British troops exercise in Estonia as part of the NATO's eFP, 2017 - Photo: Cpl Timothy Jones/MOD, OGL 3 <http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3>, via Wikimedia Commons
April 4 saw the 75th anniversary of the formation of the imperialist war alliance NATO.
We looked at this anniversary of 75 years of aggression and war crimes through statements by Communist parties in Austria, Turkey, Spain and Britain.
The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has also issued a comprehensive statement on the history and present of NATO.
On the 75th anniversary of NATO
On 4 April 1949, just a few years after the Second World War, the North Atlantic Alliance, i.e. NATO was founded (with the participation of the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Portugal). The aim of the forces of US and European capitalism was to shield their power in their countries and internationally against the Soviet Union, which, with its enormous contribution to the crushing defeat of fascism and the presence of the Red Army in Europe, was a catalyst for the positive processes that followed in a number of countries in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as in other regions where the colonial regime had been shaken off.
It is no coincidence that NATO was founded in Washington, since the USA emerged stronger from the imperialist war, as the main fronts of the war were far from its territory. The USA emerged as the leading power of international imperialism. It attempted to establish its supremacy within the framework of the newly formed NATO and at the same time to mitigate the contradictions in the imperialist system.
During these 75 years, starting from the war in Korea, up to the more recent ones in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine, NATO has been the iron heel of the political–military alliance of Euro-Atlantic imperialism, which is guilty of enormous crimes against the people in order to serve the interests of the monopolies. NATO’s existence has been marked by 75 years of imperialist wars, interventions and coups that have shed the blood of the peoples and aimed at perpetuating their exploitation and oppression.
Today, NATO’s strategy is defined by its planned expansion in Europe and the world, its enlargement with new members, the establishment of partnerships with dozens of states, the creation of combat-ready military units, the establishment of military bases and the increase of military expenditure. The decisions of the last NATO Summit in Vilnius are moving in this direction, leading to a deepening of NATO’s political and military involvement in the war in Ukraine, with further political guarantees and strong military aid to the reactionary Zelenskiy government, as well as the establishment of a NATO-Ukraine Council.
All this adds fuel to the fire of the imperialist war in Ukraine, as well as to the inter-imperialist competition in other regions of the world with Russia and China, the main powers of the Eurasian imperialist camp that is being formed. It is no coincidence that NATO is providing political and military cover for Israel’s massacre of the Palestinian people in Gaza, using the “right of self-defence” as a fig leaf. Nor is it a coincidence that NATO warships, including those of Greece, are being dispatched to the Red Sea in order to control this strategically important area.
Our country, under the responsibility of the Euro-Atlantic parties (ND, PASOK, SYRIZA, Greek Solution and the other nationalist formations) actively participates in NATO plans and is involved in this aggressive NATO strategy, aiming at the so-called geostrategic enhancement of the interests of the bourgeoisie.
The US–NATO bases in Greece, which have been established over time under the responsibility of all bourgeois governments and parties and despite the determined opposition of the KKE, are being modernized, have an infrastructure for nuclear weapons, threaten other peoples and constitute a springboard for new war conflicts and bloodshed against the peoples. At the same time, they turn our country and our people into targets of retaliation, which is currently quite possible.
Therefore, NATO, which is a womb of wars, is a factor of insecurity for our people. This also applies to its involvement in Greek-Turkish relations. With the support of NATO, which does not recognize maritime borders, the Turkish bourgeoisie never misses an opportunity to remind its unacceptable claims in the Aegean and the Mediterranean against the sovereign rights of Greece and Cyprus, whose 37% is still occupied by Turkey, 50 years after the Turkish invasion. Recently, against the background of the imperialist war in Ukraine, the settlement of Greek-Turkish relations is being promoted to strengthen the south-eastern wing of NATO and the so-called joint management for the benefit of the monopolies and at the expense of the sovereign rights of the country, undermining the future of the two peoples and the environment.
The task of opposing NATO and of the disengagement of our country from it, which has been arising for seven decades, is today becoming increasingly timely and necessary in the direction of our struggle for the overthrow of capitalist barbarity, which condemns the working people to class exploitation, social injustice and imperialist wars.
For 75 years, the KKE has consistently been at the forefront of the development of the anti-NATO, anti-imperialist and anti-war movement, against the US-NATO military bases. It has struggled for the disengagement from imperialist plans and alliances, such as NATO and the EU, which can only be guaranteed by workers’ power.
That is why the coming European elections can and must be a step forward in reinforcing the anti-NATO and anti-imperialist struggle, and further strengthening the KKE.
New popular forces should rally around the KKE:
For the closure of the US–NATO bases!
For the return home of the Greek frigate from the Red Sea, the Greek patriot missiles from Saudi Arabia, as well as all Armed Forces on imperialist missions abroad! No Greek soldier and officer should fight in the imperialist war in Ukraine or outside our borders.
Against Greece’s participation in the imperialist plans!
For the disengagement from the imperialist unions of NATO and the EU, with the people masters in our land!
ATHENS 03/04/2024