#StopWarBiz: Two weeks to go!

Stopping the War Business, our international seminar on war profiteering, starts in Seoul in two weeks time!

Disrupting war profiteering takes a whole range of activities, from research, lobbying and legal challenges to mobilisation, direct action and creative campaigning techniques. This seminar will provide a space for activists using a whole range of different methods to gather together, learn how a spectrum of tactics interlink and help each other to be more effective.

The seminar is being jointly coordinated by World Without War in Korea and War Resisters' International.

To explore the connections between different methods, we'll use case study campaigns and themes from around the world, including: arms fair disruption from South Korea to Britain, Adu Dhabi to Czech Republic; extractive industries and militarisation; war profiteering and gender; 'civilian' companies that profit from war and occupation.

The programme is shaping up. Speakers include Jasmine Galace (Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, Philippines); Wook-Sik Cheong (Peace Network, Republic of Korea);Sarah Shehabi (Bahrain Watch, Britain); Andrew Feinstein (writer of 'The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade', Britain and South Africa); Tara Tabassi (National Organiser for War Resisters League, USA); Lexys Rendón (Laboratorio de Paz, Venezuela); Jordi Rufanges (Centro Delàs, Catalonia) and Rosa Moiwend (West Papua).

Plenary speeches will be recorded and published on the WRI website after the event!

We've also got great workshop options, including:

• Repression of protests and militarisation - identifying riot contol weapons lead by The Omega Research Foundation (download 'How to Identity Riot Control weapons' here)
• Using direct action against war profiteers lead by Mohannad Darabee from the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine
• Researching war profiteers lead by Wendela de Vries of Stop Waffenhandel
• Strategic and long-term campaigning lead by Sarah Waldron and Sarah Reader from Campaign Against Arms Trade
• Using legal mechanisms to challenge war profiteering: focusing on the South Sudan arms embargo lead by Moses Monday John of the Organization for Nonviolence and Development
• Constructive programmes lead by Hülya Üçpinar (Nonviolent Education and Research Centre) and Subhash Kattel (HDNP, Nepal)

Campaigns clinics

One of the main aims of any WRI meeting is that participants are able to share their work, be inspired by hearing about the struggles of others, and get feedback and ideas for how to make their own campaigns more effective. As part of this seminar, we're offering participants the chance to run a 'campaigns clinic'. These sessions will be an opportunity to tell people about your campaign work and invite comments, feedback and reflections from the group on how they could be more effective.

Confirmed campaigns clinics include on land reform movements in Nepal, the Coalition of Women for Peace in Israel, Aktion Aufschrei in Germany, and a Korean group acting against US bases.

The seminar is preceeded by a WRI Council meting, and followed by a nonviolent direct action against the ADEX arms fair.