Project proposals approved at the WRI business meeting

• Follow-up to CONCODOC (the CONscription and Conscientious Objection DOCumentation project)
• WRI Online Resource Project
• Indonesia/East Timor working group and mini-seminar tour
• Conference on social empowerment
• Mixed group on gender issues
• Nonviolent blockades of Yugoslav embassies
• Proposals from the Environmental Action theme group
• Proposals from the Identity and Conflict theme group

Responsibility for developing (and, in most cases, carrying out) these projects normally rests
with the proposers. An email contact is given where possible.

Follow-up to CONCODOC (the CONscription and Conscientious Objection DOCumentation project)

As a follow-up of
CONCODOC two activities are proposed: updating country reports and publication
and promotion of CONCODOC on the Internet. NOTE: this part of the project will
be coordinated with the WRI Online Resource Project, as will approaches to
funders for this part of the work.

The final report of CONCODOC - Refusing to bear arms - is on its way to
the printers. For WRI this is a major achievement and a clear indication that
the WRI network is a valuable source for information on the everyday practice
of conscientious objection.

It would be a shame if the documentation would not be kept up-to-date as much
as possible. Furthermore, in today's world it is unthinkable that such
information would not be available on the Internet.

The proposal should be shaped into a two detailed plans for which funds should
be raised, after which the project could start. Although this follow-up period
could be endless, it should end and be reconsidered after three years at the
next Triennial.

The updating would preferably be carried out by a small group of three to five
members from the WRI network, who could each be responsible for the reports of
a particular part of the world. For instance, they could each commit themselves
to work on the updating of some country reports for a few weeks every year.

WRI Online Resource Project

A four-language WRI
website has been running since November 1997, mainly to give information about
the Porec Triennial. Based on our experiences with this site, there are many
other WRI resources which would benefit from electronic distribution. This
project aims to ensure that WRI is able to expand its presence on the Web and
in other electronic media. It is also designed to ensure that those with
limited access to email or the Internet also be able to use online resources.

The resources available on a WRI website/FTP site/mailing list would be almost
exclusively WRI's. These would include the Broken Rifle (all language
versions); updates to the CONCODOC project; post-Triennial reports;
publications lists and links; and updates/urgent actions.

1998.10-1999.03: Funding applications, maintenance of existing website, and
initial gathering of resources for an enhanced website.

1999.03-2000.09: Fully-functioning WRI website.

2000.09-2001.09: Development of other resources, outreach to WRI affiliates to
help develop their sites.

GENERAL NOTE: The project could be an autonomous resource serving both WRI
and Peace News if Peace News Ltd were interested in participating.

Indonesia/East Timor working group and mini-seminar tour

We propose to establish an
Indonesia/East Timor working group in WRI (somewhat along the model of the
existing Turkey/Kurdistan working group).

The goals of the group would be to increase communication and sharing between
WRI and nonviolent activists in Indonesia. Minimally, this would involve
exchanges of information and literature; responding to urgent actions from the
region; ensuring that the high level of coverage in Peace News continues and
that more of the material comes directly from Indonesians and East Timorese;
and fundraising to enable Indonesian and East Timorese activists to attend WRI
events. We would strive to make contact particularly, though not exclusively,
with women activists.

More ambitiously, we would like to try to organize a mini-seminar tour of
Indonesia by two or three international activists from, say, South Africa and
Chile. The international visitors would speak and hold gatherings in several
cities in Indonesia (hopefully in as many regions as possible), and in Dili,
East Timor, on issues around social reconstruction, reconciliation and impunity
- extremely pressing issues in Indonesia and in East Timor at this time.

WRI has many years of accumulated experience and many activists with valuable
insights for Indonesian civil society at this time, as they struggle to emerge
from decades of dictatorship and deal with the damage that has been caused. The
democratization process in Indonesia is still very fragile, and the democracy
movement very isolated, while East Timor is facing the beginning of a long and
difficult peace process and reconstruction. WRI has the resources and the
knowledge to support nonviolent activists in Indonesia, and to learn from them,
extending our network into a region where it is still weak. If we do not take
this opportunity now, it could soon be too late - but if we are able to make
these connections now, then even if the situation in Indonesia worsens, we will
be more able to offer constructive help.

For the first six months, our main tasks will be involving more people, both in
Indonesia and East Timor and internationally, and working on exchanges of
information and literature. We will also explore funding for the mini-seminar
tour.

It should be clear after the first six months if the funding for the tour is
there. If it is, we would aim to hold the tour sometime later in 1999, in time
for it to feed into the social empowerment conference in February 2000.

After this first year, our activities will depend very much on how the
situations in Indonesia and East Timor develop; it is very hard to predict at
this point and so very hard to know what the most appropriate actions will be.
However, we will certainly be fundraising to have at least one Indonesian and
one East Timorese at the social empowerment conference, and also at the
Triennial in 2001.

Conference on social empowerment

A conference on social empowerment, to be held in February
2000 in India (length 6-7 days) has been discussed within WRI council and
executive over the past several years. Howard Clark will be working on a first
draft of the project proposal, including an agenda, during October 1998.
Comments are welcome to the end of November, and the proposal will be discussed
in depth at the December executive. Fundraising work will start in spring 1999.

Mixed group on gender issues

To form an ad hoc group of men and
women (and any other genders if appropriate) to work on the implementation of
proposals arising from the Gender Day at the Triennial over the following year,
and to implement some of the proposals at next year's council meeting. This
work forms part of the WRI Strategic Plan.

Nonviolent blockades of Yugoslav embassies

A nonviolent blockade as a physical siege
around the embassies of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and
Montenegro), under the slogan "Stop the War in Kosovo".

WRI has a long-standing concern over Kosovo, and there is a need to do
something in the short term (aside from the International's long-term
engagement with the Balkan Peace Team) to react to the ongoing war, death, and
suffering.

See also the statement on Kosovo passed at this year's business meeting.

Proposals from the Environmental Action theme group

(incorporated into the Strategic Plan)

• Analyse and campaign on military use of land; support East German groups
  already involved in this.
• Reactivate the WRI Environment working group (no one took on this task)
• Include eco-prisoners in prisoners for peace' listings.
• Write articles for Broken Rifle and Peace News on specific environmental
  work
• The WRI mission statement should include some reference to ecological
  degradation as violence against nature.
• Eco-concerns should be part of the WRI nonviolence and social empowerment
  conference in February 2000.
• Carry out an ecological audit of the Triennial.
• Investigate legal issues around war as a crime against nature.
• WRI and environmental movements should share with and learn from each
  other experience of strategic planning and civil disobedience.

Proposals from the Identity and Conflict theme group

(incorporated into the Strategic Plan).
Continued discussion of identity issues and
their relationship to conflict.

• Involve presently and recently oppressed populations; especially indigenous peoples; also Palestinians from the occupied territories
  • have more contact with the Unrepresented People's Organisation and those
    groups within it interested in nonviolence.
• More discussions/workshops on more narrowly defined topics
  • the relationship of identity conflicts and power relationships
  • aspects of identity other than national feeling and nationalism
  • why group identities may become violent or exclusivist
  • Western identity, Southern identity, Third World identity, ex-East-Bloc
    identity
  • the collective identity at WRI
  • gender identity (a two week workshop?!)
• More discussions which include personal and emotional issues, in a free
  arid safe space
  • Be careful about terminology, work more on defining our terms.

1998 WRI Triennial index page