“The essence of non-violent civil disobedience is to stand firm for what is right and springs from a deep sense of injustice. Opposing injustice means seeing that people have sufficient for their survival; seeing that the earth is carefully maintained; and seeing that non-violent behaviour continually transforms positively our human relations.”

This campaign is the People’s Verdict on “Retrieving People’s Dignity through Land and Livelihood” and it aims to have people take up non-violent struggle and civil disobedience in their communities at the local, national and international levels throughout the world in the coming few years.

Advancing a People’s Verdict is a way of pressing for a common social change agenda for removing poverty and redistributing justice in the form of land rights to the poorer sections. People’s verdicts have been declared in various parts of India for the past ten years at the local and state levels. It is gradually being expanded to national and international levels.

The progression of building a People’s Verdict from the grassroots to the global level will culminate in large actions in late 2007. One of the large programs being planned in India is to have 25,000 people march 350 kilometers to Delhi from Gwalior and profile the power of more than 100,000 people demanding their land rights. Other programs that are in the planning stages in different countries are all calling for a poverty-free society.