Campaigning for a Ministry for Peace in the United Kingdom
The goal of a ministry for peace is to put peace into power and power into peace. Labour MP John McDonnell and I (Diana Basterfield) were the joint co-founders of the project in July 2003. We were both opposed to the UK going to war in Iraq. I marched with the millions in London in the UK’s biggest ever demonstration in February 2003 and I am sure John did too, under the Labour Against the War banner, a pressure group within the Labour Party which he helped to set up.
Since then, together with the group of volunteers steering ministry for peace (mfp), we have been working hard to make a persuasive case for a government Ministry for Peace. We accept that initially this could be a Minister within, say, the Cabinet Office with a remit to champion a peace and non-violence agenda. To inform and influence MP’s and the public we have held monthly meetings in the Houses of Parliament - to discuss the Iraq war and wars of terrorism, how to create a culture of peace, non-violent communication, human rights, peace education in schools and conflict resolution.
In March 2004 we held a conference entitled Peace Builder or Warmonger Britain’s role in the 21st century. We ran a stall at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2004 and John spoke to a vast crowd from the main stage. At our fringe meeting at the 2004 Labour Party Conference in Brighton, former Labour MP and Government Minister Tony Benn spoke in support of our campaign. Another key supporter is the Dalai Lama.
For a Ministry to be effective mfp considers that it must employ the considerable body of expertise and experience already developed on conflict transformation and peace building by organisations such as Transcend, whose originator - Johan Galtung - wrote the UN manual on the subject. Transcend argues that to work for peace is to work against violence and mfp finds its analysis of three types of violence comprehensive and very compelling. According to Transcend, direct violence equates to direct physical, verbal or violence; structural violence is the slow, grinding violence of political, social and economic structures that repress, harm or kill; and cultural violence describes those aspects of a culture that normalise violence religions and ideologies that condone direct violence, for example, or national stories that extol the use of extreme violence to “resolve” conflicts. An effective Ministry would need to tackle all these three forms of violence together.
To encourage debate on useful methodologies that could be employed to do this we have organised seven intensive training courses in London led by the brilliant Kai Brand-Jacobsen from Transcend.
On the parliamentary front, John put forward a Ten Minute Rule Bill In October 2003 calling for a Ministry for Peace, which had cross-party support. It was not opposed but fell due to lack of parliamentary time. Other parliamentary moves are planned. Within the Labour Party, the Labour Representation Committee included the call for a Ministry for Peace in its policy document for the 2005 General Election. The Scottish Socialist Party and Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalist Party) also called for a Ministry for Peace in their General Election manifestos. There has also been support in the Green Party for the concept.
In June 2006 the second Summit was held, this time in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Attendance this time was 60 delegates from 18 countries.
Ministry for peace will continue to make the case for using peace strategies rather than violence to tackle violent conflict. Recognising that a strong, independent civil society body will also be needed to stand alongside a future Minister/Ministry for Peace, our work in 2006 included reaching out to UK NGO’s to build that structure together.
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues.
This is ministry for peace’s latest initiative, which came after many months of quiet effort. We have secured enough support in Parliament to set up an official All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues. The purpose of the APPG, as formally stated in the Parliamentary Register, is ‘To encourage dialogue, on the basis of expert information and opinion from across the political spectrum, on issues relating to conflict; especially on the practical means to prevent, transform and resolve violent conflict.’
Establishing this group, which is a major step forward for ministry for peace, has generated a lot of interest across government and amongst those who work in the field of conflict management. The APPG will provide a forum where Parliamentarians, government officials, NGOs, academics and others can come together on a regular basis to share ideas and thoughts about the challenges of non-violent approaches to managing violent conflict. Members of the following political parties have registered as members:
Labour Party 10
Conservative Party 6
Liberal Democrat Party 3
Plaid Cymru 1
2007 promises to be an exciting year in British politics with a new Prime Minister. We hope to build valuable links with the new PM and his team. Our Co-Founder, John McDonnell, has declared that he will stand for Leader of the Labour Party (this automatically becomes the Prime Minister) once Tony Blair signals that he is standing down. He will first need the support of 44 other Members of Parliament to enable him to go forward in the election process. If he were to be successful and win the subsequent election - the voters will come from the Labour Party, Trade Union and affiliated society members and Members of Parliament, this would give a rapid boost to the campaign for a Ministry for Peace.