Network News

During the NATO exercise Trident Juncture 2015 the alliance will practice military interventions in North Africa Marines from the US train in la Sierra del Retin, Barbate

The NATO exercise Trident Juncture 2015 will take place during October 2015 and until early November in Italy, Portugal, and the State of Spain. According to a variety of sources, this will be the “largest exercise of NATO since the end of the Cold War”1, “largest exercise conducted by the Alliance since 2002” (…) and “the Alliance’s most important exercise in 2015”2, or “the largest deployment of the Alliance in the last decade”3. The exercise consists of two clearly distinguished phases, a command post exercise (CPX, 3-16 October) and a phase of real action (Live Exercise, LIVEX, 21 October-6 November).

We, peace and human rights organizations, declare our support and solidarity with No to Compulsory Military Service Movement and with the Egyptian conscientious objector, Mark Nabil Sanad. We condemn the silence of Egypt’s authorities over conscientious objectors’ suffering. We call on the Egyptian authorities to restore his civil rights and to recognize his right to an exemption from the military service based on his conscientious beliefs.

Social networking sites have played a huge role in civil resistance in recent years, and they're not going anywhere! A lot WRI's network of affiliates are using social media, and this is a great way to find out news from different countries quickly, and be able to amplify their requests for solidarity and action amongst your contacts too. We've added social media accounts to our information on affiliates here. Those of you on Twitter can also sign up to subscribe to our list of WRI affiliates here. You can also of course follow WRI onTwitter, Facebook and Diaspora.

More info...

The Limousin group of Union Pacifiste, a member of the French section of War Resisters' International, learn with huge pain of the attack against our old friends of Charlie Hebdo, which killed twelve people, including the well known cartoonists and journalists Cabu, Wolinski, Charb, Tignous and Bernard Maris. The souls of these pacifists expressed themselves through pencil and pen, struggling and denouncing all kinds of recruitment by religious, societal or economic fanaticisms. Weapons ended their lives.

When spirit, heart, intelligence and humour leave the human being, it is violence that enters the scene. This violence is, of course, found in assassins, but it is also found in this militarized society, which manufactures war here for export over the whole world, in order to protect, hypocritically, the interests of French arms dealers, under the guise of patriotic values.

In the WRI office we are looking for a volunteer to help us reconnect with War Resisters' International affiliates.

WRI is first and foremost a network, so it is important for the office to be in touch with WRI affiliates, but this can be difficult with all other tasks we do in the office. The goal of the work of the volunteer would be to make the WRI network more integrated (with each other and with the WRI office in London) and dynamic. With a stronger network, we can do more together!

For over 100 days, a black-led movement for justice in Ferguson, Missouri, has come out every single night in response to the murder of Michael Brown. Today, 400 National Guard troop members stand ready—under the “state of emergency” banner— as a militarized force ready to repress and intimidate a peaceful resistance movement.

This “state of emergency” has allowed for the Department of Homeland Security to spend over $3 million dollars in the St. Louis area through the Urban Area Security Initiative. These millions have allowed more than 1,000 officers to undergo some 5,000 hours in crowd control trainings, and have outfitted these officers with $172,000 worth in riot gear, tear gas, grenades, pepper balls and plastic handcuffs (Democracy Now!)

WRI has welcomed VİCDANİ RET DERNEĞİ (VR-DER) -  the Conscientious Objection Association in Turkey - as an associate member. You can find their details on the list of affiliates here.

NO to continued war in Iraq!

War Resisters League resists all war-making and militarism, regardless of US Congressional approval. The crisis unfolding in Iraq will not be solved by military action and air strikes. It will not be solved by arming forces in Iraq with “Hellfire” missiles nor by neoliberal development policies. It will not be solved by forces that reduce the humanity in Iraq to sectarian factions or powerless victims caught between geopolitical conflicts. It will not be solved by congratulating ourselves for predicting the outcome of sanctions, invasion, and occupation nor by simply historicizing this devastating moment.

We republish in English a statement from Bund für Soziale Verteidigung, a WRI affiliated in Germany. Find the original (in German) here: http://www.soziale-verteidigung.de/news/meldungen/pressemitteilung-zur-…

On the Situation in Ukraine

Minden, 5. March 2014

We are observing the developments in the Ukraine with great concern; in particular, the ways

some media outlets and politicians are currently stirring up a revival of the East-West conflict.

Once more the world is divided into 'good' and 'bad'. The 'good guys are the uprising people of Ukraine, who demonstrated for democracy and association to (and membership of) the European Union. The 'bad guys' are once again 'the Russians', who are trying to stop this process through violence and the threat of military intervention in Ukraine. Neither is wrong, but the picture is much more complex. In fact, many protesters demonstrated on the Maidan because they were fed up with the corruption and arbitrary rule of the government of Yanukovych. They see themselves as only partly represented by the opposition parties – a strong element of the protests of recent weeks was the distrust people felt against all parties and all politicians.

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

Bund für Soziale Verteidigung, Germany
Schwarzer Weg 8, 32423 Minden; Tel +49 571 29456 ; office@soziale-verteidigung.de; http://soziale-verteidigung.de

Bringing together statements and analysis on January 2013's military interventions in Mali.

Militarized politics at their worst: Mali An article from Peter Dörrie, published by Waging Nonviolence. Mali: Hijacked Autonomy and French Intervention An article from friend of WRI René Wadlow, published by Toward Freedom. Why western intervention is destined to fail in Mali from Ben Zala and Anna Alissa Hitzemann of UK-based Oxford Research Group. The bombing of Mali highlights all the lessons of western intervention by Glenn Greenwald - looking at the west African nation that has become 'the eighth country in the last four years alone where Muslims are killed by the west'. Algeria, Mali and beyond by Paul Rogers: 'The seizure of an international gas-plant in Algeria follows closely the escalation of conflict in Mali. The response of western states to both reinforces the worldview of their Islamist adversaries'. Read the full article on openDemocracy

-------------------------------

Mali: peace is not war!

Statement from WRI section Union pacifiste de France. Also available in French here.