Pictures from the public event Gent March 8th 2013

Here you will find a gallery with some pictures from the event
“For gender justice peace and solidarity: No to War – No to NATO – Stop Militarization

Feminist aspects of an anti-NATO peace strategy

The lecture by Christiane Reymann at the public event “For gender justice peace and solidarity No to war – no to NATO, stop militarization” of the annual meeting of the international network “No to War – no to NATO” in Gent March 8th International womens day 2013

Mouna Ghanem is a Syrian woman, she lives in Damascus, although the civil war is causing a climate of violence even in everyday life. It is becoming more insecure and brutal. A couple of months ago Mouna took the initiative gather women for a peace-building process. 44 women from Syria met in November 2012 in Cairo to find out if and how they can cooperate. They came from different Syrian regions, differing political organizations and institutions they were of diverse ethnic and religious origin.
At present unfortunately hardly any political force in Syria follows the diplomatic efforts of Lakhdar Brahimi to solve the conflict by peaceful rather then by military means. Peaceful negotiations have to incorporate all forces involved in the conflict, they have to start talking without preconditions. They must immediately start negotiations for a ceasefire. That – at present – does not function among the conflict-parties in Syria. But it did function among the Syrian women who established a network called “women for peace” – although their political positions ranged from opposition to the support of the Assad regime. They were able to build mutual trust through the creation of a culture of dialogue that respects all opinions and respects the different viewpoints, dedicated to the one goal: Peace!  (more)

May 2012: As the NATO powers meet in Chicago, Women in Black say: NO to NATO

Code Pink coverage of Chicago actions

"Women in Black London will be dedicating our Wednesday evening vigils in Central London, on May 16 and 23, to protesting against NATO."
See their leaflet (click for 1 pg pdf version):

And from WIB Torino, Italy, here is the leaflet the women will distribute during a vigil on Saturday, May 19th. A vigil was also held in Verona.

For a NATO-free Future: Chicago May 18-19, 2012

Links collected by Elsa Rassbach for Code Pink:

Andy Thayer of CANG8 interviews Elsa (30 min): http://factsnotfairies.blogspot.com/2012/05/nato-g8-view-from-europe_13.html
Pat Hunt, Ann Wright, Elsa at People's Summit: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/05/12/nato-protesters-begin-to-arrive-in-chicago/
Ann Wright full speech at People's Summit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okF2RMO-OjU
NATO, Drones & CODEPINK, Medea http://www.newstips.org/2012/05/nato-summit-drone-warfare-challenged/
Nancy Mancias: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/05/15/chicago-preparing-to-get-thousands-of-out-of-town-protesters-for-nato/
Photos Nancy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/7196682318/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/7196685692/
Press release (Medea, Ann): http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/05/16-11
AP story from press conference with internationals & interview with Elsa (appeared in many publications, even Fox News!): http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/18500632/anti-war-protesters-want-nato-bases-closed
Op Ed story from Ann Wright http://www.opednews.com/articles/Chicago-s-Scaring-Itself--by-Ann-Wright-120518-277.html
Huffington Post with Medea: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-koehler/violence-and-greeting-car_b_1526268.html
Protest at Mayor Rahm Emmanuel's with Medea: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/middle-class-guy/2012/may/19/occupy-chicago-protests-rahm-emanuels-house-video/ http://kleinonline.wnd.com/2012/05/19/you-can-interview-top-nato-protest-leader-aaron-klein-radio-goes-live-to-chaotic-streets-of-chicago/

New thinking is needed on Nato

Letter to The Guardian by peace activist Rae Street:

"As Nato meets in Chicago, it is high time our politicians started to take a hard look at the organisation. They need to stop kowtowing to a US agenda of global military dominance through Nato and realise that Nato is not bringing peace and security, but dangerous instability. Seumas Milne (Comment, 16 May) outlined the dangers from wars of intervention; Malalai Joya described the suffering brought to Afghanistan by the occupying forces (Our Chicago resistance, 17 May).

But the dangers are even wider. Nato continues to assert it needs nuclear weapons for defence and still holds a policy of first use of nuclear weapons. At the Lisbon summit Nato leaders reaffirmed their addiction to nuclear weapons, ignoring the nuclear non-proliferation treaty which states that nuclear weapon states should disarm "in good faith".  Read full text here

November 2011: anti-war and peace movement groups in Gemany and abroad are preparing for the Dec. 3-5 weekend of opposition to the war in Afghanistan (Afghanistan Conference Dec. 5, 2011).

April 2011:   A women's working group at the  No to war ­ No to NATO conference made a critique of the misuse by this military machinery of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

March 2011:

Phyllis Bennis says: Don't "No-Fly" Libya

In early 2011 we received the following report on the workshop Feminism and Militarization by Kristine Karch (4 p. pdf). The workshop was held at the NATO counter-summit in Lisbon, Portugal, November 2010, as part of activities organized by the network No to war – no to NATO.