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Annual
Report 2002 – 2003: An annual rapport from INNATE This is just a short report on what INNATE has been involved in over
the last year; it is only a snapshot and if you would like any further
information, please ask. The big event of 2002 for us was the War Resisters
International Triennial conference in Dublin in August. That required a
lot of logistical work which was mainly done by the WRI office in London
and Siva Ramamoorthy and Pat Barrett in Dublin.
But INNATE was the senior local partner and that required support
work. The event went well though with a couple of hundred at it, the
numbers were less than expected – not helped by some refusal of visas
to genuine participants by the Irish government.
A report appears on the INNATE website. A small seminar was
organised in Belfast following the Triennial itself. The website - which received a new domain name during the year www.innatenonviolence.org has continued to build up well but there is plenty more material, including training materials, that we want to get onto it. The website received an average of 1,292 visitors a month for the last 3 months of 2002 and we hope to build that up further (1,649 in January 2003), whatever these figures mean. Ten issues of Nonviolent News were produced during the year (and one short e-mail/web supplement this January); the paper edition is kept to two sides of A4 but the e-mail/web edition averages about 6,000 words. With ‘limitless’ space in the e-mail/web edition we hope to increase content but that requires receiving suitable material; while we are certainly not adverse to carrying international material, and we do try to cover international solidarity groups working in Ireland, the unanswered question is how much to try to develop this. Our inclination would be to carry a limited amount of international material but not to try to compete with other movement publications internationally. Your comments are welcome on the matter. Please note that we are happy to send subscribers
both paper and e-mail editions of Nonviolent News.
You can of course print out the longer e-mail/web edition but the
paper one is handy for instant reference or passing on to other people
(though for reference please note that the website has a search
facility). INNATE continues to answer a wide variety of
requests and queries, and while our field of specialisation is
nonviolence this obviously intersects with a wide range of issues and
concerns. Outside of the information/publication field we
have been active in the movement against the war in Iraq and
specifically in the Justice Not Terror Coalition based in Belfast.
We have also continued to try to support the development of the
Alternatives to Violence Project, an approach to nonviolence at a
personal level which has been trying to get established in Northern
Ireland. Nonviolence is not often very visible and sometimes
hidden away. But the ongoing crisis in international relations since
11/9/01, and the USA’s attempt at global hegemony, assisted by
Blairite Britain, is a context in which a nonviolent response is
essential, both to counter the prospect of more violence which will
beget more violence, and to show how justice can be established.
In a similar way nonviolence is also of great relevance in
Northern Ireland where the worst of the Troubles has departed but people
and parties have not yet shown the capacity to move on; and in the
Republic where an issue like Shannon shows the cowardice of the Irish
government in confronting the superpower (economic and military) of the
USA. So it is all to be worked for. INNATE is a small network and an even smaller number of
people actively involved. It is a volunteer network – there are no
paid staff – and depends on the support of a variety of people to
function. If you feel you would like to be involved and support INNATE
in your locality then please get in touch – there may well be things
you can do. And if you have comments or suggestions for what we can do
we would be pleased to hear from you.
For those of you accessible to Belfast there is a monthly
networking meeting to which you are very welcome. Yours for a nonviolent future, |
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