globalising nonviolence. War Resisters' International Conference

Schloss Eringerfeld

near Paderborn, Germany

23-27 July 2006

War Resisters' International Office

5 Caledonian Road

London N1 9DX - UK

+44 20 72784040

info@wri-irg.org http://wri-irg.org

Contents

• Editorial Committee
• Dear Friends,
• Globalising Nonviolence - Where It All Links Up
• Timetable
• Practical Information
  
  
  
  • Maps
  
  
  
  
• Theme Groups
  
  
  • Global Military Intervention
  • Military presence
  • Nonviolent citizens' interventions
  • Nonviolent strategy and globalisation
  • The right to refuse to kill
  • War profiteers
  • Nonviolence training for beginners
  
  
  
  
• Workshops
• Cultural Programme

Editorial Committee

International Conference Committee:

Kai-Uwe Dosch, Conference Coordinator

Sergeiy Sandler, Council member

Howard Clark, incoming Chair

Joanne Sheehan, outgoing Chair

Majken Sörensen, Exec member

Andreas Speck, Staff

Javier Garate, Staff

Stellan Vinthagen

Helga Weber, German Conference Committee Coordinator

Wolfram Beyer, Cultural Programme Coordinator

Yvonne Kassim, Staff

Venue contact details

War Resisters' International Conference

Guest House "Dicke Birken"

near Schloss Eringerfeld

Dicke Birken No. 7

D-59590 Geseke-Eringerfeld

+49 (0)2954 924652 (landline)

0176 51469987 (mobile)

Dear Friends,

We look forward to your presence at the 24^th War Resisters International Conference on Globalising Nonviolence. As you will see from the READER, we have put together a conference agenda that we hope will promote deep discussion, strategic thinking, networking on the issues of globalisation of militarism, economy and nonviolent activism.

In the context of globalisation, a "movement of movements" is converging. This movement seeks to counterpose the perspective and values of people's power to those of global power structures. It can be seen both in campaigns against the policies of transnational corporations or global financial institutions and in anti-war mobilisations. It connects a host of local campaigns with a swelling global consciousness that declares "another world is possible". This is "globalisation from below".

War Resisters' International believes that this "movement of movements" has an even greater capacity for nonviolent strategy than we have yet seen. This would require greater awareness of the potential of nonviolence, but also clarity about appropriate nonviolent strategy.

WRI's mission statement explains that "War Resisters' International exists to promote nonviolent action against the causes of war, and to support and connect people around the world who refuse to take part in war or the preparation of war. On this basis, WRI works for a world without war. WRI embraces nonviolence. For some, nonviolence is a way of life. For all of us, it is a form of action that affirms life, speaks out against oppression, and acknowledges the value of each person."

Founded in 1921, WRI is a network of pacifists, anti-militarists and nonviolent activists on every continent, who work to end war and the causes of war. Throughout its history, members of WRI have taken a lead not only in movements against war but in applying nonviolence to a wide range of other social issues, both in their own countries and internationally. A central aim of this conference is to move the process of globalising nonviolence forward. We'll do this together by creating new initiatives and new links between activists from different groups, connections that will carry on beyond the conference and help promote nonviolent practice and analysis worldwide. The conference will also have an impact on the programmatic work carried out under WRI's auspices, especially as part of WRI's Nonviolence Programme.

We appreciate your participation in this process.

Joanne Sheehan, Chair, and the International Conference Committee (Howard Clark, Kai-Uwe Dosch, Javier Garate, Sergeiy Sandler, Majken Soerensen, Andreas Speck, Stellan Vinthagen)

Globalising Nonviolence - Where It All Links Up

Globalising Nonviolence, the 24^th International Conference of the WRI, will bring people from all over the world for five days of discussion, learning, activity and, we hope, fun.

The title of the conference is about globalisation and about nonviolence, but no less important, the conference will be all about making links and connections between the movements, ideas and people represented in the conference.

A link between movements

The Globalising Nonviolence conference will bring together representatives of two worldwide movements. One is the growing movement opposing the globalisation of capital and of war. This is a movement of movements, where thousands of seemingly small local struggles are connecting globally. In itself, it is creating an alternative form of globalisation, the globalisation of resistance, a globalisation from below.

The other worldwide movement is an older movement, one that anticipated "globalisation from below". This is the movement promoting war resistance and nonviolence. Born of the failure of the old "socialist internationalism" in the face of the 1914-18 World War, this is a movement where mutual support has crossed ideological and geopolitical frontiers to oppose militarism in all its forms and to develop active nonviolence for social justice and against systems of domination. At the heart of this movement, through various ups and downs, has been the organisation War Resisters' International. Formally the organisation now comprises some 80 affiliates in 39 countries, but its networking is even wider.

Through this conference, WRI wants to highlight the links between militarism and various forms of global domination, and also the potential of nonviolence as the most appropriate means to show that "another world is possible". We aim to bring together activists from the "globalisation from below" movement with anti-militarists committed to nonviolence in a context of mutual learning that will strengthen connections between the movements. The conference themes will be pursued through addressing day topics in plenaries and workshops. The plan is that the day topics will indicate a progression from analysis to strategy and action, and will unite the concerns of the two global movements and let us all learn from one another. Following the opening session on Sunday afternoon, Monday will focus on the joint concerns, uniting the two movements. War itself, with the economic and political factors creating it, has gone through a process of globalisation. We now face global wars, global war industries and global war profiteers.

They create special, crucially important, challenges for both our movements.

Tuesday will focus on the movement of globalisation from below, and on what we can learn from its experiences. We will be looking at instances of international cooperation, e.g. in East Africa and in occupied Palestine, at efforts to organise globally and resist locally. We will examine the successes of these efforts, at what they were not able to achieve and at the questions and dilemmas they have raised.

Wednesday will be concerned with developing the strategy of nonviolent struggle in the age of globalisation. The theory and practice of nonviolent struggle were chiefly formed in the context of resisting the policies and actions of nation States. Today, global war and oppression create new challenges, new dynamics and new kinds of actors to be targeting. On this day we will also be looking at the role the WRI network itself might be playing in this new situation.

A link between ideas

The Globalising Nonviolence conference has more to it than what the day themes cover. In this conference we plan to examine the issues at hand from a variety of perspectives, and to pursue several theoretical and practical issues in greater depth throughout the conference, linking the different ideas and concerns people will be bringing with them.

One way this will be done is through seven theme groups, each meeting every morning. These theme groups offer participants the chance to really stay with an issue and come up with some recommendations. A separate section of the reader is devoted to them.

By being in the same theme group every morning, we hope that participants will connect with others working on related issues. As you'll be staying with onetheme group, make a good choice (We'll be doing that in the opening session).

Another way to link the different ideas is through the open floor for workshops, that will be held each day in the afternoon. This will be your chance to learn and work on the various issues and ideas the participants bringwith them to the conference, and mind you, we are going to have a really diverse contingent of participants.

We will also be delighted to have you hold your own workshop at our conference. The floor is open!

A link between people

We expect participants from all over the world, from countries rich and poor, from conflict areas, from organisations working on a great variety of topics. These people will be bringing with them their highly diverse experience and the insights and knowledge born of it.

A central aim of the Globalising Nonviolence conference is to form a link between these people, to set the stage for extensive networking, for the creation of personal friendships and organisational links.

One way this willhappen is through the small "home groups", meeting in the evening of every day. The home groups will be places where people can discuss their own experiences of the conference, link together issues that were raised in different workshops and theme groups, share what excites them, raise issues about anything that bothers them. The home groups will be formed freely so that participants will be sharing a language and perhaps gender, or field of interest. Our aim is to create a comfortable environment for discussion, in which the content of the conference could be "digested" by the participants. But the conference is not going to be all work. Every evening we will have a rich cultural programme, with musical performances, and our own bar, in which you can have a good chat with all kinds of people over a pint of good German beer.

Help make this conference into a great success!

This will be quite a do-it-yourself conference, and its success depends on people's participation.

• Anybody who wants to initiate a one-session workshop on their own work or issue, should just ask the conference office to give them a room and time.
• The daily conference newsletter will be looking for contributors, writing up sessions or interviewing people they'd like more people to know about.
• The bar will be open quite late and will need some volunteer staff.

It may be a cliché, and readers should certainly not link it to the previous sentence about the bar, but "the more you put in, the more you'll get out of it!".

Timetable

Practical Information

General

The language in Germany is German, of course, but often English will be understood and spoken.

The currency is Euro as in Portugal, Spain, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Ireland, Austria, Italy, Greece and Finland. You can exchange money at banks in airports and city centres. 1 Euro is equivalent to appr. 1 US Dollar and 0,65 British Pound. Often major credit cards are accepted. If you have a mobile phone, mostly there is coverage. There are also public phones (both cards and coins) in cities, but not in villages. The same applies for internet cafes.

Electricity runs at 220 Volt AC. Euro plugs are necessary. Health insurance is usually necessary if a visa is necessary, too, if not, it is still possible.

There are some places of interest in Westphalia. Paderborn is a city of Catholics and Computers. On the one hand it is the site of the Siemens Corporation including the Heinz Nixdorf Museum. On the other hand there are e.g. the public festival of Saint Liborius, the historical exhibitions on the journey to Canossa, and the monastry of Dahlheim. Around Paderborn and Geseke there are two interesting places related to Fascism and World War II. Wewelsburg has been a place of cult and terror of SS then, and is a museum and youth hostel now. Stukenbrock has had a camp for prisoners of war then - and has a safari and leisure park now. (The Riders for Peace invite participants, who don't attend the business meeting, to accompany them there and to learn about the history of the place. Further information at the conference.) To the west you have Hamm-Uentrop, the site of a shut down nuclear power plant and still active nuclear power resistance. Further to the west you come to the Ruhrgebiet, an area of coal mines and steel works - as well as labourer and migrant culture. Not to forget the Football World Championship taking place all over Germany. Further informations: www.paderborn.de, www.nrw-tourismus.de.

Visa

There is no visa required for all european states except Armenia, Aserbaidschan, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, and Montenegro,

There is a visa required for all other states except Argentinia, Australia, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Hongkong, Israel, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Singapur, Uruguay, Venezuela, United States of America.

There are visa valid for 30 and 90 days, for single or multiple entry, for Germany only or all Schengen states (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Portugal, Sweden and Spain).

There are visa informations, and an application form for download in English, French, Spanish, Russian or Chinese with the german foreign office website. www.auswaertiges-amt.de > welcome to germany > coming to or staying in germany There is a list of german missions, too: federal foreign office > german missions abroad

You have to apply for a visa only with the german mission for your country.

The visa will cost appr. 30,- Euro.

If you need a visa, please contact the office after your registration, and it will send you an invitation.

Travel

Plane

There are many international and regional airports as well as cheap and more expensive airlines in Germany. Warning: Airports of budget airlines often will not be as close to the next city as they seem! This is true especially for Ryan Air (see below).

• Frankfurt, the biggest airport with 130 airlines and 260 daily connections, directly to and from all continents: www.frankfurt-airport.de
  
  If you fly Lufthansa, it may be cheaper and/or faster to have a flight connection to Düsseldorf, Hannover or Paderborn, which costs only the airport fees. But it may be as cheap or fast to take a train from the airport station. You have to check... www.lufthansa.com
• Hahn (www.hahn-airport.de) is what Ryan Air calls "Frankfurt" with cheap connections, but two to three hours by bus or car away from the next city train stations in Frankfurt or Köln.
• Düsseldorf (www.duesseldorf-international.de) is closer to Paderborn and also has many international connections and an airport train station. Besides Lufthansa and similiar airlines there are some international budget airlines like Air Berlin (www.airberlin.com) and Germania Express (www.gexx.de), too. The local train from Düsseldorf to Paderborn is almost as fast as the express train (ICE), but cheaper.
• Weeze/Niederrhein (www.flughafen-niederrhein.de/) is what Ryan Air calls "Düsseldorf". Ryan Air (www.ryanair.com) flies to "Düsseldorf" (or Berlin) from Milano, Jerez, Glasgow, Bologna (Forli), Montpellier, Rome, Pescara, Tampere, Alghero, Gothenborg, Venice (Treviso), Kerry, Stockholm (Skavsta), Oslo (Torp), Shannon, London (Stansted), Girona (Barcelona), Pisa (Florence), Reus (Salou). There is an airport shuttle bus to Weeze rail station, from where you can get local trains to Krefeld or Düsseldorf proper. From there you can get other trains to Paderborn.
• Hannover is almost as close to Paderborn as Düsseldorf, but not so big and so well connected by train: www.hannover-airport.de
• Besides there are some other convenient international airports like Köln/Bonn (www.koeln-bonn-airport.de) and Berlin-Tegel or -Schönefeld (www.berlin-airport.de).
• Dortmund (www.flughafen-dortmund.de) and Münster/Osnabrück (www.fmo.de) are even closer, but have less airlines and connections, though some very cheap ones (EasyJet: www.easyjet.com, Air Berlin: www.airberlin.com, Eurowings: www.eurowings.de). You have to take a bus or a taxi to get to the next train station.
• Paderborn/Lippstadt is of course the closest, but has the least connections (including London). You have to go on to the venue by taxi (8 km only): www.flughafen-paderborn-lippstadt.de

Train

If you are coming from London, Amsterdam, Brussels, or Paris, you can go to Cologne with Thalys, an international railways service: www.thalys.com.

In any case you should see the very good German Railways service website www.bahn.de including a query form in english, french, spanish and italian. Reference: Regular one way express train ticket from Frankfurt to Geseke costs €63,- via Kassel, and €83,- via Cologne (longer distance, but higher speed and same time)!

There are different prices for local trains (RB, RE) and express trains (IC, ICE) and different offers:

Express and Local Train Ticket Offers

Local Train Ticket Offers

North Rhine-Westphalia includes the cities of Cologne, Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Munster, and Paderborn.

Within NRW it may be almost as fast to go to Geseke by local train as by express train.

If you come by express train via Kassel, you have to go to Paderborn, if you come via Hamm, you have to go to Lippstadt. Then you have to go on from Paderborn resp. Lippstadt to Geseke by local train. Trains leave appr. every 30 min. and take appr. 10-15 min. There will be a connection to the venue in Eringerfeld by bus (during working week buses leave appr. every 60 min. and take appr. 20 min.) or mini-van (at weekend on demand) or taxi (at night; 8 km only). The Bus Stop is in Steinhauser Straße opposite the Gutshof. (see second map below)

Car

You have to get on the highway/motorway/autobahn A 44 between Dortmund and Kassel. You have to get off at exit Geseke and go on in direction of Steinhausen. After appr. 5 km, in Steinhausen in front of the Volks-Bank you have to turn hard right in direction of Eringerfeld. In Eringerfeld (along Steinhauser Straße) pass the castle and the side street (Rüthener Straße) and carry on along Dicke Birken to No. 7, the Guesthouse. (see maps)

Venue

The venue is guesthouse 'Dicke Birken', near Schloss Eringerfeld in Geseke-Eringerfeld in Westphalia. It includes an assembly hall, a canteen, workshop spaces and guestrooms for up to 800 persons. There are a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a sports ground, a small zoo, a park, a cafeteria and some exhibitions in the castle, too. (International Museum for textile folk art - eg. patchwork collection, 500 dolls of 3 centuries) For the gym you need sports shoes with light coloured soles. You don't need to bring your own towels and sheets. From midnight on you have to be silent in the guestrooms (but not in the assembly hall). You are not allowed to bring your own food to the venue. We will run our own bar at the assembly hall after dinner and we will provide both normal and wi-fi connection there if you bring your own laptop. Child care is provided for all conference days free of charge.

Theme Groups

The theme groups will meet every day between 10:30 am and 12:30 am, plus two briefer meetings after the opening plenary and before the closing plenary. These groups form the lateral beam holding together the structure of the conference. The groups meet to work on the same issue throughout the conference. During the opening plenary, you should select one theme group, and then you should stay with it all along, to thoroughly develop its theme. As you will see from reading the group descriptions below, there will be a variety of theme groups at the conference. Some of them (e.g. the group on Military Presence) are more theoretically oriented; others (e.g. the War Profiteers group, which is going to work on developing a campaign against war profiteers, or the Nonviolence Training for Beginners group), are more activity-based. But in all cases, the theme groups will be a place to talk about your own experiences and activities. We hope that their work will lead to future action and cooperation on the issues discussed, and that through them participants will form connections enabling cooperation in the years to come. The Globalising Nonviolence conference itself will be followed by a Business Meeting of WRI. This meeting has the task of setting the path for the WRI network in the coming years. The theme groups' conveners at the conference will be given "proposal forms", which the groups are encouraged to use to make proposals to the WRI Business Meeting, about possible directions for future work and activity.

Those of you, who have participated in other conferences organised by WRI may note that this time we do not have a theme group devoted to gender issues. This is not because WRI has lost its commitment to feminism and to gender analysis. Far from it. In this conference issues of gender are not receiving some closed-in space because they are meant to be present in all the discussions, workshops, and in all the issues raised at the conference. All the theme groups below will examine their subjects through a gender "lens".

Global Military Intervention

When we talk about globalisation we mostly think about world trade and refer to institutions like the IMF and the G8. But this economic globalisation has its military arm as well. Thomas Friedman from the New York Times stated: "The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the builder of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps." Now the European Union also aims at playing a global role and is building its fist - in NATO (together with the US) and with EU-Forces (to be able to act alone). The Iraq war made visible for a broad public that wars several thousands km from where they live, actually start nearer home. At the same time this provoked resistance. Not only demonstrations took place but also more direct nonviolent actions against the war machine.

In this theme group we want to build on the experiences from the different nonviolent direct actions against the mobilisation for the Iraq war, civilian war crime inspections and Bombspotting-style actions, etc. We would like to share experiences, analyse how military interventions work in practice and how the military gets transformed for a global role, and look into campaigning strategies against this.

We will start by sharing experiences of different actions and try to come up with some lessons learned. The following days we will analyse how military intervention works and what role our countries play in it. As a practical example we look into the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and into what role the different national armies and the US (and other) military bases in Europe play in these wars. Part of the analysis will be how civilians get instrumentalized in these wars. We will continue by looking into the intervention frameworks which are set up in NATO and in the EU. The general idea is to create a common awareness and knowledge on what military intervention means in practice.

On the base of this knowledge we can look at possible action models and work towards more practical forms of networking and campaigning. How can we intervene nonviolently in the war machinery with political impact? What strategy can we build around such actions? The demonstrations during the Iraq war, the actions around G8 and other summits are seen as a more than national political activities. Are we able to gain a similar momentum with a nonviolent direct action movement during war mobilisations or against the political build-up of the intervention machinery?

Conveners: Hans Lammerant is active with the Belgian Forum voor Vredesactie, Claudia Haydt with the German Informationsstelle Militarisierung.

Military presence

"How do they militarise a can of soup?" asked Prof. Cynthia Enloe in her book Maneuvers. The Military Presence theme group will be looking at the militarization of culture, public space, education and many other spheres of social life, soup cans and all.

In some countries, such as Israel or Turkey, this military presence can be very conspicuous to the outsider. Nevertheless, most of the people living in those countries fail to notice it. And this present is not only 'out there', in strongly militarised societies, but also 'in here', around each and every one of us, in our daily lives. Everywhere we have learned to take forms of military presence for granted.

The militarization of culture, in its various forms, is one of the most important ways in which people and societies are being constantly prepared for war, prepared to adopt aggression and violence as the 'natural' solution to problems and as a legitimate way of pursuing political and personal goals. The Military Presence theme group will involve a process of joint learning, in which we will come to recognise some of that military presence around us. We will begin with examining the more conspicuous examples of militarism in culture in highly militarised societies, and move on to begin developing that sensitivity needed to notice that which is usually too familiar to pay attention to.

Last but not least, the Military Presence theme group will be discussing ways in which we can counter the processes of militarization in society and culture, both locally, and in a joint global effort.

Convenors: Sergeiy Sandler is an activist of New Profile, a movement working to demilitarise society in Israel, and a Council member in WRI. Hilal Demir is a Council member from Turkey.

Nonviolent citizens' interventions

This group will discuss and analyze the impact of Nonviolent interventions in conflict zones. Based on first hand experience from the convenors and participants, written evaluations of examples of nonviolent intervention, and critical questions as well as constructive proposals from the participants, we expect to both get updated on the present status for such actions and glance into the challenges of the future.

The complex processes of conflicts differ a lot from the often two-dimensional pictures present in the main-stream media. A high number of actors and a diversity of factors in.uence the outcome and results. We want to pay serious attention to this complexity and see it as giving the interventionist multiple possibilities. This theme-group wants to focus mainly, but not exclusively, on the external and nonviolent actors. We will discuss the impact of such interventions on local actors, violent actors, outside in.uences and interests, in the short and long run, based on practical knowledge and experience from civil society activist.

We hope to gain insights for new and fresh approaches for future nonviolent interventions. Our intention is to come up with proposals for new "experiments with the truth" for those who today are engaged in practical peace work in war-zones.

Sunday:

introductions--sharing of experience (and thus areas for contributing) and interest (thus expectations)

Monday:

case studies--compare and contrast East Timor and Palestine

Tuesday:

internationalizing a conflict, looking at the range of possibilities for nonviolent intervention using East Timor case

Wednesday:

focus on Palestine/Israel

Thursday:

recommendations and ideas resulting from our work together

Convenors: Jorgen Johansen is a Scandinavian activist and academic who has been working in the peace movement for more than three decades. He is regularly lecturing and training people in Israel and Palestine. Jill Sternberg has worked for and lived in East Timor for years. She had previously worked for PBI-USA and also IFoR, and been involved in training for the Balkan Peace Team and with die Kurve Wustrow. She now works for WILPF-USA.

Nonviolent strategy and globalisation

This theme group combines the central issues of the conference, promoting nonviolence in the context of resisting globalisation. Mutual reflection which develops plural global nonviolent strategies are our goal, but we will firstly analyse the present situation of globalisation and nonviolence movements in order to build our strategy discussions on conscious assumptions. The theme group will begin with a presentation of participants' interest in the theme, some short and basic information on World Social Forum (WSF), the "movement of movements", present initiatives, upcoming events and current strategy issues under debate - and then move into a mutual discussion and analysis.

Our work structure will be according to the "open space" model which the WSF use: creating a space for critical engagement and reflection with the issues, where those participating struggle with the issues and also in locating themselves within that space. The convenors will initiate discussions which will continue within smaller groups. According to questions that will arise subtheme discussions in small groups will be possible.

Initially we will ask ourselves: What are the strategies and objectives of the globalisation-critical movement and the place of nonviolence within these? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the apparent diffuseness of its goals? What alliances have grown up within the "movement of movements" and what has been neglected? How do the activities of the international antiwar movements mesh with this? The discussion will then move on to propose means of strengthening the nonviolent character of "globalisation from below", including considering how to focus certain strategic alliances and how to clarify strategic objectives. Issues of raising the profile of antimilitarism in "globalisation from below" will be addressed in this context. Our discussions will recurrently arise issues of "power" (the power of world order structures as well as the power movements create, strive for or work against), the two faces of "globalisation" (neo-liberal and critical movement globalisation) and strategies/means of nonviolence and violence. Based on our discussion on these kind of questions and issues the work of our theme group will collect a report that helps us all moving forward. Our goal is to formulate a number of central questions, problems, possible strategies and actions - a written report that will function as a discussion material for further work on this important task: "Nonviolent Strategy and Globalisation". This report will not be a final or singular statement of "our position" but rather a collection of plural visions and a discussion material for further work, e.g. in the WRI Nonviolence Program, Work groups and Campaigns, as well as strategy workshops at the next WSF in Kenya (January 2007).

Convenors: Stellan Vinthagen, candidate for WRI Council, senior lecturer, peace researcher and activist from Sweden; Jai Sen, independent researcher from India/Nepal and author of several books on WSF.

The right to refuse to kill

The right to refuse to kill is central to ending war and militarism because it interrupts a war machine dependent upon a fresh supply of recruits primed to blindly follow orders. People defend this right in many different ways including counter-recruitment, conscientious objection, desertion, resistance against conscription. Those active in the peace movement can effectively work to establish and defend the right to refuse to kill by working toward a culture of critical thinking and discourse that spans far beyond opposition to the current wars in Iraq, Columbia and elsewhere. Marches, mobilizations, and demonstrations by themselves are not enough to move away from the increasing militarism in our society. It is the sustained institutional challenges-in schools, colleges and our communities--that is the most effective and essential way to check militarism and the system behind it. Through case studies, the theme group will analyse the experience of different movements, and develop strategies for our future work.

Monday: A culture of militarism

The discussion on day one sets a framework for understanding the variety of ways that the right to refuse to kill is expressed. With a common set of questions, participants will begin to draw out commonalities and themes.

Tuesday: Case Studies

• Countering recruitment in the US: Counter-recruitment has the potential to make deep positive social changes, and de-militarize our schools, country, and the world at large.
• Ending conscription in Spain: The Spanish CO movement was one factor in ending conscription in the country in 2001 (two years earlier than planned).

Wednesday: Case Studies

• Fighting for CO rights in South Korea: Conscription to the military is heavily enforced in South Korea. However, since the beginning of the CO movement about 5 years ago, some progress has been made.
• Avoiding service in public and private armies in Colombia: While only the state has a legal right to conscript, other armed forces are also able to put pressure on young people to join up, to "take sides" in the conflict.

Thursday: Conclusions

• Practical support for resisting soldiers: Since people in the military often represent a class and culture that is different than many peace activists, and that military culture offers itself is unique from the experience of peace activists, many barriers must be overcome to truly support war resistance.
• Review case studies with an eye to issues of race, gender, immigration, status, class; Determine the common threads of case studies, and differences;
• Discuss future directions for the peace movement.

Convenors: Aimee Allison, a military CO during the first Gulf War, is active in counter-recruiting. Andreas Speck, UK/Germany, is the coordinator of WRI's Right to Refuse to Kill Programme.

War profiteers

War profiteering has been a permanent feature of the military landscape. It is not just that the search for profits can foment war. Military rivalry has also gone hand in hand with industrial and technological mobilization for war, reaching new heights in the second half of the 20^th century. Those who profit from war form a powerful lobby in favour of military expenditure and war preparations. To combat their in.uence requires identifying and exposing their activities and their interests and developing campaigns that oppose their activities.

The War Profiteers Theme Group will be an important opportunity to analyze the situation, exchange and develop strategies for opposing war profiteers,and explore how the WRI network can coordinate global initiatives against war profiteers.

Mon: Description of war profiteers and analysis of strategic opportunities to stop them.

Arms Manufactures: Companies that profit the most from war, which is not only a market that consumes their wares, but also free advertising for their products; Outsourcing the military: Private companies which provide services which were traditionally core army activities; Reconstruction: Companies that are hired to re-build what the bombs have destroyed; Private Financial Institutions and Export Credit Agencies: Involved in giving credits for making arms trade deals. Some also have shares on weapons manufactures

Tue: Learn from case studies of campaigns against war profiteers.

Exploring strategies that have been successful and challenges that the campaigns face. Some of the campaign that will be looking at are: Shareholders Campaign Against Daimler-Chrysler, My Money Clear Conscience: Forum voor Vredesactie, Campaigns against arms trade, and Campaign against Honeywell Corporation

Wed: Develop strategies for initiatives against war profiteers.

Using a participatory process, we will work together to identify strategies for grassroots campaigns: What is "success" against war profiteering? How do we develop campaigns to reach those goals? What resources do we need engage in nonviolent campaigns? How do we strengthen this work through a global network?

Thu: Setting new steps and report back.

How to continue the process started at this conference. What can the WRI Nonviolence Programme do through WRI's Global Initiative Against War Profiteers, how do we build this network? Preparing the report back of the four days of work.

Convenors: Javier Garate is the coordinator of War Resisters' International Nonviolence Programme, Joanne Sheehan, an organizer and nonviolence trainer with War Resisters League (U.S.), has been active in many campaigns against "merchants of death".

Nonviolence training for beginners

Nonviolence is used around the world to challenge oppression. It has many forms and tools created by different cultures and contexts. Today it is an important tool of struggle in the movement for globalisation from below.

Through games, role plays, exercises and discussions, the participants in this group will be introduced to and explore various aspects of the field of nonviolence.

The group is intended for participants who are new to the nonviolence tradition.

• What is nonviolence?
• What does nonviolence offer us for confronting oppressive power structures and creating liberating alternatives?
• What is the difference between nonviolence as a technique and nonviolence as a way of life?
• Which nonviolent methods are efficient for what purposes and under what circumstances?
• How can nonviolent actions inspire us, and how to sustain a commitment to nonviolence through time?

Convenors: Enrique Gauto Bozzano is an activist of the Movement for Conscientious Objection in Paraguay and a nonviolence trainer, Sophie Reynolds is a trainer in nonviolence from Turning the Tide, the nonviolence training programme from Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW) in the UK.

Workshops

• The role of military intervention in globalising the sex industry
• Post-war peacebuilding: an abused concept (Howard Clark)
• Islam and Islamism and the peace movement (Gernot Lennert a.o.)
• Riders for Peace (Angela Kemper)
• Lebenslaute - musicians for peace (Gerd Buentzly)
• Armament and social welfare (Joachim Schramm)
• Nonviolent strategic planning for globalization from below groups
• Alliance-building - accepting diversity while maintaining nonviolence
• Situation of research re. history and present day nonviolent movement (Wolfgang Hertle)
• Commonwealth People's Forum (Gernot Lennert)
• Colombia (Howard Clark)
• Somaliland (Samiira Jama Elmi)
• Europe without Army? (Kai-Uwe Dosch, Rene Burget)
• Humour & Nonviolence (Majken Sorensen)
• Research and Action (Stellan Vinthagen)
• Open Source for the movement (Andreas Speck)
• International law and peace (Holger Schmidt)
• Sri Lanka and Nonviolent Peaceforce (Stephan Brües)
• Legal Defence
• Export Credit Agencies, arms exports and debts (Mich Crols, Marijn Peperkamp)
• Preventive presence - a nonviolence method in armed conflicts (Kerstin Bergeå, Martin Smedjeback)
• Post-protest - moving towards proactive resistance (Klaus Engell-Nielsen)
• Nonviolent communication according to M Rosenberg (Bärbel Kirstein-Mätzold, Heike Laschinski)
• Avoiding Military Service as a Political Movement (Sergeiy Sandler)
• Nonviolent Strategy against a Politics of Spins
• Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (Dorothy Naor)
• Women
• Nonviolence Trainers (Gudrun Knittel)
• Africa (Matt Meyer)
• Military tax resistance (Gertie Brammer)
• Antimilitarist publications
• East Timor (Simo Hellsten)
• WRI and Asia? (Simo Hellsten)
• Experiences in the Israel-Palestinian Conflict (Katja and Paul Rehm, Annerose Schulz)
• Nonviolence needs Anarchism! Where and Why. (Lou Marin)
• Faslane 365 (Angie Zelter)

Cultural Programme

Lebenslaute

The "Lebenslaute" consists of musicians from all over Germany. This group has been gathering since 1986 to perform their music - classical and other - in places where it is not expected: in front of nuclear power plants, missile and poison gas depots, arms trade companies and deportation airports. As people of different age, with different views and professions, we join to express musical resistance against the threats to mankind by militarism, environmental destruction, racism and inhumanity. We gather anew for each action, work on grassroot and non-violence principles. Civil disobedience is part of most of our actions, leaving the decision to each participant whether and to what extent to take part in trespassing the law. We are both musical amateurs and professionals, supporters (for organisation, press work, catering...) as well as listeners.

Ofer Golany

After his songs were banned in Israel for its anti-militaristic message he became an underground icon for those who consciously choose the alternative of an artist to that of the soldier. The songs revolve around the theme of personal choice and his journey as a street musician through India and Europe to the alternative of family and Jerusalem where Ofer recorded with 22 different musicians.

The lyrics call to turn away from the god of power that the army has become in Israel and stand outside the herd as an awakened individual.

Ofer translated 4 songs by Leonard Cohen. ("You who build these alters now to sacrifice your children...") His music is ethnic-folk-jazz with touches of flamenco, blues, cabaret and klezmer. His lyrics are militant-pacifist, apocalyptically optimistic, comically subversive.

Bücher zur Befreiung als Handwerkszeug gegen Unrecht und Gewalt

Wir führen Literatur für eine gewaltlose & libertäre Gesellschaftsveränderung zu den Themen: Gewaltlose Aktion, Pazifismus, Ziviler Ungehorsam, religiöse Gewaltlosigkeit, Soziale Bewegung-Aktion-Training-Strategie,Anarchismus, Kriegsdienstverweigerung, Antimilitarismus, Selbstverwaltung, Ökonomie, Ökologie, Frauen, Friedenspädagogik, alternative & libertäre Pädagogik, Rüstung-Rüstungsexport, Philosophie & Politik, Sokratisches Philosophieren, Utopien, Gefängnis.

Außerdem führen wir englisch-sprachige Bücher zu Gewaltlosigkeit, Anarchismus, Ökologie, Feminismus.

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Weber & Zucht . Versandbuchhandlung & Verlag

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Tel. (0561) 519194 / 515953 . Fax 510 2514 . email: wezuco@t-online.de