Voices of reason and hope

In a world torn by war, intolerance and xenophobia, there are still important voices of reason and hope.

Speaking to the opening of the 37th African Union Summit, Lula da Silva, the President of Brazil, reaffirmed the partnership and bond between the country and people of Brazil and their sister continent of Africa: “The African struggle has a lot in common with the challenges faced by Brazil. More than half of the 200 million Brazilian citizens recognize themselves as Afro-descendants. We, Africans and Brazilians, must chart our own paths within the emerging world order. . . . Resuming Brazil’s rapprochement with Africa means recovering historical ties and contributing to the construction of a new, more just and supportive world order.”

Also in Africa, Senegal elected a new President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who is young and dynamic. In his first Presidential address to the nation, he promised “to reach out to everyone, to bring together, reassure, appease and reconcile, in order to consolidate the peace, security and stability essential to the economic and social development of our dear country” He recalled “our valiant resistance fighters, famous or unknown heroes, who, giving themselves body and soul, defied the odious colonial system and its so-called civilizing mission, to defend the freedom of our people and their values of culture and civilization.”

President Faye challenged his countrymen to take up “the historical responsibility to consolidate our sovereignty by breaking the chains of economic dependence,” through the “the construction of African integration and the achievement of the objectives of the Zone. of African continental free trade.”

In Europe and North America, there are eloquent political candidates who oppose the dominant political discourse of war and xenophobia.

In France, with the cry of “PEACE! PEACE! PEACE! That is our vote! Peace in Gaza! Recognition of the State of Palestine! Punishment of war criminals! Peace in Ukraine,” Jean-Luc Melanchon concluded his address to the opening of the campaign of Action Populaire for the June election to the European Parliament. He called for a force for peace “capable of engaging the new generation. That force is the people. We are the forward detachment. That force is a collective intelligence.”

Melanchon denounced the current policies of war: “War can produce nothing else except deaths, victims, desolation, destruction! War is the failure of the human condition. War is the failure of civilization. War! War will never produce anything other than war again! Always war, more war!”

In the United States there are good independent candidates, , although they are allowed very little media attention, in a Presidential campaign dominated by Biden and Trump. Independent candidate Cornel West says, “I want to raise my voice to mobilize people and get people to see that Trump is leading us toward second civil war and Biden is leading us to a third world war.”

West calls for disinvestment from the military: “62 cents for every one dollar in the discretionary budget in Washington goes to the military.  We have 800 military units around the world and special operations in 130 countries. We have to cut back massively on military spending and put it directly into universal basic income.”

Jill Stein, who seeks to be the Green Party candidate for President, also calls for disinvestment from the miitary: “We are spending $12,000 this year maintaining forever wars in the Forever War Machine—$12,000 per household—in our tax base.” She says that “these funds could be more effectively used to address domestic issues.” Stein focuses her campaign on the Green Party’s core principles of environmental sustainability, social justice and a commitment to nonviolence.

Also in the United States, there is a renewed mobilization of trade union activism led by the dynamic President of the United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain. Speaking to autoworkers seeking to unionize the Mercedes-Benz factory in Alabama, Fain said “Working class people, like all of you here today, have the power to change the world. You have the power to change your circumstances. You have the power to take back your time. To take back your life. To win real time off the job. A fair wage. Good healthcare you can afford. A better life for your family. For all of Alabama. . . . Without a Union contract, they have all the control. You have the power. You just have to recognize it and use it. Let’s finish the job that started so long ago. Let’s walk a new path for working-class people together in solidarity.”

On a global level, Mary Robinson delivered the keynote address to the assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. She is the President of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela who work for peace, human rights and a sustainable planet. She told the parliamentarians: “The Elders are calling for long-view leadership to tackle existential threats and to build a more resilient and equal society. Long-view leadership means showing the determination to resolve intractable problems, not just manage them. The wisdom to make decisions based on scientific evidence and reason and the humility to listen to all of those affected.”

Finally, the speech by Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi on International Women’s Day decried the lack of women’s equality everywhere in the world, and especially the worst cases of Israel and Palestine, Iran and Afghanistan. She expressed the conclusion of last month’s CPNN bulletin and blog that Insofar as women take leadership, we have a greater chance that coming changes will lead to a culture of peace,

And In this month’s blog, we write that the leadership shown by Lula and Faye give hope that perhaps democracy can survive in Africa and Latin America by gaining freedom from the control of the grand capitalists that rule in Europe and North America.

International Women’s Day around the World

Celebrations and protests marked International Women’s Day around the world on March 8.

CPNN carried photos from many of the these events.

In Europe, they came from Albania, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain and Ukraine.

In Asia and the Pacific, from Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

In Africa and the Middle East, from Algeria, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Côte D’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Israel, Kenya, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco, Palestine, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey and Uganda.

In the Americas, from Argentina, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, United Nations, United States and Venezuela.

In the capitalist countries, the events were mostly protests and demands for women’s rights in the face of widespread discrimination and violence against women, including criminal prosecution for abortion. Many events condemned in particular the violence against women in Palestine and Israel in recent months.

In many of the socialist and former socialist countries, the events were celebrations rather than protests. This was the case in Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, North Korea, Cambodia, and Vietnam. this reflects the history of the day, which was initiated by socialist organizations at the beginning of the last century, and then celebrated primarily by the socialist movement and communist countries until its adoption by the United Nations in 1977.

This year the United Nations celebrated the Day with the slogan “Invest in women to accelerate progress.” They criticized an “alarming lack of financing” for achieving gender equality: “Feminist organizations are leading efforts to tackle women’s poverty and inequality. However, they are running on empty, receiving a meagre 0.13 per cent of total official development assistance.”

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, founded to oppose World War I, and boasting the Nobel Peace Prize to two of its founding members, dedicated their celebration of the day to solidarity with the people of Palestine, concluding that “the world sees Gaza as a global front against the rule of oppression, colonialism, and tyranny, so they act in solidarity with Gazans and for justice for all including themselves.”

The organization, The Warriors of Peace, also condemned the violence against women in israel and Palestine, and added reference to violence against women in many other regions of the world. They wrote that “This International Women’s Day has a special flavor. We know to what extent wars and conflicts can destroy struggles and weaken achievements. We, The Warriors of Peace, are convinced that women, when they unite, form the most powerful shield against the destruction of the world. We are the resistance. We are the ones who hold on, who stay standing . . . Feminism is justice, equality and dignity for all. It is the refusal of assignment and division. Feminism is peace.”

As discussed in the blog this month, “we are entering an era of economic and political contradictions that will lead to revolutionary change. Insofar as women take leadership, we have a greater chance that the change will lead to a culture of peace.”

Solidarity with Gaza

“We’re watching a genocide unfold in real-time. In just three weeks, the Israeli military has killed over 8,000 Palestinians in Gaza, among them over 3,000 children,” Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) said early Monday (October 30). “That’s more than the annual number of children killed  in conflicts across the globe since 2019.” According to the United Nations, as of October 26, at least 45% of housing units have been destroyed or damaged.

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International Day of Peace

According to our survey of the Internet there was an increase in participation in the International Day of Peace this year. This was true in all regions of the world except for Africa and the Arab and Middle Eastern States.

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INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF DIALOGUE FOR PEACE

There has not been very much publicity, but the United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed this year as the International Year of Dialogue as a Guarantee of Peace.

The proposal came from Turkmenistan with 68 co-sponsors including all of the countries of Central Asia, reflecting the fact that these countries are menaced by the nearby war in the Ukraine. The resolution was adopted by consensus although reservations were expressed by the United States, United Kingdom and Ukraine.

In his opening remarks at the launch ceremony in January, Vepa Hajiyev, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, said, “Currently, these principles and goals are particularly relevant against the background of the existing systemic problems of international relations. In this context, we see a common task in turning the International Year of Dialogue as a Guarantee of Peace into a powerful constructive process designed to provide an incentive for dialogue, cooperation, and mutual understanding”. Other speakers at the launch ceremony considered the year as implementation of the 1999 International Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace.

Concerning the war in Ukraine, a new proposal from China insists that “Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis. All efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis must be encouraged and supported. The international community should stay committed to the right approach of promoting talks for peace, help parties to the conflict open the door to a political settlement as soon as possible, and create conditions and platforms for the resumption of negotiation. China will continue to play a constructive role in this regard.”

According to the analysis of the French Mouvement de la Paix, the Chinese proposal was supported by many commentators in the Global South, while it was dismissed by the United States and its European allies. Some Asian countries, however, remarked that China should live up to these principles with regard to Taiwan.

Dialogues for peace are ongoing through the auspices of the International Parliamentary Union, including between opposing sides of the conflicts in Ukraine, Palestine and Cyprus.

Another important voice for peace through dialogue is that of Pope Francis. In a video distributed worldwide on February 6, the Pope states that, “The time has come to live in a spirit of fraternity and build a culture of peace.” In recent years the Pope has stressed dialog for peace with other religions, such as in his meeting with the grand imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt in 2019 and his voyage this year to Africa with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

In Africa, a continent torn by many armed conflicts, there are important voices for peace through dialogue.

Speaking at a Global Security Forum, General Djibril Bassolé, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Burkina Faso, caused a sensation by saying “We must dialogue with armed terrorist groups . . . In any case, dialogue is one of the typically African means of settling conflicts and easing tensions. I think that as Africans we must find our own ways to resolve the crises that have undermined our societies.”

With regard to African traditions for settling conflicts, a recent homage to the great poet of Madagascar, Jean Joseph Rabearivelo, underlines that “Through cultural diversity, which should be nurtured by a permanent dialogue without ulterior motives, we are rich in our differences!”

A broad approach of dialogue is being supported in Burkina Faso by the NGO Search for Common Ground. More than 500 participants, including local authorities, religious and customary leaders, and representatives of eight communities took part in an event in March. The strong participation of women, with 300 present, underscored their crucial role. The neighbouring country of Niger has made dialogue with violent extremist groups an important part of its strategy. By including dialogue in its counter-terrorism efforts, Niger is experimenting with an approach similar to those in Algeria  and Mauritania , which underpin their decade-long protection against jihadist violence.

In Latin America, where dialogue made possible the peace accords in Colombia, another step forward was taken this month when the dissident rebel group, Estado Mayor Central (EMC), finally agreed to begin peace talks with the government.   And in Mexico, also torn by violence, a national peace conference was convened in March by 175 organizations and groups. “We want to talk to each other, listen to each other, understand each other, support each other. We want to imagine and build all possible safeguards to face violence and find all the paths to peace.”

In Europe, where Greece and Turkey have long been in conflict, a new commitment to dialogue was made by the defense ministers of those countries following a joint visit to the areas of Turkey devastated by the earthquake in February.

In Asia, it seems that dialogue for peace can be dangerous. As explained by Al Jazeera, “under South Korean law, citizens are prohibited from contact with North Korean people or organisations unless they receive government permission.” Despite this, South Korea’s two biggest trade unions, the KCTU and the FKTU, signed a joint statement last fall with their sibling trade union in North Korea, opposing US war exercises. The South Korean government responded with a crackdown. In January the national intelligence service raided KCTU offices. Multiple organizers and union leaders were charged under the anti-communist National Security Law, accused of being spies for North Korea.

In a world where there is increasing danger of a nuclear war that could destroy all human civilization, the need for peace through dialogue is greater than ever. Let us hope that all world leaders will engage in this dialogue.