Are we heading towards war? According to some media outlets, a war with China could be as little as three years away. Politically, banging the drums of war is a great way to control your population. Scaring your citizens with threats of capture, torture, death and annihilation reinvigorates nationalism, ups those calls for intervention and makes people much more susceptible to propaganda. With the threat of war, a population with a shitty deal on their housing spend will accept a $368 billion spend on nuclear submarines.
Let’s face it, as a peacetime population, most of us have no concept of what war even looks like. It’s something that happened to past generations and to refugees. Not us. Historically, where there is war, there is the peace movement. In the past, citizens appalled by the pointless loss of human life have powered movements of peace and nonviolence when states or nations engage in violent conflict. The effects of war are widely spread and can be long-term or short-term. Soldiers experience war differently than civilians. Although both suffer in times of war, women and children suffer atrocities in particular. In the past decade, up to two million of those killed in armed conflicts were children.
War is stupid. Peace is smart. Yes it’s binary, but when it comes to navigating what has been pitched to us as a complex adversarial and potentially dangerous future, I think it’s time we revisited the peace movement. It’s much more affordable and life-affirming than the nuclear alternative. Give me nonviolent action any day. It’s bizarre we even call that ‘radical’.
And surely, as human intellect and innovation propels us into a future capable of AI and space travel, maybe we are finally mature enough not to create conditions where the only solution to our problems is to kill some other country’s population. War is mass murder. And we’ve just accepted a $368 billion murder weapon.
Dust off the peace flags, get out the talking stick, it’s time to engage in long talks and campfire sing-alongs about nonviolent resistance. Ironically the Aquarius Festival turns 50 this year, maybe it’s a sign that instead of ridiculous expenditure as the response to conflict forecasting, we could engage in building better relationships in the South China Sea, the Pacific, and beyond. Instead of talking about ‘The China Threat’, why aren’t we talking about ‘The China Opportunity’? Instead of spending $368 billion on weapons, why don’t we spend $368 billion building friendships? Maybe it’s time Australia redefined our relationship with America, because it is unequal. It’s a relationship that serves US interests politically, economically, militarily and culturally. With that power differential it’s not an alliance – it’s coercive control.
Peace and nonviolence aren’t just hippy hashtags. It’s a mindset. It’s a strategic approach. Remember Grace Tame? Remember the power one woman had when she didn’t smile at the prime minister? That was nonviolent action. And what lipstick was she wearing? Passive Resistance Red. It was a small example of the power of holding your line. Of exercising withholding consent. One non-smile had a lasting impact. It told us clearly that when it came to justice and creating a safe workplace, Prime Minister Scott Morrison had failed the women of this country.
Radical peace and nonviolence is the only way forward. And here’s something that you may not know; research by Erica Chenoweth of Harvard University looked at hundreds of nonviolent campaigns over the last century and found that nonviolent campaigns were twice as likely to succeed as violent campaigns. Chenoweth showed that it took 3.5 per cent of the population to be actively participating in nonviolent protest to ensure political change. This is the 3.5 per cent rule. A small minority can change the world.
And they don’t need to spend $368 billion to do it.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
