Thinking Out Loud about Galtung in Mexico and Gaza

Abstract

This article, in its first part, seeks to reflect - from action and theory - the experience of having used very different materials prepared for decades by Johan Galtung, including from visits and conferences in Mexico. We wanted to share this reflection because we consider this experiment to be original to 'translate' practices and conceptualizations of this author, born from very different and often distant cultural and geographical contexts to a reality like the Mexican one - even from very different territories here - crossed by conditions of high violence and war in many regions. The challenge was carried out over some three decades and was addressed from our collective participation - with the epistemic methodology that we have created of “Thinking Out Loud” - with peasant-indigenous, urban communities, in civil resistance for their natural resources and ways of life with social and political organization. And also, in collective processes with young people from all backgrounds, especially university students.

These were processes of knowledge construction to fight better and become more aware of the principle of reality and injustice that was faced. Galtung's triangles of violence and peace, as well as his initial dichotomy of positive and negative peace, adapted to the confronting Mexican realities, have been extremely useful to establish reflections and types of actions to apply in these conflicts and social struggles, in those pedagogical practices and workshops.

An important aspect that we wanted to highlight, and add to the bibliography, is that many of these young people and social activists have subsequently continued their collective knowledge processes autonomously, and they themselves have been developing changes, extensions and adaptations to Galtung's materials in relation to their precise contexts. I believe that this would be the best recognition and value of his work for Johan Galtung: that his materials are applied and transformed autonomously for the construction of social justice and humanization of the species from the construction of peace and nonviolence.

The second part of the article attempts to explore Galtung's reflections (based on mediation and the political and historical state of affairs) of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, in which Galtung was heavily involved. To do this, it is also based on a conference of his at the UN on the anniversary of Gandhi's birth (October 2, 2007), where he reflects on five Gandhian principles in relation to the fight against imperialism.

This conflict is currently of central importance in the humanization of our species, since we are facing a genocide in Gaza (the most inhumane action of our species) - built by the Israeli Zionist government in alliance especially with that of the United States -, lasting more than a year endorsed - with silence or direct support - by great political, economic and media world powers. To talk about Galtung is to always refer to thoughts applied to the different realities in which he was involved, so it would not be coherent to do so here without this reference.