INNATE’s work continues to grow, slowly but
surely, responding as best we can to a variety of needs. The INNATE ‘networking
group’ meets once a month, usually in Belfast, an opportunity to plan programme
and other work; it is open to anyone who wishes to attend and is a good
opportunity to catch up on with different views on the matters in hand, and for
those attending to raise issues. We have various projects and ideas on the go,
some of which are not at the stage of going public because they need further
development first. One representation we made was to the Secretary of State in
Northern Ireland who was taking views on the Consultative Group on the Past
which had been chaired by Robin Eames and Denis Bradley.
We produced 10 full issues of Nonviolent
News during 2009, plus e-mail supplements for January and August (so news out
every month). The full ‘newsletter’ is now really a magazine averaging about
9,000 words an issue, at least so far as the e-mail and online editions are
concerned, with not only the news section but columns by Larry Speight and
Billy King, ‘Readings in Nonviolence’, and frequently other material. We have
continued to add photos to our website-linked flikr site which we hope will
eventually become an Irish ‘peace movement photo archive’.
The website has continued to flourish and
be a resource not just for the wider world but also a good point for people to
come into contact with INNATE. In 2008 and 2009 the website would have had an
average of just under two and a half thousand unique visitors per month (2,485)
with total visits averaging just under seven thousand a month (6,921). This is
small compared to the mass media but, when you analyse the available data, it
is clear people are downloading material of significance to them. We also
receive a variety of queries about aspects of nonviolence from at home and
abroad which we respond to as best we can.
2009 was not a busy year for events –
our residential seminar was cancelled because of venue problems but 2010 will
probably make up for it. One event which did take place, shared with the Irish
School of Ecumenics in Belfast, was Tony Kempster speaking on “The Legacy of
Gandhi” (this talk was subsequently published in Nonviolent News). During 2010
we will be organising a variety of programme under the overall title of The
Human Cost of War, leading up to the arpillera and quilt exhibition with this
title which Roberta Bacic is curating at the Tower Museum in Derry in November.
Personally I am involved in a ‘sandwich’
training for trainers course with the Women Peacemakers Program in the
Netherlands on gender-sensitive active nonviolence and hope to be able to feed
some of that learning into training I am involved in here.
I think we have continued to do well for an
organisation with no staff, little or no funding, and no premises. That means
we don’t have to find too much to keep us going though the more work we do, the
more financial resources we need – and the coming year will be busy. So I
would encourage you to support INNATE financially, even with a small amount,
and this can be done by British or Irish cheque or using PayPal on the website.
But there are other ways people can help
– providing news from your neck of the woods to include in Nonviolent
News, direct participation if you’re in the greater Belfast area, promotion of
INNATE wherever you are, involvement in actions and so on. If you are
interested, do please get in touch.
With greetings and solidarity,
Rob Fairmichael,
Coordinator, INNATE,
February 2010. www.innatenonviolence.org
Appeal
INNATE depends on subscriptions and
donations for its day-to-day working. We also send out a considerable number of
free copies of Nonviolent News to groups and places where it should be
available but for which we are not recompensed, and the e-mail and web editions
still have costs attached. Your subscription/donation is therefore very much
appreciated as annual outgoings are greater than subscriptions and personal
donations. We would also appreciate your comments about Nonviolent News, its
existing features
