Issues

Sustainable development and community resilience

http://learningforsustainability.net/susdev/

Issues in Sustainable Development

http://www.unep.org/training/programmes/Instructor%20Version/Part_2/Activities/Interest_Groups/To_the_Instructor/index.html

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The End of Poverty is Possible?

On Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty

http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Journal-of-Lutheran-Ethics/Issues/July-2010/Jeffrey-Sachs-The-End-of-Poverty.aspx

Rebuttal of Jeffrey Sachs

http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/28/two_myths_that_keep_the_world_poor/

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Millennium Development Goals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Development_Goals

http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progress2010/MDG_Report_2010_En.pdf

African Resources (Stiglitz) Sweet Deals, Return on Investment versus the matrimony of the people

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2011/01/31/mpa.facetime.joseph.stiglitz.cnn

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Other indices… Way(s) forward?

Youth Bulge, Global economic Melt-down, (Left and liberal Uprising / not Radical Islam)

Social Media + virtual communities = Jasmine Revolution… but at a price: conversion principle… a leaderless mass can always congeal into a prescient nacient democracy…?

Youth + technology = change

Fareed Zakaria (CNN/GPS) writes: Two big trends underlie Middle East protests: Youth and Technology.

1) Youth: 60% of the population in the Middle East is under thirty. As Edward Sayre writes in the National Journal: …the next few years may represent a point of maximum demographic pressure across the region—a period somewhat analogous to the 1960s in the United States when the first baby boomers surged onto the political and cultural scenes.

2) Technology: The information revolution is empowering individuals and dis-empowering governments. Information used to be a one-to-many phenomenon, now it is a many-to-many phenomenon. The system is flat with no one in control. Now, Facebook doesn’t cause revolutions, but it certainly makes life difficult for dictators…

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/20/youth-technology-middle-east/

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100 years later?

Artifical Intelligence (AI) Trumps the “Human” Mind?

* 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal (Time Magaine) … (AI wins !?)

* Why Machines Will Never Beat the Human Mind (The Atlantic) … (!?)

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300 years later? – 1000 or 10,000 years later?

Systemic Failure and Cause for Hope

Excerpted from — “A Perspective from Africa on
Human Rights and Genetic Engineering”

By Dr. Solomon R. Benatar :

Powerful Forces

Intense poverty, widespread starvation, recurrent wars, infectious diseases–including escalating rates of HIV infection–and failure to achieve widespread democracy, are all manifestations of failure at the level of whole systems which cause untold misery and may in the long term undermine progress throughout Africa, including South Africa. . .

I will suggest that acknowledging the powerful forces which sustain social injustice is the first step towards new ways of thinking that could promote a broader notion of moral behaviour and a socially responsible concept of rights. . .

The minimum prices paid for raw materials associated with devaluation of the currency of poor countries, payment of demeaning wages to workers in foreign countries less committed to human rights, protectionist trade practices, and the trillion dollar a day market in foreign exchange across financial networks (only 10 percent of which is for trade in goods and services) have resulted in extremes of wealth and poverty. While material conditions of life have generally improved, not all have benefited, as wealth and misery are generated simultaneously. . .

The extent to which the military has become autonomous in many countries (including the USA) and immune to democratic control has been described with foreboding by J.K. Galbraith. Virtually all wars since 1945 have been fought in Third World countries, resulting in 23 million deaths. More recently, civilian wars, often linked to historic ethnic enmities, opposition to oppressive governments, or arising from artificial geographical boundaries created by colonial powers, have resulted in millions of deaths. UNICEF estimates that in 1994, 30 million children died due to wars and poverty–300 times as many deaths as resulted from the bombing of Hiroshima and Hagasaki. . .

Within a globalizing economy, economic power has been shifted from potentially accountable governments within nations, to multinational corporations and other unaccountable transnational market forces. The fear of big government has resulted in the creation of big business wielding enormous power that cuts across nations. . .

Attitudes

Secular Western attitudes to the concept of the self as highly individualistic, and unconnected to the community or the spiritual world, further undermine the confidence of Africans who view people as both uniquely individual and as intimately connected by relationship to others in the present, past, and future….

We should not be surprised or derogatory about this unless we are consistent in applying our attitudes to the religious beliefs, myths, and superstition which persist in a scientific and secular era in the west. Given the pervasiveness of a deeply spiritual and communal world-view in Africa–and the fact that many Africans perceive most sources of modern power to be used against them (or not for their benefit) by those lacking spiritual awe for life, and by those whose political and economic decisions are focused on individualism and materialism–it is not difficult to imagine why Africans should lack confidence that the ability to alter genetic structures will suddenly be used for the benefit of all humans–including them….

Conclusions

Trends in scholarly work reveal slowly emerging new paradigms of thinking that provide hope for such progress. These changes include a deeper understanding of history and of the social forces which shape the world, gradual shifts towards new ways of economic thinking, new directions in political philosophy, broadening concepts of the self, enhanced ecological sensitivity, shifts in understand how power can be used more constructively, greater respect for other cultures, and new perspectives on international relations. It is in such changing conceptions that there is hope for wisdom in the use of new forms of power that will flow from genetic engineering and other scientific advances.

We need to conceive of systems approaches within which patterns of behaviour at individual, national, and international levels could contribute to achieving our high ideas. Such ideals may be attainable if we could be more self-aware, more honest about ourselves and about our dependence on others for our existence–and more concerned about future generations.

While I am fully cognizant of the great complexity of the task that lie head I should like to echo the words of Chinua Achebe, the distinguish Nigerian author:

Despair should not eclipse hope . . . neither history nor legend encourages us to believe that a man who sits on his fellow will some day climb down on the basis of sounds reaching him from below. And yet we must consider how so much more dangerous our already very perilous world would become if the oppressed everywhere should despair altogether of invoking reason and humanity to arbitrate their cause.

http://climatization.wordpress.com/systemic-failure-and-cause-for-hope/

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Johan Galtung

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Galtung

http://www.reocities.com/homeostatictruths/05/0914HTN.html

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Editorial:
Left and Right; Anarchy and Transcendency

Carlton L. Johnson

Did something rub you the wrong way about “Ec 10″ — your basic intro course on economics? Could not appreciate having a bunch of very questionable assumptions shoved at you, assumptions which you could not accept as absolute, nor could you refute, at such an early stage of the academic game?

Especially: Cost/Benefit Analysis, based on “my” cost and “my” benefit. Somehow, this idea seems essentially exploitative. Did you stop to consider that Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed–all enlightened ensigns demonstrated some higher standard?

Not until the movie “Beautiful Mind” came out–highlighting the theory for which mathmatician John Nash won a Nobel Prize–did most of us find suitable elocution of sound yet, at the same time, inclusive principles of economic theory. Principles articulated by Nash may enamor Ec-10 “sceptics” to an alternative ideal–one that may enable us to ‘create wealth’ without having to exploit others.

Nash explained: Adam Smith was wrong: The greatest good comes not from pursuing a cost-benefit analysis based on my cost and my benefit, alone; but based on what is best for me AND for the WHOLE… (not a verbatim quote)

Socialism of the Left and Socialism of the Right?
Left-wing and Right-wing Meet at Head-wing

The Divine Principle speaks of
a “Socialistic Society on Heaven’s side”…

The Ideals of Interdependence, Mutual Prosperity,
and Universally Shared Values; versus Communism
http://www.unification.net/dp96/dp96-2-4.html#Sec7_2_7

The merit of the age in God’s providence of restoration has furthered the development of man’s original nature, which had not been manifested due to Satan’s grip on human life. Responding to the promptings of their inmost hearts, people everywhere have ardently aspired to the world of God’s ideal where the purpose of creation is fulfilled. In seeking for a socialistic society on Heaven’s side, their original mind has drawn them to the ideals of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values. The world in which these ideals will finally be realized is none other than the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, under the leadership of the returning Christ.

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The “ideals of interdependence, mutual prosperity, and universally shared values” — a most reasonable expression of Headwing Economics.

Can “socialism” be a neutral term?

“The aspirations to socialism–on both sides (Right/Left)–have arisen in Heaven and Earth’s providential striving to realize a society based on a truly democratic economic system.”

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DP / continuing from above:
http://www.unification.net/dp96/dp96-2-4.html#Sec7_2_7

Since Satan mimics God’s providence in advance, the satanic side has advocated “scientific socialism” based on the theories of dialectical and historical materialism and has built the communist world. The theory of historical materialism asserts that human history began as a primitive collective society and will be consummated with the creation of an ideal communist society. The evident errors of this theory are due to the fact that it does not take into account the fundamental cause of historical progress. After creating human beings, God promised to realize the Kingdom of Heaven. However, because Satan had formed kinship relations with people before God did, God had to permit him to construct an unprincipled world through fallen people in a distorted imitation of the ideal society which God intends to accomplish on the earth. The communist world is this unprincipled world built by Satan.

Democracies of two types arose with the purpose of dismantling absolute monarchy and transferring sovereignty to the people. Likewise, movements to further the ideals of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values arose on God’s side, while communism was born on Satan’s side, in order to demolish economic systems which concentrated a society’s wealth in the hands of a privileged few. Each of these movements has sought to establish a system which would distribute wealth more equally among people. The aspirations to socialism on both sides have arisen in their providential striving to realize a society based on a truly democratic economic system.

It was explained earlier that in the history of Western Europe as steered by the providence of restoration, the three aspects of religion, politics, and economy have progressed separately through their own paths of development. How can they come together at one point at the consummation of providential history to lay the foundation for the Second Advent of Christ? A fundamental cause of this separate development was the divergence of religion and science, which are endeavors to overcome humanity’s spiritual and physical ignorance. For the paths of religion, politics and economy to converge and realize God’s ideal, a new expression of truth must emerge which can completely integrate religion and science. The religion founded upon this truth will lead all of humanity to become one with God in heart. Such people will build an economy in accordance with the divine ideal. These will be the foundations for a new political order which can realize the ideal of creation. This will be the messianic kingdom built on the principles of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values.

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Key thesis:

The paths of religion, politics and economy must converge in order to realize God’s ideal; “a new expression of truth must emerge which can completely integrate religion and science.” And all of humanity must become one with God in heart.

Some other, helpful constructs:

How about a list comparing where the Left is Bad and where the Right is Bad; and where there Right is Good and the Left is Good?

Towards that list; some generalizations unavoidable, at first:

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Bad:

Left–class struggle inevitable
Right–might makes right

Left–equality in mediocrity
Right–Eugenics, Survival of the fittest

Left–state supreme arbitor of distribution
Right–Elitist (racially, economically, academically)

Left–inability to relate to heart of elitist hopes
Right–inability to relate to heart of exploited peoples

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Good:

Left–Cooperation, co-prosperity, and common cause
Right–Fiscal responsibility (minus Enronitis)

Left–equal opportunity, brotherhood of man
Right–moral responsibility before God (ideally)

Left–secularism (as far as it protects; Church/State)
Right–Pluralism (as far as it encourages wholesomeness)

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And finally:

Many people blame Religion, en total, as a major cause for strife and war. That is like saying that a razor’s edge is responsible for all murder committed with knives. Knives are tools. Philosophy and Religion, as disciplines–in and of themselves–are merely tools. How we wield them is dependent upon the artistry and sanity of those doing the wielding.

That said, surely too much wrong has been done in the name of religion.

For example–and not meaning to belittle Christianity, at all–the following indictment from DP (intro) is key to issuing a new wake-up call to Christianity and providing a warning to Islam–of what to avoid as we create that new economy:

Excerpt:
Exposition of the Divine Principle, Intro

Medieval feudal society buried Christianity alive. Even though the Reformation raised high the torch of new life, its flame could not turn back the sweeping tide of darkness.

When ecclesiastic love waned, when waves of capitalistic greed surged across Christian Europe, when starving masses cried out bitterly in the slums, the promise of their salvation came not from heaven but from the earth. Its name was communism. Christianity, though it professed the love of God, had degenerated into a dead body of clergy trailing empty slogans. It was then only natural that a banner of rebellion would be raised, arguing that a merciless God who would allow such suffering could not exist. Hence, modern materialism was born. Western society became a hotbed of materialism; it was the fertile soil in which communism flourished.

… Christianity lost the ability to equal the successes of either communism or materialism and failed to present the truth that could conquer their theories. Christians watched helplessly as these ideologies budded and thrived in their midst and expanded their influence all over the world. What a pity this is! What is more, although Christian doctrine teaches that all humanity descended from the same parents, many citizens of Christian nations who profess this doctrine will not even sit together with their brothers and sisters of different skin colors. This illustrates the actual situation of today’s Christianity, which has lost much of the power to put the words of Jesus into practice. It has become a house of lifeless rituals, a whitewashed tomb.

There may come a day when human efforts bring an end to such social evils, but there is one social vice that human efforts alone can never eradicate. That is sexual immorality. Christian doctrine regards this as a cardinal sin. What a tragedy that today’s Christian society cannot block this path of ruin down which so many people are rushing blindly! Christianity today has fallen victim to confusion and division, and it can only watch helplessly while countless lives are sucked into the maelstrom of immorality. This is evidence that conventional Christianity stands powerless to carry on God’s providence to save humanity in this present age. Unless… (?)

Complete text and: Intro

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Towards an inclusive vision for all of the estranged parties in the one great universal family of humanity, we must consider the pros and the cons, the good and the bad on all sides. As we listen to others with parental heart, we do manage to find common ground and manage to discover a stronger will to accomplish the manner of reconciliation that all hearts long to experience and fulfill.

The World Transcending Religions and Nations
is, in fact, a natural progression.

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Making peace: The way to peace often passes through a stage of revolution.

Adam Curle explains why.

http://www.newint.org/features/1983/03/01/making/

SINCE the end of World War II there have been about 150 wars — mostly in developing countries — in which 30 million people have died. About 40 of these wars are continuing today. British troops alone have been involved in over 70 military operations in about 45 countries. This is symptomatic of a global war hysteria that is causing Third World military spending to rise even more sharply than that of the rich countries. Every nation proclaims its commitment to peace, but wars keep raging,

Yet peace is not simply the opposite of war. There are conditions of social injustice, economic exploitation and political oppression which, while they are not war itself, are by no means peaceful and often lead to war. This ‘structural violence’ is built into social structures and deprives its victims of jobs, food, health, education, political liberties and human dignity.

Whatever we mean by ‘peace’ — and there are countless definitions — it always involves what human beings do to one another. So I find it helpful to define peace as a relationship — between individuals, groups, nations, races — in which everyone is helped to develop their full potential. By contrast, unpeaceful relationships are those in which one or both parties suffers harm — physical, emotional, economic or cultural.

In my analysis there are three types of unpeaceful relationship, each requiring a different form of treatment. Peacemaking consists of moving by stages from one type of relationship to the next and finally to resolution of conflict.

Stages of Peacemaking
The Stage of Apathy is typified by poor peasants in the Hindu Kush region of Pakistan, who once said to me: ‘We are starving and suffering at the hands of our landlords but it has always been like this —the poor suffer and the rich prosper.’ Here was a conflict of interest between a stronger group and a weaker one but the underdogs were not sufficiently conscious of the nature of the conflict to take any organised action. Underdogs in unpeaceful situations are numbered in hundreds of millions: Indians in the Brazilian Amazon, Aborigines in Australia, ‘untouchables’ and tribal people in India, women workers in the factory sweatshops of the Philippines, Hong Kong and London’s East End. All of us, in some way or other, are underdogs in the Stage of Apathy. Until very recently we, the ordinary people of Europe and North America, had only a very limited awareness of the enormous perils of the nuclear trap into which Cold War politics had led us. But the greatest underdogs of all are women, who continue to suffer from male exploitation in virtually every country on earth.

We need to awaken ourselves — or firstly just to realise we have been asleep— then help to prod others awake. This was why Steve Biko offered — and lost — his life. And the black consciousness movement he led has helped many South African blacks understand the root causes of their poverty and oppression. Now they have moved from the Stage of Apathy to the Stage of Revolution. The conflict between weak and strong still exists in South African society but the weak are making vigorous efforts to change the structure of the unpeaceful, unequal relationships of apartheid.

If the Stage of Apathy brings danger for the weak, it is nothing compared to the perils of the Stage of Revolution. Initially the strong will have the ability to crush the weak and may well try to do so. This is precisely what is happening today in Guatemala, where the Indian population — just emerging from the Stage of Apathy— is being slaughtered by the military regime.

The weak, for their part, may wage revolution either by legal and constitutional means, or through illegal but nonviolent acts such as civil disobedience, or they may turn to violence. Armed revolution is the most usual method. I have been associated with one myself — though now I would not be — and have sympathy and respect for the courage, motivation and dedication of my friends who have fought in wars of national liberation. But now I feel them to be both morally wrong and largely ineffective. I have seen too many of them fail in their long term objectives even if the short term ones were achieved: many of today’s despots are yesterday’s freedom fighters and will face a new generation of revolutionaries tomorrow.

So although I realise that revolution will usually involve the gun, I propose two alternatives for moving out of the Stage of Revolution:

• Non-violent action as the equivalent of war. We often forget that the Shah of Iran, armed to the teeth with the most modern military technology, was overthrown in 1978 by mass, nonviolent action. Several thousand revolutionaries were killed— but perhaps not so many as if they had been armed. Soldiers find it hard to keep on shooting unarmed people, particularly fellow citizens. First the air force, then other sections of the military joined the rebels. And the Shah fled. A massive armed state had been brought down by unarmed insurgents.

• Gandhian non-violent action. The Gandhian approach, unlike that used in Iran, is not based on unrelenting hostility towards the oppressors: the Iranian revolutionaries would certainly have used guns had they possessed them (and towards the end they did), but the true Gandhian would not. Gandhians — and I use the word in the broad sense to include people such as Martin Luther King and Chicano leader Cesar Chavez — aim not to vanquish and humiliate their oppressors but to change their attitudes so that they too join in building a more just society. Yet they yield to no-one in their militancy and determination to force change.

Swords to plowshares – All we are saying is give peace a chance. Both these forms of non-violent struggle involve as much toughness, discipline and skill as the armed struggle. They are no soft option of marches, demonstrations and protests that end up safely in one’s own bed.

The Stage of Revolution leads into the third type of unpeaceful relationship: the Conflict of Equals, in which the protagonists are of more or less equal power. Of course power can mean many things. The definition I prefer is ‘the capacity, by whatever means, to make the other person or group think twice before acting’. Superior organisation, patience, courage and determination are all forms of power, and often more successful than simple military might.

In a Conflict of Equals, the rivals are competing for resources, influence or ‘security’. This sort of unpeaceful relationship exists between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, Greece and Turkey, and India and Pakistan. But it also exists on a lower plane— between rival religious and ethnic groups, amongst neighbours, friends and families.

This stage is particularly important because now, at last, it may be possible to reach the root cause of the conflict, resolve fears and tensions and lay the basis for reconciliation between the warring or estranged parties. It is the only stage of the peacemaking process at which it may be possible to use the tools of mediation, negotiation and bargaining, Fears must be allayed, hurt pride assuaged, explanations given, interpretations offered and suggestions proffered. Mediators must totally surrender their own egos— like the Buddha— in dealing with everyone involved in negotiations. Only then will they be able to create a climate of calmness and trust in which rational discussion can take place.

The peacemaking process may move through all three stages to resolution of the conflict. as has happened in many ex-colonial countries, most recently in Zimbabwe. Often, however, there is no movement into the Conflict of Equals because one party is eliminated in the Stage of Revolution. And sometimes this third stage lasts a long time, as in a prolonged guerilla war or the East-West Cold War.

We all find ourselves involved in a wide variety of unpeaceful relationships, some of which we have constructed ourselves. The issues may be race, sex, class, deprivation, apartheid, the Palestinian question or the nuclear arms race. Some are local, others international, but not one of them exists in isolation. Whenever we contribute to the peacefulness, or the unpeacefulness, of a single relationship, the ripples spread much further than we realise.

Adam Curle formerly Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, has worked on problems of education, poverty and peacemaking in over 30 developing countries.

http://www.newint.org/features/1983/03/01/making/