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David v Goliath: How solidarity can help small movements win big

Andrew — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 09:09:00 +0000

A protest against the military training ground on Sinjajevina

27 Sep 2023

Author(s)

Milan Sekulovic

In my country, there is a saying: "a hornless ram does not fight with a horned one", which is advice to avoid a fight when your opponent has a significant advantage over you. We have something similar in the biblical story of David and Goliath, which portrays adversaries of unequal strength. Goliath is a giant, strong, ruthless, and merciless, while David is a boy, weak and feeble, and still fights for a just cause and emerges victorious. An important detail for me is that David is a shepherd, which reflects a part of my life. Even though I am now a journalist and activist, I used to guide my family’s sheep on the pastures of Mount Sinjajevina in Montenegro. It was during that time that I read the story of David and Goliath. Can you guess whom I was rooting for?

In the 21st century, social movements are the modern Davids, fighting for justice and fairness. Unfortunately, states have become Goliaths. Despite their formal concern for the people, they end up disregarding them and acting according to their own interests. Large corporations, driven by profit, have also become Goliaths, consuming the planet and its inhabitants. Goliaths have money, power, and weapons, but they are outnumbered because they are not willing to increase their numbers and divide the spoils. The only "weapon" David has in the fight for survival today is solidarity. And it is precisely this strength of solidarity that Goliath will always attack, using the cunning tactic of "divide and conquer." Therefore, solidarity must be the key to our fight today because it holds the power. We are often perceived as small and weak, unprepared to confront a force clearly stronger than us, in the fight for justice and truth.

For the people of Sinjajevina have used their land as animal pastures for centuries. We have shaped the land, enriching the biodiversity, but the governmentwants to take it from us so it can be used as a training ground by the most powerful military alliance in the world, NATO. Powerful decision makers are acting as if we are not there, and these where not the lands that feed us and Montenegro. But at least one person will always step forward against this, and then others will follow. This is the case of Sinjajevina today, where a few started a movement against the military ground when it was inaugurated in Sinjajevina in 2019, and which today encompasses practically all Sinjajevinans and thousands of people around the world! If we are not united and in solidarity today in the fight for justice, tomorrow we will all become Goliath's slaves. We must bury our axes of war, which are reflected in minor differences and short-term interests, for the sake of a higher goal: the triumph of justice, human rights, and the conservation of planet Earth.

The Government of Montenegro declared Mount Sinjajevina a military training ground in 2019. This decision triggered protests from the local community, who demanded the mountain be declared a protected area. We were labeled as anti-state elements, foreign agents who wanted to destroy the country and the army. The government openly lied to us, claiming the new training ground was solely for the use of the Montenegrin army (Montenegro has just a few more than 2000 soldiers, and the training ground covers an area of 7,500 hectares). It is not an exaggeration to say that they lied, given that in 2023, we heard from the government that "our country has obligations towards the NATO alliance", even if they said they would not use Sinjajevina anymore as a military ground. Unfortunately, out of roughly 20 ministers in the Montenegrin government, not one mentioned their obligations towards the citizens of Sinjajevina, or of Montenegro.

We have been aware for years that we are in an extremely unequal battle. Our strength lies in the fact that we are fighting for a just cause, together with many others in our country, in the Balkan region and around the world, who have been offering us the solidarity that help us to keep going. The shepherds of Sinjajevina, like David the shepherd, stood up against Goliath and did not give up. We are united and determined because we know that only through unity can we succeed. Our struggle, like the struggles of hundreds of similar movements, is difficult but just. We want to preserve our land as a territory of life, as it has been for centuries thanks to the local community, and not let it become a territory of death and destruction. Sinjajevina has been a shepherd to its shepherds for centuries, and now is the time to repay the debt.

Today, the greatest strength of humanity lies in small movements that bring together individuals, local communities, and indigenous peoples who are true defenders of planet Earth. Isn't it hypocritical to search for life on Mars while wars and irrational exploitation of natural resources destroy thriving life on Earth?

For indigenous peoples, planet Earth is a core part of their identity, but this cannot be said for members of other nations. This will increasingly conflict with the dominant social system: neoliberal capitalism, with the ruling paradigm of "living to consume", even if this means consuming the land and nature that feeds others; in this case us Sinjajevinans. Today, every person is one voice, every individual is a movement in themselves, and each of us should have one mission and vision: the preservation of planet Earth and peace within it. "I" alone cannot achieve this, but "we" can. United, gathered around one goal that seeks a just society, equality, tolerance, peace, and of course, a healthy environment, because only in such an environment we can survive. We must live in harmony with nature, not against it. We should prioritize preserving nature over gaining knowledge about it. There is always time for knowledge, but there is no more time left for saving our planet - it is a matter of life and death.

If we treat nature as a person, we will be able to have conversations with plants, animals, and things, not just with humans, and save us all as the one that we are. A person can be a companion to everything, every object or being, which is why they must learn the secret language of nature. Nature cannot lie, but it loves to hide, so humans never stop asking, and nature keeps answering, "nature speaks with few words, hence a hurricane does not last all morning, nor does a downpour last all day." (Lao Tzu)

If we do not live in peace with the Earth, with ourselves, and in solidarity with each other, I fear we will not get a second chance, not even on Mars.

Let us declare peace on war, fight it nonviolently to truly eliminate it, and become warriors for peace. Let solidarity be our weapon, striking directly at the core of evil. Only our solidarity can be the stone that defeats Goliath, just as David did.

Author information

Milan Sekulović is a Montenegrin journalist, environmental and peace activist. He was born and raised on the pastures of Mount Sinjajevina, for whose protection he is fighting today. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Podgorica with a journalism program. In his professional journalistic career, he predominantly deals with topics related to human rights and social justice. Since 2018, he has been a civil activist and fights against the militarization of Mount Sinjajevina, as well as the protection of mountain areas in Montenegro.

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War Resisters’ International statement on preparations for war in Ukraine

Andrew — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 14:06:58 +0000

Peace protesters in Ukraine

11 Feb 2022

War Resisters’ International condemns the preparations for war by NATO and Russia, who are currently considering military responses to the current political crisis in Ukraine. If war does start it will bring death, destruction, suffering, mass displacement, economic crisis, and many other consequences.

We also want to express our solidarity and support to peace movements in Ukraine and Russia as they resist the move to war.

We call upon the people of Ukraine and Russia in the first place, but also people around the globe, to say “No!” to war in Ukraine. There is no alternative to negotiations, no matter how difficult they might seem. As war resisters, we strongly oppose the current war preparations, massive movements of weapons and soldiers to the region and its bordering areas, as well as the media manipulation around the Ukrainian crisis, both from Russia’s and NATO’s side. Encouragement of war and polarization of the minds and hearts of the people is a path that leads to a disaster. The tactics of information overload and hot-and-cold information creates confusion and is intended to reduce the opposition to war by presenting it as inevitable. The only winners in such a war would be arm manufacturers and dealers and other war profiteers, whose interests don’t have a nationality or a homeland, while the people of Ukraine and Russia would be on the losing side, no matter how the conflict ends.

Only a few months ago, when NATO troops retreated from Afghanistan, it was obvious that the war, in any of its forms, cannot provide a solution to any conflict. Even the 20-years long presence of foreign troops with unlimited budget and immunity against the crimes they committed over the civilian population could not lead to an end of the conflict in Afghanistan. The consequences of the NATO intervention in that country are horrifying and, unfortunately, will continue for decades.

War Resisters’ International has spent more than 100 years providing support to anyone who refuses to be a part of war preparations or to participate in armed conflict, and will unconditionally continue to do so. Refusing to participate in war and war preparations is a fundamental human right and it must be treated as such anywhere in the world. We call upon the recruits and soldiers, both conscripted and professional, in Russia, Ukraine and NATO countries to reject their participation in war by declaring their conscientious objection and/or deserting from the military units. War cannot happen if everyone refuses to participate in it.

- War Resisters' International Executive Committee, February 2022

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Faroes islanders protest new NATO radar station

Andrew — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 13:32:30 +0000

09 Aug 2021

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Lowana Veal

During the Cold War a radar station was operated by the US military, under the guise of NATO, on Sornfelli mountain, 12 km from the capital of the Faroe Islands, Tórshavn. The radar station was set up without the knowledge of the Faroese public: the Faroes are a Danish autonomous territory and the Danes had provided NATO and the US military with land to use as a military base in both Greenland and the Faroes, on the basis that they would then have to pay less dues to NATO. Most of the time the base and radar station were operated without consulting the Faroese islanders, who knew little about what was going on there.

There is strong anti-militarist support in the Faroes, and when NATO announced that they would close the radar station on 1 January 2007 – three months after the US closed their military base in Iceland – the Faroese rejoiced.

But in recent years the US and NATO have become increasingly interested in the North Atlantic waters, and the idea was mooted of re-establishing the radar base on Sornfelli, using new equipment. Earlier this year the Danish authorities said that they had come to an agreement with NATO on a radar station structure on Sornfelli.

The previous radar station on Sornfelli, closed in 2007.

Again, the Faroese islanders were not consulted and, not surprisingly, they reacted strongly. While some islanders blindly follow whatever Denmark and NATO want to do and others are prepared to have the military back again if the Faroese islanders are consulted, opinion surveys indicate that the majority of Faroese residents are completely against the military build-up in the Faroes. But the make-up of the Faroese parliament does not reflect the latter view, and indeed it is unclear if in fact they will have a say in the matter at all.

On July 21, the youth groups of the Faroese political parties opposing the radar station organized a demonstration, which was initially envisaged to be up on Sornfelli mountain itself but was then relocated to the capital, Tórshavn. The demonstration, which was attended by over 100 people, focused on the right to self-determination. Their message was clear: We make the decisions; Faroese politics will be governed from the Faroes; we own the radar; and we own the free space. That same evening, Icelandic anti-militarists staged a small demonstration of solidarity outside the Faroese embassy.

Besides the radar station, Denmark also announced in February that it would purchase two surveillance drones for Greenland – another Danish autonomous territory. Together with the radar station on Sornfelli, these would cover “blind spots” and improve Denmark’s surveillance capabilities in Greenland and the North Atlantic. The Danes are planning to spend 1.5 billion Danish kroner ($245 million, €200 million) on the military investments in Sornfelli and Greenland.

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New content on Empowering Nonviolence

Andrew — Mon, 24 May 2021 11:24:35 +0000

The Sinjajevina highlands

24 May 2021

WRI's Nonviolence Programme has published a new interview with a representative from the Save Sinjajevina campaign, who managed to stop NATO soldiers from using a unique pasturelands in the highlands of Montenegro for training and target practice. In the interview, Pablo Dominquez explores the context of the campaign, how an alliance of herders, young people, environmentalists and international NGOs was built, why they were so effective in stopping the training exercise, and what the long term future of the campaign looks like.

Check out the article on the Empowering Nonviolence website here: https://www.nonviolence.wri-irg.org/en/resources/2021/save-sinjajevina-how-movement-took-military-and-won-first-crucial-battle

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Demilitarizing territories of life: an example from Sinjajevina, Montenegro

Andrew — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 09:15:16 +0000

19 Feb 2021

Author(s)

Save Sinjajevina Association

In September 2019 the government in Montenegro passed a decree inaugurating an artillery training ground on the grasslands of the Sinjajevina highlands, a rather karstic plateau with mostly smooth grassy slopes till the eye can reach in the north of Montenegro. and though the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Montenegro and the Ministry of Tourism and Sustainable Development initially opposed the military use of the land, higher ranks in the government seem to have played their role and silenced them. If a military training ground is consolidated in the area it would be very harmful to both local people in terms of their health, their economies, their livelihoods and their culture. It would also have a huge impact on grazing animals, the wild plants and animals, beekeeping, watercourses, agro-economy of the villagers, and ecology in general.

The first international NATO military training and weapon testing with important NATO allied forces from the USA, Italy, Austria and Slovenia began on 27th September 2019. Even if the local people and their grazing animals were still in the area, they were not really consulted regarding this project. It took place without any publicly available assessment on environmental, health or economic impacts of the military activities on this mountainous area, which has both rich biodiversity and cultural values. The European Union said nothing about what was occurring, despite Montenegro being a candidate state and probably one day a full member of the EU.

Sinjajevina is the greatest pastureland in the Balkan region and one of the biggest on the European continent, with a legacy of sustainable and biologically enriching pastoralist management of the land spanning thousands of years. It is a part of the great UNESCO biosphere reserve and is bordered by two UNESCO World Heritage sites. Over 22,000 people live in Sinjajevina’s lower lands today, and more than 250 pastoralist families use its highland pasture and their livelihoods are directly reliant on the land.

As rumors started to spread about another military training planned to take place from mid-October until the beginning of December 2020, a group of pastoralists, local people and people from other cities all around the country, different environmental activists and rights’ groups, began organising a protest. The construction of the military training ground would mean the destruction of a millenia-old relationship between humans and the environment, both materially and in terms of meaning, and therefore the destruction of a uniquely valuable bio-cultural system.

The military escalated warnings, and an official statement on 10th October announced that on Monday 19th October a military training exercise would begin on Sinjajevina. This pushed local pastoralists into action in collaboration with environmental activists and rights’ groups from all over Montenegro. Under the ‘Save Sinjajevina’ banner, a group of 150 people travelled to the pasturelands in Sinjajevina and set up, on Friday 16th October, a community blockade, backed up by an increasing number of international actors that supported the campaign. The group ended up setting up a permanent camp at Margita, a flat area the heart of the military training ground, where the protestors prepared to face the body of NATO soldiers that had started to arrive in the neighbouring city of Kolasin.

Initially, the aim of the protestors was to maintain their blockade until a new Montenegrin Government - who won a national election on the 30th August and were more sympathetic to Sinjajevina’s plight - was installed. The new government was originally expected to be formed by early November but finally did not come into place until 2nd December. This critical delay triggered a two-month long game of cat and mouse between herders and the military, during which the struggle for Sinjajevina made headlines across Montenegro and abroad.

The different groups of defenders had to remain very alert to military incursions into different parts of Sinjajevina. On the 18th of November, several groups of defenders took up positions on multiple hilltops around a newly established one-night military camp composed of around 100 troops. In that way, protesters, working as human shields, blocked any bombings into this new spot of the pasturelands some 3km away from the original protest camp in Margita.

On November 19, an army detachment also approached Okrugljak, the biggest katun (small settlements of mountain huts used by herder families) in Sinjajevina with over 15 active herder households 10km from Margita. Local people called for support and after a few hours of observation by defenders who again placed themselves as widely as possible over the top hills of the area, the army left, unable to find the “right” conditions for their weapon testing.

In tandem with the frontline measures taken by Save Sinjajevina defenders, allies of the herders were making their plight known across Montenegro and globally through the media. Some 100 organizations under the leadership of Land Rights Now, ICCA Consortium, International Land Coalition, the Common Lands Network and Rights & Resources signed a joint statement. They also launched a signature collection campaign with the support of Avaaz, and a crowdfunding request, to try to contribute to stopping the military in their attempt to occupy the pasturelands.

After this resistance locally and a combined national campaign and international campaign to support the protection of Sinjajevina’s social and ecological systems, the new Defense Minister of the recently elected government (which ended 30 years of rule of the Democratic Party of Socialists), announced that the plan for a military training ground on Sinjajevina would be revaluated. Protestors could go back to their homes because there was not going to be any more military trainings in the area that winter. However, there has been no official announcement cancelling the inauguration of the military polygon.

Some history...

In June 2017 Montenegro abandoned the policy of military neutrality and officially joined NATO as a member state, in an effort to align itself with Western powers, strengthen its links to the European Union and to grow westwards, while trying to make a clearer cut from its sister nation, Serbia. This break was led by Milo Djukanovic, the longtime leader of the country who is still today president, after 30 years at the top of the country from the moment of the end of Socialist Yugoslavia. Djukanovic joined the Yugoslav Communist League (SKJ) - the only political party allowed by law in the Yugoslavian one-party political system at the time - in 1979. By 1986, he was a presidency member of the Socialist Youth Alliance, and is one of two European post-socialist leaders - alongside Lukasenko in Belarus - to remain in power since the fall of the Berlin wall.

Djukanovic turned against Milošević in 1996, and also started abandoning the traditional Serbian-Montenegrin ethnic and cultural bond, ultimately pushing Montenegro to independence in a referendum in 2006. Djukanovic had a well thought out plan for his country as well as himself; after 30 years he is still the president of the country owning immense fortunes while the country’s mean salary is around €500 a month. Over the course of his several premierships and presidencies, Djukanovic eagerly bought into the neoliberal agenda of the west, and undertook massive privatization of the country’s public companies. He offered easy terms of ownership and engagement to foreign investors and firms from whom he and his close allies never ceased to benefit. Djukanovic’s rule has been marked by a high degree of autocracy leading to allegations of personal profiteering, which has provoked a series of peaceful protests over the last decade. Moreover, an Italian tribunal accused Djukanovic of collaborating with the mafia, a case that had to be dismissed when he acquired immunity due to his status as the head of the state.

In such context and after centuries of brotherhood with Serbia and long-held opposition to NATOs bombing of the ex-Yugoslav republic, Montenegrin society was very polarized when the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) led by Djukanovic took the country into the NATO Alliance, without even holding a referendum. Then, just one year later, in March 2018 the first unofficial news about the plans for a military training ground reached the local communities in Sinjajevina and on September 5 2019, the Government decreed unilaterally the creation of the military training site in Sinjajevina.

The push for a Sinjajevina training ground does not seem to be driven by Montenegro’s army alone or even led by itself at all, as at full muster it comprises fewer than 2,400 active soldiers and seems to have no need for such a large scale military ground, especially with others in place already. The training ground was initially proposed at the size of 25,000 ha, almost three times the size of Paris, before being redued to 10,000 ha, then 7,500 ha, then back to 10,000 ha. Embarrassingly enough nobody really knows its size or limits, despite having already been inaugurated!

It seems very plausible that Montenegro’s and Sinjajevina’s position on Europe’s southeastern flank, at the very frontier of Russian and Western influences, is seen as strategic by NATO, and perhaps the European Union, of which Montenegro is not yet a member but a candidate, and which puts it in a position that makes Montenegro more vulnerable to pressure. It can’t be a coincidence that just one year after joining NATO, Montenegro decides to disposess people of their land, or that the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, insisted publicly that military exercises must be carried out in Montenegro and that if NATO members want to remain members they must accept the presence of NATO and its military needs... which all in all makes one think that NATO really wanted this territory, which is clearly of geostrategic importance to NATO.

What might happen next

As there is now a new government in place and social and political majority in the country against the idea that Sinjajevina pastureland becomes a military ground and a growing national and international contestation is rising, there are rumors that the old plan of creating a top-down protected area in the region could come back in place.

Concerning this possibility, the Save Sinjajevina movement thinks that Sinjajevina should neither become a top-down nature park restrictive with traditional uses. Instead, it should be a horizontal, co-governed area promoting the economic activity of its pastoralist populations who, through their traditional herding practices, are the main guarantors of the construction and conservation of these ecosystems and unique landscapes. Without pastoralists there are no pastures in these subalpine contexts. Anybody with knowledge of Mediterranean mountain pasturleands can tell you, and the local farmers first, that if the pastoralism ceases, within 20 to 60 years the trees and forest start to arrive, and the rich and unique pastoral biodiversity there developed through thousands of year of co-adaptation between pastoralism and pastures would disappear.

So to conserve that nature you need to conserve the way that human activity has been in the area for millennia. Therefore, the Save Sinjajevina movement supports the idea of creating what we could call a ‘community protected area’, a Protected Area designed and governed with the full participation of local communities. In Sinjajevina humans should be actively interconnected with the environment, instead of being separated from it. The movement is critical of the old school concept of top-down management, where state institutions define what and how things should be done in the territory and ecosystems that have been managed by and for local communities for millennia. Therefore, things should move, at local, national and international level, or at least an important part of the struggle, in favor of granting a system where local communities actively participate in the decision making and management of Sinjajevina following the examples of other cases of success in the EU (see the same type of examples of the Dolomites in Italy or in the Cevennes in France).

How you can help

To support the campaign, people can:

sign the international petition against the creation of the military ground on Sinjajevina and for the creation of a community conserved area, on the Land Rights Now web page (https://www.landrightsnow.org/get-involved/save-sinjajevina-now/
contribute to the international crowdfunding that has been set up to help these fellows and local communities continue organizing to grant protection to their lands and livelihoods at the kukumiku website (https://www.kukumiku.com/proyectos/save-sinjajevina/)
visit the Save Sinjajevina mouvement’s website in English at www.sinajevina.org, share this news with people and organizations interested in human rights, land rights issues and environmental protection, as they need all the help in the world.

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The “Save Sinjajevina” initiative is mobilizing to defend the Sinjajevina-Durmitor massif mountain range, a traditional pastoral territory in Montenegro, from being converted into a military training ground.

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Featured affiliate: Samtök hernaðarandstæðinga (Campaign Against Militarism)

Andrew — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 10:19:55 +0000

A candle floating ceremony organised by CAM

21 Jan 2020

Icelanders have opposed military activities and NATO since the time that the country was occupied in 1940, first by the UK and then by the US. One of the demands at a huge demonstration against Iceland’s forcible incorporation into NATO in 1949 was a referendum about Iceland’s entry into NATO.

Iceland’s Campaign Against Militarism has existed in some form or other for a long time, originally being established in Thingvellir National Park in 1960 as “Samtök hernámsandstæðinga” (Campaign Against Military Occupation). That disbanded in 1969 but “Samtök herstöðvaandstæðinga” (Campaign Against Military Bases) was founded in 1972. In 2006 the organization changed its name to “Samtök hernaðarandstæðinga” (Campaign Against Militarism) when the offending US military decided suddenly to physically abandon their base in Iceland (though leaving their toxic waste behind). Environmental effects of military operations, especially those related to operations in Iceland, are the focus of the next issue of the organization’s newsletter/magazine, Dagfari.

Although the military abandoned their Iceland base in September 2006, part of it – the security zone – is still closed to the public. CAM has been aware that the US military has requested funds from both the Pentagon and the Icelandic government for upgrading two hangars in the security zone so that two fighter jet squadrons can be located there. The US Navy is now carrying out submarine reconnaissance flights in the GIUK gap – an acronym for Greenland, Iceland and the UK – and also want to provide basic accommodation for up to 1000 military personnel.

CAM has every reason to believe that the US military is thinking about returning to Iceland.

Last year, Iceland was visited by both US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then US Vice-President Mike Pence. Mike Pompeo came at short notice so there was little time to organize anything, but he is reported as saying “Iceland is also a steadfast NATO ally” and “We thank Iceland for its assistance with the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan and the Coalition to Defeat ISIS.” Note that Iceland does not have its own military.

A demonstration organised by CAM against Mike Pences visit

We had more notice for Mike Pence’s visit and co-organized a demonstration outside the Althingi (Icelandic parliament) with the LGBTQ organization, a women’s group and others. While in Iceland, Pence was asked by the Icelandic press whether he thought it had been a good idea to close down the US base in 2006. He was evasive in his response, apparently saying that he would talk to staff at the base – he met staff at the security section of the old base – and report on the situation to Donald Trump.

CAM is also attempting to get Iceland to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that ICAN initiated and is especially hopeful now as the Prime Minister is from the Left-Green party, which is the only party in power that is against the military and NATO. Left-Green MPs who are members of CAM have proposed that Iceland signs the TPNW.

CAM also sends resolutions to the press about matters such as Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the INF treaty. From time to time it also holds meetings on peace-related issues like the situation in Yemen and Syria.

CAM go to speak to NATO soldiers during Trident Juncture

CAM protests when NATO countries engage in military air activities which are held at 3-month intervals and organized a number of activities during the Trident Juncture exercise by NATO in October 2018.

CAM is an active participant in two annual peace events that are organized by a coalition of peace groups. One is a candle-floating ceremony to commemorate the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the other is a candle-lit march that takes place early evening on December 23, which in Iceland is a time when many people congregate in the city centre.

In 2005, CAM bought its own premises in central Reykjavik. Besides being a venue for peace-related activities, it is also used by other radical activist and peace groups.

Contact details

Address: Campaign Against Militarism, Njalsgata 87, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland

Website: http://fridur.is/

Social media: https://www.facebook.com/Fridarhus/

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Direct action against the NATO summit

cmoy — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 18:01:21 +0000

27 Jul 2018

In Belgium, WRI affiliates took repeated direct action against the NATO summit, held at the NATO headquarters on the 11th and 12th July. Agir Pour la Paix, Vredesactie, and groups from Spain targeted arms company HQs with a bloody die-in, joined marches carrying model missiles, and hung banners from bridges. The NATO summit is a gathering of the leaders of countries involved in NATO - Donald Trump used the meeting to demand member states massively increase their military spending.

For more information, see Agir Pour la Paix's website: https://agirpourlapaix.be/stopnato-2018-album/

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Call outs for actions against war preparations in Europe

HBrock — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 15:06:30 +0000

Image: Agir Pour La Paix

18 Apr 2018

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Sarah Reader

WRI affiliates and friends are calling for direct actions against Eurosatory – the Paris arms fair – and the NATO summit that will take place in Brussels in July.

Eurosatory

Eurosatory is one of the world's biggest arms fairs. It takes place every two years in Paris and features over 1500 arms companies displaying all the weapons, equipment and technology needed for waging war. Arms companies come together with military delegations and official representatives from countries engaged in conflict, repression and human rights violations including Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey.

When: The arms fair will take place from 11-15 June. Actions will be happening from 9 June.
Where: Parc des Expositions at Villepinte, Paris

Two groups in France have put calls out for action: Désobéissants and Stop Fuelling War

Published meetings / actions so far

9 June: Stop Fuelling War: Protest in central Paris
10 June: Stop Fuelling War: Day of workshops and talks
11 June: Les Désobéissants: Dance, music and painting at the arms fair (11h in the Parc des Expositions at Villepinte)
11 June: Stop Fuelling War: Silent witness
12 June: Les Désobéissants: Non-violent blockade of the arms fair (11h at the entrance to the Parc des Expositions)

NATO summit in Brussels

The next NATO summit is due to take place from 11-12 July, where NATO want to "further strengthen the bond between Europe and North America"; strengthen its presence in the Black Sea region, "fight terrorism" and "further deepen the relationship between NATO and the European Union".

Last year hundreds of people took part in a blockade of the roads leading into the NATO summit. This year there is a call-out for decentralised actions against a list of targets. This includes arms companies, NATO embassies and political institutions such as the European Defence Agency.

When: 11-12 July
Where: Across Brussels
List of potential targets: http://agirpourlapaix.be/targets/

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Sarah Reader, Agir Pour La Paix

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Stop Aurora!

Andrew — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 08:21:31 +0000

A clown blockade outside a Swedish military base

26 Sep 2017

Activists on the run way to disrupt the Aurora actions

Throughout September, the Swedish military is taking part in the largest war games held in the country in decades. Thousands of Swedish troops and NATO countries including United States, Finland, France, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway and Denmark will participate.

The military exercises have been met with protests, including a large march through Gothenburg city centre, a clown blockade at the entrance of a military base, and activists entering the restricted military area and making it onto the runway.

Countries

Sweden

Theme

Civil disobedience/NVDA

Institutions

North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO

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Actions against NATO in Brussels

HBrock — Wed, 24 May 2017 09:30:11 +0000

Photo: Vredesactie

24 May 2017

Actions are taking place in Brussels this week against in the run up to the NATO summit. Yesterday (23rd May), a group of peace activists occupied the offices of the European Commission. With their action they denounced the steps the European Union is taking to start a military research programme carried out by the arms industry. They set up tents, and were in place in all morning.

See a video of yesterday's occupation of the European Commission here.

Countries

Belgium

Theme

War starts here Civil disobedience/NVDA arms trade

Institutions

North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO