Alliance Against the NATO Security Conference - 09.02.2002 16:23
The final goal must be the disbandment of NATO, and indeed the abolition of all armies and alliances for military "intervention".
Greetings to the anti-NATO demonstration on February 9th in Prague
Dear friends and comrades,
Greetings to Prague!
From February 1st to 3rd, 2002, the NATO Security Conference was held at the luxury hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich. Even in advance, the opponents of the conference were branded as criminals, and opposition structures were put under pressure; finally, all demonstrations and rallies against the Conference were banned.
Despite this quasi-"state-of-emergency" imposed on Munich, thousands came to Munich and won back their rights to freedom of assembly and speech.
The attempts to smother the protests against the warmongers in the Bayerischer Hof have clearly failed. Although entry to Munich was subjected to massive hindrancesÄfor example, whole bus loads of people from Vienna, Z?rich, and Berlin were forced to turn around and go back homeÄthere were well over ten thousand of us. The intent of splitting our alliance by constantly harping on the topic of the supposed "question of violence" also failed. Just the opposite happened: in the last week before the NATO Security Conference, our alliance not only closed ranks, but even gained political support from several groups that are financed by the city government.
With our appeal "From Genoa to Munich", we wanted to make clear that the political conflict cannot remain isolated in single-purpose movements if we hope to shake the reigning conditions of oppression and exploitation. Combating these capitalistic conditions cannot succeed unless protest and resistance also focuses on the military instrument for their implementation, NATO.
Our political interest lies in bringing together the opponents of globalized capitalism with those who consider its "military arm" the focal point of their political involvement. We mobilized activists of both these movements to come to Munich, in order to take our political messages to the streets together, and to make it clear to the war planners of NATO and the EU, "You are not welcome here or anywhere else!" We also wanted to create an opportunity for exchange of opinions and joint discussion at our International Meeting, that might offer a perspective for international cooperation after Munich.
We assume that we will not have to put up with the presence of the war strategists from NATO and the EU next year. This is not a solution to the problem, of course: we do not want them to meet somewhere else, either.
The final goal must be the disbandment of NATO, and indeed the abolition of all armies and alliances for military "intervention".
We hope you will have an impressive demonstration, and we will see you in Prague in the autumn!
Alliance Against the NATO Security Conference
February 2002
 E-Mail: nato@buko24.de  Website: http://www.buko24.de/nato_eng.htm
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