War starts here

Alongside other peace activists, WRI members from around Europe are in court in London from next Monday on trial for their disruption of the DSEI arms fair in September last year.   Anyone available to join us in solidarity in the Court next week, check out Stop The Arms Fair Facebook event for info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1716179711938981/   Use #stopDSEI to share you solidarity with Javier, Bram, Luis and others in the run up to their court appearance next week.

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". 

Pacifists in Europe will be travelling to Paris in June to protest the Eurosatory arms fair. Some will travel as part of a pilgrimage from Germany, via Strasbourg and arms factories. There will be actions on train stations as delegates arrive, vigils, and a demonstration on Tuesday 14th June at 6.30pm at Les Invalides. Follow @noneurosatory on twitter and sign their petition online. Also this week in Wales, activists have been disrupting the Defence Procurement, Research, Technology and Exportability Fair in Cardiff. The event was previously held in nearby Bristol, but had to be moved because of protests here. Find photos here.

Read more, or write to noneurosatory2@gmail.com for more info...

“Every bomb that is dropped, every bullet that is fired, has to be made somewhere. And wherever that is, it can be resisted.”

Smash EDO

For anyone involved in anti-militarist campaigning, the Seeds of Hope action has almost mythical status. Not only as an extremely radical and inspiring action; but as an example of how a jury's verdict can be decided on moral grounds on the basis of trying to prevent a greater crime. I have been running direct action trainings for a few years and I don't think there's a single one where Seeds of Hope didn't get mentioned, and its reach extends far beyond the anti-militarist movement.

At the end of the Stopping the War Business international seminar, three participants shared their reflections from the meeting. Here they are below.

Tuuli Vuori

It's good to be in South Korea. I'm from a country which still maintains conscription and I've used half of my life working with issues related to conscientious objection. That is one reason why it feels so special to be in Seoul, as I've heard so much about the campaings that our South Korean friends have been doing here.

Anyway, war profiteering is not the strongest area of my knowledge so I've learned a lot during this seminar. Thanks for the really interesting keynote speakers as well as workshops!

In this seminar we discussed about the consecuenses of war profiteering for the individual people. We also discussed about the vast and dark structures of the war profiteering. Sometimes these structures make me feel very small.

New Zealand is a place often associated with its nuclear-free position, and it rates highly on the global peace index. In spite of a relatively bucolic lifestyle downunder, New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, plays host to an annual weapons conference in November where about 550 delegates representing 165 companies converge for an annual weapons conference. Activists blockade the entrance to the weapons conference

Angie Zelter, Trident Ploughshares, 9th November 2015

Trident Ploughshares received the call-out to to oppose the Trident Juncture military exercise and decided to take part. After all, it was the biggest NATO exercise for 10 years, was about intervening in Africa and included a large contingent of UK military forces. The UK Minister of Defence was to visit the UK forces and it seemed right that UK anti-militarists should support their Spanish colleagues and explain that we, as global citizens, were against NATO and his visit was not in our name. We also wanted to support and strengthen our European network.

Happening now: direct action against NATO's Trident Juncture military exercises that are taking place across Spain, Italy and Portugal.

Members of the European Antimilitarist Network join antimilitarists from state of Spain.

Follow #TJ15 #WarStarstHere #OTANno on social media for updates

 

 

On Friday 16th October, a group of Antimilitaristes-moc activists blockaded tanks destined for usage in the Trident Juncture military exercises (war games). Two activists unveiled banners with the words “War Stops Here” and “Sorry for the inconvenience: obstructing war preparations”, four more activists rapidly chained themselves with lock-on tubes to the tracks of two Danish Leopard tanks parked due to be transported to the main manoeuvre site of San Gregorio (Zaragoza). Six people were arrested and released later with charges.

This weekend activists from across Europe will be protesting the Trident Juncture NATO exercises. Follow #WarStartshere #OTAN #TJ15 on social media for news.

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Hosted by our Korean affiliate World Without War, this month in Seoul WRI held our Council meeting and co-hosted an international seminar 'Stopping the War Business'. Presentations from the seminar will be posted online (watch the first - Andrew Feinstein giving and introduction to the arms trade - here), and a special edition of War Profiteers News will follow. After the seminar, we took action against the ADEX arms fair, disrupting the arms dealers' welcome dinner. At the Council meeting, four new organisations were accepted into membership of WRI as associates. See photos here.

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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”

After the Stopping the War Business seminar, WRI and World Without War activists took action to disrupt the welcome dinner for the ADEX arms fair in Seoul.

Inside the hotel that was hosting the dinner, activists held banners, chanted 'Stop Arms Trade', and flung money strewn with 'blood' on the ground. They were forceably removed by security, but caught the attention of over around 100 'VIPs', arms dealers and members of the military.

Outside, protesters held a rally, with speakers, songs, a die-in and a dance, in full view of the buses of arms dealers arriving for the dinner.