WRI network

Narayan Desai, 1924-2015

We mourn with sadness the passing of Narayanbhai - teacher, trainer, author, spinner: total revolutionary. We celebrate a long life rich in history though never in funds, Narayan grew up in Gandhi's ashram, the son of Gandhi's personal secretary and biographer, Mahadev Desai. A devotee of Jayaprakash (JP) Narayan's work and call for TOTAL REVOLUTION, Narayanbhai set up the Institute for Total Revolution after JP's passing in 1979. He was a founder of the World Peace Brigades and Peace Brigades International, a chairperson of the War Resisters International, and a leader of India's Shanti Sena (Peace Army) and many other organizations and movements. From 2007 until very recently, he held the post of Chancellor of the Gujarat Vidyapith, the Ahmedabad university founded by Gandhi in 1920.

There will be many changes in the WRI office this year. Firstly, we say goodbye to Javier Gárate after ten years working in the office. There will be a chance to say goodbye and thank you to Javier next month! Taking over from Javier as WRI's Nonviolence Programme Worker in mid-February will be Andrew Dey.

Also for the first time, thanks to support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, we are able to appoint a part-time staff person dedicated to the Countering the Militarisation of Youth Programme, which up until now has been part of the Right to Refuse to Kill Programme. Semih Sapmaz will be starting 2 days/week in the WRI office from February. We will be fundraising to ensure this role continues beyond the one year we have already funded.

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!

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

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.

International Conference of WRI co-hosted by Ceasefire Campaign, Cape Town, South Africa, 4 - 8 July 2014

On Friday, 4 July 2014, in Cape Town City Hall, the international conference 'SMALL Actions - BIG Movements' will begin. Health-permitting, Archbishop Desmond Tutu will open the conference in an event open to the general public.

Co-organised with our affiliate Ceasefire Campaign, the other supporting organisations in South Africa are: Embrace Dignity, working against the exploitation of prostitution and sex-trafficking, and the Action Support Centre, based in Soweto which is the African regional hub of a global network of organisations and individuals committed to transforming conflict.

GALZ (Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe) staff Ellen Chadamena and Ignatius Muhambia were bailed on Thursday, 27 May, and will have a "remand" hearing on 10 June, before appearing in the high court on 18 June. They face charges of ‘insulting the office of the President’ and allegedly possessing ‘pornographic material’. Their lawyer told press that they would be medically examined "so that we can pursue an action against the people who were responsible for the beatings and torture.”

The Nonviolence Programme of War Resisters' International needs your support to continue working promoting nonviolence within the social movement, especially the movement for global justice and the wider peace movement.

As WRI's friend, Brian Martin states: “Nonviolence is an incredibly powerful tool to bring about a better world. Yet governments spend billions in funding violence -- military forces -- and give hardly any support to nonviolence. In the face of this imbalance, groups promoting nonviolence play an absolutely vital role.

Grace Paley, the American short-story writer and pacifist, has died aged 84.

For Participants in the WRI/New Profile Seminar om “Gender and Militarism”, Wahat al-Salam/Neveh Shalom 23-26 August 2007

From

Uri Davis, Sakhnin & Ramle, e-mail address: uridavis@actcom.co.il

Dear Friends,

At the outset, allow me salute you at the achievement of the above Seminar in Wahat al-Salam/Neveh Shalom.

As most or all of you might be aware, you arrive in a country named Palestine ripped apart by a conflict between a settler colonial apartheid state named the State of Israel and the

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.

WRI homepage > WRI Network > Prisoners for Peace Appeal > Prisoners for Peace 2005

Dear member and supporter of War Resisters' International,

Welcome to our Prisoners for Peace Day appeal, this year with a focus on the situation in Eritrea.