The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is the most powerful military organization in the world. It was literally founded out of anxiety of Communist Russia’s expansion in 1949. When founded, the alliance had twelve members now it counts 26 member states amongst which 10 states used to be controlled by the Soviet Union.
The fact that NATO will be celebrating its 60th anniversary in Strasbourg/Kehl on April 4, 2009 is a symbolic manifestation of imperialistic warmongering with unprecedented character. Institutions like the IMF, World Bank, G8 and NATO are the phenomena of globalised capital in a day and age labeled as ‘global governance’. As these institutions act in all parts of the world a campaign against NATO can only be internationalist as it does not begin or end with the event itself but is ultimately linked to the capitalist system we live in. Events like the NATO’s 60th anniversary or the WTO’s infamous meetings are displays of power.
Strasbourg and Kehl have been chosen for a specific reason. They are known for their supra-national co-operation and furthermore NATO has never set foot in Strasbourg, the French city in which the European parliament is situated and which symbolizes Europe’s commitment to human rights. Here, NATO’s own vision of democracy and freedom will be sealed with a paper called ‘Towards a grand strategy for an uncertain world’.
Currently we are experiencing the dismantling of the welfare state in Europe and a phase of imperialism. The Lisbon Treaty which was refuted by the Irish people is a legal manifesto to lock in the neoliberal ideology as it entails the obligation to privatize health and education by 2012. It does not only propose the installation of a European army but also compels member states to further militarize – a legal compulsion to spend on arms annually. And at the same time it employs the language of Bush’s ‘War on Terror’. On the issue of imperialism the operating fields of Afghanistan and Iraq lay open that these are not wars about human and women’s rights but about the expansion of markets and the exploitation of resources - as well as being ideological : there can be no god besides the free market economy.
In face of the devastating NATO activities in Afghanistan and in history it seems necessary to discover alternatives which are in the interest of the peoples’ of the world. War has become ever-present and more shockingly this new world order is sub-titled ‘no more peace without war’. The protest against NATO is thus linked with the resistance in the Middle East. The self-determination of the people must be our paradigm. This mean defending the resistance movements which are being demonized by the Western media. We shouldn’t fall into the trap of glorifying these movements yet we have to keep the arguments running. The crucial question here is whether the main dynamic of armed action is aimed against the occupation. Thus, we are building our movement against our own government – the war machine itself – by protesting the 60th anniversary and demanding our governments to dissolve NATO.
With the current East-West crisis manifesting itself in Georgia the militarization of Eastern Europe is being accelerated. The United States has signed a deal with Poland allowing it to install missiles at a base on the Baltic Sea. It already has an agreement to build a radar station in the Czech Republic. Supposedly the US and European forces could be threatened by Iran or another ‘rogue state’ such as North Korea. However, the reasons for these hasty maneuvers are more obvious than the mainstream press likes to admit. The installation of about 110 US soldiers and two military bases in Poland does not stand in connection to a threat posed by Iranian missiles but is a direct military confrontation with Russia still grasping for influence in the region.
Protests against NATO in April 2009 will show the world’s leaders that NATO are responsible for an ever-increasing arms race and the instability we live in. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in 1990 NATO became obsolete and came into its heaviest crisis – though not for long. Politicians in Europe and the USA replaced the threat of communism with something else – Islam. And in 1991 the USA launched its first war against Iraq. This war cost 100 000 people their lives and facilitated NATO’s renaissance.
In March 1999 NATO launched an internationally condemned interventionist strike against what used to be Yugoslavia. Whilst in combat NATO released a paper with its new strategy for further military operations. As mentioned before Afghanistan is a further operating field. All of these operations serve the purpose of securing resources for the capitalist economies of the West and the hegemony over the world markets.
The surprising attack of Georgia’s military on the autonomous regions of South Ossetia and Abchasia was meant to incorporate Georgia ideologically as well as politically. However, the attack failed and Russia proved to be stronger. The military confrontation of a US ally with Russia posed and still poses a threat to world peace.
In April 2009 people from across Europe will bring the real strategy for an uncertain world to the streets and block the roads of Strasbourg and Kehl for a world without war.
