Who's the Radical? Militarisation, Conscientious Objection, and the Significance of Context.

Speaker: Sergeiy Sandler

Organiser: Dr Rachel Julian (Director of CeASR)

This lecture will focus on feedback from the Israeli antimiliatrist group New Profile regarding their work in recent years and discuss ways in which militarism can subvert and colonise vocal protests against it (declared conscientious objection in particular). Also, how work that might appear on the surface to be more 'welfare' oriented, such as helping anybody interested to obtain a legal exemption from military service, can in fact be more threatening. There are broader conclusions to draw from this about the effectiveness of struggles, the risks of reproducing the values we are contesting and about the importance of context in evaluating political action.

Sergeiy Sandler is a pacifist and antimilitarist activist and conscientious objector from Israel. He has been an active member of the Israeli feminist antimiliatarist movement New Profile since 1999 and a member of the War Resisters’ International Council since 2002 (WRI’s Executive Committee since 2006), currently serving as the Treasurer in both organisations.

All welcome.