Submitted by antimili-youth on Wed, 08/06/2016 - 10:58
Would you like to take action against the militarisation of youth with many others across the world?
You can join War Resisters' International's week of action, which will be held between 14-20 November for the third time this year. You can join as an individual or as a group.
War Resisters' International is organising the 3rd International Week of Action Against the Militarisation of Youth from 14 to 20 November this year. The week is a concerted effort of antimilitarist actions across the world to raise awareness of, and challenge, the ways young people are militarised, and to give voice to alternatives.
A very clever subversion of a recent British Army advert (which used 'reverse psychology' by telling people 'Don't join the Army. Don't become a better you. Don't improve your fitness.')
Unfortunately, they forgot to buy the domain name :)
Last week two of the world’s largest arms companies gave a talk at the University of Liverpool.
About 50% of Thales’s business is in arms, including mortar systems, rocket systems for helicopters, precision-guided munitions, military vehicles, missiles, and small arms and ammunition. They sells arms to many oppressive regimes, including Bahrain, China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE, and collaborate with Israeli arms company Elbit to develop drones.
Rolls-Royce manufacture 25% of all military jet engines globally, that are used by 160 different armed forces, in 103 different countries. They also manufacture nuclear reactors for Trident submarines. Their arms customers include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey
The Chicago chapter of Veterans for Peace is rolling out a billboard campaign Monday aimed at sparking a conversation about "the epidemic of militarization" in the city's schools..
The billboard campaign is also meant to "dispel the myth that militarization is about 'leadership' and 'patriotism,'" the group said in a statement.
Messages such as "Veterans Say - Military Out of CPS" and "Veterans Say - Education Not Militarization" will appear in rotating advertising displays of 38 digital billboards across Chicago neighborhoods through May, according to the Chicago VFP. The billboard messages will include the web address NoMilitary.org, which includes more information on the group's "Education Not Militarization" initiative.
According to the group, some 10,000 CPS students receive military training.
'We, the Chicago Chapter of Veterans for Peace, are pursuing a many-pronged campaign to bring Peace at Home, Peace Abroad by focusing on youth and the demilitarization of public education.'
Submitted by antimili-youth on Wed, 24/02/2016 - 18:09
By Taya Govreen-Segal*
Last week I wrote on the practicality of video activism for activists (see the first part of this two-part article series here). Now that you know why one should do video activism, I collected here 10 practical tips for video activism that I learned through my work in Israel Social TV, accompanied by examples. These are not rules set in stone, so if any of the things written here are a set back, you are welcome to disregard them.
*The examples are from a variety of fields of activism, mainly from Palestine-Israel, but all have English subtitles.
Submitted by antimili-youth on Wed, 17/02/2016 - 15:40
By Semih Sapmaz
Activists from Peace Action Wellington (PAW) organised two days of nonviolent direct actions against the annual Weapons Conference held in New Zealand (NZ) last November. Following their peaceful protests, 27 activists - 26 of whom keep fighting charges - were arrested and taken to court. On 18 February they are standing trial again, defending their right to peaceful demonstration for peace and justice.
Sending our solidarity messages to the activists in Wellington, we reached Valerie Morse from PAW and asked her about their campaign Stop the Weapons Conference as well as many other questions on militarism and the antimilitarist movement in New Zealand.
To begin with, can you tell us about Peace Action Wellington: when it was formed and what was the motivations behind forming it?
Submitted by antimili-youth on Mon, 15/02/2016 - 16:39
By Taya Govreen-Segal*
Have you ever invested yourself in an action? Planned, organized, coordinated, and then did the action, only to discover that hardly anyone heard of it? In this two-part article I will propose a possible solution for this problem: video activism.
Video activism is a way of expanding activism beyond the streets and into virtual spaces. In the first part I will try and explain why I find video a useful tool for activism, and in the second part, I will give a few more practical tips for creating your own videos.
Disclaimer: My knowledge and understanding of both activism and video are based on my experience in Israel-Palestine. Different cultural and legal situations in other places may make some of this not relevant in other regions.
The pictures are drawn in a childish hand, but they are visions that no child should have to witness: militia shooting captives tied to trees; army helicopters above firing on their enemy; the central African bush in flames.
These are all artworks produced by children held in captivity after they, or their parents, were abducted by the feared Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda. Many of those taken spent years in the bush, constantly on the move to evade capture, walking barefoot carrying heavy loads for the commanders and even fighting for the militia.
Submitted by antimili-youth on Thu, 19/11/2015 - 17:03
By Sylvia C. Frain, the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago
The United States Department of Defence (DOD) currently utilizes over 30 million acres of land at more than 5,000 different locations around the world. These military bases and colony units are often-overlooked aspects of the United States (U.S.) global military footprint.
WRI's new booklet, Countering Military Recruitment: Learning the lessons of counter-recruitment campaigns internationally, is out now. The booklet includes examples of campaigning against youth militarisation across different countries with the contribution of grassroot activists.