Features

1 June 2003 Pranjal Tiwari

On 15 December 2002, 3,000 migrant workers and their supporters met to reclaim the streets of central Hong Kong, to protest against another discriminatory government proposal: a targeted flat tax of HK$500 per month (aboutUS$65), aimed at the wages of Hong Kong's Foreign Domestic Helpers(FDHs). That this gathering took place on a Sunday was an important factor--for many of the protesters, this was the one day's holiday they are given per week by their employers.

There was a charged…

1 June 2003 Syngman Rhee

Syngman Rhee fled his homeland as a 19-year-old in 1950 and found himself at the heart of the US civil rights movement in the Sixties. Here he speaks about his work for reconciliation between North and South Korea.

I was born and raised in Pyong Yang, now the capital city of North Korea. At that time, the early 1930s, the Korean people were under Japanese rule, which brought us great suffering and pain. It created a deep sense of hostility and enmity towards the Japanese. The cooperation between Korea and Japan, as co-hosts of the soccer World Cup, shows that there is always hope of reconciliation between former enemies.

Soon after our liberation from Japanese occupation at the end of the…

1 June 2003

In July 2000, Taiwan was the first Asian country to recognise conscientious objection - and to introduce alternative service for those not fit for military service.

Since the introduction of alternative service, some potential conscripts have ended up with a recommendation for alternative service after their physical examination. The main reasoning behind alternative service in Taiwan is not conscientious objection, but to make use of those young men who are not fit for military…

1 March 2003 Daniel Garay

On 28 July 2002, the Russian President signed into law the federal bill "On Alternative Service" (ACS), adopted by the Russian Federation Federal Assembly shortly before. In November 2002, War Resisters' International's Daniel Garay was in Russia to attend the in augural meeting of the antimilitarist Organisation Without Weapons, set up to rally against military conscription.

Since 1991, the democratically oriented public in Russia had advocated for the legal regulation of an alternative civil service as a substitute for military service by conscription. All such attempts met with active resistance by the military lobby. However, in the winter of 2002 the Russian government submitted an Alternative Service (ACS) bill to the Duma; drafted in the ministry of defence, the bill had a number of discriminatory provisions.

Alternative service is not necessarily…

1 March 2003 David McKenzie

How has Britain's most active nonviolent direct action campaign against British nuclear weapons responded to the war on terror? TP2000's press officer David McKenzie reports

Trident Ploughshares activists, in the face of the failure of the British government to fulfil its promises to get rid of its nuclear weapons, undertake that responsibility themselves, by peaceful and nonviolent and accountable direct action. In the four years of the campaign there have been 1803 arrests, 398 trials, 1711 days have been spent in jail (not counting time in police cells) and fines totalling £56,490 have been imposed, though rarely paid.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF…

1 March 2003 Elke Steven

When the law turns into injustice, resistance becomes a duty. So say German activists from the resist campaign. Elke Steven reports on a European pledge initiative that is gaining strength.

For some time now the US government has threatened to expand the “war against terrorism” - suggesting that more “rogue states” will face war. On the US defined “axis of evil”, Iraq is the primary target, with a war being threatened since May 2002.

Activists from a variety of German peace groups wanted to organise against this war - a war which we believe is in breach of human rights and international law - and in autumn 2002 we came together to develop forms of resistance to the war…

1 March 2003 Franco Perna

International support is crucial in alleviating violence and conflict within Palestine and Israel. Franco Perna experiences the situation firsthand as a volunteer olive-picker.

Answering an appeal from Palestine/Israel to help pick olives, I joined a group of friends from Switzerland for a couple of weeks (28 Oct - 10 Nov 2002) under the auspices of the YMCA and ATG (Alternative Tourism Group, Beit Sahour/Bethlehem).

Jerusalem, November 2002. Israeli Women in Black protest against the occupation PHOTO: FRANCO PERNA

Entering Israel in Tel Aviv took a long time, but without major difficulties. We reached Bethlehem after a couple of hours, including a stop…

1 March 2003 Gordon Clark

Can people in the US build an effective nonviolent resistance movement? Or is a lifetime of consumerism and militarism obstructing the path once walked by Martin Luther King? Gordon Clark reflects.

The Iraq Pledge of Resistance is a US campaign of nationally coordinated nonviolent civil disobedience to oppose the war in Iraq. To my knowledge it is the only US campaign of coordinated nonviolent resistance in opposition to the war.

To this date the campaign has been sponsored by about a dozen of the country's major peace organisations. It is being actively organised in 53 cities, with new ones coming on every week; over 5000 people have physically signed the pledge, with another…

1 March 2003 Jo Wilding

So, while millions marched across the planet in protest at war on Iraq, what was 15 February like for people in Baghdad? Jo Wilding sent this first-hand report from the Iraqi capital.

The gang of lads asked my name, then dissolved in giggles, slapping each other's shoulders, when I told them mine and asked theirs. Overcoming their shyness, they asked where I was from, how old I was, what I thought of Baghdad, and we danced down the street together to the clatter of drums and hand clapping.

It was an anti-war march, organised by the students at the Non-Aligned Students and Youth Organisation (NASYO) conference. A Japanese group carried a banner saying “Japan - Iraq…

1 March 2003 Jung Min Choi

Women's groups in Korea are working to tackle militarism in both the domestic and international spheres: from US military bases on Korean soil, to the impact of the war on terror on domestic anti-terrorism laws, and from military spending to a gendered analysis of war and violence itself. Jung Min Choi, from the Korea Women's Network Against Militarism, reports.

After 11 September 2001, and at a time when there is an expectation of war about to be waged by the US on Iraq, there are many small rallies - of various types - being held every week in Korea that cry out in one voice that we are against war on Iraq. Moreover there are many people in Korea who are also wondering whether Korea is going to be next on the list. Some people are even getting calls from relatives living abroad, asking if everything in Korea is OK

While the war on Iraq…

1 March 2003 Keith Goddard

The Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) started in 1990 and rose to international prominence in 1995 when it applied to attend the Zimbabwe International Book Fair which had as its theme that year “Human Rights and Justice”. The government banned the group's appearance and, at the opening of the fair, President Mugabe, uttered the first in a long line of vitriolic attacks on gays and lesbians which include the famous epithet, gays are “worse than dogs and pigs”. GALZ stood its ground and…

1 March 2003 Michael Shank

Michael Shank reports on a youth peace conference organised by Youth Initiative for Peace in Lahore, and a moving visit to the India-Pakistan border.

“So how was Pakistan?” Friends eager to know more about my recent work in the Islamic Republic have had to wait patiently as I search my vocabulary for the appropriate words. My silence surprises me as well. Usually words do not escape me but this rare moment finds me struggling to do my experience justice.

Shall I take this brief exchange to explain that not all Pakistani women wear burqas (as some Americans believe) that cover their entire face? Shall I seize this opportunity to…

1 March 2003 Michael Shank

The Focus on South Asia Peace Conference inspired young people to be peace workers every single day. Conference facilitator Michael Shank reports.

“You can take as much time as you'd like, Michael. We've got the place reserved until 6pm,” whispered one of the organisers of Focus on South Asia, the peace conference recently held in Lahore, Pakistan for delegates from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan.

He was referring to my opening speech as part of the welcoming ceremony on the first day of the peace conference. I had been asked earlier that day to speak to the participants and now it appeared…

1 March 2003 Molly Morgan

Molly Morgan reports on a project to counter military propaganda in US schools.

San Diego County in California is home to not only one of the largest military installations in the world, but also the second-largest Iraqi population in the US. In autumn 2002, the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice began an outreach campaign to high school students to encourage them to question the US government's planned attack on Iraq.

Why the focus on high school students? The Vietnam War taught the Pentagon that conscription had limited effectiveness and could seriously…

1 March 2003 Ruth Hiller and Sergeiy Sandler

Israeli women who object to military service find themselves marginalised by both "normal" society and within the resistance movement. Ruth Hiller and Sergeiy Sandler report on a New Profile initiative to challenge the influence of dominant gender constructs within the activist community.

It is a little known fact that Israel is the only country with mandatory conscription for women. This makes the draft resistance of Israeli women, which is undoubtedly a major component of the entire resistance movement, into a unique phenomenon.

As the total numbers of draft resisters rise, the numbers of young women requesting exemption from military service on grounds of conscience also continue to remain very high.

Hidden resistance

Female conscripts are traditionally…

1 March 2003 Subhadip Mukherjee

Writing from India, Subhadip Mukherjee argues that the "war on terrorism" is bringing inhuman suffering and misery to an already impoverished population, and that economic depravation and the threat of monoculture are driving forces behind certain acts of terrorism.

The world is in grave danger. The global scenario has completely changed since 11 September, with just one terrorist attack on the United States. In the name of wiping out terrorism from the world the US are now engaged in counter-terrorism with the large-scale killing and torture of innocent people. Those who were earlier considered freedom fighters are now branded terrorists.

Today the United States has assumed the role of a messiah with its disciple-like Great Britain delivering “…

1 March 2003 Ucha Nanuashvili

Human rights and antimilitarist groups in Georgia face a range of specific challenges. Ucha Nanuashvili reports.

Our society is undergoing a period of serious transition. Transformations are occurring that are having a negative impact not only on socially vulnerable groups, but on the entire population.

 

Our society does not currently have enough knowledge, nor the mechanisms, that would allow it to solve its numerous problems through nonviolent means. The consequences are tragic: almost 33% of Georgia's population has been forced to leave their permanent residences, thousands have been…

1 March 2003

This has turned into a bit of a funny issue really, but the original idea was to try to generate a snapshot of the “health” of the international peace movement in the “post 11 September 2001 security environment”.

ILLUSTRATION: © DAVID THOMAS 2003

To do this, we invited a wide range of activist and campaigning groups to provide fairly detailed answers to specific questions (see box).

We thought it would be useful to hear about the campaigning methods and tactics…

1 March 2003

The Nonviolent Movement (Movimento Nonviolento or NM), founded in the sixties by Aldo Capitini, “father” of Italian nonviolence, works to remove individual and group violence from every aspect of social life at a local, national and international level, and to overcome the power structures which are fed by the spirit of violence. NM aims to create a worldwide community without classes, promoting the free development of everyone in harmony with others.

The NM fundamental guidelines…

1 December 2002 Eduardo Marino

After reading and reviewing Russell Crandall's recent book - Driven By Drugs - Eduardo Marino asks "Will helicopters strafing and defoliating South America win the drugs war in North America"

With the classical meaning of a “diplomat is one who listens and reads twice”, I've been diplomatic with this book and diplomacy has paid. I underestimated the book when reading it first, I appreciate it better after going through it twice. Initially I was put off by some inaccuracies of fact and deficiencies of judgement when referring to Colombian history. Soon I came to value the usefulness of the overviews mainly for non Colombian readers and the ability of the book to fulfil its own…