Centre of Cultures - let's not be surprised

The Centre of Cultures, London

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UK Forum for non-violence

Let's not be surprised...

We denounce violence as the fundamental problem of the present moment.

All individual and social conflicts stem from a situation of violence.

And we are not just referring to its most evident manifestation of physical violence, which we find in wars, torture, terrorism, assassinations, assaults and physical punishment. We distinguish numerous forms of violence.

There is economic violence known as exploitation: there is racial violence known as discrimination and segregation: there is also religious violence, known as fanaticism or intolerance: and there is also psychological violence that begins within the family, which continues to be found in education, and ends up putting the young to sleep and turning them into nihilists. This in turn opens up an abyss between the generations and this abyss threatens the stability of the individual and of society.

So, let us not be surprised when someone responds with physical violence if we have subjected them to inhuman psychological pressures or the pressures of exploitation, discrimination or intolerance. And if this response should surprise us it is either because we are an interested party of that injustice (in which case our “surprise” is also a lie) or because we only see the effects without noticing the causes that determine this explosion.

These tragic eruptions are manifestations of a system of violent tensions that pressures human society producing isolation, non-communication and meaninglessness all around us and extending the spiral of violence.

Someone might believe that their isolation or lack of communication with others is simply their own personal problem but the fact is that today isolation and non-communication affect enormous groups of people. How could this then be just a personal problem if millions are feeling that same non-communication and that same isolation, that same meaninglessness?

Millions are against physical violence and wars. Millions of pacifists have marched in order to show the world that there still exist enormous moral reserves of peace and hope. But we should not be concerned only with this problem.

The anti-war marches and manifestations are necessary but they are not enough. We need to clarify ourselves and help to clarify others. It is necessary to take a courageous commitment and to define our position with respect to all types of violence.

In today’s world, where neo-liberalism has been replaced by neo-fascism, where a new crusade against Islam is developing, where there is an eruption of the new generations (which has been overdue for 30 years) and where there is increasing violence and a general discontent and a loss of belief in the system, we cannot stand idly by, throwing our hands in the air and saying ‘...but what can we do?’

We must act now.

We must promote dialogue and interchange between all cultures and peoples of the world.

We must denounce any form of violence and discrimination exercised over people because of their culture or origin.

We must support and demand the achievement of conditions for the active insertion of all minorities within society and the full exercising of social and political rights for the people who reside on British soil.

We must demand, through all possible means, policies of international co-operation that act as agents of solidarity, cohesion and joint development.

We must develop points of meeting, interchange and mutual support between human groups that share the struggle for the humanisation of the earth, and we must work together to extend our capacity of action and our influence.

Download the pdf here.