Please find the outline programme for the Antimilitarist Roots conference below.

Participants will receive information about how to register for the workshops and theme groups in June by email.

For information on how to join the plenaries with speakers, please click here.

Thursday 15th June, 7-9pm: African Roots: War resistance and peacebuilding in the global south

Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9DX

Speakers

• Moses Monday John (South Sudan Organization for Nonviolence and Development);
• Sherly Fabre (Haiti/USA International Fellowship of Reconciliation);
• Matt Meyer (International Peace Research Association);
• and Selam Kidane (Eritrean human rights activist)

The Pan African Nonviolence and Peace-building Network (PANPEN) was founded in 2012 around planning meetings for the War Resisters' International South African Assembly. Since then, the network has served as a centre for African grassroots groups and individuals as well as Afro-descendents and their allies throughout the Diaspora. The dynamism of revolutionary nonviolence evident in south-south collaborations and sharing of best practices remained evident at PANPEN's tenth anniversary meetings held in Juba, South Sudan last November. This evening - produced in cooperation with PANPEN, WRI, and The International Peace Research Association (IPRA) - will review the history and future prospects of strategic civil resistance throughout Africa and the Global South.

Friday 16th June-Sunday 18th June, Antimilitarist Roots: Nonviolent resistance for a world in crisis

Speaker bios

Chief Namoks (John Ridsdale)

Chief Na’Moks is a Hereditary Chief of the Tsayu (Beaver Clan), one of the Five Clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. The Traditional Name he carries is thousands of years old, as a Matrilineal Society, his grandmother carried the same name and wore the very same Regalia. The duties of Hereditary Chiefs are to protect the entirety of the 22,000 square Kilometers of Wet’suwet’en Territories they are responsible for, and to protect them for the generations yet to come. The authorities and jurisdiction of the Hereditary Chiefs have not changed, both pre and post-contact.

Sahar Vardi

Sahar Vardi is an anti-militarism and anti-occupation activist from Jerusalem. She is a conscientious objector, and has been part of the Israeli refusal movement for over a decade. In recent years she led the Israel program for the American Friends Service Committee, where she helped establish the Database on Israeli Military and Security Export, and developed research and campaigns against Israeli arms export and the human rights violations associated with the industry. She recently graduated from the Rotary Peace Fellowship at the University of Bradford in the UK where she wrote her dissertation on military climate mitigation plans.

Olga Karach

Olga Karach is a feminist and peacebuilder. She is the head of the Belarusian human rights organization in exile “Our House”, which has been active since 2005. Olga works as a human right defender, supporting the most vulnerable groups, such as women, children, LGBTI, and refugees for years. Olga has been awarded the Human Rights Award of the City of Weimar (Germany), International Bremen Peace Award (Germany), Radebeul Courage Prize in (Germany), Amnesty International (Belarus). Now "Our House" is running a "No means No" campaign to defend the rights of conscientious objectors in Belarus.

Marta Macías

Marta Macías is a 23-year-old climate activist and anti-militarist living in the Spanish State. She is currently a humanities student. She participates in various environmentalist and antimilitarist political movements.

Milan Sekulović

Milan Sekulović is a Montenegrin journalist, environmental and peace activist. He was born and raised on the pastures of Mount Sinjajevina, for whose protection he is fighting today. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Podgorica with a journalism program. In his professional journalistic career, he predominantly deals with topics related to human rights and social justice. Since 2018, he has been a civil activist and fights against the militarization of Mount Sinjajevina, as well as the protection of mountain areas in Montenegro.