Editorial

This issue of The Broken Rifle introduces the forthcoming War Resisters' International's International Conference, historically known as the WRI Triennial: “Nonviolent Livelihood Struggle and Global Militarism: Links & Strategies” that will take place in Ahmedabad, India between the 22 and 25 of January 2010. As Howard Clark says in the opening article “a WRI Triennial is more than a conference. It is a central part of our building a transnational community of resisters.” Yes, in India we expect much more than just to have another conference but to be the place where the WRI world gets together to continuing shaping the history of the network.

In this issue we introduce some of the topics that will be covered at the conference. The article on aluminium mining in India and on the resistance from local communities in Orissa tells us the story of the impact of the aluminium industry, the connection of this industry with weapon production and the resistance of local villagers to the mining of their sacred land. "Exodus of a country at war" presents the courageous work of Colombians supporting displaced people particularly from rural areas to the cities. Displacement enforced by military and paramilitary forces is part of the lasting Colombian conflict and also aids the schemes of multinationals to take possession of large tracts of land to extract natural resources. The last two articles are related to war profiteering, the first introducing us to the rapid development of the arms industry in India and the second one reflecting on WRI's work against war profiteers. All these topics and many more will be part of the conference - we present the draft programme for the conference. If you want to learn more about the conference and also register to it, you should check the following link: http://wri-irg.org/india2010.

Javier Gárate