WHAT WE CAN DO FOR PEACE
Compiled by Youth at the Disarmament and Security Centre, Otautahi, Christchurch, NZ
Despite all the negative issues there are also increasingly positive steps that people the world over that are beginning to take to make changes for Peace, to live in harmony with the Earth and amongst all peoples.
- Believe in your power to create change.
- We are all vital links in the interconnected web of life, what we do today can make a positive difference.
- Understand that dominant worldviews don’t always enable other people’s voices and stories to be heard. History books may be biased according to whoever wrote them.
- Challenge yourself and others to support peace and justice and to hold these concepts at the centre of all local, national and international decision–making processes.
- Think about the sort of world you would like your children’s children’s children to live in and work towards that!
- Brainstorm ideas for positive change. Just as all destructive acts are acts of war, all creative acts are acts of peace.
- Take time out to enjoy yourself, your community and your environment.
TAKE ACTION
- Find out more information on peace issues. Knowledge is power!
- Share what you learn with friends and family.
- Respect differences, honour diversity, learn more about another culture in your community.
- Storytelling. Our world is made up of stories- not just atoms! Learn other people’s stories and those of your family.
- Use the media. Write an article for a community or school newspaper. Get TV or radio interviews.
- Find out angles that may be missing from mainstream media by consulting alternative media sources.
- Learn more about the South Pacific Nuclear-Free zone. Push for a world without nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants.
- Start your own group.
- Consume less. Support conservation campaigns. Recycle, reuse and repair.
- Practice solving conflict peacefully in your own life.
- Avoid buying products from multinational companies.
- Get involved in your local community. Become a volunteer.
- Hold a stall or information display at a festival or in a public place.
- Screen-print information or posters and distribute around friends, the community and the city.
- Print patches or T- shirts, or wear ones others have made.
- Write letters to decision makers.
- Design and paint posters, banners or placards.
- Take part in a Non-violent Direct Action (it is important to know your rights and take precaution to ensure your safety and the safety of others, remember that you are promoting peace so act PEACEFULLY)
- Create and/or participate in Street Theatre.
LEARN MORE:
- Check out current events online at: www.indymedia.com or www.guerillanews.com
- Find out about local groups who work for peace and justice. Support groups that campaign for Peace nationally and internationally.
- Check out Greenpeace and Amnesty International
- Check out www.getactive.org.nz This site contains all you need to know about setting up and managing your own social or environmental campaigns.
- Go to the Disarmament and Security Centre . It has heaps of good resources for learning about the history of NZ’s peace movement, and its anti-nuclear movement.
- Use your consumer power to make wise decisions when buying things (buy products made in your own country, products that have minimal or no packaging, think about who made it and how they were treated, think about the impacts to communities and the environment that may incur from making the product, using the product and discarding the product). Check out adbusters
- Grow food, help out at a local community garden. Find out what foods in Genetically Modified and what are healthier options.
- Understand economic globalisation and its impact on people and the environment.
- Visit the Peace Foundation Aotearoa NZ. The Peace Foundation is a 30-year old NGO that works through on Education, Action and Research.
Change doesn’t lie in the hands of governments but in ours.
