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Against All Militarism World Social Forum in Nairobi, a Theme, Which Certainly Is of Relevance to Antimilitarists and Why an Antimilitarist Perspective Is Pacifists

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Against All Militarism World Social Forum in Nairobi, a Theme, Which Certainly Is of Relevance to Antimilitarists and Why an Antimilitarist Perspective Is Pacifists No 73, February 2007 Editorial People's Struggles, People's Alternatives is the theme of the Against all militarism World Social Forum in Nairobi, a theme, which certainly is of relevance to antimilitarists and Why an antimilitarist perspective is pacifists. And a theme, that is also very relevant in the African context, where people struggle important for all social movements against neo-colonial exploitation, and against war and violence. The World Social Forum is now Since the beginning of the 6 years old. Since the beginning in World Social Forum process in Porto Alegre in 2001, it grew, it in- 2001, antimilitarists and pacifists spired regional processes, and it have remained more on the changed. With the success of the sidelines of this process, thus World Social Forum came interest missing the opportunity to enga- from the traditional left, and from lef- ge in a debate with movements tist governments. Brazil's president from all over the world. Certainly, Lula spoke at the World Social For- there are differences of opinion, um, and the Venezuelan govern- of strategy, and most importantly ment instrumentralised the “poly- often a differing view on the use centric” forum in Caracas to promo- of violence. While we should te the “Bolivarian revolution”. So is stand firm in our commitment to the WSF embracing old-fashioned pacifism and antimilitarism, we traditional left politics, and does it still have a lot to learn from other abandon its own principles? Does movements – but also a lot to the WSF fall into the old trap of op- give. posing one side of the political spec- Nonviolence has a huge trum – (US) imperialism – and tur- repertoire of tools and expe- ning a blind eye on human rights vi- rience in practicing real grass- olations and militarism when they roots democracy, empowering occur on the left side of the politic- people, and building alterna- al spectrum, according to the sim- tives. This experience – often ple principle “the enemy of my derived from anarchism and enemy is my friend”? feminism – is valuable for the World Social Forum process, The principles of the World which struggles with issues such Social Forum as participatory democracy, The Charter of Principles of the decision making and others. Not World Social Forum [1] goes back that we have all the answers – to 2001. The first paragraph of this far from it – but we can contri- charter sets out the basis of the bute our valuable experience. WSF: “The World Social Forum is We think it is now not the an open meeting place for reflec- European Union force (EUFOR) presents its dissuasion force in Kinshasa, DRC, 20 July 2006. 2000 EU troops time to sit on the fence and criti- tive thinking, democratic debate of provided additional support to MONUC during the electoral period. © MONUC Photo/Romain Desclous cise the WSF and other move- ideas, formulation of proposals, ments from a purist perspec- free exchange of experiences and tion of one person by another.” give pre-eminence to building generates. Discriminating sabot- tive. It is time to engage with interlinking for effective action, by And paragraph 13 mentions as democracy”. age tends to blur into indiscrimi- other movements, to use the groups and movements of civil so- one of the objectives to “streng- However, most strikingly, in nate attacks killing non-combatant space provided by the World So- ciety that are opposed to neolibe- then and create new national and both the original Charter of Prin- civilians and bringing reprisals. cial Forum – not uncritically – in ralism and to domination of the international links among organiza- ciples and in the Bamako appeal, Local conflicts erupt into self-per- order to be part of the deve- world by capital and any form of tions and movements of society, any analysis of militarism in itself is petuating feuds beyond any politic- lopment of new alternatives and imperialism, and are committed to that – in both public and private life completely absent. Anti-militarism al control; violence becomes a new strategies to change the building a planetary society direc- – will increase the capacity for non- is seen as anti-imperialism, and is pattern for handling conflict. world. Because change – ted towards fruitful relationships violent social resistance to the pro- limited to opposing US and NATO If the military struggle is to radical, revolutionary change – among Humankind and between it cess of dehumanization the world military action, but does not ex- bring ultimate victory, then an army is needed, if we want to break and the Earth.” is undergoing and to the violence pand to other actors. is required – an army of soldiers out of the cycle of violence, po- Paragraph 5 states: “The used by the State”. willing to kill to order, operating verty, environmental destruction, World Social Forum brings togeth- The Bamako appeal [2], which Why antimilitarism? with firm chains of command, and and potential nuclear overkill. er and interlinks only organizations is somewhat a departure from In its 1990 statement “Nonviol- dependent on weapons suppliers Andreas Speck & Javier Garate and movements of civil society these principles, was passed at ence and armed struggle” [3], War who wish to exploit the struggle, from all the countries in the world”, the polycentric WSF in Mali in Resisters' International writes: “In either for political influence or and it thus excludes governments January 2006. The Bamako appeal our view, liberation movements are profit. Military necessity comes to The Broken Rifle The Broken Rifle is the news- and militaries. Paragraph 9 even is full of the old-fashioned rhetoric authentic to the extent that they take priority over human or social spells it out, though a bit weaker: ” letter of War Resisters' Interna- of the left, and puts a special em- strengthen popular self-reliance considerations. tional, and is published in Eng- “Neither party representations nor – phasis on the working class in and self-organisation and reflect lish, Spanish, French and Ger- military organizations shall particip- fact, it almost seems as if the term the aspirations of the excluded. There are plenty of examples, man. This is issue 73, February ate in the Forum. Government lead- “civil organizations” used in the They may contain many different and there is not enough space to 2007. ers and members of legislatures Charter of Principles disappeared social groups and political tenden- analyse them here. So some This issue of The Broken who accept the commitments of from the language of the Bamako cies, but they depend on the partici- “snapshots” will need to be suffi- Rifle was produced by Andreas this Charter may be invited to parti- appeal. For example, the Bamako pation of the powerless. cient: Speck and Javier Garate. Spe- cipate in a personal capacity.” appeal uncritically calls for wide- The liberation they seek cannot ► After the victory of the Sandinis- cial thanks go Jan van Criekin- Paragraph 10 is about import- ning “the solidarity campaigns with entail the oppression of others but tas in Nicaragua in 1979, the ge, Abraham G. Mehreteab, ant values: “The World Social For- Venezuela and Bolivia, since these should respect the rights of all: we US launched a campaign of and Matt Meyer. If you want um is opposed to all totalitarian are places where people are buil- are only too aware of the danger low-intensity warfare and sup- extra copies of this issue of The and reductionist views of economy, ding new alternatives to neolibe- that today's liberators could be- ported the contras. As a re- Broken Rifle, please contact development and history and to ralism and crafting Latin-American come tomorrow's oppressors.” sponse, the Sandinista go- the WRI office, or download it the use of violence as a means of integration”. However, the Bamako “There is nothing romantic vernment of Nicaragua intro- from our website. social control by the State. It up- appeal recognises “that the fai- about the experience of war, includ- duced conscription, in order to War Resisters' International, holds respect for Human Rights, lures of the Soviet system and the ing revolutionary war. We can un- be able to recruit sufficient 5 Caledonian Road, the practices of real democracy, par- regimes that arose from decoloni- derstand the reasons for resorting numbers of youth for a military London N1 9DX, Britain tel +44-20-7278 4040 ticipatory democracy, peaceful rela- zation resulted largely from their to armed struggle, but we warn struggle against the contras. tions, in equality and solidarity, ► fax +44-20-7278 0444 denial of freedom and their under- against its consequences. No mat- The armed independence [email protected] among people, ethnicities, genders estimation of the value of democra- ter how just the cause, no matter struggle in Angola since the and peoples, and condemns all http://wri-irg.org/pubs/ cy. The development of alternati- how much armed struggle is a br73-en.htm forms of domination and all subjec- ves must integrate this fact and method of last resort, warfare de- continued on page 2 2 World Social Forum 2007 – Nairobi, Kenya The Broken Rifle No 73, February 2007 Global Initiative on War Profiteers Revolutionary Nonviolence in Africa: One of the main pillars that Old Commitments, New Hopes supports war and militarism is economics. It is in war times Collected by Matt Meyer when war related corporations make their big killings. For advocates of revolutionary the seeds of the troubles to Kenya; to identifying new chal- see that refusing military service In Africa this becomes very nonviolence–the interconnected come, as leaders relied too heav- lenges to peace, such as the paves the way for peace. We clear, where the governments commitment to radical social ily on the same methods and tac- work on HIV/AIDS and conflict un- need democracy and the rule of that are “promoting peace” for change and the strategies and tac- tics that the colonial rulers had dertaken by Femmes Africa Solid- law.
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