The escalation of the conflict in Ukraine between the United States and its allies, on the one hand, and the Russian Federation, on the other, must be stopped immediately. The consequences of a conflict in Ukraine would be disastrous.
That is why I am publishing the Europe for PeaceDeclaration, which we and other humanists wrote in 2007. Noam Chomsky and Mikhail Gorbachev, in Italy Giulietto Chiesa, Dario Fo, Angelo Baracca, Beppe Grillo, Margherita Hack, Alex Zanotelli and many others endorsed this declaration.
The campaign spread around the world, helping among other things to stop the installation of a US military base in the Czech Republic. This declaration can be a moment of reflection for a pacifist and non-violent campaign for peace in Ukraine.
EUROPE FOR PEACE
A Europe free from nuclear weapons
All over the world scientists and artists, military and pacifists, women and men, young and old say: war is a disaster!
Europe represents for many an aspiration, an economic model, a cultural reference, the very idea of well-being and social security. The European Union is growing and new countries are always asking to be part of it.
Europe wants to “promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples”, but this desire clashes with a reality that has changed rapidly in recent years: international terrorism, the war in Iraq, the use of violence for resolving international, regional and local conflicts, the strategy of preventive warfare and above all a new mad race for nuclear arms.
The statements by the United States and France on the possibility of first using the atomic bomb against terrorism, the statements by Japan on the possibility of entering the atomic world for defensive purposes, the intention of Iran and North Korea to continue in their nuclear program, they leave everyone dismayed.
L’Europa, abdicando al suo ruolo di potenza economica e culturale mondiale, frammentata nei suoi governi nazionali e subordinata alla strategia politica militare degli Stati Uniti, accetta l’installazione di nuove basi, favorendo l‘aggravarsi delle tensioni internazionali.
Peoples across Europe, on the other hand, are asking: let’s give peace a chance!
Europe must not support any policy that drags the planet towards catastrophe: here the lives of millions of people are at stake, the very future of humanity is at stake. Nuclear weapons must be dismantled today before they are used; later it would be too late. Let the politicians rise to the occasion or step aside!
Europe has the historic opportunity to be a positive and driving model for all those countries that are on the way to regional integration in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Europe has the opportunity to initiate an international policy of relaxation and peace, which can open up new horizons and new paths that human beings need to travel. Europe has the opportunity to lead an epochal change as the vanguard of the Universal Human Nation.
We ask that Europe choose a policy of peace, decisive and non-violent. We ask as urgent and indispensable measures:
– a Europe free from nuclear weapons: to demand from the United States the withdrawal of all nuclear devices present in the US-NATO bases for their dismantling, and the elimination of the nuclear arsenals of France and Great Britain, as the first steps to start the UN-supervised global nuclear disarmament program.
– declare nuclear weapons illegal under the 1996 International Tribunal ruling.
– the cancellation of any agreement for the installation or expansion of military bases of foreign powers on the territory.
– the withdrawal of the troops of European countries from the occupied territories.
– the search for diplomatic mediation and dialogue for the resolution of conflicts.
In the streets of the big cities and their suburbs, in the small urban and rural centers of Europe, something new is being born: a sweet but powerful symphony, which like a hurricane overwhelms every injustice, every abuse, every violence. Nobody will be able to silence her, because it is the deepest hope of the human being.
Friends from all over Europe, let us build a Europe of peace with the strength of non-violence!
Prague, February 22, 2007
Europe fo Peace