On 2 October in New Zealand a team of volunteers will start a trip of 160,000 km through 90 countries demanding total nuclear disarmament. Simultaneously, more than 300 events will take place at around 150 places around the world: from human peace signs in Iceland, Pakistan and Argentina to cultural festivals in India, Norway and Spain.

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Pressenza, Buenos Aires, 2009-09-29

A historic day will occur throughout the world on 2 October: the first global demonstration, the World March for Peace and Non Violence will begin. In 2007, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2 October as International Day of Non Violence, in memory of the legacy of pacifist leader Mahatma Gandhi who managed to liberate India from the British Empire with non-violent confrontational strategies. Therefore, the Humanist Movement through its World without Wars organization chose this anniversary to begin a huge challenge: to travel the world demanding total and immediate nuclear disarmament, the withdrawal of troops from occupied territories, the signing of non-aggression treaties between countries and an end to wars, and other points aimed at overcoming the various forms that violence takes. All this 70 years from the outbreak of the Second World War and 20 years on from the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay, among others have given their support to the mobilisation. Furthermore, public figures from the world of science, culture and art joined the initiative: from linguist Noam Chomsky, writer Eduardo Galeano, playwright José Saramago to nobel prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, the Dalai Lama and Perez Esquivel, to name a few.

Simultaneous events in 150 places around the world

The social organisations promoting the global crossing will celebrate its beginning with events in different places around the world, each one with its own particular tone, having a range of events that go from cultural festivals, carriages going around streets, human peace signs, to games of chess, releasing balloons, student hikes, among many other activities.

Some of the examples in Latin America are: in Santiago de Chile, there will be carriages, parades, musicians, theatre professionals, dancers and hundreds of people gathering in the Plaza Italia in Santiago de Chile moving on towards the Plaza de la Ciudadanía. In Argentina, in the city of Las Heras, in Mendoza, a thousand school children will form a human peace sign, 20 more schools will participate in the same event that will exhibit work linked to non-violence. While in Buenos Aires, Master Silversmith Juan Carlos Pallarols will deliver an acknowledgement to the work for peace. The winner of his work for peace will be chosen by the public in an election taking place on the organisation World without Wars’ website. Evo Morales, Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Mary Burton, Patricia Sosa are some of the candidates. Simultaneously, 90 stands in the centre of the city, will show the march with the name of a country wherever it is passing through.

In the Plaza de la Democracia in Asunción, Paraguay, 200 games of chess under the slogan “Chess for Peace”, was the way Paraguayans chose to celebrate the beginning of the World March. In Brazil, in the city of Rio Grande Do Sul, the day will be celebrated with a festival from the singer-songwriter Dante Ramón Ledesma and with an inter-religious peace ceremony. In the Brazilian city of Cotia samba schools will join diverse musicians in their performance. These are just some examples of the wide range of events which the International Day of Non Violence will have in Latin America.

In Europe there will also be many events on 2 October. In Germany, in the city of Cologne there will be cultural activities in Cologne Central Square. In the Republic of Ireland a living sign of non-violence will take place on Saturday 3 October in Canal Square in the centre of Dublin. Also on 3 October, in Switzerland, in the city of Zurich, 1,000 people will represent a sign of Non-Violence with torches. In Spain, in Villanueva del Rosario and Villanueva del Trabuco (Malaga), students will release balloons for Peace and will read a statement and the winning text of a writing competition for Peace. This is just to give some example of activities happening in Europe.

The World March’s Base Team and its journey

It is an international team of people from different cultures and organisations, made up of around 100 people with a permanent nucleus of 30. This contingent will embark on the World March symbolic journey from New Zealand to Argentina. It will travel 160,000 km in 93 days. The organisers hope that thousands of people will undertake other journeys in places where the Base Team does not pass through, forming a network of marches.

This base team’s first stretch will be through Oceania, and Eastern Asia, through the countries of Australia, the Philippines, Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and East Timor where they will meet with public figures from the political, cultural and educational world in order to establish the proposals of this first global march. Then it continues through Continental Asia, countries in Africa, Europe and America, concluding with an event on 2 January in which 25,000 people from all around the world are expected in the Parque de Estudio y Reflexión, Punta de Vacas, a few kilometres from Mount Aconcagua in Mendoza, Argentina.

(Translation provided by Rhona Desmond)

Pressenza IPA