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Broken Rifle No.67, September 2005

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Campaign Against War Profiteers
"Some one is making a killing from war"

Editorial

This issue of The Broken Rifle focuses on the Campaign Against War Profiteers.This campaign has been developing throughout the past year. The Campaign Against War Profiteers is one of the three main areas of focus for the Nonviolence Programme during this period.

The Campaign is developing resources for the activities and networking with WRI affiliates involved in initiatives that support and coordinate nonviolent campaigns against war profiteers. WRI opposes war profiteers, following our fundamental critique that we want to "remove all causes of war" . We believe that war profiteers, are not just making profit from war, but they are a cause of war.

I invite you to look closely at the articles in this issue which includes: What WRI's network is doing against the different kinds of war profiteers, as well as a further examination of different kinds of war profiteers.

We have also examine the experience from the USA on how to do research on these corporations. I invite you to study it and see how you might apply it in your region. In this issue, we also present the development of the campaign and what we want to achieve with it.

This issue also marks the launch of WRI's own Wiki, that we expect will improve the cooperation among WRI activist and will create a joint resource on nonviolence and antimilitarism.

I hope you enjoy this Broken Rifle and that it provokes you to reflect on what you and your group can do to get involved in this campaign and help stop the war profiteers. We really need all of your collaboration and contributions to the WRI and its endeavours to end war.

Javier Gárate
WRI Staff Member

"Some one is making a killing from war"

WRI is not just committed to resist war but to promote nonviolent action to remove the causes of war this is one reason why part of the new nonviolence programme will be a campaign against war profiteering. And to promote our commitment with nonviolence and antimilitarism. Taking WRI's fundamental critique that "War is a crime against humanity. I am therefore determined no to support any kind of war, and to strive for the removal of all causes of war"

War profiteering has been a permanent feature of the military landscape. It is not just that the search for profits can foment war.

Military rivalry has also gone hand in hand with industrial and technological mobilisation for war, reaching new heights in the second half of the twentieth century. Those who profit from war form a powerful lobby in favour of military expenditure and war preparations.

To combat their influence requires identifying and exposing their activities and interests. Those who currently depend on war-related work for their livelihood need support in constructing socially useful alternatives.

In adopting this campaign theme, WRI will not duplicate the work of other groups. Many countries already have bodies that have carried out detailed research into their own war profiteers, and there also exist functioning international networks - either with formal links such as the European Network Against the Arms Trade (ENAAT) or contacts effective for mobilising international actions, for instance at arms fairs.

In this campaign, WRI plans to build on the existing work of its affiliates and other groups with whom we cooperate. At times certain WRI members have more contact with each other through regional or single purpose networks than they do through WRI itself - and that's how it should be. No monopolies here! But we are convinced that our campaign can add to the momentum of what exists - making connections otherwise missed, providing a forum for exchanges on tactics and strategy, and sharpening common themes.

Regarding war as a crime against humanity, WRI is committed to promote nonviolence to remove the causes of war.

The Profiteers
And lines of actions

The financiers of war:

We - the public - become financiers of war through our taxes and through the way banks use our money. The WRI office itself and many WRI affiliates are already involved in using war tax resistance as a way of raising public consciousness about this. In some countries, WRI groups have also begun to look at the role played by banks in using their clients' money to invest in the arms industry. Perhaps this is most advanced in Belgium where a campaign involving our Flemish section Forum voor Vredesactie has caused a commotion. "My Money Clear Conscience?" has produced two weighty reports exposing the military investments of five major banks in Belgium.

In Spain, KEM-MOC in the Basque country is campaigning against BBVA - Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria - with actions at its headquarters in Bilbao and at shareholders' meetings. As a first step, the Madrid group MOC-Carabanchel has produced a sticker for use mainly on cash machines, a 50 note saying "Your savings finance war. Find out in the bank".

In the past certain banks have been targets for campaigns of disinvestment.

One of the most successful campaigns took place in Britain against Barclays Bank for its connections with apartheid in South Africa. When the campaign began, Barclays attracted more than half of each generation of university students to open accounts with them, but gradually the picture changed. Not only did the proportion of students opening accounts fall dramatically but, over a 16-year campaign, many individuals and even corporate account- holders such as churches, trade unions and municipalities disinvested until Barclays sold out its South African holdings.

The manufacturers

Weapons manufacturers enjoy secure profits - especially if they are engaged in multinational projects such as the EuroFighter. A number of WRI sections, for instance in Germany, France and Spain, are engaged in campaigns against the EuroFighter project.

As well as the guarantees offered in the contract, these companies often enjoy subsidies from national or even regional governments - KEM-MOC has publicised that Sener, a manufacturer of military components, is receiving subsidies from the Basque government.

There have been many dramatic actions at various arms factories, some even including breaking into the factory to damage weapons. Perhaps the best known was when Ploughshares activists damaged British aerospace Hawks. One of the items they placed in the cockpit was a video, showing Indonesia's use of Hawks in East Timor.

When they played this videotape in court, it helped convince the jury that the activists were trying to prevent a greater crime.

Some arms manufacturers produce consumer goods and so could be a target for boycott campaigns.

Also, a number of campaigns have tried to reach members of the workforce to discuss how their skills could be contribute to the manufacture of socially useful goods instead of weapons components.

In various countries, anti-militarist groups have bought shares so they can attend the annual shareholders' meetings to raise issues there, while others seek to identify corporate shareholders that might have qualms about weapons manufacture--for instance, churches and trade unions.

Student groups have sometimes arranged a "warm reception" for such companies when they come to campus to recruit those about to graduate. War Resisters' League (WRL) in the USA has a counter-recruitment strategy, with a focus on Halliburton recruiting employees on college campuses.

The "outsourcers" or "force multipliers"

In Iraq, foreign employees of private contractors outnumber every national military contingent, except that of the USA itself. Globally, recent years have seen the rise of private contractors such as Dyncorps, Halliburton, Saab, Serco and Sodexho who carry out multiple service contracts for the military.

Action lines against such companies at the moment mainly consist of researching and spreading awareness among the public of the role such companies are playing.

WRL has set up a specific "Merchants of Death" speakers' panel that pays special attention to such contractors.

As most such companies depend exclusively on government contracts, prospects for boycotts or other consumer action are limited.

But some anti-militarist groups are acquiring shares in order to intervene in shareholders' meetings. . The Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp(aign) has begun a shareholder campaign against Serco (part of the consortium that runs Aldermaston - which is being expanded for Britain's new generation of nuclear weapons).

Arms fairs

Exhibitions where military-related industries display their wares have become the target for a wide and imaginative range of actions - especially because such events usually last several days.

DSEi in London, AFCEA in Brussels and EuroSatory in Paris are three fairs that have attracted attention from anti-militarist groups in several European countries.

While many actions take place on the streets or even metros leading to the fairs, activists in various guises have managed to enter fairs to challenge what is going on there. Sometimes the campaigns before such events have succeeded in persuading municipalities to withdraw cooperation, even causing their cancellation.

Howard Clark, WRI Council Member

What kind of War Profiteers are there?

There are many ways to profit from a war. Some may say that even peace campaigns profit from it! The war profiteers we are talking about here are companies having strategies to make a killing from armed conflicts.

Conventional army suppliers Three main categories are distinguished here: arms traders, equipment suppliers, and companies offering services to armies.

Arms traders must not be forgotten.

War is not for them just a market which consumes their wares, but also free advertising for their products. The main companies these days are Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics in the USA; and BAE Systems, Thales and EADS in Europe.

Other suppliers also make profit from wars or from a specific war. There is no doubt, for instance, that Caterpillar, the US bulldozer company, would never sell that much equipment to the Israeli army if there were not the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians which involves house demolitions and the erection of the apartheid wall.

Logistics and services to armies are key aspects of any military operation. Nowadays, it is mostly controlled by multinational companies who bid for the contracts.

When PWC Logistics wins contracts with the US army for heavy lift transportation (up to $1.5 billion in 5 years) or food supply (up to $14 billion in 4 years), it has everything to do with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The net profit of the company jumped from $32 million to $336 million between 2002 and 2004.

Sodexho (catering and services) may not in a sense be war profiteers for providing food and so on to 55 US Marine Corps bases; but they definitely are when supporting the French army and UN's KFOR in Kosovo, NATO in Kabul, and the US forces in South Korea - as well as supplying the 379th Expeditionary Contracting Squadron in Qatar. "In one year, due to global issues [ie the war in Iraq...], the market grew strongly," says Andrew Leach, Sodexho Defense Services managing director. With long-running conflicts having an effect on military personnel, who are not happy to stay away from home for so long, Sodexho has - with the US Marine Corps - created the Messhall Academ-ie in order to prepare civilians for military life and help keep them following orders as their posting goes on and on.

Privatising the army Private companies also now provide services which were traditionally core army activities, in particular in security - such as technical systems, intelligence services and security personnel.

The latter are the modern version of mercenaries. Integrated technological systems are provided by arms trade companies--such as Thales, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman - as well as by information technology companies such as Analytical Services Inc, Computer Sciences Corporation and Electronic Data Systems Corporation.

Other companies specialise in intelligence, and their technological systems can come with intelligence specialists or security/counter-terrorism specialists (most of them being retired from governmental intelligence services or commando units).

For instance, the US Army's Intelligence and Security Command has awarded a contract worth as much as $155 million to CACI International Inc to provide technology to help commanders in the field to collect intelligence and to interrupt enemy communications and intelligence systems. Corporate Watch discovered that such private employees worked as interrogation experts at Abu Ghraib prison. Even Paul Bremmer's safety in Iraq was not assured by the US army but by Blackwater Security staff. And a company such as Vinnel Corporation is in charge of training the Saudi National Guard.

Most of these companies providing security and training staff to the armed forces also offer their services to other companies working in regions at war.

PSC Defense Systems Ltd (of the Armor Group) protects BP Amoco interests in Columbia. That protection includes selection and maintenance of armaments for the host country.

According to Moscow Defense Brief (January 2005), this is how BP finances arms to the Colombian army. In Angola, Air Scan - which is connected with PSC Defense Systems - has a contract with Texaco Chevron to protect local oil deposits from insurgents in that country's Cabinda enclave. On top of private security and other security-related services, some companies also offer to seek out and neutralise mines and ammunition left after the war. You can presume that this service is specifically provided for economic purposes, not humanitarian ones.

Destruction? Reconstruction!

Once the bombs have destroyed the infrastructure, companies are hired to rebuild the country. In this game, Halliburton--and its subsidiary Kellog, Brown and Root - have won the prize in Iraq. This infrastructure also includes the detention centres where the US army holds prisoners. Bechtel (construction and engineering) is not a loser either, with a first $680 million contract followed by a $1.8 million one to be shared with Parson and Horne Engineering. Halliburton also got $900 million from US government contracts in other parts of the world such as Afghanistan and the Balkans. In Afghanistan, the French company Alcatel is one of the main telecommunications system providers.

The concrete manufacturing company Lafarge bought up all the factories of that kind in Serbia.

Because of the urgency of rebuilding war-torn infrastructure, the contracts are often overpriced, thus encouraging many companies' interest in getting into this market.

Investing in war

War and tensions imply a very profitable arms race for arms traders. Banks know this well, and are very keen to profit from it. The only problem is uncertainty, which the market doesn't like. A French financial expert was saying in March 2003, "When we get ready for war, as we are now, shares fall; but we expect them to rise again as soon as the first bombs are dropped on the enemy." In February 2002, Merrill Lynch, the famous US investment institution, published a note saying that a military campaign in 2002 or 2003 against the Saddam Hussein regime would profit companies producing ammunition. That same note was trying to study the various possible scenarios, not all of them being profitable in the same way. Alliant Techsystems was an overall winner, whilst Raytheon was favourite for air attacks - as opposed to General Dynamics for a ground invasion.

If Iraq could bring down enough allied planes, Boeing and Lockheed would profit from it - unless attacks like those of 11 September 2001 resulted, in which case the fall of the civilian market could balance the rise of the military one... Aaaargh. Uncertainty really gets too hard to handle.

Anyway, war being profitable, temptation is very high; but something else has become fashionable (and therefore profitable as well): ethical investment.

Money-making professionals can't lose any opportunity, so you have to be able to invest in arms trade companies at the same time as offering ethical bonds. Axa thought this dual approach would not be a problem, until a Belgian campaign challenged it at the company's AGM ("My Money Clear Conscience").

The media at war Let's just remember the attitude of Fox News in 2003 to understand how much the media can profit from a war - even pushing for it, if necessary. Al-Jazeera has also got famous and gained more viewers through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In any country, most commercial publishers - whether through television, radio, web or paper - have been profiting from wars.

Of course, not every conflict is money-making, so some are unknown or become forgotten by the general public - in particular if TV misses the live drama. So, for example, the Chechen conflict in Russia will reappear in the media when school pupils or a theatre audience next become visible hostages ... with commercials alternating with the news specials.

Tikiri, French activist

Events related to War Profiteers

Aug 27- Sep 10: Coulport Disarmament Camp: More information at www.tridentploughshares.org

Sept 10: DSEi, Beat the Bombers! Party for peace. Gather 1pm for location information www.disarmtrade.org/. Cancel the arms fair. 2pm-4:30 pm.
Musical Protest outside the Excel Centre, next to Custom House, DLR Station.

Sept 11: DSEi Counter-Conference:
Organised by CAAT, this is a day of talks, workshops, films, trainings and networking at Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial Street. London E1 ( Nearest Tube Aldegate East)

Sept 13: DSEi 2005 Mass demostration against DSEi arms fair. Assemble 12 noon, Newham Town Hall (near East Ham Tube) London, and march to the Excel Centre in London's Docklands.

Sept 14: DSEi Critical Mass Bike Ride. Meet 8:30 am, Bank Station London, cycle to the Excel Centre.

Sept 24: March on Washington, End the War on Iraq. 11 AM at Washington Monument.

Sept 26: Grassroot Lobby day and mass nonviolent direct action, as part of the three days of antiwar actions on the weekend of sept 24 - 26th United for Peace and Justice is organizing a mass nonviolent direct action at the White House on that Monday morning. For more information www.unitedforpeace.org

Oct 22-24: Weekend of Action against Rolls Royce in Derby, UK. For more information www.derby.peacepages.co.uk

Oct 29-31: Cuartas Jornadas de Nonviolencia Activa. In Donostia, San Sebastian Spain. For more information www.noviolenciaactiva.org

The Military Industrial Complex:
How to research corporate connections

In his Farewell Address in January 1961, American President Dwight D Eisenhower said: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted.

Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." Some see this speech as a historical relic to be brushed off occasionally, if for no other reason than to recall a time when Presidents spoke in complete sentences that were comfortable in their mouths. But the military industrial complex continues to flourish and endanger liberties and the democratic process.

How can we be alert and knowledgeable citizens (in Eisenhower's words) but not (as he suggests) for the purpose of compelling the proper meshing of industry and military, rather to begin the process of dismantling an offensive and criminal military? Research and analysis is needed. The web is a treasure trove of information; it can also be a wild good chase. Treat information from unfamiliar websites with the same care as emails that begin, "Dear Sir, we have an investment opportunity for you..." Here are a few introductory sites for research.

1. Top 100 List. Every year, the Department of Defense publishes information on its contractors. The list, which provides details on the "Pentagon's Top 100 Contractors," should be your first stop in research.

From it you can ascertain which companies are receiving the largest contracts, how much contracts have increased or decreased from the past year, and get a more detailed picture on what sort of contracts a company and their subsidiaries are receiving. http://web1.whs.osd.mil/peidhome/procstat/p01/fy2004/top100.htm

The Arms Trade Resource Center's Dollar Shift: The Iraq War and the Changing Face of Pentagon Contracting is drawn almost exclusively from the Pentagon's Top 100 List. The Issue Brief was published in February 2005 and is available on our website at http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/Top102005Report.html

2. Military Contracts Information. The Defense Department posts contracts valued at $5 million or more each business day at 5 p.m. And archives them on its site. http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/ At http://www.defenselink.mil/search/ you can search contracts by company or weapons system.

3. The Company's Website. These companies are proud of what they do, and bank on activists not paying attention or not having the stomach to slog through the techno-speak to get to the heart of the matter. From their corporate websites, one can sign-up for regular press releases, delivered right to your inbox.

4. News Searches. Most public or university libraries have Lexus Nexus, ProQuest, or other databases to search newspaper articles for information on companies. Sites like Google News have a "clipping service" function that will send articles with certain key words into your email inbox. Visit Google News Alerts http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en to set up a clipping service for your company there.

From regular news and business reports, an intrepid researcher can find out some of the issues facing a particular company.

Maybe their union is on strike or they are under investigation for selling prohibited technology to Iran or China. Perhaps one of their heavily subsidized gold-ticket programs failed another test or crashed because of a malfunction, or a particularly gruesome attack on civilians in Iraq is the result of one of the company's "laser targeted for pin-point accuracy" weapons going astray. You can learn that their new CEO, brought in to "clean house and restore integrity," has been forced to resign because of an adulterous affair with a subordinate or that the newest Board Member just left the a position in the White House or the Senate. All of this information helps develop a more complete picture of the company.

5. Once you have basic information on what sort of contracts your company is getting and have a sense of the big issues facing them, one can round out the picture with the money factor: Who gets? Who gives? Who is asking for what? Take a trip to The Center for Responsive Politics' Open Secrets site where you can search for your company's campaign contributions to elected officials (and lots more). http://www.opensecrets.org/

6. Finally, The National Priorities Project's website has a lot of tools to help you make arguments about how military spending is stripping your community of needed resources. http://www.nationalpriorities.org/

The military industrial complex is everywhere and yet it is elusive.

Companies like General Electric don't "bring good things" and the bomb to life, making light bulbs and nuclear triggers at the same time. Mounting consumer boycotts, the way activists did 30 years ago is no longer all that effective or possible. We need new strategies.

There are some pretty sophisticated campaigns stigmatizing corporations doing business in places like the Sudan and Israel.

Applying those "name and shame" tactics to corporations manufacturing weapons of mass destruction and robbing communities of precious resources is a useful avenue to explore.

Some of the others tools include: Public witness: increasing the political cost of profiting from war; Shareholder campaigns: education and advocacy in the corporate boardroom; Campaigns to strip merchants of death of their "corporate personhood:" lengthy legal arguments but brilliant political theater.

Useful and important sites

Top nine weapons companies

For more information

Frida Berrigan is a Senior Research Associate with the Arms Trade Resource Center of the World Policy Institute, a member of the War Resisters League Executive Committee, and a convenor of WRL's Anti-Militarism Campaign.

1 December Prisoners for Peace Day

Every year for 1 December - International Prisoners for Peace Day - War Resisters' International compiles a list of people imprisoned for conscientious objection or nonviolent action for peace.

This year, the focus will be on Eritrea, a country destroyed by war and an authoritarian regime, and where the only option for conscientious objectors - men and women - is to flee the country.

Please order the campaign pack (available early in November) in English, Spanish, French or German.

More information on Eritrea at http://wri-irg.org/news/2005/eritrea-en.htm

Stop War Profiteers
War is a crime against humanity

For the past year, War Resisters' International has been developing a new Nonviolence Programme. The overarching aim of the Nonviolence Programme is to strengthen and deepen our understanding of nonviolence, nonviolent strategies, and nonviolent campaigning, and to develop and provide tools and support to groups using nonviolence (see Broken Rifle No.65).

One aspect of this work is the development of resources for WRI's Campaign Against War Profiteers.

At the World Social Forum in Mumbai in January 2004 Arundhati Roy called for the movement "to be the resistance to the occupation of Iraq", and to focus on two major corporations profiteering from the occupation.

WRI will take Arundhati Roy's call, and raise awareness that war profiteers are a cause of war.

WRI's antimilitarist demand is not just "take profit out of war", but to denounce war profiteering because " war is a crime against humanity". As the aggregate policy-making power of these companies is so great that, instead of saying "they make profit from war" it is more accurate to say "they make war for profit". It is then understood that profits of war are a cause of war.

The process of developing the campaign started at the 2004 Ohrid Council where we started searching for possible goals and strategies. At the 2005 Council meeting in Seoul, we discussed how to respond to Arundhati Roy's call to focus on two major combinations and provide support for regional and local campaigns.

WRI has presented two public forums on the campaign. The workshop on "Privatization of the Military/War Profiteers" at the 2004 Ohrid Seminar and the "Nonviolent Campaign Against War Profiteers" workshop at the 2004 European Social Forum served as both education forums and opportunities to solicit ideas.

WRI's Campaign Against War Profiteers will be a combination of an international campaign focused on two corporations, and a resource for local campaigns.

The Nonviolence Programme can provide coordination, including a sharing of strategies, but the campaign itself will be a collection of local campaigns not a single focused campaign out of a central office. The campaign needs to be based in the WRI network, but we also want to go beyond our network and work with groups in the globalisation from below movements and groups on the movement against arms trade.

Part of the coordination process is creating slogans and a logo that local campaigns can adopt. In this process we have come up with two slogans for the campaign. The basic slogan "Stop War Profiteers. War is a crime against humanity" to be used in the logo of the campaign.

A second slogan "Someone is making a killing from war" can be used to expose corporation, making them visible by naming them e.g. "Sodexho is making a killing from war". This can be used on banners, flyers, stickers, etc.

Challenges

It is a challenge to decide which corporations to pick among the many war profiteers.

We only have the capacity to focus on two companies on the international level. There are many kinds of war profiteers - weapons manufactures, mercenaries, reconstruction firm, banks who lend to them, etc.

Many of the war profiteers involved in Iraq are US companies, and there is the danger of anti-US sentiment in organizing against those companies. But US corporations are dominating and we need to address that. It is important that we also understand this is a universal problem, and we should look at how European companies are involved as well. This is a campaign against all war profiteers, not just those involved in Iraq. Local groups will decide what war profiteers to campaign against. Some may focus on the international corporations chosen, while others will choose companies based in or most affecting their region. Organizing on a local level can be difficult because jobs are provided by these companies.

It is important that this campaign does not duplicate the work of the arms trade network, but to strengthen the work against profiteering from war.

A critical challenge in developing a Campaign Against War Profiteers is identifying achievable goals. Are we really trying to shut down a company that profits from war? If we can shut a corporation down, won't someone else then do the work? If we can seriously affect one company, wouldn't that send a message to others, especially those others that are the focus of campaigns? In searching for achievable goals, we need to find strategies to combat their influence.

Opportunities

What are the opportunities and situations we can use as we work on this campaign? WRI's strength is raising moral issues as a spark for actions, and profiting from war is a moral issue. WRI's fundamental critique--war is a crime against humanity--now more than ever needs to be put forward. As the death toll mounts in Iraq, and the "reasons" for the war are exposed as lies, the issue of who benefits from war needs to raised.

Post-war reconstruction is needed to give legitimacy to armed intervention. War profiteers are corporation that destroy, "protect" and "rebuild".

And it is the war profiteers who promote the wars for their profits.

Corporations that profit from war do not want to be seen for what they do. Visibility is one of the vulnerabilities for these corporations. They try to hide, they do not want the public to know that they are making a killing on war. Making this visible makes them more vulnerable.

Strategies that the campaign is developing

Joanne Sheehan, WRI Chair
Javier Gárate, WRI Staff member

A WRI Wiki

War Resisters' International launches a new WRI Wiki on its website - have a look at http://wri-irg.org/wiki, and create your own Wiki account!

Experienced and beginning Wiki users are welcome to come on board. Please make sure to create an identity and log in to every session. You need to be logged in to write new messages or edit existing messages, though you are free to look around the site as an anonymous guest.

What is WRI Wiki? A Wiki is a web based collaboration tool - many might have heard of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. On a Wiki, everyone can edit a text, add a new text, and so WRI activists can together create a useful resource on the web. So far, WRI staff "populated" the Wiki with a few articles on war profiteers. But there are no limits.

You can add whatever you want, as long as it is related to WRI.

Although the WRI Wiki has been started mostly in English, you are welcome to add texts in other languages.

War Resisters' International hopes that the Wiki will improve the cooperation among WRI activists, and will create a joint resource on nonviolence and antimilitarism. But, in the end, it all depends on YOU.

Check it out at http://wri-irg.org/wiki

Globalising Nonviolence

War Resisters' International Conference
Schloss Eringerfeld
Paderborn, Germany 23-27 July 2006

The War Resisters' International conference "Globalising Nonviolence" will be a great opportunity to meet activists from all over the world, to get to know what makes them tick, and to see how you can help each make another world possible.

Around the world, a movement of movements is converging.

This movement seeks to counterpose the perspective and values of people's power for those of global financial institutions, transnational corporations or governments. This is a movement of globalisation from below.

WRI belives that nonviolence has a major role to play in this globalisation from below.

Hence the theme of our upcoming international conference - Globalising Nonviolence.

For more information go to www.globalisingnonviolence.org

The Broken Rifle

The Broken Rifle is the newsletter of War Resisters' International, and is published in English, Spanish, French and German.This is issue 67, September 2005.

This issue of The Broken Rifle was produced by Javier Gárate. Special thanks go to Howard Clark, Tikiri, Frida Berrigan, Joanne Sheehan, and others who provided the information used in this issue. If you want extra copies of this issue of The Broken Rifle, please contact the WRI office, or download it from our website.

War Resisters' International, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX, Britain tel +44-20-7278 4040; fax+44-20-7278 0444; info@wri-irg.org; http://wri-irg.org/pubs/br67-en.htm