World BEYOND War

SPEAKERS: Diana Rickard, Darwin Hon. Matt Robson, New Zealand Dr Michelle Malony, Earth Laws Anne Wright, Hawaii Liz Remmerswaal, moderator This weekend’s ‘Australia, Talisman Sabre, AUKUS and NATO in the Pacific’ signals our concerns for the massive land exercises in Australia, involving 30,000 US & Australian personnel, plus others from 11 countries, during July and August, and calls for the cancellation of the recently signed Australia, United Kingdom and United States security partnership (AUKUS). Talisman Sabre and AUKUS threaten to provoke war with China and destroy the environment, as well as furthering colonialism and systems of oppression. To challenge Talisman Sabre and AUKUS, many Pacific region organisations including Pacific Peace Network and Independent and Peaceful Australia Network will host a "Call for Peace in the Pacific" conference on July 29 in Brisbane with speakers from across the Pacific, followed by educational events in Sydney, Canberra, and Darwin. The aim of these events is to raise awareness within Australia and the Pacific region of the full impacts of allowing the US to base their military personnel, weapons, hardware and software on Pacific Sovereign Lands, by sharing the experiences of Pacific People. The mock battlefield will be from Western Australia, across the Northern Territory and Queensland, to Jervis Bay and Norfolk Island in New South Wales. Call for Peace Petition: Please share this petition in your networks and raise your voice against the dangerous militarization of the Pacific. https://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/cancel-talisman-sabre-aukus BIOS: Diana Rickard lives on a small rural farm 80 kilometres from Darwin and 10 kilometres from Kangaroo Flats Defence Training Facility. She prefers the Wet season for its beauty and quiet after the US Marines take their guns home in the hot and humid October-November Build-up. As an experienced environmental lawyer, author, educator, mediator and researcher, Diana has worked with indigenous and other non-English speaking peoples extensively on peace and justice issues. Diana coordinates the Top End Peace Alliance,is an IPAN CC member and a member of the Australian Services Union/Unions NT Community Justice and Climate Committee. Hon. Matt Robson is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament. He has challenged the New Zealand government's pro-NATO policies and its integration into the war plans of NATO and has ended up on an enemies list created by the government of the Ukraine along with many eminent scholars, such as Professor Jeffrey Sachs, and military analysts such as the former Swiss and NATO military analyst Col. Jacques Baud. Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was also in the US diplomatic corps for 16 years and served in US Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the US government in March 2003 in opposition to the US war on Iraq. Since then she has worked for peace with Veterans For Peace, CODEPINK: Women For Peace and many other peace organisations around the world. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.” She lives in Honolulu, Hawaii and is a board member of Hawaii Peace and Justice and frequently writes and speaks on US militarism in Asia and the Pacific. Dr Michelle Maloney is the Co-founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA). Michelle began her career as an environmental lawyer, and then broadened her work to include multi-disciplinary approaches to creating Earth-centred governance and systems change. She now designs and manages social change initiatives that connect law, economics, education, cross-cultural knowledge systems, community development practice, ethics and the arts. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science and History) and Laws (Honours) from the Australian National University and a PhD in Law from Griffith University. She is Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University; and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) and Future Dreaming Australia. Michelle is on the Steering Group for the International Ecological Law and Governance Association (ELGA) and the Advisory Group of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN). Liz Remmerswaal (Moderator) is vice president of World Beyond War (WBW) and national Coordinator of WBW for Aotearoa/New Zealand. She is co-convenor of the Pacific Peace Network and a recipient of the Sonja Davies Peace Award.

Haitians are currently protesting on a massive scale and Canada is leading the international push for foreign military intervention. Why is Canada interested in military intervention? How are human rights concerns being leveraged to justify military expansion? How did we get here in the first place? This International Human Rights Day, World BEYOND War Canada and the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network heard from critical thinkers on the issues at hand. Featuring: - Jean Saint-Vil - author and member of Solidarity Quebec Haiti. He is the co-founder of AKASAN (Ayisyen ki ap soutni Ayisyen nètalkole) and Jaku Konbit. Jean is an artist-activist immersed in Global Peace and Social Justice movements. (Jafrikayiti.com) - Dimitri Lascaris - lawyer, human rights activist and former candidate for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada. He is based in Montréal. Follow Dimitri on Twitter @dimitrilascaris + Poetry by Laura Doyle Péan – Laura Doyle Péan (they/them) is a queer Haitian-Quebecois poet and multidisciplinary artist committed to social justice and fascinated by the relationship between art and movement work. Born in Nionwentsïo (Quebec city), where they first got involved in intersectional feminist, LGBTQIA2S+, migrant justice and racial justice organizing, they moved to Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang (Montreal) in 2019, to attend university, and joined the fossil fuel divestment movement. They are also one of the founding members of Collective 1629, a Black-led Quebec-city-based collective fighting against racial profiling and other forms of anti-Black state violence in Nionwentsïo. + Special Intervention by Barbara Waldern – connecting human rights struggles in Haiti, the Philippines and beyond. Barbara represents Just Peace Committee, a member group of Canada-Wide Peace & Justice Network and the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) Moderated by Janine Solanki – Vancouver-based activist and organizer with Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO) a member group of Canada-Wide Peace & Justice Network

Are you looking for a way to get involved in local anti-war organizing? Do you want to learn how every day people can take action to resist militarism and promote real peace? Do you want to join a global movement of people who care about building a better world for everyone? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, tune in to this online info session on how to start a World BEYOND War chapter! We talk about the nuts & bolts of starting a chapter, and hear examples of what our chapter coordinators are working on around the world. Featuring: Guy Feugap (WBW Cameroon) is a secondary school teacher, writer and peace activist. His overall job is to educate youths for peace and non-violence. His work puts young girls in particular at the heart of crisis resolution, awareness raising on several issues in their communities. He joined WILPF (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom) in 2014 and founded the Cameroon Chapter of World BEYOND War in 2020. Cym Gomery (WBW Montréal) is a community organizer and activist who founded Montréal for a World BEYOND War in November 2021, after attending the inspiring WBW NoWar101 training. This Canadian chapter came into being just on the cusp of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Canadian government's decision to purchase bombers and so much more—our members have had no shortage of actions in which to participate! Cymry is passionate about the rights of nature, the environment, anti-speciesism, anti-racism and social justice. She cares deeply about peace as the barometer by which we can judge the success of all human endeavour, without which it is impossible for humans or other species to flourish. Janet Parker (WBW Madison) is a mother, gardener, musician and war abolition activist in Madison, Wisconsin. Before and during the Iraq War, Janet led civil resistance anti-war actions in Madison and joined actions at the Pentagon and the White House. She is a co-coordinator of the WBW Madison chapter. The Madison chapter, launched in 2022, conducts regular War Abolition Walks and calls on elected officials to reduce military spending, stop F-35 warplanes from coming to Wisconsin, and push for diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine. Rachel Small (she/her) is Canada Organizer for World BEYOND War. She is based in Toronto, Canada, on Dish with One Spoon and Treaty 13 Indigenous territory. Rachel is a community organizer. She has organized within local and international social/environmental justice movements for over a decade, with a special focus on working in solidarity with communities harmed by Canadian extractive industry projects in Latin America. She has also worked on campaigns and mobilizations around climate justice, decolonization, anti-racism, disability justice, and food sovereignty. She has a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University. She has a background in art-based activism and has facilitated projects in community mural-making, independent publishing and media, spoken word, guerilla theatre, and communal cooking with people of all ages across Canada. She lives downtown with her partner and kids, and can often be found at a protest or direct action, gardening, spray painting, and playing softball.

Climate, Conflict & the Search for Peace: First-Hand Observations from COP27, Russia and Eastern Europe Speaker: Tamara Lorincz, PhD candidate Tamara will share her insights as an observer delegate at the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt this November. She was on the delegation of the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF), which is a member of the Climate Action Network International and the Women Gender Constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. After Egypt, Tamara went on a tour of Russia, Finland, Latvia, Poland, and Romania to learn more about these countries and to talk with people about their perspectives on the war in Ukraine and NATO expansion. She was invited to speak at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and at a public event in Helsinki. Her tour was motivated by citizen diplomacy, peace-building, and strategic empathy. Tamara Lorincz is a PhD candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University. She is currently the convener of the Environment Working Group of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Tamara graduated with an MA in International Politics & Security Studies from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom in 2015. She is the recipient of the Rotary International World Peace Fellowship. She is a member of Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and a fellow with the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute. She is also on the advisory committee of World BEYOND War, the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and the No to War, No to NATO Network.

Join Danaka Katovich (CODEPINK), James Leas (Save Our Skies VT), Paul Maillet (Retired colonel and former Green party candidate), and moderator Tamara Lorincz (VOW, WILPF) on February 9 at 7:30PM ET for a virtual panel and Q&A on Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Fighter Jet and Canada’s decision to buy them. Danaka Katovich is CODEPINK's National Co-Director. Danaka graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor's degree in Political Science in November 2020. Since 2018 she has been working towards ending US participation in the war in Yemen. At CODEPINK she works on youth outreach as a facilitator of the Peace Collective, CODEPINK's youth cohort that focuses on anti-imperialist education and divestment. James Leas is an attorney and activist who has published on Truthout, Counterpunch, VTDigger, NY Times, LA Times, Vermont Law Review, & Vermont Bar Journal. He founded the F-35 news report, CancelF35.substack.com in 2020. He is currently running for City Council in South Burlington, Vermont featuring opposition to the F-35 training flights from the airport in that city. For more information about his campaign, https://jimmyleas.com. Paul Maillet is a retired air force colonel with 25 years as an aerospace engineering officer in the federal department of national defence (DND), and four years as the DND Director of Defence Ethics following the Somalia affair. He is also a former Green party candidate who managed the CF-18 fleet during his time in the military. Moderated by Tamara Lorincz. Tamara is a PhD candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University. She is currently the convenor of the Environment Working Group of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Tamara graduated with an MA in International Politics & Security Studies from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom in 2015. She is the recipient of the Rotary International World Peace Fellowship. She is a member of Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and a fellow with the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute. She is also on the advisory committee of World BEYOND War, the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and the No to War, No to NATO Network. This webinar is organized by members of the No Fighter Jet Coalition: World BEYOND War Canada and Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. For more about the no fighter jets coalition, check out our website here: nofighterjets.ca

A webinar hosted by World BEYOND War on August 8, 2022, with Todd Pierce and David Swanson moderating. Sponsors: Project for the Study of American Militarism, World BEYOND War, Women Against Military Madness, CODE PINK, Veterans For Peace, Andy Worthington, Mondoweiss, Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste, Antiwar.com, RootsAction.org, Canadian BDS Coalition, UNAC, Twin Cities Assange Defense, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, DC Action for Assange.

More: https://merchantsofdeath.org

The World BEYOND War Florida Chapter & Veterans For Peace Chapter 136 - The Villages, FL hosted this webinar featuring activist & organizer Lisa Savage on the U.S. military's policy of Full Spectrum Dominance. When Full Spectrum Dominance (FSD) became U.S. Pentagon policy in 1997, we may have disagreed with their goals but we thought we knew what they meant: military power projection over 100% of the land, oceans, and air of the planet we all share, and outer space as well. But before long the quest for Full Spectrum Dominance would be expanded to include cyberspace. With the advent of the 21st century, Pentagon ambitions have been revealed as even more pervasive and chilling. It's now clear that Full Spectrum Dominance extends to communications as a quest for Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority, to the information sphere and, not coincidentally, to controlling the public's health practices. FSD includes the oceans and outer space where low earth orbit is rapidly filling with tens of thousands of U.S. satellites intended to crowd other nations out. Lisa Savage is an antiwar activist, organizer, blogger, and retired teacher from Maine, USA. In 2020, she ran for the U.S. Senate and earned 5% of votes following a strong performance in four televised debates where she shared an anti-imperialist analysis of U.S. foreign policy and domestic priorities. She founded the Maine Natural Guard where many have taken the pledge to point out the enormous role of the U.S. military in driving climate crisis. She was co-coordinator of the national Bring Our War $$ Home campaign pointing out the bad budget priorities of the U.S. Congress. Her articles and op-eds on militarism have been published in Common Dreams and Counterpunch. In 2022 she became a social media coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space on Twitter and Instagram. She blogs at https://went2thebridge.substack.com.

See https://worldbeyondwar.org/sinjajevina/

See https://worldbeyondwar.org/sinjajevina/

Life for Palestinians living in the occupied territories is at a new crisis point. More Palestinians died in the West Bank in 2022 than in any year since 2006, and 2023 is shaping up to be even more deadly. After decades of impunity for countless human rights violations, Israel continues to control Palestinian movement, seize Palestinian land, and raid Palestinian cities, while enabling the violence and incitement of a rapidly expanding settler population. Dr. Yara Asi is a Palestinian-American global health researcher who returned from doing field work in Palestine in October. In this webinar, she gives a first-hand account of the situation in the West Bank and the effects on the health and well-being of Palestinians. About The Speaker: Yara M. Asi, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida in the School of Health Management and Informatics and a Visiting Scholar at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. She is also a 2020-2021 Fulbright US Scholar, a Non-resident Fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC, and a Non-resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Her work focuses on health, development, and human rights in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Co-sponsored by the Florida Chapter of World BEYOND War, the Veterans For Peace Chapter 136 in The Villages, FL, and Partners For Palestine, FL.

Wet’suwet’en leaders and Mixtec, Otomi & Nahua land defenders are coming together to resist TC Energy’s pipelines on their territories. Travelling 4000 kilometers east from Wet’suwet’en territory and north from Puebla, Hidalgo, and Veracruz, Mexico, these land defenders converged in Toronto to build their shared resistance to Canadian company TC Energy’s colonial pipeline projects! On October 13 2023 the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, Rising Tide Toronto, Indigenous Climate Action, EUC York and World BEYOND War were honoured to host a panel and film screening at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto featuring: Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks, Wet’suwet’en land defenders Molly Wickham (Sleydo’) and Eve Saint, Otomi land defender Salvador Aparicio Olvera, and Mixtec land defender Ortencia Reyes Valdivia. And featuring special guest renowned Nigerian environmental justice activist Nnimmo Bassey. The films that were screened during this event were: - The global premiere of a preview of a new film on the struggle to defend the land in Mexico to be launched in full this winter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvv4fi79Fus - Invasion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3R5Uy5O_Ds (we watched the first 9 minutes) - KKR, Coastal GasLink and General David Petraeus: https://youtu.be/a9VDJmOPvlE?si=fy2gz_JW5AwENMuH&t=65 (we watched the first 8 minutes) Thank you to LeftStreamed (www.youtube.com/@LeftStreamed) for filming and producing this recording of the event.

https://24hourpeacewave.org

Funding is needed for accomodations and travel for youth to study peace and nonviolent resistance to new military bases, where people have successfully prevented a new base (thus far!) in Montenegro.

In 3 minutes, Rivera just might change how you think about war. See https://worldbeyondwar.org/alternative

Video from Online Benefit Event in December 2022

Whanganui Quakers kindly provided the historic handcrafted peace banners saying (‘Quakers Care’ and Make Peace Happen Peacefully) and hand held wooden signs spelling ‘PEACE’ which were used for the Springbok Tour in 1981 and other peace demonstrations. We recorded a video of the meeting which began with a mihi by Niwa Short, followed by 12 Quakers poignantly reading our updated Peace Testimony and concluding with the waiata ‘Te Aroha.’ This evolving event was a special reminder of the peace work Friends have taken part in over the decades and a timely reminder of the importance of our peace advocacy, which is as important as ever as our country’s military spending climbs ever upwards.

On November 28, 2023, the World BEYOND War Florida Chapter & Veterans For Peace Chapter 136 (The Villages, FL) hosted this webinar with Helen Jaccard, Veterans For Peace Golden Rule Project Manager. The Golden Rule ship, which was used to stop nuclear weapons tests in 1958, has just completed an 11,000 mile voyage around the eastern U.S. Learn about the voyage, the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and measures you can take to stop the possibility of nuclear war. Helen Jaccard is the Project Manager, public speaker and a crew member of VFP’s Golden Rule historic anti-nuclear peace boat. She represents the Veterans For Peace Golden Rule Project to Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom and many anti-nuclear organizations. Helen writes about the environmental costs of war and militarism, specifically Sardegna, Italy and Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. As editor of Golden Rule News, she researches and writes about current nuclear issues. Learn more about the Golden Rule at: https://vfpgoldenruleproject.org/

Debate set up by World BEYOND War on September 21, 2022, International Day of Peace. Arguing that war can never be justified was David Swanson, an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director of World BEYOND War and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He hosts Talk World Radio. He is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and U.S. Peace Prize recipient. Arguing that war can sometimes be justified was Arnold August, a Montreal-based author of three books on US/Cuba/Latin America. As a journalist he appears on TelesurTV and Press TV commenting on international geopolitical issues, is a Contributing Editor for The Canada Files and his articles are published world-wide in English, French and Spanish. He is a member of the International Manifesto Group. Moderating was Youri Smouter, host of 1+1, a topical history and current affairs program on his YouTube channel 1+1 hosted by Yuri Muckraker aka Youri Smouter. He is based in Southern Belgium and is a left-wing media critic, NGO critic, anti-imperialist, an advocate for Indigenous solidarity and a Native Lives Matter movement and socially liberal thinker. Doing tech support and timekeeping and polling was WBW Organizing Director Greta Zarro. Participants on Zoom were polled at the beginning and end of the event on the question "Can war ever be justified?" At the beginning 36% said yes and 64% no. At the end, 29% said yes and 71% no.

Music by Peter Moolan-Feroze: https://moolanferoze.com Video by David Swanson Stock footage provided by Videvo, A Luna Blue, Vidfy, Pressmaster, and Magency: https://videvo.net

World BEYOND War has launched a new online tool that allows the user to view a globe pock-marked with 867 U.S. military bases in countries other than the United States, and to zoom in for a satellite view of and detailed information on each base. The tool also allows filtering the map or list of bases by country, government type, opening date, number of personnel, or acres of land occupied. The United States of America, unlike any other nation, maintains this massive network of foreign military installations around the world. The bases often raise geopolitical tensions, support undemocratic regimes, and serve as a recruiting tool for militant groups opposed to the U.S. presence and the governments its presence bolsters. Estimates of the yearly cost to the U.S. of its foreign military bases range from $100 – $250 billion. Our tool for learning about the bases is free at https://worldbeyondwar.org/no-bases

On January 19, California for a World BEYOND War hosted David Hartsough, who is a Quaker, longtime war tax resister, Co-Founder of World BEYOND War, and author of his memoir, Waging Peace: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist. David spoke about his book, and his experiences with war tax resistance.

On May 5, 2023, Ret. Colonel Ann Wright spoke about the U.S. provocative actions on Taiwan and the massive increase in U.S. military operations in the Western Pacific including the upcoming Talisman Sabre ground war maneuvers in Australia in July with over 33,000 US and Australian military, including some NATO countries. Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was also a U.S. diplomat for 16 years and served in U.S. Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the U.S. government twenty years ago in March 2003 in opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq. She is a member of Veterans For Peace, CODEPINK: Women For Peace, World BEYOND War, NO to NATO and is on the advisory council of the International Peace Bureau. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience." Co-sponsored by the Florida Chapter of World BEYOND War and the Veterans For Peace Chapter 136 in The Villages, FL.