War Resisters' Stories

We're excited to announce the launch of a new book on conscientious objection (CO), written by and for CO movements worldwide. Learning from the lived experience of activists, the aim is to help movements work together, surmount the external challenges they face, and enhance the concept of conscientious objection. The book is almost ready to go – but we need your help to get it printed! The book will be available for free online, but we’d also like to make printed copies, especially for those activists who don’t have safe access to the internet. That’s why we’ve made this crowdfunder. If you support this crowdfunder, you’ll receive your own copy of the book, and if you give a little more, we’ll also send a copy to a CO movement. Please share this crowdfunder widely so others can do the same. Thank you. Support the crowdfunder here.

This week, we are saying goodbye to Elisa Haf, who's been working part-time from the WRI office for the past year, as a Quaker Peace and Social Witness Peaceworker. Elisa's main project is the book Conscientious Objection: A Practical Companion for Movements - which you can help print through this crowdfunder. As well as taking on this complex and important piece of work (and completing it brilliantly), Elisa has been undertaking many other tasks in the office, and is going to be really missed. Thank you, Elisa for your massive contribution this year: your commitment, conversation, humour and taste in music!

The “largest exercise of NATO since the end of the Cold War”1, will take place in October and November in Italy, Portugal, and the State of Spain. The Trident Juncture will see over 36,000 soldiers from more than 30 countries will take part in Italy, Portugal, and the State of Spain, and more than half of them – 20,000 soldiers – will do so in the State of Spain. There are initiatives by the pacifist and antimilitarist movement of Andalucía to organise civil disobedience actions in Barbate (Amphibian Training Range of the Sierra del Retín) with the support of Alternativa Antimilitarista.MOC in the state of Spain and with the European Antimilitarist Network. Other groups are organising protests in Zaragoza (the National Training Centre of San Gregorio) and in Barcelona.

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This September, one of the world’s biggest arms fairs arrives at London’s ExCeL centre. The arms fair, due to take place on 15-18 September, involves more than 1000 companies and 30,000 attendees. A week of action will take place in the week before the fair, from 7 – 12 September, to make it as difficult as possible for it to go ahead. Each day different groups will be organising actions highlighting the different impacts of the arms trade and repression. Many groups will be using the #WarStartsHere slogan, also used by the European Antimilitarist Network.

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The latest edition of The Broken Rifle focuses on the militarisation of borders, looking at how militarism is playing out at state boundaries on air, land and sea, and how this connects to other issues. It also looks at what is being done to bring a humane, demilitarised response to these spaces. You can subscribe to receive it future editions of The Broken Rifle here.

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