ACTIVIST PROFILE
January 25 marked one year since the beginning of the Egyptian revolution. One year after the fall of the Mubarak regime, the Egyptian people are still in the streets, calling for an end to the rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) who took power after they nonviolently toppled their dictator. What can people in the U.S. do? Tear gas made in the U.S. by Combined Systems Inc. based in Jamestown, PA, has been shipped to Egypt (among other countries) and used against Egyptian protesters, resulting in many protester deaths and injuries.
War Resisters League in coordination with the Global Justice Working Group of Occupy Wall Street, Adalah-NY, and others has been working to build partnerships with groups who are organizing against U.S. support for the manufacture, sale, and purchase of tear gas, as well as U.S.-based groups focused on the militarization of the police here at home.
Check out this comic written by Ethan Heitner and Greg Horwitch about the business of tear gas.
For more information about U.S. support for the use and manufacture of tear gas, check out this report by written by members of Adalah-NY and reposted to the WRL blog.
On Wednesday, November 30th, War Resisters League joined with Occupy Wall Street activists and United for Peace and Justice for a protest at the Aerospace and Defense Finance Conference, a meeting in which Department of Defense officials met with the CEOs of 30 military contractors, including reps from three of the top five defense contractors: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon. As the U.S. government spends roughly $400 billion of U.S. taxpayer dollars each year on weapons systems and military contracts, all of that money goes to the military industry, which pays for two lobbyists for every member of Congress.
So what are DOD officicals doing at an investment conference? They were letting the military industrial complex know that during tough economic times in the U.S., they had nothing to worry about--the 1% will keep making profits. Seventeen WRL and Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested for taking part in a civil disobedience action to attempt to block the front doors of the conference center. Check out the coverage on New York 1 and NBC and this video footage of the action taken by an OWS activist.
On 10/14, WRL and the South Asia Solidarity Initiative organized an action at Occupy Wall Street about the costs of U.S. military intervention all over the world and those who profit from it.
Download the toolkit for a National Day of Action on November 17th, when we will be asking our members and supporters to RESIST Empire, REBUILD Our World, and RECREATE Solidarity.
Check out the photos and strategic flyer from Friday's action along with some of the press coverage that we've received! You can also watch the video in Spanish and English of our action created by Tamar Sharabi.
#Occupy together? Write to us and tell us what you're doing in your local community! Email us at wrl@warresisters.org.
Around the world, people are crying out for food justice, in efforts that range from resisting the expropriation of indigenous lands to constructing new, more sustainable and/or equitable models—or returning to ancient ones—for food production.
On October 7th, War Resisters League joined with a number of our partner organizations in the anti-war movement to host War Voices,* a dialogue on these past ten years of U.S.-led war and occupation and their connections to the militarization of life here in the U.S. and globally.
The evening's discussions among community leaders and social justice organizers were brilliant and started the long process of relationship building between occupied people living in Afghanistan, Afghans living in the North American Diaspora, and members of U.S. movements for peace and justice.
http://warvoices.org
Now Available!
Order Online Now!
Organize This!
A 1955-2011 Retrospective
War Resisters League
2012 Peace Calendar
Edited by Liz Roberts
Foreword by Noam Chomsky
Afterword by Wendy Schwartz
Know Before You Go, 'Cause There's No Reset Button is a collaboration with the Ya-Ya Network, a youth of color-led antimilitarist organization based in NYC.
Our leaflet breaks down the enlistment contract and life in the military and provides new stats about sexual assault in the military, racial disparities in becoming an officer, and stop-loss.
The War Resisters League's famous "pie chart" flyer analyzes the Federal Fiscal Year 2012 Budget (released in February 2011). Perfect for Tax Day!
Each year, War Resisters League analyzes federal funds outlays as presented in detailed tables in "Analytical Perspectives" of the Budget of the United States Government. Our analysis is based on federal funds, which do not include trust funds -- such as Social Security -- that are raised separately from income taxes for specific purposes. What you pay (or don't pay) by April 15, 2011 goes to the federal funds portion of the budget.
Order now!
On May 12, the War Resisters League participated in a day of teach-ins and actions with a broad coalition of unions and community organizations in New York City to stop the state and federal budget cuts which are threatening so many, and to highlight the billions that NYC tax payers are contributing to wars. Click here to see the a street theater performance entitled "Pass the Buck", where WRL organizers, along with volunteers Brian Pickett, Sky Hall, and the Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens, reveal the connections between the state our economy, war, banks and military contractors.
“The people have brought down the regime!” was a cry heard around the world when on Friday, February 11th, 18 days of unrelenting non-violent protest finally forced the end of Hosni Mubarak’s 30 year, US backed rule over Egypt.
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Unemployment, foreclosures, businesses closing, millions hungry, the sick who cannot afford a doctor--this is what we have now, and for our children.
The economic disaster comes from greed and lust for power. All of us are susceptible to those feelings, but those with money and power have almost no restraints. The investment bankers with their fancy ways of making money through lies, the mortgage brokers who lied their way to wealth, none of them are going to jail.
From January 2-12 Witness Against Torture will spend two weeks in Washington D.C. leading up to the 10 year commemoration of the Guantanamo prison and along with it a system of indefinite detention and torture that targets Arab, South Asian, and Muslim men and necessitates the spread of rampant Islamophobia that we have seen escalating over the last decade.
As 2011 gives way to 2012, people’s movements for justice are met with unprecedented global militarization. From Oakland to Egypt, people are demanding democracy and an equitable distribution of wealth while attacked with tear gas and pepper spray, rubber bullets and live ammunition.
Contrary to popular opinion, active-duty members of the military do retain some of their constitutional rights. While there are some military-specific restrictions on these rights, most protest actions are in fact legal.
During this revolutionary moment, we thought it would be wise to keep our nonviolence training resources front and center. Click the link below for a 4-5+ hour sample agenda for a nonviolent action training.
WRL field organizer Ali Issa gets in to the whys and hows of the new South Asia Solidarity Initative/WRL curriculum with Sonali Kolhatkar on her powerful radio show 'Uprising.'
On the day before the 10-year commemoration of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, hundreds of activists who have been working to build up nonviolent resistance to U.S.-led war and occupation and U.S. government support for corporate control over our economy will take to the street. On Oct 6, they will begin a massive occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C.
Click below to read the statement issued by the staff and board of WRL ten years ago, on September 11, 2001. Tragically, it is still appropriate today, and we issue it again in memory of the lives lost on that day and the lives lost since across the world.
WRL has issued a brief statement to the media on the arrest of Pfc. Naser Abdo and the charges that have been brought against him. Please click the link below to read the statement.
Father Louie Vitale and Sister Megan Rice were convicted of criminal trespass for protesting the ICBM launch at Vandenberg Space Command/Air Force Base on August 22, 2009.
On Monday June 26th, protest organizer and leader with the ‘Popular Movement to Save Iraq’ Thurgham al-Zaidi, was kidnapped by an unknown group wearing civilian clothes.
The reported killing of Osama bin Laden by a CIA operation in Pakistan represents neither justice nor victory, and should be no cause for celebration.
We, the undersigned members of War Resisters’ International (WRI), express our profound horror and deep sadness at the torture and murder of Nigerian pacifist, Chidi Nwosu, founder and president of the Human Rights, Justice and Peace Foundation, affiliate member of WRI. Nwosu, a lifetime human rights activist and promoter of nonviolent social change, was brutally assassinated in his home on December 29th, 2010.
Check this story on the one-year anniversary of the Fort Hood shooting, featuring Naser Abdo, war resister and C.O. awaiting deployment to Afghanistan, written by WRL'ers Kimber Heinz and Sam Diener.
The Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist have established a legal defense fund for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking intelligence documents to WikiLeaks. If convicted of the charges against him, he faces up to 52 years in prison...
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January 25 marked one year since the beginning of the Egyptian revolution. One year after the fall of the Mubarak regime, the Egyptian people are still in the streets, calling for an end to the rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) who took power after they nonviolently toppled their dictator. What can people in the U.S. do? Tear gas made in the U.S. by Combined Systems Inc. based in Jamestown, PA, has been shipped to Egypt (among other countries) and used against Egyptian protesters, resulting in many protester deaths and injuries. War Resisters League in coordination with the Global Justice Working Group of Occupy Wall Street, Adalah-NY, and others has been working to build partnerships with groups who are organizing against U.S. support for the manufacture, sale, and purchase of tear gas, as well as U.S.-based groups focused on the militarization of the police here at home. Check out this comic written by Ethan Heitner and Greg Horwitch about the business of tear gas. For more information about U.S. support for the use and manufacture of tear gas, check out this report by written by members of Adalah-NY and reposted to the WRL blog.
So what are DOD officicals doing at an investment conference? They were letting the military industrial complex know that during tough economic times in the U.S., they had nothing to worry about--the 1% will keep making profits. Seventeen WRL and Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested for taking part in a civil disobedience action to attempt to block the front doors of the conference center. Check out the coverage on New York 1 and NBC and this video footage of the action taken by an OWS activist.
On 10/14, WRL and the South Asia Solidarity Initiative organized an action at Occupy Wall Street about the costs of U.S. military intervention all over the world and those who profit from it. Download the toolkit for a National Day of Action on November 17th, when we will be asking our members and supporters to RESIST Empire, REBUILD Our World, and RECREATE Solidarity. Check out the photos and strategic flyer from Friday's action along with some of the press coverage that we've received! You can also watch the video in Spanish and English of our action created by Tamar Sharabi. #Occupy together? Write to us and tell us what you're doing in your local community! Email us at wrl@warresisters.org.
On October 7th, War Resisters League joined with a number of our partner organizations in the anti-war movement to host War Voices,* a dialogue on these past ten years of U.S.-led war and occupation and their connections to the militarization of life here in the U.S. and globally. The evening's discussions among community leaders and social justice organizers were brilliant and started the long process of relationship building between occupied people living in Afghanistan, Afghans living in the North American Diaspora, and members of U.S. movements for peace and justice.
Our leaflet breaks down the enlistment contract and life in the military and provides new stats about sexual assault in the military, racial disparities in becoming an officer, and stop-loss.
The War Resisters League's famous "pie chart" flyer analyzes the Federal Fiscal Year 2012 Budget (released in February 2011). Perfect for Tax Day! Each year, War Resisters League analyzes federal funds outlays as presented in detailed tables in "Analytical Perspectives" of the Budget of the United States Government. Our analysis is based on federal funds, which do not include trust funds -- such as Social Security -- that are raised separately from income taxes for specific purposes. What you pay (or don't pay) by April 15, 2011 goes to the federal funds portion of the budget.
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Unemployment, foreclosures, businesses closing, millions hungry, the sick who cannot afford a doctor--this is what we have now, and for our children.
The economic disaster comes from greed and lust for power. All of us are susceptible to those feelings, but those with money and power have almost no restraints. The investment bankers with their fancy ways of making money through lies, the mortgage brokers who lied their way to wealth, none of them are going to jail.
From January 2-12 Witness Against Torture will spend two weeks in Washington D.C. leading up to the 10 year commemoration of the Guantanamo prison and along with it a system of indefinite detention and torture that targets Arab, South Asian, and Muslim men and necessitates the spread of rampant Islamophobia that we have seen escalating over the last decade.
As 2011 gives way to 2012, people’s movements for justice are met with unprecedented global militarization. From Oakland to Egypt, people are demanding democracy and an equitable distribution of wealth while attacked with tear gas and pepper spray, rubber bullets and live ammunition.
Contrary to popular opinion, active-duty members of the military do retain some of their constitutional rights. While there are some military-specific restrictions on these rights, most protest actions are in fact legal.
During this revolutionary moment, we thought it would be wise to keep our nonviolence training resources front and center. Click the link below for a 4-5+ hour sample agenda for a nonviolent action training.
WRL field organizer Ali Issa gets in to the whys and hows of the new South Asia Solidarity Initative/WRL curriculum with Sonali Kolhatkar on her powerful radio show 'Uprising.'
On the day before the 10-year commemoration of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, hundreds of activists who have been working to build up nonviolent resistance to U.S.-led war and occupation and U.S. government support for corporate control over our economy will take to the street. On Oct 6, they will begin a massive occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C.
Click below to read the statement issued by the staff and board of WRL ten years ago, on September 11, 2001. Tragically, it is still appropriate today, and we issue it again in memory of the lives lost on that day and the lives lost since across the world.
WRL has issued a brief statement to the media on the arrest of Pfc. Naser Abdo and the charges that have been brought against him. Please click the link below to read the statement.
Father Louie Vitale and Sister Megan Rice were convicted of criminal trespass for protesting the ICBM launch at Vandenberg Space Command/Air Force Base on August 22, 2009.
On Monday June 26th, protest organizer and leader with the ‘Popular Movement to Save Iraq’ Thurgham al-Zaidi, was kidnapped by an unknown group wearing civilian clothes.
The reported killing of Osama bin Laden by a CIA operation in Pakistan represents neither justice nor victory, and should be no cause for celebration.
We, the undersigned members of War Resisters’ International (WRI), express our profound horror and deep sadness at the torture and murder of Nigerian pacifist, Chidi Nwosu, founder and president of the Human Rights, Justice and Peace Foundation, affiliate member of WRI. Nwosu, a lifetime human rights activist and promoter of nonviolent social change, was brutally assassinated in his home on December 29th, 2010.
Check this story on the one-year anniversary of the Fort Hood shooting, featuring Naser Abdo, war resister and C.O. awaiting deployment to Afghanistan, written by WRL'ers Kimber Heinz and Sam Diener.
The Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist have established a legal defense fund for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking intelligence documents to WikiLeaks. If convicted of the charges against him, he faces up to 52 years in prison...
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