The basic idea

We switch the focus of PN from producing a paper to building a network / community of groups and individuals who are interested in exploring and practising radical nonviolence, drawing on our movements’ rich history and providing practically-oriented peer-to-peer support. In the process we would also be building a new constituency for a print / digital publication.

In order to build a bridge between where we are now (a paper) and where we want to go (the PN Community) we would continue to produce a greatly-stripped down version of the paper, which is simpler and cheaper to write, lay-out, produce and mail out.

Hopefully, this would enable us to maintain our current supporter base, as well as serving as an advert and networking tool for the PN Community.

What are the main things we would do, if we chose this option?

(1) Produce a regular Riso-printed publication.

Formats: This would exist in physical form that could be mailed out to subscribers / supporters. Maybe four sheets of A4 paper with a two-colour cover (see costing below). A bit like the old Voices in the Wilderness UK newsletter, for those that remember that! This would also be available as a PDF online (like the CAAT newsletter).

Ideally, we should fundraise to enable production in an online format that’s accessible by phone, where it should be made to look super-attractive. Ultimately, we should aim to have a version in podcast / video format.

Frequency: maybe 10 times a year.

Content: A typical issue might include: some topical news analysis, a feature article pertinent to radical nonviolence, a handful of news items, a review and an events page with an explanatory box about the network, how folk can get involved, and so on.

Paid and unpaid work: promos, admin and finance work would all become voluntary (initially carried out by existing staff), with web work reduced to minimum necessary.

(2) Start building and supporting a community of folk who are interested in exploring and practising radical nonviolence. Possible tools for this could include:

• speaking tours
• local workshops
• book groups
• creating a ‘manual’ for use by local groups
• online events
• an annual gathering or camp

For example, in the first year we might aim to:

• publish a book of readings about radical nonviolence
• carry out a UK-wide speaking tour about the book
• hold face-to-face meetings with X number of potential partner organisations
• hold a series of nonviolence-related book groups at Housmans, maybe drawing on PN’s back catalogue of titles for this (George Lakey, Howard Clark and so on)
• hold some sort of camp or gathering

Another early project might focus on the whole violence-nonviolence debate, which several interviewees flagged as likely to become of increasing salience as the climate crisis deepens.

Paid and unpaid work: this side of things would consist of a mix of voluntary and paid work. Ideally, we would fundraise to staff and carry out this side of the project.

What are the main needs the project is serving?

There are currently lots of folk in the UK who are engaging in nonviolent direct action. But they often don’t know much about the history of radical nonviolence, or have many places to go to explore how to use nonviolence more effectively. They could also benefit from feeling part of a wider community of nonviolent campaigners.

This option aims to build a secular community of individuals and organisations that can support one another in exploring these topics, deepening their knowledge and becoming more effective nonviolent activists.

What is the hole that this project is filling? (Are we sure somebody else isn’t already doing this? How much would we be adding?)

Outside some religious groups (for example, the Quakers and Pax Christi) I don’t think the above needs are currently being met here in the UK.

Though it had a more diffuse focus, PN Summer Camp was also trying to address the problem of fragmentation in the UK activist scene (which, of course, is now much larger, post-XR, Gaza and so on).

In the US, Campaign Nonviolence have been doing some of this work.

In the UK, the Ella Baker School of Organising appear to be doing related work – and would be a natural organisation for us to partner with – but I get the impression that their focus on ‘organising’ is somewhat different from the above.

How would we define the ‘success’ of this project?

PN currently has a loyal base of supporters who value PN’s current output. Some of them are active, some not. Many support PN as a way of supporting the things that PN stands for (nonviolence, opposition to war and so on…).

Personally, I would consider this project to be an initial success if, in three years, we had managed to attract over 100 people, from a variety of different UK social movements and actively involved in radical nonviolence, to become actively involved in the PN Community

What are some of the main pros and cons of adopting this option?

Some pros:

• we could increase the frequency of the print publication
• we could decrease the amount of work involved in producing the print publication
• we might be able to retain a large part of our existing supporter base
• at least in its early stages, we might be able to tap into new grant funding
• if successful, the PN Community could have considerably more impact on the UK activist scene than the paper currently does
• we already have many of the skills and resources necessary to start this project
• there are some natural synergies with Housmans
• there are a lot of natural partner organisations here in the UK
• it builds on the work that PN has been doing for many years (book publications; features in the paper, and so on….)

Some cons:

• it’s not clear to me how this option should evolve beyond its initial stage(s)
• to be successful, we’d need to bring in new folk from a diverse range of backgrounds and this could potentially be very disruptive and challenging, especially as the same team has been working on the current PN for so long (of course, this could also be a pro)
• until further funding can be obtained, this project would be heavily reliant on a large amount of voluntary work
• we might have to sacrifice most of our existing web presence

How does what is happening in the world, right now and over the next five years or so, support or work against the success of this project?

For:

• Assuming Labour gets elected and continues with some form of austerity, we could see an uptick of activism and campaigning on a whole host of issues. This option could tap into this and help it to be more effective.
• Likewise, if Trump resumes the US presidency, this project could help to provide an antidote to despondency and despair.
• Ideas around violence / nonviolence may become more contested if current strategies and approaches are perceived as failing, heightening the saliency of this project.

Against:

• This may be too-much of an ‘old school’ project to fit with changing social mores.

Which kind(s) of people is the project focused on/prioritising

Groups and individuals who are interested in exploring and practising radical nonviolence.

However, the print publication should continue to be written in such a way that it is accessible to a general open-minded reader.

Which organised group(s) could we partner with to help deliver this project?

Some natural possibleUK partners at the outset:

• Ella Baker School of Organising
• Pax Christi
• CAAT
• Housmans Bookshop
• Other members of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers
• Extinction Rebellion (both UK and local groups)
• Local CND groups
• QPSW
• Palestine Action
• Demilitarise Education
• Left Book Club
• Peace Studies Department at Leeds Beckett University
• London Catholic Worker
• Peace Pledge Union
• Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre
• Trident Ploughshares
• People & Planet
• Fellowship of Reconciliation
• Fossil Free London
• Medact
• Network for Peace
• Northern Friends Peace Board
• Veggies
• Women in Black

Some possible international partners:

• WRI
• Waging Nonviolence
• Campaign Nonviolence
• Metta Center for Nonviolence
• Mouvement pour une Alternative Non-violente

What skills/qualities/experience will be needed to deliver this project?

• writing and editorial (for the print publication)
• workshop-design and facilitation (online and face-to-face)
• lived experience of engagement with nonviolent campaigns
• knowledge of history of nonviolent action
• relationship-building and networking skills

What seems to you to be the minimum budget needed to deliver this project?

My rough calculation is that printing 1,500 copies of each issue, ten times year, and mailing these out to 600 people would cost roughly £6.4k / year.¹

Looking at the current PN budget, core additional costs (rates, electricity, accountancy ad so on) come to around £4.7k.² If we were to add to this a £1k travel budget and a £1.5k promos budget then we have roughly £7.2k in additional expenditures (additional to the cost of printing and posting the issues).

Making a conservative assumption that we could retain £17k / year in non-supporter income and £13k / year from supporters³, this would give a total annual income of roughly £30k.

In the first year, I would propose devoting the remainder, £16.4k [£30k – (£6.4k + £7.2k)], to staff salaries. We would draw on the remainder of the Lorna Kellas legacy and/or additional fundraising for book production and the UK speaking tour.

I would see most of the salary going into the writing, commissioning and layout of the newsletter, plus some web work, plus part of the work on the ‘community building’ side of things.

The following tasks would have to be done by volunteers (at least initially): promos, admin, finance, and the physical printing of the issues, dispatch and so on.

I don’t think it would be too much work to develop a volunteer pool to do the printing and dispatch (either in London or in St Leonards).

If we were to go down this route, then we could probably initially use the Hastings Green Party Riso machine for doing the printing (and I’ve used their prices in the calculating the above figures).

However, another option would clearly be for us to purchase our own machine, again drawing on the remaining Lorna Kellas monies.

If we went down this latter path then we would need to get a maintenance contract (the HGP one is three-year and cost them £1,800 + VAT).

Some of the additional community-building projects would have minimal additional costs associated with them (for example, events at Housmans), while others we would almost certainly only want to go ahead with if we could obtain additional funds (for example, the camp or gathering).

1This is based on £16.50 for 1,000 double-sided A4. 1,500 copies of a four-page issue would then cost 1.5 x £16.50 x 4 = £99. 600 C5 envelopes cost 1.2 x £17 = £20.40. Labels cost £12 per 1,400 (excl. VAT) ie. Roughly £5 per 600-strong mailing. Postage (again to 600 people) comes to 85p x 600 = £510. So the cost of 10 printings (1,500 each) plus 10 mailings to 600 folk should be roughly 10 x (£99 + £20.40 + £5 + £510), or roughly £6.34k

2Specifically: rates (£0.88k); electricity (£0.4k); phone, broadband etc… (£0.75k); accountancy (£0.78k); Quickbooks + Zoom (£0.3k); Paypal etc… fees (£0.5k); employers NI etc… (£0.6k); IT/equipment (£0.5k)

3These figures are based on those in Mil’s 16 June paper ‘Some options for keeping PN a physical magazine’. Specifically, the non-supporter income figure of £17k / a year is composed of the following elements: office rental (£2.8k); books / merchandise (£0.2k); PNT support (£14k). The supporter income of £13k assumes the following: subs / sales (£10k); donations and appeals (£3k, NB This is slightly lower than the £5k that assumed by Mil in his paper).