PEACE - bctf.cabctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/SocialJustice/Issues...our planet. It starts with honouring our past and learning from it, honouring the people on earth by sharing and

bctf.ca/SocialJustice/PAGE

Preserve the planetI fight because I know that, without water, we cannot live. I do this work for the love of my community, for my granddaughters. — Reyna Ortiz, environmental activist in El Salvador

“

PEACEand Global Education begins with ME...

PEACE

Earth Democracy

“Earth Democracy” is both an ancient worldview and an emergent political movement for peace, justice, and sustainability. An 1848 speech attributed to Chief Seattle of the Suquamish tribe states, “How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? …This we know; the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites our family. All things are connected.”

Earth Democracy is the awareness of these connections and of the rights and responsibilities that flow from them.

Ten principles of Earth Democracy1. All species, people, and cultures have intrinsic worth.2. The earth community is a democracy of all life.3. Diversity in nature and culture must be defended.4. All beings have a natural right to sustenance.5. Earth Democracy is based on living economies and

economic democracy.6. Living economies are built on local economies.7. Earth Democracy is a living democracy.8. Earth Democracy is based on living cultures.9. Living cultures are life-nourishing.10. Earth Democracy globalizes peace, care, and

compassion.

Three-pillar marketing—economy, community, environment

Traditionally, marketing has looked at the five Ps: profit, place, people, price, and promotion. Bottom-line businesses focused on profit, and all aspects of business were tweaked and strategized to ensure that the largest profit possible was made. More recently, the SRI or Socially Responsible Investing and Social Responsibility in business, has become a common theme in annual reports, mutual funds, and new business ventures. The three-pillar approach extends the business model to a triple bottom line of profit (economy), people (community), and place (environment). Balancing all three, in development and in ongoing operations, is crucial for preserving our earth and ensuring that we leave for future generations the resources they will need.

Peace and global education begins with me: Preserve the planet

Committee for Action on Social Justice (Peace and Global Education Action Group)Background Info, Lesson Ideas, and Links

Peace and global education begins in your classroom

There are many things a teacher can do to encourage students to preserve the earth. Creating an atmosphere of inclusion and significance is probably the most important. As well, inclusion means access, agency, advocacy, and action. Inclusion means participation, ownership, responsibility, and accountability. Preserving the earth is a social justice issue. When people feel included, they are much more likely to act as stewards for our planet. It starts with honouring our past and learning from it, honouring the people on earth by sharing and striving for equity, and honouring future generations with sustainable lifestyles and practices.

Lesson plan1. Have students pick one common household item or

food and research its manufacture, transportation and distribution, general sales and profits, trade route, sustainability, and recyclability. This activity can be done by individuals or groups and presented to the class.

2. Have students chart the negative impacts of the product according to the three pillars: economy, community, the environment.

3. Brainstorm other possible impacts of the product and chart these according to the pillars.

4. Lead a class discussion on strategies to reduce the negative impacts and create positive and sustainable solutions for this product or a substitute product.

Check these out:• 20-minute online video

http://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/• Documentary, www.thecorporation.com• Noam Chomsky, Discussion on globalization

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHJPSLgHemM • A Women’s Economy, Earth Democracy: Justice,

Sustainability, and Peace. Vandana Shiva. Retrieved from www.earthlight.org/2002/essay47_democracy.html

• Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment www.ussif.org/sribasics

...“Whenever we engage in consumption or production patterns which take more than we need, we are engaging in violence.” Vandana Shiva, Earth Democracy (p. 116)

PSI19-0169


I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. —Mahatma Gandhi

Reject violence

“


You wanna support our troops,bring them home,and hold them tight when they get here.–Andrea Gibson, American Poet

When the new American administration released their recent budget, many news agencies critically responded to the amount of money the budget dedicated to military spending, and the consequential cuts made to social services. The questions asked surrounded the motives and profits of the military industrial complex, and the priorities of the American government—war and profits at the expense of health and education. Beyond questions of the domestic impact of such military spending, many people began to question how this immense, some might say grotesque, military spending would impact citizens in other nations—those in conflict zones or those impacted by extreme famine and poverty. That is, if the American government prioritizes the military, who loses?

As Canadians, are we equally as comfortable asking about the billions set aside for national defence over the next three years1? Or, questioning the commitment to grow annual defence spending to $32.7 billion in 2026–27, an increase of over seventy percent2? After all, these remain real dollars that reflect the priorities of our country. How might this reflect a priority toward militarism and military profiteering? We must also be comfortable asking about Canada’s military exports to conflict zones, and to areas with massive human rights injustices. Further, as a healthy democracy, we must wonder about who is not granted funding as a result of the government’s direction towards the military.

In the case of the United States, what if their focus on military spending went instead to helping refugees fleeing war, or to the 385 million children globally living in extreme poverty (UNICEF)? Similarly, in Canada, what if some of this money went to the 1.9 million families3 who struggle to make ends meet? These ‘what ifs’ could continue indefinitely. The importance, however, is that they are continually asked.

Peace and global education begins in your class: Lesson idea

To create a culture of peace, we first must raise awareness of how embedded the language of war is in our media and everyday conversation.

Peace and global education begins with me: Reject violenceCommittee for Action on Social Justice (Peace and Global Education Action Group)

Background Info, Lesson Ideas, and Links

Divide a sheet of paper into two columns. Label the left side Culture of War and the right side Culture of Peace. In the left column, ask your students to create a list of all the war-related words/phrases that we commonly hear. Read the list aloud. Introduce the concept of transforming language. Use an example of transforming gender language to be inclusive (mailman/mail carrier). In the right column, have them write an alternative wording that reflects a culture of peace.

By raising our students’ awareness of how our everyday language is embedded with violence, they can begin to think about the impact of using peaceful terms to bring about a culture of peace. Ask your students about the games, toys, and video games they are playing with. Create a list of peaceful and non-peaceful games. Encourage students to play co-operative games. Most of these ideas are available at www.wartoystopeaceart.org

Do a study on a recent or past conflict. Have the students brainstorm new ways to solve these conflicts. Try using consensus decision-making activities in your classroom to teach peace-making skills. Go to the Canadian National Defence website. Have your students critically analyze the material found there.

Read stories and novels that are written from the perspective of children involved with war, such as A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah and/or Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis.

Check this out:• Resources and links for peace songs, art, and poetry, as

well as indigenous resources and highlighted videos and speeches. www.teachingforpeace.org

• Rotating articles to use as prompts/primary and secondary sources, as well as a resources tab with subject specific links to support research. www.unicef.org/research-and-reports

• www.unesco.org• This is the website of a physical law library based in the

Hague and focusing on peace. Website includes research guides on a myriad of peace related subjects, online collections of images, and articles about peace. www.peacepalacelibrary.nl

• An open archive of blog posts relating to world peace initiatives compiled by the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research. www.transnational.org

1www.budget.gc.ca/2017/docs/plan/budget-2017-en.pdf2www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/news/2017/06/canada_unveils_newdefencepolicy.html?wbdisable=tru3www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2017/04/backgrounder_povertyhtml?=undefined&wbdisable=true

PSI19-0169


Respect all lifeThe idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.— Dr. Paul Farmer, U.N. Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community-based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti

“

and Global Education begins with ME...

PEACEPEACE

Environmental issues

In recent years, the environment has become the most important issue for most people around the world and most especially for our students. Often they are frightened by the world they are learning about. One way to alleviate fear is to have a greater understanding of the issues involved and what we, as humans, can do about them. The first step in dealing with these issues is to become more aware of the problem, to analyze what to do about the issue, and to take some sort of action to alleviate the problem.

Just as the global financial crisis is forcing us to restructure our economic systems, the global ecological crisis we are in can be reframed as an opportunity to generate systemic change. We have an opening to create a better understanding of these issues, participate more fully in our democratic processes, and transform our own practice. It is a chance to work together for everyone’s benefit, while building capacity in our communities.

When considering environmental issues, it is important to remember that by using a social justice perspective we can look at issues and frame actions in a comprehensive and deep way, not oversimplifying the issues and/or reducing them to convenient and superficial solutions.

When we make environmental issues a matter of social justice, we need to fully understand all aspects of an issue. For example, most people are aware of the three Rs—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. When we analyze this, we might consider that they are in a hierarchy. We could first reduce what we buy or use, then reuse what we already have, only then would we recycle. But upon further analysis we could actually add a fourth R—Refuse. On a daily basis, we can refuse excess packaging, refuse overconsumption and super sizes of food, refuse chemically modified food, and refuse to replace goods that are working fine. In effect, we can make decisions that refuse to harm the environment. We can also hold corporations accountable to environmental standards.

Peace and global education begins with me: Respect all lifeCommittee for Action on Social Justice (Peace and Global Education Action Group)



Have students discuss what environmental issue affects them the most. Whether we are learning about local or global environmental issues, students need to feel connected to the issues being studied.

An excellent way to increase students’ awareness of their role in the world is through an assessment of their ecological footprint. After seeing the impact they create, they can analyze it further and plan actions that reduce their footprint. The ecological footprint is a means of comparing consumption and lifestyles, and checking this against nature’s ability to provide for this consumption. The concept and calculator were developed by William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel at UBC. There have been many organizations that have taken this idea and developed online carbon, water, and environmental footprint calculators. All of which create awareness and lead us to action.

Students can then analyze their own impact on the environment and create action plans to reduce that impact. Their action plans could include their own reduction in one or all areas, a school-wide plan for reduction, an awareness campaign, and a letter-writing campaign to politicians or newspapers telling others of their concerns. This could also include art projects, poetry contests, filmmaking projects, etc. Students could organize neighbourhood awareness and local actions. The key is that the project or action chosen creates systemic change locally or globally.

Check this out:• Select one of the categories and take a short quiz to

get an idea of your annual carbon footprint in that area. www.myfootprintcalculator.com

• Find links to articles and statistics, online activism, and ideas for local and larger scale initiatives. www.davidsuzuki.org/whatyoucando

• Earth-focused quizzes, carbon footprint calculator, and contribute to the “Billion Acts of Green” campaign that encourages people to take small and large actions that support the environment. www.earthday.org/take-action/footprint-calculator

“We have just begun to tap our potential for transformation and liberation. This is not the end of history, but another beginning.” Vandana Shiva, Earth Democracy

PSI19-0169


I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.— Audre Lorde, black writer, feminist, womanist, lesbian, and civil rights activist

Rediscover Solidarity

“


PEACE

Community activism: Local and global

In the face of so many deep global problems, it is easy to feel discouraged, despairing, and powerless; one can start to feel that there is nothing we can do to meaningfully achieve authentic social justice and ecological sustainability. With all the troubles in the world—including illness, violence, war, discrimination, oppression, exploitation, poverty, famine, drought, flooding, global warming, species extinction, marginalization, and ecological degradation—it is enough to make you want to put your head in the sand. However, many great teachers and thinkers tell us that only individual change will bring about global change. Each individual action, especially when in concert with other individual actions, can affect positive change on our planet. After all, the largest ocean is made up of individual drops of water.

People and groups can co-operate, with self-determination but also in solidarity and community with each other, to make the world more socially just and ecologically sustainable. By contributing to the development of one’s community, people can build relationships and strengthen their communities while they work toward social justice and ecological sustainability. As individuals reach out beyond their own familiar surroundings and relationships, they can build bridges with others and learn about the histories, contexts, and concerns of others. They can start to see connections, shared values, and opportunities for shared action and mutual aid. In so doing, they can create alliances, generate opportunities for co-operation, and expand their community.

In this way, networking and understanding between groups can provide a foundation for co-operative and progressive action, based on a profound sense of mutuality and solidarity, in order to make the world a more socially just and ecologically sustainable place for people in all communities.

Peace and global education begins with me: Rediscover solidarity



Your students or school community may want to start a project or campaign around an issue that inspires them. Use that as an opportunity to network with other classes, groups, or schools that are interested in working on a project in relation to the same or similar issue. Facilitate opportunities for your students to collaborate with the other group or groups who are working toward a similar goal. The two different groups can write letters to each other, meet and make presentations to one another, work together to circulate petitions, and conduct joint, co-operative campaigns. Here are some issues that your students may want to address:• Day of Pink• endangered animals• water issues• non-idling campaign• starting and maintaining a school garden• non-violent communication• start a Gay-Straight Alliance• homelessness• drug and alcohol awareness• pollution• media literacy• equity and oppression.

Check this out:• Resources and links for peace songs, art, and poetry,

as well as indigenous resources and highlighted videos and speeches. www.teachingforpeace.org

• Resources and lesson plans for multiple age groups focusing on environmental solidarity. https://ecokids.ca

• Provides first-hand accounts of experiences of oppression and resistance, with explicit connections to calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation report, including quoting specific portions of the report. Canadian-based content. www.idlenomore.ca

“When we are in partnership and have stopped clutching each other’s throats, when we have stopped enslaving each other, we will stand together, hands clasped, and be friends. We will begin the march to the grandest civilization the human race has ever known.” Eugene V. Debs

PSI19-0169


Share with others

“And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world.— Martin Luther King, Jr.


PEACEPEACE

Economic justice: Moving from free trade to fair trade

In today’s world of globalization, so often characterized by the negative effects of “free trade” (neo-liberal, “laissez-faire” economic globalization), it is comforting to know that there are people, organizations, and movements that are working toward creating, supporting, and sustaining economies that represent and cultivate equity, solidarity, shared agency, and fairness. Instead of unquestioningly participating in trade that leads to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, these people make informed decisions about their consumption—choosing to reduce their consumption, refrain from supporting exploitative economic situations, and buy certified fair-trade products.

Fair trade is a movement to seek economic fairness for farmers and labourers in the global South; there are rules governing the ways in which fair-trade certified products are produced and traded. Fair-trade certification is designed to prevent exploitation and promote economic fairness and sustainability and create opportunities for people and communities in the global south to participate meaningfully in the trade relationships that they depend upon for their livelihood. For us, in the global north, fair trade helps us to develop awareness of our ability to impact the world in positive ways with the choices that we make about the things that we buy and the way that we live.

The international fair-trade system is structured to produce the following outcomes for farmers and workers in developing countries:• fair compensation for their products and labour• sustainable environmental practices• improved social services• investment in local economic infrastructure.

Peace and global education begins with me: Share with othersCommittee for Action on Social Justice (Peace and Global Education Action Group)


“Fair Trade teaches us that consumers are not condemned to be only bargain-hunters… Fair Trade reminds us that trade is about people, their livelihoods, their families, sometimes their survival.”Peter Mandelson, EU Trade Commissioner


You can work towards making your school or community a “fair trade and no sweat” school or community. Start by reading about, learning about, researching about, and talking about conditions faced by farmers and labourers in the global South and the implications that unfair, exploitative trade relationships have for people in the global South and for consumers.

It is important that students recognize that consumption and trade patterns that we participate in have implications for people that manufacture, transport, and grow the products that we use every day. It is also important for students to recognize that they have alternatives available to them and that their choices have implications for themselves, too.

Have your students discuss possible ways of influencing their school, group, or community to practice ethical consumption or on how to adopt and implement an ethical purchasing, or “fair trade and no sweat” policy. Such ethical consumption may include the purchasing and selling of supplies, clothing, food for the cafeteria or hot lunch programs, school store, and many other aspects of institutional and individual consumption within your community.

Most importantly, help your students make a personal plan and put it into action. They can change their own consumption habits, write letters, share information with others, and conduct informational and advocacy campaigns.

Check this out:• Blogs, articles, and events related to fair trade.

Posters and infographics are available for free on the Materials and Resources—For your Community www.fairtrade.ca

• This page is about the La Siembra Co-operative, an Ottawa based company that owns Camino chocolate. They use fair trade practices, and fair farming practices. Find posters and infographics on the Community page—Promotion and Education. www.lasiembra.com

• Podcast, blog, and webinars about global issues. www.globalexchange.org

• Canadian Fair Trade Network http://cftn.ca/fair-trade

PSI19-0169


PEACEListen to understand

“The longer we listen to one another—with real attention—the more commonality we will find in all our lives. That is, if we are careful to exchange with one another life stories and not simply opinions.—Barbara Deming (U.S. author and activist, 1917–1984)


Communication for community: connecting by “speaking peace”

To promote peace in today’s diverse communities, people need the capacity and the willingness to pair their speech and expression with open-hearted listening. When speech is paired with listening to understand, you have communication—an opportunity for connection, or “communion.” Together, these form the basis of true community. In fact, the words “communicate,” “communion,” and “community” are all etymologically related to “common,” which implies sharing and unification. Authentic communication, communion, and community can thus be seen as antidotes to the ignorance, misunderstanding, discrimination, oppression, and violence that often stems from disrespectful, inconsiderate speech and expression. This pairing can be seen on the walls of many elementary classrooms with posters that pair rights with responsibilities such as, “I have the right to express myself, and I have the responsibility to listen respectfully to my classmates.” This pairing results in dialogue that can become community building in action.

This kind of approach to community building can be seen in several communication models, including Marshall Rosenberg’s practical non-violent communication (NVC) and Jürgen Habermas’s more academic theory of communicative reason. Such an approach involves speakers and listeners working together to create a dialogue that:• supports social justice and ecological sustainability.• values respect, inclusion, participative democracy,

joy, and celebration.• increases mutual awareness (i.e., each works to be

aware of their own motivations and intentions as well as the motivations and intentions of those they are listening to).

• enshrines the value of connection and community.

“What I want in my life is compassion, a flow between myself and others based on a mutual giving from the heart.”Marshall Rosenberg, NVC founder

Peace and global education begins with me: Listen to understand


Peace and global education begins in your class: Lesson ideas

Listening and speaking deeply through dialogue is one key to global education. Teachers can practice and model this kind of speaking and listening. They can purposely create and cultivate structures in the classroom and plan teaching and learning activities that allow students to discover, develop, and practise the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for peace-oriented communication.

Teachers can provide opportunities for students to develop oral communication skills during co-operative learning strategies, when addressing subject and content areas. (for example, using strategies and techniques like “the jigsaw method” and “think-pair-share” to structure the process for meeting learning outcomes in science). It could also involve direct instruction in a formal model of communication like non-violent communication. (Lessons are provided in the classroom resource book, The Compassionate Classroom: Relationship Based Teaching and Learning.)

Most importantly, give students opportunities to listen to their classmates and other community members. Teach and encourage them to make meaning out of what they hear in ways that generate genuine understanding.

Check this out:• Sura Hart and Victoria Kindle Hodson (2004) The

Compassionate Classroom: Relationship Based Teaching and Learning.

• Materials in English, Arabic, Spanish, and Korean related to initiatives in reducing violence around the world. Downloads on the Educational Materials tab. www.nonviolenceinternational.net

• Bank of pdf resources in multiple languages, including a poster of 198 nonviolent actions that can be undertaken to enact change Albert Einstein Institute https://www.aeinstein.org/free-resources/

• Gene Sharp From Dictatorship to Democracy• Marshall Rosenberg (2005) Speak Peace in a World of

Conflict• Step by step advice on communication strategies

using a nonviolent communication approach. www.wikihow.com/Practice-Nonviolent-Communication

PSI19-0169

Documents

PEACE - bctf.cabctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/SocialJustice/Issues...our planet. It starts with honouring our past and learning from it, honouring the people on earth by sharing and