Council

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This year's WRI Council meeting will take place in London in September, coinciding with DSEI - Defence & Security Equipment International - the biggest arms fair in the world. We will take part in actions before and after Council to disrupt the fair.

UK activists: see how you can help international activists to stop DSEI!

The schedule for our events is as follows:

WRI has just held it's annual Council meeting - this year it was held online, and included several public 'webinars', with activists from across the network describing our work. All four webinars were recorded and are available to rewatch.

International responses to Syria (https://vimeo.com/187466355) New worlds in old shells - an introduction to constructive programme (https://vimeo.com/187989283) Stopping the cycle of violence in Turkey (https://vimeo.com/188381517)

Countering the militarisation of youth: examples of resistance (https://vimeo.com/188382465)

Summary

The Stopping the War Business seminar was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on 16 and 17 October, 2015. It was co­hosted by World Without War and War Resisters' International. The seminar provided space for learning about effective tactics used to challenge war profiteers around the world, and forged relationships between campaigners that will inform and enable new campaigns from here onwards. Activists from 21 different countries took part, with 70 participants in total (30 internationals, and 40 Koreans).

Quote from the evaluation: 'I came back with a big bag of knowledge and experiences from different regions that I would very much like to spread the information in my country'

After the seminar, a nonviolence training and then action against the ADEX arms fair took place. The seminar and the actions were deliberately linked, in order to support local activists in their struggle against a local example of war profiteering, and to put the learnings and relationships built up during the seminar into action.

Stopping the War Business, our international seminar on war profiteering, starts in Seoul in two weeks time!

Disrupting war profiteering takes a whole range of activities, from research, lobbying and legal challenges to mobilisation, direct action and creative campaigning techniques. This seminar will provide a space for activists using a whole range of different methods to gather together, learn how a spectrum of tactics interlink and help each other to be more effective.

The seminar is being jointly coordinated by World Without War in Korea and War Resisters' International.

War profiteering

We live in a world where people profit from war. In 2014, Global military expenditure was estimated to be $1776 billion. Lockheed Martin - the world's biggest arms company - sold more than $45.6 billion worth of equipment. The war in Iraq wrenched open the country's economy to contractors of all shapes and sizes.

Arms companies profit from every bomb that falls, and every bullet that's fired. Through occupation, companies have the opportunity to exploit cheap land and lax labour laws. Conflict zones give fossil fuel giants access to new resources to exploit. Militarism means that research funding goes towards developing weapons of war, not finding solutions to global challenges like climate change.

In October 2015 War Resisters' International and our South Korean affiliate World Without War will host an international seminar against war profiteering. This seminar will provide a space for activists using a whole range of different methods to gather together, learn how a spectrum of tactics interlink and help each other to be more effective. The seminar will coincide with a WRI council meeting, and will be followed by a nonviolent direct action against the ADEX arms fair, which will take place in Seoul and is the largest arms fair in the Asia region. For more information and the registration form, visit: /stopping-the-war-business

[an international seminar on war profiteering]  Stopping the War Business talking tactics and linking methods
16 - 17 October 2015: Seoul, Republic of Korea

 

Please register here

For antimilitarists, disrupting war profiteering means knocking out the economic pillars that make war inevitable. It goes far beyond the arms trade (although that is an important part of it), and includes all those who fund and profit from war and militarisation.

Disrupting war profiteering takes a whole range of activities, from research, lobbying and legal challenges to mobilisation, direct action and creative campaigning techniques.

This seminar will provide a space for activists using a whole range of different methods to gather together, learn how a spectrum of tactics interlink and help each other to be more effective. It'll answer questions like 'How can we make our direct action more strategic using research? 'How could a public campaign support our lobbying work?' 'What tools or methods can help my campaign be more effective?'

This international seminar Stopping the War Business will be held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, 16-17th October. The seminar is jointly coordinated by World Without War in Korea and international antimilitarist network War Resisters' International.

City Hall,

Cape Town, South Africa Videos and photos from the conference Report Plenaries Report Theme Groups Conference Reader Calendar of events Practical Information about the conference Conference programme Info on related Events Exhibitions during the conference Resources: prepare for the conference

At the WRI International Conference in Cape Town in July 2014, WRI Assembly appointed Individual Members of WRI Council, and a new WRI Executive.

WRI Council also welcome a new affiliate into membership.

We'd like to announce the Individual Members of WRI Council, and WRI Executive, appointed at the WRI Assembly.

WRI Executive
Chair: Christine Schweitzer Treasurer: Dominique Saillard Cattis Laska Jungmin Choi Hülya Üçpinar Sergeiy Sandler
Individual Council Members     Carlos Barranco, State of Spain     Albert Beale, Britain     Jungmin Choi, South Korea     Moses John, South Sudan     Subhash Chandra Kattel, Nepal     Cattis Laska, Sweden     Lexys Rendón, Venezuela     Miles Rutendo Tanhira, Zimbabwe/Sweden     Igor Seke, Serbia/Mexico     Hülya Üçpinar, Turkey     Sergeiy Sandler, Israel     Stellan Vinthagen, Sweden

WRI Council also includes a representative from each section and a non-voting observer from each associate organisation or publication. See affiliates here.

For more information about the role of WRI's Council, visit: /members/councilduties-en.htm

New affiliate

WRI Council was pleased to approve the application from Peace News Ltd to be an associate publication to WRI. Peace News used to be affiliated to WRI, and only stopped being so when Peace News and WRI worked as the same organisation, so this is a reaffiliation.

The Peace News summer camp is coming up in a few weeks (31 July - 4 August)!

A list of all WRI affiliates is here.

Elections for WRI Council will take place in Cape Town. The following people have been nominated as individually elected Council members:

Carlos Barranco, state of Spain // Albert Beale, Britain // Pelao Carvallo, Paraguay/Chile // Jungmin Choi, Korea //  Estefanía Gómez Vásquez, Colombia // Daniel Jakopovich, Croatia/United Kingdom // Cattis Laska, Sweden // Subhash Chandra Kattel, Nepal // Moses John, South Sudan // Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, South Africa // Lexys Rendón, Venezuela // Rosa Biwangko Moiwend, West Papua // Miles Rutendo Tanhira, Zimbabwe/Sweden // Sergeiy Sandler, Israel // Igor Seke, Serbia/Mexico // Hülya Üçpinar, Turkey // Stellan Vinthagen, Sweden

Read 'What does it mean to be a WRI Council member?' here.

At this September's eCouncil, WRI was glad to accept the applications of four organisations to become affiliated to War Resisters' International.

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