11/27/2007 - Activist to Discuss Nonviolence Strategies

RIVERSIDE, CA - David Hartsough, co-founder of the international Nonviolent Peaceforce, will discuss "Gandhi's Peace Army Today" on Monday, Dec. 3, at 3:30 p.m. at the University of California, Riverside in Humanities and Social Sciences Room 1500.

Hartsough is the second speaker of the UCR Mellon Workshop Series on Gandhi's Legacy, a yearlong program featuring scholars and activists discussing Gandhi's ideas about nonviolence and social change.

His presentation is free and open to the public. Parking is available in Lot 1 or Lot 6 using a credit card.

"In these times when violence seems to dominate, we can especially appreciate hearing about viable alternatives," said Madelyn MacKay, a Riverside peace activist who is a member of the university-community committee planning the speaker series. "The Nonviolent Peaceforce can help us tip the balance toward a world where nonviolent solutions predominate."

Nonviolent Peaceforce, whose international offices are in Brussels, is a federation of 100 peace organizations from 50 countries. It provides a paid, unarmed, force of civilians from around world who are trained to use nonviolent strategies to protect human rights, deter violence and enable local peacemakers to carry out their work, according to the organization's Web site ( www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org ).

Hartsough has been involved in various nonviolent movements from the civil rights lunch-counter sit-ins to peacemaking in the former Soviet Union, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Kosovo and the Philippines. He holds a B.A. from Howard University and an M.A. in international relations from Columbia University.

Future speakers in the Gandhi series will include Rajmohan Gandhi, a scholar, biographer and grandson of Mohandas Gandhi; a monk from the Deer Park Buddhist monastery in Escondido; and Inland peace activists. Also planned are a showing of the Emmy-winning documentary "A Force More Powerful" and a discussion afterward with the film's producer, Jack Duvall.

For more information contact David Biggs at 951-827-1877 or david.biggs@ucr.edu ; June O'Connor at 951-827-3743 or june.oconnor@ucr.edu ; Farah Godrej at 951-827-4693 or farah.godrej@ucr.edu ; or Madelyn MacKay at 951-341-0989 or madelynmackay@hotmail.com.