Audre Lorde Room
Workshop 5 On NATO - Cynthia Cockburn

We all call on our governments to demilitarize and abandon war as policy - yet their freedom of action in many cases is tightly constrained by membership of NATO. WiB groups in non-member states too are affected by this expansionist, aggressive, nuclear armed machinery, seeking global military control in the interests of US / capitalist power. NATO perpetuates Cold War with Russia and China, strategizing to hold states in Asia, Africa and Latin America into military partnership.
Besides, NATO is manipulating UNSC Resolution 1325, not to promote women's engagement in peace but their recruitment into militaries. We believe WiB Europe, and indeed WiB internationally, need a strategy of opposition to NATO

WHAT ARE NEW INSIGHTS THAT YOU DISCOVER IF YOU COMBINE THE POWER OF OUR DNA WITH THE CONCLUSION OF THIS WORKSHOP ?

- the vision of women is different: we need a more feminist view we need more information about NATO, among us and for the public, example: one page on the WIB website
- next NATO summit is from 3rd-5th September, 2014 in Newport, Wales: we need a special vigil saying WOMEN SAY NO TO NATO how: with t-shirts & one letter on every t-shirt
- we suggest: a special vigil outside every parliament against NATO

TRANSLATIONS BY CLCIKING RESPECTIVE PHOTOS

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NATO: A BRIEFING
Forthcoming NATO Summit Meeting and week of action:

- On 4-5 September, 2014, NATO will hold its biennial meeting of Heads of State. It will be in Newport, Wales, UK.
- The international network No-to-War, No-to-NATO, based in Berlin, is planning a week of action at this Summit, from 31 August. It will include a major demonstration, a counter-summit conference, a peace camp and forms of non-violent direct action.
- At Leuven, we discussed a possible Women in Black response to this Summit. Discussion showed it's unlikely that WiB groups will send members to Wales for the occasion. But it was agreed that many would signal their opposition to NATO by organizing actions in their own localities.

Below are some points that might help to frame our actions, and could be the basis for information we give to the public. A separate and longer information paper gives more detail (see: Women in Black: NATO 2014 - Background Information).

SUMMARY FACTS ABOUT NATO:
NATO originates in the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949
It has 28 member states (US, Canada and European states)
NATO's policy is embodied in its Strategic Concept document
A central policy is the enlargement of the alliance:
+Enrolling new member states
+Allying with non-member states:
-In the Mediterranean Dialogue (7 states, including Israel)
-In the Istanbul Initiative (4, soon 6, Middle Eastern states)
-In Partnership for Peace (22 members in the wider world)

ARGUMENTS AGAINST NATO:
It should have folded at the end of the Cold War
It 's primarily a tool of US economic and military policy
It constitutes for Western capitalism a world of 'us' and 'them'
Its development reflects mainly US interests, e.g. the 'pivot to Asia' to contain China; northwards expansion to control resources of the melting Arctic.
It's increasingly 'expeditionary', ready for 'armed response'
It's nuclear armed
It seeks inappropriately to be a 'partner' (military wing) of the UN
It's pressuring the EU to militarize
It's highly ambivalent and inconsistent in its relations with Russia
It provokes Russia by seeking to recruit neighbouring states, eg.Ukraine, Georgia
It 's militarizing space in its Missile Defence Initiative
It 's increasingly focusing on control of cybernetic information / Internet

BUILDING A FEMINIST CASE AGAINST NATO:
Women have met and discussed NATO at and between successive Summit events from Strasbourg 2009. Points women have raised:
- The language of 'alliances' and 'blocs' expresses a war-prone patriarchal logic;
- NATO's military installation