Only love can drive out hate. -- MLK

Events

Featured Quotes

  • Non-violence confronts systematic injustice with active love, but refuses to retaliate with further violence under any circumstances. In order to halt the vicious cycles of violence, it requires a willing acceptance of suffering and death rather than inflicting suffering or death on anyone else.
    • John Dear, Living Peace: A Spirituality of Contemplation and Action (2000)
  • Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. The beauty of nonviolence is that in its own way and in its own time it seeks to break the chain reaction of evil.
    • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here?: Chaos or Community (1967)

Featured Global Community

Focusing on those practicing nonviolence in a world of violence

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

Resources

Ideas for Organizations

  • Build your own peace pole.

A group of friends in Ames pauses as they work together on peace poles--a project motivated by John Dear's presentation on making the world less violent. The peace poles, when finished, will bear words of peace and be displayed in yards for passers-by to see. Spread the word! For more information contact Linda at bjwhite@iastate.edu

  • Organize a study group to read and discuss John Dear's The Nonviolent Life, or some other text.

  • Sponsor a film and a discussion.

  • Consider one of the free mini-courses on nonviolence available on-line. (see below)

  • Schedule nonviolent training. (see below).

  • Organize a peace fair, exploring the many facets of nonviolence.

  • Be creative! And share with CNV-Iowa. We'll post ideas on the resources page.

  • (For more information, or to have a representative of CNV-Iowa speak to your group, contact info@campaignnonviolence-iowa.org

*********************************************************************************

Suggested Readings

(starting points for further study)

  • Barbe, Domingos. Theological Roots of Nonviolence. Las Vegas: Pace e Bene, 1989.

  • Bennett, Scott H. Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Nonviolence in America, 1915-1963 (Syracuse Studies on Peace and Conflict Resolution). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2004.

  • Berrigan, Daniel. To Dwell in Peace. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987; rev. 2007.

  • Butigan, Mary Litell, and Louis Vitale. Franciscan Nonviolence: Stories, Reflections, Principles, Practices, and Resources. Berkeley, Calif.: Pace e Bene Press, 2003.

  • Dear, John. Living Peace: A Spirituality of Contemplation and Action. New York: Doubleday, 2000.

  • Dear, John. The Nonviolent Life. Pace e Bene Press, 2013.

  • Deloria, Vine, Jr. “Non-Violence in American Society [1974],” in For This Land: Writings on Religion in America, ed. James Treat. New York: Routledge, 1999.

  • Easwaran, Eknath. Gandhi the Man: The Story of His Transformation. Berkeley: Nilgiri Press, 1997.

  • Gandhi on Non-Violence. New Directions Paperback, 2007.

  • Haring, Bernard. The Healing Power of Peace and Nonviolence. Paulist Press, 1986.

  • King, Mary. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Power of Nonviolent Action. Paris, France: UNESCO Publishing, 1999.

  • King, Martin Luther, Jr. Stride Toward Freedom. New York: Harper and Row, 1958.

  • Kurlansky, Mark. Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea. Modern Library, 2006.

  • Lynd, Staughton, and Alice Lynd, eds. Nonviolence in America: A Documentary History, rev. ed. Orbis Books, 1995.

  • McAllister, Pam. You Can’t Kill the Spirit: Stories of Women and Nonviolent Action. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1991.

  • Thomas Merton, Spiritual Master: The Essential Writings, ed. Lawrence S. Cunningham. Paulist Press, 1992.

  • Thomas Merton on Nonviolence (Download PDF)

  • Nagler, Michael. Is There No Other Way? The Search for a Nonviolent Future. Berkeley: Berkeley Hills Books, 2001.

  • Nhat Hanh, Thich. Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change. Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1993.

  • O’Brien, Anne Sibley. After Gandhi: One Hundred Years of Nonviolent Resistance. Charlesbridge, 2009. (For grades 6-10)

  • O’Gorman, Angie, ed. The Universe Bends Toward Justice: A Reader on Christian Nonviolence. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1991.

  • Sharp, Gene. The Politics of Nonviolent Action, vol. 2 (198 Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion). orig. publ. 1973.

  • Washington, James M., ed. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986.

  • Wink, Walter, ed. Peace is the Way: Writings on Nonviolence from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2000.

  • Zinn, Howard, ed. The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace. Beacon Press, 2002.

*********************************************************************************

Selected Websites

  • www.aeinstein.org
    Albert Einstein Institution: Advancing Freedom through Nonviolent Action.
    Founded in 1983 by Dr. Gene Sharp.
    free resources

  • www.www.afsc.org
    American Friends Service Committee
    founded by Quakers in 1917

  • www.ajmuste.org
    A.J. Muste Memorial Institute: Supporting Nonviolence and Social Justice since 1974
    See Essay Series Pamphlets on Cornerstones of Nonviolence

  • www.creatingacultureofpeace.org
    community-based training for generating nonviolent power

  • www.forusa.org
    Fellowship of Reconciliation
    founded in 1915 by sixty-eight pacifists, including A.J. Muste, and Jane Addams

  • www.mettacenter.org
    Metta Center for Nonviolence
    free self-study courses

  • www.nonviolent-conflict.org
    International Center on Nonviolent Conflict
    universal E-classroom: 30 free sessions on civil resistance other downloadable resources

  • www.paceebene.org
    resources, including Engage: Exploring Nonviolent Living, by Ken Butigan et al.

  • www.paxchristiusa.org
    Pax Christi USA
    The National Catholic Peace Movement

  • www.pndc.com
    Institute for Powerful Non-Defensive Communication

  • www.salsa.net/peace/conv
    free Class on Nonviolence: eight-session class developed by Colman McCarthy, founder of the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C.

  • www.vcnv.org
    Voices for Creative Nonviolence
    founded in 2005, organizing campaigns of active nonviolence resistance

  • www.wagingpeace.org
    Nuclear Age Peace Foundation: Committed to a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
    Waging Peace series of downloadable booklets
    videos of Kelly Lectures, including Noam Chomsky, Dennis Kucinich, Daniel Ellsberg

  • www.wagingnonviolence.org
    people-powered news and analysis

  • www.warresisters.org
    oldest secular pacifist organization.
    resources, publications, nonviolence training

  • www.worldbeyondwar.org
    a global movement to end all wars

*********************************************************************************

Videos

  • “A Force More Powerful” (2011)
    documentaries on using nonviolent conflict to achieve democracy and human rights
    includes Lesson Plans, which could be used in study groups
    www.aforcemorepowerful.org

  • “Bringing Down a Dictator”
    documentary film by Steve York about the nonviolent defeat of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic
    originally aired on national PBS in March 2002

  • “The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers’ Struggle” (1997)
    (dir. Rick Tejada-Flores/Ray Telles)

  • “How to Start a Revolution” (2012)
    follows the work of Gene Sharp and the Albert Einstein Institution from the jungles of Burma to the streets of Serbia and Tahrir Square during the Egyptian Revolution

  • “Ram Dass: Fierce Grace” (2001)
    A Film by Mickey Lemle

  • “Romero” (1989)
    (dir. John Duigan)

*********************************************************************************

Endorsements

The organizations listed below support the Campaign Nonviolence pledge and signify their commitment to work for nonviolence through their own particular focus.

Whatever the issue--peace, the environment, poverty, prisons, social injustice--the practice and pursuit of nonviolence serves as the mortar between the bricks, unifying the seeming diversity of interests.

*********************************************************************************

Campaign Nonviolence has been initiated by Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service. For more information about the national campaign and its supporters, see
www.paceebene.org. For the Iowa initiative, contact info@cnv-iowa.org.
Download a CNV-Iowa flyer