Sat, 17 Oct 2015
Press release
23: 52
Update: the activists that were arrested in Puzol, Valencia,
have been
freed
with charges.
22: 00 Update: the activists that blocked the Leopart battle
tanks are
under
arrest in Puzol, Valencia.
19: 10 Update: the convoy that
was supposed to leave today towards San
Gregorio, Zaragoza (Spain) from the
German army has been suspended. The
tanks
blocked are Leopard main battle
tanks.
“Retreat is the only honourable military maneuver”, Boris
Vian
#TridentRupture: Antimilitarists obstruct a convoy headed to the NATO
war
exercise “Trident Juncture” in Sagunto, Spain, blocking two Leopard
battle
tanks
At present a group of Antimilitaristes-moc activists are
impeding and
disrupting the organization of the departure of a military convoy
from the
port of Sagunto, due to be deployed in war maneuvers in the next few
days by
army units of more than 30 countries as part of NATO exercise
“Trident
Juncture 2015”
Today at 17:00 a group of antimilitarist activists,
dressed in white
overalls
and pink reflective vests assembled at the dockside,
where a cargo
vessel with
vehicles and arms was being unloaded, in preparation
for live fire stage of
the multinational NATO military maneuver “Trident
Juncture”, due to begin in
the next few days. While two activists stood in the
way making stop two
tanks,
two more activists rapidly chained themselves with
lock-on tubes to the
vehicles and cut off the road leading from the port area.
Another two
activists unveiled banners with the words “War Stops Here” and
“Sorry
for the
inconvenience: obstructing war preparations”. The destination
of the
tanks is
intended to head towards the main maneuver field of San
Gregorio (Zaragoza).
At the moment the activists remain chained to the tanks
preventing their
departure and they will maintain the blockade as long as
possible, until
removal and arrest by the police or the Guardia Civil.
The
main motto of this action of civil disobedience is “War Starts Here, and
Here
we Stop It”. With this action, the anti war group denounces that
“military
aggressions as a scandal to public opinion are the fruit of
political decisions
taken thanks to our conscious or unconscious
consent, and
these maneuvers
provide a perfect example of war preparations”. According
to
Antimilitaristes-moc, “the Trident Juncture exercise supposes the
taking
over
and use of ports, airports, rail lines, and natural areas in
Sagunto,
Valencia, Zaragoza, Albacete and various areas in Andalucía in order
to
perform war training to assure the offensive and interventionalist
capacity
of
the NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, and prove its
destructive
power”.
According to Antimilitaristes-moc, another example of
politics which
prioritise war preparations is “the immense volume of military
spending
(around 18,000 million euros in Spain annually and over 1,000
bilion
globally)
from our taxes, or the arms trade in and with conflict zones:
the Spanish
state is among the 7 mayor world arms exporters, the permanent
members
of the
UN Security Council making up the main arms exporters.”
They
conclude “The consequences of these military policies of NATO, of
Russia
and
its allies, are much more visible to public opinion: The systematic
violation
of human rights, the destruction and persecution of the civil
population,
extreme violence against women, the expoliation of
resources, and
the mass
exodus of millions of people from countries such as Iraq,
Afghanistan, Libya,
Syria, Ukraine, etc.”
“We wanted to stop the flow of material and personnel
to these war games and
at the same time make visible the contrast between the
terrible situation of
war refugees who seek protection and meet walls, razor
wired fences and
death,
and the absolute freedom of movement for those who
execute wars and their
arms, especially during theses military exercises”. For
the antimilitarist
collective, “actions like those of today contribute to
making a culture of
peace based on cooperation, justice and non-violence, and
not one of
deterrence and force”. The paradigm of defense and
military-based
security has
to be changed, it leads over and over again to war
and violence. “Human
security, according to the UN definition, puts at its axis
the defense
of the
rights of people and nature. In this new paradigm, “armies
and military
structures are a threat to these rights and must be broken up
and
abolished”.
On the other hand, Antimilitaristes-moc, wish to express
through today’s
action their rejection of anti-liberty laws which criminalize
social
protest,
laws passed recently by the Spanish government, such as the
reform of the
Penal Code and the Citizen Security Law (gaging law).
Antimilitaristes-moc
have declared that they will carry on using civil
disobedience tactics,
“because we consider them a legitimate and radically
democratic tool for
political participation and social change.
For
Antimilitaristes-moc, this is a “non-violent direct action”,
like
similar
actions carried out over the last 10 years, like the
“citizen
inspections” at
the NATO Response Force base in Betera (Valencia).
According to
Antimilitaristes-moc, “It’s direct, because we use our bodies as
tools,
without mediation or representations. And it’s non-violent, because
we
believe
in the higher legitimacy and efficiency of nonviolence to bring
about social
change. Coherently, we act against violent institutions without
presenting a
threat to life or the physical integrality of other
people”.
More information:
Spokesperson for the Action: Rosario Polito
(687 097 464) -during the
action // Carlos Barranco (627 064 818) -next
days-
Graphic material:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mocvalencia
Updates:
@mocvalencia (twitter)
Antimilitaristes-moc is a grass-roots, pacifist group
based in Valencia that
promotes nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience
as tools for social
change and works for the abolition of the military as a way
of getting
rid of
war. It is part of the statewide network “alternativa
antimilitarista-moc”,
the European Anti-militarist Network and the War
Resisters’ International .
—
Andreas Speck
Pasaje Amores nº 12, 1º
izquierda
41003 Sevilla, España
SIP: 1993752@sipgate.co.uk,
andreasspeck@sip2sip.info
mail@andreasspeck.info http://andreasspeck.info
IM:
XMPP/GoogleTalk: mail@andreasspeck.info
Join me on Diaspora:
https://diasp.eu/u/andreasspeck
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ask_organize
Telefóno/Phone/Telefon:
desde España: movil
+34-65-5964791
from the United Kingdom: +44-20-70993752
aus Deutschland:
+49-2151-7478505, Handy: +49-1579-2309893