Non-violence - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The non-violence is a philosophy which délégitime violence, an attitude of respect of the other in the conflict and a strategy of political action to fight the injustices.

Presentation

Popularized as of 1921 by Gandhi in India, it is the Ahimsâ - Sanskrit has , negation and himsâ violence -, one of the bases of the Bouddhisme and the Jainisme. It was adopted or used more or less openly by many people, of which Martin Luther King for the fight of the American Blacks against the segregation, the 14th Dalaï Lama in exile in India to solve the conflict sino-Tibetan, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel in Latin America, Vinoba Bhave again in India, Lech Wałęsa and Václav Havel against the Polish and Czech Communist governments, Cory Aquino with the Filipino , Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko in South Africa, Aung San Suu Kyi with the Myanmar and Ibrahim Rugova with the Kosovo.

November 10th, 1998, with the call of all the Nobel Prize of alive peaces, the General meeting of the the United Nations voted a resolution declaring the decade 2001-2010 international Décennie for promotion of a culture of non-violence and peace with the profit of the children of the world .

In France, the oldest non-violent movement is the French branch of the International Mouvement of the Reconciliation (created in 1923). Lanza del Vasto, friend of Gandhi, created the Community of the Arch in 1948. The philosopher Jean-Marie Muller, like Jean Toulat, Jacques Sémelin, and Christian Mellon, and others, sought to develop a theory of non-violence and its political adaptation through “non-violent groups” starting from the beginning of the year 1970. The movement of the conscientious objectors and the fight of the peasants of the Larzac, starting from 1972, popularized non-violence. Jean-Marie Muller and the most moved by the political action created the Mouvement for a non-violent alternative.

One can classify the partisans of non-violence in two tendencies: those which preach non-violence like political and social method, and those which support that non-violence is a spiritual goal in oneself, closely related on the construction of the personality and the practice of a morals of life. The borders between these two tendencies are not clearly established. In France, they are located around two symbols groups: The Movement for a non-violent alternative and the the Communities of the Arch of Lanza del Vasto.

The militants of non-violence distinguish violence from the situations and the violent reactions which they generate. They want to denounce the situations of violences to defuse the risks of violent crises. the means used to denounce these situations of violences are described as “non-violent” method in opposition to the most current methods in the history, " such as one us it raconte" , which resorts to repression, police and/or military, of the violent reactions to the situations of violences.

The non-violent attitude thus leaves the postulate which the situations of violence precede the violent expressions and which the injustice, and the refusal to respect its adversary, are the true sources of violence. The non-violent ones challenge categorically the charge of Pacifisme. The non-violent action supposes the quite real exposure of the militants, not armed, with the weapons of those which choose violent methods to solve the conflicts. The “non-violent” action thus counts on human psychological springs of the adversary which could not be durably exposed to appear loose by using the violence armed against with disarmed people. The “Public opinion” thus seems the mediator convened by the non-violent fight. The modern and media policies are impregnated of this concept as others made prose without the knowledge.

Movements and organizations claiming non-violence

In France

French Coordination for the Decade of a culture of non-violence and peace,
Movement for a non-violent alternative (MAN) * International Movement of the Reconciliation (MIR),
the Communities of the Arch of Lanza del Vasto (),
Cun of the Larzac,
Research institute on non-violence and the conflicts (IRNC,),
Non-violence Topicality French monthly magazine
Survival fight association against Françafrique
Planet Not Violence webzine of infos and educational resources * Non-violence XXI, funds associative for a culture of non-violence at the 21st century,
Resource center on the non-violence of the Midday-Pyrenees,
Anarchism and non-violence

In Switzerland

Center for the non-violent action (in the past Center Martin Luther King) * Swiss PBI (Brigades of International Peaces - International Peace Brigades) * international Civil service

In the world

international Coordination for the Decade of a culture of non-violence and peace * The religious Company of the Friends (Quakers)
International Movement of the Reconciliation * Greenpeace
Taayoush: a israélo-Palestinian group directed by Gadi Algazy.
Faith School Baha' IE
Day of Non-violence and Peace (DENIP) , on January 30th of each year, birthday of died of Mahatma Gandhi.
ONGs of the Congress of Youth Tibetan and the Center Tibetan for the human rights and the democracy are two examples of associations of Tibetans in exile using of the non-violent means.

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