The Broken Rifle

Gender and militarism is the theme of this issue of The Broken Rifle, coinciding not only with International Day on Conscien­tious Objection – 15 May 2010 – but also with the newest WRI publication "Women Conscien­tious Objectors – An Anthology", edited by Ellen Elster and Maj­ken Jul Sørensen. Although the theme of gender and militarism is not new to WRI, and neither are women conscientious objectors, this is the first issue of The Bro­ken Rifle dedicated to it – long overdue, it can be argued (and rightly so).

15 May – International Day on Conscientious Objection with a focus on Women Conscientious Objectors

During the women's blockade at AWE Aldermaston on 15 February 2010. Photo: Cynthia Cockburn

On Monday 15 February, at the Big Blockade of the Atomic Weapons Esta­blish­ment in Aldermaston, Berkshire, one of the seven gates was blockaded unique­ly by women. A planning group of around ten women had got together to organise the ‘women’s gate’.

War Resisters' International, International Conference Ahmedabad, India, 22 - 25 January, 2010

Background

This was the third International Conference of War Resisters' International held in India, the previous two being in 1960 and 1985. The local hosts were organisations well rooted in the social movement history of India and with whom WRI has had a fruitful tradition of cooperation. They were:

Piecing It Together: Feminism and Nonviolence – a germinal pamphlet from 1983 – is now online at http://wri-irg.org/pubs/Feminism_and_Nonviolence. The Feminism and Nonvio­lence Study Group was a British affiliate of WRI, usu­ally consisting of about eight women activists in a range of grass-roots movements. Some were mainly con­nec­ted with feminist move­ments, others had pacifist roots.

Many women have been active in peace work, both in women-only and mixed groups. Very little attention has been given to the women who have become conscientious objectors as a protest against militarism. War Resisters’ International (WRI) decided to publish “Women Conscientious Objectors – An Anthology” to give the women who declare themselves conscientious objectors a voice. Most of the texts in this book are written by women from different places in the world, and who have made a public declaration of conscientious objection.

Connections and discon­nections: anti­militarism, feminism, women, conscientious objection and contra-hegemonic sexualities – 10/11 May 2010

As part of the activities for 15 May 2010, an inter­national seminar will take place in Asunción, Para­guay, on 10 and 11 May 2010, organised by La comuna de Emma, Chana Y Todas las Demas in coope­ration with a range of other groups from Paraguay and Latin America.

Refusing militarism is not possible without refusing hegemonic masculinity

Andreas Speck, War Resisters' International

“Questioning
the militarist value system and its practices which are identified
with military service, one is also obliged to question the hegemonic
understanding of masculinity. In Turkey, military service is a
laboratory in which masculinity is reproduced. The patriarchal system
is solidified through military service.

The books below are available from the WRI webshop at http://wri-irg.org/webshop.

The Myth of the Military-Nation. Militarism, Gender, and Education in Turkey

By Ayse Gül Altinay
Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-4039-7283-5
£16.99

Conscientious objectors are generally seen as male — as are soldiers. This book breaks with this assump­tion. Women conscientiously object to mili­tary service and militarism. Not only in countries which conscript women — such as Eritrea and Israel — but also in coun­tries without conscription of women. In doing so, they redefine antimilitarism from a feminist perspec­tive, opposing not only militarism, but also a form of antimilitarism that creates the male conscientious objector as the ‘hero’ of antimilitarist struggle.

The Broken Rifle is the newsletter of War Resisters' International, and is pub­lished in English, Spanish, French and German. This is issue 85, April 2010.

This issue of The Broken Rifle was produced by Andreas Speck. Special thanks go to Cynthia Cockburn, Howard Clark, Ellen Elster, Majken Jul Sørensen, and many others.

If you want extra copies of this issue of The Broken Rifle, please contact the WRI office, or download it from our website.

War Resisters' International,
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London N1 9DX,
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