Date/Time
Date(s) - Saturday - Mar 23, 2024
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Categories
Organiser: Global Women for Peace United Against NATO – GWUAN
Supported by: No to war no to Nato network – MAPA (Massachusetts Peace Action – IPB – Codepink – UNAC – Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section – World Beyond War
Register here on Zoom
Background information:
- Moderator Emily Molinari/IPB
Speakers 10 minutes/each:
- 20.00 Opening/5 minutes: Sean Conner, Executive Director of IPB
- 20.05 Sophie Bolt/UK – vice chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
- 20.15 Ingeborg Breines/Norway – Former Chair of IPB and UNESCO Director OK
- 20.25 Tove Jensen/Denmark – board member of the Peace Initiative in Denmark, and in the Campaign “No to US-Bases in Denmark
- 20.35 Karin Utas Carlsson/Sweden – active in Women for Peace/Sweden and in the organisation Folk och Fred/People and Peace
- 20.45 Ulla Klötzer/Finland – Women for Peace, long-time activist for peace, against nuclear power, for sustainable development
- 20.55 Oleg Bodrov/Russia – engineer-physicist, environmentalist, chairman of the Public Council of the South Coast of the Gulf of Finland, St. Petersburg, Russia, IPB board member – NATO/US-bases effects on Russian foreign policy
- 21.05 – 21.45 Discussion and summary (Emily and Sean/IPB)
UK
Desperate to remain the US’ number one ally, and facing defeat at the polls, the British government is pushing the fear-mongering agenda of a ‘pre-war situation’ in which Britain must prepare to wage war against Russia, Iran, China, and the Yemen. It is in this context that US plans to site B61-12s at Lakenheath are being framed in the media. However, greater public awareness of Lakenheath is mobilising opposition. Nationally coordinated actions are planned for May.
Norway
Norway is considered the eyes and ears of NATO in the north. In addition to several surveillance installations, mostly American, storage of foreign military equipment in Norwegian mountains, access to Norwegian harbours by nuclear submarines, training of allied military forces in the Arctic and more frequent and bigger NATO exercises ever more closly to the Russian border, Norway made 16.april 2021 an agreement allowing the USA to establish four so called joint areas in Norway, rubber stamped by Parliament in 2022. And now in 2024 we are getting eight new bases at the same time as the other Nordic countries also make similar agreements. Militarization is rampant. The “Stoltenberg effect” is strong. How to fight this development and build a culture of peace?
Denmark
We consider American bases on Danish soil and the military and foreign policy course in Denmark to be aggressive and dangerous for peace in the Nordic region.
The bases are serving US’s interests and are bringing overflights and acts of war close to the population of Denmark. We are working to get a referendum on the subject.
Sweden
In Sweden we are working hard and fast for a referendum on the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) to stop the parliament from ratification and give us time to inform. DCA is seen as even worse than Nato membership regarding loss of sovereignty. Now there is a rising national movement.
To be continued: It is clear that Sweden will be the 32nd member of Nato. It its dangerous, but DCA is even more devastating since we have no guarantee that nuclear weapons will not be brought into the country. We have no law against it and no reservation.
Finland
Finland became the 31st NATO member in April 2023 – without any open and honest debate about obligations and consequences. The political elite used the Ukraine war as a trigger. Exactly the same goes for the DCA-agreement and the 15 US military bases soon being established in our country that has a 1 300 km (830 mi) border with Russia.
Russia
It is tragic with closed borders for interaction between civil society of NATO countries and Russia. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the termination of the Warsaw Pact, NATO doubled, and its military budget became 20 times higher than the Russian one. The United States has more than 800 military bases around the world. So, who is threatening whom?
The war in Ukraine and everywhere in the world must be stopped.