The 15-M movement - which began occupying city squares on May 15 - has not emerged as a movement with necessarily overt antimilitarist, pacifist or nonviolent overtones. It has, however, from its very inception declared itself as “pacifist”, and conducted its protests through “peaceful means” and “without violence”. Without having carried out a detailed analysis of what this means exactly I can say that the many thousands of people in the squares of the Spanish State, have opted to carry out actions and raise their voices without using violence.
Nonviolence
The development of this element has led to the 15-M movement as nonviolent, but it does not necessarily embrace the nonviolent logic which promotes the rejection of violence in a holistic way, in all areas of life and society, as the coherent path to follow, in order to create a culture of peace.
Nonviolence is mainly understood as a strategy, as a way of ensuring that their protest actions are embraced by the society and the media. But it is also true that there are many people who are indignadxs who consciously or subconsciously, are questioning militarization by simply defining themselves as nonviolent. This organic questioning of militarization, one of the basic pillars of the oppressive system which they are criticising and attempting to change is evident throughout the 15-M movement. The ways in which the use of machista and discriminatory language are avoided or rejected in the 15-M assemblies, the use of horizontal methodology, the rejection of imposed leadership and the use of consensus based decision making are all part of a strategy which de-legitimises militarist practices.
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Javier Garate Talk
Javier Garate of War Resisters International spoke on ‘Effective Non Violence in the 21st Century’ on Thursday 13 October 2011 at the Irish School of Ecumenics in Belfast. The event was co-sponsored by ISE and INNATE (Irish Network for Nonviolent Action Training & Education).
You can listen to Garate’s talk here.
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