AWOL magazine is the product of a “workshop of artists, activists and revolutionaries”.
Started in 2000 and jointly funded by the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors and ROOTS/War Resisters League, AWOL aims to “provide a space for marginalised voices to dialogue to be heard, a place to resist and grow”. The emphasis is on providing an alternative to a dominant culture “saturated with pro-military propaganda”.
In practice the AWOL “project” is a combination…
A Peace News on antimilitarism - shouldn't that be an easy task for the international antimilitarist magazine? If we thought so before, then working on this issue certainly proved us wrong!
While we engage in antimilitarist practice in our daily work - in the Peace News or WRI office, or in our activism out on the streets, or at military propaganda events - our antimilitarist analysis seems to trail behind. That doesn't mean that we don't know what…
At the time of writing, 42 Israeli soldiers - conscripts and reservists - are serving sentences in military prisons after refusing to take part in the campaign of repression against the Palestinian population.
The army has changed its policy towards the refuseniks, and after long pretending they just don't exist, current policy directives to unit commanders have produced a rash of disciplinary actions.
There are now over 1000 refuseniks, over half of whom have already refused…
My son Yinnon Hiller is the first young Israeli to appeal to the Israeli High Court for his human right not to serve in the military on the grounds of his pacifist beliefs and he is one of a fast-growing group of Israeli conscientious objectors.
At a hearing held in February 2002, the panel of judges decreed a second court injunction in favour of Yinnon. The first hearing, held six months earlier, ordered the state to present valid reasons why the military did not accept Yinnon's…
Peace News 2443 (Gender and militarism) began to open the door of a debate within the antimilitarist movement on activist responses to the changing military landscape. As western military forces adapt to new roles, how does that movement respond to the feminisation of the military, as seen in increasing numbers of women in the military, and in the deployment of armies in peace-keeping operations. How too, do we respond to the military's co-option of the traditional - and often…
It seems as though the French army has agreements with all the job centres in France. Every week you can find them in the career and studies information centres (CIO) even in small towns; their presence grows at every school career day and even more so at “le Salon des Etudiants” - a huge fair for companies and schools aimed at attracting students - which is held every year in most of the big French towns.
The army also run huge publicity campaigns on billboards, TV and in the…
As in other European countries, a new peace and anti-war movement emerged in Germany after the brutal terror attacks on New York and Washington and particularly after the start of the war on Afghanistan by US troops, supported by the British military, in October 2001.
And after the German government joined the war and provided troops, the activities of the anti-war and peace movement became a bit stronger again .
Reformism or opposing the system?Most peace and anti-war groups…
About a hundred years ago there was a significant debate in the international workers movement that continues to be relevant today. The discussion involved the connection between capitalism and militarism, the responsibility of the individual, conscientious objection, and striking against war.
It was a controversy between the German social-democrat Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919), a well-known personality in the international social-democratic movement, and the Dutch libertarian…
Ever wondered what's the best way to practically disarm the military? Well, this helpful little book is full of tips on how to cut, crush, burn, melt and bend weapons to the point where they no longer present a menace to society.
There are sections containing practical information and diagrams with details of what equipment and personnel are required, plus helpful hints on where to cut or bend. However, the section on deep-sea dumping is probably best avoided! As the book says, “The…
People in the fields of international relations and peace research may have read a lot of polemics against - and are thus revisionist of - the historically and systematically argued thesis of the intrinsic, symbiotic relationship between state formations and the military.
This theory (to which this author has devoted a great part of his academic work) states, in short, that the formation of the modern (nation-)state in the 17th century - at the conclusion of the devastating 30 Years…
Close to and almost surrounding the Turkish parliament in Ankara are the various headquarters of the military establishment army, navy, airforce, and gendarmerie. Diagonally opposite looms the office of the General Chief of Staff.
It is well known that the armed services have played a very central role in modern Turkey, since the foundation of the Republic in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, himself a military leader. Three democratically elected governments have been ousted…
"Here I stand", said Martin Luther, "I can do no other"; My initial image of conscientious objection was rather framed by the Protestant tradition of the individual conscience taking a stand against authority, nailing theses to church doors and going to the stake rather than renouncing their faith. I understood it as a personal moral imperative rather than as a political strategy.
That, too, is how I think states have understood conscientious objection (CO). By the end of the…
The most telling image of my adolescence in 1980s South Africa was the silhouette of a war memorial, like many found all over the world, listing the names of soldiers killed defending our borders. Some of these soldiers were con-scripts. Most white South Africans could ignore the social and political consequences of apartheid, which cre-ated their privilege. “Our boys on the border” were an ever-present reminder to them of where they lived.
The “border” was that ephemeral place, more…
There is nothing more horrendous than sending people off to war. This is what my country is doing. Israel is sending its children to war and it has been doing so for many years now. Indeed we have been warring from the moment we came into being, and have been involved in conflict pretty much ever since.
For many of us who live in Israel, it seems almost natural, almost a necessary part of our lives, that at the age of 18 we will be enrolled into the army and made to fight these wars…
It is complicated enough discussing what it means to be an antimilitarist in a country like Colombia, but even worse because although antimilitarism is something that I share and promote, I'm not really sure how much of an antimilitarist I am. In a diverse range of situations, my actions and language are loaded with militarist symbolism that has become inherent in the cultural practices of Colombian society.
I remember when I was a boy, before entering class, the director of the “…
