Pacifism & Peace Activism

Peacebuilders in Type 1 confront the war system directly and from the outside. They work to make war harder to wage by applying pressure to the things that produce and sustain war: public consent, political decisions, money, weapons production, the arms trade, military bases and land, and recruits. The type includes grassroots activists and international advocates, arms trade campaigners, conscientious objectors and war tax resisters, veterans, diaspora activists organizing from arming countries, and the nuclear disarmament movement.

Peacebuilding approaches used by this type include:

  • Sustained public opposition to a war, a weapons system or militarism, through protest, vigil and symbolic action
  • Refusal and noncooperation with war-making, including conscientious objection, war tax resistance, and refusing to build or handle weapons
  • Campaigns against named arms manufacturers, weapons contracts, export licenses, arms fairs and war profiteers
  • Divestment and boycott campaigns pressing universities, pension funds, faith institutions and banks to withdraw their investments from arms manufacturers and nuclear weapons producers
  • Direct action and blockades at weapons factories, military bases, nuclear sites and ports used to move weapons
  • Research and public databases tracking who manufactures, finances and profits from weapons
  • Outside political pressure on decision-makers through lobbying, petitions, electoral pressure and citizens’ tribunals
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