articles

Believing in active nonviolence, Gerard G. Vanderhaar says, means recognising that like automobile accidents or fires, the possibility of personal attack is a fact of life. Commitment to living nonviolentely means doing 'just the right nonviolent thing' in the face of violence. In this article Vanderhaar draws largely on personal narratives to give concrete examples of how nonviolence can be a creative alternative to 'fight or flight' when confronting violence. Document archived here.

Retired US Army Colonel Robert Helvey talks to Peace Magazine editor Metta Spencer about effective ways of opposing dictators nonviolently. Studying at Harvard in the 1980s Helvey met Gene Sharp and began his conversion to nonviolence; he has has gone on to run trainings with people pushing for more open democratic societies in the world, including Burma and Serbia. Helvey says 'Lives are too precious to lose due to ignorance about nonviolent alternative means of struggle. People who have experienced war probably understand this better than most. That is why I am inclined to think that rather than send our people over to fight other people's wars, uninvited, let's provide them the knowledge and skills of nonviolent war and say: You all sort it out among yourselves!' Read more here.

The Seville Statement on Violence is a nonviolent classic written by an international group of scientists in 1986. This two-page statement succinctly and unequivocally refutes the 'the notion that organized human violence is biologically determined'. Document archived here.