Towards A People's Peace – A Webinar Series on the Transformative Role of Social Movements In Resisting Violence and Building peace
Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war”
—Martin Luther King Jr
Social justice movements worldwide navigate a complex terrain, facing multiple forms of violence; from war to oppression, surveillance to discrimination and beyond. How do people organise and resist in such realities? How can they succeed?
This six-part webinar series invites activists, scholars, policymakers, and the public to explore the complex roots, manifestations and dynamics of violence, and the transformative role of social movements in acheiving justice and building peace.
Strategic and sustained non-violent action has proven to be one of the most powerful tools for confronting state and institutional violence and addressing the underlying conditions that fuel conflict and oppression. Understanding the conditions that often lead to violence, and the many forms in which it manifests can help us to de-escalate and dismantle.
Each webinar will deliberate on the roots and manifestations of violence, and the strategic approaches that movements employ to resist and organize. Through the course of these deliberations, we aim to explore the practical and strategic dimensions of non-violent action, learn how to support and amplify these efforts, fostering broader solidarity and systemic transformation towards more just and peaceful societies
WEBINAR I
WEBINAR I Speaking of Violence: Mapping the Terrain
Date: 29 January 2025
We introduce the series with a first webinar exploring different categories of collective violence and examining the roots and manifestations of this and how these are understood and experienced by social movements.
(Updated 5.02.2025) Six Points Emerging from WEBINAR I
Properties of violence and the violence of property. Systemic violence is not class neutral. Systemic violence requires understanding of how society and state are organised. In class differentiated society the state is constituted by the exploiting classes. In a capitalist state violence is initiated in defence of capitalism, capital and the capitalist class. Companies and capital own and control violence.
The clash of symbols. Violence is not simply its direct physical manifestation. Violence in addition to being about silencing and exploiting also attacks and undermines cultural and spiritual foundations, including breaking the connection with nature. Violence operates symbolically by dehumanising and stripping victims of their dignity and controlling people through narrative tropes of exclusion and non-belonging.
The three violated territories. Contemporary systemic violence intersects with poverty and violates three territories— the body, the land the digital space. Violence breaks the inviolability of the physical body and undermines personal autonomy, self-ownership, and self-determination of human beings over their own bodies. It destroys our relationship with land – our connection with everything that sustains us and where life’s interactions take place. It eliminates public spaces and the digital commons.
Talking love to hate. Violence on the bedrocks of colonialism, capitalism and patriarchy are interconnected. Combating this pervasive kind of violence requires solidarity without borders to restore humanity and create spaces for healing using the transformative power of love. Ends do not justify the means, so the question is, what justifies the means.
Violence of the lambs. The legal right to self-defence is universally acknowledged. The violence of aggression and the violence of self-defence are not equivalent or morally symmetrical. True peace prevails when there is justice and equality.
- Desirable States. The reasons of state incline to both violence and peace. Through the course of history states have created the institutions of violence and the institutions of peace according to context, contingency and circumstance. The desirable state mediates peaceful solutions to conflict, in the interest of general welfare.
View The Webinar Recording Here: https://youtu.be/sRIq3N5pjGQ?si=d5bjcbVkBPLLwyKb
WEBINAR II
WEBINAR II In Another’s Land: War and Militarization
Date: 5 February 2025
Exploring dynamics of war, militarization and the influence of private companies and business interests in contemporary geopolitics; how it impacts world peace and how nonviolent movements organise in the midst of war.
Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/in-anothers-land-war-and-militarization-tickets-1203146316019?aff=oddtdtcreator
WEBINAR III
WEBINAR III The Violent State: Dealing with Repression
Date: 19 February 2025
Understanding the nature and mechanisms of state violence and the role of social movements in confronting it, focusing on how movements can be supported in their efforts to combat state oppression.
Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-violent-state-dealing-with-repression-tickets-1203161561619?aff=oddtdtcreator
WEBINAR IV
WEBINAR IV Uncivil Society: Ending Violence in People vs. People Conflicts
Date: 5 March 2025
This webinar explores the concept of "uncivil society"—forces within communities that disrupt harmony and democracy. We’ll discuss civil conflict, majoritarianism, and how social movements navigate and respond to these challenges.
Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/uncivil-society-ending-violence-in-people-vs-people-conflicts-tickets-1203268250729?aff=oddtdtcreator
WEBINAR V
WEBINAR V The Peaceful Play of People’s Power: Violence, Nonviolence, and Social Change
Date: 19 March 2025
Non-violent resistance has proved to be the most effective way to confront and change unequal power structures. However, the meaning and limits of violence itself is contested. In this webinar, we will deepen our understanding of strategic non-violent action and civilian based defense structures for social movements.
Register: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-peaceful-play-of-peoples-power-violence-nonviolence-social-change-tickets-1203305191219?aff=oddtdtcreator
WEBINAR VI
WEBINAR VI Towards a People’s Peace: Pathways to a Just and Nonviolent World
Date: 9 April 2025
Location: Global People Power Conference, Copenhagen
We conclude the series by bringing the various threads together in order to map out the contours of a contemporary global peace movement; promising approaches on how people’s movements can be supported to create just and inclusive peace.
