Counter NATO!
Description: This years NATO summit will be held in the so called ´City of Peace´ , The Hague, NL. Secretary-general Rutte recently stated that ´we´ must prepare for war and should seriously invest in defense. This must have been the finest music in the ears of the arms (trade) industry. The EU follows as well. A coalition of peace-organizations in the Netherlands, together with the international No-to-NATO coalition decided to organize a counter-summit at June 21+22 just before the NATO-summit. We are going to prepare for peace and the first aim will be dismantling the NATO... VIA-NL jumped in as well and will support the summit (aim: 250 participants) and the demonstration (aim: 1000 part) with a logistical-support camp.
Type of Work: Before the counter-summit the volunteers will paint banners and prepare creative action-formats for the weekend. They also prepare the venue and the cooking, disseminate flyers/posters and carry-out other last-minute publicity work; among others possible involvement in writing international press-releases.
During the weekend they will carry out the creative actions. At the summit itself they will be ´guardians´ of the venue and its halls. Other tasks will be helping with preparing and serving the meals and coffee/tea, supporting the info-counter, setting and re-setting chairs and tables, cleaning etc. At the large demonstration tasks will be: building up/dismantling the stage and being stewards, together with others (safe-guarding the demo) etc.
Study Theme: The study theme will mainly take place before the counter-summit weekend and consists of a variety of workshops and part-themes: new security-thinking, the NATO-war strategy and responses to that, arms-trade, directions for the peace-movement and of course the role of SCI in that spectrum. Next to that there will be much attention for the role of art in establishing peace and promoting demilitarization: creative writing, music, dance etc.
Accommodation: Accommodation will be either in a youth-hostel, a scouting-building or a community space (center)
Language: English
Approximate Location: The Hague
Notes: IMPORTANT note: Although:
- The counter-summit will be BEFORE the NATO-summit
- volunteers will be mainly carrying out logistical tasks. there might be repression by the local police. Not likely, but one never knows and volunteers should be aware of it!