10/28/2004

Contact: K.E. Schwab  -- 724-738-2199;  e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu

LEADING PEACE MOVEMENT ORGANIZER TO DETAIL

NONVIOLENT PEACEFORCE IN TALK AT SRU

           SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Mel Duncan, executive director of the International Nonviolent Peaceforce, will bring his organization’s plan for creating a trained, international civilian force designed to resolve conflicts from around the world to Slippery Rock University on Nov. 7.

          The INP’s mission is facilitating such a civilian force that would help prevent death and destruction and protect human rights by creating space for local groups to seek peaceful resolutions, nonviolently, through dialogue around the world.

            The free, public lecture will be offered at 7 p.m. in Spotts World Culture Building Auditorium.

           The group is lead by a 15-member International Governance Council, representing six continents. The members are elected by 107 national and multi-national member organizations. It is the only unarmed, paid international, professionally trained, peacekeeping force in the world, Duncan explains. The Peaceforce is endorsed by eight Nobel Peace Prize laureates and has official liaison with the United Nations. 

Duncan is an organization co-founder who has been involved in grassroots organizing for peace, justice and the environment for more than 30 years. As a Bush Foundation Community Leadership Fellow, Duncan spent 18 months studying connections between grassroots organizing and spirituality. That study led him to a Buddhist monastery in southern France and Thich Nhat Hanh. He, with Paul Wellstone, was also a co-founder of the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action.

His lecture, titled “What to Say Yes to When You Say No to War” is co-sponsored by the SRU College Democrats, the philosophy and the political science departments, and the Slippery Rock Peace and Justice Coalition. 

PN, PgN, PR