Civil disobedience/NVDA

NATO, the world's biggest war machine, has evolved from a defensive to an aggresive alliance.

NATO adds fuel to the fire. Under the pretext of 'Responsibility to Protect', NATO attacks Libya to force a profitable regime change. This intervention escalates the conflict and causes thousands of casualties. The arms industry applauds. NATO's intervention in Afghanistan leaves the country in tatters and on the brink of a civil war. Thousands have been killed. After a long-drawn-out war, the alliance reduces troop levels but plans for continued military presence, although military leaders admit that they have reached no tangible results so far.

By Carlos Pérez Barranco
 

I imagine that the majority of us who participated in last Sunday’s demonstration on May 15th, believed that we were going to repeat the familiar experience of taking to the streets for a just cause, only to then go back home with the feeling of having participated in something necessary but in some way sterile.
 

Jordi Calvo Rufanges

The 15-M movement - which began occupying city squares on May 15 - has not emerged as a movement with necessarily overt antimilitarist, pacifist or nonviolent overtones. It has, however, from its very inception declared itself as “pacifist”, and conducted its protests through “peaceful means” and “without violence”. Without having carried out a detailed analysis of what this means exactly I can say that the many thousands of people in the squares of the Spanish State, have opted to carry out actions and raise their voices without using violence.

Gangjeong is a small, quiet village of 1,900 residents on Jeju Island. The area has a lot of natural beauty and scenery. There is a UNESCO-designated biosphere preserve, Gurumbi, the only volcanic broad and flat rock in South Korea, which is one kilometre long beside the sea, and the Route 7 of the Ole' trekking course, which is a popular walking tour of Jeju Island.

Majken Sørensen

2 August

One week ago I participated in a civil disobedience action together with three friends from the anti-militarist network Ofog. As part of a campaign to mark the places where war starts, we went into the NEAT military test area near the town Luleå in the north of Sweden. Well inside NEAT, we marked a radar station at Palja with a pink banner saying “War Starts Here”. Immediately afterwards we were arrested by a security guard, on suspicion of entering what is called a “protected area”.

Javier Gárate

During the month of July 2011 almost 200 antimilitarists, from different parts of the world, took part in the activities of “War Starts Here” – The war starts here in a peace camp in Lulea in the north of Sweden. The ten days of activities included the WRI council meeting, a seminar under the same title, trainings in direct non violent action, and a series of actions against NEAT, the North European Aerospace Training base.

Peace activists from Ofog paint peace signs on the runway at Vidsel air base, which is a part of North European Aerospace Testrange -- an area almost as big as Belgium, that Sweden, Nato and others, are using for war preparations (military exercises).

Police plans to keep non-Swedish activists detained for three days / call for solidarity

170 international peace activists from 17 countries today entered the North European Aerospace Test range in a massive act of nonviolent civil disobedience in the north of Sweden. Some 28 activists have been confirmed as arrested or detained, among them activist from Venezuela, Spain, Germany, UK and Finland. At the end of the day, police kept ten non-Swedish activists detained, and interrogated them at the police station of Lulea.

On 26 July, more than 200 peace activists from 17 countries took part in an international nonviolent action at NEAT near Lulea in the north of Sweden. About 150 entered a "prohibited area" of the military training ground (see main text), and 28 were detained - most of them only for a short time. However, ten non-Swedish activists are being kept, and it is feared that they will remain under detention for 72 hours.

International solidarity is a powerful force. We therefore call for international solidarity for the remaining detainees in Lulea, Sweden.

Over 150 peace activist from 17 countries will take action against the military training area NEAT in northern Sweden on Tuesday (26 July).

"NEAT is used by NATO to fine tune their unmanned aircraft for assignations.  They transform murder into a click on a computer screen" said Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer from the USA.

Cattis Laska

The global war machine each year, kills directly and indirectly, millions of people, destroying entire communities, and destroing nature. Contrary to the popular image of Sweden, both at home and abroad, Sweden plays a major role in the war industry. Sweden is the world's largest arms exporter per capita, Sweden participates in NATO's war in Afghanistan, and Sweden has the largest practice area for war within its borders.

Agneta Norberg

A military exercise area for war in northern Sweden, a commercially independent but politically very hot area where the US and NATO countries are testing their weapon systems on previously neutral, but now only “alliance-used” land. The exercises also disturb the residents in neighbouring areas, and occur without regard to the UN Indigenous Rights Declaration.