 Good morning everyone welcome to the United States Institute of Peace my name is Darren Cambridge and I'm a senior program officer in our Center for Applied Conflict Transformation and I'm going to be your host your facilitator your emcee for this morning's event Which as you know is called Dr. Martin Luther King's path to peace reclaiming and renewing nonviolent responses to globalized crises Now what you were hearing as you all made your way into the room today and found your seat is an excerpt from a Speech that Dr. King gave the evening of April 3rd 1968 the following morning on April 4th on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee. He was tragically assassinated and So today April 4th is the anniversary the somber anniversary of that event and it is also an opportunity for us to convene come together and Give attention to what Dr. King stood for what he fought for and what he practiced And how all that can be applied to the types of conflicts that we are facing today Now for those of you who are new or are unfamiliar with USIP we are an Institute that was founded by an act of Congress in 1984 so for our 30-plus year history our Vision has been a world free of violent conflict a world free of violent conflict and we do that simply put by making peace possible By working with local stakeholders and communities in conflicts around the world in places like Pakistan Burma South Sudan Columbia and many other parts of the world and we focus on a lot of different skills and ideas and Practices in peace building one of which is non-violent action That is a method of struggle that everyday people can and have used to fight against suppression to advance and protect rights and freedoms and To demand justice and to do that by using methods such as strikes boycotts mass demonstrations sit-in satire vigils other non-violent methods and So we've come together today in this special event to honor Dr. King's legacy the power of non-violent action and how it applies to Today's conflicts and my colleague Maria Stefan who's not with us today. She's traveling Has really been spearheading USIP's work on advancing the research on non-violent action Building and facilitating online courses and trainings on non-violent action through our global campus and by putting on workshops and special events Dedicated to this topic and the skill and so this is an effort towards that bringing all of us together As a community to explore some of these questions and to look at this at this history So with that I want to Get a good sense of the community that we have brought together here today, and I'm gonna start by Introducing our three panelists all of whom are authors and educators who have edited books that are gonna help us Unpack some provocative and critical questions Around non-violence so first joining us. We have dr. Macha Bartkowski who is senior director for education at the International Center on non-violent conflict And he is the editor of this book called recovering non-violent history Resistance civil resistance in liberation struggles So he's gonna share with us a little bit about this book and its importance towards to today's topic We also have joining us dr. Elevi and Dura who's a presidential fellow and a professor of education at George Mason University and She is co-editor of this book Exploring the power of non-violence Peace politics and practice so she's gonna share with us a little bit about the relevance and importance of this book and The questions that emerge from it and last but certainly not least we have Matt Meyer Who's an author educator and activist and co-editor of this book? We have not been moved resisting racism and militarism in 21st century America Matt's work is also featured in Macha's book and featured in Elevi's book So thank you to the three of you for taking the time out of your day to be here with us and and to honor dr. King's legacy we also have A number of people who are joining us and watching online This event is organized in coordination with USIP's global campus That is our online learning platform that provides train online trainings and toolkits to learners from all across the world and Various time zones so I want to say welcome to all of our global campus learners who are joining and watching us online We also have a class at George Mason University That is joining us virtually from their classroom, so they're watching so I want to say welcome to George Mason class that is joining us and I'm gonna actually ask all of our online participants to do something for us right now I want you to send us a signal Out there and I want you to do that by if you are on Twitter sending us a tweet using the hashtag MLK lives on this is also right here hashtag MLK lives on and I want you to send us a tweet Telling us from where in the world you are joining our watching so for example if you're watching from Medellin, Colombia I want you to tweet hashtag MLK lives on in Medellin, Colombia Or if you're joining or watching from Baghdad, Iraq I want you to tweet hashtag MLK lives on in Baghdad, Iraq, etc. Etc. And then my colleague Steven Ruder is going to be on USIP's Twitter account That's the handle at USIP and he will be connecting with you via Twitter So again send us a signal using the hashtag MLK lives on and then from where in the world you're joining or watching and The other thing I want to say is this is a discussion And our panelists yes our panelists, but they are also instigators of conversation That's the other primary role that they are playing here And so they're going to be posing questions to all of you in the audience here and to our friends online And they're going to be thought-provoking Reflective questions based on the theme of this event and so our friends who are joining online You are encouraged to participate in that portion of the event and my colleague Vanessa Francis is on Skype And so right now I want you to open up Skype if you have an account and I want you to connect with USIP underscore global campus again, that is USIP underscore global campus and my colleague Vanessa will accept your invitation and when we get to that portion of the show She will facilitate a discussion with you on on Skype and perhaps we can bring some of you into the room here as well So welcome to all of our online participants, and then of course we cannot forget those of you who made it here today on this beautiful day To be in the room with us We have about 40 or so people joining us in the room and the great thing about USIP when we do these events is that we always bring together an interesting powerful friendly group of Individuals from all different walks of life and professions, and so I want to do a quick Poll to get a sense of who is in the room here, so I'm going to throw out a couple labels that are connected with what we're going to talk about today and If you identify with this label just raise your hand and you can identify with more than one of these labels That's fine as well. You don't have to pick just one so Show of hands. How many of you identify as an educator someone who teaches about nonviolent action? Okay, okay good good about I'd say 15 to 20. How many of you identify as a writer Or a journalist or an author someone who's writing and reporting on nonviolent movements and campaigns around the world show of hands Okay, obviously our three panelists here and probably about three or so folks in the audience. Okay great How many of you identify as an activist someone who is participating in organizing nonviolent movements or campaigns? Take yourself an activist Okay, good so about I'd say ten or so. Okay good. How many of you identify as a student someone who is Learning yes, there you go. We are all students as I already said. Okay. Good. I like to see all these hands up and how many of you identify as a policymaker someone who's designing or Shaping policy that is impacted by or affects nonviolent movements anyone who identify as a policymaker. Okay, good So I'd say about three or so folks in the audience Okay, good good sense of who's in the room and then my last question is as many of you probably know the invitation that went out for this event included an online poll that asked the question It presented seven quotes from dr. King ranging from his speeches from 1958 to 1968 and it asked you of these seven quotes Which one do you think is most relevant to the types of conflicts that we face in today's world and we received? over 200 Responses from people around the world The few days leading up to this event so show of hands. How many of you in this room had an opportunity to? respond to that poll Okay, so maybe like two or three or so four, okay? Five, okay great excellent So anyway, like I said, we had over 200 people from around the world who responded to that poll and the handout that you have on Your seat is the are the results from that poll and some of the select responses From folks explaining why they chose the quote that that they did and that is actually going to be the starting question. Oh, yeah Okay, okay, I'm putting them on the spot here our panelists on the spot So you're in panelist role now LV Matt and macha before we jump to your critical questions And so we had a lot of people around the world respond to this question And so I want to pose this question to all of you. Which of these quotes from dr. King Do you think is most relevant to the types of conflicts the types of violence types of challenges? that we face in today's world and Matt I might start with you because I Know that you responded to the poll because I saw your response I know you've been thinking about it quite a bit. So Matt. I think you've got a mic great Why don't you go ahead and share with us? I think I responded saying I thought it was unfair question I rejected the question that right, you know, you begin by breaking the rules. That's the first lesson, isn't it? I said, you know, you're asking me to choose who I love more my son or my daughter. I can't do that. That's impossible They're all fantastic quotes. I think I ended up choosing one and and I don't want I won't say which one it is because that would be playing the game, but You know, I think the main point on the serious side is is I I said when we were talking about this forum months ago I feel like too often We engage in re-assassinating dr. King We we we play a role in accepting the idea that he ended in 1963 it's bad enough tragic enough that he was killed in 68 But the idea that somehow this is frozen I have a dream moment in 63 and that nothing happened after that Is a mistake that we in some ways allow ourselves to get caught up in so I was Extremely excited to hear about the way in which you will bring together today and the way in which those quotes reflected a larger breath of his thinking and his thoughts We have to breathe life. I think into that period 63 to 68 Militant moments where King and many others became more internationalist became more Focused on economics and I think part of the reason we need to do that is we're in such a moment Today we're in a movement building moment today. We're not black lives matter a dream defenders a Movement building moment today a Ferguson truth-telling moment today And the truth is that things have not gotten as better as we'd like to sometimes think they have and there's a lot of work to be done I think that we're at a We're a time when we need to resurrect The calls for freedom now because clearly We're still at a point where white lives seem to matter most and so I appreciated those later quotes and I appreciated the whole list of them Thank You Matt LV your thoughts To to one particular one that I have even quoted in my work several times and This is about injustice and mutuality injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality Tied in a single garment of destiny Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly All my writings and my work even the way I Raise my own family is grounded on the principle of interdependence and When we think about interdependence we must also think Automatically about social responsibility and sometimes we are so busy protecting What we believe is our own. I still haven't figured out. You know, what's mine and what's yours? Because really nothing belongs to us. We are here on earth temporarily Will we borrow even worse? We steal the land of people We we borrow or we Self-appropriate Will support to belong to to other people and yet most of the conflicts around the world including here in the United States are really caused by this lack of Consciousness This lack of realization that really nothing is mine here on earth, but especially in the United States I remember the first cultural lesson. I learned upon arriving many many years back People were talking about my doctor my Professor my car my wife and say oh wow and this are concluded by my First mouth or so that this is very interesting people own everything here So there is no mention of ours and I think that's Fundamentally one of the major issues because we are so focused on our own well-being and we miss the important Message then the important duty and the important Responsibility of reclaiming whatever links us what ties us together as humanity When we engage in wars all over around the world we think you're okay people are dying in Rwanda people But they are dying all the time in Burundi. Oh, by the way, they're the world in Iraq That's over there. There are some children dying, but it's so far away We it's you know, this is not it's their problem. They need and then we realize It's our problem. It took me a long time to help my students understand that all the conflicts and all the dying and all The wars around the world are really our problems We are so materialistic to the point that blinds us to our responsibility to care for one another And this this is when I think about Dr. King and what he died for I sometimes wonder if he's turning around in his grave He gave his life For all of us not just in the United States He gave his life for the cause of freedom and justice for all of us from around the world I mean you have to hear children in Africa reciting that you have a dream and Reflecting that I have a dream speech and realize. Oh my goodness Dr. King for the world and yet we forget that we are here to Ameliorate to enhance one another's well-being and I think that's fundamentally Where we fail to honor dr. King's legacy Thank you. Elevee and actually think your reflections touch on a lot of these quotes Not just the injustice injustice quote Marche. Let's turn to you. Which quote? Do you think is most relevant to what we're facing in today's world? Yeah, it was difficult choice I must say and I I would go with the one that got the least votes Good the last one which is nonviolent resistance is not aimed against oppressors, but but against oppression and I'm surprised that actually it got the least votes, but one of the respondents. I really liked I was a person from Macedonia Vladimirov he says that you know we need to strive to change the game not switch the players and And I think when I look at the civil successful civil resistance campaigns I see that They were engaged as much in trying to transform the societies as they were trying to challenge them the oppression and and Indirectly opponent then when I look at the Polish Solidarity struggle in the 70s in there Or the precursor to Solidarity struggles in the 70s and then in the 80s they They engage in as much constructive actions as disruptive ones and the highlight was that Civil resistance is a moderating force And it's a moderating for force is always open to negotiations and dialogue, but you cannot really engage in True full and genuine dialogue with the opponent unless that opponent recognized the power of civil resistance and That power of civil resistance would be illustrated in two Kind of elements or factors one is through the engagement in disruptive actions like strikes boy cause demonstrations But also in a transformation of the society that is liberated even before that Liberation comes or is truly established. So in the movements people engage in democratic practices in building alternative institutions in constructive program They for example Despite the censorship they control circulation of information Despite the formal control of the school system. They controlled education Despite the the fact that the government may have controlled employment the movement controlled the livelihood of the people so during the resistance there was Liberation and transformation of the society going on and it was more about less about challenging directly the opponent and really liberating the society from that oppression that they were subject to and so as my colleague Jack Duval says it's Nonviolent movements were incubators of democracy and they were practicing democracy before that democracy was formally Established and that's what that's what is characteristics for many nonviolent Movements that we the ones that were very truly successful So I thought this this quote was what's really important that we need to struggle not only with With opponent but we really need to struggle with ourselves and first of all Transform ourselves before we can establish more peaceful and nonviolent societies, and I think the teaching and lessons and legacy of Martin Luther King points to this the the Depthness of the transformation within ourselves that need to take place and happen before we can think about Reinvented type of relationships and and more peaceful You know societies that we try to build Thanks much a So we're gonna move now to the discussion portion of this event as this is a forum and all of our panelists or as I kind of called them earlier instigators of conversation have actually developed Questions that they want to pose to all of you in the audience and to our folks who are watching online Around the world these are questions that are rooted in the themes in their book So if we could bring up on the screen the slides so we can have a visual representation of these questions as well and We are gonna start with Elevi and as I mentioned in the beginning she's the co-editor of this book Exploring the power of non-violence peace politics and practice so very briefly Tell us why this book is important for people who want to think about the role of non-violence in today's world And then tell us what question you want to pose to our audience well One primary goal For this book was to inspire deeper reflection Because sometimes we are so busy planning and Creating plans for non-violence. So we're going to demonstrate there We're going to do this we're going to do a sit in there and we miss the reflection that has to really ground and and shame and frame shape and and frame the actual actions That that we engage in so I wanted people to reflect first in their writing and in the inspired the audience the readers to think and Reflect about their own intentions. Sometimes we forget that Who I who am I why is this important to me? Why am I going to engage in non-violence action world? What are the ultimate results that I'm hoping for and what qualifies me what pushes me? another Equally important goal was to demonstrate that we don't have to self-divide in pursuing this work And I'm an activist. I'm a scholar. I'm a policymaker to kind of build that bridge from Scholarship to Activism because I was convinced Randall Amsterdam the Quaidate and I will convice that the true Responses to the major questions that the word faces are really located in the nexus of Scholarship and practice which is is a bridge we tend to miss sometimes So that's where in conceptualizing the book. That's that's what we wanted to capture so social responsibility and The bridge that connects the nexus the responses to the major questions are right here It's not the activists who have it right. There is no right or wrong It's not the scholars who have it right. There is no right or wrong and sometimes we miss that nexus So that's why my question was asking people to to to reflect. I can't see it So I can't read it So I'm going to paraphrase it. So in other words, what is the foundation of Your action What are the principles that drive? Your actions on a daily basis. It's basically the simplest question Why do you do what you do what you do? So please reflect I said on the following Two two two questions. So there are two What is the foundation? and Of your principles in the essence of your actions and in what ways does this Foundation illuminate your socio-cultural path and your views of non-violence and and this was intentional because you know as a member of a peace studies community ever since I you know maths paths and mine crossed many many years back I Continue to be challenged and I continue to challenge my colleagues in the movement to open their eyes and their hearts and their ears to wonder Who is missing here in the in this movement because it you know, we go to conferences. We write books and Most of the time there are people who are missing as if there is only one group of people who Who can engage in non-violence or who know the value and understand the value of Nonviolence so it's my challenge to diversity here To inclusiveness in fact as I was thinking early this morning Wondering what am I going to say there and then I thumbed through the book very quickly and landed on the Really a great sentence in the book in the conclusion that that I drafted Which reminds us that love Education and inclusiveness the essence of the work that we engage in in To advance non-violence, so I want everybody to think who are you? Why do you do what you do? What's non-violence for you? Great. Thank you. Thank you and I want to remind our folks who are joining us online That we want you to participate in responding these questions as well so we are on Skype the Account name is usip underscore global campus again. That's usip underscore global campus So log into Skype connect with that account my colleague Vanessa will accept your invitation and when we Engage in discussion. She will facilitate that for all of you on Skype so let's now turn to matcha and again his book that he edited is Recovering non-violent history civil resistance in liberation struggle so matcha very briefly tell us Why is this book important for folks to read? When we're looking at non-violence in today's context and what's the critical question that you want folks to talk about today? sure we we talk about Martin Luther King legacy and and oftentimes Talking about legacy of non-violent resistance. It's very difficult and it's and it's occluded by what I think what I call free denials which we Together with a number of authors in recovering non-violent history. We explored Denials about civil resistance denial denial of the existence of civil resistance that it played an important role in in significant historical processes denial of legitimacy of civil resistance and denial of effectiveness of civil resistance and those three denials we tried to Which we look we are looking into them while analyzing Liberation struggles where indeed when one look at the rise of the nation-states one really hear more about wars about violence about violent nationalism about violent breakout of empires about violent Interventions that they all led to the rise of the nation-states or we hear about structural processes that enabled those nations to emerge urbanization Migration industrialization, or we talked about elites political military economic elites the kind of fathers of the nations that brought about that nations into into existence and We at the same time deny Denial the existence of agency of ordinary people and Actions non-violent collective actions of ordinary people in that particular history some who would Kind of go against them what I would call legitimacy of civil resistance would also say that civil resistance it's It's a form of It's a form of pacifism. It's a form of defeatism. It's a form of surrender So how that kind of form could have helped nations to win they saw the termination rights So they deny the legitimacy in that sense And and finally people would say that Those who would think that civil resistance is not effective. They would say we often times would use the term power holders So if we use the term power holders who we think about do we think about ordinary people or actually elites? Those who are in position of they are prime ministers presidents those those they have real power Whereas we try to redefine what is what is what means power holder power holder is enough can be an ordinary person oftentimes that That political power is dormant in every one of us Until people come together and start organizing That's that's that would be the moment where people would harness that dormant political power so we look into those denials in the context oftentimes of glorified violence and romanticized violence in the in the struggles for the nation and we try to debunk those myths looking at Cases that stretch from Africa North America Europe Asia and We are showing that civil resistance was taking place under different geographies In nations that would have different cultures different religions that would have different political systems and a number of those civil resistance struggles preceded Gandhi and And in fact we can see the diffusion of the ideas of nonviolent resistance through those cases Gandhi learned about civil resistance while looking at a nonviolent resistance of Hungarians in 19th century Against Austrians and that led to the winning of the rights in the form of dual monarchy Gandhi was was looking to What was going on in Ireland and Irish? Independent struggle, I mean eventually took the violent turn, but Arthur Griffith one of the leaders of Irish Nationalist movement was very much in engage in in planning nonviolent resistance and Gandhi knew about that then of course Martin Luther King took a lot from Gandhi and And if we go then if I look at solidarity movement They would look into actions and and ideas and thoughts of Gandhi to inspire their own struggle and so on so we also in Explored the diffusion of ideas on nonviolent resistance across cases as well as the banking all those various myths and denials And so what was the question that you wanted to pose to our audience here? It's behind you if you can see it, right? It's a it's a bit long but in essence the the question is Asking the audience to look into their community societies and nations and see what is celebrated whether you've got Acknowledgement or if you look at the national holidays might be the easiest way if you look at national holidays of your countries And the celebrations when you have a free day from work Who do you celebrate or what do you celebrate? Do you celebrate the end of the violent conflict? Do you celebrate the winning of independence by your country through violence? Do you celebrate the heroes who took up arms and defended your freedom or won your freedom? Or you celebrate nonviolent movements nonviolent collective actions Figures that would embrace nonviolent resistance So if we could you know look at those national holidays in your countries What do they what do you celebrate and then we can see to what extent perhaps? violent events Get much more recognition in national psyche and discourse and then to what extent nonviolent resistance is recognized Thanks much a and then last again Matt Myers book that he co-edited We have not been moved resisting racism and militarism in 21st century America So Matt tell us why is this book an important one for folks to read given today's context? And what's the critical question that you want folks to talk about I? Will answer that question Unlike the previous one, but this before I do that, you know it occurs to me There's a bridge. I was just reflecting on this much a when you were talking about the diffusion And this question of movements that were influenced in these ways before Gandhi But I think it's also interesting and we explore those as well in the book of movements that came about after and Directly challenging and in some ways against Gandhi and King movements that said oh no no this nonviolent stuff has failed and Yet when we look more carefully at the construction of those movements the foundation even of some of those movements Were in unarmed non-violence of resistance, which I think makes a question it underscores the question It makes the question even more in contemporary terms fascinating. I mean here it is we've not only You talk about denied, but we've not only ignored it. We've actually said we're against it Some of those and yet we haven't really been some of those movements were hijacked by then and an armed approach and And that dominated the resistance. Yeah, I perhaps wouldn't use the word hijacked, but still yes indeed And I think those shifts are key and I think in some ways We have not been moved developed in large part From King's writings towards the end of his life About the the the giant triplets right and he was mainly talking about US society, but I think he was also Internationalizing racism militarism and materialism and we focused on those two we focused on Racism and militarism in this book because you know even with those two we still came out to about 700 pages But I think in part the title derives from a Sense that we as a co-editors had about an historic call to white folks And a star a call for folks to dig deep in our own communities To stand up to step up and struggle against white supremacy and racism in our institutions In our own pockets of power everywhere, and I feel like you know when I was thinking about Coming here today, I was thinking about the the fairly recent and popular book by Rebecca Sonnet Men explain things to me Which is just a great title even if you don't read the book It's just a great title and and I was thinking we actually I think at this moment more than ever Probably didn't back in King's time, but now more than ever. We don't need a bunch of white professors pardon Telling us how brilliant King was See we don't need that We need we need a bunch of white professors and white everything to be more engaged in the more dangerous but profound work of Calling out how bad things are still and how we need to change them. Yes in a hopeful context While building the beloved community But also in a way that deconstructs the institutions that still Propagating white supremacy not just in the US, but globally, you know I think I worry sometimes when I hear us talk about this man who died for all of us Because it sounds like another man when you talk about that and and I think we need to get away from the iconization we need to get away from the idea that We had this saint here That we can only replicate that we can only act like if we to ourselves become saints and I feel like That's confusing on many many levels both if you look at the man Dr. Martin Luther King jr. But also if you look at movement building I think those who would like the status quo to remain the same all the time those who have power keep our Those who have do not do not would very much like it to sound like we have to only be saints and he of course was a saint Because then it's an unachievable goal King first and foremost aside from being a strategic political thinker like Gandhi was a risk taker He was a political prisoner He thought it was all about putting your life on the line for justice for freedom now for not waiting Right why we can't wait that was one of the early books even before 67-68 for Moving in a militant way Non-militaristic nonviolent but a militant way for change now and to emulate him we need to move Out of our comfort zones and I think the biggest we have all Is what's happening in the white communities in the US and on an international level What's happening in this dynamic between the oppressed and the oppressors because some of us find ourselves? Racially or maybe in terms of gender or maybe in terms of one's own community and state a little more leaning in the power than in the powerless and So my question had to do with that challenge What do those of us who have some power as a man in a sexist society as a white person in a racist society in A time when movements are building up black lives matter and others in a burgeoning militant moment What do we do? with the Institutional interpersonal but fundamental power dynamics that we're confronting Thank you Matt. All right, so we've got a lot to unpack here. We've got our three questions From our panelists or from rather our instigators of conversations. So what I'm going to ask you all to do now is turn to One or two people who are sitting around you in front of you behind you next to you Ideally someone that you do not know Because as I said one of the great things about bringing folks together in this building is that it's folks from different walks of life different professions different motivations and it'd be great if we could walk away from this convening having learned Something about somebody else and their perspective some of the you that you haven't met So think about any one of these questions and for watching you You're married to or like a sister or best friends with we're watching you No, we are watching we are watching And so choose any one of these questions that you want to discuss in that small group and for ten minutes You're gonna unpack that question and at the end of that ten minutes I'm gonna go around from different group to group and we're gonna see what emerged from those conversations and Then that is what our panelists are gonna react to So what we're gonna talk about for the rest of this event is born out of what came out in your conversations and what you think With somebody that you don't necessarily know our friends who are joining us online Again connect with us on Skype at us IP underscore global campus again That's us IP underscore global campus and my colleague Vanessa will facilitate a conversation with you via Skype And I'm gonna go around and if groups are amenable to this I'm just so folks who are watching online they can see what's happening in the room and hear what's happening in the room I'm gonna pop in probably group to group and just kind of get a sense of what folks are talking about What questions they're discussing so we can keep our online audience engaged as well And I encourage our panelists if you want to get up and move your feet to pop in on some of these groups You're welcome to do that as well So our 10 minutes of discussion based off of these three questions choose one to talk about in your group begins now Check one check two. Okay Okay, all right, so to folks who are watching online I'm gonna be going around to some of the different groups and we're gonna hear what folks are talking about and again You are encouraged if you want to insert your own perspective your own ideas into this conversation connect with us on Skype With the account us IP underscore global campus again, that's us IP underscore global campus But for now, I'll be roaming the room and we'll hear what some of the other groups are talking about What are we really to celebrate these holidays? That's my I don't know that's kind of just my question You guys think about that celebrated versus ignored holidays We celebrate dr. King But we don't celebrate Malcolm X in the same way And I think that the reason that is is because when it comes to people of color and being Violent, it's a terrible thing granted. Like you said Columbus Day something is clearly different But I think that if dr. King hadn't had the opposing force of Malcolm X I do not think that his nonviolent movement would have been Accepted it was almost a preferred method. It was like if you give us two methods between Malcolm X is Kind of like being radical and dr. King We're gonna choose And I so I think that it would be a lot different if we didn't have those two forces But obviously I think they do choose to celebrate the nonviolent and criticize the Violent as if they they didn't kind of play with each other and the fact it's so limited what's celebrating You know, it's like we only celebrate like what he was saying earlier about what the dream part of it It's only the part that celebrate, you know, nobody thinks about the main part of it Like I was having this argument with my girlfriend earlier about the world how Rosa Parks like everybody just thinks bus like that's it You know, she spent her entire life, you know doing these things Being an activist like from beginning to end and it's kind of just like bus, you know I just don't understand why everything just stops there and we don't celebrate the person We celebrate that one moment in history. I don't know You're this is a question on kind of why do we celebrate or not celebrate certain things and how does that color our sense of our own history? I do find it interesting that As one of the professors said earlier that we do celebrate events that are violent. We don't celebrate Non-violence forms of demonstrations or that kind of All cuts for example Maybe because also violent events happen on a certain day, so it's easier to grasp them But in the same sense, of course you have demonstrations that take place on certain days So it is actually possible also to celebrate those events But I don't really know why we don't actually celebrate them, you know Pop around here to some other groups. We'll join this one Over here and see what they're talking about. I Sorry, do you mind if I jump in to this group a little bit our online audience might be watching so Yeah, so I found out that the president was holding rallies throughout the country because it's election season And I jumped into a car with my cousin and we followed him throughout the country from village to village and eventually the NIA Found out that I was there the question, which is the version of the CIA and they wanted to know why I was following the president around and Eventually at the end of the country He didn't meet with me, but he had all his cabinet members He's like, you know this little girl has been following us for days Someone needs to sit with her and find out why she's here and I met with all the ministers and then met with him And two days later he came out and banned FGM and then parliament passed it I think to me that shows that Sometimes we underestimate what we can do because I tried but I never thought that it was going to happen and When Gambia banned FGM We didn't think parliament was going to pass the bill and for that to happen when you look at FGM is a practice that's been around for centuries and Currently you have 200 million women in Africa, Asia and Middle East that are living with this practice It affects not only their well-being, but it affects their sexual lives It affects everything about them their God-given right of being a woman and for us to Be able to change that to me. It's um and like when I think about people that I look up to in history, it's Dr. King and we have Nelson Mandela and Those are the people that inspire me to do what I'm doing. So I'm just passing around the screenshot from your Twitter posting with the headline. Do you want to tell them about this? I mean, it's it's just so fantastic the work that you've done in the Gambia and the work that you're continuing to do I mean, it's A baby after the law was passed we found out that a five-month-old baby died as a result of FGM and I called the president's office and I said look The world is watching you when you look at Gambia We don't have a good track record when it comes to human rights and all of that and for us to pass a law and not be able to Do anything about it and a baby died as a result of something and we pushed them And now we have the first conviction and it's only been months and Now other countries in Africa are looking at us to be a template for their countries because we are small country We're really able to effect change and because of that we're going to use the Gambia model to take it other places and I'm very Honored and proud to be on the right side of history. I mean when I started my campaign I always said I don't want to be a poster child for this issue And now it feels like I'm the poster child for the issue, but at the same time We're doing something right so being a poster child for the issue as much as I don't want that But it's good to know that we are making change and change is coming Five more minutes Okay, I'm gonna jump into this group here and see what they're talking about What what question is this group talking about Focusing primarily on one in three. Yeah Do you mind if I jump in okay great, yeah, no, I'm not gonna say anything I'm just our online audience might want to hear some things that have been coming up in this group So the mic is connected to our online feed We were talking about in terms of sorry We were talking about in terms of spirituality and just faith in how in a sense It can act as our foundation for pursuing anything in the service room And we found the interesting how in the society where we as a whole we kind of get away from that And we wonder why we have the issues that we do when we can't talk about it in the workplace Or we could barely talk about it at coffee shops because it's so What's that word? Give me that word. It's just You know when you want to talk about something, but she's so taboo, you know So many different levels of taboo with the that we're trying to figure out I think in this group right here. We're trying to find the solutions. So that's kind of why we were just Our mind is wrapping around that right now. So we're hoping to get some type of answers from here as the discussion goes further Yeah, how to navigate that? Mm-hmm. Well, I was just gonna say You know, you start to dig a little bit deeper into King and you you see these you know strong commitments that he has to his faith and and how that sort of undergirds everything that he does and At the same time see him drawing from people that don't don't share that faith and using those things as well So we're just yeah talking about the first one in terms of if we are moving away from sort of some of these spiritual things that would Would be the base of nonviolent resistance or service or whatever it is What what now serves is that foundation? Can we have a strong commitment without something or do we have to create something or go back to something? You know what I mean? But there's still a balance right balance between integrity and I don't know integrity and peace or Really really don't know but humanity right just humanity in general back to the basic moral human code which I think is kind of long forgotten in the sense between politics and Education is just certain things we don't discuss anymore Circle around I'm gonna go to one more group. Perhaps we'll go to this one back here And see what they're talking about. Okay Bringing in domestic politics here. I see yeah unavoidable Violent protests or violent movements they get more attention than non-violence It's a product of the media and society itself It's part of our culture that you know violence is Celebrated or highlighted more than peace unfortunately Well, we thought it was interesting where he mentioned About the holidays what we celebrate because that really struck a chord when you think about what it is We usually celebrate except for maybe those who and you mentioned who are Christians and we celebrate Christmas You know that is a symbol of peace, you know, so But outside of that everything I seem to represent and the other thing we noticed about Dr. King's message it only seems and I'm just talking from the time I'm living here I wasn't born here, but it seems like it's only black history month that he's highlighted and his legacy is talked about in some Respects, but outside of that That's not a benchmark Children you know in school. It's part of our curriculum Martin Luther King Martin Luther King day Black history month, but as adults it passes out. I mean, we were I was not even aware that today was the anniversary Just it's it's gone from from I think from your consciousness All right, good to see you by the way All right, let's wrap up these conversations and again for those of you who are Watching us online. We're gonna wrap up our conversations now You can continue connect with my colleague on Skype That's the US IP underscore global campus and encourage you to continue using the hashtag MLK lives on As we hear what some of the groups have talked about and what has emerged from these conversations, right folks Let's wrap up the thought the sentence that you are on You can stay in your circles. You don't have to go back to your seats We can stay in our groups here and we have About 25 30 minutes now To hear what emerged from your group conversations and as someone who went around and popped into different groups There's a lot of rich stuff that I think we're gonna get a chance to to talk about So is there one group that would like to first? Have one person volunteer stand up I'll come and give them the mic and share with us what emerged from your Conversation in response to these questions and then see How are our panelists react? Is there a group that would like to start if not? I there's one that I have in mind that I'll pick but I'll wait for someone to volunteer if okay great Let's start here. Tell us your name And what emerged in the conversation you had with your group. Good afternoon everybody. My name is Hashim LTA I'm the founder and president of the International Peace Quest Institute I consider myself as a disciple of Martin Luther King and all all the people Inspired by peace really and non-violence but but very very committed to changing the world I think the what came out of our exchange With regard to these Very interesting pieces of work and I commend the authors and the presentations and of course the moderator Let me be personal in 63 when Martin Luther King spoke around here at the Lincoln and Said the I have a dream speech. I was a student leader in Africa in an African University and we were social Democrats Watching the presidential election and the calls of Bernie Sanders men streaming Social democracy in American political discourse makes me Smile because at the time in 63 We were seeing you know while capitalism is no good hard core Marxism is no good. How about Democratic socialism and Of course, this is rooted in my African solidarity kind of community and What madame said a la vie earlier, you know a spiritual Rooting of our cultures in Africa, which is that really don't own anything that we are here in In a journey and a short one and that we are supposed to do good, you know and move on but anyway I Said about Sanders and his men streaming socialism and democracy now listening to this I chuckle and I say oh my goodness. This is interesting. We were social Democrats in 63 and America is perhaps finally catching up with us in terms of ideas You know, but to come to the issue here Honestly listening to you and coming here and so on And and watching the debate I love Watching and experiencing as a citizen in this country at this vibrant Debate and discussion in the in the elections I Love a la vie endures emphasis on Reflection deep thought Consciousness and I will go further actually at this juncture in our human history in America's History And America being the Noah's Ark of the 23rd century of humanity You know, therefore by When I speak of American experiment I speak really about global experiment and about world perspective I think The challenges that we face today cannot be addressed by The status quo and the old paradigm. We need an absolutely a new paradigm We need a paradigm shift. We have to be serious about that and which means We have to be humble We who have power Anywhere everywhere in institutions in parties and so on We have to be humble that we can't address the issues that face us today with same old same old Vision we need a new vision and audacious new vision and that cannot Be attained without not only consciousness but actually a human and Human awakening that will liberate us from the three evils of the dominant systems Racism militarism and greed and Also, we have to be serious about the narrative because we have an official narrative That is false and we have to come clean with the narratives so that we have a serious conversation about narratives Agree on a narrative that we we can all relate to and From there use it as a a source and a foundational Core from which we can Invent a new vision of governance that makes sense and thank you Bernie Sanders All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna there's a lot from that in terms of paradigm shifts some of the connections to Politics are happening here. I want to hear from two other groups very briefly so we can give our panels enough time to react I wanted to go to this group back here. I think something interesting emerged Can you share with us your thought very briefly so we have enough time to hear from one other group? Hello, my name is Sabrina Whitaker. I'm a senior at the University of Illinois But I'm interning with the office of the Attorney General and so from my background my mom March was dr. King When she was younger in Alabama and my dad actually fought in Vietnam So I've always been kind of informed about their thoughts on what was going on And so I think that you know when it comes to wars in other countries and when the oppressed group Fights back it's celebrated But when it comes to people of color, it's almost preferred that we are not non-violence And so my understanding is if yes, you know, I have a dream that and everything inspired the non-violent movement But I don't think it would have been as successful if it weren't for Malcolm X because it was the understanding from The the power in America and just you know the white supremacy That if we have two movements of these people of color and one is non-violent and the other is violent We prefer the non-violent movement. That's what we choose to rise up And that's who we're gonna back and let's create change because we're gonna resist that non-violent movement Thank you So some of the distinctions between MLK and Malcolm X and what impact that had on how the various movements were perceived And I want to hear from this group over here and then we're gonna turn to our panelists Would you care to share briefly a little bit about your story and how MLK and his legacy is connected with that? My name is Jahadukure and I am originally from the Gambia I am the founder and executive director of a nonprofit organization called safe hands for girls We work on the issue of female genital mutilation, which is also known as female circumcision and Back in 2014. I Started my organization because I saw that there was a lot of girls in my community here in America That were impacted by this issue, but no one was speaking for them so we decided to start a change that work petition and Asked the Obama administration to look into this issue and see the number of women that are impacted by the issue and over 220,000 people signed that petition and Obama administration commissioned the CDC to conduct the study and found that over half a million women are currently living in the United States with female genital mutilation and after After that study came out I decided to take my campaign to Gambia where I'm originally from in the Gambia 75% of women have been impacted by FGM and I knew that there was a lot of work that was being done and for 30 years There's been organization that has been campaigning to end this issue But nothing has happened no change has happened and I knew that the only way we can actually get changed It has to come from the president. It has to come from the top so I found out that the president was Conducting rallies throughout the country and I decided to borrow a car My cousin decided to follow me and we had a camera guy with us So we traveled throughout the country following him from village to village and at the end of the country After like days of just following him and being quenched and being detained and Finally he authorized all his cabinet members to sit down with me and find out what I wanted and when I explained to them Why this issue was important to us as young people and being someone that went through this practice when I was a week Old and the impact that it has had on my life and all the women that it continues to impact two days after meeting with him Gambia banned FGM three weeks later parliament came out with a bill and passed it unanimously and It's a movement build and what we started in the United States It's looking at people like Dr. King and what they did through the civil rights movement looking at Nelson Mandela and What he went through to make sure that apartheid ends in South Africa is what inspires me and what Makes me believe that we can also change this. I know that it's Different from slavery, but when you look at it, it's all all that culture of abuse It's all that culture of supremacy whether you're a woman or a man This is something that impacts and I don't think this is just an African issue. It's happening in Indonesia It's happening in India It's a world issue and it has to take all of us coming together to make sure that it ends in our generation Footbinding for instance ended in China within 10 years And I think if we make this a priority we can end FGM in our generation Thank you So let's turn back to our panelists now and a couple things that I heard one was obviously the impact of this conversation on Looking at a paradigm shift and he mentioned the idea of democratic socialism a word that has come up in American politics in the election this year, which of course has ramifications internationally We heard about the distinction or contrast or perceived contrast between MLK and Martin Luther King and Sorry MLK and Malcolm X and how that impacted how civil rights struggle was was Treated or people reacted to it and then lastly I think also what we heard from this story is movements around the world today that are these current contemporary living examples of some of the principles of organizing for justice and for rights, so Who would like to begin there's a lot of seeds that were just planted Who would like to react to some of these? comments first Some study right. All right. Well, I will not address all the main points that have been Raised so that my colleagues as well Paradigm shift and narrative Making are the two constructs that caught my attention And of course the MLK versus Malcolm X in movement building You know, sometimes we are caught up in in a framework of either or to arrive At the at the goals that we are pursuing Non-violence is not just an idea. It's not just A goal to something or to somewhere in my mind non-violence is a journey Going to someplace and if we were ever to think that there is one way to arrive at where we are going We might be short changed a little bit And that means people the way we contribute to the journey We have to think first you where are we going, you know, we know we have inequity worldwide We know we have colonialism that the lingers on even as we see it here in the United States colonialism has not ended Slavery yes, the laws have been you know passed against slavery, but we see the Consequences the legacy of slavery every single time when we turn around So this means that is the problems we encounter when a database basis Continued to be more complex So must the code the solutions the solutions must be complex as well poverty Leads to some of the violence that we see around Inequities and sometimes we we don't realize how everything is linked So the paradigm shift and the narrative that we needed to to to create is real And that that's why I'm connecting very strong with my friends Matt Myers Urge to to you know look around us look within us. What am I going to? Help to frame the solutions to these problems that we are Encountering Yes, social democracy. It's it's very very appealing because we have to realize that some of us We are sitting here in this forum whether long-distance or right in person Because we actually had something to eat last night And some of us even we're so privileged that we had breakfast and We are so privileged. We actually got some sleep. We had a place to sleep somewhere So we are here engaged We we can think we can debate There are people who cannot be in this room because they're concerned is not tomorrow They're concerned is today. Where am I going to sleep when my baby is going to sleep tonight? What's my two-year-old going to eat tonight? You know and sometimes we forget we forget that even being he's a major privilege So I think what we are standing here what we are sharing and what we are sharing with the gentleman over there is that We in Matt said it so clearly and so strongly with every privilege comes responsibilities So we're looking up to Sanders. We're looking up to Martin Luther King. We're looking up to some of us to Malcolm X we're looking up to a Nelson Mandela we're looking up to Ndadiye in Burundi But all comes to back to us. What have we learned from them? That gives us the inspiration and the power and the responsibility to really to make a difference and Unless we circle back Non-violence will continue to be an illusion because non-violence is it's not an abstract thing we have to go back to wonder what's violence anyway because violence is not just you know Somebody with a gun shooting in me It's it's somebody who makes it impossible for me to achieve my own professional and personal goals. It's somebody who Abuses me psychologically emotionally and financially So violence is a multifaceted and therefore Non-violence the non-violence movement must also be multifaceted and nourished by all these Contributions and ideas and commitments that we all share and the movement It has to be grounded in first of all the recognition of the privileges that we have and therefore of the major Responsibilities that we have individually and collectively. Thank you LV Matt much a sure I Want to reflect maybe on two things first. It's What I would call or what scholars would call the violent flank as part of civil resistance or nonviolent movements and We have we have known movements where those violent flanks were present South Africa might be one of the examples where ANC would turn into violent resistance after sweater sweater massacre in 1960 then in 1980s then UDF would lead nonviolent resistance and some would with looking to civil rights movement and Malcolm X and says that The kind of threat or use of violence was helpful for nonviolent movement And there are two schools about this one school would say that indeed the presence of violent flank helps the resistance movements It helps because for example civil resistance movements would be seen as moderate force and The opponent or adversary would be more willing to negotiate with those who would Use nonviolent resistance rather than arms. So the arm flank is kind of helping in directly nonviolent movements But there is also a con argument or arguments So one of them would be that oftentimes the adversary would use a Presence of violence, even if that violence is limited to a radical group against all dissidents and the whole movement will be labeled terrorists and would provide justification for adversary to use violence and And that's why some people would say that maintaining nonviolent discipline makes that the use of repression Less likely and less justified in the eyes of general public if the movement maintains nonviolent discipline rather than when there is violent flank My my colleagues Erica Chenoweth and Kurt shock did a piece that was published in mobilization journal in December that looks specifically at the impact of violent flank on civil resistance to see whether it's positive or negative and There was a static the included statistical analysis in that and they determined that there is no really direct impact with a positive or Negative of violent flank on nonviolent movements, but there is a negative Indirect impact of violent flank on nonviolent movements, which was associated with the decreasing level of participation So less people were willing to join nonviolent movement when there was a violent flank present during the struggle and Since participation is a really crucial element in the success of nonviolent movement Then indirectly the violent flank decreased the chances of those movements being successful by decreasing the participation in them So this is a kind of scholar a scholar a work, but done across a number of cases And it may vary from case to case, but overall violent like a negative impact and my second comment is about which is related thought maybe not directly to the To the very inspiring story of the of the FGM movement where we see those movements right around the world Kind of being built and to reflecting the past successful movements, but we have also need to recognize that those movements are facing Even more challenges than than before we talk about the authoritarian backlash in that context that often times Authoritarians would recognize the power of those of those nonviolent movements or the people power much more than people themselves And here we've got expiring very encouraging examples, but in a number of cases those Movements, yes, they learn each from each other, but actually authoritarians learn as well and they come with a With a lot of sophisticated instruments to counter the movements And in fact my colleagues are showing that in the last five years the effectiveness of nonviolent movements it decreased When they challenge oppressive Governments it doesn't mean that the effectiveness of armed resistance against those oppressive regimes Increase actually it's also declined but in absolute terms nonviolent movements are not faring so well like before and So movements are learning from each other from the successes as well as for from failures, but the adversaries are No less steep in in learning then the kind of more authoritarian more Targeted and and more kind of smarter way of countering those movements in fact Authoritarians they would adopt for their own purposes nonviolent actions Vladimir Putin president of Russia after color revolutions he created or Encouraged creation of its own nonviolent pro-government movement that would protect the government That's actually indicative of the extent to which those dictators would recognize the power of nonviolent movements But they would use them for their own nefarious ends so movements They need to learn yes from one another from past movements But they need to get more strategic in terms of addressing new challenges posed by the adversaries Thanks Matt. You're gonna have the last word here. I have two Two pads. I want us to go on One Reflected on some of the things that I heard Darren you pushing us towards and one from some of the things I heard the groups push us towards, you know We began this conversation talking about global crises and I think I wanted to reflect on global Opportunities because I also think that's what this moment is about and and I want to say I was privileged to be able to Hang out with that group way back there. You know who you are way back there Yeah, I'm talking about you guys and I feel like they said a bunch of stuff that was reflective of LV What you were saying about the journey yeah, and I guess I wanted to say as a piece of that that In one's own life, and you know, I'm big in the institutions, but I can do the interpersonal stuff too In one's own life one may find different moments when one is willing to take this risk or the other and There's no right way because you can choose more than one at this moment I'm parenting a three-year-old. So no, no, I'm not actually I'm just saying hypothetically So I'm not going to risk a lot of civil disobedience that's gonna land me in jail. That's irresponsible But at that moment I will so one can make more than one choice on this journey. I mean Gandhi himself, huh? Titled his own autobiography The story of my experiments with truth It was about experimentation and Barbara Deming who wrote the key piece vis-a-vis friends turn on Talked about revolution and equilibrium how to build an equilibrium into our non-violence our revolutionary non-violence I'm gonna get back to that phrase in a moment But when we look at global opportunities at this moment I feel like we have as many of the hidden forgotten Not spotlighted things going on now as we did in that history book We can almost put out another volume and I just wanted to recall a few I think it's completely correct That we in the US are behind movements in Africa and elsewhere that we are catching up Huh, although I do have to say as a cautionary note. We must remember there's Bernie Sanders and there's Donald Trump not to say That we should be focusing on electoral politics at all But since you bought Bernie into the room, I have to bring Donald into the room as well and remind us that at this moment and In all moments in history everywhere, but at this moment in US history. It's not a linear thing. Huh two steps forward two steps back But it is a thing where there's lots that we are learning from things that other countries other regions other places Have been through already So for example the article that Darren put out there that I wrote about non-violent statecraft and Zambia in the 1960s Reflects on some of the questions about how to use non-violence when you become the president of a country Through mainly non-violent. This is stuff that Kenneth Cohn defaced. How do you deal with those issues? Well, we haven't ever really as a country as a as a younger country dealt with those things I'm thinking about the article I read from Angola just Recently about this group of Angolan youth who were just given these harsh sentences for essentially reading one of Gene Sharpe's books Translated from dictatorship to democracy I'm thinking of the Indian leader that we quote in our article in in exploring the power of non-violence Narayan Desai who just passed who talked about What he called it in India total revolution But it was total revolution through what he called love force Not just soul force or truth force Satya Graha, but love force I'm thinking about the Palestinian advocates of non-violent sanctions against companies that support Israeli apartheid I'm thinking of the current movement against corruption and the ongoing economic apartheid in South Africa today I'm thinking of the thing you just said about colonialism and ongoing colonialism and the Puerto Rican Freedom movements of today working for the release of the current political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera Who's called the Mandela of the Americas and who most of us have never even heard of and I guess when I think of these things I'm thinking of a new term that some of us are beginning to investigate a new paradigm because by the way I think one of the important things about the the Studies that matcha was citing is that this is a very very new field We are just the beginning of doing this kind of research We need a lot more people doing a lot more research along just those lines And so when we're looking at paradigms and we're looking at definitions There are some of us who are talking more and more about this term Revolution and this term non-violence neither one of which are particularly well defined Particularly well clarified in our work. So what if there was a revolutionary non-violence? What if there was a moment and I think we're at that moment where we this generation new generations are Refusing to choose between Malcolm and Martin Refusing to accept that there's a dichotomy between revolution and non-violence. In fact, don't believe the hype. They're closer than you think Just as those two men were moving closer in Internationalism and Pan-Africanism in economic analysis. Just read James Cohn America the dream of the nightmare and you'll see that maybe we are at a new moment in talking about this in reclaiming King's radicalism and Revitalizing King for the 21st century. Maybe we're talking about a revolutionary non-violence. That is the new paradigm for the 21st century Thank you. Thank you LV Matt and Maché for your time your thoughts. Thanks to all of you in the audience. Thanks to our folks who are watching online unassasinating this person and all the people that he worked with and organized with around this practice of non-violence on a Personal level a community level and an international level We cannot forget that the last conversation he had in that hotel room the night before he went to bed on April 3rd With some of his colleagues was their wish that what they had experimented with in the United States of Civil Rights Movement That Dr. King said his wish was to institutionalize and internationalize the practice of non-violence And I think some of the stories that we've heard here today Are an example that we are moving in that direction and One thing I want to reference to One of my colleagues corrected the announcement to this event that made it seem like Violent conflict has been on the rise and it's getting worse and worse and worse, but in fact Cases of violence has actually gone down Year after year. Yes, there's fits and starts take two steps forward one step back, but we are Moving towards a way of waging struggle that does not rely on violence and Remembering what dr. King stood for and others before him and after him have shown us and modeled for us and Challenged us to think about is how do we wage struggle without? Resorting to violence how do we transform societies and build to just peace by being forceful So I encourage you all to keep those words with you today and days forward And it is beautiful out and before it rains if you have time today take the time Go to the MLK Memorial stand there and be present with all the people who are there Read some of those quotes and and and press on so thank you all. Thanks for our online audience And we can mingle a bit outside