SAY NO TO NATO | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation

NATO: A RECKONING

On its 75th anniversary, NATO – the so-called “defence alliance” - appears to be at the height of its offensive power. German politician and NATO expert Sevim Dagdelen explains NATO’s bloody trail. With its thirst for geopolitical expansion, she says NATO today is driving the world closer to the brink of a third world war than ever before. What began with the delivery of helmets to Ukraine is now a call for soldiers on the frontline in a war that will only K*ll many thousands more. It is time for a reckoning, demands Sevim Dagdelen. 

NATO: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

NATO has remade itself repeatedly, as its past purposes have disappeared. In the last 35 years it has been part of wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. It has played a major role in Ukraine, and supported warmaking by Israel. NATO is now expanding rapidly, both in geography and in scope, adding partners from Colombia to Mongolia to Australia, and claiming a role in policing, immigration, economics, public budgeting, scientific research, and environmental protection.

With pointed investigations of how NATO's decisions are made, the widely misunderstood question of the way it is funded, its relationship to international law, and the available alternatives to it, NATO: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW is an indispensable primer on an organization that not only confronts expanding military conflict but, the authors contend, plays an active part in its escalation.

Medea Benjamin, David Swanson, and Sevim Dagdelen are joining us on the Busboys stage to  discuss how social upheaval caused by rapid militarisation, the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, and the encirclement of China in Asia could rapidly change the global landscape in an unprecedented way.

This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed. 

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Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK.  She has been in the halls of Congress for the past 8 months protesting the genocide in Gaza. She is the author of 11 books, including books on Saudi Arabia, Iran, Drone Warfare and Ukraine. Her most recent book, coauthored with David Swanson, is NATO: What You Need to Know.

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director of World BEYOND War and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk World Radio. He is a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.

Swanson was awarded the 2018 Peace Prize by the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation. He was also awarded a Beacon of Peace Award by the Eisenhower Chapter of Veterans For Peace in 2011, and the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award by New Jersey Peace Action in 2022, and a Global Peace Leadership & Excellence Award in 2024.

Swanson is on the advisory boards of: Nobel Peace Prize Watch, Veterans For Peace, Assange Defense, BPUR, Military Families Speak Out, Fields of Peace, and Peace in Ukraine Coalition. He is an Associate of the Transnational Foundation, and a Patron of Platform for Peace and Humanity. He is on the Consultative Council of the SHAPE Project. He is on the International Coordinating Committee of No to War – No to NATO.

Find David Swanson at MSNBC, C-Span, Democracy Now, The Guardian, Counter Punch, Common Dreams, Truthout, Daily Progress, Amazon.com, TomDispatch, The Hook, etc.

Sevim Dagdelen has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2005. The politician is foreign policy spokesperson for the group “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance: Reason and Justice" (BSW) and member of the parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs. Sevim Dagdelen is a member of the US Parliamentary Group. She was a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly for many years, in which parliamentarians from the member countries of the military pact discuss security and defense policy issues. She was the first MP to visit journalist and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012. Since then, she has been actively campaigning worldwide for ending his prosecution, both within and outside parliament.

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