A No to NATO Protest 2009 is being organized in Strasbourg, France, but where is the US Antiwar Movement? A similar protest against NATO should and could be built on the same date in Washington DC at the Pentagon, so why does the American Antiwar Community always give NATO a free ride?
Look below at the organizing committee for the Strasbourg event and notice how the US antiwar Community is simply MIA. That’s very sad…
No to NATO Protest Saturday 4th April 2009 – Sunday 5th April 2009 Details to be confirmed…………………………………………..
A protest is being organised outside the NATO conference in Strasbourg, France marking the 60th anniversary of NATO.
Sixty years of NATO are enough. NATO is the main driving force behind global war. NATO stands for the missile defense system, military bases around the world, nuclear weapons and military interventions and expenditure. NATO is a rival to the UN and the system of international law, and it is intertwined with the European security and defense system. But NATO is not all-powerful, indeed it is under extreme pressure right now in Afghanistan.
Members of the open preparation committee for the protest at the 60th anniversary of NATO include:
Arielle Denis (Le Mouvement de la Paix, France)
Reiner Braun (IALANA, speaker of Cooperation for Peace, Germany)
Chris Nineham (Stop the War Coalition, UK)
Tobias Pflüger (MEP, IMI, Germany)
Thomas Magnusson (International Peace Bureau, Sweden)
Sotiris Kontogiannis (Stop the War Coalition, Greece)
Elaheh Rostami Povey (Stop the War Coalition, UK/Iran)
Peter Strutynski (Federal Committee Peace Council, Germany)
International Peace Bureau (IPB)
International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility (INES)
International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms (IALANA Europe)
War Resisters’ International
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), Germany
Le Mouvement de la Paix, France
Stop the War Coalition, Great Britain
Stop the War Coalition, Greece
Cooperation for Peace, Germany
Federal Committee Peace Council, Germany
Further details of the NO TO NATO demonstration will be available shortly. To read a briefing on NATO’s expansion by Kate Hudson, the chair of CND, click here.
At this point I don’t know why everyone isn’t over NATO. At this point all it does is antagonize the Russians.
That’s the point of NATO though, is it not? It is a ‘defense’ alliance against Russia. In honest words, it is an offensive alliance whose purpose is to menace Russia.
one of these days, a new NATO members(Georgia probably) is going to get us in a war that’s going be the end of human race. NATO is a perfect example of an organization suffering mission creep. It have out lived it’s original purpose, now it have taken on a life of its’ own and searching for new reason to continue existing. When things like this happen in an organization, it’s almost always to the detriment of all its’ members. Disband NATO, before it destroys us.
US Anti-war protesters have enough direct action and protesting against ongoing wars to keep them more than busy. You want a symbolic gesture of solidarity? Many anti-war people in the USA are far more against the government of their own country than against NATO. They view both NATO and the UN, along with the American government as mere pawns of certain elitists. The analysis of NATO vs. UN misses the point. Both NATO and the UN have been ineffectual at getting the American government to obey international law. Both NATO and the UN are complicit in not enforcing international law against the American government.
‘You want a symbolic gesture of solidarity? Many anti-war people in the USA are far more against the government of their own country than against NATO. They view both NATO and the UN, along with the American government as mere pawns of certain elitists.’
Actually some of what you say seems false to me. Most liberal Americans, for example, support the United Nations, think of it as being a Peace oriented organization, and think of it as being some how much better than the US government even though the US totally dominates this supposed ‘world body’. And Nato is most certainly totally a creature of the US government, so how can so many US citizens be far more against their own government than they are against Nato as you factually said they are?
Yet it’s true, they are! That is the reason that the antiwar organizations in the US don’t add their names onto the list of international groups opposing Nato, and it would be an effective gesture if they would do so unlike just being a symbolic nothing as you say it would be.
The sad truth is that most US antiwar organizations (especially those dominated by the patriotic pacifist religious crowd) do not want to oppose their own military and the alliances the Pentagon sets up, because that would not be ‘supporting the troops’ per corporate ideology. They hold back against signing onto international coalitions against Nato because that would be supposedly hostile to the troops and unpatriotic! That’s a big crock but still that’s how it is unfortunately.
The antiwar movement is broken down and demoralized precisely because of this pathetic leaderhsip that fears to forcefully oppose the troops. They hold back if Nato is also involved, and especially if the US has manipulated the Security Council of the UN into being front for their national war making.
It is simply time for the more secular Left to stop this pacifist religious nonsense of giving free pass to groups like the UN and Nato. Even if the Quakers and Unitarians and Gandhi addicts remain stalled and never mention them negatively.