Public domain image of NATO troops in Lithuania, 2014
April 4 marks the 75th anniversary of the formation of the imperialist war alliance NATO. NATO was explicitly formed as a counter-revolutionary bulwark against socialism and the USSR and to serve the interests of capital, the United States and all its quisling allies in Europe. Since the overthrow of socialism in the Soviet Union, far from disbanding or keeping promises of non-expansion, the NATO war alliance has aggressively and provocatively expanded to the borders of Russia and using the war in Ukraine as an excuse, the ruling circles in Finland and Sweden have repudiated decades of neutrality to join.
Here we share statements from communist parties in Austria, Turkey, Spain and the UK about this anniversary.
Declaration of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Austria (PdA) on the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO, Vienna, 4 April 2024
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, in short NATO, was founded 75 years ago. From the very beginning, NATO was an alliance of capitalist states created to fight communism. In response to the founding of NATO and the political, economic and military threats, the socialist states of Eastern and Central Europe signed a defence treaty, the Warsaw Treaty. The defence of "democracy" against communism, which NATO proclaimed at its foundation, was and is nothing more than a fog to obscure the true purpose.
Even when it was founded in 1949, NATO did not only include bourgeois parliamentary democracies. Portugal, which had been under fascist rule since 1926, was also one of the founding members. The fascist dictatorship in Portugal was only overthrown with the April Revolution in 1974. The other NATO members were in no way among the supporters of the anti-fascist overthrow. This overthrow was solely supported in solidarity by the socialist states, while fascist generals tried to reverse the democratic revolution with support and connections in the NATO leadership. NATO was therefore never concerned with democracy and freedom. Its purpose was the defence of the imperialist world system and the enforcement of the interests of the participating states within it under the leadership of the USA. Its opponents were anti-colonial and anti-imperialist liberation movements in the global South as well as every democratic, anti-fascist, even revolutionary, socialist-communist movement.
After the counter-revolution in the USSR and the socialist states of Eastern Europe, NATO became the spearhead in the struggle to reorganise and redivide the world among the participating states and to secure Western supremacy in the imperialist world system against potential rivals. The NATO war of aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia beginning on 24 March 1999 was the starting point for a whole series of wars of aggression by NATO throughout the world. NATO considered UN Security Council resolutions to be superfluous. In the member states, attempts were and are being made to maximise readiness for war with lies and slander against those under attack.
The imperialist war in Ukraine is a result of the counter-revolution in the socialist Soviet Union and the subsequent struggle for a redivision of the world among the capitalist states. The roots of this conflict are the competition and contradictions within the imperialist system as a whole, which in this case are expressed in the eastward expansion of NATO and the EU and the efforts of the Russian bourgeoisie to establish new forms of organisation of capitalist states on the territory of the former USSR. The war in Ukraine is not only a war between Russia and Ukraine, it is also a proxy war of NATO, the EU and the USA against Russia to gain control of raw material and energy resources, geostrategic positions and transport routes in an important region.
On the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO, the Party of Labour of Austria calls for:
an active peace and neutrality policy on the part of Austria;
Austria's withdrawal from the NATO Partnership for Peace;
an end to the co-operation of the Austrian Armed Forces with NATO and the military of NATO member states;
an end to all foreign deployments of the Austrian Armed Forces under NATO, US and EU command;
the dissolution of NATO and all imperialist alliances.
Today, the 4th April 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of NATO’s establishment. No matter how much the governments, parliaments and corporate media of NATO member countries try to paint a glorious past for this organization, its foundation is nothing to be celebrated: NATO is one of the worst things that ever happened to humanity.
NATO inflicted harm beyond count not only to the peoples they considered “enemies” but also to the peoples of the member countries. With 75 years of history filled with human massacres and annihilation of cities, NATO persists in devising new plans which will certainly lead to further massacres today.
Today’s world continues to suffer from aggressive expansion of capital as well as ever-intensifying competition among the imperialists and NATO plots to add even larger tolls to already violent wars and conflicts infesting the globe.
Building upon the damned tradition of Menderes, then prime minister of Turkey who sent young soldiers to Korea, offering their blood as an admission fee for NATO, the capitalist ruling class and the bourgeois parties of the system (whether they stand ruling or opposition, right-wing or left-wing) continue to portray NATO as a protective umbrella for security of Turkey.
Shuttling between Washington and Brussels, the security bureaucracy of Turkey strives to hand the reins to the US and to NATO. Claiming to be “indigenous and national” the AKP Government stands firm in its NATO-centric position while the “opposition” in the Parliament acts as a notary clerk for NATO expansion and the perpetrator of NATO’s bloody schemes through NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly.
NATO is not a protective umbrella but the number one security threat to Turkey and to the world. NATO is a ruthless terrorist organization that constantly conspires for new invasions and wars, interferes in the domestic affairs of countries, carries out coup d’états, assassinations, and pockets collaborating politicians and journalists to achieve these goals.
NATO committed countless massacres throughout its 75 years of history and was only truly challenged by the working class and people. Communists took charge in people’s struggle against the aggressions of NATO and its collaborators since day one. Communist Party of Turkey will remain adamant in its struggle against this vicious organization and will raise the flag of anti-imperialism high in its fight for liberation of humanity.
Because humanity deserves to live without wars or exploitation.
Down with NATO!
Down with imperialism!
Communist Party of Turkey
Central Committee
April 4th will mark 75 years since the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The so-called Atlantic Alliance, which Spain belongs to since 1982, is an imperialist alliance whose goal is to militarily defend and promote all over the world the interests of the big capitalists from its member countries.
In order to achieve its goals, NATO and its members have caused armed conflicts, putsches, and processes of destabilization in all the regions of the globe.
The membership of Spain to NATO —the responsibility of which lays in the main parliamentary political forces as well as all those forces that participate or support the Governments that are maintaining our presence in such terrorist organization— means an evident danger for the population in our country. The Spanish territory is used by NATO to prepare and execute aggressions against other peoples. Spanish troops are actively participating in the imperialist missions of the Alliance in various places in the world. The Spanish Governments are embracing the agenda of this imperialist organization and aim to gain positions within it, allocating increasingly more resources and committing themselves increasingly more with its activities. This was verified in the Summit organized in Madrid by the Pedro Sánchez Government in July 2022.
The 75th anniversary of NATO is taking place in a moment of militarist and warmongering escalation, when the Alliance is increasing its activity against other powers. This is multiplying the risk of armed conflicts for the control of strategic resources, markets, and transport routes for commodities.
NATO, as the armed wing of a section of world capitalists, is leading us to a generalized clash against the representatives of other sections of capitalists. In this conflict, workers will turn into cannon fodder once again, unless we act decisively against the imperialist war and those willing to use it as a means to ensure their interests.
The workers and the peoples have nothing to win from the clashes between capitalists. Acting decisively means organizing ourselves, first, against the imperialist alliances our country belongs to. Remaining in NATO means walking towards disaster and clash with other peoples.
Because of all of this, we are calling on the mobilization on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO. The PCTE is calling several actions of protest in different locations on April 6th at 12 p.m. and will join other mobilizations that might be called in this date, under the prospect of recovering a sustained and stable mobilization for the exit of Spain from NATO, the end of every foreign military presence in our country, and the return of the troops deployed abroad in imperialist missions.
No land, no sea, no air for imperialists!
No to NATO, no to imperialist war!
Political Bureau of the PCTE
March 2024