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War Resisters' International sections Vredesactie and Agir pour la Paix were joined by activists from across Europe earlier this month in a blockade of the annual European Defence Agency conference being held in Brussels. Arms dealers were meeting with policy makers to lobby for subsidies and to push the European Union further down the road towards militarisation. Using lock-ons, human chains, ribbons and banners to stop the arms dealers from getting inside, protesters succeeded in causing major disruption to the conference and bringing greater public attention to an issue of growing concern.

See more photos here.

At our eCouncil meeting this month, we were really glad to welcome four new organisations as Associate Organisations of War Resisters' International. They are:

Campaign Against Arms Trade (Britain), working to end the international arms trade and to promote progressive demilitarisation in arms-producing countries.

NESEHNUTÍ (Czech Republic): a social and ecological non-governmental organization, that works principally on the basis that ecological and social problems have shared causes and consequences which must be resolved. All our activities aim to show that social change based on respect for people, animals and nature is possible, and, most importantly must be led from below. Therefore, we support people who are interested and engaged in what is happening around them and who consider responsibility for life on our planet as an integral part of their own freedom. We work independently of party and economic interests, using strictly non-violent means.

Şiddetsizlik egitim ve arastirma dernegi (Nonviolence Education and Research Centre, Turkey): 'To achieve our dream of a nonviolent world we organize trainings, produce knowledge and share our resources. In doing so, our methods are non-hierarchical, participatory and based on solidarity and consensus. In this context, we aim to develop creative nonviolent campaigning tools and policy-making instruments, to share these instruments and to empower everyone struggling for a nonviolent world. Because we believe that a world without discrimination and oppression, where social justice exists and conflicts are solved in nonviolent ways, is possible.

VD AMOK (the Netherlands) -  a Dutch anti-militarist and conscientious objectors organization, non-governmental and non-profit, that works closely together with peace movements and peace organizations to create a peaceful, fair and stable world.

Three organisations already affiliated to WRI as Associate Organisations were also admitted as Sections of WRI. They are Alternatives to Violence Project, Nigeria; the Organization for Nonviolence and Development (South Sudan) and Žene u crnom (Women in Black Serbia).

We look forward to working more with all of these organisations towards a world without war!

In the UK, WRI affiliate Trident Ploughshares have held a month of nonviolent action against the construction of nuclear weapons at Burghfield Atomic Weapons Establishment. WRI affiliates from Finland, Germany and Belgium joined Trident Ploughshares for an international blockade, which led to the construction gate being blockaded for over ten consecutive days. Other actions included a successful attempt by faith groups to blockade every entrance, and a mad hatters tea party!

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I spent the weekend in the good company of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO), a European umbrella organisation campaigning for the rights of conscientious objectors. In their 30+ year history, EBCO have never before met in Britain. They chose to on this occasionat the invitation of the First World War Peace Forum, a group of British peace groups working to give an alternative, antimiltiarist view of the centenary memorials to the first World War, which in Britain have been an excuse for nationalism and militarism.

REPRESSIVE RESPONSE AGAINST ANTI-MILITARIST MOC ACTIVISTS FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCEUP TO 12.000 EUROS  FINE AND THE POSSIBILITY OF SEVERAL YEARS JAIL SENTENCE FOR  BLOCKADE IN THE PORT OF SAGUNTO AGAINST NATO MANEUVERS. 

The group of antimilitarists that paralyzed the transport of armoured vehicles to the NATO “Trident Juncture“ manoeuvres last October face accusations of “serious disobedience”, “breach of the peace”, and fines for “intrusion". 

At the WRI Council meeting in Seoul, Korea, the WRI Council was delighted to admit four new associated organisation as members of War Resisters' International:

The Antimilitarist Kollective of Medellín, Colombia: an affinity group that promotes antimilitarism and conscientious objection to war as a way of life and as a way to fight for political and social advocacy. We fight for the transformation towards a more just, inclusive, equitable and humane society which promotes autonomy, self-determination and the freedom of people.

The Centre for Peace Studies, Zagreb, Croatia, is a non-profit citizens’ association whose mission is promoting non-violence, human rights and social change through education, research, public policies and activism. CPS grew out of various direct forms of peace-building activities in the region of western Slavonia during the 1990s war in Croatia (community projects such as The Volunteer Project Pakrac and The Croatian Anti-War Campaign - ARK). It was established in 1997, formally in 1999.

The Community Self Reliance Center, Nepal whose vision is to see a Nepali society where everyone enjoys a secure, free and dignified life. Their mission is to empower land-poor women and men enabling them to claim and exercise their basic rights, including right to land resources, contributing to eradicating poverty and injustice.

The National Land Rights Forum (NLRF), Nepal whose vision is to see a self-reliant farmer community in Nepal, and whose mission is to empower the land-poor people by organizing and conscientizing them to enable to launch struggle against discriminations and claim their farmers’ rights.

We welcome all of them and look forward to working together.

Last Friday, a group of Antimilitaristes-moc activists disrupted the organization of the departure of a military convoy from the port of Sagunto, due to be deployed in war maneuvers in the next few days by army units of more than 30 countries as part of NATO exercise “Trident Juncture 2015”

Members of the RAMALC in solidarity with the victims of Ayotzinapa The Latin American and Caribbean Anti-Militarist Network (RAMALC), in the city of Mexico on September 23, 2015, with representatives from Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Chile, Paraguay Brazil, Bolivia, Serbian anti-militarists and United States, together with their peers from Mexico, would like to express our solidarity with the mothers, fathers and relatives of the 43 student teachers of the Ayotzinapa Rural

During the NATO exercise Trident Juncture 2015 the alliance will practice military interventions in North Africa Marines from the US train in la Sierra del Retin, Barbate

The NATO exercise Trident Juncture 2015 will take place during October 2015 and until early November in Italy, Portugal, and the State of Spain. According to a variety of sources, this will be the “largest exercise of NATO since the end of the Cold War”1, “largest exercise conducted by the Alliance since 2002” (…) and “the Alliance’s most important exercise in 2015”2, or “the largest deployment of the Alliance in the last decade”3. The exercise consists of two clearly distinguished phases, a command post exercise (CPX, 3-16 October) and a phase of real action (Live Exercise, LIVEX, 21 October-6 November).

We, peace and human rights organizations, declare our support and solidarity with No to Compulsory Military Service Movement and with the Egyptian conscientious objector, Mark Nabil Sanad. We condemn the silence of Egypt’s authorities over conscientious objectors’ suffering. We call on the Egyptian authorities to restore his civil rights and to recognize his right to an exemption from the military service based on his conscientious beliefs.

Social networking sites have played a huge role in civil resistance in recent years, and they're not going anywhere! A lot WRI's network of affiliates are using social media, and this is a great way to find out news from different countries quickly, and be able to amplify their requests for solidarity and action amongst your contacts too. We've added social media accounts to our information on affiliates here. Those of you on Twitter can also sign up to subscribe to our list of WRI affiliates here. You can also of course follow WRI onTwitter, Facebook and Diaspora.

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The Limousin group of Union Pacifiste, a member of the French section of War Resisters' International, learn with huge pain of the attack against our old friends of Charlie Hebdo, which killed twelve people, including the well known cartoonists and journalists Cabu, Wolinski, Charb, Tignous and Bernard Maris. The souls of these pacifists expressed themselves through pencil and pen, struggling and denouncing all kinds of recruitment by religious, societal or economic fanaticisms. Weapons ended their lives.

When spirit, heart, intelligence and humour leave the human being, it is violence that enters the scene. This violence is, of course, found in assassins, but it is also found in this militarized society, which manufactures war here for export over the whole world, in order to protect, hypocritically, the interests of French arms dealers, under the guise of patriotic values.