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Cuban revolution satisfied both the conditions, none of the Latin American Castroite revolutions did.
Considering the changed conditions, it seems highly unlikely that such revolutions have any chance of success, even in their modified form.   The repressive power of the establishment has become so great in size and sophisticated in quality that neither can the 'large motor' function in the way it did in Cuba, nor can the 'small motor' have the chance of operating from 'focos', in however secure gears they may be set up.    There is something new in the climate today which the Latin American revolutionaries have to discover and experience for building their path of revolution.
At this point it is important to mention that the approach taken by some of the Latin American left, that they should take a "peaceful road to Socialism", is going to be not only slow, but altogether ineffective.   In fact it seems to be going backward.    Take for example India.    After the attainment of independence, the Congress party with its socialistic commitments hoped to achieve social justice and equality.   What happened in this experiment of a 'peaceful road to socialistic society' is quite the contrary.   Not only did it fail in its 'socialist' objectives, it could not even keep the road peaceful. Right wing forces have become stronger.    The road to socialism has become harder.   In Chile, Allende was unable to keep power long enough to do the job he thought he would. He also knew, that at the time an armed struggle would have turned into a bloody civil war rather than a war between the people and the capitalist forces, especially because of the powerful links between the US and the Chilean Military outfits and the tremendous capacity of the Chilean reactionary forces supported by the US imperialists to split the so-iety right in the middle.   A lesson to be drawn from the Chilean experience is that the US imperialist grip over the whole continent is so strong that hardly any country can make its revolution on its own.    The Latin American tragedy is that both the experiments — the 'Castroite guerrilla' and the Allende 'left wing electoral road to power' have failed.   What will be the next scenario in Latin America is difficult to say.
Peaceful Revolution in Latin America
In the meantime something more of a grass root type of movement has been growing in Latin America.   A new awareness started to grow within the Church.    'Cuba' had already raised many basic questions regarding the social and economic structure of Latin America.
The church in Latin America has been the most important institution supporting the rulers — drawn from the military and the landed oligarchy.    It had also depended for its importance on these two institutions.   Whatever changes happen in the Church, they have a serious impact on the society as a whole.   To begin with, the Latin American church had been completely tied up with the Vatican — which was never concerned with the political movements in Latin America, e. g. the freedom movements of nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries.    If the Pope ever felt concerned about anything, he called the Latin American archbishops to Rome,  conferred with them and decided what should be done about the continent.    Until 1955 the Latin American bishops were never allowed to have their own conferen?es.   The first conference, which set up the Consejo Episcopal Latinamericano (CELAM), was held in Rio in 1955; but the Vatican kept a tight hold on the CELAM.    Everything had to pass through the Latin American Commission in Rome.
There in Rome Pope John XXIII felt the need for changes in the Roman Catholic world.    His concern was that the Roman Catholic Church should be fitted to serve a radically changed world.    He called the Second Vatican Council, which started on October 11, 1982 and continued until December 8, 1965.    It affirmed  the principle of common responsibility in the Church — papal, episcopal, priestly, and lay and sent an appeal to millions of Catholics everywhere to join in creating "a world more human, more just, and more peaceful", in co-operation with people of all religions and faiths. This dragged the Roman Catholic Church out of the 15th century into the later half of

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the twentieth.   Repercussions of the Second Council were the greatest on Latin America, which is more than 90% Roman Catholic.    Many bishops and priests started questioning whether merely preaching goodwill and the words of the Bible can bring social and economic justice.
As an extension of the Second Council the Vatican published Pope Paul's encyclical Populorum Progressio,   'development of the people', which was also directed at the third world.    The Pope visited Colombia in August 1988, which brought some basic issues to the surface.   Before arrival, between April and August, 1968, many letters, editorials and manifestos were addressed to him.    They were written by priests, political prisoners, members of radical groups, trade unions , etc.   from many Latin American countries.    A few sentences out of scores of pages *24 will show the contradictions that the Church has to tackle.    " The mere fact that the Pope is surrounded by such an entourage will be interpreted as meaning that Christians in Latin America and all over the world are giving their support to the crimes against humanity and the individual being perpetrated every day on this continent."    "The Pope must not come to Colombia ... unless he is prepared to admit publicly that in most of the countries of our continent the 'revolutionary uprising' he himself speaks of in his encyclical is fully justified, and must not be condemned de facto by his appearing to countenance those responsible for the permanent violence being waged against the poor." J. G. E.
"You must understand, Father, that in the mind of that bishop, and of many others of America, to die for one's poor and hungry neighbour means cutting oneself off from the teachings and directions of the Church.    Yes, Father, painful and shameful though it be, such is the case in Colombia and in America."
"The Pope cannot keep company with those who are murdering the people, who have murdered Camilo Torres; he cannot be prepared to compromise with them without grossly wronging and outraging the poor. "
"The Pope should not come to Colombia because Colombia is simply a pilot-scheme of imperialist neo-colonialism in the Third World ..." J. G. F.
"I present myself to your holiness as the mother of the priest Camilo Torres Restrepo ...  Camilo believed that he could not fulfil his mission as a Christian and a priest without taking part in a revolution to free the poor, workers ... That is why he became a revolutionary, and,  in logical conclusion, joined the armed insurrection: this painful choice was forced upon him by the violence used by the oligarchical classes of my country ...  I am sure that with your intercession, I shall obtain the return of my son's body, sacrificed on the altar of the highest ideals, for the restoration of the teachings of Christ: that will be my supreme and ultimate consolation ..." I. R. de T.
"... we are accused of being bandits, terrorists, men without respect for religion or the law; yet there is no evidence of any of us having done anything criminal. All of us are peasants, workers, students or intellectuals, whose lives have been entirely devoted to our work, as all those who know us can testify." - a group of political prisoners.
"...  the government of Colombia which is simply an embassy of the Pharaoh of
the North ..." S.  R-R.
"Is the Pope coming to give his blessing to poverty and suffering? Is he coming to preach patience and resignation to those who suffer from organised injustice? Is   he coming to encourage, support and bless inhuman capitalism?   Or is he coming like another Christ, to denounce injustice in ail its forms, to stand alongside the suffering poor, and proclaim the truths of the Gospel to the rich?   If he were to do this — as all of us, Latin American Christians would hope — then he would be killed like another Camilo Torres, or at least he would be forced to be silent or simply not received at all." Clarin (daily)
"They have even described you as a 'communist', a 'subversive' like ourselves ... we do not believe they will dare arrest you during your visit...  But be careful, Brother Paul, Religion and The Church have continually been made use of in

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Latin America to justify and consolidate injustice, oppression, repression, exploitation, persecution and the murder of the poor ... We know for certain that there are concealed forces ... wanting to take advantage of your visit...  And that is why every thinking Latin American and every genuine Christian recognises that, given the demands of love and solidarity, this social revolution is too necessary to be put off any longer.   It would be wrong to identify the revolutionary process indispensible to Latin America with a system of violence or an attitude of hatred.    The revolution is born of a profound longing for justice, dignity, love of mankind — of every man and of all the individuals living on our continent..." CLASC (trade unions)
Pope Paul came to Bogota.    He was too cautious in his statements.   In the speech while he referred to his Populorum Progressio, he said,  "But a great many of your own documents also deserve special mention ... ".   Alain Gheerbrant comments-   "His choice, too, makes it easier to grasp the scope and the historical context of certain other important texts which were to have a decisive influence on the events at Medellin ... There is not a single convinced Christian in Latin America who has not been affected by one or other of them.    Paul VI preferred to pass them over in silence, for he dared not praise them and could not attack them.    He could not attack them, for none of them is in any way contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, the Council or his own great encyclical.    He dared not praise them, because they are the very expression of that tidal wave which, as he himself admitted, was threatening to engulf his berque in Rome."*25   The Pope gave assurance to the conservatives by rejecting "atheist Marxism" and "systematic rebellion".
The impact of the Pope's visit cannot be assessed easily, nor is it relevant to the object of this paper.    However, importance of the visit was that progressive priests all over the continent drew encouragement from it; they considered it a kind of support and 'go ahead'.
As it has been said already, first the events in Cuba and then the Second Vatican Council moved some priests towards action for justice.   This aotion has been in the form of letters, declarations, conferences and even protest movements.   Among the active priests there are those who consider the classical revolutionary action to be the way to liberation; there are others who take the view that revolutionary violence has not helped the Latin Americans to realise their own revolutionary potential.   They would rather build up from the grassroot level than use previous revolutionary models. Among those who joined the guerrilla struggle,  Camilo Torres's name is most well-known.    He was killed in a guerrilla operation in Santander,  Colombia in February, 19S6.    "As a member of the Institute for Agrarian Reform he set up a model farm and co-operatives.    He met left-wing political leaders and active communists — though they had their reservations about the work of this churchman whose increasing popularity was reminiscent of Jorge Aaitan before 1948.   With the approval of his friend Mgr Guzman he decided to form a 'United Front', acting within the law, but bringing together all the forces of the left, including the communist party.   But lack of organisation, internecine jealousy, defensive reaction by the authorities — especially the Church authorities — all contributed to the paralysis and ultimately the failure of Camilo's Frente unido.  In June 1965 he asked Cardinal Concha for permission to be laicized and that autumn, convinced 'that there was no solution other than armed struggle', he joined the guerrilla groups of Santander."*26  A Colombian priest, who knew Camilo Torres personally, told the author that Camilo became interested in nonviolence as a revolutionary force during his student days, but as time passed and he became more and more pressured from within about the questions of injustice in Colombian society, and because he was unable to get more knowledge and experience with nonviolent activists, he joined the armed struggle.
Dom Helder Camara of North-east Brazil, where social problems are most acute, has on the other hand chosen revolutionary nonviolence — the nonviolence of Gandhi, as the way to liberation for Latin America.    He wants to discover a Latin

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American nonviolent road to the solution of the continent.    "One of the things he repeated more than once wast what I want to explore with you is how do we work for nonviolent social change under military dictatorships?   Not in the USA like King, Gandhi in India, not Belgium, but countries under dictatorships, without our having press, radio etc. available ..."   He continued, this time "addressing to the youth who say that violent revolution is the only answer.   That even if you get the money by raiding a bank or by any other means, where will you buy arms?   How to use the arms?   Above all how can you prepare people who are living under sub-human conditions?   While they do not have a reason for living, it is not possible to have reason for dying.   It should also be noted that the managers of arms manufacture are on the side of the oppressors. "*27
Helder Camara says that the Church now will be on the side of the people and not those who practise slavery which has been happening for the last three hundred years. Religion has been the opium of the people, the masses have to be made conscious about their situation.    This is what he and his colleagues are trying to do all the time they are with the people of their dioceses.    They have formed groups in villages, colleges, factories, and among professionals.    The main function of these groups is to create consciousness in people about their personal and community problems by discussion, newspapers, and whatever means they can evolve locally.    Much of the work has to be done 'quietly'.    The regime is worried that this work is going to undermine its authority and therefore it tries to do everything to destroy the groups.   In 1969 one of Camara's closest associates, Father Antonio Henrique Neto was assassinated — dragged, shot three times in the head and hung by the neck from a tree.    The assassin has never been found!   The way several of Camara's colleagues have disappeared reminds one of the Gestapo methods of Nazi Germany.   Dom Holder Camara described how one of them was stopped on the road by some plain-clothed men, dragged into the car and taken away to nobody knows where.    The military courts try the more important workers, who are often accused of drawing support from Pope Paul's Populorum Progressio and documents such as the Medellm Declaration.
Helder Camara's approach is global-    "It is admitted by all that peace without equality is Utopia.   It car. be fully demonstrated, moreover, that the relations between the developed and underdeveloped worlds are basically a problem of justice on a world scale.   We need a strong movement of public opinion with sufficient moral force to shake the world, to shake all men of all countries, developed and underdeveloped, the universities, the press and radio, the religious and intellectual leaders, the politicians, employers and workers.^5'   m the came address, given at the Latin American Episcopal Council meeting in Argentina in October, 1966, he said:    "No country and no people can develop alone.    The world has become inter-dependent.    The presence of the church in the development of Latin America will be meaningful and effectual only in so far as it forms part of a total effort at presence in the world. "
About Latin America Camara says-  "It is probably not far wrong to say that the collective sin of Latin America, the synthesis of our sins as a people, is internal colonialism.    This expression can give rise to equivocation and cause ill-feeling if it is not clearly explained.    By 'internal colonialism', we mean the relationship of some developed regions with other underdeveloped regions in the same country (for example, the Brazilian industry of the South-Central has made large profits from the flow of raw materials supplied by the North-East and the North, both of which are still underdeveloped).    'Internal colonialism' means that a great part of rural Latin America continues to live in the middle ages ...  How can we ignore the beauty and the strength, the democracy and the Christian potential of the endeavour to awaken the masses?   It is a question of putting the creature on his feet, of arousing his sense of initiative, of working in groups, of a sense of responsibility; it is a question of altering the attitude which waits for the government to do everything."*28

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This new sense of responsibility Helder Camara talks of is a very significant development, which is pulling out the Latin American Church from its own Ghetto.    It is opening up to the world outside Latin America and up to the internal situation within the continent.    This awareness is clearly seen through various statements given by bishops at their gatherings, both national as well as continental; letters written by    . priests, individually or in groups, addressed to their church hierarchy; speeches made both in their own continent or in Europe or North America.   All these very clearly reflect the wishes, demands and indignation of thousands of christians who are struggling to bring about social change in Latin America and its Church without the use of illegal means.   A great many of whom believe in the use of radical nonviolence.
A year before the publication of Populorum Progressio the bishops attending the 10th Convention of CELAM (Plata, Argentina, 1986) had declared that the Church "is obliged to condemn the collective sin of unjust and anachronistic structures — not as if she were some innocent outsider observer but fully acknowledging her own share of responsibility and guilt.   She must be courageous enough to admit her solidarity with the pact, and to acknowledge her responsibility to the present and the future. "*29
In May 19G8 presiding officers of various Eoiscopal Commissions for social action drew up a document to complement the Plata conclusions.    In this document they ask for a reworking of the structure of the Church itself.    "We must: a) Reform all those features that are not consonant with evangelical poverty;   b) Work out a proper decentralisation of various functions and responsibilities, basing our effort on a theology that recognises distinct ministries and charisms within the one Church; c) Rework or adapt existing structures so that greater participation by laymen, priests, and religious is abetted at every level. "*30
The most important of the many documents that have been published is the one from the Medellih Conference (1SS8).    The Medellm Conference was the second one of the Latin American Episcopate.   Its importance for Christians in Latin America was similar to the importance of the Second Vatican for Roman Catholics all over the world. Bishops and experts raeetii_j at Medellm had to take into account the numerous texts containing new and extremely bold thinking and courageous stands on the Latin American situation.    Many of these texts were directed to the Conference; some of these were either inspired or actually written by some of the influential members of the Conference. Moreover, priests from every Latin American country, who had identified themselves with the sufferings of the people of their diocese and their struggles, had sent massive quantities of complaints, and requests for the deepening of the dialogue, to their bishops and to the Conference.
The Medellm Declaration has sections on Justice, Peace, Family and Demography, Education and Youth.   The Declaration and the conclusions cover over 250 printed pages.    In one section it discusses the true face of Latin America which is emerging in all its naked roughness.   It is not simply or primarily a question of low educational standards, a limited economy, an unsatisfactory legal system, or inadequate legal institutions.   What Latin America is faced with is a situation that takes no account Qi man's dignity or his most elemental needs.   It does not provide for his biological r.:rvival or his basic right to be free and autonomous.   Poverty, injustice, alienation, and man's exploitation of his fellow men combine to form a situation which the Medellm Conference did not hesitate to condemn as 'institutionalised violence'   *31
In addition to the Medellm Declaration many other texts have gained long-term importance.    It should be noted that these texts have a very wide support.    The Declaration of the Bolivian Church, inspired by the auxiliary Bishop of La Paz, Mgr Gutierraz Grarier, was sic^d by eighty priests;   the Conclusions of the Santiago Seminar which boldly spoke out against those who are genuinely responsible for the tragedy of the continent, and against that violence which provokes 'revolutionary violence';   the Pastoral rrom the Third World, signed by seventeen bishops (eight from Brazil, a couple from Colombia and others from other parts of the world) received from the Latin American

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trade unions as a pastoral which "could count on the unconditional support of the workers as a whole, and of everyone wanting to see the structure of society transformed"; the Statement of 300 Brazilian priests on the realities of their country and the document issued by the priests meeting in Colombia under the auspices of CELAM on missionary pastoral work.
It seems evident that this kind of dialogue is important on different levels.   It conscientizes the people, gives them the courage and support to organise themselves, or at least creates a climate for future organisation;    and it also undermines the age-old authority held by the exploitative collaboration of the ruling classes and the Church. Fifteen years ago it would have been impossible to hope for a statement from Brazilian bishops such as the one they gave in November, 1976.   The statement is the strongest criticism they have yet made of the military regime, which they say is responsible for 'a social order marked by injustice and violence'.   Such statements cannot but encourage an increasing number of people to be prepared for action for social change. Whether the Church can be the vanguard of revolution is difficult to say, but it is certain that people like Dom Helder Camara and Dom Antonio Fragoso and many others like them or with them are in the front line.   And they are surely very significantly contributing to the fermenting of a future Latin American revolution, a revolution which must be different from the ones Latin America has seen in the past.
Nonviolent Struggles in Latin American Countries
While generally speaking Latin American history is a history of violence, there are examples of unarmed struggles for social change waged by the people of some of the Latin American countries.    Brief accounts of a few, here, will be relevant, particularly because it will show that in a given context it impossible to visualise mass uprisings even against authoritarian rules.   Another purpose of giving these examples is to show that the past traditions of a culture need not and do not always determine the present b ehaviour of a society.    For instance, it is a myth, and most probably also an excuse, that India could use nonviolence only because it was imbedded in her history.    Or for that matter nonviolence can be used only against a democratic or humane government.
Guatemala.   Forty-five lawyers petitioned the President for the removal of a judge whose decisions invariably went against opponents of the regime.    Two hundred school teachers asked for higher pay;   their leaders were immediately charged with sedition before a military court.    The teachers responded by refusing to participate in the rehearsal for the annual parade in honour of Ubico, and were fired in large numbers. Meanwhile, a handful of professional men began quietly organizing an opposition party.
Again, it was the students — this time at San Carlos University — who precipitated the final confrontation.    Early in June, they petitioned for changes in their faculties.   When Ubico gave in, they escalated their demands, until on June 22 they presented a sweeping programme of reform, threatening to strike if the government did not respond positively within 24 hours.    Ubico immediately suspended the constitutional guarantees of civil liberties, including public assembly.    But he only provided the occasion for revolt.
On June 24 he was presented with a petition for return to constitutional liberty signed by 311 leading citizens of the capital.    The students and the school teachers, in the meantime, had gone on strike, and at noon a procession of students marched downtown, where they formed a public assembly and read the Atlantic Charter, the democratic manifesto of World War II, to bystanders.   At a second meeting that evening they demanded the resignation of the President.   Illegal mimeographed leaflets began to circulate.
By Sunday morning, June 25, soldiers, cavalry, and machine guns were menacingly evident in Guatemala City.   Representatives of the dissident groups were summoned to meet with government officials, while demonstrations continued. A group of women dressed in mourning were fired upon as they marched from

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a downtown church to the National Palace.    There were many injuries, and Maria Chinchilla, a young school teacher, became the movement's first martyr.
On Monday, all Guatemala City joined the movement of Brazos Caidos (arms down, at your sides).   Stores, theatres, banks, schools, clinics, and offices were closed.
In vain Ubico put transportation and communication workers under military law, and sent policemen from door to door intimidating the merchants into staying open. His troops were powerless either to restore normal life to the city or to stop the continuing flow of the petitions for his resignation.    The army and the United States Ambassador remained loyal, but it seemed that almost everyone else had deserted him. On July 1 he left the country.
In Haiti President Elie Lescot was apparently a typical representative of the elite.    Complaints about the highhandedness and corruption of his administration were nothing new.   But the growing number of educated black Haitians were chafing at their exclusion from the better posts in government.    The misery of the masses was intensified by the growth of population in one of the most crowded countries in the world and by postwar inflation.
Resentment exploded when the government early in January suppressed the University of Haiti student newspaper and arrested its editors for demanding academic freedom and democracy.    On January 8, university, high school and even grammar school students in Port-au-Prince went on strike and demonstrated in the streets, shouting "Down with the Tyrant! "   They were joined by the store clerks, labourers and transportation workers, and the  city was paralyzed by strikes.   Demonstrations continued for four days.   Although two accounts speak of "four days of rioting," the New York Times reported only "some violence" beginning on January 10, when several people were killed in clashes between demonstrators and policemen.   At this point, the cabinet resigned.    President Lescot declared martial law and ordered the armed forces to suppress the disturbances.    The next day thousands of people converged on police headquarters to demand the punishment of an officer who was charged with killing a civilian.   After consulting with popular leaders, the three top mm in the army took over the government and compelled Lescot to resign.
The junta kept its promise to hold elections in May, 1946.   The winner, Dumarsais Estime, became Haiti's first black president since the US occupation.    His administration was marked a widening opportunities for dark-skinned Haitians of peasant origin, as well as by a flowering of national culture.   A small labour movement developed.   Among the mushrooming political parties were at least two of a socialist and working class orientation, something altogether new in Haiti.
In 1950, however, Estime was deposed by a military coup, led by General Paul Magloire, one of the triumvirate who had ousted Lescot.    Like Estime, Magloire belonged to the new dark-skinned elite.    He was at first a popular president.    But his regime, too, failed to solve Haiti's basic economic problems.   Both the old mulatto business elite and the labour movement were restive.
In December 1956, after some eight months of unrest and harassment by opposition, Magloire too, was unseated by a general strike.    It was apparently organized by the Port-au-Prince business community, students and intellectuals, in collaboration with opposition politicians.   But the observations of the New York Times reporter in Port-au-Prince bear out Carleton Beals' contention that the strike involved "everybody in society from top to bottom, joining hands across all economic, class or colour lines.    The poorer peasants brought no food to market    the stevedores moved no cargo, the chauffeurs drove no cars, the commercial classes closed up their businesses drum-tight. "   Schools and even some hospitals closed, lawyers took no cases, and by December 11, five days after the strike began, even civil servants had left their posts.    "The resistance," said the N. Y.  Times correspondent, "was completely passive.   Haitians simply stayed away from their jobs."   On December 12, at

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the insistence of the army, General Magloire resigned.
Panamanian citizens rose in revolt against one of the most charismatic politicians in the country's history, Arnulfo Arias.    He had built up his own secret police and wrecked the Panama Trust Company when he tried to take control of it.    His opponents retaliated by organizing a run on the Government Savings Bank.    There were wholesale arrests of anti-Araulfistas, and clash between the national and secret police.
On May 7, after three members of the National Assembly had exchanged shots with secret policemen, Arias accused the assembly of plotting with the opposition to overthrow the government, dissolved it, and revoked the constitution.    The next day brought a general strike of doctors, students and teachers, supported by the catholic clergy.   Between 10,000 and 15,000 people marched to the home of Police Chief Jose Ramon, who had ousted Arias' predecessor, to demand that he defend the constitution. The Chief of Police at this point was equivocal.    On May 9, however, Panama City was virtually closed down, with no buses or taxis on the streets.   The 'suspended' National Assembly met in a newspaper office, impeached Arias, and swore in the Vice-President as his successor.    The Supreme Court on May 10 upheld the action of the Assembly. *32
There are other examples of similar type, and many more of lesser significance. Although on the face of the gravity of the Latin American situation, it might seem naive to even mention these actions to those who find revolutionary violence counter productive or unacceptable on human grounds, these examples do indicate the direction one should be thinking while seeking alternatives.
Development of nonviolent initiatives in recent years
After the experience with guerrilla methods, many Latin Americans realise that the basic need is that of making people aware of their situation and their strength, i. e. the need for conscientizing is becoming more and more evident.   Moreover, it seems essential that the process of conscientizing is integrated with the process of development.    Latin America has developed these techniques very successfully.    There are centres all over the continent where they use Paulo Freire's educational methods or methods based on similar principles, according to which literacy should become a weapon for social change.    In and around Recife Helder Camara and his colleagues have been doing this kind of work for over a decade.    Unfortunately, the military regime considers it a subversive activity and takes all kinds of repressive measure   to destroy the groups.    Last year they even banned Camara's name from any kind of publication and stopped their weekly journal for internal use.    The author has visited some of these places and found the methods used in group meetings extremely effective and impressive.
During the past twelve or fifteen years several seminars and conferences have taken place to discuss nonviolent strategies for the situation in different countries.   In 1971 a continental consultation was held in Costa Rica.   It brought many people together who wanted to think of alternatives.   In 1974 the second continental conference, entitled: Nonviolent Strategies for the Liberation of Latin America was held in Medellin.   A participant, Edward Guinan wrote in his report,   ^u The most inspiring fact of the conference was the diversity of people and intensity of their commitment    The campesinos, industrial workers, organisers and Bishops working in small groupings toward agreement and expression of their hopes;   ageing Bishops being instructed by peasants and Latin nuns applauding struggling steel workers. "
The Conference set up a co-ordinating centre for all the Latin American nonviolent movements and ad hoc activities.   Its office is in Buenos Aires.   Adolfo Perez Esquivel was made the Co-ordinator.    The Centre gathers and disseminates information about these movements, organizes consultations, training programmes and direct action programmes including supportive actions.    In a report Adolfo wrote:    "we view this step in our work as a fundamental one given the fact that Latin America has many groups and movements striving for liberation through nonviolent means, but their action is too isolated and individual.    This attitude, in front of the conflict situation in

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which we live, and the growing repression of the system we support, makes it difficult to move forward in the process of liberation.    Therefore, SERVICIO tried to open up channels of communication to enable us to know each other, and to be able to join our efforts to reach common objectives which fit in a concrete and overall vision of the needs of the continent.   As we established that basis for action, the work developed was both to witness in and to denounce the situations of injustices suffered by peasants, workers and religious movements."
Hildegard Goss-Mayr, who has been greatly responsible for the organization of the conferences on nonviolent strategies, in her article in the Fellowship of Reconciliation journal writes,  "Of special importance in 1975/76 were actions of solidarity in favour of persecuted groups, e. g.  Christian Basis Communities in Paraguay, political prisoners in Brazil and Argentina, the ^lCommission for Freedom and Justice' in Bolivia which was attacked by the regime for supporting persecuted peasants and finally had to be broken up by church leaders;   support for Indians in Ecuador who were fighting for their land rights, etc.   SERVICIO contributes to the development of international solidarity in Latin America and Europe where SERVICIO groups were formed.   In several cases it was possible to achieve the freeing of political prisoners and the improvement of local situation. "*33
At present an international pressure campaign is being organised to get the release of Adolfo, who was arrested early last year and charged for subversive activities.
It looks that in the last two years or so Latin American regimes have become tougher with any kind of opposition.    For example, the Colombian government which was comparatively less rigid has cracked down on people who are engaged in the work for social change.    Many clergymen have been arrested or silenced by threats of persecution.    Peru's military regime, which started as a progressive force has moved to the extreme right.    It is too early to say what and how much the new elected government there will be able to do.   With the big claw of military over them they will be too cautious to do anything which will displease the junta leaders,    hi Argentina, Brazil and most other countries opposition forces have a hard time.   The very immediate future for the nonviolent action also does not look too bright.
The significant thing is that the violent revolutionary groups also are not able to organize themselves in an effective way.   This is part of a world phenomenon. *   As it has been mentioned , the power of the State has become so sophisticated and great that the violence of the revolutionaries has little possibility of success.    There is, though, more hope in the use of nonviolence, especially because on one level nonviolence need not be a force for the confrontation.   Yet, the work done on that level can create a climate and cadre of activists for any occasion when the need for confrontation arises. Mahatma Gandhi's constructive programme can be cited as an example in this connection.    Thousands of men and women worked for years in village development programmes, such as cottage industries, adult education, village sanitation, leprosy centres, etc.   Whenever Mahatma Gandhi gave a call for Satyagraha, it is these men and women who became the starters and leaders of the Satyagraha campaign.
The problem is that the leaders of the nonviolent movements in Latin America have not yet developed an integrated approach in which constructive programme and direct action should become a complementary process.    For this, however, there is a need for a new socio-economic perspective.   Most people who think in terms of development still wish Latin America to adopt the latest technological means.  Psycho-
Even in the most inflammable situation in the world today — Southern Africa — most of the liberation movement leaders have become conscious of the limitations of guerrilla warfare.   They know that a long-drawn struggle like that of Vietnam is not going to be possible in their situation.    They also know that with the military supremacy of the white minority and the support they have from the western capitalist world, a violent struggle will in all probability, further delay freedom.

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logically, it is understandable, because they want to be like the power which is dominating their whole life. *   For Latin Americans USA is a model.   Therefore, the task before the nonviolent social change movements is to develop a decentralized perspective for their economic reconstruction.   Nonviolence and centralist development cannot go together.    Centralism, necessarily implies the rule by technocrats, bureaucrats and the military-capitalist or socialist.
Behind Gandhian Constructive programme there is this new approach.   It is a combination of development and liberation.   It must be mentioned here that the formal side of Gandhi's work, which was evolved for the Indian situation, cannot be applied to the Latin American conditions.   Nonetheless, his philosophy of Satyagraha — resistance to injustice and socio-economic development — has much relevance for the work of nonviolent revolutionaries in Latin America.    Unfortunately, Gandhi is known to the Latin Americans only as the leader who moved the people to act with nonviolence rather than violence and who succeeded in attaining freedom for his country.    He is not known as a political revolutionary, someone who has something very important and urgent to offer in relation to problems people, both in the third world as well as in the industrialized societies, face today.    His philosophy tries to deal with the questions of human liberation, of injustice and problems which we face today on account of high industrial growth.    A serious study of Mahatma Gandhi's economic theory by Latin Americans, especially in universities and by political activists would be of great use. The nonviolent movement has the responsibility qf initiating such a discussion.    There is also a great need to publish relevant material fn the Spanish language.
It would be naive to think that nonviolent groups are yet ready to offer such an analysis or strategy of action.    They do not cjaim to have numbers behind them.   As organisations they are small, unpretentious groups trying to create some self-confidence in the people of the areas where they operate.   They have yet to go far to become a force.    However, the fact that governments consider them subversive says something of their ability to help rural and urban groups to stand on their own.    The fact that they have some * threat value' already is encouraging.   11 is also hard to say how many of these nonviolent activists are in prisons in Latin America.    The reports of SERVICIO and its newsletter is often full of information of repression and arrests.
hi Latin America there are many people who do not want to name their organisations as nonviolent, yet many of them do nonviolent grassroot activities.
Along with other indications these facts show that the continent is moving towards a revolution.   What form the revolution will take nobody can predict.   One thing is certain, that it will depend upon the forces ready to give a lead when the crucial time comes;   it may be a slow process of small revolutions or something quite new, something the 'experts' are unable to perceive.
67, Sutherland Road, London, N9 England
A hangover of colonialism.

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References
1.	Sven Lindqvist- The Shadow-   Latin America faces the Seventies (Pelican, 1972)
p. 11
 2.	ibid, p. Ill
 3.	George Pendle:   A History of Latin America (Pelican 1971) p. 44
 4.	Hubart Herring    A History of Latin America (Knopf 1968) p. 279
 5.	Marcel Niedergang:   The Twenty Latin Americas, Vol. 1 (Pelican 1971) p. 38
 6.	George Pendle, p. 109
 7.	Alan Gilbert-    Latin American Development (Penguin Books, 1974) p. 130-34
 8.	Brian Darling:   Introduction in Helder Camara's Spiral of Violence (Sheed & Ward
1975) p. 11
9.	Marcel Niedergang, Vol. 1, p. 116
 10.	The US and Latin America Today (AFSC), p. Br. 5
 11.	Alan Gilbert, p. 163
 12.	The United States and Latin America (American Friends Service Committee 1976)
p. 15
 13.	The US and Latin America Today, p. Br. 5
 14.	New York Times, 23rd October, 1973
 15.	Sven Lindqvist, p. 149
 16.	Richard Gott in The Guardian, 15th September, 1977
 17.	Regis Debray:   Strategy for Revolution (Pelican 1973) p. 154
 18.	Marcel Niedergang?   Twenty Latin Americas, Vol. 2, p. 330
 19.	Fidel Castro-   History will Absolve Me (Jonathan Cape 1974) p. 43
 20.	Lindqvist, p. 178
 21.	Regis Debray:   Latin America-   some problems of Revolutionary Strategy, in
Latin American Radicalism edited by Horowitz and others.    (A Vintage Book 1969) p. 509
 22.	Fidel Castro:   Introduction to Che's Bolivian Diary (Jonathan Cape 1968) p. 16
 23.	Regis Debray:   Che's Guerrilla War (Penguin Books 1975), p. 142
 24.	Alain Gheerbrant:   The Rebel Church in Latin America (Penguin Books 1974) p. 31-7
 25.	ibid, p. 104
 26.	Marcel Niedergang:   Twenty Latin Americas, Vol. 2, p. 194
 27.	Devi Prasad-   Reports from Latin America (Mimeograph, W. R. L  1973)
 28.	Helder Camara-   Church and Colonialism (Sheed & Ward 1969) p. 116
 29.	Between Honesty and Hope (Maryknoll Publication 1970) p. 31
 30.	ibid, p. 23
 31.	ibid, p. xvi
 32.	Resistance in Latin America (A Quaker Action Group, Philadelphia 1970) p. 11
 33.	Hildegard Goss-Mayr:   Nonviolent work for peace and justice (Reconciliation
Quarterly, F. O. R. June 1977) p. 33.