Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation
Working for peace, social
justice and principled nonviolence since 1976
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Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation
Working for peace, social
justice and principled nonviolence since 1976
Home |
Contact Us | Donate or
Volunteer
The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation is absolutely committed to nonviolence. We encourage people to understand nonviolence, develop their skills, and practice nonviolence in daily life. This part of our website offers articles, documents, quotations, training opportunities, links and other kinds of information.
Different people understand nonviolence in different ways.
Certainly Gandhi, King and others have rooted their nonviolence in profound ethics and deep religious spirituality. A great number and variety of people from various religious and spiritual traditions have found grounding, insights and motivations that have compelled them to affirm nonviolence. As a result, some people think nonviolence is only a nice ideal – but perhaps not practical in “the real world.”
Other people think nonviolence is mainly a set of tactics without necessarily being grounded in ethics and spirituality. Gene Sharp – a respected researcher who wrote some of the articles shown below – often says he supports nonviolence because it actually works. It is practical. He points out that nonviolence has been used many times throughout history by people who were not necessarily grounded in ethics or spirituality, but who wanted workable strategies and tactics to use against adversaries who were more physically powerful. See the information below in the section titled “Using nonviolence in the real world.”
The FOR understands that nonviolence is BOTH grounded in ethics AND practical in the real world. The information below includes both dimensions. To help us remember that nonviolence includes the ethical grounding, this website sometimes refers to “principled nonviolence.”
What Is Violence? (Word doc)
What is nonviolence - Gene Sharp (Word doc)
Six Principles of Nonviolence - Martin Luther King (Word) (PowerPoint)
What Is The Difference Between Pacifism And Nonviolence? (Word doc)
Misconceptions About Nonviolence (Word doc)
Why did Gandhi object to violence? (Word doc)
Nonviolence involves interacting with people by using attitudes and behaviors that open-mindedly seek the most profound truth and justice, while always respecting the inherent human value of every person.
This pursuit of profound truth and justice often requires great courage and might involve risk to one’s ego and physical safety. The practitioner of nonviolence would rather assume that risk personally rather than harm another person.
The practitioner of nonviolence can do this with confidence, knowing that harmony and nonviolence are consistent with the way the universe works best.
A great and growing variety of tools and techniques are available for practicing nonviolence in a number of settings.
Grassroots People-Power Can Win Hearts and Minds ( Word ) ( PDF )
What Nonviolence Means - and How It Works ( Word )
What Would a
Nonviolent Society Look Like - Glen Anderson (Word)
(PDF)
Sharp's theory of nonviolent resistance
Effective
Nonviolent Action Requires Empowering Ourselves and Rejecting Fear and Despair
Organizing Grassroots Power for Effective Nonviolent Action
Nonviolent principles and practices can be applied to a
great many areas of life. We commonly think of foreign policy and
interpersonal relationships. But nonviolent principles and practices could
improve many areas of life, including how we deal with people who hurt others (e.g.,
a nonviolent criminal justice system such as “Restorative Justice”), how we
operate our economy, how we teach school children, how we design cities and
communities, and so forth. This article encourages us to think expansively
and creatively: What Would a Nonviolent Society Look Like?
(Word) (pdf)
The
criminal justice system seems to reinforce criminality rather than cure it.
A growing movement for Restorative Justice offers compassionate and effective
ways to hold offenders accountable in ways that reduce their likelihood to
reoffend – while also providing healing for victims and restoring the
community’s wholeness. The best website is
www.restorativejustice.org In addition, Restorative Practices
can be applied in other areas of life. Learn about the International
Institute for Restorative Practices at
www.iirp.org
More and more people are finding great usefulness and practicality in the methods Marshall Rosenberg developed. This process is called Nonviolent Communication or Compassionate Communication. The Center for Nonviolent Communication (www.cnvc.org) offers many resources.
Adults and children can be
taught how to resolve conflicts. One researcher in a public school setting
combined elements of John Rice’s WinWin
training, Adventures in Peacemaking, Stephen Covey, Becky Bailey’s Conscious
Discipline, and Marilyn Tabor’s Coaching for Excellence. See her research
at
http://www.beckybailey.com/flyers/Analysisofteaching.pdf
In addition to
the variety of resources listed above, you can learn about nonviolence from any
of the following:
www.forusa.org The Fellowship of Reconciliation
www.warresisters.org
The War Resisters League
Books and Films That Promote Nonviolence - PowerPoint
Nonviolent Action Dictionary (Word doc)
A terrific source of information about using nonviolence strategically in practical settings to protect democracy and oppose oppression is The Albert Einstein Institution, which Gene Sharp founded in 1983. Gene Sharp – who has been respected worldwide as probably the most important researcher in this field since the 1970s – has written many books and practical pamphlets on the topic. Please see The Albert Einstein Institution’s website at www.aeinstein.org, and see the website’s link to their publications.
Nonviolence is still viable in Syria, even in March 2013. See this information from the International Fellowship of Reconciliation: http://www.ifor-mir.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=85:syria-nonviolence-is-still-an-option&Itemid=619