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From Never Again

Never Again UK: developing a future strategy

This is an ideas paper and anybody is welcome to contribute to it

The UK chapter of Never Again is mainly based in London but has a fluid, transitory make-up. People we consider to be members actually live in other countries and we have close working relationships with members in other countries too. London has been a base for us and has hosted important events, but it has not yet developed a strategic direction to develop Never Again methodology inside the country.

UK problems and issues

While it is difficult to generalise about any country, the UK is essentially a tolerant country where successive groups of immigrants, important to the economy, have settled and mixed over centuries. 'Britain' was once a colonial power and one of the legacies of this is that it is the destination country for people from many of the ex-Commonwealth countries.

Being a former power, Britain is also still a country that operates internationally on both peacebuilding and warmaking. Internally, there is a complex mixture of loyalty and anger to the government that operates in 'our' name. This has led to British-born bombers operating for the Islamic cause as well, further back, as the Irish cause. These extremities of violence, with indiscriminate deaths, tend to be looked upon by the British with a stoical attitude and often harden attitudes against the 'other'. However, there is also a willingness to see the other point of view and, amongst many people often on the left wing politically, side with the 'underdog'.

Genocide is not an experience familiar to most people in Britain, but our migrant populations have direct experience of relatives dying in Rwanda, the Holocaust and other known genocides. Genocide education is fairly well established in schools, generally led by learning about the holocaust, and ideas of anti-racism and democracy (or the history of dictatorships) are also fairly well covered in schools.

However, the culture of critical thinking and history education for the majority of people in the UK is woefully inadequate. We have a media that focuses almost exlusively on powerful parties to conflict and that sensationalises the percieved interests of its audiences. For the mainstream media, these audiences are almost exclusively white or fully integrated minorities and they are in home-ownership. To put it another way, the poor and ethnic minorities get no voice whatsoever in the mainstream media, except occasionally when they are called upon to supply a bland comment to a tragedy or crime that has occurred in their midst - for which they are generally held to blame.

It is perhaps fair to say that the state school system provides a successful model of cultural diversity, particularly in London where the language of teenagers has evolved to reflect the mix of backgounds. However, this is created by the children themselves, who are ill-supported by an education system that prioritises bureaucracy and targets over education and pastoral support and a general failure of care that leads to many children living in poverty and turning to anti-social behaviour, crime and a cycle of low achievement through generations. This is very different from the experience of those youth that do have a successful experience of the education service and go onto universities and, in theory, the middle class. The government's drive to send as many children as possible through this second experience perhaps recognises that this provides a skills base for a post-industrial society, but it has neglected to value what was called the working class, who are now often redundant (and literally jobless) while we import the labour to do the essential jobs we no longer feel the native population should be doing.

Issues for British society: - segregation of communities, especially in areas of low education and prospects - violence of a fairly casual, ongoing nature and anti-social behaviour - mainly affecting the same groups that commit it - lack of information and little diversity of voices from which to make critical judgments or be involved in holding powerful bodies to account - areas of low education and communication skills in which self-appointed leaders are relied upon to speak for the community - loss of direct involvement and empowerment in local decision-making, with a tide of meaningless jargon filling the gap - a 'booming' housing market driving the economy that appears to have the consent of the majority of the population but in fact has now excluded a large section of the population or has led them to the 'choice' of unnafordable debt. This particularly effects the younger generation.

Chapter priorities

It perhaps takes studies of other countries before you can reach an understanding of how the problems in British society have parallels to wider global problems. Because Britain is seen as an advanced, developed country with some very successful sectors, there is little or no acknowledgment that the society might experience internal problems. Outbreaks of violence, whether from 'gangs' or 'terrorism' tend to be viewed with defensive disbelief, as is our unpopularity in the wider world. Not having been educated about the less honourable aspects of colonialism and having been on the winning side in most major wars, we see ourselves as a country that is essentially good, brings peace and common sense to the world and invented the best games. At the other extreme, there are those in all communities who see the fault of the British very clearly and take different approaches in response: by striking out in violence, conducting protests that are entirely ignored or battering themselves with unconstructive guilt. It is only the first of these that gets any attention and this, again, leads to a poor level of polarised debate.

The culture of self-expression in Britain is inadequate, especially when you look at how well developed it is in other countries, often in the 'developing world', who have given particular attention to this issue or where new outlets of expression are a deeply valued because low levels of human rights are more obvious than in Britain. We might question the need for endless blogs, but taken as a whole, the 'blogosphere' can give a taste of the concerns and thoughts of ordinary members of society and in many countries they are being used to give a voice to the voiceless either through direct contact or through interviews and commentaries. In Britain, the internet is treated as a disposable luxury with expensive home broadband packages supporting its use for entertainment downloads, relatively meaningless social networking and of course that pinnacle of participation, the Youtube video.

Britain is used to a low level of regular turbulence and there is no particular reason to see its current problems as more of a crisis than at other times over history. It is a society where problems tend to work themselves out over time, perhaps partly because one fear replaces another. But there are definite issues that Never Again can and should be working on to capitalise on its strengths and address its weaknesses.

Never Again has an important role in speaking out for the conditions that prevent genocide such as plurality in politics and the media, history education and a culture of critical thinking. As a base of power, its UK members can also represent voices from less powerful countries, drawing on knowledge built from personal connection. While, to generalise, you might say New York members tackle peacebuilding directly through involvement in NGOs, London members are applying peacebuilding methodology to the fields of work they find themselves in. The iR2P plan has found particular resonance amongst London members and many of them are also developing methodology in social enterprise and service provision along innovative lines. We have been able to organise some very high quality discussions that have brought youth together with experts and have received very positive feedback on the impact of such gatherings.

Our strategy should draw on all that has been growing organically, while building a framework that can enable more people to be involved.

Potential activities within the UK

• Development of Never Again clubs or affiliation with existing youth structures
• Peacebuilding workshops and conferences bringing together youth fron different backgrounds to look at issues such as violence, racism and conflict
• Through both the above, activities to develop connectivity and critical thinking skills through conversation, essay writing and seminars
• Innovative meetings like those already held in parliament and the Imperial War Museum which involve youth and older experts to explore themes and bring new ideas to policy makers - these to be shared widely via podcasts
• The continuation and formal recognition of London as a stopping point for international members and respected experts, with direct conversations feeding into work in other countries and providing personal links to reinforce our online communications
• Channeling the voices and learning of our chapters with more direct, recent experience of genocide into power structures where possible and into our own peacebuilding methodology
• Maintaining education and memorial activities to support history education that involves youth in being actively involved in ensuring 'Never Again'.

Supportive work

• Fundraising for the Rwanda Peacebuilding Centre and building links between UK funders and projects in the Great Lakes
• Capacity building for the international structure, including its online communications
• With other countries, development of global publications based on our methodologies
• With other countries, development of the iR2P concept and participation
• Support and profile-raising of other chapters' campaigns, eg New York's Rebel Letters campaign
• develop brand awareness of Never Again International within networks and power structures in the UK by forming alliances, working in partnership with other organisations and signing up to statements calling for action on crises where it seems appropriate.

How can we achieve what we want to do? Capacity & funding wishlist

• improved network support so that ideas are more likely to be developed

Please add your name if you contribute to this paper: ClareWhite 16:26, 16 April 2007 (CEST)