Nv Networking in Africa, Asia & Central/South America

For several years I have been compiling a list of nonviolence organisations
around the world. The list only includes organisations that exist to promote
or teach nonviolence; it does not include the many activist groups that
actually use nonviolence. In a sense, this list provides some idea of the
extent of the Global Nonviolence Network (GNN).

I publish this list on computer bulletin boards and make it available as
requested elsewhere. I have proposed to the editors of Nonviolence Today that
they publish the list (by geographical region) as a feature during 1995. This
will give people a better sense of the GNN and provide a useful networking
tool. As of December 1994, the GNN (according to my incomplete list) has
about 200 organisations in fifty-nine countries.

I have used this list to gain some idea of the pattern and level of
nonviolence work that goes on in many countries, including those in Africa,
Asia and Central/South America. And, in order to provide some modest support
to nonviolent struggles in developing countries, for several years the
editors of Nonviolence Today and I (and, more recently, the Centre for
Nonviolence c/- Commonground) have arranged for Nonviolence Today to go
regularly (on a complimentary basis) to those Asian and African organisations
in the GNN that had confirmed their interest in receiving it.

As nonviolent struggle takes firmer root in many parts of the world, it is
clear that access to nonviolence resources is one of the most pressing needs.
Sending Nonviolence Today is a very modest contribution but it does assist
the groups who receive it to identify resources and potential sources of
support. Recent messages from the main nonviolence organisation in both
Cambodia and Norway confirmed this yet again.

One of the reasons for its usefulness is that Nonviolence Today - unlike most
of the other nonviolence magazines published around the world (one of which
is described in each issue of Nonviolence Today) - regularly publishes
articles with strategic, tactical and organisational analyses of nonviolent
struggles. Given the paucity of information of this type available,
nonviolence organisations that service activist groups find this information
very valuable.

At the moment, Nonviolence Today goes to various locations in Europe, Japan
and North America as well as such places as Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Sri
Lanka, Pakistan, Thailand, Nigeria and South Africa. It also goes to a
Chinese activist based in Australia who has good links with the Chinese
pro-democracy movement around the world. I am currently investigating whether
activists in Burma and Tibet would like to receive it and I know several
organisations in Central/South America that would probably like to get it as
well.

The effort to improve the quality of nonviolent struggle around the world
requires many things, including both higher quality and more readily
available information. Given the commitment of the editors and others to
ongoing improvement in the quality of Nonviolence Today, it is time to match
this effort with a systematic endeavour to make it more readily available in
those places throughout Africa, Asia and Central/South America where it might
be useful. If you would like to assist this endeavour, why not consider
paying for an overseas subscription to Nonviolence Today so that we can send
it to someone there? If this idea appeals to you, please contact the editors
at the address on the back page or me at the address below.
Robert J. Burrowes
PO Box 167, North Carlton
Victoria 3054
Email: burrowes@peg.pegasus.oz.au
Tel/Fax: (03) 387 3398