CPTnet

9 December 2011

CPT INTERNATIONAL:  Elce Redmond on Bringing International Peacemaking to the Local Community—Peacemaker Congress Video

Videography by Tim Nafziger; transcription and summary by Jeannette Papalotti

[Note: This is the 2nd in a series of videos from "Re-imagining Partnerships for Peace: A 25th Anniversary Celebration." You can see this and other videos from the Peacemaker Congress, as they are uploaded at: http://www.cpt.org/2011videos. Readers are encouraged to share these videos widely so that the ripples from our Peacemaker Congress may continue far beyond the gathering]

In his presentation Elce Redmond talked about his experience building a peace force in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. He drew on a number of different models, including his experiences in Palestine and Iraq with CPT. “What we need to build in our community is a peace army." Elce said, "An army composed of individual citizens who are banded together to remove and prevent violence in our communities.”

Elce has worked to implement programs that will empower and teach students about conflict resolution using strategies of non-violence through the the South Austin Coalition, the group with which he works. "Not only can we prevent violence in Colombia, or Iraq, or Israel/Palestine, that we can prevent violence here in Evanston, we can prevent violence in the West Side of Chicago, we can prevent violence throughout this city." Elce said.

“Safety comes when all of us stand together and say that in unison that we will not allow this violence to continue, that we will not allow our children to die and we will not allow our community to suffer and deteriorate.” said Elce.

You can watch the video of the presentation here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU470QFfD_I