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You are here: Frontpage > Issues > 2480-81 >
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Craig Barnett reflects on the need for the peace movement to develop its theory and practice, and
the Quaker-funded workshops helping to supply the tools and space to do so.
Challenging oppression with Turning The Tide
Craig Barnett
Several years ago I was involved in an intensive period of peace campaigning. I protested at Faslane,
blockaded an arms factory, disputed with directors at the BAE Systems shareholders' meeting, trespassed at the nuclear
submarine base at Barrow, and vigilled outside the DSEi arms fair.
These were exciting and challenging experiences, but I came away from them with growing doubts about the
peace groups I had worked with. How did the methods we adopted actually contribute towards achieving our goals? Were we
contributing to a more peaceful world or fuelling our own self-righteousness?
Conditions for change
A recent workshop on "Challenging Oppression" by Turning The Tide, a project of Quaker Peace and Social Witness, was an
opportunity to look again at the theory and practice of nonviolent action, and to consider my own contribution to the work
of peace making.
The trainers, Sophie Reynolds and Steve Whiting, emphasised the tradition of active nonviolence developed by Mohandas
Gandhi and Martin Luther King. This tradition is concerned with actively resisting oppression, not just with rejecting
violence, while respecting the humanity of our opponents. It involves seeking out possibilities for dialogue, which
preserve the possibility of learning from people we are in conflict with, as well as the potential for eventual
reconciliation.
The effectiveness of this approach is built upon an understanding of power as a product of cooperation among many
different groups in society, so that all of those involved in a situation of conflict or oppression have a share of power
and can contribute to creating social change.
Nonviolent action according to this model is not necessarily direct or predictable. It can be a matter of "inviting
the conditions for change" rather than directly producing it, including the work of challenging internalised oppression or
prejudices, and changing personal or group relationships in ways that can have wider political effects.
Challenge, not alienate
During the workshop we were also introduced to some simple tools for analysing situations of injustice and identifying
areas of potential change, and we used these to explore issues that were close to us, including Iraq, Palestine and nuclear
weapons. The participants at the workshop were mostly very committed activists with a wide range of experiences, and one
of the most rewarding aspects of the day was the opportunity to explore in small groups some of the dilemmas that we were
struggling with. For our group this involved investigating how dialogue with our work colleagues or families about social
justice issues is often blocked because it is perceived as "threatening". We shared our thoughts on how to talk about our
concerns in ways that can challenge people without alienating them.
Strategic responses
The workshop left me with a sense that the scale of violent oppression in the world calls for a response which is much more
competent, strategic, and effective than the kind of peace movement that we have at the moment.
There is an urgent need for a more long-term focus to our peace work, especially training and nurturing new
generations of activists, and schooling ourselves in the lessons of nonviolent campaigns from around the world. Turning
The Tide's work is an important example of the kind of training that needs to be done in order to pass on this learning,
but a more effective peace movement might also include centres for the study and practice of active nonviolence, where
training and reflection was integrated with practical campaigning.
If we want a peace movement that is able to present a real challenge to violence and oppression, perhaps we should
be considering how we can build this kind of infrastructure to develop and sustain new generations of active peacemakers.
Craig Barnett is a Peace News subscriber. He attends the Balby Monthly Meeting.
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