Front Page

1. Introduction

In this report, we present the work that War Resisters' International has been involved in since the international conference in January 2010 in India, and the challenges WRI faces. It describes the staffed programmes, the work in the regions and the work of the WRI bodies – executive and council. Last but not least, it deals with WRI’s finances – an issue of continued concern and worry.

PRESS RELEASE

30 June 2014

For immediate release

Cape Town’s City Hall will host an international conference gathering voices and movements standing against violence and conflict from July 4 to 8.

London-based War Resisters International (WRI), founded in 1921 by conscientious objectors to the First World War, will host the conference with local partner Ceasefire Campaign. Other local partners include Embrace Dignity, Goedgedacht Forum and Action Support Centre.

On 27 June, representatives of the Moroccan government have prohibited entry to 4 representatives of the Basque Support Network to the National Union of Saharawi Women. These were Rosa Baltar Cabo, Amaia Cabero Saizar and two colleagues from the United Kingdom. They travelled with the objective of building networks between the women of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic,territory illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975, and those residing in the refugee camps. In this visit they planned to exchange and share common learning about feminist solidarity.

The delegation from the Basque network denouces this ill-treatment of solidarity and friendship with the Saharawi people. “They were waiting for us, they knew we were travelling and they didn't even let us off the plane nor did they explain why they denied us entry.” Today is a clear example of how Morocco is opposed to the rights of women, and they intend to remain so. The Basque Support Network to the National Union of Saharawi Women affirms it will continue to work with women on both sides of the wall and makes a call to the international community to work together to put an end to Morocco's Occupation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Telephone contact: +34 619988945 (Rosa)

Letter to The Times (see all signatories below)

On this day 100 years ago, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo in an action that led to the First World War. Unchecked militarism in Europe was also a major factor. 

Today is also Armed Forces Day, one of the clearest indications of the re-militarisation of British society. Established in 2009 to increase public support for the forces, there are over 200 public events, many billed as 'family fun days'. This week also saw Uniform to Work Day promoting the reserve forces and 'Camo Day' in schools. 

Behind this PR offensive is a raft of policy that is embedding 'public support' for the military within our civilian institutions - from the promotion of 'military ethos' in schools, to the Armed Forces Community Covenant and Corporate Covenant that aim to enlist every local authority and major business to support the armed forces and aid recruitment. 

Over 453 UK service personnel have died in Afghanistan; 34 were just 18 or 19 years old. Thousands more have to cope with long-term physical and mental problems. With so many military casualties - not to mention uncounted numbers of civilians deaths - and new security threats that waging war has created, surely it is time to reflect on the longer-term impact of our military culture and to ask what steps we might take to prevent war itself. 

Today it is obvious that unarmed popular movements are able to overthrow authoritarian regimes, even militarized and dictatorial regimes that have controlled countries for decades. Through mass demonstrations, civil disobedience, noncooperation, strikes and boycotts some 30 dictatorships have fallen during the last decades. We have more recently seen how entrenched authoritarian regimes have fallen within “the Arab Spring” in Egypt and Tunisia, and previously similar dramatic transitions have happened throughout Latin America, Easter Europe, Western Africa, as well as in South Africa, Iran, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc. All these examples point towards the people power or nonviolent revolution that Gandhi was instrumental in developing during the struggle in South Africa and India. However, it is also obvious today that these regime changes point towards a number of problems and challenges, some of which our theme group want to engage with.

The James Lawson Awards are named after and presented in person by James Lawson, a leader in US Civil Rights movement who led the Nashville Lunch Counter sit-ins of 1960 and who Martin Luther King, Jr. called, “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world."

WRI are preparing to release a new edition of the Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns, and running a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to get it finished - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/war-resisters-international-handbook-for-nonviolent-campaigns/x/6667143

Elections for WRI Council will take place in Cape Town. The following people have been nominated as individually elected Council members:

Carlos Barranco, state of Spain // Albert Beale, Britain // Pelao Carvallo, Paraguay/Chile // Jungmin Choi, Korea //  Estefanía Gómez Vásquez, Colombia // Daniel Jakopovich, Croatia/United Kingdom // Cattis Laska, Sweden // Subhash Chandra Kattel, Nepal // Moses John, South Sudan // Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, South Africa // Lexys Rendón, Venezuela // Rosa Biwangko Moiwend, West Papua // Miles Rutendo Tanhira, Zimbabwe/Sweden // Sergeiy Sandler, Israel // Igor Seke, Serbia/Mexico // Hülya Üçpinar, Turkey // Stellan Vinthagen, Sweden

Read 'What does it mean to be a WRI Council member?' here.

[video:https://vimeo.com/96791815 autoplay:0]

Dereje Wordofa presents the trend of "militarisation of youth and child soldiers" in Africa, despite the international instruments for human rights.

Dereje Wordofa is Regional Director for Africa at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). He is committed to lasting peace, sustainable development and social justice.

This webinar is part of the series of webinars by and for the African Nonviolence and Peacebuilding Network.

[video:https://vimeo.com/96215948 autoplay:0]

Conway Hall, London, 17 May 2014