HAPPENING NOW: JOIN US HERE https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85449481333
On Tuesday, June 21, join CODEPINK Congress and Massachusetts Peace Action for a Capitol Calling Party where we will take a hard look at NATO.
As the conflict in Ukraine is raging and heads of states of NATO member countries get ready to meet in Madrid June 28-30, we invite you to join us in discussing and deconstructing North Atlantic Treaty Organization with three expert guests: Ajamu Baraka of Black Alliance for Peace, Ret. Colonel Ann Wright of CODEPINK and Veterans for Peace, and Alice Slater of World Beyond War.
While the NATO members meet to discuss war plans, peace activists in Europe are gearing up for anti-NATO summit protests and our guests will put NATO "on trial" for its past crimes in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Ann Wright will also talk about her attendance at NO to NATO summits in Poland, Belgium and Germany.
Join us as we look back at NATO expansion into Eastern Europe that preceded the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and challenge NATO's war plans targeting nuclear-armed Russia and China. This discussion is more important now than ever. One of the consequences of Russia’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine is that it has actually strengthened NATO, including the new bids to join from Finland and Sweden. And NATO --the world's largest military organization, led by the U.S.--is not only on the edge of a direct war with Russia, but is also setting its sights on China. Don’t miss this timely event as we talk about how to step back from the brink of war with nuclear-armed states and how to move towards a NATO-free world.
Our Guests:
Ajamu Baraka is the national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace and was the 2016 candidate for vice president of the United States on the Green Party ticket. Baraka serves on the Executive Committee of the U.S. Peace Council and leadership body of the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) and the steering committee of the Black is Back Coalition. Baraka is an editor and contributing columnist for the Black Agenda Report and was awarded the US Peace Memorial 2019 Peace Prize and the Serena Shirm award for uncompromised integrity in journalism. Ajamu calls NATO an existential threat to peoples and nations throughout the global South.
Colonel Ann Wright spent 13 years in the U.S. Army and sixteen more years in the Army Reserves, retiring as a Colonel who also served as U.S. Deputy Ambassador in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. On March 19, 2003, the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Ann Wright cabled a letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell, stating that without the authorization of the UN Security Council, the invasion and occupation of a Muslim, Arab, oil-rich country would be a violation of international law. Ann, along with CODE PINK’s Paki Wieland, will soon attend several NO to NATO events in Europe.
Alice Slater serves on the Boards of Directors of World Beyond War and the Global Network Against Weapons in Nuclear Power in Space. She is the UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and is on the Advisory Board of Nuclear Ban-US, supporting the mission of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work in realizing the successful UN negotiations for a Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. As a member of the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control, Alice travelled to Russia and China on delegations engaged in ending the arms race and banning the bomb. She served on the People's Climate Committee-NYC, working for 100% Green Energy by 2030.
