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On April the 4th 2009 NATO celebrates its 60th anniversary. The basic need for NATO’s existence should be questioned, at least since the end of the Cold War, and dissolution of the Eastern Block’s military alliance, the Warsaw Pact.

The celebrations will take place at the German-French border region in Strasbourg and Kehl. The peace movement is celebrating along/as well. The summit of the ‘war alliance’ will be accompanied by conferences, camps, demonstrations and non-violent blockades. For the international peace movement this jubilee provides an important occasion to bring up the war policies of the NATO states, as they pursue their geopolitical and economic interests, and to demand the dissolution of NATO.

Military alliances and the instrument of ‘war’ are not sufficient to overcome conflicts and clash of interests. Peaceful and just solutions can just be addressed by international organisations committed to international law, which are internationally recognized, such as the UN and OSCE The position of these organisations has to be strengthened and they also must be radically reformed and democratized.

National and international groups and organisations of the peace, human rights and anti-globalization movements have come together and are currently preparing a range of activities to address and counter the NATO summit.

In preparation:

• demonstration (Saturday, 4th April)
• international conference (‘counter summit’), (Thursday, 2nd April until Sunday 5th April
• actions of civil disobedience

First preparatory meetings have taken place in Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

Pictures of the preparatory meeting in Stuttgart can be found at Flickr.

And more than 350 people met in Strasbourg, February 14-15, 2009, for an international action and planning conference (see photos here).