About twenty people from various autonomous communities today stormed the NATO military base in Bétera (Valencia) dressed as clowns and wearing white overalls bearing the message “Disobey wars” in an anti-military action calling for disobedience “to wars and armies”.

To access the manoeuvres area of the military base, the group, part of the Antimilitarist Alternative-Movement of Conscientious Objection (MOC), cut part of a small wire fence and entered the precinct, where, with the intention of turning it into “a skating rink”, played a series of ball games, juggled and skipped for almost one hour.

Guardia Civil agents proceeded to identify the demonstrators, who then left the Cuartel General de Alta Disponibilidad. According to organisers, this action was a call “for active refusal to participate in military actions and for non co-operation with preparations for war”. According to a press release by Antimilitarist Alternative, “while the eco of civil mobilisations against the military aggression against Iraq has not yet died down, the Spanish government is silently working to prepare the next one: 40 million euros daily to keep the war machine well greased up and half of public funds going on investigations into new weapons systems.”