CONVOCATION 29 JANUARY 2012: THE SCHOOL DAY OF NONVIOLENCE

29 January 2012

♀ The impunity afforded the local and global financiers responsible for the current economic situation.
♀ Cutting of budgetary appropriations for public education and the increasing support for private schooling.
♀ Legislators’ utilization of the crisis as psychological war against the people.

♀ That the crisis be paid for by those who have produced it, principally the financial institutions.
♀ That legislators and governors view education as the best economic investment in the present and the future.

Let us expel war and violence
from History
and from our lives

……………………………………………………………………….

Women in Black of Madrid against war, on 30 January, School Day of Nonviolence, date on which we aspire to foster the values embodied in Gandhi

WE DECLARE:
Our concern for the models that we are now experiencing and how we are educating infants and youth in a culture that teaches us that war and violence are the only solutions to conflicts and causes us to collaborate with this approach either actively or passively. The strongest, the most powerful wins, with the result that conflicts are not resolved, rather they are silenced and will emerge again when conditions are favorable to do so.

The promotion of values that correspond to a social model of violence: fear, social control, machismo, blind obedience, power-submission relationships, resolution of conflicts through violence and by force, disdain for those that are considered different and weaker. We see that these are values that pervade the development of national and international policies, serving as the cauldron to cultivate racism and xenophobia. Racism and xenophobia cause us to view emigrants as responsible for the crisis, pointing to them as enemies and justifying the “need for security” which augments social militarization and militarization of conscience.

We see that the current crisis is an express form of violence against the populace and has a direct effect on education. While the budget appropriation for education decreases, military expenditures will be maintained, or even increased, hidden in other budgetary items.

The sustainability of armed defense is maintained before sustainability of numerous rights and services of a social nature. Economic and work stability of the people are not maintained and all that is left is the security that the security forces “ provide” for us.

WE DENOUNCE:
♀ The impunity afforded the local and global financiers for the current economic situation.
♀ Cutting appropriations for public education and the growing support for private schooling.
♀ The decrease in appropriations for social purposes.
♀ Governors’ utilization of the crisis as psychological war against the people.
♀ Naming as Minister of Defense a person who has interests in the weapons industry.

WE REQUEST:
♀ That we make ourselves aware of our responsibility in the decisions made every day by politicians.
♀ That the crises be paid for by those who have produced them, principally, financial institutions.
♀ That our legislators view education as the best economic investment for the present and the future.
♀ That society be cognizant of the importance of inculcating in new generations values that will promote solidarity as a policy for inter-personal relationships.

Traslation: Trisha Novak USA