Per Herngren is an experienced nonviolence trainer and author particularly concerned with civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. He has been working as a nonviolence trainer since 1985 and his training workshops are based on methods from performative conflict intervention, feminist decision making, recursive democracy and Gandhis training for civil disobedience and nonviolence. Per has published ten books in different languages.In 2015 Per spent some time in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, facilitating workshops in nonviolence and feminist meeting techniques. In 2014 he presented how Gandhi’s nonviolence training can be used with adolescents and children for the European section of Non Violent Resistance.
At the time of the Arab Spring Per was particularly active with nonviolence trainings in the Middle East. In autumn 2010, he trained democracy activists from Iran. In spring 2011, he gave nonviolence trainings in Southern Kurdistan and Northern Iraq. During autumn 2011, he trained democracy activists by the Tigris River at the border of Kurdistan, Syria and Turkey. The participants came from Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, Kurdistan, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
Previously, he has given nonviolence training in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship, and also in Ecuador, Guatemala, Turkey, England, Germany and Scandinavia. He has trained activists from Burma, Colombia and Lithuania. He has been a trainer for Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, as well as for Peace Observers in Colombia, Mexico and Guatemala.
Commitment: Per Herngren lives in the Fig Tree Resistance Community in Hammarkullen, Gothenburg, a neighbourhood with people from 130 nations, where he works with glocal solidarity and plowshares civil disobedience actions.
Nonviolent resistance: In 1984 he participated in a nuclear disarmament together with the Pershing Plowshares where Per used a blacksmith hammer to disarm a Pershing II nuclear missile. The plouwshares group was sentenced to eight years in prison and Per was deported to Sweden after 15 months in US prison. For the Vine and Fig Tree Planting at Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory near London, the United Kingdom, on the Hiroshima day 2005, he got a four weeks prison sentence. With the SAAB Microwave Becoming2 Ploughshares, 2008, Per used blacksmith hammers to disarm a military radar and parts of the test range at Saab Microwave, Mölndal, Sweden. He was arrested again 2012 at Saab Microwave for a vine and fig tree planting, where his father was also arrested.
Awards: Educator of the Year in Sweden, 2002. Peace Award, 1986 (War Resisters League, USA).
Books: Per has published ten books in Swedish, English, Kurdish and Polish and is currently writing a novel. During the Arabic Spring in 2011, his book on civil disobedience was published in Iraq, Kurdistan.
Nonviolence training in Sweden: Per has trained all staff at the Family Law Office Gothenburg, the Health Care Administration Managers, Gotland, doctors at the Västra Götaland region. He has trained police officers at the police academy, women prisoners at Kronoberg Prison, male prisoners at Österåker Prison. He has given advanced training for deacons, priests, imams and people from other religions. He is also a regular guest speaker at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg.
Free time: Per is an active salsa dancer, but also enjoys bachata, cumbia and merengue. He is a keen conga and bongo player in the local neighbourhood.
Thomas Helgesson
November 6, 2015
Contact
Per Herngren
Sandeslätt 54
SE-424 36 Angered
Sweden
Phone: +46 (0)70-88 77 211
Email: perherngren<-at->gmail.com
Twitter: @PerHerngren
Book by Per Herngren
Per Herngren, Path of Resistance,
New Society Publishers, 1993, 2004
Some texts by Per Herngren:
Path of Resistance,
Postprotest resistance
Beyond protest-resistance
Blog
Plowshares movement