Peacemaking Action Item

Definition of Peacemaking from Wikipedia

Peacemaking is a form of conflict resolution which focuses on establishing equal power relationships that will be robust enough to forestall future conflict, and establishing some means of agreeing on ethical decisions within a community that has previously had conflict. When applied in criminal justice matters it is usually called transformative justice. When applied to matters that do not disrupt the community as a whole, it may be called mindful mediation.

The term peacemaking however is reserved for large, systemic, often factional conflicts in which no member of the community can avoid involvement, and in which no faction or segment can claim to be completely innocent of the problems. For instance, a post-genocide situation, or extreme oppression such as apartheid.

The process of peacemaking is distinct from the rationale of pacifism or the use of non-violent protest or civil disobedience techniques, though they are often practiced by the same people. Indeed, those who master the nonviolent techniques under extreme violent pressure, and who lead others in such resistance, have demonstrated the rare capacity not to react to violent provocation in kind, and the difficult skill of keeping a group of people suffering from violent oppression, coordinated and in good order through such experience.

Given that, and a track record of not advocating violent responses, it is these leaders who are usually most qualified for peacemaking when future conflict breaks out between the previously warring sides.

Mohandas Gandhi is widely recognized as an important theorist of the peacemaking strategy. He noted in particular that leaders who had been successful at violent strategies were counter-productive in peace time, simply because these strategies now had to be abandoned. But if a movement had adulated and emulated these people, it was unlikely ever to be able to make permanent peace even with those factions it had conquered or dominated, simply because the leaders lacked the skills and had become leaders in part for their suppression of the other side. Accordingly, even if a movement benefited from violent action, and even if such action was extremely effective in ending some other oppression, no movement that sought long-term peace could safely hold up these acts or persons as a moral example or advise emulating either. Gandhi's views have influenced modern ethicists in forming a critique of terrorism, in which even those who support the goals must decry the methods and avoid making, for instance, a suicide bomber into a hero.

(It'd be good to make the intrawiki links work and improve the wikipedia article which contains a spelling error and many omissions.)

(This will be edited down a bit and included in the flyer.)

Links

UUA

• UUA Peacemaking Home Page "You go to the UUA site, search, click a few times, and eventually you find it" - Pam
• Congregational Study/Action Issue Resource Guide I "Tons of great books, movies, web sites, and ideas to foster our journey to peacemaking" -Donna
• Public Relations Manual "Why aren't we doing this?" -Chris
• Commission on Social Witness "We have many folks taking part in this. Let's get the rest involved too." -Mason

Others

• Peacemaking on Wikipedia provides a good definition of peacemaking. "It helped me understand what the heck we were talking about" - Chris
• US Institute for Peace links page - a variety of links for peacemaking (no UUA though)
• Google Search - UUA shows up as #22 after amazon.com and a sanctuary in Oregon with the URL peacemaking.org.
• The Presbytereans seem to have a huge lead over the UUA on this one - they started in the 70's
• Catholics goes no where, because no one expect the Spanish Inquisition! Feel free to find a link for the Catholics.
• empty - add more

Quotes

Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969)

Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
-- Albert Einstein, Physics Nobel Winner