NATO Resistance At 75: Time For Reform, Or Revolution?

UNAC and Global Network buddies waiting to march from McPherson Park

Traveled to Washington DC this weekend to join two different summits focused on resistance to NATO, in town for its 75th birthday. As the enforcement arm of U.S./Western imperial hegemony the alleged "North Atlantic" military alliance has been responsible for countless deaths and the destruction of entire nations since it was created after WWII to "keep Russians out, Americans in [Europe], Germany down."

War Industry Resisters banner carried by Melody Shank who with Ken Jones met us in DC

It is perhaps not surprising that after seven decades of Russophobia, and a decade of using Ukraine to wage proxy war on the West's longtime foe, there is a split among those who turned out to say no to NATO.

Our first event of the weekend was the summit hosted by World Beyond War which had about 150 mostly old, mostly white people in attendance. Speakers from Germany and France used words like "immoral" and "illegal invasion" to describe Russia's response to years of Ukraine shelling civilians in the Donbas. NATO's role in arming Nazis has not resulted in a weakened Russia as had been intended. Two audience members objected on the grounds that Russia bashing really has no place in an effort to rein in NATO. This point of view received no support from the podium.

After lunch we traveled across town to the Resist NATO Coalition summit, sponsored by ILPS (International League of Peoples' Struggle) and UNAC (United International Antiwar Coalition). Hundreds of much younger people were energized to connect their struggle to the context of NATO exploitation in Palestine, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, South Korea, and beyond. 

Dynamic speakers had the crowd roaring, especially a panel moderated by a movement heroine of mine, Sara Flounders of Workers World. 

We also heard from the Nicaraguan ambassador to the U.S. connecting the axis of resistance to NATO in Latin America: his country, Venezuela, and Cuba.

Guess which meeting had the menacing police presence outside? As we departed an organizer let us know the cops were photographing people in case we didn't want to be identified. This was good preparation for the next day when we assembled in McPherson Square to march to the White House. 

Cops with bikes, cops hassling unhoused people and those trying to feed them, cops with dogs, and just a whole lot of cops were on hand and I encountered two of them personally when my husband and I tried to tie our banner to the White House fence.

The two groups came together at a final rally organized by World Beyond War. The energy again plummeted as the speakers were somewhat lackluster, plus most of us by then were wilting in the heat.

More than once this weekend I pondered the age old tension in movements between the wing that thinks things can be reformed and the wing that thinks the whole damn system needs to be burned to the ground in order for a new order to emerge. In this case the reformers were also hampered by their unspoken fealty to the Democratic Party which demonized Russia falsely as being responsible for Trump's first term. These are the kind of people who still think elections are terribly important.

The revolutionary wing understands some basic truths: we're not going to vote our way out of this mess, both corporate parties are complicit in the genocide in Gaza, and it profoundly doesn't matter who's in the White House. As long as NATO has not been disbanded, the crumbling imperium of Western financial control will lash out with militarized violence. A lot of people will get hurt and it is not unlikely that nuclear Armageddon could ensue.

I'll be standing with the freedom fighters whose analysis is based in the reality expressed by one of their many good chants this week: U.S. imperialists, number one terrorists!