Declaration of the 3rd International Conference “No to Military Bases & War”

Our stand against war is irrevocable! For this reason, we personally and politically oppose, using solely peaceful and non-violent methods, the intended war of the USA and some of its NATO allies against Iran and Venezuela!

The infrastructure, logistics and command structures of the Ramstein Air Base play a central role in the potential war against Iran.

There should be no support for an illegal war against Iran coming from Ramstein.

At this conference, we reiterate our rejection of the US Air Base Ramstein. We call on the Federal Government and the German Bundestag to terminate the Treaty on the stationing of foreign armed forces in Germany – the “Troop Stationing Treaty”, to remove all US/NATO Bases and nuclear weapons. This would enable the closure of the Ramstein Air Base within 24 months. Nevertheless, the jobs of the civilian population must be secured through a comprehensive conversion plan, which must meet the trade union demands of “good work.”

The US-Air Base in Ramstein is a central foreign military base, but only one out of about 1,000 worldwide. Our goal is to realize the closure of all of these bases. This would be a significant contribution to world peace, but also to the protection of our environment and climate. It is a political scandal that no international climate agreements emphasize the destructive role the military is playing in threatening and destroying our environment. The military is a main climate killer.

Disarmament and the dismantling of all military bases signifies active climate protection. There are

almost 1,000 military bases worldwide. With arms spending at well over a trillion euros and a confrontation with Russia, NATO states stand at the center of militarism and represent the central threat to peace in today’s world. Peace and global justice are incompatible with the global military alliance of NATO. For these reasons, we strongly support the activities of the international network “No to war – no to NATO.” Since 2009, this network is working to delegitimize NATO. Together with the British peace movement, the international network is organizing counteractions against the next NATO summit taking place in London in December: a counter-summit, demonstrations and further protest actions are currently being planned.

We reiterate the central demand of the network for the dissolution of NATO in accordance with national conditions and call on the governments of NATO member states to withdraw from NATO.

We will continue our activities against all foreign military bases, following in the tradition of meetings in Ramstein, Baltimore, Dublin and Florence. We will also continue to strengthen our networking.

This is why we will meet again in Ramstein 2020.

Until then, let’s prepare an international day of action against foreign military bases in April/May 2020. And let’s try to involve more anti-military base groups.

Supported by the foreign speakers: Pat Elder, USA, John Lannon, Ireland, Alain Rouy, France, Vincenzo Santiglia, Italy, Dave Webb, UK and Ann Wright, USA