Editorial

This issue of The Broken Rifle is the last in a series of two devo­ted to WRI's upcoming Interna­tional Conference: “Nonviolent Livelihood Struggle and Global Militarism: Links & Strategies”.
By coming to India, WRI is coming back to one of its refe­rence points as a pacifist network. But returning to India also brings up the opportunity to make new connections, both thematically and geographically.

Thematically, the conference aims to connect different move­ments. Thus, in this issue of The Broken Rifle we introduce the work of CONAMURI/Vía Campe­sina in Paraguay – a network of local community activists that will be represented at the conference – on land and environmental issues. Our aim is to make the link between such community resis­tance and the movement against militarism. At the conference we will be looking at different forms of grassroots nonviolent resistance, as well as at the many faces of militarism, that impacts and deprives local communities of their sources of livelihood.
Wilbert van der Zeijden, the Coordinator of the No Bases Net­work, writes in this issue about the connection between military bases and displacement – a major issue in the Global South, and at the conference – focusing on the spe­cific case of Diego Garcia. Military bases are only one of the many forms and aspects of militarism to be discussed at the conference.
Another important aim of the conference is to foster transna­tional alliances, particularly South—South cooperation. This is why we have made a special effort to bring to the conference a diverse spectrum of grassroots movements from Latin America, Africa and Asia.

We expect the conference to create the appropriate environ­ment for making these connec­tions and we hope that it brings inspiration to everyone who will be joining us.

Javier Gárate