PressenzaCataluña, 12/06/09The 1st World March for Peace and Nonviolence, which will start in New Zealand on October 2 and end in Punta de Vacas, Argentina, on January 2, 2010, has been announced recently.

I will be a part of the base team, formed by around 50 people who will travel the whole route - 160 thousand Km. – crossing six continents, visiting a hundred cities, among them Barcelona, where we will arrive on Friday November 13.

When I talk about it, many people ask me ironically; “Will it be of any use?” And I say, “Yes”, and even though Peace is not a commodity in much demand, just the fact of breaking the silence is important.

Can you imagine what it will mean to walk together, people from the 5 continents, black, yellow, young, and less young, with different thought systems, from different cultures and ideas, crying out as one voice for Peace, and to say NO to all kinds of violence? Our world finds itself at a moment of decadence, the end of a stage. Therefore, we must decide what the future we want is and start sketching it out.

The March will serve so that the violent ones realize that all of US, in capital letters, have a voice, a name and a last name, that we are from such and such a country, that our concern is the future of the human being, not the economy, or domination, or subordination. That we declare: No more dying from hunger, no more violence of any kind, no more bombs! As Raimon sings, “it is for life that man has been made, he has not been made for death”.

The violent ones will be forced to think. They will realize that they cannot act on a whim because we are fencing them in, and since we are many and will be more, we will demand explanations about what they are doing that they are not supposed to do, i.e. subjecting others to deprivation and terror through fratricidal wars, some in the name of God, others in the name of capital, others in the name of terrorism, even some in the name of the future...

It will be a March to reclaim the dignity of all humankind. Because Peace doesn’t just mean the absence of war. Peace entails living with serenity, with rights and obligations for all citizens. That nobody be forced to leave their country to earn something with which to silence the hunger of their loved ones.

That all human beings have access to education, to health, to a home, to develop abilities, to have a salary that covers their needs. So that the elderly, those that after a life of work, after they stop being productive, have what is necessary to meet their needs, and above all not be forsaken. Peace is equal to freedom of opinion. Nobody can impose their thoughts upon others, peace is then respect, regard for others, whoever they may be, and whatever their thoughts may be.... No more single thought!

Peace is also rigour for those that we have elected democratically to direct the future of our people, of different countries, of the world. Those that rule, must hear the voice of the voiceless, those that up to now have not been able to make themselves heard, because of fear.

We don’t want the Peace of the herd or that of the cemetery. That of the herd so that a shepherd and a dog force them to keep silent, that of the cemetery because it implies life has ceased to exist. We want the Peace of respect, of love, of fairness. Of respecting and being respected because the time for slavery is over. We do not accept wars to gain dominion over the world and the riches held in its entrails. Nor that some countries become richer selling weapons. The reasoning that they will leave a lot of people jobless is not valid. Can somebody believe this? We don’t want wars to be the sole resort to achieve agreements. Together, as one voice, we will strive for disarmament, for dialogue, for negotiation.

We demand that the word, that marvellous gift that we humans enjoy, becomes the most subtle of weapons. Solely and exclusively. That will be our great triumph.

The march is already on its way. It is time to endorse it so that of all us that will be part of the team may say that we represent millions of citizens around the world; people that want the same things as we do, to live in peace and dignity close to our loved ones.

Let us not let the occasion go by without manifesting our rejection of war and demand disarmament. Let us not forget that together we can become a great force. As Federico Mayor Zaragoza affirms, the time has come! Yes, we can!