FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  March 30, 2009

RE: Amitabh Pal, Managing Editor of The Progressive to Speak About “Nonviolence in Difficult Circumstances,” Wed. Apr. 15, Menomonie Public Library

CONTACT: Warren Lang, Red Cedar Peace Initiative, 314 11^th Street, Menomonie; 715.235.5686, warrenlang@charter.net

Speaker to Explore Nonviolence in Difficult Circumstances

Many people doubt that nonviolent action can be effective in opposing repressive governments or in creating change in cultures where violence is unquestionably chosen as a means of resolving conflict.

To counter such doubts, Amitabh Pal, an expert on nonviolence and Managing Editor of The Progressive, a magazine with a pacifist world view, will speak about “Nonviolence in Difficult Circumstances,” Wednesday April 15^th, 7-8:30 PM, Menomonie Public Library, 600 Wolske Bay Road.

Focusing on several lesser-known instances of nonviolent protest, Pal will explore how popular movements opposing harshly repressive regimes have, by sheer willpower and mass mobilization, managed to realize their goals.  Examples include the protests of non-Jewish German wives who, in 1943 in Berlin, successfully opposed the Nazi regime in a campaign for the release of their Jewish husbands; the formation of a nonviolent army of Pashtuns, an Afghani/Pakistani ethnic group stereotyped as inherently violent and inhospitable to pacifism; and the nonviolent resistance movement against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

After working as editor of the Progressive Media Project, an affiliate of The Progressive, Pal joined The Progressive magazine itself in 2003, writing articles and book reviews touching on everything from India-Pakistan relations and the history of nonviolence to globalization and U.S. foreign policy.

Pal’s interviews for The Progressive include such eminent figures as the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter, Nobel Peace Prize winners Shirin Ebadi (2003) and Wangari Maathai (2004), and Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress. He has also appeared on radio stations all over the country.  Pal is currently working on a book on the tradition of nonviolence within Islam, a project he has undertaken to counter the stereotypes of the religion. 

The talk is co-sponsored by Red Cedar Peace Initiative, UW-Stout Center for Applied Ethics, and STAND (UW-Stout Students Against Genocide) with additional funding  from Music For Peace, a summer all day concert organized by musicians and held in Menomonie. The event is free and open to the public.