Office and Executive Report - July 2011 - August 2012

This report has been prepared by the staff and Executive Committee

1. Introduction

Since July 2011 WRI has had a very impressive calendar of events - perhaps the highlights were the War Profiteering seminar in Barcelona in October, the Countering the Militarisation of Youth seminar in Germany in June, the African Nonviolence Training Exchange in Johannesburg in July, as well as the vital work of mobilising support for Maikel Nabil Sanad, an anti-militarist imprisoned by the post-'revolutionary' regime in Egypt.

This calendar, however, has depended on a phenomenal effort from our talented and committed staff - Javier Gárate and Andreas Speck. Each of the events mentioned has attracted significant support from the WRI network and beyond, and they all really raise hopes for the future.

And yet ... as always there is much more to do. In this report, we find next to nothing about Syria, and even where we have an active member of Council and the Executive - referring to Pelao Carvallo in Paraguay - we could not respond adequately to his pleas for support.

In this report, we look at what WRI is doing well, and for the future we know we have to strengthen the base for this, and as well as offering more support to staff, we need to find effective ways to share responsibility more widely.

We hope this report provides a good information base about WRI's current situation to help prepare the work at Council on what WRI can become in the future.

2. Staffed Programme

2.1 Nonviolence Programme

Staff: Javier Gárate

The NV Programme has two main areas of focus:

• providing resources and training on nonviolence
• the initiative against war profiteers.

2.1.1 Resources and training for nonviolent action

2.1.1.1 Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns

The Handbook has now been reprinted in English, but even more importantly it continues to be translated into more languages. In the last year translations into Arabic, Korean, Tigrynia and Turkish have been completed, and are on the web. The Nepali, Russian, French, and German versions are nearing completion and should soon be online.

2.1.1.2 Nonviolence Training

The other area of the work is the promotion and coordination of nonviolence training. We feel that the best contribution WRI can make here is to organise nonviolence trainers exchanges, where trainers can meet and share experiences. Then trainers are poised to take back new information and resources to their local communities. In 2008, WRI organised an international nonviolence trainers exchange in Bilbao, with trainers from different regions. This recommended developing regional exchanges, where activists could focus on the specific contexts of each region.

Following this recommendation, WRI in 2012 is organising a series of nonviolence trainers exchanges. The first took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, 25 – 29 July, bringing together African trainers and peacemakers. For this exchange we have teamed up with the Ceasefire Campaign in South Africa, the African Women's Active Nonviolence Initiative for Social Change (AWANICh), Women Peacemaker Program of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and the Organization for Nonviolence and Development of South Sudan (ONAD). This event will also help us prepare for WRI's 2014 International Conference – formerly known as Triennial – to be held in South Africa. (see more under Regionalisation: Africa - 3.1)

In Europe, we are cooperating with a number of groups committed to strengthening capacities in nonviolence training and in particular how to improve trainings directed at campaign strategies and movement-building. Therefore a European Training Exchange on Social Movement Building and Effective Strategies will take place in Belgium on 29 October-4 November 2012, co-organised by WRI, Vredesactie (Belgium), Turning the Tide (UK), Ofog (Sweden), European Youth in Action / EYFA (Germany) and AA-MOC Valencia (Spain).

The plan is to also have a Latin American nonviolence training exchange in Caracas, Venezuela, in the near future. This would aim to form a regional network and to identify opportunities and needs in LA.

The groundwork has been done to develop regional meetings for trainers to meet and share their experiences. Now we hope for fruitful results to help WRI in our work promoting nonviolent action.

In the last year, we also helped with some specific trainings: the nonviolence training in preparation for the War Starts Here! Action in Lulea, Sweden and the NATO Game Over action in Brussels, Belgium.

The Nonviolence Programme also received a request for a training for trainers from South Korean activists due to take place in October 2012. This should help Korean activists develop their own skills in nonviolence training, becoming less reliant on external trainers.

A very useful event in April 2012 - an international symposium at Coventry University, England, on 'Nonviolent Movements and the Barrier of Fear' - was a symposium initiated by WRI chair Howard Clark and attended by Javier Gárate, plus Council members Stellan Vinthagen and Abraham Mehretab as well several other people with close WRI connections. This was organised by the newly formed Nonviolence Research Group of the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies, Coventry University, with support from the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (Washington DC). This Research group is especially interested in the 'academic-activist interface' and is open to further cooperation with WRI.

2.1.2 Initiative Against War Profiteers

2.1.2.1 War Profiteers and Peace Movement Responses

In 2011, the main project of the Initiative Against War Profiteers was the International Seminar: War Profiteers and Peace Movement Responses, held in Barcelona and hosted by Centre Delas of Justicia i Pau. The co-organisers were WRI with ENAAT (European Network Against Arms Trade). In January 2010 at the WRI Conference 'Nonviolent Livelihood Struggle and Global Militarism: Links & Strategies' in India, we connected the issue of war profiteering with nonviolent resistance but noted that something extra was needed to link groups working against war profiteering.
With the enthusiasm generated by the Global Day of Action on Military Spending, and with fresh impetus from increased public consciousness of sleazy arms deals with autocrats facing the 'Arab Spring', and the severe cuts in social spending provoked by a financial crisis that has not brought 'deep cuts' in military spending, the time seemed ripe for a face-to-face meeting. Electronic communication can be very effective in building up dossiers, but functions better if people have met each other in person. Centre Delas from Barcelona, a member of ENAAT, agreed to host the event, especially if it could coincide with their traditional series of public meetings called Trobada. All these factors helped structure the seminar: during the day we had more “internal" work groups - with 50 participants from 17 countries - and the evening Trobada was open to the general public with up to 200 participants.

A big challenge in organising international events is 'so what next?' Perhaps coordinated follow-up has been disappointing, but there are positives. The seminar brought people together from different networks, organisations, and parts of the world - a breakthrough for ENAAT. It both broadened and deepened perspectives, and brought out many ideas. In fostering a sense of community and collective action - that we are all part of a wider network of organisations working on the economic dimension of war and conflicts - it helped overcome feelings of isolation. Many ideas generated at the seminar will have to be pursued by individuals. WRI is committed to this work and will make sure that the seminar helps us move forward - that should be easier now that we know each other.
Pictures of the seminar: /node/13815

2.1.2.2 War Profiteers' News

The Nonviolence Programme continues to produce the bi-monthly electronic newsletter War Profiteers' News. In the last year, the economic crisis and the role of banks have featured strongly, as well as scandalous deals with dictatorial regimes. WPN seeks to make connections between war profiteers and other movements, in particular the Occupy movement, where the connection to the global financial meltdown is so clear.
WPN is at: /publications/war_profiteers

2.1.2.3 Global Day of Action on Military Spending

The Nonviolence Programme has strongly supported the Global Day of Action on Military Spending, a joint initiative of the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and International Policy Studies (IPS). Several articles were featured in WPN and a call-out to groups to encourage them to join the International Day of Action. Javier Gárate is a member of the international steering committee of the Global Day. The Day succeeded in bringing together many groups to fight against military spending. WRI will continue to support this initiative.

2.1.3 Fundraising

The Nonviolence Programmes has raised funds for these projects, but not for covering the staff costs on which they depend. It is urgent to find a funding source to support the staff costs of the programme.

Achievements

• The multiple translations of the Handbook
• The progress on nv training exchanges
• The seminar on war profiteering

Challenges

• Securing funding for the staff costs
• Stronger focus for war profiteers seminar follow-up

2.2 Right to Refuse to Kill programme

Staff: Andreas Speck

2.2.1 Right to Refuse to Kill

2.2.1.1 Staff changes

In July 2011, Andreas Speck, RRTK worker since the programme's inception in May 2001, announced that he would leave the WRI office at the end of 2012. The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust kindly agreed to augment the programme funding to provide for a staff overlap from September through December 2012, and in June 2012 Hannah Brock was chosen as the new RRTK programme worker. She will begin on 10 September and will participate in the WRI Council in Bilbao and the subsequent RRTK Committee meeting.

2.2.1.2 Work

Due to increasing workload, the CO-Update newsletter has been published less frequently, with 7 issues from June 2011 though May 2012. It remains an important resource on conscientious objection to military service and military recruitment.

CO-alerts focused a lot on the case of Maikel Nabil Sanad from Egypt, who was imprisoned in February 2011 (charged with 'insulting the military') and went on hunger strike. Andreas made three visits to Egypt (one accompanied by Igor Seke of the RRTK committee) to provide support not only to Maikel (who he was not able to visit) but also to the local support group. The political situation in Egypt – which worsened after summer 2011 – did not help, and neither did the structural weaknesses of Maikel's support group. The WRI staff strongly questioned Maikel's course of action, but this was hard to discuss as his imprisonment prevented effective communication. Therefore, the support work for Maikel was politically and emotionally challenging. In January 2012, as a gesture on the anniversary of the occupation of Tahrir Square, Maikel was finally amnestied, along with many others.

On 7 July 2011, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights gave its judgment in the case of Bayatyan v Armenia. The court finally recognised the right to conscientious objection (see /node/13271). As expected, several chambers of the court then followed up to with five more judgments (two on Armenia, three on Turkey), recognising the right to conscientious objection.

In February 2012, Connection e.V. initiated a small meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, attended by Rudi Friedrich from Connection e.V., Rachel Brett from QUNO, Milena Bulum from Amnesty International, Andreas Speck from WRI, and several Turkish CO activists. Its objective was to improve coordination and to strengthen work for the right to conscientious objection in Turkey following the European Court Bayatyan judgment mentioned above, and the subsequent judgments Erçep v. Turkey, 22 November 2011, and Demirtaş v. Turkey, 17 January 2012. Follow-up work from this meeting is underway.

In March 2012, Andreas travelled to South Korea to assist the Korean CO movement in developing strategy following the South Korean constitutional court's rejection of the right to CO.

2.2.2. A CO's Guide to the International Human Rights System

There have been delays in the plan to update the guide, originally written by Emily Miles. First because it required more research than expected. Second because of other demands on the RRTK programme. The publication is now scheduled for December 2012 (a nine-month delay).

2.2.3. Countering the Militarisation of Youth

The work on counter-recruitment has been expanded under the title “Countering the Militarisation of Youth”, and from 8-10 June 2012 the first major international conference took place in Darmstadt, Germany, with 65 participants from 14 countries. In preparation, a reader was put together (/militarisationofyouth/DarmstadtReader) plus an edition of The Broken Rifle (see /epublish/21/485).
This conference was a major step forward in the development of WRI's work on countering the militarisation of youth, and in building new networks.
One anticipated outcome is to produce a detailed document of the conference by the end of 2012.

2.2.4. RRTK programme committee

The first meeting of the RRTK programme committee (RRTKCOM) took place in July 2011 in Stockholm, prior to the Council 2011. The Committee consists of: Rachel Brett (QUNO), Adriana Patricia Castano Roman (Red Juvenil de Medellin), Boro Kitanoski (Peace Action, Macedonia), Oskar Castro (MFSO, WRL, USA), and Sergeiy Sandler as convener. The meeting was an important step in the formation of a functioning committee, although major challenges remain, among them language.
Since then, the RRTKCOM has experimented with conference calls, with varying degrees of success, and had a small meeting in Frankfurt, following the Darmstadt conference. The meeting focused on the role and importance of the Committee during the staff transition period in autumn 2012.
Igor Seke from Serbia, now living in Mexico, has now been invited to join the RRTKCOM. A physical meeting is planned for 18 September, after the Bilbao Council.

Achievements

• The Bayatyan judgment is a major juridical achievement, to which WRI contributed via a joint third party intervention.
• The conference in Darmstadt was a milestone for WRI's work on the militarisation of youth.

Challenges

• The support for Maikel Nabil Sanad during his hunger strike posed several political challenges that warrant WRI-wide discussion.
• Balancing workload has been a major challenge in the last 12 months, as emergency responses and alerts pushed aside other long-term work. Staff workplans need to be sufficiently flexible to accommodate emergency response.

3. Regionalisation

3.1 Africa

The highlight has been the 26-29 July 2012 Africa Nonviolence Trainers Exchange (see 2.1.2) which had participants from South Sudan, Rwanda, Egypt, Mozambique, the Democractic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea as well as South Africa itself. One immediate outcome is elist and blog on African Nonviolence and Peacebuilding.
The exchange was followed by a preparatory meeting for the 2014 WRI conference, plus meetings with WRI contacts in Durban and Cape Town.
In addition, Javier and Africa Working Group co-conveners Elavie Ndura and Matt Meyer participated in a three-day conference organised by the Gandhi Development Trust in Durban, “From the Roots to the Fruits: Nonviolence in Action.”
Matt wrote a brief history of WRI and African nonviolence movements that was used as a funding appeal in May. (That appeal also unfurled Matt's new WRI volunteer position - WRI Africa Support Network Coordinator, emphasising our commitment to have the Working Group function primarily as a networking space for Africans, with non-Africans playing a support and solidarity role.)
Elavie Ndura and Matt Meyer gave presentations at the [US] African Studies Association 2011 annual conference (along with International Center on Nonviolent Conflict colleague Stephen Zunes).

3.2 Europe

From summer 2009 to July 2011, a series of European Anti-Militarist network meetings received funding from the European Union's Grundtvig programme. This funding came to an end with the 'War Starts Here' camp in Luleå, Sweden in July 2011. As the Luleå meeting of the European Antimilitarist Network decided not to make a new funding application for this year, the Network entered a less active phase.

Despite the widespread support voiced for more 'War Starts Here' actions, the implementation has been slow. Apart from a small administrative meeting in Berlin in August 2011 (finalising the report on the Grundtvig funding), the European Antimilitarist Network did not meet between in Luleå in July 2011 and the NATO-Game over action in Brussels, Belgium, in April 2012. This meeting in Belgium adjusted the network goals, agreed a platform (online at /network/euroantimilinet), and approved a call-out for 'War Starts Here' actions (/campaigns/warstartshere). Rather than create a new website for the network, it was agreed to use the existing websites of the groups in the network - War Resisters' Interna­tional, ofog - direkt aktion för Fred!, Sweden, Vredesactie/ Bombspotting, Belgium, Alternativa antimilitarista-moc, Spain, Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft-Vereinigte KriegsdienstgegnerInnen, Ger­many, Gewaltfreie Aktion Atom­waffen abschaffen, Germany, Aseistakieltäytyjäliitto, AKL – Finland, Trident Ploughshares, Britain, Gruppe für eine Schweiz ohne Armee, GSoA – Switzerland, and Bundeswehr Wegtreten, Germany.

Achievements

• Various joint activities since 2008 have brought groups together and built trust.
• From summer 2009 to summer 2011, European Union funding provided the network with resources, which allowed more participation in joint actions and meetings.
• A common slogan (War starts here) has been developed, which can be used for actions all over Europe (and beyond).

Challenges

• It has not been possible to develop a common campaign, based on a common strategy. The network instead focuses on individual organizational events and at best joins each other's actions.
• Coordination of the network has depended a lot on Vredesactie and WRI (especially while a funded project had to be administered), whose capacities are limited.
• After initial enthusiasm, the network is now in need of re-energising or rethinking.

3.2.1 No to NATO

Since 2008, WRI has been a member of the International Coordination Committee No to War – No to NATO (ICC). However, after the actions against the NATO summit in Strasbourg and Baden Baden in April 2009, the ICC became less relevant politically, and lacked transparency in decision-making.

WRI was heavily involved in the actions against the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, in November 2010, mostly in organising and supporting nonviolent direct action.

Andreas Speck, representing WRI on the ICC, took part in an ICC organised anti-NATO meeting in Dublin in April 2011, together with An Maeyens from Vredesactie. The event was dominated by traditional leftists, illustrating the lack of appeal of the ICC both to a broader movement and to radical pacifists.

For the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago, USA, the ICC tried to involve itself in preparing counter-activities but with little success. Two US networks against NATO organized the counter-summit events, without ICC involvement. WRI too had problems mobilising activists from Europe - in the end two members of ofog represented WRI in Chicago, joining with members of War Resisters League.

In April 2012, the Executive decided that WRI should leave the ICC and "continue its anti-NATO work outside the ICC. We will always be open for co-operation and communication with the ICC, should the need and opportunity arise.”

3.3 Latin America

Since the last Annual Report, the work of the Latin America network has been carried out mostly through email communication on the irg-al list serve. Through this list, information about the work of the different organisations and affiliates is shared. One dominant issue recently has been the parliamentary coup d'etat in Paraguay. Executive and Council member, Pelao Carvallo, residing in Paraguay, has kept the network informed of what is happening in the country - from the Curuguaty massacre where 16 peasants were killed by police forces to the subsequent parliamentary coup d'etat. Thanks to Pelao, MOC-Paraguay and Serpaj-Paraguay the irg-al list has been kept well informed about the ongoing resistance to the coup.

The resistance by indigenous people of Cauca in Colombia to military presence in their communities was also discussed via the list serve, with groups in Colombia sharing firsthand experiences.

The network has also been sharing information - and contributing to War Profiteers News - about how multinational corporations profiteer from resource extraction, their local impact and links to militarism.

Conscientious objection and military recruitment remains an important area of work, especially for groups in Colombia, where illegal recruitment continues. A law change in Paraguay has put CO back on the agenda: recognition of CO now depends on the decision of a committee. There are also plans to pass a law on professional soldiers.

The Latin America network has been represented at several WRI events: Council members Adriana Castaño, Pelao Carvallo and Rafael Uzcategui, plus Sandra Isaza of Red Juvenil Medellin attended Council 2011 and gave presentations in the attached seminar. Lexys Rendón, of El Libertario in Venezuela, gave two presentations at the Barcelona seminar on war profiteering - one on Latin American military spending and the other about different projects extracting resources and their impact on local communities in the region. After the seminar, Lexys toured other parts of Spain, giving talks in several cities on these topics.

The Militarisation of Youth conference in June 2012: Dan Contreras (Chile), Jorge Vélez (Colombia) and Rafael Uzcategui (Venezuela): they gave a joint presentation on the situation in Latin America.

Initial plans have been made for a regional meeting focusing on nonviolence training. This will probably take place early in 2013 in Venezuela.

4. WRI – organisation

4.1.1 Council 2012

The 2011 Council meeting in Luleå seemed enthusiastic about having Council 2012 in Medellín, Colombia, in September 2012. Unfortunately, this was not to be. After a difficult process of negotiation about the contents and budget for the seminar, the WRI Executive sent a clear message that WRI could not take financial responsibility for a Council meeting in 2012 that would cost more than WRI has raised for any event. We would support, attend and raise what funds we could, and we would meet some agreed expenses (such as fares of elected council members, etc), but we could not, for instance, pay the wages of Red Juvenil staff in Medellin. For Red Juvenil, this was inadequate. They stated that they had engaged in planning this event less to suit their own programme, and more to meet the needs of the international network. They therefore decided to call off the whole process of preparation and cancelled the seminar and council meeting planned for Medellin in September 2012.

There were several offers to find alternative low-cost venues - France, Finland, Jenin (Palestine), Macedonia, and Bilbao for Council 2012. Not having time to prepare a proper event in Palestine, the Executive decided that Bilbao would be the most cost-effective and energy-efficient. There will not be an attached seminar, but we hope to shape the event more strategically, renewing our vision of what the WRI can become.

4.1.2 The Executive

The WRI Executive needs strengthening, especially after the resignation of Hilal Demir in June. Hilal felt that her personal circumstances were preventing her from making the contribution required.

During much of the year most Executive members have been under pressure in their own contexts, with resulting feelings of guilt about not meeting WRI expectations and also poor functioning of the Executive. The delay in completing and distributing minutes is symptomatic.

The most demanding single task for the Executive was organising the recruiting and selection process for the new RRTK worker. This largely fell on Dominique, Sergeiy and Javier from the office, and turned out to be a huge job - dealing with more than 80 applications.

Dominique and Howard attended the Barcelona War Profiteers seminar and Sergeiy the Darmstadt conference on Countering the Militarisation of Youth.

Howard represented WRI in Zagreb in March 2012 at the celebration of the foundation of ARK - the Anti-War Campaign of Croatia. (Other speakers connected with WRI were Boro Kitanoski, Christine Schweitzer, Staša Zajoviç and former Council members Marko Hren and Vesna Teršelič.)

Achievements

• The RRTK selection process
• Maintaining an overview

Challenges

• Ensuring continuity after Andreas leaves, and strengthening staff support
• Making the most of the opportunities offered with South Africa 2014

4.2 WRI Publications

WRI continues to publish a range of mostly electronic publications.

wri-irg.org

This year we moved the website to a bigger server as the old one couldn't deal with the number of requests it was receiving. The new server's capacity can be increased as needed. Various problems with the website have been noted, and suggestions for further improvement are welcome.

E-mail and Web-Based Publications

Note: All our e-mail-based publications can be viewed and subscribed to on our website.

The Broken Rifle

The Broken Rifle continues to be WRI's quarterly newsletter, with most issues published in English Spanish and German. In the last year we have struggled to translate The Broken Rifle into French. Since July 2011, the following issues have been published: Nonviolence for Change (December 2011, see /pubs/br90-en.htm), Land-grabbing and Militarism (April 2011, see /pubs/br91-en.htm), Countering the Militarisation of Youth (May 2011, see /epublish/21/485).

wri-info

The email-newsletter wri-info is published as needed. There is no clear policy on what qualifies as wri-info. It is mostly used to send information from the WRI office.

CO-Update

CO-Update, produced in English, is the monthly e-newsletter of the Right to Refuse to Kill programme.

CO-alert

WRI launched its email based co-alert system in July 2001. Although there had been a system for urgent actions before, this was the first time the email list co-alert has been used. Since then, hundreds of co-alerts have been emailed out. With the launch of the new website, the co-alert system has been integrated into WRI's conscientious objection database, and is now managed entirely through the WRI website. CO-alert is an English only email list, although some alerts are also available in other languages on the WRI website.

warprofiteers-news

The email newsletter War Profiteers News is published bimonthly in English and Spanish. It has been an important tool to provide information on matters related to war profiteering to a wide range of groups and activists, and facilitates networking of groups working on war profiteers.

Facebook

WRI's Facebook cause now has more than 4,200 members and is mainly used to post announcements. Attempts to raise funds using Facebook have so far seen only moderate success.
There is also a Facebook page for WRI at http://www.facebook.com/pages/War-Resisters-International/1167499650168….

Twitter

You can find WRI at http://twitter.com/#!/warresistersint.

Books and other print publications

WRI has not published any books in the last year. Most work has been on translation of the Handbook and the completion of the translation into Spanish by Michelle Renyé of Women Conscientious Objectors - An Anthology, which is available online (/pubs/objetoras-antologia).

Cynthia Cockburn's book Antimilitarism: Political and Gender Dynamics of Peace Movements has been published by Palgrave Macmillan. Cynthia attended the WRI Council in Bilbao in 2008 doing interviews for this book, which includes discussion of WRI itself as well as of affiliates in several countries. Andreas spoke at the book launch in Housmans bookshop, London.

There has been no further discussion about producing a WRI Yearbook.

Achievements

• The regular email-newsletters of the two main WRI programmes have increased WRI's credibility in these areas.

Challenges

• After four years since the web redesign, there is the need for further change - for example, integrating it more with social media.
• Translation of the e-newsletters and of the Broken Rifle has become increasingly difficult, especially into German and French, but WRI is also short of translators into Spanish, and from any of these languages into English.
• A distribution network and strategy for publishing more books is so far missing.

4.3 WRI-Office

4.2.1 Staff

Since 2005, the WRI office has been staffed by Andreas Speck (RRTK) and Javier Gárate (Nonviolence Programme). However, at the end of 2012, after 11 years in the WRI office, Andreas has decided to move on at the end of 2012. Having previously been treasurer of WRI and a section representative, he has also played a vital role in re-shaping WRI over the last 15 years.

We received well over 80 applications for the RRTK job - an unprecedented number - several from excellent candidates. The candidate chosen is a Hannah Brock, a 26-year-old Briton who has been a Quaker Peaceworker with the Oxford Research Group and an Ecumenical Accompanier in Palestine. She begins work in the WRI office in September 2012.

4.2.2 Interns and Volunteers

The WRI office has benefited from the work of several interns and volunteers. We were lucky to have Jungmin Choi, a long-time activist from South Korea, who has attended many WRI events since 2005. From October 2011 to February 2012, she made a great contribution to the work of both WRI office programmes, including co-editing an issue of our web bulletin, War Profiteers' News and updating our CO database and other materials. Jungmin also finished the translation of the Korean version of the Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns.

Paula Andrea Garcia Morales, from Red Juvenil de Medellin, Colombia, joined the WRI office as an intern in February 2012. Her main role was to help organize the WRI Council meeting, planned for Medellin in September 2012. However, when this was cancelled, Red Juvenial also terminated the internship. Maxwell Zachs, a Quaker Peace and Social Witness Peaceworker, joined the WRI office in October 2011, after leaving a previous placement. His placement in WRI also proved problematic and was terminated in April 2012. A new QPSW Peaceworker, Owen Everett, will be joining the WRI office as part of a joint placement with Forces Watch in September 2012 for a year. (Forces Watch is a recently-launched British anti-recruitment organisation based in the same building as WRI.)

We would like to give a big thank you to all the volunteer translators/interpreters that do a huge job helping us to have our materials in several languages, they are: Nayua Adbelkefi, Francesca Denley, Carlos Barranco, Oscar Huenchunao, Igor Seke, Benjamin Molineaux, Ian Macdonald, Matias Mulet, Gerd Büntzly, Inge Dreger, Rene Burget, Tikiri, Natalia Pita, Adria Collado, Rebecca Steffen, Marcelo del Alamo, Dominique Saillard and Howard Clark.

Finally, as for the past 25 years, the WRI office has benefited from the dedicated work of our regular volunteer, Martyn Lowe. Martyn is in charge, among other things, of archiving WRI's old materials and publications, as well as of safety and maintenance tasks.