The War Resisters' International Executive and Office Report July 2007 - August 2008

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Introduction

This report, the annual report by the WRI Exec and staff for the WRI Council and net, is about what we've been up to since the last Council meeting, and where we're at. It focuses on our achievements this year and on the challenges facing us. This time, however, our focus is more on the challenges as WRI faces a crisis.

This crisis has two sides to it, and they are interconnected. One aspect has to do with WRI finances, and the other with the level of involvement of the WRI network in central WRI activities.

Financially, WRI exhausted Myrtle Solomon's legacy two years ago. The reserves that we have come from subsequent legacies and are shown in the balance sheet. One of our two main programmes is yet to gain even a quarter of the funding needed to sustain itself financially, and the income WRI gets from affiliates, private donations, sales, etc. does not come near to covering the cost of keeping our office going. Despite major cuts we have made on office space and expenses, there is still a real possibility of having to shut down our office in about two years' time.

And what then? Without a central office,responsibilities will have to shift to the WRI network, but that has also been a major challenge. Sadly, going through this report, you will find all too often that WRI Working Groups, various committees and teams, have hardly functioned this year. All central WRI activities are being done by the office and a very small number of activists; all are over-stretched, and important political and organisational work gets neglected.

One major challenge we face is thus to get more people in the WRI network involved, doing and initiating WRI work on the international level. This goes beyond the issue of sustaining the office, to the very core of our political work. To take just one example, with a stronger network involvement on the international level, WRI could have responded clearly and early on to the recent war in the Caucasus, building on the contacts we have on both sides. As things stand, though, such a response becomes the task of the office staff, and perhaps one or two Council members - all too busy with other pressing engagements to get things going.

But not all is gloom, and this year has also seen its achievements and its developments giving room for some hope. We finally have a new and excellent treasurer, Dominique Saillard, who has already extended our fundraising efforts and obtained the funds to finance our gathering in Bilbao. Still on finances, we were able this year to secure the extension of the grant for our Right to Refuse to Kill Programme, which this time also includes funding for bringing several interns to the office and for renewing WRI's website. The new website is already being constructed and will be designed to enable greater participation from the net and more sharing of responsibility.

WRI has also been recently enjoying a small influx of volunteers and interns, who can prove to be invaluable to our work in the coming year and beyond.

On the political level, there has been important regional cooperation between our affiliates and contacts in Europe and in Latin America (see under Regionalisation below), which is an important sign of new life in our network at large. Perhaps responding - in voicing your opinions and in contributing your time and energy - to this report would prove to be another such encouraging sign.

Howard Clark (Chair), Dominique Saillard (Acting Treasurer), Boro Kitanoski, Sergeiy Sandler (Exec), Majken Sørensen (Exec, retiring)

Andreas Speck (Office Coordinator, and RRTK Programme), Javier Gárate (NV Programme), Yvonne Kassim (Finances and Admin)

Programme work

Our two staffed programmes - the Right to Refuse to Kill Programme and the Nonviolence Programme - continued their extensive activity throughout the year.

The Right to Refuse to Kill

This programme included country-specific work and some more general activities.

Country-specific work

Colombia: The work on Colombia has been a major part of the programme's activities. Two members of the Accion Colectiva de Objetores y Objetoras de Conciencia from Bogotá visited Europe in November and December 2007, and also visited several WRI affiliates - among others, groups of AA-MOC in the state of Spain and Union Pacifiste in France.

Andreas Speck visited Colombia again in May 2008, and visited groups in Cali, Villa Rica, Bogotá, Sincelejo, and Medellin. He also met various governmental officials and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia.

Since the introduction of the CO Cards in May 2007, WRI has acted on several individual cases of recruited youth and COs, in close cooperation with our affiliates Red Juvenil de Medellin and the Bogotá CO group Accion Colectiva de Objetores y Objetoras de Conciencia. WRI presented several of the Colombian recruitment cases to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and is presently awaiting the outcome.

In September 2008, Julian Ovalle from Bogotá will visit Britain, and participate in the 12th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns, which takes place in Manchester, 5-7 September 2008. WRI will host Julian in London, and is organising a public meeting and meetings with other organisations working on Colombia.

Turkey: Turkey was the focus for Prisoners for Peace Day 2007. In addition, WRI acted on the cases of the cases of COs Halil Savda and Mehmet Bal, both of whom were arrested in the course of the last year. Mehmet Bal has now been released, while Halil Savda is serving a prison term. Both have been discharged from the Turkish army as unfit for military service. Turkish COs consider the discharge of objectors from the military as "unfit for service" following an arrest to be possibly a new strategy of the Turkish state.

WRI presented the case of Halil Savda to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Its opinion, published in May 2008, goes further than in the past and now says that any deprivation of an objector's liberty - not just repeated imprisonment - has to be seen as arbitrary. The Working Group, as did the UN Human Rights Committee in January 2007, now interprets the failure of states to recognise the right to CO as violating Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (see co-update No 27, February/March 2007 on the cases of two South Korean objectors).

The Turkish edition of the book documenting the international conference on CO in Istanbul on 27-28 January 2007 has now been published. An English edition will be published by Zed Books in spring 2008. Both have been edited by Özgür Heval Cýnar and Coskun Üsterçi, and include contributions by, among others, Andreas Speck, WRI Council member Pelao Cavallo, and several other WRI activists.

Greece: WRI continues to support our affiliate Association of Greek COs on Greek CO cases. The developments in the case of Lazaros Petromelidis have been worrying. He is now preparing an appeal either to the European Court of Human Rights, or to the UN Human Rights Committee. Andreas Speck visited Greece in February 2008, and participated in the General Assembly of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) and public activities organised by the Greek section of Amnesty International and the Association of Greek COs.

Non-country-specific work

Refusing to Bear Arms updates 2008: As a cooperation project with WRI Council member Tobias Pflüger MEP, WRI is presently producing an update of the Refusing to bear arms world survey, limited to the countries of the European Union and European Union candidate countries. This update will include information on conscientious objection for professional soldiers. It is hoped that the updated reports will be available at Council 2008 in Bilbao.

Women CO Anthology: This project has not progressed much, partly due to lack of time. There have been difficulties in reminding contributors, or in communication with contributors who already submitted their article. Translation from several languages into English has also been a problem. However, on the positive side, work has not stopped altogether, and materials are being collected and processed by the editors, Majken Sørensen and Ellen Elster.

International CO Day: The focus of International COs' Day 2008 was on the professionalisation of the military, and counter-recruitment. At the Council meeting in Israel in August 2007 it was decided to organise a central event in Spain, but the MOC Assembly in October saw itself unable to organise such an event. Due to communication problems and misunderstandings it was not possible to organise an alternative event in Germany, as suggested by DFG-VK's section representative Kai-Uwe Dosch.

Our contacts in South Korea proposed that International CO Day 2009 will focus on their country, and plans are underway.

Military service and domestic violence: Natasha Burton, a London-based volunteer in the WRI office, worked on a research proposal on the links between military service and domestic violence. A first draft has been reviewed, but it is now necessary to investigate funders in order to raise the funds needed to carry out the research.

Achievements


  • WRI was able to renew the grant for the Right to Refuse to Kill programme. The programme is now financed until April 2011.
  • The UN Wing Group on Arbitrary Detention now considers any detention of a as arbitrary, not just repeated imprisonment.
  • Work with Colombian CO groups has been stabilised.

Challenges


  • It has so far not been possible to strengthen the work of WRI and European WRI affiliates on counter-recruitment and the professionalisation of the military.
  • There is presently little awareness of the issue of conscientious objection for professional soldiers.
  • The programme needs to have a stronger programme committee accompanying it and promoting more activist involvement.

Nonviolence Programme

The Nonviolence Programme has three main areas:

Providing resources for nonviolent action

The production of the Handbook on Nonviolent Action has taken a lot of effort. It is now in its last stages of production (with a bit of luck it may already be printed by the beginning of the Council meeting). A draft was sent to many people to review it and we received a lot of positive comments about the importance of this resource. Distribution will depend on the cooperation of the WRI network. Further plans are to work on the web-version that will be constantly updated; you can already access it at: http://wri-irg.org/wiki/index.php/Nonviolence_Handbook.

We have been consulting Elena Vilenskaya from the House of Peace and Nonviolence in St. Petersburg on planning a nonviolence training in St. Petersburg and providing resources for nonviolence training.

The Nonviolence Training Exchange, to take place in Bilbao at the end of October 2008, will be an important opportunity to share resources and experiences in the field of nonviolence training.

Global Initiative Against War Profiteers

The bi-monthly newsletter War Profiteers' News has published contributions from several WRI members, including material on countries where there is little accessible information. The WRI Wiki on war profiteers is being re-worked, with a specific focus on campaigns against war profiteering being conducted around the world.

Javier Gárate attended the annual meeting of the European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT) in Oslo, Norway, which helped strengthen our important relationship with this network.

We have also supported the efforts of developing a war profiteers working group in South Korea, and have encouraged groups in Latin America to take on this dimension of militarism in their activities.

The connections between mining and the arms trade were the focus of an issue of The Broken Rifle devoted to war profiteers. This is also linked to our preparations for WRI's International Conference, planned to take place in India, December 2009, which will be examining this issue.

Nonviolence for Change

Despite an effort from the office to try to contact people in Japan to try to put something together for the G8 meetings there, there was no WRI presence this year. Meetings of world and regional Social Forums are discussed under Cross-Programme Work below.

Fundraising

Making the Nonviolence Programme economically sustainable remains a challenge. Last year we started an effort to approach individual donors to support the programme, which brought in a little more than 10% of the programme budget. The programme has applied for several grants, without much success, especially because of the coordinating character of the work. We hope that as the programme consolidates and starts producing more concrete outcomes it would be easier to access external funding. Material is available for anyone in the WRI Network who wants to offer regular individual donations or to approach others to do so.

Achievements:


  • The programme has consolidated its work on sharing resources for nonviolent action and on war profiteers.
  • It has cooperated with a number of members of the WRI network in producing information on war profiteers and has promoted the issue of war profiteering inside and outside our network.
  • We have made WRI's work on nonviolence more visible to the outside world.

Challenges:


  • To make the programme economically sustainable.
  • Following up on the publication of the Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns, by providing more training using the handbook, as well as looking at new resources we want to produce.
  • Moving from a programme sharing resources to one involving more concrete action.
  • Resurrecting the Nonviolence Programme Committee.

Cross-Programme Work

Eritrea

Since the Triennial in Germany in 2006, WRI has been cooperating closely with the Eritrean Antimilitarist Initiative (EAI) in Germany. After the World Social Forum in Kenya, it was planned to organise a conference of Eritrean exiles in South Africa, under the joint auspices of EAI, the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR) in South Africa, and WRI. In the WRI office, WRI's volunteer Natasha Burton has been working on this project since April 2007. However, although EAI and EMDHR managed to raise some funds for the project, these were not sufficient to make the conference happen. Presently, efforts are stalled.

Social Forums

After the World Social Forum in Kenya, and following the discussion about WRI's presence and role at Social Forums at the Israel Council, the WRI office cooperated with WRI Council member Stellan Vinthagen and discussed options for the European Social Forum in 2008, and the World Social Forum in January 2009. However, due to lack of resources it was decided that the WRI office cannot make a major effort for the WSF in 2009. For the European Social Forum, on the other hand, close cooperation has developed with the Swedish antimilitarist group Ofog and European Peace Action (see under Regionalisation).

Organisation and Network

The office

Staff, Volunteers & Internships

All three WRI staff have often been working long hours, and the workload has sometimes been increased due to changes in the office (see below). In September 2007, two Russian interns who were supposed to come to London unfortunately got their visas denied. This meant that work on Russia could not progress as much as we would have liked.

London based volunteer Natasha Burton continues to volunteer in the office three days a week, and is presently developing a research proposal on military service and domestic violence. Martyn Lowe is still taking care of WRI's paper archives, and helps with mailings. In August 2008, Julian Dinkgrefe from Germany started a one year voluntary social year in the WRI office. He is currently working mostly on WRI's new website (see under Publications below). Another volunteer, Sofie Henell, has contacted the office shortly before this report has been written.

On top of all that, the renewed Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust grant for the Right to Refuse to Kill programme includes a budget for internships. An intern from South Korea will begin volunteering in the office early next year, in preparation for 15th of May 2009.

Office space and equipment

There have been many changes in the office space since the last Council meeting, aimed at cutting down on office rent. WRI gave up the meeting room, and the small front office. In exchange, WRI got a new small office extension on the roof of the building. Peace News Trustees, the owners of 5 Caledonian Rd, are also creating a new meeting room space in the basement, which can then be used by all building users free of charge.

All these office changes put an extra burden on WRI staff, who not only had to cope with the construction works, but also had to do some of them, especially wiring and furnishings, themselves. However, these changes allow us to save several thousand pounds a year on rent.

Presently, WRI is planning to replace its old phone system with a VOIP based phone system, and will also upgrade its Internet connection. Both changes together will allow WRI staff, among other things, to work from outside the office when necessary.

Exec

The Exec meeting held in London in November was the first to benefit from the presence of WRI's new Acting Treasurer, Dominique Saillard. The Executive as a whole now has a clearer understanding of financial objectives. Domi has also contributed her own fundraising and organisational skills into our work this year. She has obtained the funding for the Nonviolence Training Exchange and the 2008 Council in Bilbao and has done much of the organising work for the event.

To balance the good news, Majken Sørensen announced her resignation from the Exec in July (she will continue her work on preparing the conference in India, on the Women's CO anthology and on other WRI commitments).

Presently, the Exec members are thus Howard Clark (Chair), Dominique Saillard (Acting Treasurer), Boro Kitanoski and Sergeiy Sandler. This raises the need to add another member (or even two) to the Exec, with some emphasis on the issue of gender balance.

Council and Conference

The 2007 Council meeting was held in Neve Shalom, Israel, in August 2007.

Apart from subjects discussed elsewhere in this report, the 2007 Council meeting raised several issues of importance for our future work. Substantial progress has been made on the difficult issue of the WRI Constitution, serious and detailed consideration has been given to planning WRI's pattern of meetings in the coming years and some thinking was started on decentralising WRI's activities, both to prepare for the possibility of losing our central office and to strengthen the WRI network in general.

Alas, follow-up on these subjects in between Council meetings was a problem - another testimony to the need to expand and invigorate our network. The issue of decentralisation was essentially not followed up. The Constitution Committee held very few discussions over the year, although eventually a proposal is being brought to this year's Council.

As for the pattern of meetings, while here too not much progress has been made on long term planning, there have been some important decisions made for the shorter run. In an e-mail consultation in late April and early May, the WRI Council has accepted the Exec's proposal of postponing the Council meeting originally planned to take place in India in December this year to December 2009, and turn it into a WRI International Conference; the 2008 Council meeting, as you are aware, has been moved to Bilbao and rescheduled for the end of October.

Regionalisation

Europe

Since the 2006 Triennial in Germany there has been an active effort to attain closer cooperation and coordination between groups in Europe involved in antimilitarist nonviolent direct action. This last year the main event was NATO Game Over, a mass nonviolent action at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, which was organised by WRI's section, Vredesactie. Following the action itself, a seminar on Military Globalisation and Nonviolent Resistance in Europe, co-organised by Vredesactie and WRI, was held with the aim of strengthening the European coordination of groups campaigning against military infrastructure and military intervention coming out of Europe. The seminar was attended by many groups in the WRI network and beyond.

Next to come are:

  • The European Social Forum in Malmö 17-21 September, where there will be a special programme for radical antimilitarist groups, called the European Peace Action Forum. It is organised mainly by Ofog, an antimilitarist group from Sweden. The WRI office is involved in coordinating the event, and also plans to do workshops at it.
  • War Starts from Europe - European Day of Action Against Military Infrastructure, 15-16 November, a decentralised day of action for which this loose network of radical antimilitarists is calling, and where again the WRI central office is helping to coordinate.
  • There will also be many events happening in the run up to the 60th anniversary of NATO in 2009, and many groups connected to WRI are taking a lead, which the central office will be attending and supporting.

Latin America

The IRG-AL email list, used by antimilitarist groups in Latin America, is the most active of WRI's email lists. One tangible product of this activity was a statement reacting to the conflict escalation between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela in March this year, see an English version at http://wri-irg.org/statemnt/noqueremos-en.htm. There are initial talks about having a face-to-face meeting of these groups in early 2009, with the aim of defining how to act more concretely as a network. The idea of a WRI Latin American office has been put to one side in favour of a network without the formal structure of an office.

Publications and Communications

Newsletters

The Broken Rifle: The office has maintained the regular publication of The Broken Rifle (four times a year in English, French, German and Spanish), with the English version being printed and distributed with Peace News. However, in reviewing the effectiveness of The Broken Rifle, it was felt that continuing The Broken Rifle as a print publication is no longer justified. In March, the Executive therefore decided that the September issue will be the last issue printed with Peace News, and mailed out with the appeal letter. From then on, The Broken Rifle will be turned into an e-newsletter, but A4-format PDF files will also be provided for easy download and printing.

War Profiteers' News is being published six times a year, in English and Spanish. Feedback on warprofiteers-news has been encouraging.

CO Update: published monthly in English, Spanish and French, co-update continues to provide regular information on conscientious objection and conscription. However, there have occasionally been difficulties to keep up with a monthly rhythm.

Books

The Handbook on Nonviolent Action and the Women's CO Anthology are discussed above. These publications can help raise WRI's profile, provided that affiliates actually use and distribute them.

An idea has been floated and discussed in Exec to create a new publication - the WRI Yearbook, with a focus on research (aimed, among other things, to increase WRI's visibility in this area). A discussion on the subject is scheduled to take place at the Council meeting in Bilbao.

WRI website

Our website, wri-irg.org, has become a vital repository for information and archives on WRI. We are now upgrading it to become an even more effective resource for discussion, action and research.

As part of the new Right to Refuse to Kill grant, was able to raise the money needed for a complete redevelopment of the WRI website. Netuxo Ltd is presently working on the development of the new site, Simo Hellsten graciously volunteered to do the design and intern Julian Dinkgrefe, is moving content from the old WRI website to the new website, which is based around a content management system (CMS).

By changing to a contents management system, we hope to make the site easier to navigate and will allow contributors from the WRI network to post their own materials to the site. The new website will also fully integrate the present Wiki with the other parts of the website, and will provide forums for discussion.

In its recent discussion on promotions, the WRI Exec saw the website as the centre of a strategy for promoting WRI - including using the webshop to market materials in cooperation with affiliates.

A central feature of the new site is the Conscientious Objection Information System (COBIS), a multilingual system, providing easy access to public information on the situation in any given country, and password protected levels of access to 'private' information on specific cases. It will allow easy access to all information on a given country, thus making it easy not just to find the existing Refusing to bear arms country report, but also any updates included in our e-newsletters or special country reports. Additionally, the existing Colombia CO-database will be integrated into the system, and will be extended to allow for case specific information from any country to be stored in the database, and be linked to co-alerts and the general country information.

A snapshot of the new WRI website

The present schedule is to launch the new website either shortly before or shortly after the Bilbao Council meeting.

Nearly two years ago, Ken Simons in Toronto, Canada - who since 1998 has maintained the WRI web-site as a very painstaking volunteer - asked to be relieved of this task. This is now possible. Ken has made an enormous contribution to WRI's in this time. Without his dedication, the WRI web site could not be the central resource it has become.

In this past year, Ken has posted files of several historic WRI documents on the website - including Lakey's Manifesto for a Nonviolent Revolution, Randle's Towards Liberation, and the next will be the Feminism and Nonviolence Study Group's Piecing It Together.

Last year's report mentioned that michelle from Madrid, who used to be on Council, purchased a web domain to set up WRI forums in English and Castellano, and has volunteered to facilitate them. However, again, other people in our network did not follow through and did not participate in forum discussions. This has left yet another enthusiastic WRI activist feeling frustrated.

Mailing lists

Besides the e-newsletters (co-alert, co-update, wri-info, and warprofiteers-news, with other language versions), to which only the WRI office can post messages, WRI maintains a range of discussion email lists, which are open for subscription by anyone, and more internal email lists, linked to a working group or a certain committee.

With the new website, the WRI-internal list system will be integrated with WRI-internal forums in four languages.

The table on page 8 gives an overview.

Working Groups

On the whole, the activity of WRI working groups over the last year belongs more under the heading of challenges than achievements. As most network-based (rather than office-based or affiliate-based) activities in WRI, working groups hardly functioned. Things that were done have been reported already above - the work on Colombia as part of the Right to Refuse to Kill Programme, the Nonviolence Training Working group as part of the Nonviolence Programme. The main project of the Women's Working Group has been the Women CO anthology, reported under Publications, in which WWG members are involved as editors and contributors.

Finally, while the Africa Working Group has also had little communication among its members, one related project has matured this year: a two-volume book project edited by Africa WG co-coordinator, Matt Meyer, and Elavie Ndura from Burundi. The first volume, Seeds of New Hope: Pan African Peace Studies for the 21st Century, is to about to be published any day now by Africa World Press; the second - Seeds Taking Root: Pan African Peace Action for the 21st Century, is due out in February. Contributors to both volumes include many members and contacts of WRI and of the Africa WG itself: Chesterfield Samba, Jorgen Johansen, Light Wilson Aganwa, Emanuel Matondo, Jan Van Criekinge, Shelley Anderson, Judith Atiri and others.


















































































































































Table: WRI mailing lists

Description



English



Spanish


French



German



Newsletters and announcement lists



Co-alert email list



co-alert@lists.wri-irg.org









CO-update e-newsletter



co-update@lists.wri-irg.org



informe-oc@lists.wri-irg.org



objo-info@lists.wri-irg.org




War Profiteers News



warprofiteers-news@lists.wri-irg.org



especuladores@lists.wri-irg.org






Wri-info



wri-info@lists.wri-irg.org








The Broken Rifle

(from October 2008)



thebrokenrifle@lists.wri-irg.org


elfusilroto@lists.wri-irg.org



lefusilbrise@lists.wri-irg.org



daszerbrochenegewehr@lists.wri-irg.org


WRI Working Groups



Women's Working Group



womensworkinggroup@lists.wri-irg.org








Colombia Working Group



colombiaworkinggroup@lists.wri-irg.org






Africa Working Group



africaworkinggroup@lists.wri-irg.org








Nonviolence Training Working Group



nonviolencetraining@lists.wri-irg.org








Other discussion lists



European NVDA



nato-gameover@lists.wri-irg.org








Latin America



irg-al@lists.wri-irg.org








Solidarity with Turkish COs



soli4mehmet@lists.wri-irg.org








Russia

(also in Russian: rabochajagruppaporossii@lists.wri-irg.org)



russiaworkinggroup@lists.wri-irg.org









Gender and militarism



genderandmilitarism@lists.wri-irg.org









War profiteers (discussion list)



warrprofiteers@lists.wri-irg.org









Nonviolence at Social for a



nonviolentactionforum@lists.wri-irg.org









Internal committees and lists



Wri-internal list system



wri-internal-en@lists.wri-irg.org



wri-internal-es@lists.wri-irg.org



wri-internal-fr@lists.wri-irg.org


wri-internal-de@lists.wri-irg.org



WRI constitution



const-com@lists.wri-irg.org








RrtK Committee



rrtk-com@lists.wri-irg.org








Nonviolence Committee



nvcom@lists.wri-irg.org








India Triennial Organising Committee



india2008@lists.wri-irg.org








Check out and subscribe to all (public) lists at http://lists.wri-irg.org/sympa












Finances

Council said it clearly in 2004: WRI should maintain its radical anti-militarist character and should function as a network rather than switch to being a funding-led NGO. Yet the yearly accounts give just the opposite picture:


  • In 2007, the income from the WRI network (affiliation fees and sales) was half that of the early 2000s, accounting for just 7.3% of the overall income. It should improve this year, as reminder letters are being sent out to affiliates, but it still remains an extremely low proportion.
  • WRI project fundraising (mostly the Right to Refuse to Kill programme) accounted for 57% of the overall income. We have been able to obtain a new 3-year grant for the RRtK programme from our single donor, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, but are still facing the challenge of funding the Nonviolence programme.
  • Individual donations, once a significant source of funding, have come down to 9.7% of the overall income. This donor base is overwhelmingly British and does not renew itself.
  • Sales have declined to become completely marginal.

    What has saved the WRI central office from having to shut down?


  • Cuts on office expenses, the last one being a significant reduction in office space at Caledonian Road, which does not make staff work any easier.
  • Periodical, life-saving legacies. In 2008, we already know of a £15.000 legacy from a British supporter.

As last year's Report pointed out, there is a permanent tension between our ambitions - following a network rather than NGO model, investing in projects we believe in, organising costly international meetings, etc. - and our ability to diversify funding sources and obtain funds in due time.

What, then, are some of the key financial issues that the WRI Council and network should look into?

  • Increase the proportion of funds coming from the WRI network: until now, we have relied on relatively few affiliates and need more overall commitment from the network. Making merchandising agreements with some of our affiliates could also be a way to diversify funding sources and, as importantly, to project WRI's image to a wider public. Our webshop can play a central role here. The Exec is also looking for new graphic designs.
  • Adapt our pattern of events to financial reality: important savings have already been made on exec meetings, but the key factor remains controlling the losses that might arise from organising Councils, Triennials and other events. In the recent past, the only financially successful meetings have been those where the local organisers or anaffiliate have played a huge fundraising role. This year we had to make the difficult decision to postpone the India Council and opt for an "emergency" solution in Bilbao. If all the weight of fundraising falls down on an already overstretched staff and exec, priorities shift too far away from continued network building and programme development.
  • Internationalise and diversify our individual donor base. WRI´s new website will be a very important tool for reaching out to even more people, but the help of our affiliates remains absolutely necessary to try and contact directly potential new donors, especially outside Britain.
  • Identify and pursue funding sources for the Nonviolence Programme, which is already doing a significant contribution to strengthening the WRI network.

Summary accounts 2006-2008


































































































































































Summary account
SUMMARY ACCOUNT 2008 2008 2008 2007 2007 2006 2006


% of budget Account Budget Account Budget Account budget
Income

Until 22 July









WRI Network (affiliations & sales) 55.47%4,714.758,500 5,064.419,500 7,538.929,000
Donations8.19%1,966.4624,000 17,221.989,500 16,937.6515,500
WRI Project fundraising37.51%18,688.4549,820 39,631.5644,346 40,802.0545,260
Seminar & Triennial fundraising 0.00%0.0013,500 4,266.9314,400 22,732.0950,800
Other income38.72%3,226.998,334 3,381.882,000 3,053.942,000
taken from WRI Reserves

0.000 2,929.074,922 16,358.6720,720
Total 27.46% 28,596.65104,154 72,495.8384,668 107,423.32143,280
















Expense












Central Office39.80%11,826.9729,720 25,164.50 34,550 33,916.4428,040
WRI Network23.87%1,575.39 6,600 1,954.283,750 1,645.473,100
WRI Projects 38.02%25,193.4866,270 55,489.0761,346 49,248.9659,760
Seminar & Triennial0.00%0.008,500 1,960.6414,400 37,295.8355,200
WRI Publications66.67%600.00900 1,200.003,000 600.492,000
Total 35.00% 39,195.84111,989 85,768.49117,046 122,707.19148,100
















Year Result 135.28%-10,599.19 -7,835 -13,272.66 -32,378 -15,283.87 -4,820

Financial Figures for 2007 and 2008 (budget and accounts until 22 July 2008)

































































































































































































































































































Income and expenses
INCOME 2008 2008 2008 2007 2007 2006 2006


% of budget Account Budget Account Budget Account budget
WRI general income













Allocated donations





1,144.82500663.664,500
Appeal donations7.84%313.67 4000.003,310.293,0002,910.085,000
Donations (non appeal)33.06% 1652.795000.002,298.805,0005,310.595,000
Legacies



15000.0010,468.071,0008,053.321,000
Affiliations54.04%4323.198000.004,552.807,0006,005.587,000
Sales78.31%391.56500.00511.612,5001,533.34 2,000
Interest received56.93%569.271000.001,467.641,500 2,365.250
Other income

70.00

1,914.24 500688.692,000
Service charges58.63%1970.173360.60







Overhead from projects15.54%617.55 3973.80







subtotal Donations8.19% 1,966.4624000.00 17,221.989,500 16,93815,500
subtotal Affiliations/sales55.47%4,714.758500.00 5,064.419,500 7,539 9,000
subtotal Other income38.72%3,226.998334.40 3,381.88 2,000 3,0542,000
Total24.26%9,908.20 40834.40 25,668.2721,000 27,53126,500















WRI Projects












Dealing with the past





0.0000.00 0
Right to Refuse to Kill46.62%18563.4539819.9531,458.2629,346 34,649.6333,760
Nonviolence programme1.25%125.0010000.008,173.30 15,0006,152.4211,500
History Project




0.00





Other projects




0.00





Total37.51% 18,688.4549819.95 39,631.5644,346 40,80245,260















Yearly Seminars & Triennial













Yearly Seminars



9500.00 1,075.8114,4000.000
Triennial




3,191.12

22,732.0950,800
Council



4000.00







Total0.00%0.0013500.00 4,266.9314,400 22,732.0950,800
















From WRI Reserves





2,9294,922 16,358.6720,720
Total Income 27.46%28,596.65104154.35 72,495.8384,668 107,423.32143,280
LHTF rent&premises





2,929.074,92211,858.67






































































































































































































































































































































































































Expenses
EXPENSE20082008200820072007 20062006


% of budgetAccountBudgetAccount BudgetAccountbudget
Central Office













Staff and volunteers0.4126129.87 14879.611,383.9113,00012,480.2512,800
Office rent & premises 0.40573464.52854012,221.6913,00012,561.2410,500
Office equipment & IT0.4587458.71000848.611,5002,128.09600
Postage, copying & stationary0.1268317.042500-493.054,000 3,750.883,000
Telecommunication0.6733471.28700627.6 750740.291,200
Fundraising costs0.5992898.871500 1,063.911,5001,392.122,000
Sales costs



0-3.6

28.62500
Bank & admin costs & other 0.111666.95600-484.57800834.95800
War Tax Resistance

19.74









Overhead allocated to projects











-3,360
Total Central Office0.39811,826.9729719.625,164.5034,55033,916 28,040
















WRI Network













Representation (unallocated)









00
Networking









00
WRI Affilliates



1000

0100
WRI Council



3500

1,25000
WRI Executive0.52511575.3930001,954.282,5001,645.473,000
Regional networking



0






Total WRI Network0.23871,575.3966001,954.283,7501,645.47 3,100
















WRI Projects













Dealing with the past





0

00
Right to Refuse to Kill0.333713289.52 39819.9526,400.0233,34625,590.3533,760
Nonviolence programme0.4501 11903.9626449.9229,089.0528,00023,658.6126,000
Crisis Response





0

00
History Project





0

0

Other projects





0

0

Total WRI Projects0.380225,193.4866269.8755,489.0761,34649,248.96 59,760
















Yearly Seminars & Triennial













Yearly Seminars



85001,806.2414,40000
Triennial





154.4037,295.8355,200
Total 0085001,960.6414,40037,295.8355,200
















WRI Publications












Broken Rifle0.66676009001,200.001,500600.49 2,000
Peace News Magazine





0



0
Books





0 1,500



WRI Women





0



0
Total WRI Publications0.6667600 9001,200.003,000600.492,000
















Total Expense 0.3539,195.84111989.4785,768.49117,046122,707.19148,100
















YEAR RESULT1.3528-10,599.19-7835.12-13,272.66-32,378-15,283.87-4,820











































































































































Project expenses


2008 2008 2008 2007 2007 2006 2006
Council & seminar % of budget Account Budget Account Budget Account budget
Income

0.00 13,500 1075.8114,400 0.000
council expenses

0.003,500 0.001,250 0.000
seminar expenses

0.008,500 1806.2414,400 0.000
total expenses

0.0012,000 1806.2415,650 0.000
result

0.001,500 -730.43-1,250 0.000
















result per project












Dealing with the past

0.000 0.00 0 0.000
Right to Refuse to Kill

5273.93 0 5058.24-4,000 9059.280
Nonviolence programme 71.60%-11778.96-16,450 -20915.75-13,000 -17506.19-14,500
Other projects

0.000 0.000 0.000
Yearly Seminars

0.005,000 -730.430 0.000
Triennial

0.000 3036.720 -14563.74-4,400
WRI General (non-projects)-113.26%-4094.163,615 278.56-15,378 7726.78 14,080
check year result 135.28%-£10,599 -£7,835 -£13,273 -£32,378 -£15,284 -£4,820

Elected and appointed positions chosen or confirmed at the 2006 International Conference

Chair: Howard Clark, Britain/state of Spain

Internationally elected council members:


  • Adriana Patricia Castaño Román, Colombia
  • Albert Beale, Britain
  • Boro Kitanoski, Macedonia
  • Chesterfield Samba, Zimbabwe
  • Hilal Demir, Turkey
  • Joanne Sheehan, USA
  • Jørgen Johansen, Norway/Sweden
  • Pelao Cavallo, Chile
  • Sergeiy Sandler, Israel
  • Stellan Vinthagen, Sweden
  • Tobias Pflüger, Germany

The Council also includes a representative from each section and a non-voting observer from each associate organisation or publication.

War Resisters' International

5 Caledonian Rd

London N1 9DX

tel +44-20-7278 4040

fax +44-20-7278 0444

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

Attached file
Programmes & Projects

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