WRI 75th anniversary special

• WRI's first Statement of Principles adopted in 1925
• Early WRI Chronology
• WRI after 75 years: time to be true to our roots
• The challenges of pacifism during the Second World War
  • Those that paid the ultimate price:
• Conscription and CO in Central America
• Decentralised strategies for change
• List of WRI sections and associates in 1996
  • South Africa: No more conscription, but other work to be done
  • Germany: Nonviolence in a culture of violence
  • Austria: Personal pressures impede collective action
  • Québec: Spreading the ideas of nonviolence
  • Netherlands: Conscription ends but CO jailed anyway
  • Norway: Group under surveillance
  • Basque Country: Anti-militarist bee stinging with disobedience
  • Portugal: Promoting civilian service as viable alternative
  • Ireland: Non-judgemental stance needed
  • Belgium: "Wij doen het Zonder!" (We do it without [weapons]!)
  • Hungary: Supporting COs and stopping NATO trains
  • USA: Empowering youth for nonviolent social change
  • France: Unemployment, debt, war--we have had enough from the G7!
  • Britain: Using taxes for non-military security
  • Britain: Challenging anti-human values
  • Britain: New conference facilities outside old missile base
  • Australia: Network of individuals campaigning on all fronts
  • France: Working hard to change military (and wine-drinking) habits
• Peace movements and the professionalisation of armies
• Balkan Peace Team: Women targeted for illegal evictions
• The magazines of WRI

WRI's first Statement of Principles adopted in 1925

WAR IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY. It is a crime against life, and uses human personalities for political and economic ends. WE, THEREFORE, actuated by an intense love for mankind, ARE DETERMINED NOT TO SUPPORT either directly by service of any kind in the army, navy, or air forces, or indirectly by making or consciously handling munitions or other war material, subscribing to war loans or using our labour for the purpose of settings others free for war service, ANY KIND OF WAR, aggressive or defensive, remembering that modern wars are inavariably alleged by Governments to be defensive.

Wars would seem to fall under four heads:

1. Wars to defend the State to which we nominally belong and wherein our home is situated. To refuse to take up arms for this end is difficult:
   1. Because the State will use all its coercive powers to make us do so.
   2. Because our inborn love for home has been deliberately identified with love of the State in which it is situated.
2. War to preserve the existing order of society with its security for the privileged few. That we would never take up arms for this purpose goes without saying.
3. Wars on behalf of the oppressed proletariat, whether for its liberation or defence. To refuse to take up arms for this purpose is most difficult:
   1. Because the proletarian regime, and, even more, the enraged masses, in time of revolution would regard as a traitor anyone who refused to support the New Order by force.
   2. Because our instinctive love for the suffering and the oppressed would tempt us to use violence on their behalf.
4. War organised under the auspices of the League of Nations in the name of Sanctions to defend the Covenant or to maintain Collective Security against a so-called Aggressor State.

Among such, we would regard the following as the more important today:~

1. Difference between races, leading by artificial aggravation to envy and hatred.
2. Differences between religions, leading to mutual intolerance and contempt.
3. Difference between the classes, the possessing and non-possessing, leading to civil war, which will continue so long as the present system of production exists, and private profit rather than social need is the outstanding motive of society.
4. Difference between nations, due largely to the present system of production, leading to world wars and such economic chaos as we see today, which eventualities, we are convinced, could be prevented by the adoption of a system of world economy which had for its end the well-being of the entire human race.
5. Finally, we see an important cause of war in the prevalent misconception of the State. The State exists for man [sic], not man for the State. The recognition of the sanctity of the human personality must become the basic principle of human society. Furthermore, the State is not a sovereign self-contained entity, as every nation is a part of the great family of mankind. We feel, therefore, that consistent pacifists have no right to take up a merely negative position, but must devote themselves to abolishing classes, barriers between the peoples, and to creating a worldwide brotherhood founded on mutual service.

Early WRI Chronology

• 1921: founding meeting of "Paco" in Bilthoven, the Netherlands
• 1923: Herbert Runham Brown establishes WRI office in Enfield, England
• 1926: launch of worldwide Manifesto for the abolition of conscription
• 1928: Gandhi unable to attend the second WRI Triennial conference, but arranges for Rajendra Prasad (later the first President of India) to attend in his place
• 1929-30: WRI helps rescue French objectors from the First World War, banished to Devil's Island, French Guiana. After several years' imprisonment in France, objectors were banished to Devil's Island for a second period. Only 50% survived.
• 1934: At the WRI Triennial Conference in England, Bart de Ligt - a Dutch anarchist and member of the WRI Council - presents each delegate with a huge chart depicting his Plan of Campaign Against All War and All Preparation for War.
• 1935: WRI Council calls for mass working class action to refuse to supply war materials, either to Italy (which had just invaded Abyssinia) or to any other government attempting "to impose any form of Imperialism upon Abyssinia".
• 1937: Jose Brocca, Spanish member of the WRI Council, opens a home for refugee children in the French Pyrenees.
• 1939: WRI establishes Agricultural Settlement in Colombia for refugees from Nazism and Fascism.
• 1945: Premsyl Pitter, Czechoslovak member of the WRI Council, returns from exile in England to open recovery homes for children from internment camps.
• 1954: WRI's eighth Triennial conference discusses the idea of a Third Camp aligned with neither power bloc and based on rejection of military power and in solidarity with those colonised people struggling for liberation.
• 1956: WRI Council declares 1 December Prisoners for Peace Day.
• 1960: WRI Triennial in India calls for founding of the World Peace Brigade for Nonviolent Action
• 1965: WRI Study Conference on Training in Nonviolence, Perugia, Italy
• 1966: WRI issues a leaflet to US servicemen in Europe, urging them not to fight in Vietnam. 100,000 leaflets are distributed in the next two years
• 1968: Support Czechoslovakia: WRI organises simultaneous demonstrations in four Warsaw Pact capitals after the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia.
• 1971: Operation Omega to Bangladesh: nonviolent direct action project, co-sponsored by WRI and Peace News, initially to defy the Pakistani blockade
• 1974: International secretariat moves to Brussels
• 1976: first WRI Women's Gathering held in France (co-sponsored by the International Fellowship of Reconciliation); also first of the series of annual International Nonviolent Marches for Demilitarisation
• 1980: International secretariat moves back to London
• 1986: WRI Women newsletter launched
• 1990: WRI and Peace News come together

WRI after 75 years: time to be true to our roots

As far as I know the War Resisters' International (WRI) was the first pacifist international organisation not only to express in words its opposition to all kinds of war, but also to inspire individuals of all persuasions - philosophical, religious and political - to translate that opposition into action. Its members acted often at the risk of imprisonment and sometimes even at the risk of death. There were other internationals with equally strong opposition to all wars, but they had their specific constituencies. For example, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFoR), formed before the WRI, addressed only those of Christian faith -- members of other religions, agnostics, atheists and humanists could not consider it as their base.

***The First World War

The First World War had brought to the people of Europe the most horrendous experiences of suffering and large-scale destruction of life and property in history. So it was that in 1921 some who felt the need to have an international pacifist organisation open to everyone regardless of faith, religion, conviction or political outlook, gathered together in Bilthoven, Netherlands. They proposed an organisation called Paco (Esperanto for "peace"), and formulated a declaration as the basis of membership:

"War is a crime against humanity. We therefore are determined not to support any kind of war and to strive for the removal of all causes of war."

***A bid for enlightened anarchism

The founders of WRI and their successors knew that war is a consequence of social and political misconceptions and mismanagement, and that it is necessarily related to the power of the State and its interests. In this regard, I believe that the approach of WRI is that of enlightened anarchism, a term Gandhi sometimes used to describe his position on the power of the State. "To me," he wrote, "political power is not an end but one of the means of enabling people to better their condition in every department of life. Political power means capacity to regulate national life through national representatives. If national life becomes so perfect as to become self-regulated, no representation becomes necessary. There is then a state of enlightened anarchy."

It is evident that to build a world without war the power of the state has to be drastically reduced, if not completely eliminated.

WRI moved to England in March 1923. Runham Brown, first secretary of the WRI wrote: "At that time there was simply a centre of action -- Day after day we wrote letters, telling not merely of a theory, but telling facts -- The response to our letters was surprising."

Replies came from all over the world, describing how the same idea took birth in the minds of men and women living under varied conditions: the idea that war was a perversion of the human search for peace and freedom and therefore it must be totally rejected. It seems history was waiting for people to take the necessary initiative in spreading the idea. Within a short period, war resisters' groups came into being in the whole of Europe and North America.

The first international conference was held at Hoddesdon in England in 1925. It confirmed the declaration, adopted a constitution and elected the first International Council, not representing nations but schools of thought within the WRI. This tradition has continued to be followed for the 12 council members. However, in the late 1960s, representatives of WRI affiliates were added because of the organisation's growth and demands of the time.

***As I see it

Regarding the dynamics of war resistance here I would raise two points. One is related to the change in the wording of the WRI Declaration. At one stage, the International Conference decided to change the word "we" to "I". The point is that the ultimate responsibility lies with the individual and not any group as such. To be prepared to fulfil a pledge taken by the individual it is necessary that the word "I" rather than "we" should be used. I believe that the change from "We therefore are~" to "I therefore am~" was essential, psychologically as well as morally. After all, the individual is the basic unit on wham social values are built. Most creative actions begin from the individual. Yet, it is a fact that a single brick cannot make a building. It was realised that collective action along with individual action was an essential part of the processes of socio-political change. The second point is about the alternatives to compulsory military service for war resisters. The WRI Declaration can only be interpreted as a total refusal of military service - an emphatic "no" to conscription. But some time in the mid 1920s the idea of "alternative service" was introduced. Was it wise to do so? On the one hand, it helped to spread the message more widely, making a larger proportion of young men aware of the issues connected with militarism. On the other hand, it diluted the message and indirectly affirmed the supremacy of the authority of the State. I believe that, to begin with, the approach was pragmatically sound, but that the pacifist leadership did not realise the importance of clarifying the theory of total war resistance right from the beginning. The need to reject war totally should have been emphasised and conscientious objectors (COs) should have been made to understand that alternative service was only a preparatory step towards the total rejection of war.

***The Second World War

The Second World War broke out one month after the 1939 council meeting in Basle. The Council, although confident that the war would not destroy the worldwide family of war resisters, was fully aware that it would put up new barriers and destroy many lines of communication, and that it would raise doubts in the minds of many who had signed the Declaration nearly 18 years earlier. A telling example is Albert Einstein. A compassionate person, in all sincerity but with romantic optimism he had supported the anti-militarism of the WRI with enthusiasm during its earlier years. When the war clouds became visible, he abandoned his anti-militarism and, at the same time, encouraged the Allies to develop more deadly weapons to defeat Hitler. In July 1929 Einstein expressed deep admiration for Gandhi and described his own pacifism "as an instinctive feeling, a feeling that possesses me; the thought of murdering another human being is abhorrent to me. My attitude is not the result of an intellectual theory but is caused by a deep antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred". However, in September 1933, he wrote: "In the present circumstances, realistic pacifists should no longer advocate the destruction of military power, rather they should strive for its internationalisation. Only when such internationalisation has been achieved will it be possible to work towards the reduction of military power to the dimensions of an international police force. We do not cause the danger to disappear by merely closing our eyes to it."

Such a statement coming from someone like Einstein must have encouraged people who had not really grasped the social and political implications of war resistance to give up their pacifism, even though they had signed the WRI Declaration. Love for the home country, the belief that title of the 13^th Triennial Conference in 1969 was Liberation and Revolution - Gandhi's Challenge. That period was drenched in the frustration and distrust caused by the Vietnam war. The whole conference was a kind of continuation of the same dialogue: what is the role of the pacifist movements in liberation struggles? There were some very good answers, but no programme of action emerged.

Other bold actions of WRI in the period were the stand against the USSR invasion of Czechoslovakia and the action against Pakistan's invasion of Bangladesh (Operation Omega). Both showed the potential of the pacifist movement in general and the WRI in particular to build an integrated perspective for a new world - a world without war, a world free from oppression, and a world where freedom and dignity are the supreme human values. The way the WRI grew and the role played by its founders and builders clearly indicates the direction the organisation was expected to take, "the WRI is first of all a freedom movement~" The people who were at the helm of the Movement - Brown, Wellock, de Ligt - were social revolutionaries. They visualised a world free not only from militarism but also from authoritarianism, exploitation and inequality. How could they otherwise have made the statement: "I, therefore, am determined~to strive for the removal of all causes of war." Moreover, interpreting the Declaration, the Council and the Triennial Conferences have identified from the beginning the causes of war: colonialism and economic imperialism, intolerance, economic injustice, military preparedness, nationalism and the state as the supreme authority. In the early and mid-sixties when draft-age men were discussing the various levels of opposition to military conscription, the Council found it necessary to clarity the WRI position. Their 1967 statement reiterated:

"The WRI is opposed to all conscription for military or civilian purposes and advocates its total abolition~ The WRI reaffirms that its campaign against conscription is only part of its struggle against war and its causes and for the establishment of a nonviolent social order."

History is a strange thing. It seems that it goes on playing games with human beings, but at the same time teaching lessons and offering alternatives. The happenings in the East European countries during the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s have, or I should say should have, taught us some lessons. It looked to me as if the Sun had risen from every direction to show humankind its follies. As if I dreamt Gandhi telling me with a wink in his eye: "Didn't I say so?". But he would never have taken such an egocentric view. He probably said to me, "My dear, it was high time you learnt some lessons".

I feel disturbed to see people from the WRI platform expressing their joy at the death of the Soviet Union, although the end of that kind of regime was inevitable and desirable. It is tragic to see peace workers consider it the death of socialism and rejoice in it, mistakenly thinking that the Soviet Union was socialist. What the end of the Soviet regime meant was an opportunity to discover the realities of human nature and needs. It also provided an opportunity to understand what real socialism should be. Unfortunately this unthinking rejoicing at the end of USSR-dominated regimes has created in the minds of many people a sense of the desirability and even the inevitability of capitalism. At the WRI-IFoR conference on Nonviolent Struggle and Social Defence in Bradford in 1990, I was sad to hear some of the honouredparticipants express anger and hatred towards socialism. I wish they and the WRI had been a bit more sophisticated in their understanding of the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

The work WRI has done since the fall of the Soviet bloc is admirable. Initiating nonviolent activists' groups in East European countries is an encouraging beginning of a No-War movement in societies which suffered repression and where where the freedom of the individual conscience was being assassinated for nearly 50 years.

But the question remains: What next?

***Towards the future

It seems to me that WRI has reached the moment to consider renewing and revitalising its strategies. There is no doubt that the profound sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of men and women who opposed conscription and war created a wider awareness in peoples all over the world about the futility and inhumanity of militarism. Although they cannot necessarily visualise an alternative to war, most people no longer glorify it as a way to preserve human values.

However it has to be borne in mind that the character of war has changed drastically, particularly since the Vietnam war as the onset of electronic war.

Wars fought by States no longer require mass armies of conscripted soldiers. Hence, the strategies of the WRI's struggle against conscription also has to be modified to meet the different nature of war.

Although the WRI should continue to oppose military conscription, it should do so in the broader context of the struggle for a just society. A study of the history of WRI clearly shows that the basic inspiration behind its founding was not anti-militarism alone. It was ultimately for fundamental change in our socio-political order so that a warless world could emerge ultimately.

Yet it has to be admitted that the WRI, or for that matter, any pacifist body, has not been able to propose a plan of action for bringing about the changes that would lead to a nonviolent social order. In the 1930s Bart de Ligt was probably the staunchest propagator of nonviolent social change. His correspondence with Gandhi shows how keen he was to generate nonviolent social change among pacifist circles, so much so that he strongly criticised those actions and ideas of Gandhi which he, rightly or wrongly, understood to be compromises with the State. De Ligt had great intentions and optimism, but he did not have any practical programme.

I do not blame the many for the helplessness they feel in the world today. I attribute their malaise to events in the twentieth century and consider it to be a step in human evolution. Our experience has helped in diagnosing the ailment, but we have not yet found the cure. Most of the thinkers, including Marxists, cherished their utopias, but none of them was able to discover the way to make their ideal world a reality. What Marxists thought to be the dawn of socialism has turned out to be a disastrous let-down of socialism itself.

Perhaps Gandhi succeeded to some extent in giving an indication as to which way to go. But as soon as India took the first steps in that direction, some devotees of industrialisation argued that walking on the path towards nonviolent social change was not realistic and desirable in the modern world of technology. Nor, they said, would this path lead to the age of plenty and affluence promised by the prophets of materialism like Keynes or Marx. And they succeeded in blocking the road to nonviolent social revolution for the time being.

Do not think that I have the answer. But I strongly feel that the answer we ought to be looking for will not be found in academic exercises or theoretical projection. It has to come from those are able to shed their intellectual, racial, cultural, technological, mystical, religious, or what have you, ego. It has to be a collective search for the truth of life.

I have also realised that, in the process of nonviolent revolutionary change, mere resistance to militarism and injustice are not sufficient. Another element has to go with it as an integral part of our struggle. This is the creation of alternatives: call it alternative ways of life built on values that unite human societies with each other and human society with nature.

The two -- resistance and reconstruction -- must not only go side by side, but also be completely integrated. That is how I understand the WRI Declaration.

The challenges of pacifism during the Second World War

ANDREW RIBGY

The experience of pacifists and war resisters in Europe, like their fellow citizens, was crucially determined by the type of German domination imposed. Throughout Germany, Austria and territories annexed by Germany individual war resisters faced the ultimate challenge, with many imprisoned and subsequently killed.

Belgium, Netherlands, Norway and the north of France were subjected to direct German rule, as such each had to find their own balance between the competing pressures of survival and resistance. How far to accommodate with the realities of occupation and how far to go in resisting the new regime? Many faced prison and suffering - the chair of the Norwegian section of WRI was just one who died in a German concentration camp. For those who engaged in forms of resistance, they had to reach their own decision about where to draw the line between violence and nonviolence. Few pacifists felt at home with "active sabotage", but were quite prepared to hinder the German war effort by "working to rule" and various forms of "technical sabotage". Others were active in publishing underground newsletters, assisting fugitives from forced labour drafts and the like.

In Denmark, up until August 1943, the national government enjoyed a limited form of autonomy under German "guardianship". As a consequence, the Danish section of the WRI was able to operate throughout, publishing its monthly paper and various pamphlets, holding its annual conference and its summer camp. Members also engaged in relief work, raising funds and supplies for their fellow Scandinavians in Norway.

Within Europe, the British war resisters enjoyed the greatest degree of freedom. The right to conscientious objection was established. The WRI was "recognised" by the Home Office, it was allowed to publish its literature (and send it abroad), make financial appeals, sponsor refugees fleeing from Nazi persecution and engage in various other forms of relief and support work. As a consequence, British pacifists had a significant degree of space within which to fashion a meaningful role for themselves as war resisters in war time. In developing such a role, the most active explored different aspects of the "Four Rs": reconciliation, relief, resistance and reconstruction work. The relative emphasis changed over time, reflecting the different stages of the war as experienced in Britain.

***Combatting the drift to war

In the years immediately prior to 1939 significant figures associated with WRI were tireless in their efforts to avoid war and bring about some form of reconciliation and negotiated settlement. The WRI chair, George Lansbury, toured Europe and met with Hitler and Mussolini; WRI's secretary, Runham-Brown, was a leading figure in the movement to establish Embassies of Reconciliation during this period.

At the grass-roots, PPU activists campaigned for a world conference and engaged in their own form of "internationalism from below" - writing letters to addresses in Germany as part of an effort to communicate directly with German people, as distinct from the regime, to impress upon them that there were people in Britain who sought peace. In their efforts to "humanise the enemy" and their campaign for a negotiated settlement, pacifists laid themselves open to charges of being soft on fascism. The "appeasement" that was a necessary dimension to such efforts at reconciliation was driven by the desire to avoid total war. At the heart of this stance was the conviction, expressed by James Hudson in Peace News, that

"We must have truck with dictators, either on the battlefield or round the conference table - and I choose the conference table."

***The "phoney war" period, 1939-40

During the first six months following the declaration of war, there seemed a chance that a negotiated peace might still be achieved. So, whilst the Danish section of the WRI took over responsibility for liaising with war resisters in Europe, the British section launched a "Stop the war" campaign. There were public meetings and marches, including a women's march - "For the sake of children everywhere, we appeal to men to stop this war". A Peace News worker stood as a Stop the War candidate in a parliamentary by-election. Six PPU members were prosecuted for sticking up posters proclaiming "War will cease when men refuse to fight. What are YOU going to do about it?", whilst other activists picketed outside the local government offices where young men were required to register for military service. As part of this burgeoning resistance campaign, a growing focus of activity involved advising and supporting conscientious objectors to conscription - many of whom received sympathetic treatment from the tribunals during the "phoney war" period.

***Pacifist war resistance during the period of total war By June 1940 it was clear that Britain was to be the next target of German expansionism following the fall of France and the retreat from Dunkirk. In the face of imminent invasion many pacifists reconsidered their pledge, whilst public attitudes towards pacifists and COs hardened. It was not the time for reconciliation work or active campaigning to stop the war. In the words of the PPU's Sybil Morrison, "It was no longer possible to expect or to try to achieve support for a negotiated peace." In fact, some pacifists formed study groups to learn German in the hope that they would be able to meet with German prisoners-of-war and sow the seeds of reconciliation. But the main focus of pacifist activity was relief work. Local pacifist groups took responsibility for supporting the families of refugees who had been designated "enemy aliens" and interned. They also established temporary rest centres for the victims of the bombing raids that were a nightly occurrence over some cities. Some groups established cooperative vegetable gardens, with the aim of distributing the produce to those in need. In London the WRI received regular shipments of clothing from groups in South Africa for distribution to needy families. It was the same humanitarian impulse that led some pacifists to volunteer as "guinea pigs" for medical experiments. In seeking to bear witness to their commitment to the fellowship of humanity by helping to relieve the suffering of the victims of war, many pacifists participated in local fire-watching schemes. The problem came when the state intervened and sought to conscript people for such civil defence duties. A number felt unable to cooperate and embarked upon their own personal resistance campaigns.

Nora Page was one who was imprisoned as a result of her stand:

"I was in a fire-watch team in our road and I took my turn stopping up all night - We were directed to register for fire-watching...I wrote and told them I had not registered because I did not believe in conscription ... I got 14 days." Whilst each waged their own individual struggle, weighing principles against expediency, coping with the sense of exclusion and relative isolation, the pressure grew to develop a positive pacifist response to the war. For many this involved a return to the traditional pacifist role of bearing witness, acting as a redemptive minority with the prophetic function of pointing the way towards a world without war.

***The politics of creative living

People like Wilfred Wellock advocated a "politics of creative living", urging pacifists and conscientious objectors to establish cooperative agricultural communities which could serve as seedbeds for a new age. The result was a blossoming of intentional communities and income-sharing groups throughout Britain, pacifist islands in a martial sea populated by conscientious objectors directed by their tribunals to engage in alternative civilian service on the land.

Not all pacifists were happy with this development, which they considered to be a quietist retreat from the immediate obligation to campaign against the continuation of the war. Therefore, whilst many pacifists sought to justify their stance by reference to their constructive role in remaking the world, others prioritised the campaigning role of the active war resister. Thus, the "Stop the war" campaign of 1939-40 was followed by a campaign advocating a negotiated peace, which petered out by mid-1941. That year there was also a campaign for the abolition of night-bombing. As news began to filter through of famine amongst the civilian populations of Belgium and Greece due to the total blockade imposed by the allies, the PPU launched its Food Relief Campaign in 1941, campaigning for a relaxation of the blockades to allow supplies to the starving. Out of this initiative a national Famine Relief Committee was established supported by a network of local committees. It was out of the Oxford Famine Relief Committee that the charity Oxfam was to emerge.

In June 1944 the Normandy Landings took place and it was clear that the end of the war was just a matter of time. The PPU sought to counter Churchill's insistence on "unconditional surrender" by relaunching its campaign for a negotiated settlement - without, it has to be acknowledged, exercising any observable influence upon government policy. With the end of the war the agricultural communities collapsed as pacifists began to pick up the threads of their interrupted careers and lives, and the PPU in Britain suffered a relative decline. The revelations of the full horror of the extermination camps caused many to question whether pacifism had a practical answer to state-organised terror and genocide. Many of us are still asking the same question.

Those that paid the ultimate price:

Rudolf Kustermeier, former chair of the German Pacifist Students' Union, was imprisoned by the Nazis in 1933. After ten years' imprisonment, he wrote to WRI from the camp hospital at Belsen. Fritz Kster, secretary of the German Peace Society, was arrested in 1933 and released from Buchenwald 5 years later after campaigns by his fiancee through WRI and the interventions of a secret WRI sympathiser working in the Gestapo headquarters in Vienna.

Olaf Kullman, co-founder and chair of FMK (WRI Norwegian section), refused in 1940 to sign a declaration that not to lecture any more on peace. In 1942 he died of pneumonia in Oranienburg concentration camp.

Piet Zuydendorp, secretary of the Bond van Anarcho-Socialisten (the Dutch Section of WRI) was executed by shooting in December 1944 for printing illegal papers and pamphlets.

Anna Kethly, a WRI member and the only woman in the Hungarian Chamber of Deputies, was indicted for high treason but she was not arrested because Hungarian law required the Chamber to give their approval before any deputy could be arrested, and this they would not do.

Giovannia Melodia was arrested in May 1939 and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment by the Italian Fascist Special Tribunal. In 1943 he was handed over to the German Nazis and sent to Dachau, where he began the International's underground movement of resistance and mutual help within the camp. He was the last Italian to return home in July 1945.

Amelia Kurlandska, a Jew and secretary of the Polish WRI, survived the war in Poland, unlike her two best friends: "Ryta Krauze, who went to ghetto with her family and was not heard from since, and Daniel Skwornik shot together with all inhabitants of his village (Kochovo) during a German punitive expedition". Michel Briqueneer -- a Belgian WRI member who helped about 50 young men with false medical certificates or identity papers to escape compulsory work in German war factories -- was murdered by five compatriots who interpreted his pacifism as treason.

Conscription and CO in Central America

***Guatemala

Involved in an armed conflict since 1962, the army is omnipresent and exerts a widespread control on population. The army consists directly of 58,700 men (total population 10 million) plus indirectly the 537,000 peasants serving in the PAC (Defence Patrols) and the 25,000 army delegates in the rural areas helping in recruitment, information and development duties. The 1996 Defence budget is US$782 million (1.1% of GNP), nominally 8% of the whole budget but in reality 47% including military expenses in other departments. In addition, the army owns a powerful bank. Mayans, living in rural settlements, have mainly suffered in this war: 150,000 assassinated, 46,000 disappeared, and a million people displaced. This severe pain brought women together, giving birth to CONAVIGUA (Guatemalan Widows National Coordination). They began with demands for basic human rights and then went on to work against militarism, eg resistance to forced recruitment to the army: a manhunt of young peasants to serve for 30 months. The first campaign against these recruitment methods was organised in early `93. Consisting of demonstrations and marches of up to 20,000 native people, it succeeded in blocking a Bill on Military Service proposed by the army, while simultaneously presenting its own proposal for a Law on Civil/Social and Military Patriotic Service. This comprised a 12-month military service (MS) affecting only 5% of conscripts; opened up the possibility of CO; proposed a Voluntary Civilian Service to be served by both men and women; and offered a guarantee that resisters to any or both services would not be liable to punishment.

In May `94, a second active nonviolent campaign forced president Ramiro de Leon to suspend conscription, but the army continued recruiting by force. After the exchange of experiences in ELOC I, held in Paraguay in 1994, CONAVIGUA's next step was two public presentations of 17 and 85 COs, men and women, in May and August `95. Short after, Rosalina Tuyuc, one of the leaders of CONAVIGUA, become a congresswoman and the organisation decided to employ four young men to build a youth movement around issues like human rights, the defence of Mayan identity, and CO. And the civil disobedience campaign continues. This year's International Day of CO, 15 May, has seen another public presentation of COs, now 150, which included for the first time 10 university students - not many students, but then they are exempted from conscription.

Currently the army is being reformed. As a result of the Peace Agreement between the Government and the URNG, there is frequent news about modernisation of the army, limitation of its influence in society and future reduction in size. Opinion surveys show that 84% distrust this institution and 36% support the idea of abolishing it (11% not supporting and the other 53% don't know). But the army is powerful.

Guatemalan peace activists are experiencing a critical moment. They have chosen CO as their battleground and, thanks to strong organisation, the results are promising. CONAVIGUA retains very positive characteristics: fully Mayan rank-and-file, the most impoverished people and the most affected my militarism, and a strong presence in rural areas. But, on the other side, decision-making is often hierarchical and rank-and-file do not really discuss the issues. Even the four young men working on CO never had any discussion on strategy before the Central American meeting, nor did they take part in the elaboration of CONAVIGUA's new proposal for a military and civilian service law. This results in confused positions: they call for an end to conscription but formally propose a voluntary civilian service linked to military service. Their discourse includes sentences like "we think that there is no justification for the army in Guatemala"(saying at the risk of death threats) and their appraisal of a professional army is a negative one, but still, their strategy option today is for "voluntary" military service.

***El Salvador

El Salvador is going through a post-war experience: militarist culture mixes up with rejection of violence, and there exists a certain degree of disenchantment about the outcome of the armed conflict in relation to some of the work of the FMLN. During the war in the `80s, military recruitment methods resembled Guatemala. Legal action was taken by mothers committees, human rights organisations and some churches to rescue youth recruited by force. Following the 1992 Peace Treaties, a 12-month compulsory military service for men and women aged 18-30-years-old was established by law. At that time, the Armed Forces were reduced from 60,000 to 30,000 people, but costing the same (the official budget in `96 is US$98 million, 1.9% of GNP).

In November 94, the first call-up provoked some meetings among the people opposed to conscription but no organised action. However, conscription failed to be fulfilled because of latent social rejection and lack of economic resources. Recruitment is secured now through military schools and the offer of monthly salaries ranging from US$95 to 135. The Armed Forces are trying to improve their image with social and development work. Nevertheless, there have been some moves to take advantage of this delay about general conscription. Some people, many of them connected with a rockers club and environmental work, have just launched an appeal to organise the Movimiento de Objetores y Objetoras de El Salvador. They held the Central American Meeting for Demilitarisation and CO in May this year. And there are other potential participants who, coming from the FMLN but critical, are ideologically sophisticated, and value the nonviolent and civil disobedient quality of the insumision campaign carried out in the State of Spain.

***Honduras

During the `80s, Honduras was the host for counter-insurgency work in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala. At that time, there were 17 US military bases; today, there is one, Palmerola, hosting 900 US soldiers.

Around the 1993 elections, a movement was organised to demand the abolition of compulsory military service. The so called Movimiento Civico Cristiano y Popular (MCCP) was promoted by the Mennonites, Comite Visitacion Padilla (women living in the deprived city outskirts who work against military bases), COPENH (secondary school teachers), COFADEH (relatives of detained and disappeared), CODEH (human rights) and some others. Their strongest action was a 15-day hunger strike in May 1994, which succeeded in compelling the Government to reform the Constitution and reform military service to be voluntary, educational, humanistic and democratic. However, as there were no further laws, the army called up 7,000 young men in November. Only 2,000 enrolled, and the resisters were punished. But as newer call-ups have not happened - an apparent but also precarious success - the MCCP has stopped working this issue. Its demand for voluntary military service, in spite of the presence of grass-root organisations in the Movimiento, has ended up in an easy manipulation by political parties to get some votes. Everything looks frozen. In the background is the power struggle between President Carlos Roberto Reina and the Armed Forces head, General Mario Hung Pacheco. Presidential decrees have disrupted military control of the police, expropriated the telephone company (earlier in the army's hands), reduced the size of the army from 24,000 to 15,000 (country's population 6 million), and frozen the defence budget at US$30 million (3.4% of the general budget in 1996 and 1.3% of GNP in 1994). In addition to this, there are protests against US military bases and there exists a strong social rejection of the military because of their repeated human rights violations.

Nonetheless, the movement against conscription might revive now that a proposal for military service is again being discussed. This proposal entitles the President to establish the number of conscripts who will be randomly chosen. These should enrol "voluntarily" or else face a year in prison and then again be asked to enrol.

***Other Central American countries

In Panama there is no army; it was dismantled as a consequence of the 1989 US invasion. Therefore, the problem here is not CO but the presence of the US army (15,000 soldiers). This presence should end up by year 2000 but both US and Panama Governments are planning to continue with it, though slightly reduced. Nonetheless, National Police, acting against popular movements, used 1.2% of GNP in 1994. These facts moved the Central American Meeting for Demilitarisation and CO to conclude that the absence of an army does not necessarily entail a demilitarised country. Costa Rica abolished its army in 1948 after a civil war but enjoys a heavily militarised Republican Guard (0.5% of GNP in 1994). Recently they have decided to buy Israel US$ 5.3 million armament. People from SERPAJ-Costa Rica attended the II ELOC held in Chile in October 95.

In Nicaragua many people like, for example, the Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights, agree that their Armed Forces are different from the other Central American Countries. Some people from SERPAJ have attended the CO meetings but the countrys past and present experience with the FSLN and the Contra introduces some reservation about our definition of antimilitarism. Finally, we have to look at the USA. Its government seems interested in reducing the role of national armies in Central America, replacing them with a regional army. That would serve to mask its interventionism. That was the intention of the joint military manoeuvres held in its base of Palmerola (Honduras) with 273 soldiers of the different countries in the area. In sum, no doubt there is good potential for anti-militarist struggle in Central America. To begin with, past experiences have raised consciousness about the consequences of militarism. For example, the Commission for Human Rights in Central America launched the idea of demilitarisation and abolition of all the armies in its meeting of April 95.

The recent Central American Meeting for Demilitarisation and CO was attended by representatives from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama and the State of Spain (Nicaragua and Costa Rica excused themselves). Conclusions of this meeting include a public declaration, a joint action on Central American Independence Day (15 September) around the rejection of military parades with children, the decisions to attend all ELOCs, to organise annual Central American meetings in between them, to periodically exchange information, and to contact WRI and know more about our International.

Decentralised strategies for change

Matthias Reichl

List of WRI sections and associates in 1996

War Resisters' International, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX, England. tel: +44 171 278 4040; telefax: +44 171 278 0444; Peace News tel: +44 171 278 3344; E-mail: warresisters@gn.apc.org; Giro Account No: WRI 58 520 4004
Chair Jorgen Johansen; Treasurer Dorie Wilsnack; Vice-Chairs Cecilia Moretti (Argentina), Peter D Jones (Australia)
WRI Staff: Howard Clark, Dominique Saillard, Peace News Editorial Worker: Tim Wallis
[S] = Section, [A] = Associate, [AP] = Associate Publication, [P] = Groups currently applying to join WRI.

ARGENTINA
Frente Opositor al Servicio Militar Obligatorio (FOSMO), c/o APDH, Callao 569 1# 15, 1022 Buenos Aires. +54 1 804 2628; fax: +54 1 620 2837; [A]

AUSTRALIA
War Resisters' League (WRL), PO Box 451, North Hobart, TAS 7002. +61 02 782380; email pdpjones@peg.apc.org [S]

AUSTRIA
Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Wehrdienstverweigerung und Gewaltfreiheit (Arge WDV), Schottengasse 3a/1/59, 1010 Wien. +43 1 535 9109; fax:+43 1 532 7416 [A]
Begegnungszentrum fur Aktive Gewaltlosigkeit (BFAG), Postfach 504, 4820 Bad Ischl (Pfandl). +43 6132 24590; fax: as phone [A]

BELGIUM
Forum voor Vredesaktie, 35 Van Elewijckstraat, 1050 Brussel. +32 2 648 7583; fax: +32 2 640 0774 [S]
Mouvement International de la Reconciliation/ Internationale des Resistant(e)s a la Guerre (MIR-IRG), 35 rue van Elewyck, 1050 Bruxelles. +32 2 648 5220; fax:+32 2 640 0774 [S]
Confederation du Service Civil de la Jeunesse (CSCJ), 35 rue van Elewyck, 1050 Bruxelles. +32 2 648 5014; fax:+32 2 640 0774 [A]
Mouvement Chretien pour la Paix (MCP), rue de la Sablonniere 18, 1000 Bruxelles. +32 2 219 5720; fax:+32 2 223 1495 [A]

BRAZIL
Servico Paz e Justica (SERPAJ/Brasil), SDS-ED. Venancio V Sala 313-CEP 70393.900, Brasilia DF. +55 61 225 8738 [P]

BRITAIN
Fellowship of Reconciliation in England (FOR), The Eirene Centre, Old School House, Clopton, Nr Kettering, Northants NN14 3DZ. +44 1832 720 257; fax:+44 1832 720 557; email: fellowship@gn.apc.org [S]
Peace Pledge Union (PPU), 41b Brecknock Rod, London N7. +44 171 424 9444; fax:+44 171 482 6390; email peacenow@gn.apc.org [S]
Brotherhood Church, Stapleton, Pontefract, West Yorkshire WF8 3DF. +44 1977 620381 [A]
Conscience -- The Peace Tax Campaign, 601 Holloway Road, London, N19 4DJ. +44 171 561 1061; fax: as phone [A]
Greenpeace (London), 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX. +44 171 837 7557 [A]
Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX. +44 171 837 4473 [A]
Peace News Trustees Ltd, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX. [A]

CANADA
ACT for Disarmament, Oakville Community Center, 148 Kerr Street, Oakville, ONT L6K 3A7. +1 416 531 6154; email: act@web.apc.org [S]
Centre des ressources sur la non-violence, 420 rue Saint-Paul est, 2eme etage, Montreal, Quebec H2Y 1H4. +1 514 844 0484; fax:+1 514 844 0113 [A]

CHAD
Tchad Non-Violence, BP 814 N'Djamena. +235 515829; fax:+235 515593 [A]

CROATIA
Antiratna Kampanja Hrvatske (ARK), Gajeva 55/I, Zagreb +385 1 431 374 fax 432 456 [P]

DENMARK
Aldrig Mere Krig (AMK), Skovbrynet 5, DK-3450 Aller~d. +45 4817 2735 [S]

FINLAND
Union of Conscientious Objectors/ Aseistakieltaytyialiitto, Peace Station, Veturitori, 00520 Helsinki. +358 0 140 427; fax:+358 0 147 297; e-mail: comof100@nn.apc.org [S]
Sitoutumaton Vasemmisto (Independent Left), Mannerheimintie 5 C 7.krs, 00100 Helsinki. [A]
Committee of 100 Finland, Peace Station, Veturitori, 00520 Helsinki. +358 0 141336; fax: +358 0 147297; e-mail: comof100@nn.apc.org [A]

FRANCE
France sans armee pour un monde sans armees (FSA), 19 rue Principale, 68140 Griesbach au Val. +33 8977 3948. [S]
Union Pacifiste de France (UPF), BP 196, 75624 Paris Cedex 13. +33 1 45 86 08 75; fax: +33 1 45 86 49 71[S]
Collectif des Objectrices et Objecteurs Tarnais (COT), BP 229, 81006 Albi cedex. +33 6338 3955; fax:+33 6335 7211 [A]
Mouvement des Objecteurs de Conscience (MOC), 21 ter rue Voltaire, 75011 Paris. +33 1 4371 4235; fax:+33 1 4379 3209 [A]
Mouvement International de la Reconciliation (MIR), 114 bis rue de Vaugirard, F-75006 Paris. +33 1 4544 3942; fax: as phone [A]
Mouvement pour une alternative non-violente (MAN), 21 ter, rue Voltaire, 75011 Paris. +33 1 4379 7985; fax:+33 1 4379 3209. [A]
Reseau d'Information aux Refractaires (RIRE), 33 Rue Coutellerie, 13002 Marseille. +33 91 565219 [P]

GERMANY
Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft-Internationale der Kriegsdienstgegner (DFG-IdK), Jungfrauenthal 37, 20149 Hamburg. +49 40 453433 [S]
Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft - Vereinigte KriegsdienstgegnerInnen (DFG-VK), Schwanenstrasse 16, 42551 Velbert. +49 2051 4217; fax:+49 2051 4210 [S]
Foderation Gewaltfreier Aktionsgruppen (FoGA), Scharnhorststrasse 6, 50733 Koln. +49 221 765842; fax:+49 221 765889; email: graswurzelwerk@oln.comlink.apc.org [S]
Internationale der KriegsdienstgegnerInnen - Berlin (IdK-Berlin), Gneisenaustrasse 2 a, Mehringhof, 10961 Berlin. +49 30 693 8021; fax:+49 30 7859501 [S]
Anti-Kriegs-Museum, Mullerstrasse 158, 13353 Berlin. +49 30 461 8919 [A]
Graswurzelrevolution, Karlstrasse 14a, 26123 Oldenburg. +49 441 8859735; fax: +49 441 81077; email: wri-ag.foega@oln.comlink.apc.org [AP]
Selbstorganisation der Zivildienstleistenden (SOdZDL), Vogelsbergstrasse 17, 60316 Frankfurt am Main. +49 69 431405; fax +49 69 4990007 [A]
GREECE
Association of Greek Conscientious Objectors, Solomou 27, 10682 Athinai. +30 1 3802 773; fax:+30 1 3301 686 [S]

HUNGARY
Alba Kor -- Eroszakmentes Mozgalom a Bekeert /Nonviolent Movement for Peace, H-1461 Budapest, PF 225; fax: +36 1 250 1546; email alba@alba.zpok.hu [S]

INDIA
Swadhina, 34/C Bondel Road, Calcutta 700019 India. +91 33 2470934; fax: as phone. [S]
War Resisters of India/West, c/o Swati & Michael, Juna Mozada, Dediyapada, Dt Bharuch, Gujarat 393040. [S]
Gandhian Society Villages Association (GANSOVILLE), Amaravathi Pudur PO, Pasumpon District, Tamil Nadu 623301. [A]

IRELAND
INNATE -- an Irish Network for Nonviolent Action Training and Education, 16 Ravensdene Park, Belfast BT6 0DA. +44 1232 647106 [A]

ITALY
Movimento Nonviolento, Casa per la Nonviolenza, via Spagna 8, 37123 Verona +39 45 800 9803; fax:+39 45 800 9212 [S]
Lega degli Obiettori di Coscienza (LOC), Sede Nazionale, via Mario Pichi 1, 20143 Milano. +39 2 837 8817 [A]
Associazione SignorNo!, via Farini 62, 00185 Roma. +39 6 474 0981; fax: +39 6 482 0974 [A]

JAPAN
WRI Japan 666 Ukaicho, Inuyama, Aichi pref. +81 568 61 5850 [S]
Nipponzan Myohoji, 7-8 Shinsen-Cho, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo 150. +81 3 3461 9363; fax:+81 3 3461 9367 [A]

NETHERLANDS
`t kan anders, Vlamingstraat 82, 2611 LA Delft. +31 15 121694; fax: as phone [S]
Vereniging Dienstweigeraars (VD), Tweede Oosterparkstr 274, Postbus 94802, 1090 GV Amsterdam. +31 20 6680999; fax: +31 20 665 2422; email: vd@vd.antenna.nl [A]

NEW ZEALAND/AOTEAROA
Christian Pacifist Society, 438 Halswell Road, Christchurch 8003. +64 3 3228217 [S]

NORWAY
Folkereisning Mot Krig (FMK), Rosenkrantzgate 18, 0160 Oslo 1. +47 22 42 58 65 ; fax:+47 2241 1632 [S]
Kampanjen mot Verneplikt, Hjelmsgata 3, 0355 Oslo 3. +47 2246 4818; fax: +47 2269 1284. [A]

POLAND
Objector - Pozna, c/o Rafal Kopczynski, os Pod Lipami 1/24, 61-628 Poznan. email: aikopczr@vm.amu.edu.pl [A]

PORTUGAL
Associac~o Livre dos Objectores e Objectoras de Consciencia (ALOOC), A/c Julio de Sousa, rua Rainha D Leonor 4, R/c d-to, Bairro Abreu Lopes, 2675 Odivelas. +351 1 931 3738 [A]

SOUTH AFRICA
Conscientious Objectors' Support Group (COSG), PO Box 15045, Bellair, Durban 4006. +27 31 465 6574 [A]

SPAIN (state of)
Asociacion de Objectores/as de Conciencia de Euskadi/ Euskadiko Kontzientzi Eragozleen Alkartea (AOC-EKEA), C/Prim No 27 3 dcha. A, 48006 Bilbao. +34 4 415 4904; fax: +34 4 415 0826 [S]
en pie de paz, Gran de Gracia 126-130, 08012 Barcelona. +34 3 217 9527; fax +34 3 4161026 or Alquezar 23, 50007 Zaragoza. +34 76 250943 [AP]
Kontzientzi Eragozpen Mugimendua (MOC-Euskal Herria), Iturribide 12-1 D, 48006 Bilbao, Euskadi. +34 4 415 3772 fax:+34 4 479 0383; email: betxea@lander.es [S]
Movimiento de Objecion de Conciencia (MOC), c/San Cosme y San Damian 24-2, Madrid 28012. +34 1 475 3782 [S]
Moviment d'Objeccio de Consciencia de Catalonia (MOC-Catalunya), Casal de la Pau, c/Cervantes 2 Pral 1a, 08002 Barcelona, Catalunya. +34 3 318 3994 [S]

SRI LANKA
Nonviolent Direct Action Group (NVDAG), PO Box 2, Vale Cinema Road, Chavakachcheri. +94 21 23023 [S]

SWEDEN
Kristna Fredsrorelsen, Box 1768/Lastmakargatan 18, 111 87 Stockholm. +46 8 453 68 40; fax:+46 8 453 68 41 [S]
Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society/ Svenska Freds- och Skiljedomsforeningen (SPAS), box 4134, Svartensgatan 6, 102 63 Stockholm. +46 8 668 02 00; fax:+46 8 668 18 70; email: spas@nordnet.se [S]
Omega - Forum for civil olydnad ach ickevald, Sandeslatt 59, 424 36 Angered. +46 31 30 74 93; fax as phone; email: plowshares@nn.apc.org [A]

SWITZERLAND
Centre Martin Luther King (CMLK), 56 avenue de Bethusy, 1012 Lausanne. +41 21 6522727; fax:+41 21 6523923 [A]
Gruppe fur eine Schweiz ohne Armee (GSoA), Postfach 103, 8031 Zrich; +41 1 273 01 00; fax: +41 1 273 02 12; email: gsoa@link-ch1.aworld.de [A]

UGANDA
Fellowship of Reconciliation in Uganda, Lweza Training and Conference Centre, PO Box 198, Kampala. +256 41 200210 [A]
USA
Fellowship of Reconciliation USA, Box 271, Nyack, NY 10960. +1 914 358 4601; fax:+1 914 358 4924; email: fornatl@igc.apc.org [S]
War Resisters League (WRL), 339 Lafayette Street, New York NY 10012. +1 212 228 0450; fax:+1 212 228 6193; email: wrl@igc.apc.org [S]
New Society Publishers (NSP), 4527 Springfield Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19143. +1 215 382 6543; fax:+1 215 222 1993 [A]
Resource Center for Nonviolence, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA 95060. +1 408 423 1626; fax: +1 408 423 8716; e-mail: rcnv@igc.apc.org [A]

YUGOSLAVIA
Pokret za Mir Panevo, PF 186, 26000 Panevo, Vojvodina. +381 13 43 390 (until 1/06/96); fax: as phone; email: ppm_pancevo@zamir-bg.ztn.apc.org [A]
Zene u Crnom Protiv Rata, Cetinjska 26a - 19, 11000 Beograd. +381 11 347877; fax: as phone [A]

INTERNATIONAL
International Nonviolent Initiatives (INI), c/o Beverly Woodward, PO Box 515, Waltham MA 02254, USA. +1 617 891 0814; fax: as phone; email: woodward@binah.cc.brandeis.edu [A]
Partito Radicale, Via di Torre Argentina 76, 00186 Roma, Italy. +39 6 689791; fax +39 6 6545396 [A]

South Africa: No more conscription, but other work to be done

One was the opportunity to make a submission to the Constitutional Assembly formulating a new Constitution for South Africa. We tried to get the right to conscientious objection enshrined in the Bill of Rights which forms part of the constitution. Alas, we were not successful and future COs will have to rely on the "freedom of conscience" clause.

The other task was to try and get a display on Conscientious Objection and War Resistance (1970-1990) into the National Museum of Military History in Johannesburg. We were thwarted by the "old South Africa" militarist curator of the museum -- just when we thought we had won. But we haven't given up and are now working through the bureaucracy of the "new South Africa" -- young, idealistic and having problems with the civil servants inherited from the apartheid era. Maybe you'll be hearing more about this. Conscientious Objectors' Support Group (COSG), PO Box 15045, Bellair, Durban 4006 (tel +27 31 465 6574).

Germany: Nonviolence in a culture of violence

Austria: Personal pressures impede collective action

Begegnungszentrum für Aktive Gewaltlosigkeit (BFAG), Postfach 504, 4820 Bad Ischl (Pfandl) (tel/fax +43 6132 24590).

Québec: Spreading the ideas of nonviolence

• Nonviolent resolution of conflicts: the task of the Centre has been redefined to include prevention. A new, more independent and self-financed team has been offering regular workshops and training to school students and staff in Québec. The aim is for ordinary people to be able to initiate nonviolent conflict resolution, acquire more autonomy in the management of conflict in their daily lives and become resource people in their own area.
• Peace and disarmament: before the Commission of Montreal on the Future of Québec, the Centre presented the idea that weapons are expensive and inefficient and can be replaced by a nonviolent civilian defence. The ideas of the Centre are spreading in Québec through peace demonstrations on the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, letters to politicians in Québec and Ottawa, and public meetings during the military show "Mili 94".
• Solidarity with native Canadians: support was given to the representatives of six native people from Québec and Labrador during an important assembly held in Montreal. This included support to people prosecuted after having participated to the blockade of the dam building site on Ste Marguerite river, participation in the international campaign for Innuits and the Earth and collaboration on the fight against low altitude flights above the ancestral territory.

Centre des ressources sur la non-violence, 420 rue Saint-Paul est, 2eme étage, Montréal, Québec H2Y 1H4 (tel +1 514 844 0484; fax +1 514 844 0113).

Netherlands: Conscription ends but CO jailed anyway

Norway: Group under surveillance

Folkereisning Mot Krig (FMK), Rosenkrantzgate 18, 0160 Oslo 1 (tel +47 22 42 5865; fax 2241 1632).

Basque Country: Anti-militarist bee stinging with disobedience

It did not catch us by surprise, since the decision to change the army into a professional one was taken years ago. When to introduce the changes has mainly been a question of time and money. There may be new strategic aims and intervention plans which "make a different army a necessity", but we are sure that the Spanish government finally want to get rid of that anti-militaristic bee called "insumision" which stings their militaristic bud, and which makes them want to make changes more quickly than they had originally planned. The new penal code, just come into effect, will make it harder for us to go on using what has been bugging the government and military most: Hundreds of "prisoners for peace" (see PN Dec 95). However, we are thinking of new tools of objecting after being recruited, in order to keep the heat on the military. We are also thinking of future campaigns and action against the recruitment of professionals, in order to slow down the professionalisation campaigns calling for conversion. Money is their weak spot, especially while there are cuts in the welfare and education budgets, and they will need quite a bit of it. Although it seems virtually impossible to avoid the introduction of a professional army, we are quite optimistic, not just about our survival as an anti-militaristic movement, but also about our ability to keep on stinging their militaristic bud with our collective disobedience.

Bilboko Talde Antimiltarista (KEM-MOC), Bakearen Etxea, Iturribide 12-1na. TFNOA 4153772, Fax 4790383

Portugal: Promoting civilian service as viable alternative

• Drafting a law on tax objection;
• Submitting proposals for the review of the Law on Religious Freedom;
• Submitting suggestions for the review of the Press Law (specifically as regards the status of conscientious objection among journalists).

ALOOC, Rua Rainha D. Leonor, 4 - R/C Dto. 2675 Odivelas, PORTUGAL (Tel 351 1934 2936).

Ireland: Non-judgemental stance needed

In particular, on an island some distance from the mainland of Europe, it is good to reflect on international experiences and relate them to Ireland (eg comparing situations in South Africa and Northern Ireland). As an island with violence emanating from problems of colonial origin, an explicit non-judgemental nonviolent stance is needed.

Being part of the WRI family is important in both these regards even if active participation is difficult. One aspect of the task is to reclaim the past history of nonviolent action in Ireland -- St Patrick fasted for fair treatment of King Trian's slaves, and the basis of the ancient Brehon laws was arbitration and restoration, not punishment.

As a network with no office and no staff, it is difficult to keep up to date with correspondence and communication; perseverance pays -- so keep trying! INNATE, 16 Ravensdene Park, Belfast BT6 ODA, Northern Ireland. Phone/Fax +44 - 1234 - 647106.

Belgium: "Wij doen het Zonder!" (We do it without [weapons]!)

• Balkans: Since April 1993 we have been sending volunteers to refugee camps or to the social reconstruction project at Pakrac, Croatia. Our Balkan Working Group is extending its work, with slide shows, school lessons and information sessions. The main theme of the annual Flemish Peace Week in October is conflict prevention, so this group will play a main role. Another topic for discussion in this group has been the question of how to establish a non-armed civilian peace corps.
• Arms trade: AFCEA is a high-tech arms fair held in Brussels each year. We invite ourselves and each year make it more difficult for the organisers. 1995 was a new step, with a petition of over 200 organisations and prominents persons for the banning of AFCEA. Two weeks before AFCEA, we "cleaned up" their international office in Brussels, and during the fair several other nonviolent actions took place.
• Nonviolence training: We have a team of trainers willing to help local groups who want to change society by nonviolent means. In doing this, we try to use methods that reflect the new nonviolent society being strived for.

Forum voor Vredesaktie, Van Elewijckstraat 35, 10560 Brussels (+32 648, fax 640 0774).

Hungary: Supporting COs and stopping NATO trains

• first to be an independent, non-political, non-religious, grassroots, self-organising, active nonviolent peace movement.
• On the other hand we named conscientious objection and all related work -- lobbying, information services -- as our other main activity.

With financial help from the PHARE-program we managed to set-up a central office in Budapest. We published a report on conscientious objection on Human Rights Day, 1995. Previously we had collected 12,000 signatures urging the abolition of obligatory army service and decreasing military spending. The most important occasional actions of Alba Kör were demonstrations in front of the Yugoslavian embassy during the south-Slav war period, the mass demonstration for Chechnya and other big one against militarism and weapon exhibitions. Our recent greatest success was the NATO-media train action -- when our activists chained themselves in front of a NATO propaganda train. Besides the occasional actions and press conferences the Alba Kör has an education program for secondary schools on nonviolence and Conscientious Objection. We organised an exhibition in several towns of the country showing the history of the Hungarian peace movements and actions.

We have 600 members, a lot of supporters, and four local groups in Hungary. In 1995 our activists worked more than 4000 hours on a voluntary basis. We are running several local activities, clubs and study circles on nonviolence, and a green group. We are maintaining a library and publishing and internal newsletter monthly.

Alba Kör, Budapest 12461, pf 225; office, Bp 1055, Balaton u 25 (fax 132 6109; email alba@alba.zpok.hu; http://www.rec.hu/greenweb/alba).

USA: Empowering youth for nonviolent social change

YouthPeace, one of our most exciting and developing programmes, which is committed to the demilitarisation of our youth and empowering them towards nonviolent social change, has a new coordinator. Malkia M'Buzi Moore has an extensive background with peace and justice organising, working with American Friends Service Committees and the Southern Africa Peace Education Program in Atlanta, Georgia. YouthPeace recently participated in The Stand For Children, a national demonstration to support children and youth initiated by the Children Defence Fund.

Freeman Internship Program provides an opportunity for students and young people to work for peace and justice developing organising skills and technical knowledge in areas such as disarmament, nonviolence education and training, war tax resistance, fundraising/special events, magazine production, literature sales and promotions.

The League continues its campaigns against war toys and tax resistance. We are currently organising for our 75^th anniversary celebration. The struggle continues.

War Resisters League (WRL), 339 Lafayette Street, New York NY 10012 (tel +1 212 228 0450; fax +1 212 228 6193; email wrl@igc.apc.org).

France: Unemployment, debt, war--we have had enough from the G7!

In reaction to the destructive decisions imposed from above by the G7, more than 170 organisations, trade unions and political parties prepared a counter-summit to make the other voices of the planet heard and to strengthen the solidarities of those from below. From 21 to 23 June, as the world's eyes were focused on Lyons, the organisations taking part in the counter-summit tried to make their protests heard and also propose some operational alternatives. The initiatives included a national demonstration, workshops, and the "Summit of the Seven Resistances" with witnesses including Ludmila Obrastova from the Russian Soldiers' Mothers Committee and Selim Besagic, mayor of Tuzla in Bosnia. MAN was responsible in particular for the workshop on prevention and nonviolent resolution of conflicts. Reflections on the place given to prevention strategies and the realisation of preventive action in foreign relations provided an opportunity for the movement to promote its peace work in conflict zones. Paris and Washington want to prepare tomorrow's nuclear bomb by computer simulation; the risk of nuclear proliferation is still here. What are the G7 answers to that?

Mouvement pour une alternative non-violente (MAN), 21 ter, rue Voltaire, 75011 Paris (tel +33 1 4379 7985; fax +33 1 4379 3209).

Britain: Using taxes for non-military security

However, pacifists also have a duty to offer something positive--a practical alternative to war. At Conscience we call this "non-military security" because the term appears to be more accessible to the politicians, but it means the broad range of peace-building techniques used to prevent and resolve conflicts, and address their root causes, without resorting to military force. Existing European Union and United Nations non-military security work is debilitated by under-funding and low political priority. A successful campaign to allow pacifists to register as "conscientious tax objectors" and have the military part of their taxes spent on peace-building initiatives would provide much needed money for this work. In addition, the existence of such a register, and a campaign to encourage registration, would provide considerable political pressure to make the work a priority.

Some years ago a colleague told me that ours was a "useless, white, liberal, middle class view of pacifism". A few weeks later a human rights activist from Central America observed, "Your taxes pay for our wars". There is a saying that only two things are certain in life--death and taxes. Frankly, I think that we have a better chance of ending war than we do abolishing taxation. Conscience -- The Peace Tax Campaign, 601 Holloway Road, London, N19 4DJ (tel/fax +44 171 561 1061).

Britain: Challenging anti-human values

And once more this year our White Poppy for Peace campaign, in the run up to Remembrance Day, will be challenging the militaristic values which get in the way of creative and optimistic visions for the future -- visions essential for energetic and sustained action for peace.

PPU, 41b Brecknock Road, London N7 0BT (tel 0171 424 9444 fax 0171 482 6390 e-mail peacenow@gn.apc.org).

Britain: New conference facilities outside old missile base

Australia: Network of individuals campaigning on all fronts

One of the major campaigns in the last year was the protest against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific, with special focus on rallies all over the country in July and August 1995. There is now a resumed focus on opposition to uranium mining with the advent of a Liberal-National Party government in Canberra since 2 March committed to opening up new uranium mines, although public opinion is strongly opposed to this.

The Bougainville Medical Aid campaign in Melbourne continues its opposition to the Australian government's support for the military role of the PNG in Bougainville. Peace Tax resistance activities continue in Melbourne as well. The journal Nonviolence Today continues to be published in Brisbane every two months and the Australian Nonviolence Network is still coordinated from Common Ground in Victoria where the annual gathering was held at the end of April 1996. Protests against nuclear warship visits continue although the visits of US nuclear warships are now fairly infrequent compared with a decade ago. War Resisters' League (WRL), PO Box 451, North Hobart, TAS 7002. (tel +61 02 782380; email pdpjones@peg.apc.org).

France: Working hard to change military (and wine-drinking) habits

We protested vigorously against the nuclear tests in Polynesia and the simulation laboratory in Gironde. Along with SOS Tahiti and Stop Essais, we participated in the UNESCO symposia and the National Assembly. In spite of our visit to the Elysée palace Jacques Chirac has not joined the UPF. Nevertheless, on 22 February he announced the end of conscription by 2002, in the face of the state's financial difficulties and in order to please young voters.

The trials of conscientious objectors to the army have, alas, continued. At the end of 1995, 10,218 objectors completed civilian service, which lasts twice as long as military service. We have put pressure on the deputies, against creating a general phoney civilian service to be controlled by the Ministry of Defence. Thanks to our broadcast on Radio Libertaire in Paris every Thursday (supported by the UPF for 15 years) this year we have developed fruitful contacts in many countries and we had the chance to share, over the airwaves, some privileged moments with journalists (Charlie Hebdo), ecologists (Vallée d'Aspe), vegetarians -- anti-speciesists (conscientious objection on the plate), and pacifist singers.

Union Pacifiste de France (UPF), BP 196, 75624 Paris Cedex 13 (tel +33 1 45 86 08 75; fax +33 1 45 86 49 71).

Peace movements and the professionalisation of armies

Rafael Ajangiz and Xabier Agirre

What have we, KEM-MOCers, to say about it? First, this is good news, because it spells the end of this slavery institution, and implicitly recognises that anti-military civil disobedience makes sense and can be effective. It was insumision which, back in 1989, forced this latent conflict into the political arena, and which for years prevented partial solutions. At last in Spain it is at an end. Second, a comparison with other cases, (Britain, USA, Belgium, the Netherlands, and especially, France) forces wider analysis of the matter and confirms the need to study the so-called professionalisation of armies and its consequences for the international peace movement. Three trends converge in the decline of military conscription in western Europe:

*1. Changes in the military to match political and economical trends. Wealthier countries' privileges are assured by overseas ventures (military if need be), and this requires rapid deployment forces that are fully professional and well equipped. It is no accident that Chirac mentioned the nuclear option (revived in Mururoa) as a valid reason for ending conscription. *2. Social acceptance and consent to conscription and the military. The way humanitarian intentions have been made use of by most armies reveals their continuous need to gain acceptance. But despite lack of sympathy with the military both conscription and a voluntary recruitment have been accepted, coercion and good salaries playing a part. Moreover major military expenditure is perfectly possible in societies beset by unemployment or unable to fully fulfil their social obligations. Social consent is what is called for.

*3. Peace movements can affect the situation by damaging the army's credibility and by ending its social acceptance. Protest helps to modify latent conflicts and politicise them, thus enabling fresh perspectives and demands. How to organise successfully, to have a real impact on the pattern of the next century's armies, requires careful consideration. Two trans-national examples are relevant here: the euro-missiles crisis of the early 80s and the recent abolition of conscription. What was the point of the 12,000 insumisos fighting conscription and facing imprisonment and/or "civil death" (see PN 2397) if its abolition was likely anyway for mere "structural adjustment" reasons, as in the French case? Was it all worthwhile? Spanish peace activists are clear about this. In the first place as important as the decision itself was the prior procedure forcing the government to reach the decision. This procedure consisted of civil disobedience, and its outcome was major evasion of military service. So now the peace movement is able to ascend the second rung in the ladder.

Another general result is significant growth of criticism of militarism, plus a vigorous return to civil disobedience as a mean of social change. Furthermore it should be interesting to observe the professionalisation of the Spanish armed forces as the situation to be achieved will undoubtedly be fraught with difficulty. Voluntary recruitment cannot be depended on; many more officers should retire if the size of the army is to be reduced; economic costs will be very high in a country suffering from mayor unemployment and welfare budget cuts. Moreover, PP's allies are seeking to curtail the transitional period and political activists other than the peace movement are already talking about reconsidering the size of the army; and the notion of abolishing the army has been taken up publicly and echoes resoundingly in certain quarters. In short, public discussion is not about conscription but about what sort of army, if any, there should be. (The title of this year's annual course organised by Ministry of Defence, "reinventing defence", bears this out). However the Spanish peace movement needs a period of reflection and should consider the experiences for the last decade; for the end of the anti-conscription era means facing up, imaginatively, to the challenge of the new militarism implicit in a professional army. But there is certainly an opportunity to regard the abolition of the army in Spain as a definite, realistic, socially acceptable goal.

The army is changing everywhere and every such change enables alternatives. And experiences such as that of the Swiss show that it is possible to mobilise people to demand abolition of the army. Nor should it be forgotten that the European integration of increasingly professional national armies poses an unavoidable challenge to a transnational peace movement. This matter will be considered at WRI's 1996 Council meeting.

Balkan Peace Team: Women targeted for illegal evictions

Illegal evictions and attempted illegal evictions of people living in former JNA (Yugoslav People's Army) apartments in Croatia have been a matter of concern for local human rights activists since 1992. Their records show that most evictions or attempts to evict people are carried out in a violent manner and directed towards women.

In 1991, when the JNA was withdrawing from Croatia, Croatia signed an agreement that ownership of JNA apartments would be transferred to the Croatian Ministry of Defence. It guaranteed that those who stayed, or whose families decided to stay, would be able to keep their homes in accordance with Croatian Housing laws. Most who left were officers, whereas many who stayed were retired people, those who considered Croatia to be their home, or families of officers. Because the Ministry of Defence promised apartments to soldiers in return for their service in the Croatian Army, it quickly faced a crisis: there were no more apartments. This has resulted in the not uncommon sight of Croatian soldiers appearing at the door of an apartment and evicting, or attempting to evict, the inhabitants. These soldiers claim they are entitled to the apartment in question. These illegal acts have been carried out by members of the Croatian army, the military police, and more recently members of HVIDRA (the Association of Croatian War Invalids in the War for the Homeland). Up to 10 soldiers might arrive at an apartment and try to evict a family. These soldiers are always in uniform and usually armed. Access is gained to apartments either by impersonating a member of the Military Housing Commission or by force.

In some cases, women are not illegally evicted from their apartments, but rather court proceedings are starting against them. These proceedings are based on article 99 of the Housing Law (not using the apartment for a period of six months or more) or article 102a of the Housing Law (enemy activity). Where a case of 102a is brought against a woman, it usually refers to her husband (or ex-husband) who is no longer in Croatia.

***Police stand aside

In some cases, evicted women have brought court proceedings against the evictor. However, in some cases where a woman has won, the Republic of Croatia has brought charges against her of "enemy activity". Mrs MS was violently evicted in 1994 by a member of the military police. She was out when he broke into her apartment; when she tried to return, he threatened to kill her. Mrs MS has the legal rights to the apartment and started court proceedings against him. In 1995 she won her court case, however the Republic of Croatia then brought charges of "enemy activity" against her, by virtue of correspondance with her husband who is in Belgrade. Today, Mrs MS and her children still have not returned to their apartment and rely on the humanitarian aid of the local human rights organisation DOS (Dalmatian Solidarity Committee).

Local human rights activists express concern at the seeming lack of response by the authorities to such incidents. Women report that when they complain to the police, who have been present and have witnessed threats, they claim to have heard and seen nothing. Mrs SP asked the police to intervene when the soldier pushed her against the wall, the police response was that they had not seen anything happen. When Mrs KD tried to prevent members of the Ministry of Defence Housing Commission throwing her belongings onto the street, she was thrown to the ground twice, striking her head on the concrete, and then she was dragged away. Military police were present but made no attempt to intervene.

Other women also report incidents where the military police do not intervene in cases of violence. Ms TP visited the offices of the Ministry of Defence Housing Sub-Committee in Split to make enquiries. During her meeting, the head of the Sub-Commission, a military officer, used violence to remove her from his office. This was in the presence of five other uniformed men. She reports how she was grabbed by the hair and with full force slammed against the door. Ms TP reported this incident to the military prosecutors office in Split. These accusations have been publicly denied by the head of the Sub-Commission.

Local human rights activists complain about the amount of violence used against women, especially in the presence of the military police. They draw attention to the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials of 1979. Article 1 states that "Law enforcement officials shall at all times fulfil the duty imposed upon them by law, by serving the community and by protecting all persons against illegal acts".

Overwhelmingly it has been women who are the victims of such incidents and the authorities have taken no positive action to prevent further incidents. Organisations like HVIDRA contend that their members are the victims of war. Local human rights activists see women as victims who, since they did not serve in the Croatian Army, have no entitlements.

--------------------

For more information about the Balkan Peace Team, or to enquire about becoming a volunteer, contact BPT, Marienwall 9, D-32423 Minden, Germany (+49 571 20776, fax 23019, email balkan-peace-team@bionic.zerberus.de)

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MAN

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Mouvement pour une Alternative Non-violente. 21 ter, rue Voltaire - 75011 Paris, France.

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