The war in Ukraine rages on. The civil war in the eastern Donbass region has seen over 14,000 deaths since the 2014 US-backed coup in Kiev. While numbers are not agreed upon by all sources, it is likely that 2,000 to 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 5,000 to 6,000 Russian soldiers have been killed with nearly 600 civilians killed and nearly 1,000 civilians injured since Russia’s military invasion. Over 2.5 million refugees have fled the country, including many migrants and overseas workers who face discrimination and further violence by border guards. Russia has become the most sanctioned country in the world, with its people losing access to many affordable goods and bans on Russian oil imports skyrocketing gas prices around the world. Ukrainian President Zelensky addressed US Congress in which he asked for a US-enforced No Fly Zone, a move that would bring the US and every NATO country into an open World War with Russia, with nuclear-armed powers on either side.
State fascism is bred, armed and directed by war-making powers as a form of foreign intervention. Imperialist states use their fascist puppets to wage wars on their behalf, as has been happening with the US-led war between the Ukrainian government and the people of the Donbass region since 2014, and in many other areas of the world. War and fascism therefore have a strong connection and must be struggled against simultaneously.
The dominant narrative on wars today over-simplifies conflicts as “good vs evil,” “democracy vs authoritarianism,” “peacemakers vs terrorists.” Erased from the narrative are the history of the roots of these conflicts and the competing interests at stake for imperialist countries which use militarism and war to secure control over territory, natural resources, and markets in a multi-polar world. People’s resistance is hidden and downplayed as insignificant, or otherwise demonized as terrorist threats.
The ICN will undertake a campaign of education and actions calling for an end to US-led war, the driving political forces of militarism and wars of aggression today, and their grave impacts on the people. Special emphasis will be given on clarifying the inter-imperialist nature of the current world system and the appropriate characterization of militaristic states in line with their place in this system.
A key component will focus on NATO, its role as a diplomatic and military arm of US imperialism (and therefore US-led war) in general and in provoking the war in Ukraine at present, and effective targets for organizing against it. The campaign will kick off in May with a global “telethon” of indignation actions on the war in Ukraine.
A major peak will take place in June targeting the NATO Summit in Madrid, with a Resist US-Led War tour through Belgium, France, Spain and the Netherlands, featuring anti-NATO actions, educational discussions, visit to a refugee camp, and anti-imperialist anti-war youth camp.
The global peak for the campaign will be International Peace Day in September 2022 with actions challenging the United Nations narrative on peace and promoting peoples’ resistance to war and struggles for just peace.
In between the launch and the peaks, we will employ a social media strategy to actively engage people, draw them into the campaign, and build momentum to each peak. We will also conduct educational webinars on food security/insecurity, refugees and forced displacement, and environmental destruction exacerbated by war and militarism. The webinars will help to deepen people’s understanding of the root causes of these problems and their connection to war, and draw into the campaign more people who may be working separately on these issues
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