Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict

Introduction: William Ury describes how Venezuelan third siders are using performing art to bring people together across divides.

This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).

Artistic Third Siders
William Ury
Director of the Global Negotiation Project, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School

Interviewed by
Julian Portilla
2003

A: They're continuing right now to organize dialogue on both sides and even doing imaginative things, like street theatre, where you know, they'll put down a table and two chairs and they'll invite passersby to take a chair and engage in dialogue.

Q: Really?

A: Oh yeah.

Q: That's fascinating.

A: Or ballet. I saw a West Side Story sort of ballet where they took the Chavistas and Anti-Chavistasin one of the main plazas

Q: And this all came from them?

A: This all came from them. I'm saying the third side comes from them. It has nothing to do with me - it comes from them. And things like, they had a big dance - like 2,000 young people on the third side.

Compromise does not mean cowardice. -- John F. Kennedy

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Beyond Intractability Version IV
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