The Peace Party – Non-Violence
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The Peace Party – Non-Violence
Justice, Enviroment

Non-violence is Life-affirming

Al Charlton (in the Metro, March 8 2024) complains that the Chancellor in Wednesday’s Budget is allocating very little extra money to spend on “defence”.

No one would disagree that protecting its population from harm is a major duty of a government. But I have always thought that preparation to kill and destroy fellow beings in some future war is definitely not the way for a civilised nation to behave.

We have only to watch the actions of Russians, Ukrainians, Israelis, Palestinians, Sudanese, Yemenis and others on our screens day by day to realise that war and violence solve nothing.

A future government could resolve to set its face against militarism, the bomb and the bullet, against death and destruction, by building on the wide range of alternatives. These would ensure the UK population is far safer and more secure than it can ever be threatening others with terrible weapons and women and men trained to kill.

On the international stage, largely through a reformed United Nations, the government could be continually working with others to recognise and de-fuse potential conflicts, as well as developing all techniques of non-violent conflict resolution. That would be far more life-affirming – and a good deal cheaper – than the prospect of violence.

As someone much wiser than myself once said, “If war is the answer, it must have been a very stupid question.”

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