Upcoming events: 15 May - International Conscientious Objectors' Day // WRI Seminar 2005 in South Korea // Globalising Nonviolence // Housmans Peace Diary 2005 available

15 May - International Conscientious Objectors' Day

International Conscientious Objectors' Day 2005 focuses on the situation of conscientious objectors in Greece. War Resisters' International and the Association of Greek Conscientious Objectors are organising an international seminar and nonviolence training, leading to an international nonviolent action on conscientious objection in Thessaloniki on 15 May.

The activities will start on 9 May, and will last until 15 May. Accommodation will be organised, so better get in touch with War Resisters' International soon.

Solidarity actions all over the world are also welcome, and please keep us informed.

War Resisters' International released a special report on conscientious objection in Greece in February, and will be present at the session of the UN Human Rights Committee in New York. More information in co-update No 8, April 2005.

WRI Seminar 2005 in South Korea

In cooperation with several partner organisations from South Korea, War Resisters' International is preparing for its 2005 seminar and Council meeting, which will take place in or close to Seoul in June 2005. The theme of the seminar will be "Peace in North-East Asia". The Korean groups started a website on the seminar, which will carry updated information. Information is also available on the WRI website. Please use our online registration form to register for the seminar.

Seminar: 26-29 June 2005

WRI Council Meeting: 30 June-2 July 2005.

Globalising Nonviolence: The 2006 WRI International Conference

The 2006 WRI "Triennial" conference will be a decisive event in shaping the future of our organisation and our movement. Please make a note of the dates: the open conference will be from 23 to 27 July, while the WRI business meeting will be on 28-29. The venue is near Paderborn, North Rhine- Westphalia, Germany.

The title of the conference, Globalising Nonviolence, has a triple meaning: we aim

• at making nonviolence more central in the global movement of resistance to war and economic domination,
• at adapting nonviolent analysis and strategy to the threats we face today, and
• at consolidating and reviving our antimilitarist, nonviolent, global network.

We believe that it is vital for WRI to have a stronger connection with the convergence of movements that has grown up in response to "globalisation". We hope the Triennial will be a place for people to learn about a range of campaigns and movements, and in particular about under-reported developments in the "global south". But we also believe that WRI can have a distinctive contribution to what some people call "globalisation from below".

While the worldwide movement against war and against economic globalisation is in general not violent, we believe that a greater consciousness of nonviolence could strengthen this movement and clarify its strategies. This is one of the tasks where WRI can help within this broader movement. And this task also involves developing new analyses and strategies, to adapt nonviolent struggle to the new global wars and power structures of our time.

This conference therefore aims to reach beyond the strictly WRI network to much wider circles in this growing worldwide "movement of movements".

However, the Triennial also could play a decisive role in renewing WRI organisationally. The Council meeting last year in Macedonia recognised that WRI's economic base has become precarious, that WRI's traditional core affiliates tend to be weaker than before, but also saw the need for a WRI network as being as strong as ever -- and more global than ever in view of our widening contacts in Africa, Asia, South America and the former Soviet Union. Looking at the organisational options facing us, the Council rejected any notion of compromising WRI's radical identity, instead opting to revitalise WRI's role as a radical network against war, the causes of war, and for nonviolence.

More information:

http://wri-irg.org/news/2005

/triennial06-en.htm

Housmans Peace Diary 2005 available

The Housmans Peace Diary 2005 is still available, and can be ordered now through the WRI webshop. The Housmans Peace Diary includes the Housmans World Peace database, and has a week-to-a-view diary. You can order a copy of the diary on WRI's webshop, or on the single copy order page.