Introduction

The key to understanding the Turning the Tide Programme lies in the two basic concepts from which nonviolent movements spring: the belief that people have the power and capacity to shape their own lives and the belief that this must and can be done through nonviolent action. Change will always bring conflict but it need not be violent. Nonviolence rooted in love can bring creative and lasting solutions.

Turning the Tide is deeply rooted in Quaker witness. Early Quakers sought to establish the peaceable kingdom, not by outward weapons but by the weapons of the Spirit. However, the techniques and theories that we work with come from  twentieth century people notably educationalist, Paulo Friere and leaders such as Mohandas K Gandhi and Martin Luther King, as well as a range of nonviolence practitioners from around the world. 

Turning the Tide's Guiding Principles

Our work is underpinned by basic Quaker beliefs that there is something of God in each person and that we should act upon the promptings of love and truth in our hearts. From this flow our principles of nonviolence:

• respect for the opponent/everyone involved as fellow human beings
• care for everyone involved
• belief that everyone is capable of change and that the opponent's basic humanity can be reached
• refusal to harm, damage or degrade people/living things/the earth as a means of gaining ends
• if suffering is inevitable, willingness to take it on oneself rather than inflict it on others; not responding to violence with violence
• recognition that no one has a monopoly of truth, aiming to bring together our 'truth' and the opponents' 'truth'
• a belief that the means are the ends in the making, so the means have to be consistent with the ends
• openness rather than secrecy
• necessity of training so that nonviolence thinking and behaviour become part of our everyday lives

Click here to view the complete document outlining Turning the Tide's guiding principles.

How the Manual is Organised

The manual's emphasis is on taking action ourselves and on how we organise ourselves to do that. The majority of the information contained in this area of the website consists of exercises and supporting resources forworkshops and practical ideas for groups of all kinds: campaigners, community workers, Quaker Meetings and activists engaged in direct action.

A smaller space is given to the logistics and practicalities of running workshops, facilitating meetings and organising people.   

Turing the Tide's Guiding Principles

Preamble:

Poverty, powerlessness, gross inequality of wealth and power, particularly the concentration of power in the hands of undemocratic multinational corporations and economic institutions, like the WTO, and military alliances such as NATO, racism, nationalism, consumerism, environmental degradation, the growing destruction of the beautiful world we have been privileged to live in; these are the rising tides we are hoping to empower people to turn. Violence is necessary to maintain such injustice and is often made visible when effective action is taken to reverse it. Violent conflict is becoming more common worldwide partly because people cannot see non-violent ways of working for justice and resolving their ethnic, nationalist, and resource conflicts.

We want to share knowledge and experience of nonviolent organising, decision-making and the creative nonviolent forms of conflict with those working to ‘… bring about a just and compassionate society which allows everyone to develop their capacities and foster their desire to serve’ (Quaker Advice and Queries 33), and those showing ‘a loving consideration for all creatures’ seeking ‘to maintain the beauty and variety of the world’ and working ‘to ensure that our increasing power over nature is used responsibly, with reverence for life’ (Quaker Advices and Queries 42).

1          Turning the Tide is a programme of Quaker Peace and Social Witness. It is part of the central work of Britain Yearly Meeting. A management group, appointed by Quaker Peace and Social Witness Central Committee, decides the policy of the programme and oversees its work. It is underpinned by basic Quaker beliefs that there is something of God in each person and that we should act upon the promptings of love and truth in our hearts.

2          From this flow our principles of nonviolence:

• respect for the opponent/everyone involved as fellow human beings
• care for everyone involved
• belief that everyone is capable of change and that the opponent's basic humanity can be reached
• refusal to harm, damage or degrade people/living things/the earth as a means of gaining ends
• if suffering is inevitable, willingness to take it on oneself rather than inflict it on others; not responding to violence with violence
• recognition that no one has a monopoly of truth, aiming to bring together our 'truth' and the opponents' 'truth'
• a belief that the means are the ends in the making, so the means have to be consistent with the ends
• openness rather than secrecy
• necessity of training so that nonviolence thinking and behaviour become part of our everyday lives 

3          How we work

(a) With groups: Our aim is to be of use to the groups we work with, balancing our roles as facilitators and teachers. Our approach is not one of having solutions to their problems, but of working together to generate ways forward for the group or individuals, while making available such knowledge and expertise as we have.

(b) With each other: Our commitment is to learning with and from each other and being open to mutual evaluation and constructive criticism. We will thresh through the issues and dilemmas relating to nonviolence and the different areas of our work.