Statement published by US Peace Council
The World Peace Council (WPC) expresses its deepest concerns about the escalating tensions in Eastern Europe and particularly around the Ukraine, caused primarily by the growing aggressive expansion of NATO towards Eastern Europe, its massive deployment of troops from the Baltic Sea to Bulgaria, and creating a belt aiming at the encirclement of the Russian Federation.
Since the coup d’état of 2014 in Kiev and the takeover of the government by reactionary and pro-NAZI forces sponsored by the USA, NATO and the European Union, NATO has been planning and implementing its further expansion aiming at the integration of the Ukraine into the biggest war machine which has committed wars, crimes and coups throughout its history.
NATO is openly advocating, and not hiding, its aggressive goals. It even declared in its Warsaw summit in 2016 that it was ready for a nuclear strike against its opponents. The huge military exercises like the recent “Defender Europe 2021,” and its new strategy of NATO 2030, endorsed by all NATO members, is ferociously escalating the tensions and opening a real danger of a regional war which could lead to a war of global dimensions.
The WPC is aware that conflicts and wars are taking place for the sake of the control of raw materials, energy resources and roads, for the profits and markets and for the control of spheres of influence of powerful states. The more than 1,7 trillion USD global military spending annually (40% of which only by the USA) on the one hand, and the 820 million people suffering from hunger in the world on the other, show clearly the injustice of the world today, dominated by the imperialist system. In times of the global health pandemic, it becomes even more offensive to observe how the access of the peoples in many countries —especially in Africa— to vaccination and medicine is being handled by the multinational pharmaceutical corporations and the respective governments.
The ongoing tensions and war rhetoric in Eastern Europe and the military build-up along the borders of the Ukraine also have heavy consequences on the daily life of peoples in Europe and the world, including the multiplication of the fuel and natural gas prices, from which the competing energy giants are making huge profits. The war games are also accompanied by an ideological campaign to re-write the history, in which the European Union plays a leading role by equating reactionary fascist, Nazi theories and actions with the ones that stood up and defeated these forces seven decades ago.
In the current situation, the peace-loving people and forces in the world should denounce and condemn the imperialist war rhetoric and plans, demand the withdrawal of the NATO troops from the region around the Ukraine, and the de-escalation of the situation from all sides. The WPC from its founding days has been fighting against NATO, has called for its dissolution, and has supported the struggle of the peoples and their movements in the NATO states for the withdrawal from this alliance.
The WPC is committed to the struggle against NATO and will actively participate with our partners at the anti-NATO actions in Madrid on29 – 30 June 2022 with its distinct presence and, as in previous occasions, will organize its own events under the banner of “Yes to Peace – No to NATO.”
The World Peace Council, as the historical anti-imperialist international organization of peace movements, is in principle against imperialist wars and defends the rights of the peoples and their just causes, and struggles for a world free from imperialist wars and exploitation, for a world of peace and social justice.
The WPC Secretariat
10th February 2022