Friends, I will make a brief introduction about the “World March for Peace and Nonviolence”.

Beforehand I would like to thank the organisers for opening this Forum for the first public presentation about the World March in Europe.  Soon there will be presentations for America in Buenos Aires, for Africa in Nairobi and the official launch that in one month from now will take place in Punta de Vacas at the foot of Mount Aconcagua.

How and why a World March?... I will present some of the numerous reasons.

Because for many of us we don’t like what is happening.  The profound crisis in which we are will have serious consequences, among others the increase of famine in the world.

However, hunger could be resolved with 10% of what is spent on weapons.

What could be done if 50% were to be used to improve the life of people instead of being applied to destruction and the benefit of a few?

Because everyone already knows that conflicts and violence lead us down a blind alley, towards self-destruction and the abyss.

Because global problems have to be given responses at the same level, that is, global.

Because those who want peace are the vast majority.  An absolute majority.  And if we are in democracies, how is that this will is not respected?

Because in this aspiration we are accompanied by the strength of the voices of so many previous generations that suffered the consequences of wars.

Maybe because there is nothing that unites all the initiatives in favour of peace and nonviolence that remain dispersed and diluted…

The moment has arrived to make the voices of those without a voice be heard!  We want thousands, millions of human beings to express themselves.

All of this we can achieve by uniting all social sectors through the World March.

For some this World March is madness.  Others are enthusiastic.  To the great majority it’s interesting, even necessary… but unachievable.  So our first job was centred on seeing if it were possible.

We took one year to make a feasibility study.  Last June we decided to go ahead and we activated the World March.  Today little more than three months later we are making a first evaluation.  In this case very brief because of the short time and to not bore you.

I’m not going to entertain you with the statistics of this march that will be rolled out over 93 days.  I’m going to tell you about the initiatives that are being launched to support this action.

They are initiatives that have emerged at the base, many of which have a novel character, innovative, outside the ordinary.  Initiatives with a lot imagination, accompanied by a playful and party tone.  I take the opportunity to remind you that this march is not aimed against anybody, it is an action that is aiming to open new paths…

I’m going to show you highlights as mentioning everything would take very long.

There are many activities in educational centres: marches, living symbols of peace and insertion in academic curricula of themes of peace and nonviolence.  In Malaga, Spain, 800 schools.  In a community in Chile, 52 colleges, are accommodating the contents to study geography, fauna, flora, minerals, cultures of the countries through which the World March passes.

There are universities that have pledged support.  In Spain the World March is being presented in the Conference of Rectors of all Universities of Spain.

They are organising monthly marches with music bands, until making a big march with all the music bands of the city.

Entire sporting associations are joining: marathon runners and cyclists, with different routes, some international.

There are special marches: in Sardinia they will go through all the towns on the island and in Russia they will march on foot through the cities where Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky lived and wrote.

The World March can help in border conflicts or closed borders.  These are the cases of Algeria-Morocco, Israel-Palestine, India-Pakistan, the two Koreas and Mexico-USA to list a few examples.

Many mayors are offering accommodation, food and transport to the World March.  In some case in large numbers.

We have already confirmed the reception of members of the World March by a president and government of a country.

Many personalities and well-known people have pledged support.  Around 100 from around the world have made their support explicit (noble prize winners, scientists, intellectuals, artists, sportsmen and women).

200 organisations around the world have pledged support.  In some countries, Amnesty International, the Red Cross, Human Rights associations.  Some organisations like the Landless Movement in Brazil, peasant organisations in Central America and India have shown their interest in the World March.

We are working in various networks: mayors, parliamentarians and Universities for the World March.

With the World March, in addition, we are moving rappers, graffiti artists, motorcyclists, classical music groups, ballet companies, theatres.  Russian parachuters want to make the peace symbol.  A guild of fishermen what to make a march by boat to cross the straits of Gibraltar.  In Chile and other places they want to make an air raid with hundreds of small planes accompanying the march.  Also with hot air balloons.

There is a project for 3 mega-concerts: Prague, Dakar and Santiago where they already have O’Higgins Park reserved for 80,000 people.  The projects of concerts in cities are numerous.

The World March has a central axis from New Zealand to Argentina.  But numerous convergent routes have emerged.  Adding the convergent routes together in kilometres will be greater that the central axis.

In June the World March was covering 40 countries.  Today it is 90.

A few days ago on the 2nd of October, International day of nonviolence, one year until the start of the World March, events were carried out in 100 cities in 50 countries.

All of this has happened in barely 3 months.

Friends, as you have seen this is a living march that is being built.

The carrying out and the result of this World March depends on what each one of us does in this year that remains.  These individual actions, like small drops of water that trickle together, converging to become a great and strong river that advances gently but unstoppably towards its destination.

It depends on us that the World March becomes something important.  The need is imperative, the environment is receptive, the conditions are excellent.

It is the great opportunity for us to become a great force.  Not the force of imposition, not the force of hardness, not the force of the powerful.  The force of the soft, the force of coherence, the force of need, the force of the profound.  This first World March is the nonviolent response that the human being is giving at a planetary level to reject a violent, unjust and remorseless world where we will seek to open new horizons of peace and coexistence for humanity.

I would like to end by sharing with you a phrase that made a great impact on me.  It was sent to me by a pacifist leader in Jerusalem.  He said: “The idea of the World March has been passed to members of my personal team and the leaders of the community.  They are all very enthusiastic and see in this march an excellent opportunity to make what will be the greatest declaration to promote peace in history”…

I don’t know if we will reach the goal that our friend expressed.  But if with the World March we manage to make a contribution to “raising awareness” about Peace and Nonviolence, then our objective will be fulfilled.

Many thanks
Rafael de la Rubia - Spokesperson World March for Peace and Nonviolence

European Humanist Forum - The strength of nonviolence, Milan, 17th – 19th October 2008