The non (-) violence page (this will be expanded regularly – schematic as hell at the moment)
I've been involved in the use of non-violent techniques for social change for some twenty years.
If you want to know a bit more about what that might be, please click to go to the page titled A bit of background. It's largely an attempt to describe some of the distinctions and differences among those who use non-violent techniques within Australia - so if you're a beginner, you may find this useful. If you're already involved in this stuff you may find the descriptions over-simplified or even a bit caricature-like. If that's the case, I apologize in advance. I'm trying to give newcomers some idea of what goes on. But I'll welcome your comments.
Below are links to some useful sites around the place:
Peace Brigades International: To my mind, PBI is about the most useful organization around. It's function is to protect activists, largely in the Third World. Political solidarity work from First World countries is important, but the most important thing is to keep local activists alive and functioning. Activists, whether they are trade union activists, indigenous activists, womens activists or whatever, are frequently targets of coercion, all the way from sacking to death-squads. PBI provides 24-hour accompaniment for activists. After two decades of this kind of activity, no people under PBI protection have been lost, and no PBI activists killed. Rigoberta Menchu, Guatemalan Nobel Prize winner in 1992 received PBI protection for years.
The success of the organization depends on an an international Rapid Response Network that bombards the offices of the governments in question with thousands of messages as soon as an alert is sent out. Sounds like the dreaded 'lobbying', or 'playing up to the oppressor'. But it's not. It's keeping front-line activists alive and out of jail.
An Australian branch of PBI has recently (re)formed. Join the Rapid Response Network now!
Friends of the Earth: Among groups in Australia working for environmental causes, FoE is the most consistent in its commitment to grass roots organizing and to non-violent principles. It is, aside from that, the most extensive environmental group in the world. Below are links to several groups in Australia, selected largely on the purely personal basis of my having visited them. There is a complete list of the others at the FoE Australia site. These can lead you to FoE International and to FoE groups in other countries.
Nonviolence Today: NT is the issues magazine of the Australian Nonviolence Network. It has been in publication since the early 1980s. Electronic copies are available back until 1990.
All of these have excellent links pages