Per la Pau / Peace in Progress

Photo: Ahmad Hammoud

New hopes

I have a dream... – Martin Luther King Jr.

That is both the beginning and the title of one of Dr King’s most famous speeches, which he gave in 1963 and is considered one of the inspirations behind the nonviolent revolution by the black population of the United States. Today, almost fifty years later, his words seemed to resonate elsewhere, in a year in which the first two months have given us some hopeful news.

Pepe Beunza, Spain's first conscientious objector

Pepe Beunza was the first person to introduce a new way of fighting against the army to Spain. In 1971, when the country was still under Franco’s dictatorship, he decided to use civil disobedience, and was imprisoned for his refusal to join the army. He soon became an internationally known figure, beginning what would later become the movement against military service which would finally succeed in bringing it to an end. This interview looks back at those events and his story in recent years.

The future of ETA and the democratic question

Esperanto, a tool for peace

The nonviolence method

Aldo Capitini. El mètode de la noviolència. Institut Català Internacional per la Pau; Pagès, 2010. Col·lecció Noviolència i lluita per la pau, 2.

As a courageous advocate of an active and positive conception of nonviolence, Aldo Capitini believed in the primacy of direct action. That is the reason why he was imprisoned twice in Fascist era, and that is why he organised the first march for peace from Perugia to Assisi, in 1961. It was a good example of how to engage in politics, influencing power relations by means of nonviolent methods, despite not being a party politician.

Gandhi and Beyond

David Cortright. Gandhi avui: noviolència per a una nova era política. Barcelona: Institut Català Internacional per la Pau; Pagès, 2010. Col·lecció Noviolència i lluita per la pau, 1.

Everyone likes Gandhi. Social and political figures from various areas and with various ideologies often quote him, when justifying civil disobedience, among other reasons. They attribute a great victory to him, in his use of peaceful means against the structural violence used by the British Empire. However, they doubt whether his actions could be applied in other situations. As a result, he is considered an exceptional case (together with Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela), in a very specific context which therefore cannot be repeated, because it is linked to a unique person in history.