Violence

In Our World ...Against Nations

• Introduction     Videos      Pictures     Stories

Introduction

Within nations we see state-sanctioned policies against the nation’s own people used to colonize, control or outright annihilate. These policies have been espoused at the highest levels, by historical figures that by and large enjoy impunity and admiration. The first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. MacDonald, said of the Métis people in 1870, "These impulsive half-breeds have got spoiled by this uprising and must be kept down by a strong hand until they are swamped by the influx of settlers." (The French language in which this was uttered actually has the Métis being “crushed with an iron fist.”)

Obvious examples of state-sanctioned violence through internal policy have to do with labour. Japanese internment camps in mid-20th century Canada, and of course the slavery that contextualized the development of African communities all over the Americas and provided the economic foundation for the prosperity of the Americas, are both instances of indentured labour, of which the dominant continue to reap the benefits. Slavery persists to this day in many places, along with child labour and other forms of forced, coerced, and bonded labour. In fact, there are more people in slavery now than at any other time in human history.

All over the world, violence within nations also takes the forms of civil war, regional strife, and internal displacement. Among nations we see endless wars, small and large; some wars enjoy international media scrutiny and interest, even as others are almost invisible (usually when there are no commodities valued by the world economy at stake). Sexual violence is often used within war, and political oppression is used to coerce, humiliate, torture and control. Women and children are disproportionately affected by these tactics. A Human Rights Watch document, Rape as a Weapon of War and a Tool of Political Repression, describes the hidden public and gendered nature of this crime:

Despite its pervasiveness, rape has often been a hidden element of strife, whether political or military, a fact that is inextricably linked to its largely gender-specific character. That this abuse is committed by men against women has contributed to its being narrowly portrayed as sexual or personal in nature, a characterization that depoliticizes sexual abuse in conflict and results in its being ignored as a crime.¹

1. Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/about/projects/womrep/General-21.htm

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Videos

Darhsan’s story
Global Violence, racism and domestic violence all figure in this story.

(Story created in participatory digital story telling workshop sponsored by Silence Speaks.)

Agatha Joseph: A Mother’s Battle
This digital story gives an example of the complex picture of inhumane detention conditions and lack of due process in the U.S.

(From Breakthrough on Vimeo.)

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Pictures

The Cost of Cut-backs, Roz Penfold ( - 544k)

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Stories

Systemic Violence ( - 133k)
Reflections on poverty and how that affects access to education by students at an adult literacy program in downtown Toronto, Canada.

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