WRI affiliate

In the UK, WRI affiliate Trident Ploughshares have held a month of nonviolent action against the construction of nuclear weapons at Burghfield Atomic Weapons Establishment. WRI affiliates from Finland, Germany and Belgium joined Trident Ploughshares for an international blockade, which led to the construction gate being blockaded for over ten consecutive days. Other actions included a successful attempt by faith groups to blockade every entrance, and a mad hatters tea party!

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I spent the weekend in the good company of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO), a European umbrella organisation campaigning for the rights of conscientious objectors. In their 30+ year history, EBCO have never before met in Britain. They chose to on this occasionat the invitation of the First World War Peace Forum, a group of British peace groups working to give an alternative, antimiltiarist view of the centenary memorials to the first World War, which in Britain have been an excuse for nationalism and militarism.

REPRESSIVE RESPONSE AGAINST ANTI-MILITARIST MOC ACTIVISTS FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCEUP TO 12.000 EUROS  FINE AND THE POSSIBILITY OF SEVERAL YEARS JAIL SENTENCE FOR  BLOCKADE IN THE PORT OF SAGUNTO AGAINST NATO MANEUVERS. 

The group of antimilitarists that paralyzed the transport of armoured vehicles to the NATO “Trident Juncture“ manoeuvres last October face accusations of “serious disobedience”, “breach of the peace”, and fines for “intrusion". 

At the WRI Council meeting in Seoul, Korea, the WRI Council was delighted to admit four new associated organisation as members of War Resisters' International:

The Antimilitarist Kollective of Medellín, Colombia: an affinity group that promotes antimilitarism and conscientious objection to war as a way of life and as a way to fight for political and social advocacy. We fight for the transformation towards a more just, inclusive, equitable and humane society which promotes autonomy, self-determination and the freedom of people.

The Centre for Peace Studies, Zagreb, Croatia, is a non-profit citizens’ association whose mission is promoting non-violence, human rights and social change through education, research, public policies and activism. CPS grew out of various direct forms of peace-building activities in the region of western Slavonia during the 1990s war in Croatia (community projects such as The Volunteer Project Pakrac and The Croatian Anti-War Campaign - ARK). It was established in 1997, formally in 1999.

The Community Self Reliance Center, Nepal whose vision is to see a Nepali society where everyone enjoys a secure, free and dignified life. Their mission is to empower land-poor women and men enabling them to claim and exercise their basic rights, including right to land resources, contributing to eradicating poverty and injustice.

The National Land Rights Forum (NLRF), Nepal whose vision is to see a self-reliant farmer community in Nepal, and whose mission is to empower the land-poor people by organizing and conscientizing them to enable to launch struggle against discriminations and claim their farmers’ rights.

We welcome all of them and look forward to working together.

Last Friday, a group of Antimilitaristes-moc activists disrupted the organization of the departure of a military convoy from the port of Sagunto, due to be deployed in war maneuvers in the next few days by army units of more than 30 countries as part of NATO exercise “Trident Juncture 2015”

Members of the RAMALC in solidarity with the victims of AyotzinapaThe Latin American and Caribbean Anti-Militarist Network (RAMALC), in the city of Mexico on September 23, 2015, with representatives from Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Chile, Paraguay Brazil, Bolivia, Serbian anti-militarists and United States, together with their peers from Mexico, would like to express our solidarity with the mothers, fathers and relatives of the 43 student teachers of the Ayotzinapa Rural

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.

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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!)