The MOVEMENT and the “MADMAN” will premiere on PBS as a special presentation of the American Experience series on Tuesday, March 28 at 9 pm / 8 pm (CT). View the film on your local PBS station (check your local listings) or streaming on PBS.org during and after the broadcast.
Check out the teaser here: https://www.movementandthemadman.com/
Author Archives: Conscience Canada
WorldBeyondWar course: War & the Environment
World Beyond War (WBW) is offering an online, self-paced course on the realationship between 2 existential threats: war and environmental catastrophe, culminating in an emphasis on “what can be done”. You can register for the course here: https://worldbeyondwar.org/war-and-the-environment-april-10-may-22-2023-online-course-registration/ .
Check the https://worldbeyondwar.org/ site to see other education & action opportunities.
NONVIOLENCE: Lessons from Winning Campaigns
Starting March 6, 2023, Science for Peace and Voice of Women for Peace will be co-hosting a three-part webinar series: ‘Nonviolence: The Tactics and Strategies of Winning Campaigns’. Each session will feature a brief, documentary film on a significant and effective nonviolent campaign. In the discussion following the film, a Facilitator, supported by a Guest Expert, will assist members of the audience in thinking through the strategic and tactical lessons for effective nonviolent action that the successful campaign suggests.
Register via scienceforpeace.org or at this link: https://tinyurl.com/2s3smewb .
Militarism, Climate Chaos Linked-Challenging Hypocrisy
writer, climate activist Carley Dave-McFalls
Recent McGill graduate Carley Dove-McFalls writes:”Trudeau’s government is using our tax dollars to exacerbate violence in the world and we will do everything in our power to stop this unacceptable behaviour. People are suffering; the Canadian government must stop using empty words and PR campaigns to absolve themselves from the harm they are inflicting on the entirety of the population (and particularly on Indigenous peoples) and the environment.”
Read her article in full here: https://www.scienceforpeace.org/post/min-guilbeault-there-is-no-canadian-climate-leadership-without-canceling-the-f-35-fighter-jet
Our Peace Tax Return offers a way to challenge this hypocrisy. https://www.consciencecanada.ca/?page_id=132
International Solidarity Needed
Conscience Canada has signed the DefendtheAtlantaForest solidarity statement & we encourage others to do likewise. (Sign here: https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/solidarity/ )
On Jan. 18, forest defender Manuel Esteban Paez Teran was killed (shot 13 times by police).
As the statement explains, “The struggle that is playing out in Atlanta is a contest for the future. As the catastrophic effects of climate change hammer our communities with hurricanes, heat waves, and forest fires, the stakes of this contest are clearer than ever. It will determine whether those who come after us inherit an inhabitable Earth or a police state nightmare. It is up to us to create a peaceful society that does not treat human life as expendable.”
Read MorePeace is Possible: for Ukraine, for our minds
Nonviolence International https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/ has very useful information on what it’s like for those resisting occupation and war in Ukraine & Russia, and what we can do to help people there build peace and justice.
This includes a report from Dec. ’22 on attitudes towards the war in Russia. It struck me that, although the situation in Russia is, in many ways, more harsh than what we face here, a key recommendation from the report applies to our situation as well as theirs:
“[…] the general thrust of anti-war messages should contribute to the dismantlement of the
imposed stereotype that there is no alternative to returning peace and normal life, except through military successes. An alternative to the mythical and incomprehensible “victory” for most people, should be framed not in terms of “defeat” – this will not be understood by the majority of the population7. Rather, it is possible to speak of “internal changes”, “reorientation toward of the country’s development”, etc. In this regard, it seems important to complement the anti-war messages with the image of a positive alternative. Among the anti-war-minded part of society, a request was repeatedly recorded for specific options for action, both in practical terms – how to avoid mobilization, and more general form – “why are we silent?”
imposed stereotype that there is no alternative to returning peace and normal life, except through military successes. An alternative to the mythical and incomprehensible “victory” for most people, should be framed not in terms of “defeat” – this will not be understood by the majority of the population7. Rather, it is possible to speak of “internal changes”, “reorientation toward of the country’s development”, etc. In this regard, it seems important to complement the anti-war messages with the image of a positive alternative. Among the anti-war-minded part of society, a request was repeatedly recorded for specific options for action, both in practical terms – how to avoid mobilization, and more general form – “why are we silent?”
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Thankfully, some of us here are speaking up in a useful way. An example: Bill Geimer’s recent article, published in the Victoria Times Colonist: https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/comment-tanks-but-no-negotiation-is-bad-news-for-ukraine-6467686
Love, not War
This Valentine’s Day, make love not war
Who was Saint Valentine? Stories vary but according to one account he was a third century Roman priest. Rome at this time was ruled by the bloodthirsty Emperor Claudius II. Single men were thought to make better soldiers & only they were subject to the draft. Worrying that men would marry to avoid military service Claudius outlawed marriage. Valentine disobeyed the law & performed marriages in secret. Not only did he unite lovers but he provided war resisters with an alternative to the draft. Valentine was eventually executed for his act of defiance.
What If….
Soldiers Fought With Pillows?
(Book recommendation by Eric Unger, Manitoba)
The little girl who wondered aloud where the island was on which people fought the wars now has three children of her own. And this year, for Christmas, she gave me a very special gift: the book ‘What If Soldiers Fought With Pillows?’ by Heather Camlot and illustrated by Serge Bloch.
This book is a collection of over a dozen childlike, but not childish, questions, each one linked to a very short but potent ‘true story of courage and determination.’ Some of these stories would be familiar to a well-informed public and others would be completely new, providing new windows for a mind searching for ideas on peace. I highly recommend it to readers interested in making a difference for a more peaceful planet.
Here are the questions asked:
What if soldiers fought with pillows instead of pistols?
What if fighter pilots dropped seeds instead of bombs?
What if battlegrounds were soccer fields and spectators cheered for every team?
What if Navy SEALS balanced balls on their noses or played horns?
What if battle lines were drawn with paintbrushes and all the colors of the rainbow?
What if everybody showed up to a political party with their dancing shoes on?
What if the rules of war were the same as the rules at school?
What if innocent civilians could be airlifted by music?
What if a theater of war had costumes and musical numbers?
What if rocket launchers fired ping-pong balls instead of ballistic missiles?
What if the realities of war were virtual realities?
What if the balance of power was weighed on a teeter-totter?
What if an air strike was a cry for peace carried by the wind?
What if hand-to-hand combat happened only in boxing rings?
What if words of war became a war of words?
What if we just asked more questions?
What if you could change the world?
What if to make the world you want . . . you must first imagine what it could be?
** Note: There are more book recommendations in the “blog”.
#DroptheF35Deal!
Long time CC secretary (using his “retirement” to keep working for a better world 🙂 Murray Lumley shared this statement with his MP: https://nofighterjets.ca/2022/12/30/dropthef35dealstatement/ , saying, “I agree with the statement and urge you as my MP to speak to the Liberal caucus and cancel this procurement…” Murray offered many reasons; including this: “This purchase goes completely counter to Canada’s commitments to the Paris Agreement, to keep average Earth temperature increases to 1.5C. I have read that one F-35 burns $40,000 worth of fossil fuel per hour and on afterburner uses more fuel per hour than an aircraft carrier. I know that militaries get a free pass but they shouldn’t, given that militaries are among the worst fossil fuel burners in the world, more than many nations… If we keep going in a direction counter to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, my grandchildren and your children will have no future. There are some experts who claim that if we do not change our ways in the next few years, there will be no human civilization worth the name by the end of the 21st century.”
Sign for a truce!
Christmas truce monument in Mesen, Belgium. photo credit: Historic War Tours
Thanks to World Beyond War for sharing this Veterans for Peace song with British singer Fenya, Christmas Truce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3yH2iCdpvE
. We can still sign to support the International Peace Bureau appeal for a truce in the Ukraine here: https://www.christmasappeal.ipb.org/ (Conscience Canada has signed on.)