Workshop at the European Peace Action forum in Malmö 2008
From War Resisters International:
The closing session was more for looking at the future than as a evaluation of EPA. We divided in three groups: coordination of actions, information sharing and another EPA?
Coordination of actions
This group looked at different actions that are taking place in the coming year, looking at what the groups around EPA would be interested in doing. One clear position is that there is interest to continue working and doing actions together. The group came up with a list of actions planned for the coming year.
2008
October
- 4 – 12 : Keep Space for Peace Week
- 27: Aldermaston Big Blockade
November
2009
March
- 20 – 23 : Coordinated actions as part of the build up to NATO summit
April
- 4: Summit 60 years of NATO
October
- October 9 till 2 January 2010: World March for Peace and Nonviolence
We focused on two main upcoming actions:
* Decentralised day of action “War Starts from Europe” - proposal that came out after the NATO Game Over event last March in Brussels. To get groups to do action against military infrastructure locally. Number of groups involved with EPA said that are planning actions, but also there is uncertainty about how many groups are actually planning an action. It was said that we need that the EPA website has a space for groups to post their actions plans and need to get people to promote the action to other networks, like the No Bases and Keep Space for Peace. We will continue using the NATO Game Over list serve to coordinate these actions. People interested in joining it should contact the WRI office at info@wri-irg.org
* NATO 60 years summit - There are a number of activities prepared for the NATO summit and groups involved with EPA are also part of the preparations for them. The first weekend of October there will be meetings in Stuttgart and Hamburg as preparation for the actions against NATO. In January there is planned a meeting for the more action oriented activities against the summit. There will be action camps during the summit and it was decided to have a EPA 'barrio' at the action camp, where we can organise coordinated actions as EPA at the summit and have our own space for sharing between the groups involved with EPA.
Information sharing
The www.europeanpeaceaction.org site will continue to be a site used for EPA, with report from actions and for preparation for upcoming events. The site should be integrated to the WRI and the McMilitary site .
The EPA newsletter will continue to be produced but needs an editorial group for it. There will be an EPA list serve, but needs clarification what will be the difference with the NATO Game Over list.
Another EPA?
We want to continue meeting as EPA, the suggestion was to attach EPA meetings to other events. It was not said how regular this meetings should be. For next year it was suggested to meet as EPA at the events around the NATO summit.
The need to involve more groups from Central and Eastern Europe was raised, by having a EPA meeting there could help in this process.
The next ESF will be in Turkey in 2010, but it was not discussed if we want to have a EPA presence there.
