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Background:
Since its founding in 1949, NATO has acted as an armed wing of US-led war and imperialism, mobilizing its 29 member states in North America and Europe to unleash lethal military campaigns in the name of “collective defence, crisis management and cooperative security.” In reality, that is in defense of the interests of US imperialism and its allies.
The truth is that NATO has been a prime actor in wars of aggression, the enforcement of sanctions, and military occupations that have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in countries from Afghanistan, to Iraq, and Libya. As part of its policy to surround and contain Russia, NATO has built up its presence in the Black Sea and Mediterranean including US bases and use of bases in Greece and Cyprus. NATO continues to destabilize sovereign countries and prop up fascist governments across Europe, including in Poland, Ukraine, Turkey and Hungary. NATO gives unwavering support to Israel’s genocidal occupation of Palestine, and NATO member Turkey has initiated military aggression in North and East Syria and in South Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) in a brutal war to eliminate the Kurdish people, toward the goal of strengthening NATO in the Middle East. So-called humanitarian missions conducted by NATO place humanitarian aid in a military framework that prioritizes making regions secure for investment and geopolitical interests of its member states. Around the world, NATO states maintain an intricate network of military bases and military installations, which violate national sovereignty and cause environmental damage and social disruption.
To support its insatiable hunger for militarism, NATO continues to demand larger military budgets and greater military spending from each of its member states, leaving much-needed social services for working people chronically underfunded. NATO pushes the bogus line of nuclear deterrence, essentially supporting the nuclear build up of its nuclear-armed members and even preventing its members from signing the TPNW (Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons).
Now NATO seeks to launch its new strategic initiative “NATO 2030," which identifies its principal security concerns as not only Russia, but also China, terrorism, cyber attacks and emerging disruptive technologies. This forebodes a dangerous expansion of NATO even further into the Asia Pacific region, as NATO increases its intelligence activities, investment in military readiness--including weapons, military exercises, bases and installations-- and collaboration with repressive regimes in the region.
As the preeminent alliance of the most economically and politically powerful allies of the US, NATO is still the premier force bolstering US-led war today. Through NATO, the US has access to any military base, domestic or overseas, of any of its members. The US also is the primary decision-maker when it comes to NATO missions, meaning that all of the pooled resources of member countries are at the US’s fingertips to fund its destructive operations. Truly, the US would not be at the helm of the majority of wars of aggression today if it were not for the NATO alliance.
The people reject NATO as a tool of US-led war! NATO and its proponents will never achieve real peace and security for the masses of the world. The people can only attain a genuine just peace by organizing for justice and social equity and by forging solidarity amongst peoples, including the recognition of the right to self-determination, economic, and food sovereignty, and self-defense of nations and oppressed peoples from reactionary violence, including US and NATO-led aggression. We must:
Pledge to Resist NATO:
- Expose and oppose all NATO-led wars of aggression and intervention as attacks against the people
- Fight to end all US and NATO military exercises, weapons testing, arms sales, and military stockpiling in any country or territory they take place in
- Shut down overseas bases used by NATO member countries for their global operations
- End sanctions, cyberwarfare, mass surveillance and other “hybrid war” tactics used by NATO against the people of other countries
- Expose and disrupt meetings of NATO officials, staff and representatives
- Cut all ties with NATO member countries and NATO-backed states in which state fascism is on the rise
- Push all NATO member countries to immediately sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and end all research, development and production of new nuclear armaments
- Build movements to urge countries to withdraw from NATO
Pledge to Build a Global Movement for Just Peace:
- Learn from, build unity with and take action in solidarity with the nations and peoples under attack from NATO aggression
- All NATO member countries end spending on NATO and invest the funds in social spending
- Ensure environmental remediation, health access and compensation for victims of US and NATO-led militarism and war
- Strengthen all movements for sovereignty, democracy and social, economic, political and environmental justice to fight for the conditions for a just and lasting peace
- Build the movement to resist US-led war