Our networking proposals for self-organisation for building a peaceful world at constituency level, nationwide, Europe-wide and globally and for supporting self-organisation in Africa
​
If you want to promote networking for the goals of IFFW as a whole by building a strong IFFW networking team, you can help build the IFFW networking team. If you (also) want to promote networking for a particular region or topic, you can help build the proposed teams.
​
Idealists are Realists
​
For this networking we will need many idealists, or better realists: people who know that the dominant forces in the world today, including in Germany, will plunge the world even further into chaos, and that we will all suffer worldwide as a result. These self-proclaimed realists, who persist in nation-state or Western power-political thinking, have not understood that today we will only survive as one human family and that this "idealistic" philosophy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights must be the basis of our politics today. After the invention of nuclear weapons, these ideals are even more necessary realism and us humans.
​
Number and voluntary Commitment
​
Unlike billionaires and millionaires, we cannot buy science and the media to represent our interests. We can only rely on our numbers and try to bring them into play and on our voluntary commitment. If many people get involved, we can work together to meet the big challenges without it being too much for any one of us.
​
Small steps are necessary, but in view of the multiple crises they are not enough; big steps are also needed.
​
We are living in a multiple crisis that threatens our very existence - similar to the one that erupted militarily in the Second World War. Afterwards, strong forces, above all in the victorious powers, the USA and the Soviet Union, were determined to build a common world order in the post-war order, which would be supported jointly by all nation states.
This great project, which was adopted in the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is still in its infancy. It is important to start there and to get serious about implementation before the conflicts escalate again. To do this, we need well-developed small steps and a big push, and we want to contribute to this with IFFW and the development of networks at various levels.
Building a global security System
​
The establishment of a global security system is the condition for us to be able to secure peace, to create together as a basis for this the conditions for peace in the states, and to prevent wars by contributing to the resolution of conflicts by peaceful means. Until today, we have not yet overcome anarchy - the animal world - in which the strongest prevail and not the right. It was clear to the authors of the UN Charter at the end of the Second World War that the overcoming of anarchy between states is necessary through the establishment of a global legal order (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 28 Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms proclaimed in this Declaration can be fully realised. The Basic Law is written in this spirit, Art. 1 (2) The German people therefore profess inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every human community, peace and justice in the world); the founding members of the UN have decided on the development of worldwide collective action by the world community to secure peace in the UN Charter (Art. 1. 1 "to maintain international peace and security and, to this end, to take effective collective measures to prevent and eliminate threats to the peace, to suppress acts of aggression and other breaches of the peace, and to settle or settle by peaceful means, in accordance with the principles of justice and international law, international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace").
​
The initiators of Worldbeyondwar founded the organisation as a global citizens' initiative to advance the construction of this global security system from civil society, after the states have so far failed to do so - and in some militarily strong states have not wanted to do so either.
​
We have joined Worldbeyondwar. However, we keep in mind that the basis of the global system as building blocks are the nation states in which internal peace must be established. To create the conditions for this, we can support each other worldwide, learn from and with each other how the conditions for peace can be created.
An example of why it is necessary to look beyond one's own church tower (Willy Brandt) and for the worldwide dependencies for one's own survival: Because the internal conditions of peace were lost in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, first social security, then democracy, violent extremists came to power who wanted to solve conflicts with violence. They now plunged people around the world into war who previously seemed to have nothing to do with them: In the end, this loss of inner peace in Germany cost the lives of over 60 million people in the context of a global anarchy of states.
If we want to avoid such a situation in the future, we should inform ourselves about the situations in the other states and cooperate internationally for the securing or creation of peace and its conditions.
Unfortunately, until today, most people worldwide are not informed about these global dependencies and educated in this cosmopolitan sense, but for the power-political interests of the dominant forces of the nation state in which we live or for the interests of the alliance to which the dominant forces have joined. We should and can change this, at the same time, strengthen the conditions of peace in our own country, implement a foreign policy that promotes peace and build worldwide relations between people as a basis of trust for a common international political order of peace.
Domestic peace in nation states as the basis for global peace
The foundation for the global security system is internal peace in the nation states. We know the conditions for internal peace in the nation states: A monopoly on the use of force under the rule of law, equal democratic participation of all citizens in decision-making, social security and justice, a culture of non-violent conflict resolution, the dominance of scientific thinking in society and politics and a cosmopolitan ethic, an awareness of interdependence and self-confident citizens in the spirit of the Enlightenment (Have the courage to use your own mind).
These conditions of peace have to be won, are never permanently secured, but are always contested. If one of the conditions is lost - for example, social justice - inner peace as a whole can be lost. Societies must be aware of this: If they want to live in peace in the long run, or if they want to end wars first, this presupposes their own commitment to creating or securing the conditions for peace.
Prof. Dr. Dieter Senghaas has illustrated the conditions for peace, which are all interconnected, in this diagram, which he kindly sent to the International Peace Factory Wanfried
Securing the conditions for peace in Germany
If we in Germany are committed to peace in the world, we must also do our homework in our own country: Securing or creating the conditions for peace. The conditions for internal peace had improved considerably after the Second World War, but since the 1970s - starting with mass unemployment - they have again deteriorated considerably. These deteriorations have occurred in many states of the West; not least, the deterioration of the internal peace conditions is the reason for the change in foreign policy of the Western states; since then, they have again relied more on military rather than diplomatic action. The nationwide peace network should be concerned with strengthening the conditions for peace in the country and enforcing a foreign policy that is in line with the UN Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights.
Here we write more about the tasks we see: Link and here we go to the team that wants to contribute to nationwide peace networking: Link
​
Mobilise society for peace through non-party constituency forums and create a peace majority in the Bundestag.
We see the key to giving peace activists more strength to fight for peace policy majorities in Germany in the nationwide unification of peace activists. The representatives of the citizens in the Bundestag have to make the peace policy decisions. They are elected in the constituency. This is the lever for change: people who want peace should find ways to have their constituency represented by a peace parliamentarian in the Bundestag. To achieve this, we propose the formation of non-partisan constituency forums. Here we write more about it: Link and here we go to the team that wants to stimulate constituency forums and the team that wants to create it in constituency 169.
Working to secure the conditions for peace in the European states and in the European Union
Our second task is to work with people in other European states who are committed to peace, to learn with and from them and to support each other in order to create or maintain the conditions for peace everywhere in Europe and to help resolve conflicts in Europe peacefully.
Here we write more about the tasks we see: Link and here we go to the team that wants to contribute to peace networking across Europe: Link
Securing the conditions for peace in other states of the world.
Our third task is to work with people in other parts of the world to learn with and from them how to secure or create peace and how we can support each other in doing so. Our proposal for this in support of activists in Africa: Africa has been closely linked to Europe for centuries, has been dominated by European forces for their own interests for centuries. We have also already established links with peace activists in Africa: Link and here to the team:
Struggling for fair foreign relations of our countries
The fourth task is for all of us to ensure that our societies, economies and politics have fair foreign relations with other countries. For this, we have to know the foreign relations, research them for this purpose and also learn to understand the foreign interests of the different groups in our society. We must seek to explore the activities of these groups towards people in other states: supporting them when they are just and opposing them when they are unjust. And we should develop alternatives for just relations. In this, too, we can support each other as peace activists from country to country and learn from each other. We propose the formation of teams on two central questions: North-South relations and East-West relations; more on this link Way to the Teams:
Building a common global order
The fifth task is to work with people in all other states to build a legally secure global order that ensures peace between states and cooperation in addressing common global tasks, such as stopping climate change or combating pandemics by building a global health system. Many civil society organisations have set this as their goal, and of course officially the organisation of states, the UN: it is an organisation of states and dependent on their respective policies. This shows again that the struggle for political majorities in the states is the basis for a different UN policy. And Worldbeyondwar is one of the grassroots organisations that has set this as its goal and which we have joined in the struggle for this global order.
Here are our ideas on this and here is how to join the team:
These goals have already been decided on paper, it's a matter of pushing through them
These goals and tasks are not new. People who drew these conclusions from history were able to achieve that they were agreed in important documents under international law after the end of the Second World War and apply after the paper. Germany, for example, recognised in its Basic Law that international law is law in Germany. (The Basic Law stipulates in Art. 25 p. 2 GG that the general rules of international law take precedence over federal laws. This refers to customary international law and the general principles of law).
Those who advocated this shift from fixation on the nation-state to thinking as a human community were able to push this through on paper because the groups and politicians who had dominated until then had lost support in society: Their thinking had led humanity into the terrible chaos and suffering of the Great Depression, dictatorships and world war. As a result, they could not directly prevent the decisions that were contrary to their interests. But they did everything from day one to prevent the implementation of this decided reorganisation into a world of people and states with equal rights, because this would mean that certain population groups and states would lose their privileges. And these forces are still so strong today that they can prevent the implementation of international law.
​
Tackle the enforcement of our rights ourselves If we want to enforce the rights we have decided against them, we have to become stronger than them. We cannot use large amounts of capital to do this and we cannot do it individually, but only together. We can bring to bear the overwhelming number of people who are not getting their rights. But this unity is only possible if we can overcome the divisions among us: Even overcoming equality between women and men, people of different religions, skin colours and origins, and greedy economic thinking. The ability to do this requires a lot of knowledge and liberation from the thoughts that are imposed on us every day by the privileged in many ways. Moreover, if we want to take the world into our own hands, it is not enough to be aware of what we no longer want and who we no longer want. We also need programmes on what we want, how things could be better and people who can do better and who really stand by the principles of the Declaration of Human Rights.
Our impulses for promoting the following networks
With the networks that we at the International PeaceFactory Wanfried initiate, we want to tackle the above tasks: To inspire many people to participate in shaping our destiny, to make themselves competent to do so, to join forces and to struggle for a majority in society and politics. If these are also your goals, we look forward to working with you.
On these levels you can become active with us for networking for peace; what we will tackle depends on whether and how many people want to get involved with us:
​
Networking at local and regional levels in non-party constituency forums: Here is the link to our proposal and the team
And to the initiative for the establishment of the non-party constituency forum 169
​
Nationwide networking, here is the link to the proposal:
European networking, here is the proposal, where a lot will go in English, but participation of only German speakers is also possible.
Global networking, especially with Worldbeyondwar, click here for the link: https://www.internationale-friedensfabrik-wanfried.org/group/globale-vernetzungs-team/discussion
​
Supporting peace networking in Africa: the link: https://www.internationale-friedensfabrik-wanfried.org/group/afrika-vernetzungs-team/discussion
​
Support networking on North-South dialogue: Link: https://www.internationale-friedensfabrik-wanfried.org/group/nord-sud-vernetzungs-team/discussion
​
Support networking for East-West dialogue: Link: https://www.internationale-friedensfabrik-wanfried.org/group/ost-west-vernetzungs-team/discussion