North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO

with support from

ICC, International Coordinating Committee No to War – No to NATO
PAGAN, Plataforma Anti-Guerra Anti-NATO Portugal

The Western Quest for Supremacy in the Era of Persistent Conflict

by Jürgen Wagner

We are indeed living in an era of change.
The latest financial and economic crises not only underscored the
bankruptcy of the exploitative neoliberal system but also accelerated
the profound ongoing shift of power away from the Western countries.
Russia and especially China are questioning their continued supremacy
which had been taken for granted for centuries. As a result, we can
currently observe rapidly growing geopolitical tensions that could
well spiral out into some sort of a New Cold War. Furthermore, there
are more and more military interventions – euphemistically called
"Stability Operations" – which are a desperate Western
attempt to protect the crumbling neoliberal order (and therefore the
profits of their corporations).

Despite the bad weather thousands of Bombspotters have gathered in Kleine Brogel today to denounce the illegal nuclear policy of the Belgian government. They responded to the appeal of Vredesactie and were not intimidated by the massive presence of police and military personnel, kilometres of barbwire, several helicopters and guard dogs that were being deployed in order to try to keep the illegal nuclear policy in place.

Actions for nuclear disarmament at nuclear weapon bases all over Europe

Overview on http://www.bombspotting.org

During the Easter weekend peace organisations all over Europe are staging actions at nuclear weapon bases and command centres, as part of a European Day of Action against nuclear weapons. One month prior to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) Review Conference, peace movements in all the European countries with nuclear weapons on their territory (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey and the UK) are sending one message: it is time for nuclear disarmament. The continuing deployment of nuclear weapons does not provide more security, but rather encourages the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

On 15 February 2010, more than 800 activists from Britain and all over Europe blockaded the nuclear weapon factory AWE Aldermaston in Berkshire, England.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KYyodq0x5w]
Video of the Aldermaston blockade on 15 February 2010.

Overview of nuclear weapons in Europe:

http://www.abolition2000europe.org/map/ (nice map but a little bit outdated) http://mcmilitary.org/en/nuclear_weapons_and_missile_defense (updated for nuclear weapons, missile defense will follow later)

Background report from 2005: http://nukestrat.com/us/afn/nato.htm
This report does not contain the latest withdrawals from Lakenheath and Ramstein, but the author follows the subject very closely through his blog at FAS: http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/

On Monday 15 February, at the Big Blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, Berkshire, one of the seven gates was blockaded by uniquely by women. A planning group of around ten women had got together to organize the ‘women’s gate’. They were members of the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Campaign, the London group of Women in Black against War, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the electronic network Women against NATO, the London Feminist Network, and other groups.

From 12 to 13 February 2010, War Resisters' International organised an international seminar titled "Europe for Peace" at the Buddhist Temple in Milton Keynes. The main theme of the seminar was opposition to military bases, and the mapping of military infrastructure.

The seminar began with a talk by feminist antimilitarist researcher Cynthia Cockburn on the need for feminist resistance to military bases. Cynthia stressed the long history of women's resistance, and pointed out three main reasons for women only organising:

Up to eight hundred anti-nuclear campaigners from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and a number of other countries joined a blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston in Berkshire from just before 7am in the morning. Every gate was closed by blockaders in the course of the morning. Twenty-six arrests were reported, on suspicion of criminal trespass (for entering the site) and highway obstruction.

Talk at the international seminar in Milton Keynes, 12-13 February 2010.

Cynthia Cockburn

Campaigners plan to shut down nuclear bomb factory as they call for disarmament of Trident and abolition of nuclear weapons

15 pacifists made their way into the NATO Response Force HQ of Bétera (Valencia, Spain), after jumping the base safety fences in an act of civil disobedience

This past Saturday, November 28th, around a hundred antimilitarist activists from Bilbao, Salamanca, Elche, Alicante, Zaragoza, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia gathered in the Valencian town of Bétera - at 3 km from