FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 1, 2026
Contact: Norwyn Crame, Resistance for Peace, Democracy and Liberation, +447864908879
No Peace Without Democracy and Liberation: Brussels Festival Gathers Voices of Resistance to US-NATO Imperialist War Drive
BRUSSELS– Over 120 people gathered in downtown Brussels last Saturday for the People’s Festival of Resistance sponsored by the Resistance for Peace, Democracy and Liberation campaign network and the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS) Europe chapter. Attendees and speakers came from a variety of organisations including social movements and grassroots community organizations of peace and climate activists, women organizations, youth and students, migrant and workers alliances and progressive political parties. Diaspora representatives of countries waging national liberation struggles against US-NATO-led wars of aggression and occupation from Iran, the Philippines, Venezuela, Kurdistan, Palestine and Cyprus also participated at the event.
The festival took place 2 days after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte met with US Undersecretary of War Elbridge Colby on matters of military cooperation globally, including operations and partnerships in West Asia and the Indo-Pacific.
“The international system under imperialism is wrought with deepening crisis, intensifying war, and growing instability. These crises also reveal contradictions of imperialist powers themselves,” opened Oz Karahan, President of the Union of Cypriots, in welcoming the festival gathering. “As anti-imperialists, we know that there is no liberation in choosing between rival imperialist powers. Here in Europe that price is already being demanded. Military budgets are expanding while public resources are shrinking.”
The festival posited that inter-imperialist rivalries and competition inevitably grows peoples’ resistance.
“The people’s response is to struggle and build a united front of all forces fighting US imperialism and imperialist wars,” stated keynote speaker Victor Garces, ILPS Vice-Chair for Internal Affairs.
Building the Solidarity of Protest and Resistance for Peace, Democracy and Liberation
The two-day festival was filled with speaker panels and workshops, as well as cultural performances. The event provided an important space for sharing on the geopolitical situation, struggles, perspectives, lessons, and strategies for resistance to build peace, defend rights and freedoms and uphold liberation amidst escalating and endless wars and militarism waged by imperialist states.
Panelist Ludo De Brabander of the Belgium-based Stop Militarization, Stop Re-Arm Europe Network, spoke of the post-Cold War existence and orientation of NATO as an instrument of US imperialism to enact and serve its geopolitical agenda of dominance over countries. Brabander also pointed out that war rhetoric and propaganda has created such a climate of fear in Europe that “people are willing to trade prosperity for increased militarization and fascism.”
“Even when the balance of power seems unequal, history shows that resistance can bring change: rights and protections have never been simply handed down, but won through collective action,” Brabander emphasized.
“Imperialist rivalry creates the conditions for war, but the peoples of the world do not have to accept imperialist war as their destiny,” stated panelist Marian Espinosa of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) “Workers and peoples of the world have far more in common with one another than with the forces that profit from their division.”
Four afternoon workshops were conducted highlighting struggles for social and national liberation. The workshops were convened by ATIK (Confederation of Workers from Turkiye in Europe), the International Women’s Alliance (IWA), the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Academy of Democratic Modernity, a Geneva-based institution that disseminates information on the Kurdish Freedom Movement.
On August 30, the festival concluded with an outdoor rally held outside the Brussels Central Station to also commemorate the Global Day of the Disappeared. Speakers at the rally drew links between imperialist war, militarism and political repression, where enforced disappearances is a common tactic by governments used to suppress political dissent and people’s struggles.
The successful weekend festival was the first of its kind organized by the Resistance for Peace, Democracy and Liberation campaign network and the International League of Peoples Struggle. For more information, visit internationalsolidarity.org/resistance-for-peace-and-liberation and peoplesstruggle.org.
Pictures for Media:
Photo of activists at the demo for the Day of the Disappeared 30-08-2026
-Photo from demonstration on the Day of the Disappeared 30-08-2026
Photo of the Peoples’ Festival of Resistance
- Photo of Victor Garces, Vice Chair of Internal Affairs, International League of Peoples’ Struggle
- Photo of Oz Karahan, President of the Union of Cypriots
Picture of Ludo de Brabander, Stop ReArm Europe
