Received: with LISTAR (v1.0.0; list 9-11peace); Wed, 31 Oct 2001 06:28:15 -0500 (EST) Return-Path: <bulletin@9-11peace.org> Delivered-To: 9-11peace@complete.org Received: from c009.snv.cp.net (c009-h019.c009.snv.cp.net [209.228.34.132]) by pi.glockenspiel.complete.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 114D53B8E2 for <9-11peace@complete.org>; Wed, 31 Oct 2001 06:26:51 -0500 (EST) Received: (cpmta 11894 invoked from network); 31 Oct 2001 03:26:47 -0800 Received: from 65.90.43.115 (HELO sylvester) by smtp.surfree.com (209.228.34.132) with SMTP; 31 Oct 2001 03:26:47 -0800 X-Sent: 31 Oct 2001 11:26:47 GMT From: "Eli Pariser" <bulletin@9-11peace.org> To: <9-11peace@complete.org> Subject: 9-11peace: Peace at the Grass Roots Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 06:27:36 -0500 Message-ID: <NFBBILDICDMBFNGCLHNEOEEHCHAA.bulletin@9-11peace.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Importance: Normal X-archive-position: 6 X-Approved-By: eli@morethanmoney.org X-listar-version: Listar v1.0.0 Sender: 9-11peace-bounce@complete.org Errors-to: 9-11peace-bounce@complete.org X-original-sender: bulletin@9-11peace.org Precedence: bulk Reply-to: eli@9-11peace.org X-list: 9-11peace

9-11PEACE.ORG BULLETIN, Issue 3 Available online at http://www.9-11peace.org/bulletin.php3

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CONTENTS --------- 1. Introduction: Keeping the Peace 2. Protective Accompaniment 3. Conscientious Objection 4. Case Study: Olive Trees in the Middle East 5. Education 6. Featured Actions 7. Get Involved 8. About the Bulletin

INTRODUCTION: KEEPING THE PEACE -------------------------------- The visible peace process between countries and groups in conflict is often carried out at the diplomatic level. We see Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak at Camp David, or David Trimble and Gerry Adams shaking hands in Northern Ireland. But in order for such political negotiations to have a lasting impact, they must be bolstered by work at the grass-roots level. If warring groups can't learn to trust and accept each other, there is little hope that they will be able to coexist in the long term.

In this week's Bulletin, we take a look at the incredible work people are doing around the world to create the conditions for peace. Although they rarely show up on the major news networks, the people and organizations featured below have come up with techniques and processes which allow deeply divided peoples to reconcile their differences without violence. In the words of the Shalom Center, a group that works in Israel, they are effective because they are "grass-roots approaches, people-to-people connections, that do not need to wait for governments, but can get governments moving again in a peaceful direction."

These are the tools that just might save the world, and they are sorely needed in these militaristic times. As you browse, consider what you can do to strengthen these efforts in your community and around the world.

PROTECTIVE ACCOMPANIMENT -------------------------- Protective accompaniment involves having ordinary people accompany activists who are working for peace in their countries of origin. The constant presence of an observer from the international community often helps to protect activists from suffering harm or even death. Observers may carry cameras to record what they see, and are backed up by emergency action networks that can quickly notify officials if something does happen.

One of the leading organizations that trains and mobilizes volunteers for protective accompaniment is Peace Brigades International. Peace Brigades International was founded in Canada, but is an international organization with chapters in many countries of the world. PBI is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and was nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. To learn more about PBI's use of protective accompaniment, visit: http://www.9-11peace.org/r.php3?redir=6

The above link also contains two further links to articles written by volunteers about their experiences.

The Global Non-violent Peaceforce is an organization that aims to train and mobilize an international standing peaceforce that uses non-violent means to intervene in conflicts. For more information visit: http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/proposal.htm

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION ------------------------ Conscientious objectors are people who refuse to take part in the mechanisms of war. This may involve refusing to fight or to pay taxes, since the wars our countries wage on each other are supported by the taxes we pay. In the U.S., for example, over 50% of income taxes goes to pay for military efforts.

The first step to becoming a conscientious objector is deciding where you stand on war and why, and educating yourself on the different types of conscientious objection. The website of the Center on Conscience and War has a worksheet designed to help you consider the available options: http://www.nisbco.org/What_Do_I.htm

Currently, there is a US effort, supported by a number of Representatives, to allow conscientious objectors to pay taxes for peace development rather than the military: http://www.peacetax.com/details.html You can support this bill by writing to your representative.

Until this bill is passed, or if you live outside of the States, it is still possible to refuse to pay all or part of one's taxes as a conscientious objection. This action does have some risk associated with it, but for a person of conscience, this risk may be a better alternative than funding a war effort that is killing thousands of people. http://www.nonviolence.org/issues/taxes.htm

You may also consider contributing to the War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund, which helps pay the taxes of American conscientious objectors who are being prosecuted for war tax resistance. This action carries much less personal risk and still expresses a financial objection to the war effort. http://www.9-11peace.org/r.php3?redir=7

For a quick look at war tax resistance over the last 30 years as told through pictures: http://www.9-11peace.org/r.php3?redir=9

CASE STUDY: OLIVE TREES IN THE MIDDLE EAST ------------------------------------------- Long-term, grass-roots peacemaking takes a lot of empathy, commitment, and, perhaps most of all, creativity. The story below is a terrific example of the kind of action that is required to bridge the gaps that exist. Here is part of the Shalom Center's online statement about their program:

"In some Palestinian towns, Israeli soldiers and settlers have even destroyed the olive trees that have been the economic and ecological basis of the town for centuries past and must be for decades to come. In the village of Hares, for example, the Israeli rabbis of Rabbis for Human Rights found 1500 olive trees destroyed - many in places far from where they could have been used as cover for violence.

These olive trees were not decorative. They were the life-support of the village. Some of the trees were hundreds of years old, having produced for this village oil and olives for all that time. Each one of them paid the cost of year after year of schooling for a child. Or the cost of a room built for a growing child. Or a dowry for a girl about to be married.

So we [The Shalom Center] are joining in an act of people-to-people peace-making . . . to help purchase new trees for several Palestinian villages, and then to replant these trees and help meet the humanitarian, human-rights, and environmental needs of these villages while the trees regrow."

Rabbis for Human Rights needs monetary support as well as people to help spread the word about the program. For more information: http://www.shalomctr.org/html/peace27.html

EDUCATION ---------- Education is often the best way to establish peace at a grass-roots level since it helps people understand each other's differences. Racism and violent behavior are often learned, and the principles of tolerance and non-violence can be learned as well. You can work to train yourself in non-violent conflict resolution and pass this knowledge on to others, especially children.

UNICEF Canada has an amazing website that not only has an interactive, 400 page online manual that teaches conflict resolution, but also a free interactive game in which you can mediate an historic child labor dispute in Bangladesh, or make a decision about how to deal with a refugee camp set up outside a village in Burundi. It is aimed at children, but I think it's just as educational for adults: http://www.softpower.org

There are also several profiles on the site about how teachers in various countries are helping to resolve conflict through what they teach the children in their schools. Two extremely interesting ones are about fighting racism in a school in the U.S. and resolving conflict in a school in Northern Ireland. These articles can be found here: http://www.softpower.org/peacemaker/index.html

Visit this page on the Global Non-violent Peaceforce website for a list of books to read, resources to use, and actions to take to help learn peaceful conflict resolution: http://www.9-11peace.org/r.php3?redir=8

It is also important to become informed about other countries and learn about non-Western points of view, in order to fight racism and get a better understanding of your country's foreign policy.

For background information on the nations of the world, including Afghanistan, visit http://www.countrywatch.com. This site includes details and statistics on the political, cultural, and military histories of the countries of the world, as well as current news on each country. It is important to get a better understanding of this kind of information, especially as America threatens to bring the "new war" to countries besides Afghanistan.

Or visit TFF, the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Research, which has a new website that contains links to news sources around the world. The site provides users with access to original sources and perspectives produced by the media in regions around the world, both mainstream and alternative. It is meant to help its readers develop an international rather than a national focus. http://www.transnational.org/new/TNN.html

FEATURED ACTION ------------- This week, I challenge you to take some kind of direct action for peace. Here are three suggestions:

1) Visit a mosque. You may want to bring flowers, both as a memorial to the innocent people of the Muslim faith that are dying in Afghanistan, and as a symbol of your understanding that Islam is a religion based on peace.

2) Write a letter to the editor. The paper can be local or national. Just express why you believe that the military action against Afghanistan should be stopped. In this way, you can let others know that there are many people who oppose the war, as well as educating people about the reasons why. Some things you may want to mention are: the need for a pause in the bombing to allow aid convoys to get into Afghanistan; the fact that bin Laden could be brought to justice through the U.N. sponsored International Criminal Court; the fact that innocent people are being killed by the bombing campaign; and the fact that this violence will only increase anti-American and anti- Western sentiment, and thus increase the risk of further terrorist attacks on our countries as well.

For more reasons to call for a peaceful response to 9-11: http://www.9-11peace.org/peace.php3

For a sample letter (printed in the Washington Post): http://www.magma.ca/~pax/ehosec06.htm

3) Find out about and attend an event for peace in your area. For events lists: http://pax.protest.net http://www.tao.ca/earth/damn/

GET INVOLVED ------------- If you would like us to include an action, giving idea, or news article or source in the Bulletin, please write to bulletin@9-11peace.org and describe your item in the subject line.

The 9-11Peace.org Bulletin is also looking for volunteers to do research, proofreading, and translation into Spanish and French. If you think you've got the time, know-how, and energy to do this well, please write to editor@9-11peace.org, put "Volunteer" in the subject line, and add a brief paragraph summarizing your experience and interest.

ABOUT THE BULLETIN ------------------- The 9-11Peace.org Bulletin is a weekly newsletter providing resources, news, and action ideas to over 17,000 people around the world. The full text of the Bulletin is online at http://www.9-11peace.org/bulletin.php3; users can subscribe to the Bulletin at that address also. The Bulletin is a project of 9-11peace.org. Contact bulletin@9-11peace.org for more information.