Published in Scintilla #145, May 2024 by Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy—

Resolution of European Parties and Organizations members of the ICMLPO, adopted in April 2024 (the signatories are listed at the end).

According to the preamble of the NATO Treaty, it defends “peace, democracy, freedom and the rule of law.” In fact, it is the opposite: it has been and is a military alliance of Western imperialist states to impose their economic and political interests by military means. NATO is a guarantee for war, not peace. It is a guarantee for national subservience to U.S. interests, not for independence.

From the beginning, it has been led by U.S. imperialism, which has always provided the military high command. It had been a tool of U.S. imperialism against the Soviet Union and the labor and communist movement. Since 1949, the Atlantic Alliance and its member states have been engaged in numerous brutal wars. NATO has also meant a steady increase in military spending at the expense of the working masses.

Instead of “freedom and the rule of law,” NATO means exploitation, oppression and war. Dictatorships such as those of Portugal under Salazar or Turkey under General Evren have never been an obstacle to NATO membership and still are not.

NATO was and is a leading participant in numerous imperialist and neocolonialist wars. In 1999, NATO attacked Serbia and continued to do so in the Kosovo war. Since 2001, it has used lies as a pretext for the war against Afghanistan, which ended in defeat in August 2021. In 2011, NATO states attacked Libya and largely destroyed the country. NATO has also intervened in Turkey’s fight against Syria since 2013 and has supported Turkey militarily.

Atlantic Alliance troops are currently deployed in Africa, the Balkans, the Mediterranean and Iraq.

In recent years there has been a continuous process of NATO expansion to the east, which is the main cause of the current war between the imperialist powers of the USA, NATO and the EU against Russian imperialism.

At the same time, NATO is giving massive support to the war in Ukraine by providing infrastructure, weapons and advisers. NATO is in an unofficial war with Russia. In Israel’s war against Gaza, NATO states are actively participating in war crimes and genocide by providing weapons and political support. Since the beginning of the Gaza war, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg has assured Israel that NATO is on its side.

The struggle between the imperialist blocs of NATO with the EU against imperialist China with Russia has become a serious danger to peace. The EU, in alliance with US imperialism, plays a complementary role with its common policy of “security and defense,” in a logic of division of labor. The EU is also using the situation to strengthen its role in the competition with the US.

All this is being carried out at the expense of the working class and its social and political achievements. The workers and peoples are suffering heavily from the consequences of NATO’s war plans and their implementation by governments: cuts in social spending, high prices for basic products, pressure on wages, tax increases, etc.

Nationalists, reactionaries and fascist movements have been further strengthened to make the peoples “ready for war.” We are therefore taking political action in our countries to withdraw from NATO! We are against any participation in NATO wars!

No to NATO! Out of NATO and all imperialist military alliances!
No to the European Military Union!
NATO and US bases out of our countries!
No to the arms race and to the sending of weapons!
Immediate withdrawal from war missions abroad!
Peace and friendship among peoples, instead of rearmament and war!

Resolution of European Parties and Organizations members of ICMLPO:

European Parliament elections: a “democratic” scam

The EU presents itself as an island of prosperity, security and freedom. For the European Parliament elections on 9 June, the propaganda is about democracy.

The people were never consulted when the EU was founded. It was a project of capital. Referendums in which the EU failed were ignored or repeated until the desired result emerged.

For example, when the majority of the Danish people rejected the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, there was another referendum the following year in which a small majority was reached after incessant propaganda.

For example, in 2005 when the “European Constitution” was rejected by a large majority in France and the Netherlands, this was not accepted by those in power. On the contrary, work on the project continued under another name and without a referendum, and in 2007 the “Lisbon Treaty” was concluded with the same content.

Instead of an island of prosperity, security and freedom, the EU is a project of capital for a huge labor market with low wages, a huge outlet market and a tool in competition with other imperialist powers. The EU has also increasingly developed as an instrument of military power with joint armaments and military maneuvers. With the war in Ukraine, this aspect has taken on a special significance. The EU is also an instrument of neocolonial influence of the monopolies in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

In Europe, the EU is an expanding imperialist power with an anti-working-class character: it increases competition between workers in different countries, lowering wages and worsening working conditions. To the detriment of small farmers, the EU is also a tool of agribusiness, which has ruined thousands of farmers.

Not in the service of peace and friendship among peoples, but of the domination of monopolies and capital.

Reformist groups such as the “European Left,” which brings together various reformist, revisionist and Trotskyist currents, promise to “democratize” the EU and transform it into a “democratic, peaceful, social and ecological Europe.” These are illusions that conceal the domination of capital. The progressive forces are thus harnessed to the chariot of a capitalist and imperialist project. The European Parliament is part of this imperialist apparatus and is not a democratic institution. Therefore, we do not participate and cannot support any list. In addition, the European Parliament is used by right-wing parties to gain influence.

Instead of defending the EU of monopolies, the workers and peoples must fight for their own interests and unite for them. Instead of hoping for election results in the EU, they must stand up to exploitation and war!

We call on the workers to develop struggles and unity on the basis of their own class interests, against the monopolies and the capitalist offensive, the reaction and war policy of imperialism. We call for the development of active solidarity with the workers and peoples of the world, especially with those peoples who suffer and fight imperialist and Zionist oppression, aggression and plunder, such as the Palestinian people.

We reaffirm our commitment to a revolutionary break with the capitalist-imperialist system, to socialism!

With these intentions and this perspective, we must fight together

– Against low wages and the very denial of wages!
– Against the destruction of jobs!
– For the full right to strike!
– Against social cuts!
– Against the dismantling of democratic rights!
– Against racism, division and fascism!
– Against armaments and war!
– For peace, international solidarity and socialism!

April 2024
Workers’ Communist Party of Denmark – APK
Communist Party of the Workers of France – PCOF
Organization for the Construction of a Communist Party of the Workers of Germany (Arbeit Zukunft)
Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy
Marxist-Leninist organization Revolusjon – Norway
Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCEML
Workers’ Party, EMEP, of Turkey

Categories: International, Statements

Tags: ICMLPO