“To intensify the fight against imperialist wars and interventions, against NATO and the EU, for the immediate removal of all foreign military bases from our countries, against the participation of the Armed Forces of our countries in missions abroad”
Imperialism has a long history of aggression, interference, occupation andwar.Imperialism has blighted the lives of millions of people in the interests of the monopolies. The increased aggressiveness of imperialism in current conditions poses a real and urgent threat to the interests of all humanity. The militarization of capitalist society, thepresence of massive armies and a growing military-industrial complex which ensures thatscientific and technological achievements are used on an unprecedented scale for thedevelopment and creation of terrifying weapons of mass destruction has facilitated increasedaggression on the part of capitalist states for the implementation of their dangerous plans and interests and unprecedented profits for capital also through military production and war.
NATO is an aggressive military alliance acting in the interests of imperialism, the bourgeois classes of its member states. Thehistory of NATO cannot be separated from exploitation, oppression, intervention and war.
Both with the pretext of the existence of the socialist states in Europe, and also after their counterrevolutionary overthrow NATO always has constituted a military instrument ofimperialism. NATO with the decisions also of its most recent summit in Brussels promotes militarization and the continuation of the arms race. It operatesand maintains a vast network of military bases in foreign territories across the world.
The ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by the European Union in 2009 in the midst of antagonisms marked a furtherdevelopment in the process of European integration of EU member states into an imperialistalliance through its so-called Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The EuropeanUnion has participated in the imperialist wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libyatogether with the US and NATO, and has played a leading role in the intervention, bombings and threatsagainst Syria and Iran. The cooperation between NATO and the EU together with the calls foraEuropean army is designed to increase the capacity for military intervention. Many CSDPmissions and EU are planned and conducted in enhanced collaboration with NATO. There is a massiveexpansion in EU funding of military research and development of the imperialist plans. The European Defense Fund, The European Defense Organization, the mechanism for the evaluation of the promotion of militarization in the member states CARD, the European Service for External Action, funding programs such as the “Athina” apparatus, “Horizon 2020” and other apparatuses of the European Union are being developed with billions of euros to promote the imperialist interests at the expense of the peoples, at the same time when they are being sorely tried and tested by harsh anti-worker measures, cuts, heavy taxes.
The EU is a major supporter of the arms trade and EUmember states export vast quantities of arms for their dangerous imperialist plans. This dangerous line pursued by the EU hasbeen upgraded through its formal agreement to establish the Permanent Structure Cooperation Framework (PESCO) in 2017.
Simultaneously, NATO has enlarged rapidly and significantly and designed a global remit forits operations. It constantly strives to expand its influence both in terms of the breadth of its agenda and its global reach, focusing on the encirclement of Russia in the framework of the intensifying international antagonisms. The role of NATO and the EU, through the device of the CSDP,poses ever new dangers for Europe and further afield. The crisis of capitalism intensifies imperialist aggression, the competition over energy, its transport routes, the market shares. Capitalism is unwilling and unable to solvethe problems it itself creates. Widening inequality, poverty, deprivation, unemployment,homelessness, flood, fire and earthquake protection, environmental decay together with myriad social, economic and politicalissues which capitalism us unwilling and unable are elements of capitalist barbarity.While the capitalist states have a commonstrategic interest, namely, reproduction of the capitalist system, history has shown the fierceimperialist rivalries between the monopoly groups and their willingness to impose theirinterests by force.
The parties of the European Communist Initiative call for the intensification of the struggleagainst imperialism and imperialist interventions and wars. This requires an intensification of the demands through mobilizations and initiatives in each country against NATO and the EU and the so-called Partnership for Peace (PfP); for
-the right of the peoples to choose the path of their own interests, including the right to withdraw from these imperialist unions.
-rejection of PESCO and repudiation of all participation in imperialist missions under the CSDP;
-the closure of all military bases in foreign territories and the dismantling of US and NATO anti-missile systems; an end to military spending for NATO’s war plans; the abolition of nuclear weapons andother weapons of mass destruction; the immediate withdrawal of all NATO/EU forcesinvolved in military aggression and occupation; and an end to threats, intimidation,destabilization and imperialist interventions and wars against the peoples.