Minutes Annual meeting No to War – No to NATO Gent, Belgium 8.-10. March 2013
After the opening, greetings form a representative of the city of Gent, and a round of introductions Reiner presents the work since the last annual meeting in a ppt-presentation (see www.no-to-nato.org).
Past and future work of the network
In a discussion, the good work of the ICC was mentioned but also highlighted that there is much more work to do. With the limited resources of the network a lot has been accomplished. Main work of the network was and continues to be the delegitimation of NATO and education on its role as military machine. For the future work of the network a brainstorming for ideas and topics evolves. It is generally agreed that foci of the future work should be Afghanistan, nuclear weapons, 100 years of WWI, the connection on war and crisis and the economics of war, future wars and geostrategical aspects, as well as future technologies of war fare. The following points were part of this discussion:
Follow the plans of future wars, Connect bases with anti-NATO work, Militarization of space, Drones, Highlight controversies within NATO (future conflicts, military spending, nuclear weapons), How do we relate to NPT 2015 in New York? Israel-Palestine and the deepening relations between NATO and Israel
How can we make NATO “unattractive”? How can we engage more networks in the work against NATO? How can we engage peace groups that do not touch the question of NATO so far?
Information on the ICC election process
Reiner introduces the process of finding an electoral process for this annual meeting and explains the procedures. It is decided to have an email vote for the next ICC in 2014 (similar to the IPB); for this election an update of the email list of No to War – No to NATO network should be performed and a campaign for new member organizations started. One organization should have one vote. Furthermore, for the elections in 2013 an amendment to the procedures is decided: Every ICC member may have a deputy which should be in gender balance.
ICC Elections
All candidates for the ICC are elected unanimously. The new ICC members are:
| Braun, Reiner | IALANA/ IPB |
| Chastain, Claire | Collectif national OTAN-Afghanistan |
| De Brabander, Ludo | Vrede vzw. |
| Gerson, Joseph | American Friends Service Committee |
| Gutierrez-Esparza, Luis | Latin American Circle of International Studies |
| Karch, Kristine | Women’s Network No to War – No to NATO |
| Leblanc, Judith | Peace Action |
| Lombardo, Joe | United National Antiwar Coalition |
| Monserrat, Miguel | Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos (APDH) |
| Ruiz, Cinthia | |
| Norberg, Agneta | Swedish Peace Council |
| Pflüger, Tobias | Information Centre Militarization (IMI)/ DFG-VK |
| Salzenstein, Patrice / | Mouvement de la Paix |
| Gallas, Yves-Jean | |
| Webb, Dave / | Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament |
| Hudson, Kate | |
| Wirl, Lucas | International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility (INES) |
| Youlton, Michael | Irish Antiwar Movement / Peace and Neutrality Allicance |
| Rattigan, Seamas |
The new ICC is being asked to release a press statement for the public.
Further decisions by the annual meeting
In the following procedure the discussions of the weekend are being summarized (see ppt on www.no-to-nato.org) and decided. Furthermore, it is agreed to
– Support our friends of Montenegro in their struggle against NATO where we can
– Our US colleagues should develop a short text on Chicago activists who were arrested during the summit, giving us sufficient information on the situation
– Have events at the WSF in Tunis and the NPT PrepCom in Geneva
– Prepare events for peace at the AlterSummit in Athens, June 6-7
– Have an Afghanistan Conference with Afghan community in Strasbourg in October
– Support the work of our Irish colleagues against the G8 Summit
– Start a process for an International conference on Drones and to connect national activities on an international level: colleagues in Ireland GB are being asked to check possibilities; Dave is being asked to take the lead for an info sheet on NATO and drones
– Support GDAMS, April 15: organize national actions, ICC is asked to prepare an information sheet to be spread throughout our networks
– Develop a fact sheet on NATO and North: Agneta is being asked to take the lead
– Develop a NATO and UN factsheet: Dave is being asked to take the lead
– Start preparations for a next Counter summit as soon as a next NATO Summit is scheduled. A preparatory group (Claire, Joseph, Kristine, Ludo, Michael, Julia, Lucas, Reiner, Agneta, Dave) is asked to follow up on and start preparations
– Participate in international actions on 1914-2014
– Participate in the follow up conference of ICAN in Mexico (in 2014/15)
– Next annual meeting: Ask for exploration of different sites: Sarajevo, Spain, Cyprus, Turkey, Montenegro; the ICC should follow up on the process and set a time and location
– Start developing idea to have a conference on “Nato and Africa” and search for partner organizations in Africa; for finding African organizations all organizations’ channels should be used [i.e. WRI has a conference in Africa in 2014]
– Work over the website of the network; Kristine takes the lead in the restructuring process and will update information
– Improve communication structure
- Communication lists will be set up and the idea of podcasts of organizations and the ICC should be explored
– Decision of working groups
- Already existing working groups:
- Latin America (contact: Miguel, Claire, Luis), Afghanistan (convener: Reiner, Claire, Lucas, Kristine), Women (Convener: Kristine), USA (Convener: Joseph)
- Further working groups:
- Nato and missile defence and drones (convener: Dave)
- Develop ideas for a project: NATO, Military expenditure, austerity, economic crisis (and how to break it down to the national level) (Conveners: Joseph, Chris, Michael)
After the annual meeting a short ICC meeting takes place. Reiner proposes Claire and Lucas as chairs of the ICC. Unanimously, both are being elected. It is decided to have a conference call on April 4th at 6pm CET. A next face-to-face meeting is scheduled for October 11 in Strasbourg.
Berlin, April 5th 2013
Minute taker: Lucas Wirl