Rafael De La Rubia

To speak of nonviolence obliges us to review what we understand by violence. The great backing received by the 15-M movement in Spain is due, apart from their demands, to the fact that their actions and protests are peaceful and non-violent. Nevertheless, we still don’t know very well what nonviolence as a methodology of social struggle is.

15-M takes to the streets after taking the squares and the neighbourhoods. A great march composed of 7 columns will reach Madrid on the 23rd of July. The Marches have left from each one of the cardinal points of the state and will take 30 days. Another March is taking place around the Canary Islands.

Those who interpreted the “Arab Spring” as a phenomenon that would only touch a few countries—in general dictatorships personifying the Arab world—have not understood the phenomenon that has awoken and that may not stop until it has covered and moved the consciousness of the entire planet.

Rafael de la Rubia, spokesperson for last year’s World March for Peace and Nonviolence talks about Egypt, Tunisia and the implications for the Arab world. Highlighting the essential role of nonviolence de la Rubia pays tribute to the young people who drove the process to its conclusion. “They have given the rest of the world a Master Class in non-violent revolution.”

In this note, we reproduce the homage given by members of the international team of the World March for Peace and Non-violence to President Rodrigo Carazo, who died as a result of a heart condition days before being able to welcome the team in his country, Costa Rica. The career of Rodrigo Carazo places him among Latin American Humanist leaders.

It is a very important gesture of détente and peace by President Obama and we want to highlight it and applaud it around the world. We support all efforts of the US President to advance towards global nuclear disarmament. We invite Obama to support the World March, something that has already been done by almost 20 National Presidents and Governments of the World.

It’s encouraging that U.S. and Russia leaders have once again put nuclear disarmament on the negotiating table, but we cannot forget that we live in a highly dangerous moment. The danger stems also from the madness of violent groups with possible access to nuclear material and the real risk of accident that could set off a devastating conflict.

Here we are in this festive day of celebration and re-encounter of friends in this beautiful park that is being inaugurated today. All of this opens the future.

To continue in this direction, to continue building this future that we yearn for, we are joining forces around the planet in a joint action, in a World March for Peace and Nonviolence.

For the first time a World March. This will be the first planetary action that synchronises people in more than 100 countries and hopefully millions of people, with the theme of Peace and with the methodology of nonviolence.

Inspired by the ideals of Universal Humanism, the association “World without Wars” emerged to try to approach this human nation to which the Humanist Movement aspires. Our interpretation is that to eliminate wars is the starting point for the “Universal Human Nation”. The World March, that today counts on the support of more than 2000 organisations and close to one million endorsements, has arisen on the way towards this objective. We have evidence that knowledge of the WM is starting to be present in the highest levels of international forums. A few days ago in a meeting with the President of the United Nations Assembly he qualified the WM as “the new international paradigm of the 21st century”.

We are starting to see signals from different sectors about the urgency for nuclear disarmament, the first of the objectives of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence.

World Without Wars Association promotes manifestations in various cities of the world during the week that marks the 6th anniversary of the invasion of Irak