Resist US-NATO Aggression and War Provocations! Defend Peoples’ Struggle for Rights and Liberation! NATO, as the world’s largest US-led military alliance, represents one of the greatest imperialist threats to the oppressed and working peoples of the world. Under NATO’s banner, imperialist nations invade, destabilize, and plunder the globe in search of resources to further enrich their power. The Resist NATO Coalition was created by several anti-imperialist organizations uniting to expose and organize against the imperialist workings of NATO during their summit in Washington, D.C. this July. NATO acts as the machinery through which the class interests of the member countries’ and the U.S.’s elite are achieved by stripping the land of natural resources.  

What Is NATO?

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established on April 4th, 1949 during the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty by twelve members Belgium, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, France, Portugal, Italy, United Kingdom, and the United States. The founding principle was to counter Soviet Russian “aggression”. In reality, NATO is an illegitimate aggressive structure in the service of Western imperialism with a focus on instigating destabilization in governments who have the gall to resist the status quo that they are projecting on to Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the rest of Europe.

Resist NATO Campaign

The NATO summit, held 9-11 July 2024 in Washington DC, was marked by the 75th anniversary of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in DC—the founding of NATO. Summits are meetings of the highest level of the North Atlantic Council, composed of heads of state and government officials. At these key points in NATO’s decision-making process, major policies are introduced, initiatives are launched, new members are brought in. This year focused on Ukraine’s membership in NATO and marked the largest NATO-led military exercises since the Cold War in hosting the Steadfast Defender exercises with over 90,000 troops. Mobilizing to expose and oppose the NATO summit is applying our collective strength to reject the anti-people convening of warmongers coordinating imperialist violence across the globe. 

What is the historical role of NATO in advancing US-led war?

NATO was founded in 1949, not as an instrument of peace, but as a weapon of Western imperialists to fight the Cold War and has remained that way up until today. From its founding moment, NATO was an aggressive military apparatus to coordinate the police, military and intelligence apparati among the ten founding West European member countries (plus U.S. and Canada) under U.S. command. The past several decades has seen NATO’s steady expansion, making clear its role as an imperialist weapon against the working class. 

NATO functions to promote the military power of the member imperialist countries. This comes in the form of supporting their sanctions, 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. 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. This is done both domestically by creating and supporting fascist groups to attack and isolate the communist and social democratic organizations in western European countries, and externally via Article 5 which enables NATO member countries to draw other members into fighting their wars, as seen in the NATO invasion and occupation of Afghanistan initiated by the US. The interests of monopoly capitalists are carried out through NATO by attacking revolutionary opposition and backing the exploitation of semicolonial countries by military force.

What is the current role of NATO in advancing US-led war?

NATO acts as an armed wing of US-led war and mobilizes its member nations to instigate and militarily support inter-imperialist conflicts, recently between US-NATO and Russia, and between US and China. NATO continues to support so-called “Israel” as the main outpost of US imperialism in the Middle East. A “strategic priority” that is rising in importance is countering the influence of China. The US is threatened by China’s growing control of supply chains, infrastructure projects, tech and industry sectors as it narrows the US sphere of influence, and pushes NATO to label China a “strategic threat.” The “NATO 2030” Report broadens the originally Euro-American alliance to have a global scope and to shape the international order. NATO is approaching this by building military partnerships with Indo-Pacific countries (Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Republic of Korea) focused on intelligence activities, military exercises, and investments in weapons and bases. Increased militarization serves to prepare this region for supporting a US-led war against China. NATO has a global counter-terrorism strategy which develops and promotes technologies for surveillance against non-state groups, exporting the US counterterrorism strategy internationally. NATO is threatened by national liberation movements which would end US plunder of their resources and labor. These movements are labeled as terrorism and are declared as “the most direct asymmetric threat” NATO faces. 

From the Resist NATO Campaign educational toolkit. https://www.ilps.us/resistnato