I will not speak about everything we have spoken about.

My organisation the Comité Surveillance OTAN (The NATO Surveillance Committee) is certainly in agreement with everything that has been expressed here. I will just remind you that at the beginning of the SMO the Belgian peace movement became instantly divided. Probably something like 70% to 30% of groups condemning RUSSIA and those not condemning Russia. This is similar to the beginning of the Gaza conflict. Many organisations and politicians begin with a condemnation of Hamas and the other militant organisations that did the Al Aqsa Flood. Restating of course the right of Israel to defend itself. And then the organisation or person can begin to explain all of the important aspects of the genocide, its history, its planning, its imperial implications and the real goals of Israel and of course the problem with the support of ISRAEL by the US and Europe.

My political party the PTB [Belgian Workers Party] for example also condemned fervently the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Afterwards it resists and condemns the supplying of the Ukraine state for the war of course. You know even my buddhist Sanga would never have supported the invasion by Russia of Ukraine. And yet it can understand how the West with direction of the USA engineered the conflict. We all know the details.

I won’t restate the important points already repeated by most everyone all this day. I will say that we are faced with a intellectual and administrative elite in government, business, media, and so on that have been formed during the last 30 years at least. These nomenklaturas is guilty of bringing us into these three wars: Ukraine, Israel and China – the coming war that has already begun. So these elites, politicians and thought leaders must be fought.

Why? Because they are still there! We might think that the war is lost and there is no way that Ukraine can prevail. But THEY DO NOT. They are obviously doubling down, continuing to go against the obvious history that is playing out. They have no chance in winning this war and yet they pursue it against everyone’s interest.

Especially the future generations. What world are we giving to our children? What world are our leaders making for their own children and grandchildren. I say that they are being traitors to their children and grandchildren. I say that they are contributing to a world of hot and cold war that is fully incompatible with survival of the species. Not only because they are ruining all cooperation between generations of people in the different countries such as Russia and China and our countries, but because of the obsession with war, that is ACTUALLY an obsession with not “LOOSING” the war, with not losing “FACE” that is with avoiding accountability and then “justice”. You see we must begin to attack the scoundrels. We must begin to undermine their war system. We must begin to embarrass the protagonists of this disaster. We must make fun of them. We must ridicule them. We must make them appear as they are – ignorant, propagandised, imperialist enablers who were brought up on the illusion of a capitalist fantasy of moral authority built upon the success and inspiration of the American Way that is unchallenged and will protect our way of life forever and ever! This fantasy must be dismantled.

For this, we must enlist more generations of people. Of younger people and of middle-aged people and very young people. For this we must explain all of this shit to them. For this we cannot speak in ways that you and I understand easily using our jargon, our nomenclature, and our complex terms. However, we can explain things in simpler terms. For these generations to become interested we must attract their attention. They need to be interested, visually, sensually, intellectually and emotionally. As Gaza has inspired huge amounts of young people, as well with the climate movement that has attracted huge amounts of young people.

From my work in the climate movement that was before this anti-war movement, I learned that in order to create engagement and for this to grow and to sustain itself that it is essential to make the work 1 important, relevant, with a narrative where the activist becomes a protagonist in a heroic story that will save our civilisation. 2 we must make it nourishing, people need to find meaning, connection, purpose, success and cool activities with creativity and diversity 3 it must be fun, it cannot only be hard and boring and complicated, there must be smiles, laughter, games, chants, music, dance, artwork… we need beauty for itself,  it must attractive for everyone and that its form makes people feel safe and also relevant and important and enjoyable.

We must use simple methods not just doom stories and political analysis. We must write stories about what can be. What the world is going to look like if we continue down this path of war – no possibility to travel to Russia, to the east to China and with a majority of the world as our enemies – the BRICS for example… and we must describe a world that can be as we find a solution to bring a durable peace and cooperation between countries and civilisations. We must describe a utopia if we want to have the smallest chance at creating one.

Therefore, let us bring young people into our organisations and give them the job of painting and choreographing our great story, ask them to make the playlist for the march, and the banners for the parade, the dance for the celebration and the vegetarian food for the meeting.

A couple ideas. Posters, stickers, stamps and graffiti, t-shirts, pins, video clips, tic toc, murals in the city, postcards, and finally dance. Attract and engage the creative class. NATO will not be able to counter creativity.  

Now I give you an example.

Please rise.

From a book by Joanna Macy: We are nature… defending herself.