Easter tree planter cultivate peace

by: Les Gibbons

Tree planters in Sweden..
PHOTO: Les Gibbons , les.gibbons1@ntlworld.com

Sweden: This April I travelled from the UK to Sweden to refresh my conviction for planting trees inside and outside places that promote terror, conduct dehumanising research, produce weapons and export violence. The weather was brisk, but it was the coldness and brutality of the research and weapon making factories that reminded me of the potential for a much fiercer winter.

My personal involvement was not, in fact, all that it seemed, though planting tree was one of my priorities, my secret motive was to gain more qualitative experience walking and working alongside other Swedish peacemakers in the planning and preparation of proactive nonviolent resistance. We were determined to continue the planting to show the advantages of creative, reflective practice and active participation over ineffectual complaining.

The nonviolence training we completed before setting out made our community both strong and vulnerable. With art and song, we were able to accommodate a range of emotions from sadness and joy to tears and laughter. As the time for walking came, it was great to get going with new friends, people I felt I was getting to know fast. At times we walked silently crunching snow underfoot, walked in pairs meditatively, or made brief art happen on the hop. We saw beautiful forests and frozen lakes. I began gradually to see ‘spring steaming down the tracks’ as we got closer to our first geographical destination, Karlskoga.

We all knew that the snow and cold weather was not the real challenge. Rather, we were walking headlong towards something far more sinister some of Sweden’s booming weapons manufacturers. Our goal was to visit ‘Bofors’ at Karlsgoga, where the Howitz is manufactured, and the Ericsson Microwave factory in Gothenburg to hurry along spring with a little planting of vine and fig trees.

Our first plantings took place at Bofors, which was previously the site of a series of Ploughshares actions. We stated our demand for real disarmament now, calling on the weapon producers to halt their current work. Much of our work is under the idea that talks can be beneficial to assist the long and difficult process of disarmament.

After, some members went on to Getenburg for further planting at Ericsson, where six of us were arrested and eventually released without charges. We did, however, get our trees planted first, an action that was more than symbolic. Spring got sprung on Ericsson’s land!

None of this would have happened without the excellent hospitality of the church people on our route and the responsible lovely people backing us up throughout the walk and the nonviolent actions. And afterwards, I ate ice cream.

A full report of the action can be found in PN 2473.For more details, see http://ickevald.net/vineandfigtreeplanters/.