World Peace Council call to action for Global Day of Protest Against NATO

Thursday, May 15, 2014

On August 30, 2014 the World Peace Council calls on the peace loving people in the world to mobilize for a Global Day of Protest against NATO

2014: Centenary of the First World War -75 years from the beginning of World War II
The year 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. It was one of the deadliest imperialist conflicts in human history, a tragedy that killed 17 million people. It was described as “the war to end all wars,” but today, a century later, the military potential to destroy lives and a liveable environment is at a terrifying level and continues to rise.

Everyday, all over the world, people suffer from armed conflicts, military build-up, occupation, acts of intimidation and aggression, modernization and proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. The capitalist economic crisis is further aggravating peoples’ life while profits of the war industries are growing. The ground for military aggressions and imperialist wars was never determined by accidental events or personal decisions.

The centenary of World War One should be a moment for reflection, for strengthening peace and for encouraging international friendship and solidarity on the basis of equality and respect for the sovereignty of the peoples.. It must be directed toward ending economic domination of the monopolies and multinational corporations as well as towards aggressive military alliances. Therefore, we should act against NATO, the number 1 war machine in the world. The World Peace Council, founded shortly after the end of the World War II under the slogan “No more War-No more Fascism” underlines the need to draw conclusions from the period which led to the Nazi invasion to Poland on 1st September 1939 and the beginning of the second World War. The growing imperialist ambitions of Nazi Germany then met with the imperialist agenda of other forces, who did not oppose the German expansion to the East in the beginning. The glorious resistance of peoples against Fascism and Nazism in combination with the struggle and the tens of millions of victims of the USSR, led to the liberation of Europe from fascism and the victory of the peoples. The post war international situation, the foundation of the UN and its charter created a new situation for the peoples and their strive for freedom and sovereignty. All this is being fiercely challenged and overthrown today, efforts to substitute often the UN by NATO are at place, neo-fascist forces are on the grow in many parts of Europe serving reactionary ideologies and plans against the peoples. The WPC opposes the growing militarization of international relations, the imperialist plans for the “Great Middle East”, the “Pivot of USA to Asia”, and the interference in the sovereign affairs of peoples and nations in Latin America.

NATO: Imperialism's key military tool- 65 years of crimes against humanity
NATO is the largest, strongest and most aggressive military alliance in the world today. Firmly dominated by US-imperialism, NATO is also a pillar of the European Union's defense strategy. NATO currently has 28 member states across North America and Europe. Another 22 countries are engaged in the so-called Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC). Next to this another 19 countries are engaged with NATO through programs such as the “Mediterranean Dialogue”, the “Istanbul Cooperation Initiative” or the “Partnership for Peace” across the globe.

Since 1991, NATO's has aggressively expanded its membership and theatre of operations. This fact alone reveals its fundamental purpose: to be a key tool of Western imperialist domination of the globe.

NATO is an enemy of peace. NATO is committed to the doctrines of first strike and pre-emptive strikes. As an offensive military alliance it stands ready to intervene before diplomacy has been given a proper chance, if such is in the interest of Western imperialism. NATO's expansion and provocations – as the current crisis in Ukraine demonstrates – are directly responsible for destabilization, unrest, violence and war.

NATO is an enemy of the peoples. When it intervenes, its members regularly use toxic weapons containing depleted uranium or white phosphor. Moreover, NATO considers nuclear weapons to be a fundamental part of its defense strategy. The alliance aggressively pursues and promotes military provocation and intervention all around the globe, and the results are always increased destruction, displacement, and death. The examples of the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the creation of the protectorate of Kosovo, in Afghanistan and Libya, as well as the aggression against Syria, all bear witness to the disastrous humanitarian impact of NATO’s intervention. In Iraq, where NATO took on part of the reconstruction effort, it brought neither peace nor democracy.

NATO is an enemy of peace and of the peoples. Without any public debate, NATO’s European member states are hosting U.S. nuclear weapons on their territory. In 2010 a secret agreement on the deployment of modernized versions of B61 warheads extended this presence by several decades, not leaving any space for democratic debate on the matter. Through its Article 5 as well, the NATO alliance imposes obligations on member states that are incompatible with the sovereign right of states to decide on peace and war.

The coming summit of NATO in Wales will adopt and further develop the Lisbon summit decisions (2010), will use old and new pretexts for its role as “world sheriff” securing markets, energy resources and spheres of influence, to the detriment of the peoples rights and needs. The dissolution of NATO must be a priority for those defending peace, social justice and progress, along with the right of every people to struggle for the disengagement from it.

We call upon all peace loving people and organizations to mark the August 30, as a Global Day of Protest Against NATO, demanding its dissolution!

WPC May 2014

Tags: