MUNICH Every February the NATO Munich Security Conference takes place. This year the official organiser of the conference is BMW's own Herbert Quandt foundation. It's a meeting of administration officials of the NATO-member states and about 200 military strategists, generals and experts on military equipment - the alliance between capital and the military could hardly be better demonstrated. For the participants of the Conference on Security Policy the central themes are the planning of current and future wars, the establishment of powerful, mobile armies, the development of new billion-dollar weapons systems and this year (surprise, surprise!) 'Terrorism' and 'global security' which could mean anything really (just ask David Blunkett). It's obvious that it is only the security of the US and the EU and its capital that is being discussed at the conference. What security does this system offer a Bolivian small farmer or Philippine woman working 16-hour days in a branded-label textile sweatshop? How secure is the future for the unemployed youth in the suburbs of Paris, or for a refugee in a deportation prison at Frankfurt Airport? The conference has a pretty good track record. In 1998 US military operations in Iraq were on the agenda and the question of using German air force bases. Last year they talked about how the EU could join in with the US Missile Defence System madness. A conflict of interests between the USA and their European NATO allies call for their own EU-military block was resolved in November last year, when the foreign and defence ministers of NATO members took over the West-European Defence Union - this is being replaced by the EU 'rapid deployment force'. By 2003 this new intervention strike force of 60,000 soldiers is due to be available for 'assignment' anywhere around the globe, which means the EU will have its own private mobile army. Just to show some appreciation for all the effort over the years and all the good work NATO are doing in Afghanistan a well known travelling circus will be in Munich for a 'Carnival against NATO'. From 1st - 3rd February, the Pink n Silver brigade will be causing a commotion in Munich while others stuff custard pies in the faces of WEF (World Economic Forum) in New York. email:[EMAIL PROTECTED] & www.anti-nato.de.vu/
