Report from the International NATO-Seminar
26.03.2009: A youth centre in Stuttgart, some agitation. The finishing touches of the preparation of a NATO-seminar have just been carried out. Young Greens from Germany, France and Belgium are trickling in. These people have a lot in common, what brings them together in this place is their shared desire for a peaceful world.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is celebrating its 60th birthday in April. But is there any reason to celebrate? Was this organisation not founded to maintain security when we lived in a bi-polar world? Hasn’t the so-called threat of communism long since died out?, Isn’t it high time for NATO to do so as well? Food for discussion!
Friday evening, 13th of April 2009
Getting-to-know-each-other-games marked the start of an interesting weekend. Most youngsters were a bit low on energy because of the long travelling, but a lovely vegetarian meal made them regain strength. To enable themselves to discuss properly, they felt a need to immerse themselves in the history of NATO. This was carried out by means of an interactive quiz. The knowledge they acquired would prove to be very useful on Saturday morning…
Saturday, 14th of April 2009
Was tun gegen die NATO? Da rauchen die Köpfe...
…when Reiner Braun from IALANA (International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms) visited Stuttgart to give a presentation on “NATO after 1990”. First, he gave a brief outline of what NATO has been doing since then. Thereafter, general and specific questions of the participants were collected and Reiner tried to address them all. Questions included the role of NATO in Kosovo and Afghanistan, the (un)likelihood of Russia remaining a threat, the need for a civilian power instead of a military power and other. The general idea behind it all turned out to be that NATO is in fact obsolete and does not contribute to peace at all. All these facts where thrown into a vivid discussion which was interrupted at lunchtime. After eating and relaxing in the warm spring sun, the group was split into five small working groups for getting deeper into several topics like “The relationship between NATO and EU”, “The relationship between NATO and UN” or “The history of NATO-Membership of Belgium, France and Germany” with the help of study documents. Every group managed to make a little presentation about their topic and to briefly report to the rest of the groups. In the evening, another discussion took place. Alexander Bonde, a Green MP in the German Parliament, explained the point of view of the mother party, which turned out to be quite different from our position. All the collected questions, arguments and positions were brought up again. The effort required to debate such a complex set of issues was exhausting. Even this very motivated group was running out of steam by the late evening. After such a long day, the decision to take time out with a cold beer in a nice bar with live music proved very popular. Some die-hards went dancing till the early hours. Waking up would be more difficult for some than others.
Sunday, 15th of April 2009
Meeting time was set at 10 am again. The participants left the homes of the volunteers where they had been put up. They realised that their peer-weekend was almost over. There was no time to mourn though, because their last hours in Stuttgart would be devoted to preparing a folder for the action, making a banner and writing a report on the weekend. Several slogans for the banner were proposed, but ’60 years, time to retire’ won the contest. As a memento, a picture of the paintwork had to be taken. The local vegetarian caterer was charged with this duty. After several twists and turns (paintwork was still wet), she managed, with a memento on her jacket as well…
The tougher thinking work on how to phrase why we aren’t keen on NATO was carried out by Laura, Thomas and Fabien. The fruits of their labour will be available at the ‘NO TO NATO’ demonstrations from the 1st to the 5th of April in Strasbourg and Baden-Baden.
After the last lunch, the Young Greens took leave of each other and left for their home countries or “Länder”, determined to continue the struggle for a nuclear-free, peaceful world.
Autorinnen: Liesbeth Vanneste, Jong Groen, flämische Grüne Jugend, und Sophie Karow, GJ Aachen