Social change doesn't just happen. It's the result of the work of committed people striving for a world of justice and peace. This work gestates in groups or cells of activists, in discussions, in training sessions, in reflecting on previous experiences, in planning, in experimenting and in learning from others. Preparing ourselves for our work for social justice is key to its success. This handbook shares what people have already developed in different contexts. It includes sections on:

Conscientious objectors are generally seen as male - as are soldiers. This book breaks with this assumption. Women conscientiously object to military service and militarism, not only in countries that conscript women - such as Eritrea and Israel - but also in countries without conscription of women. In doing so, they redefine antimilitarism from a feminist perspective, opposing not only militarism, but also a form of antimilitarism that creates the male conscientious objector as the "hero" of antimilitarist struggle.