Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Re: No to NATO: Festival of Creative NonViolence Dear friends, We are organizing the "No to NATO: Festival of Creative NonViolence" (Oct. 6) in order to counter the NATO-related meetings that are being held here in Ottawa, October 5-8. Our festival will include speakers, poetry, music, visual arts, photo displays, large puppets, workshops, info tables and much more! Our purpose is two-fold; to express opposition to NATO and to celebrate nonviolence. I believe it is very important -- especially at this time -- to demonstrate that nonviolent protest is strongly supported by a wide variety of organizations. Please distribute the information about our event to anyone who you believe may be interested in attending our event or supporting our efforts. Anything you can do to help spread the word to fellow activists would be greatly appreciated! We are seeking endorsements from NGOs for our event. So far, we have received endorsements from just over 100 NGOs, including some very large national ones like the Canadian Auto Workers, the National Union of Public and General Employees, the New Democratic Party - Canada, the Canadian Federation of Students and the Council of Canadians. We have also received endorsements from peace, human rights, environmental, religious, cultural and academic organizations from across Canada and from around the world. We have 24 NGOs from 10 other countries. (See a recent list at <http://www.flora.org/coat/forum/268>) We hope that this list of NGOs will show the general public, the media, government, corporations and police that there is indeed a strong and dynamic movement supportive of nonviolence and opposed to NATO's use of war and militarism to resolve conflicts. We will list the names of endorsing organizations on our list serve, the next issue of our magazine (Press for Conversion!), and our web site <http://www.ncf.ca/coat/> Thanks very much for any help that you can offer. If you can't physically be with us in Ottawa on October 6, please join us in spirit! Together we can send a powerful message that nonviolence is alive and well! In solidarity, Richard Sanders Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade P.S. If you do endorse our event, please send us the following: (1) A SHORT (30 word) DESCRIPTION OF YOUR NGO In our web site, we will be including ashort description of each NGOs that endorses the festival. If your NGO endorses, please provide a (30 word maximum) blurb about the organization that you'd like us to include on the COAT web site. (2) THE CONTACT INFORMATION FOR YOUR NGO We will also include (on the COAT web site) all contact information for NGOs that is provided to us: contact person, address, tel., fax, email and web site. (We will provide a direct link to those sites from ours and we'd like it if groups could reciprocate.) (3) A SOLIDARITY MESSAGE We would very much like to receive brief messages of solidarity from representatives of endorsing NGOs. We will share these messages with the participants in our festival on October 6 in Ottawa. These expressions of support and solidarity from around the world will be a great encouragement to everyone who attends! It is also an opportunity for you to convey a message to the crowd concerning your support for nonviolence and/or your opposition to NATO. These messages -- from representatives of endorsing NGOs -- will be printed into a booklet and distributed at our event. Some of the solidarity statements will also be read from the stage. We will also post all the messages on our website afterwards and make them available to the media. PLEASE NOTE: The statements can be anything from a few sentences in length to a maximum of 150 words. ==================================== "Call to Dis Arms!" the NATO Parliamentary Assembly* is coming to Ottawa! Please join our: "No to NATO: Festival of Creative NonViolence" Saturday, October 6, at 1 p.m. Gathering in Majors Hill Park across from the US Embassy (MacKenzie Ave., Ottawa, Canada) Please bring your creative energies, ideas, performances, poetry, music, dance, banners, signs, props, puppets, theatrics and any nonviolent artistic presence that you can possibly muster! Let's work together to make this a great success! Our program includes: � Speakers * Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa; Author, The Globalization of Poverty. * Marion Dewar, former Mayor of Ottawa; former president, New Democratic Party; former NDP MP * Philippe Duhamel, nonviolent resistance organizer, SalAMI * Jean-Claude Parrot, Executive Vice-President, Canadian Labour Congress * Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, Canadian Orthodox Archdiocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church * Mel Watkins, Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Toronto; President, Science for Peace - Canada * Theresa Wolfwood, founder, Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation, Victoria; Board Member, Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group * Laurel Smith, organizer with Homes Not Bombs * Susanne Wall, Disarmament/Racial and Economic Justice intern, Fellowship of Reconciliation - USA � Music * Balkan Express * Ian Tamblyn * Ottawa Raging Grannies * Terry Tufts and Kathryn Briggs � Workshops * Nonviolent action (Matthew Behrens, Homes Not Bombs) * Revolutionary Songwriting (Alma Norman, Ottawa Raging Grannies) * Theatre in Resistance (Laurel Smith, Artistic Producer & Director, Burning Passions Theatre) � Remembrance * David Morgan, President, Veterans Against Nuclear Arms Canada � Speaker Phone (connected to our sound system) * Arun Gandhi, founder-director, M.K.Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, grandson of Mohandas) * Helen Caldicott (of "If You Love this Planet" fame) � Launch of global web petition to abolish NATO � Literature tables (NGO's are invited to bring tables and materials � Photo displays: (1) Hiroshima and Nagasaki, (2) NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia Your help is needed: > Bring yourself and your creative talents to the festival! > Publicize the event as widely as possible! > Contribute some financial support to COAT! > Ask NGOs to endorse the event! > Arrange for buses to get people to Ottawa from out of town > Join our list serve (see the end of this email) ==================================== There are two general overall purposes of the No to NATO: Festival of Creative NonViolence: (1) TO CELEBRATE NONVIOLENCE! This event will be a festive venue to celebrate the diversity of creative nonviolence. By promoting nonviolence at this festival, we are saying to the public, the media, corporations, governments and NATO that nonviolence is a powerful medium of expression, an age-old tradition and an effective process for cultural change. We are proud to embrace nonviolence in our efforts to build a culture of peace. As AJ Muste wisely said: "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." And, as Marshall McLuhan cleverly said, "The medium is the message." Many activists struggle behind the scenes for peace, human rights, justice, the environment, and other worthy causes. By focusing on nonviolence, we hope to strengthen public awareness, appreciation, support and respect for our work. Another quotation comes to mind, this one from Rodney Dangerfield: "I don't get no respect." The festival is also a way of building our community. We don't want to preach to the converted, but it sure helps when we work together to strengthen the ties and links of solidarity between us. Activists and organizations, not only in Ottawa but around the world, have already come together through this event. That, in itself, has several useful spin-offs. There will be lots of "networking" at the event, just as there has already been lots of "networking," during the lead up to it. We are gathering endorsements from supportive NGOs around the world. These links of solidarity with organizers and groups will no doubt be useful in many future struggles. And, let's not forget that having fun -- whether through sharing a laugh at NATO's expense, watching satirical street theatre that lambasts our politicians or just joking around with activists you've never met before -- is part of the very serious business of staying sane while we struggle to make this crazy world a better place. Another quote, this one from "Red Emma" Goldberg comes to mind: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be a part of your revolution." (2) TO EXPRESS OPPOSITION TO NATO! Nonviolent opposition to NATO's violence is an equally important purpose of the festival. The NATO Parliamentary Assembly meetings in Ottawa, Oct. 5-8, are a good opportunity for us to communicate our sincere, deep-felt opposition to the criminal actions and violent policies of NATO. We wish to publicize our critiques of NATO as clearly and as widely as possible. We've created a preliminary list of 24 "Reasons to Oppose NATO" (See <http://www.flora.org/coat/forum/196>). It needs more work, but it's a start. I hope every one of the points on this list (and more) will be expressed at the festival. The bottom line is we are holding NATO accountable for it's violations of international law. They should not be above the law. They should not have impunity. Media desperation to cover "protest violence" should not be used to cover up NATO's ulraviolence. For Canadian activists, this event is an important chance to focus on the goal of getting Canada out of NATO. Hopefully, through building this festival, COAT will receive enough interest and support to launch a nation-wide public education campaign around the issue of getting Canada out of NATO. This festival has already helped us to build links with many activists and NGOs in other countries that also oppose NATO. Together we can share ideas, experiences and resources. Together we can organize campaigns to push our governments to withdraw from, or not join, the juggernaut of NATO. For more information on the festival, check out the archives of our list serve <http://www.flora.org/coat/forum/> Richard Sanders Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) A national peace network supported by individuals and organizations across Canada 541 McLeod St., Ottawa Ontario K1R 5R2 Canada Tel.: 613-231-3076 Fax: 613-231-2614 Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Web site: <http://www.ncf.ca/coat> ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Help build opposition to NATO PA meetings in Ottawa, Oct. 5-8, 2001! 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