Many people accept their 'fate'. Even if they feel alienated or abused, people who feel disempowered obey, acquiesce, or conform. There is a need for people to sense their power to shape their own lives and to influence the course of events around them. The specific contribution of nonviolence is to do this in a way that does not exacerbate enmity but respects the rights and the person of all.
Social empowerment is a goal itself, and a process.
The process of social empowerment is not simply awakening people to sense their capacities, but of sustaining participation in the shaping of one's own life and society. The Conference will test our assumptions on nonviolent social empowerment and produce materials reflecting and deepening the discussion. The process of the conference begins by looking at ways people transform their experience into a source of motivation and power. It then moves on to nonviolent modes of organising. War Resisters' International WRI began in 1921 as an organisation bringing together people who had the strength to stand against the tide of their society and to resist war.