War Resisters' International: against all militarism at the 2007 World Social Forum

Dear member and supporter of War Resisters' International,

With our February appeal we want to focus on the presence that War Resisters' International had at the recent 2007 World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi, Kenya.

The WSF, that started in 2001 in Porto Alegre as a response to the World Economic Forum in Davos, has gone through different phases, with the aim to make it more effective in the struggle for social change. The latter one taking place for the first time as one big WSF in the African continent with the goal to strengthen the African social movements.

Since the beginning, WRI has taken part of the World Social Forum, with different levels of participation. For this year War Resisters' International made a special effort to be present to promote and to make more visible the perspective of antimilitarism and nonviolence. You will find in our latest Broken Rifle an article dedicated to the discussion of why an antimilitarist perspective is important for all social movements, including the World Social Forum.

In Kenya for this WSF, War Resisters' International had a delegation of 10 persons, from 4 different continents, 6 different decades, 4 women and 6 men, some coming more from an academic nonviolent background, others antimilitarist activist, and conscientious objectors themselves. During the week of activities WRI held 3 seminars: "African Perspective on Nonviolence", "Against all Militarism" and "Eritrea: Human Rights and Antimilitarism".

We want to bring your attention to the latter one. As you know WRI for years has been supporting conscientious objectors in Eritrea where military service is obligatory and unlimited both for men and women. Almost the only option for COs is to flee the country. Even their families suffer persecution because of their sons' and daughters' struggles. At the WSF we had two representatives of the human rights and antimilitarist movement to speak out about the critical situation of their country. This seminar could not take place, as during the previous days of the WSF, we learn that a group of officials from Eritrean government were taking part in the event. If our speakers would have carried on and spoke in the seminar the least that they would suffer would be the withdrawal of their passports, which would have meant that they would have been trapped in Kenya. Most likely their families in Eritrea would have suffered as is a common practice in Eritrea to go after the relatives of the COs as a way to pressure them. You can read more about the situation in Eritrea in both in Broken Rifle No 73 and also on our 2005 edition of Prisioners for Peace which focused on Eritrea - Broken Rifle No 68.

To keep supporting conscientious objectors in Eritrea as well as continue our work promoting nonviolence and antimilitarism we kindly ask you to support the work of War Resisters' International

Thank you,

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