Over the past several years, War Resisters League has developed several interactive, popular education workshops that deal variously with: the war economy, tear gas, police militarization, and the complex role of identity in organizing, all with an eye towards day-to-day libratory organizing and training. This page then, gathers some of those efforts, often in partnership with activist groups, and offers them for download. Let's go!
Brought to You by Bombs and Budgets: Tools for Reclaiming Communities from Militarism
To mark the now decade-long US-led “Global War on Terror,” The War Resisters League and the South Asia Solidarity Initiative created an interactive, popular eduction-style workshop that explores how organizing against federal military spending relates to and can forward local campaigns for economic justice, as well as how the past decade of war has effected Afghans and what they are doing in response. Brought to You by Bombs and Budgets: Tools for Reclaiming Communities from Militarism, tries to get to the how of "bringing the war dollars home", as more and more people recognize the brutality and wastefulness of occupation.
Download Brought to You by Bombs and Budgets: Tools for Reclaiming Communities from Militarism
"You Can't Take What's All of Ours": Breaking Down NATO/G8 and Rising Up Against Militarism and Austerity
To mark the NATO summit to be held May 2012 in Chicago and the simultaneous G8 summit to be held in Camp David, Maryland, War Resisters League and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance release a new popular education resource.
This participatory workshop explores: The story of NATO and G8: who makes them up, what they do, and how they have grown over time; How NATO and G8 have worked together to profit from and control most areas of the world, especially the Global South; How the countries that control NATO/G8 have imposed an economic and/or military agenda on the people of Afghanistan, Libya, Greece, Iraq and other countries throughout the world, including the U.S.; How specific banks central to NATO/G8 countries’ economic policies profit from militarism; How struggles against economic austerity, war and militarism are connected across the globe; and What we can do make the connections for our networks and communities between global and local struggles for justice.
Download "You Can't Take What's All of Ours"
Movement Building for Allies
Members and organizations of the traditional peace movement have been increasingly coming to recognize the importance not only of partnering and “joining forces” with groups and organizations led primarily by poor people and people of color, but also of taking leadership from those groups and learning how to be effective allies to them through our organizing efforts.
Movement Building for Allies is a facilitators' manual for a workshop intended for white activists working in groups within the peace movement and other anti-militarist movements who want to deepen their understanding of how to do strategic organizing using an anti-oppression and cross-movement approach.
This includes a focus on how to be strong allies to directly impacted communities (i.e. those whose immediate survival-level needs are impeded by U.S. militarism) through relationship-building and a clear understanding of the root causes of war and
Buy Movement Buiding for Allies online at the WRL Store
You Can't Tear Us Apart: Tear Gas, Militarism, and Local/Global Solidarity
An interactive workshop that explores how communities are impacted by militarism as well as what they might do about it - locally and around the world. You Can't Tear Us Apart: Tear Gas, Militarism and Local/Global Solidarity is specially designed for US-based community groups that want to connect their ongoing organizing - whether that be focused on racial or economic justice, ending mass incarceration, or supporting international struggles - to a movement against militarism in all its forms.
Download "You Can't Tear Us Apart" here.
Buy 2 Tanks Get 10 Guns Free: A Workshop in Resisting Police Militarization
Want to stop police militarization in your community? We can’t build a movement without building consciousness. Our new participatory workshop Buy 10 Guns, Get 2 Tanks Free: A Workshop on Resisting Police Militarization is one such building tool. The workshop, co-created with the Ya-Ya Network, highlights the successful cross-community organizing initiated by Oakland, CA’s Stop Urban Shield Coalition.
Against All Odds: Organizing & Study Guide
War Resisters League is excited to announce a popular education resource for connecting with Iraqi organizing across borders for activists, organizers and students around the world! We hope this guide supports you in better understanding Against All Odds: Voices of Popular Struggle in Iraq, as well as the work and dreams of Iraqi organizers who are building the Iraq they dare to envision. To connect with organizers in Iraq, check out our Iraq Solidarity page! Contributors to this guide are Amnah Almukhtar, Sara Leana Ahmad, Nico Fonseca, & Ali Issa. Designed by Lama Khoury & Shaheen Qureshi.
So You Wanna Be A Cop?! Workshop
Do you work with a community targeted by police PR about 'diversifying' their departments? Well download our interactive workshop "HOLD UP! So You Wanna Be a Cop" and tell us how it went! Geared towards young people considering joining the police force, and looking for a well-paying job, this workshop breaks down police recruiter lies, as well as the reasons why a young person wants to be a cop in the first place.
Workshop goals:
- Participants understand police departments across the country have powerful branding projects and think about how to recruit you.
- Participants understand the common myths about becoming a cop.
- Participants think critically about why you would want to join the police force, and what other ways of helping your community are.
- Participants desire to lead this work yourselves in the role of facilitator in your communities.
DOWNLOAD IT HERE
WRL facilitation team at INCITE's Color of Violence 4 conference, Chicago, 2015
