Dear John,

World BEYOND War's annual global conference, #NoWar2025: Exploring Abolition Movements, is coming up next month on October 24-26 on Zoom. Are you registered? Sign up here.

Over the course of 3 days of online panels, trainings, and breakout rooms, we'll explore the theme of abolition:

Connecting the dots between movements for the abolition of wars, weapons, police, prisons, borders, and more
Learning from leading abolitionist organizers and educators around the world
Understanding abolition not as an absence but as a presence: safety without punishment, solidarity without surveillance, and peace without militarism
Learning from models of abolition, examples of communities implementing alternative non-carceral practices, such as restorative and transformative justice, violence de-escalation, community self-policing, and more.

Register for the #NoWar2025 Conference on October 24-26 on Zoom

Day 1 of the conference on Friday, October 24 makes the case for abolition, with opening remarks by WBW Executive Director David Swanson.

The first panel features Andrea Ritchie, author, organizer, and co-founder of Interrupting Criminalization, and Ray Acheson, organizer, activist, and author of Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages. Moderated by B. Arneson of the World Peace Foundation, this panel explores abolition as a visionary and necessary approach to dismantling systems of violence, including police, prisons, militaries, and borders, while cultivating communities rooted in justice, care, and collective well-being.
We'll also hear short reports from World BEYOND War chapters around the world about their ongoing educational and activist campaigns working towards the abolition of war and the implementation of a just and sustainable peace. Featuring chapter members from Australia, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, El Salvador, Gambia, Ireland, and the United States.

Day 2 of the conference on Saturday, October 25 explores examples of abolition movements and how to cultivate intersectionality.

The opening panel on "Case Studies of Abolition" will be moderated by Sudanese writer and activist Reem Abbas, featuring Jorge Barrientos, history professor at University of Costa Rica, who will speak about how Costa Rica abolished its military, and renowned anti-apartheid activist Shirley Gunn, who is the Executive Director of the South African Coalition for Transitional Justice.
The second panel of the day focuses on intersectional movement-building, featuring leading organizer, writer, and teacher Dean Spade; Hajera Begum, organizer with Abolitionist Futures in the UK and Ireland; and Sami Huraini, Palestinian human rights defender and co‑founder of Youth of Sumud.
Day 2 of the conference concludes with a training by Rachelle Friesen of Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) on preparing for and responding to arrests.

The concluding day of the conference on Sunday, October 26 helps us envision the abolitionist future, a world beyond war.

The day begins with an active bystander intervention and de-escalation training by Sal Corbin of DC Peace Team.
The day continues with a panel on "Decolonial Futures: Indigenous Knowledge as Abolitionist Praxis" featuring Lance Ryan (Tūhoe and Ngāti Maniapoto), a lecturer at AUT Law School and former prison inmate; Connie Fontaine, Community Holistic Circle Healing (CHCH) at Hollow Water First Nation (HWFN); Natividad Llanquileo Pilquimán, a Mapuche woman and lawyer from the Esteban Yevilao Mapuche community; and moderated by Tabitha Lean, a First Nations abolitionist activist, whose work is grounded in her lived experience of criminal and psychiatric incarceration. This panel brings together global Indigenous voices to explore how ancestral ways of knowing, being, and doing create liberatory pathways beyond prisons, policing, and punishment. Grounded in sovereignty, kinship, and care, speakers will share how Indigenous solutions resist colonial violence and nurture futures of justice, dignity, and freedom.
Day 3 of the conference will conclude with closing remarks from WBW Board President Kathy Kelly.

Throughout the three days, we'll also hear from visionary poets and musicians, including Dana Dajani, award-winning Palestinian-American poet, and Ilyari, an award-winning Peruvian-Dutch singer-songwriter based in Ecuador.

The #NoWar2025 Conference is an opportunity to gather as a global community of activists, organizers, and educators to learn, strategize, and build connection, as we collectively advocate for a world beyond systems of violence and oppression.

Vist the website to learn more & register for the #NoWar2025 Conference on October 24-26

In solidarity,

Greta Zarro
Organizing Director
World BEYOND War
[email protected]

World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, chapters, and affiliated organizations advocating for the abolition of the institution of war.
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