The Executive Committee of the Young Communist League has released the following statement in response to conclusion of the so-called NATO ‘Leaders Meeting’ in London 3-4 December 2019.
The YCL reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the NATO ‘Leaders Meeting’ imposed on Britain and London on 3 and 4 December 2019. Working people gain nothing but shame from Britain’s continuing involvement in the imperialist NATO alliance. In return we give billions of pounds and hundreds of young lives in the service of the interests of Britain’s ruling class, transnational companies, oil firms and financial institutions.
The people of London, members of the Communist Party and YCL, socialists, trade unionists and peace activists came together outside Buckingham Palace during the lavish reception for NATO leaders on Tuesday to make clear that NATO is not welcome here. Images of the Queen rubbing shoulders with Trump and autocrats such as Turkey’s Erdogan and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán should leave no illusions as to the imperialist character of NATO and its ‘commitment to democracy’.
NATO, led by the United States, continues to be the main vehicle for imperialist interference and wars of intervention across the planet. Since the destruction of the Soviet Union, NATO and its leading members have cut a bloody swathe across Europe and the Middle East and initiated brutal conflicts further afield. The millions of dead in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Ukraine and across the world are testament to this fact.
NATO has never been an alliance aimed at common defence or defence of democracy or so called ‘liberal values’. We are told NATO was formed to protect against the ‘communist threat’ in Eastern Europe despite the fact that NATO was established more than 6 years before the Warsaw Pact. NATO has always been a first-strike nuclear alliance, prepared to initiate nuclear armageddon.
NATO has always been more than happy to side with dictatorial regimes where it advances its interests. This continues today with Turkey and Hungary as member states and the ongoing support for the pro-fascist junta in Ukraine. NATO has armed and funded the jihadist insurgencies in the Middle East and North Africa, including the so-called Islamic State. Their open aim is to gain advantage in their imperialist rivalry with Putin’s Russia and to undermine progressive governments, especially People’s China.
NATO has grown increasingly aggressive and determined to intervene since the 1990s. We are witnessing the high point of this recklessness today with the United States being led by President Trump. This conference also revealed growing rivalries between the NATO powers themselves with increasingly fractious relations between the United States and EU members and also with Turkey. Working people of all countries will be the victims of this recklessness and the conflicts which will result.
Britain’s ruling class and Boris Johnson’s Tory Government are determined to keep the country slavishly chained to NATO and the whims of US imperialism. The Liberal Democrats openly boast in this electoral campaign that they wouldn’t hesitate to launch nuclear missiles. The Labour Party too remain openly committed to nuclear weapons and membership of NATO. Only the Communist Party and the YCL stand as an unequivocal and principled force for peace, nuclear disarmament and withdrawal from NATO.
Only unity of working people in Britain and around the world for peace can thwart NATO, the United States and our ruling classes’ plans. All socialists and democrats must support British withdrawal and the dissolution of NATO. We should have no hand in manoeuvrings and sabre rattling between the US-EU and Russian imperialism. Too much is at stake.
Communists call for a foreign policy which is based on peace, cooperation and international development, not war and extortion. This will only be possible outside of NATO and the web of US imperialism.
No to NATO war and imperialism!
Join the struggle for lasting peace!
Executive Committee
Young Communist League
5 December 2019
London, Britain
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