PfL joins No Bases! international coordinating body

Peace for Life has accepted the invitation of the No Bases! Network (International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases) to be a member of its International Coordinating Committee (ICC). Peace for Life joined this alliance recognising the great importance of a coordinated worldwide campaign against the global presence and continuing proliferation of foreign military bases, and of their abolition as an essential precondition to world peace.

Representing Peace for Life in the ICC are Rev. Eunice Santana and Carmencita Karagdag, PfL moderator and coordinator, respectively. Helga Serrano of ACJ-Ecuador (Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes [YMCA] de Ecuador) and member of the PfL Continuation Committee, is one of the founding members of the No Bases! Network and is instrumental in engaging Peace for Life in this intiative.

No Bases! was formally established in Ecuador in March 2007 during a conference attended by over 400 participants from 40 countries. The landmark conference was the culmination of over three years of bringing people together, raising public awareness on the issue, and building the organisational foundation of the network. It also marked a new phase in advancing the struggle for the abolition of foreign military bases.

To strengthen the network’s capacity for collective action, the conference agreed on establishing an International Coordinating Committee which will be tasked with, among others, coordinating and mobilising resources for the network’s global campaigns, supporting local struggles that promote the network’s objectives worldwide, facilitating information-sharing and communication within the network, and establishing strategic alliances with other movements.

The ICC will also act as the reference for ongoing engagement with the global public on the issue of bases by issuing timely statements, providing required information, and connecting the media with organisations at the forefront of struggles against military bases.

No Bases! maintains an open, pluralist, and diverse character, and is open to all organisations that subscribe to the network’s bases of unity and objectives, as articulated in the conference declaration. It runs a website that carries a wealth of resources and data on foreign military bases around the world.

No Bases Network born in the Middle of the World (Helga Serrano, 27 March 2007)

External links:

International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases (website)
Declaration: International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases (8 March 2007, Quito, Ecuador)
Recommended article: America’s Empire of Bases (Chalmers Johnson, 15 January 2004)