[E-rundbrief] Info 1538 - NATO Gegengipfel Warschau 8.7.2016

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 1538 - NATO Gegengipfel fordert die Auflösung des 
Militärbündnisses und die Schaffung eines zivilen Sicherheitssystems 
(Pressemitteilung). Joseph Gerson (AFSC, USA): Initial Report from 
NATO Counter-Summit - Warsaw.

Bad Ischl, 9.7.2016

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

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================================================

Pressemitteilung

NATO Gegengipfel fordert die Auflösung des Militärbündnisses und die 
Schaffung eines zivilen Sicherheitssystems

Warschau, 9.7.2016

Sechs Polnische Organisationen aus der Friedens- und sozialen Bewegung 
sowie das internationale Netzwerk No to War – No to NATO 
veranstalteten am Freitag den 8.7. in Warschau den NATO Gegengipfel 
„No to War – No to Militarism – Yes to Refugees“. Ziel der 
Veranstaltung war die weitere Delegitimierung des größten 
Militärbündnisses der Welt, das weltweit permanent in Kriege 
verwickelt ist.

Es diskutierten auf dem unerwartet großen Gegengipfel mehr als150 
Personen aus 18 Ländern, unter anderem aus Russland, den USA, 
Tschechien, Ukraine, Polen, Frankreich, Deutschland, Großbritannien, 
Belgien und Spanien über die aktuellen Kriege und Konflikte, über die 
Gestaltung des Frieden, soziale Gerechtigkeit und gemeinsame 
Sicherheit in Europa. Besorgnis rufen die aktuellen Gefahren des 
verstärkten Militarismus im Osten Europas, besonders durch die 
Truppenpräsenz, die aggressiven Manöver und den Raketenabwehrschirm 
der NATO, hervor. Szenarien bis hin zu einem „großen Krieg in Europa“ 
sind nicht mehr auszuschließen.

Die TeilnehmerInnen waren sich deshalb einig, die internationale 
Friedensbewegung steht vor der größten Herausforderung der letzten 
Jahre. Die von der NATO herbeigeführte Konfrontation mit Russland, die 
globalen Rüstungsvorhaben wie der Raketenabwehrschirm und die 
Modernisierung der Atomwaffen müssen beendet werden, damit ein Prozess 
der Kooperation in Europa wieder eine Chance bekommt. Die Dislozierung 
von NATO-Militärstrukturen an die Westgrenze Russlands sowie die 
russischen Gegenreaktion birgt die Gefahr eines bewusst oder 
versehentlich angezettelten Krieges. Ein gemeinsames, kooperatives 
Sicherheitssystem welches sich an den Bedürfnissen der Menschen 
richtet ist die Alternative.

„Eine intensivere internationale Vernetzung der Friedens- und sozialen 
Bewegungen ist erforderlich“, so Kristine Karch Co- Vorsitzendes 
internationalen Netzwerk No to War – No to NATO,  „die beeindruckende 
Tagung in Warschau hat uns Schritte in der so notwendigen Vernetzung 
mit Osteuropa und Russlands erbracht“.

„Selbst in einem so zentralen NATO-Land wie Polen, konnten wir 
erfolgreich mit vielen Fakten und Argumenten aus vielen Ländern die 
Delegitimierung der NATO fortsetzen. Das Dinosaurier des kalten 
Krieges hat keine Zukunft“, so Lucas Wirl Co- Vorsitzender des 
internationalen Netzwerkes.

Die Aktionen werden am Samstag mit einer Friedensdemonstration, sowie 
am Sonntag mit einer Strategiedebatte der internationalen 
Friedensbewegung fortgesetzt.

Weitere Informationen bei: Reiner Braun + 49 172 231 7475
www.no-to-nato.org/

(Also the English version)

----------------

  Boston and Beyond, a newsletter of The American Friends Service 
Committee

Gesendet: Samstag, 09. Juli 2016 um 07:33 Uhr
     Von: "Joseph Gerson, AFSC" <JGerson [@] afsc.org>

        Betreff: Initial Report from NATO Counter-Summit - Warsaw


     Friends,



     As a number of you know, I am in Warsaw for a Counter-NATO Summit 
conference held yesterday and tomorrow, and for a demonstration later 
today. Yesterday’s conference, initiated by the No to NATO/No to War 
Network, on whose Steering Committee I serve, was attended by 150 
people from 14 countries. The majority were obviously Poles, but there 
were a good number of Germans, as well as people from the U.S., 
Britain, Russia, France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Austria and Belgium.

         I thought that some of you might appreciate some of the 
highlights, so they follow as “bullet” points, and I’ve attached 
several photos.

     • Growing concern about NATO, led by the U.S., dangerously 
ratcheting up military tensions in Europe and not respecting the very 
real limits of Russian/Putin ambitions. (See my Common Dreams 
article’s section on Ukraine 
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/07/05/imperial-nato-and-after-brexit.)

     * NATO must be retired as soon as possible.

     • Beginning with the Lisbon Treaty of 2009, the E.U. has been 
developing its own military. It is deeply integrated with NATO and 
provides the E.U. with the options of fighting as part of and in 
coordination with NATO or operating independently.  Assuming that 
Britain follows through with its exit from the E.U., Germany will be 
left as not only the dominant economic power in Europe, but also as 
the dominant military power. In NATO Germany is “just a junior 
partner,” while in the E.U. it is dominant. There is often a division 
of labor with NATO doing its coercive thing, while the E.U. takes care 
of the civilian dimensions of an intervention or nation building.

     • While U.S. and E.U. interests and policies are closely aligned, 
at points they diverge. For example, Germany has deep economic 
interests with Russia, while the U.S. has few, leading to less 
aggressive Germany policies toward Russia. Also, the U.S. and Russia 
are reportedly supporting the Kurds in Syria (they declared the 
regional autonomy of their part of Syria yesterday), while Germany is 
backing Turkey as it tolerates Turkey’s assault on Kurds in Turkey and 
Syria (largely owing to the deal to keep Syrian refugees from coming 
to Europe.)   While the U.S. and E.U. collaborated in the Ukrainian 
Maidan coup, they backed different oligarchs, with the U.S. winning 
out and restructuring Ukrainian intelligence and its military along 
U.S. lines and to serve U.S. interests.

     • I was especially moved by the talk by Ilya Budraiskis of the 
Russian Socialist Movement. He is a sharp and courageous critic of 
Putin’s government, but he is also clear that NATO and Russian 
militarism are dangerous and need to be opposed. The sanctions (both 
the U.S./E.U. sanction and Putin’s sanctions on food imports from 
Europe) have hurt the Russian people, with the former leading more 
people to support Putin. Sanctions should only be targeted against the 
persons of Putin & his cronies.

     • Germany has “bought up” Central and Eastern Europe, though the 
U.S. is heavily present, both militarily and via financial 
institutions (many U.S. banks operating here.) A thoughtful Swede 
recalled that Sweden once conquered Poland and Ukraine and argued that 
Swedish banking interests in Ukraine played a major role in the 2014 
Maidan coup.  =

     • Our U.S. movement would benefit from touring some of the best 
thinker/activists from Europe, so that we can more deeply appreciate 
the dangers and alternatives to rising U.S.-led militarism here.

     • There is a Polish anti-militarist movement here, but with 200 
years of nasty history with Russia it may reflect the thinking of 
perhaps 10% of the people here.  The slogan on the banner that will 
lead our protest today says something like “We’ve suffered Russia and 
We Don’t Want Washington. No to NATO.” During the Cold War, Germany 
was the front line, now it is Poland, and one Polish speaker spoke of 
the importance of building a movement here equal to their Stop the War 
movement on the eve of the invasion of Iraq (in which Polish troops 
fought.) A poll released yesterday indicated that 20% of Poles oppose 
NATO, a number larger than expected. It’s likely due to opposition by 
younger people with no memory of the Soviet occupation and who have 
been disappointed by the low salaries that came with failed economic 
hopes raised by the E.U. (Poland is, indeed, a 2nd world nation!)

     • Militarism in Europe is choking democratic culture and 
institutions, with Poland being a prime but not unique example. NATO 
and the E.U. military make decisions in secret and are not accountable 
to any democratic processes.

     • U.S. demands that all members of NATO devote at least 2% of 
their GDP to their militaries is oppressive, especially in the context 
of the austerity budgets which have slashed essential social services 
and people’s incomes. SIPRI reports that U.S. military spending is 34% 
of the world’s total. Adding NATO gets to more than half. Russia’s 
spending is 4% of the world’s total, which says something about 
relative (not nuclear) power.

     • The military-industrial complex and elites require enemies to 
prosper. Putin, while hardly loved by people here, is being demonized 
for this purpose.

     • Some Eastern European and Baltic states joined NATO only 
because they thought it necessary to do so in order to gain E.U. 
membership.

     • The refugee crisis, in both the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas 
is a profound concern. (One old acquaintance is just back from Lesbos, 
and he sang a song honoring the refugees and those helping them.) 
There is deep concern about the militarization of the NATO and EU 
responses.  In a number of European countries, including Austria and 
Poland, border controls are becoming increasingly militarized, enforce 
by the military rather than civilian forces. There is also thinking 
that the U.S/NATO response also serves as a means to preposition 
aircraft carriers and other war-making resources, close to Syria and 
Russia. NATO is now also “assisting” Turkey in securing its border 
with Syria (which may actually be a way of disciplining Turkey which 
had served as the primary route for ISIS to welcome foreign fighters 
to Syria and much of ISIS’ weaponry.)

     • The German Left Party (De Linke) forced a debate in the German 
Parliament on Thursday over whether NATO should be dissolved. It was 
apparently quite a passionate debate on all sides. The European Left 
is developing a resolution calling for the dissolution of NATO to be 
introduced into the parliaments of many European nations for debate in 
November.  They don’t expect to win these debates but to open up the 
public discourse.

     • The British Chilcot report, which is holding Tony Blair’s 
government accountable for lying and committing to the war in Iraq 
before all peaceful alternatives were exhausted is inspiring to people 
from across Europe. Jeremy Corbyn has been shown to have been correct 
in his opposition to the war and his criticism of Blair and his 
cronies.  100,000 people have joined the Labor Party since the Brexit 
vote in an effort to support Jeremy as he is being attacked by 
Blarites and other conservatives within the Labor Party’s 
parliamentary delegation.

     • German Foreign Minister Steinmeyer was playing politics when he 
referred to the massive Anaconda military exercise in Central Europe 
and the Baltics as “warmongering.” (Reference was made to anaconda 
snakes strangling their prey – i.e. Russia.)  Thinking was that he was 
playing to public concerns about the dangers of rising militarism, 
while supporting it, and that he may hope to succeed Angela Merkel.

     • Ann Wright told us that her first assignment in the military 
was to NATO, and that she’s glad to be on this side of that line! The 
video of Rep. Barbara Lee addressing the conference, which I arranged, 
was deeply appreciated and inspired people at the conference. It was 
introduced with profound respect for her being the one member of 
Congress with the wisdom and courage to vote against the authorization 
of the disatrous Afghanistan War.  Her remarks focused on the urgent 
need to prevent nuclear war and to move for the complete elimination 
of nuclear weapons.


     AFSC Peace & Economic Security Program
     Phone: 617-661-6130
     Email: pes [at] afsc.org
     http://afsc.org

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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
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