Today, April 4th, is the 76th anniversary of the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, more well-known as “NATO”.
76 years after its founding, NATO promotes the military power of its member countries, most notably its imperialist leaders like the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Canada. This comes in the form of supporting their sanctions and military exercises, as well as cyberwarfare and mass surveillance efforts. NATO also lobbies for the increased engorgement of the military budgets and spending of member states.
Despite the stated purpose of NATO being to “guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means,” it is truly the US at the helm of NATO. The US has access to any NATO military base across the globe. The US also acts as the primary decision maker for NATO missions, therefore having the power of NATO’s member states at its fingertips for imperialist ventures. Without this power, the United States would not be the main imperialist military aggressor in the world.
Shifting spending priorities in Europe are evident as military budgets rise, with countries like the UK, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany increasing defense spending to 2.3%, 2.4%, 2%, 2%and 1.5% of GDP, with further plans to increase to 4 or 5% in the coming years respectively, while the cost of the 2025 NATO summit in Europe is expected to reflect this surge in defense investments.
While NATO claims to be for ensuring the security of Europe, the true goal of this alliance is to militarily unite the US and European countries to serve the interests of US imperialism.
Since 2021’s signing of the NATO 2030 Strategy, All of US’ historic enemies since the Cold War have been named as the primary enemies of NATO – Russia, Iran, People’s Republic of China’s (PRC), Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
There was special focus on China in line with the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy to contain and isolate China to preserve the US’s hold over their markets, trade routes, and investments in the region. NATO strengthened its unequal partnerships with nations in Asia and the Pacific, having them commit military funding to their proxy war in Ukraine and further integrate their militaries to serve US strategy.
The Resist NATO Coalition will be converging in The Hague this June to unite our peoples struggles against NATO and US-Led War, and call for the building of a just peace, winning self-determination, livelihood, genuine development, food, housing and land for the worlds people.
Our points of unity are:
- We oppose NATO as a US-led military alliance that is a prime actor in imperialist wars of aggression and military occupation resulting in the deaths and displacement of millions of people
- We oppose US-NATO strategy of expansionism and intensification of militarization across Africa, Asia, LatinAmerica, and Eastern Europe, at the service of US geopolitical and economic interests
- We oppose US-NATO strategy of security through wars of counter-terrorism, counterinsurgency, and mass surveillance
- We support the right of peoples and nations to self-determination and sovereignty, and their right to resistance against imperialist aggression
- We support a just peace through resolving the root causes of armed conflicts, allocating resources not to the war industry but to serve people’s needs
Join us to Resist NATO! Visit the campaign webpage and sign onto the campaign today!
