Peace on the Streets
Action for Peace #2
What happened?
“Peace on the streets” was a 5-day training which gathered 31 participants from different countries. The idea of the training was to bring non-formal peace education to the streets of Europe and to as a consequence increase public understanding around militarism. The participants of the training were encouraged to reflect upon non-violence and civil protest related to anti-militarism and civil resistance. They were guided with non-formal methods to get a common understanding of anti-militarism and to come up with new and creative street action that effectively target war and militarism in our societies. During the training the participants have translated their aim into action and have created Banners, Slogans, Flyers for a Demonstration which was then implemented in front of the ministry of defense in Vienna.
The activists marched in front of the ministry and stopped in front of the entrance next to the pedestrian street in order to protest against the compulsory military service in Austria.
They started to spell a slogan to ask the abolition of the military service and meanwhile other activists distributed some flyers to the pedestrians on the street. During the demonstration the activists simulated the typical military selection. One activist was dressed as nurse, another one as military and a third was acting as the young person going to be selected for the military service. The person who was acting as the young selected who was checked, measured, rated with a number and later got painted with the military colors as symbol of his transformation from civil to a soldier, loosing his personality in order to “serve his country” against potential enemies.
The action was short because the meaning was to organize a flesh protest but of course the authority was previously informed about the demonstration action.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
DATE:
1st – 7th June, 2019
LOCATION:
Vienna, Austria
IMPLEMENTED BY:
SCI Austria
EMAIL:
