A GROUND-BREAKING book called Global Warming, Militarism and Nonviolence: The Art of Active Resistance by Armidale artist and academic Dr Marty Branagan was launched last Friday by UNE Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jim Barber at the United Campus Bookshop.
The book discusses how militarism is the elephant in the room of global warming. Of all government sectors, defence has the highest carbon footprint and expenditure, yet it has largely been exempt from international scrutiny and regulation.
Dr Branagan uses Australian and international case studies to show that nonviolence is a viable alternative to militarism for national defence and regime change.
‘Active resistance’, initiated in Australian environmental blockades and now adopted globally, makes the song We Shall Not Be Moved much more realistic, as activists erect tripod villages, bury, chain and cement themselves into the ground, and ‘lock-on’ to machinery and gates.
Active resistance, ‘artistic activism’ and use of new information and communication technologies in movements such as the Arab Spring and ‘Occupy’ demonstrate that nonviolence is an effective, evolving praxis.
Armidale gets a number of mentions in the book, as one of the organising centres for some innovative blockades against old-growth logging, and a place where there has been a small but significant movement towards environmental sustainability.
Some of the book is based on participant-observer research during Dr Branagan’s 20 years in non-violent movements, including a stint as Armidale Branch co-ordinator of The Wilderness Society.
As well as exhibiting art widely in Australia, Dr Branagan has published a novel about his experiences with the semi-nomadic Penan people in Borneo, who are resisting logging of their rainforest homelands.
He teaches Peace Studies at UNE, and is organising the forthcoming UNE conference Mining in a Sustainable World on 13-15 October. For more information, visit www.une.edu.au/miningconference.
Published in the UK by the prestigious international publisher Palgrave MacMillan, it will also be launched at Gleebooks in Sydney by Federal Senator Lee Rhiannon. It has been very favourably reviewed by scholars in Canada, Taiwan, the United States and Australia.
The book is now available at the United Campus Bookshop, UNE, or online at www.amazon.com/Global-Warming-Militarism-Nonviolence-Resistance/dp/1137010096.
