War Resisters' Stories

War Resisters' International has been as busy as ever in 2018! Here's a quick summary of some of the ways we've been supporting our international network to resist war and it's causes. Our work relies on the kind support of donors from around the world - could you support War Resisters' International with a regular donation?

1. Recruited in Colombia!

We're very excited to have recruited a new staff member in Colombia. Natalia García Cortés joined our small team in September, and will be working on our Right to Refuse to Kill Programme from Bogotá. Welcome, Natalia!

2. Solidarity with conscientious objectors

On 15th May, International Conscientious Objection Day, we focused on South Korea and the work of our affiliate World Without War, who are waging a campaign to end the imprisonment of conscientious objectors. Members of the WRI network held solidarity actions at Korean embassies around the world. We have also been regularly supporting conscientious objectors in Israel, where a number of young people have been imprisoned for refusing to join the military. Our CO-Alert system allows members of our network to quickly demand the release of imprisoned objectors, and you can sign up here: www.wri-irg.org/subscribe

3. Resisting youth militarisation

The fifth annual week of action against youth militarisation took place in November 2018, with actions taking place all over the world, including in Turkey, Colombia, UK, Italy and Greece.

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4. Nonviolence training for trainers in Seoul

As well as supporting conscientious objectors, World Without War support a network of nonviolence trainers. In December, staff from WRI's Nonviolence Programme traveled to Seoul to run a training for trainers for the network. The training focused on supporting activist organisations in developing strategic campaigns.

5. Supporting activists resisting the Paris arms fair

The biannual Eurosatory arms fair is a key event in the arms trade calendar - it is one of the largest events of it's kind, with hundreds of companies taking part. To support the grassroots resistance to the fair, we published a short guide to some of the arms companies participating in the fair, detailing the weapons they sell, the places they sell them, and outlining some of the impacts. The guide was distributed to hundreds of activists, journalists, and members of the public by our friends in the Stop Fuelling War coalition.

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6. War Profiteers News

Since September 2017 we have been publishing War Profiteers News every month, in English and Spanish. Every edition includes news of the arms trade and other forms of war profiteering, updates of actions and campaigns from around the world, and a "war profiteer of the month" company profile. You can see all of the back issues here: https://www.wri-irg.org/en/publications/war-profiteers-news

7. Building stronger networks of activists resisting youth militarisation

Our Countering the Militarisation of Youth programme held two trainings for youth militarisation activests, in London and Cyprus. The trainings were attended by participants from Finland, Germany, Spain (Catalonia), Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Italy, both South and North regions of Cyprus Greece, Israel, Russia, and Turkey! Both trainings were followed by public events which gave the opportunity for participants to share their experiences of resisting youth militarisation more widely.

8. Empowering Nonviolence

Empowering Nonviolence is a new website we built in 2017 to hold all of our nonviolence resources - it is available in lots of languages and has material on strategic campaigning, effective actions, and training exercises. In 2018 we've published lots of new material, including guides to video activism or using theatre as part of an action, and new case studies from Afghanistan, Germany, and India.

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Many thanks to all of your support this year! We're developing exciting plans for 2019. Stay in touch by subscribing for regular updates to our email newsletters here.