Dear WRI supporter,
As authoritarian rulers are finally toppled after decades in power, we have all been reminded of the power a united population can wield through nonviolent action. And again we have seen that the cynical support for dictatorship in the name of stability is a recipe for repression and injustice.
At the same time, there are two grave challenges arising from the events in North Africa and the Middle East for those of us who advocate nonviolent action and campaign against government policies that pursue unprincipled alliances of convenience and arms trading.
This is a newsletter for the international peacecamp “War starts here” in Luleå, Sweden the 22nd to 29th of july 2011.
Content
1. Military tank painted pink
2. Show your support
3. Join the resistance
4. Register to aid preparations and planning
5. The mobilisation continues
Last Friday, the 4th of February, at night, I was arrested at one of the headquarters of the Egyptian intelligence. They were covering my eyes and there was a group of intelligence officers making conversations with many Egyptian activists who were arrested as me (9 of them were arrested while going out from El-Barada’i home). One of the intelligence officers told me in front of them “if we collected those 20 activists it would be 10% of what you did”, so I replied, “I am a humble person and I see that all of them are better than me”.
A report and evaluation of the anti NATO activities in Lisbon
- Andreas Speck, War Resisters' International
On
Saturday, 20 November 2010, some 80 activists from a range of
countries blockaded one of the access roads to the NATO summit in
Lisbon, to protest against NATO and NATO's war in Afghanistan.
Rafael Uzcátegui
(Newspaper El Libertario)
With the excuse of bringing about greater efficiency in order to reverse the consequences of the great flooding at the end of 2010 which left over one hundred thousand victims, president Chavez has put a new law the National Assembly that would give him special administrative powers for a period of 12 months. At the same time, he wants the National Assembly to approve, in an extraordinary manner, another set of laws, without wide national debate limiting various political and social rights enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
Alternativa Antimilitarista-MOC demands an immediate halt to the State of Alarm regarding air traffic controllers in Spain, as well as their demilitarization.
“There can be Water without Fish and Peoples without Tyrants,
but there can’t be Fish without Water, nor Tyrants without Peoples”
Periódico Anarquista Regeneración, November 5th. 1910 California, Mexican Revolution
The military uniform hides under its camouflage – olive green, pale kaki, dark blue or snowy white – yet another uniform deployed over the very body which sustains the warrior clothing. Over there, taking the form of skin and hairs, you will find the sexual uniform: that act of faith that turns men into men and women into women, regardless our identity, wishes or actual actions. For the military (and the various kinds of militarisms), sex is the ultimate certainty and the ultimate order.
This action is part of the protests against the Lisbon NATO summit in November
Saturday, Oct. 30th 2010
15 ANTIMILITARIST ACTIVISTS MAKE THEIR WAY INTO THE NATO MILITARY BASE OF BÉTERA (VALENCIA) AND TURN IT INTO A PLAYGROUND TO DEMAND ITS CLOSURE, TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN AND ABOLITION OF ARMED FORCES
Opening speech by Arundhati Roy at the WRI conference on the 22 of January 2010 in Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad, India
[video:http://vimeo.com/14272918 width:300 height:225]
2010-07-28 Luleå
United States and Swedish Air Force are right now preparing for a large war exercise in Norrbotten. War preparations can never go undisturbed says Ofog, who on Thursday at 12:00 will be at Norrbotten Air Wing F21.
The purpose is to break the silence about the fact that Sweden is at war and USA as an ally is allowed to practise bomb war on Swedish soil. War starts here and we can stop it from here, says Ofog who wants to show a better way to use common resources.
Martin Smedjeback
17 June 2010
I am led into the central office of the Skenäs prison outside Norrköping. Two guards help me to carry my stuff. “It looks like you’re moving in here!” says one guard. “That’s exactly what I am doing, temporarily anyway”, I say. “Do you have your sentence papers with you?” asks another guard. “Yes,” I answer and hand them the papers which say that I was convicted to four months in prison.