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Hi all,
Below is an invitation to a launch meeting of Justice Not Vengeance
(JNV) on Thurs 17 July in London, which I thought would be of interest to
list members.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
---
<www.justicenotvengeance.org>
ARROW EVOLUTION: Building New Networks
A Constructive and Cooperative Approach
After enormous sacrifices, the anti-war movement suffered a significant
defeat, and the people of Iraq paid the price in their thousands. And they
are still paying the price.
Now is not the time for mutual recrimination. We must learn from the past,
but our focus must be on building a better movement for the future, a
movement which will be stronger, more deeply-rooted, and better able to
prevent future wars.
We Shook Them To The Core
On 12 March 2003, just a few days before the war in Iraq was due to begin,
'Mr Hoon's department [the Ministry of Defence] was frantically preparing
contingency plans to "disconnect" British troops entirely from the military
invasion of Iraq... "Wobbly Tuesday" was the lowest point of the crisis for
Mr Blair.' (Sunday Telegraph, 16 Mar., p. 18)
We were powerful enough to drive the Government into frantic contingency
planning to desert the US at the last moment. We were able to affect the
targeting of sites in Iraq - that narrowing of the range of civilian
infrastructure targets saved many lives during the war and in its aftermath.
(See ARROW Anti-War Briefing 42 Partial Victories.)
+ + + + +
Justice Not Vengeance: A New Network
We would like to invite you to the launch meeting of Justice Not Vengeance
(JNV), a new initiative from two co-founders of ARROW (Active Resistance to
the Roots of War), David Polden and Milan Rai. The meeting is taking place
on Thursday 17th July at the Quaker International Centre, 1-3 Byng Place,
London WC1E 7JH, and is open to all.
The aim of JNV is to create a network of anti-war groups of all
denominations, to help them to communicate directly with one another, share
ideas, information and campaigning materials and to foster democratic
decision-making in the development of local and national campaigning
strategies. Now is the time to consolidate, re-build and strengthen our
groups. We need good, solid information; direct and forceful campaigns and
clear, usable campaign materials.
In the launch meeting we will be discussing what ingredients activists and
groups would like to see in a new participatory anti-war network. We will be
setting out our vision of how JNV can help in this process.
Our Objectives
The purpose of the JNV network is to empower activists and campaign groups.
We aim to:
> promote non-violent and non-military responses to international terrorism
(including US state terrorism) and facilitate/support non-violent
resistance
within Britain to the 'war on terrorism'
> continue to provide hard-hitting, anti-war and anti-repression briefings
and
other campaigning materials and resources
> support local anti-war groups in Britain by enabling them to share ideas,
information and campaigning materials directly and by providing them with
a forum to democratically debate and decide on their strategy and tactics
> support campaigners by organising regular gatherings in different parts of
the
country and by providing training in non-violent civil disobedience and
other
campaigning skills
> organise acts of open, mass non-violent civil disobedience against the
'war on terrorism'
> organise political and financial support for those prosecuted and/or
imprisoned
as a result of their involvement in nonviolent resistance
> strengthen ties between the British anti-war movement and movements in
Europe,
the United States, and around the world.
Membership & Affiliation
Membership of JNV (for individuals) and affiliation (for groups) will be
open to all who support our 7 core principles. There will be no fixed
membership or affiliation fee. Membership or affiliation will entitle you to
regular briefings and campaign alerts. Please use the membership form that
will soon be available on our website <www.j-n-v.org>.
JNV's 7 Core Principles for anti-war groups:
1) We condemn the terrorist atrocities committed on September 11th 2001.
2) We also condemn the idea of taking revenge for these deaths by military
retaliation against Afghanistan, Iraq or any other countries.
3) We believe that the proper reaction to the September 11th atrocities is
to proceed
on the basis of international law, following the UN Charter, and
working through the
extradition law, to bring the perpetrators of these acts to justice.
4) We believe that the right response to the problem of proliferation is
to disarm all
countries of all weapons of mass destruction, applying the same
non-proliferation
rules and inspection systems to all the countries of the world.
5) We stand shoulder to shoulder with the Muslim communities in Britain,
and demand
an end to anti-Muslim attacks and prejudice.
6) We reject the erosion of civil liberties in the name of
'anti-terrorism', whether in Britain
or elsewhere. We cannot defend freedom by destroying it.
7) As a network, we are committed to campaigning solely by non-violent
means.
Open Meetings
We will hold monthly, open planning meetings in Central London. Please come
along to our launch meeting on the evening of Thursday 17th July, to be held
at the Quaker International Centre, 1-3 Byng Place, London WC1E 7JH. Click
the link below for a map of the area, or paste the entire link into the
address bar of your browser.
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=529722&Y=182130&A=Y&Z=1
We look forward to seeing you.
Jesse Schust
Jonathan Stevenson
Milan Rai
David Polden
Antonio Fortin
JNV
<www.justicenotvengeance.org>
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