YESTERDAY the two-day summit of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) opened in London to celebrate 70 years of this imperialist war machine.
Trump joined the heads of state of the 29 countries that make up this military alliance in what was supposed to be a joyous celebration but which instead highlighted the fact that NATO is being torn apart by imperialist rivalry fuelled by the huge economic world crisis of capitalism and the competition between the US and its many ‘enemies’ for survival.
Last week, French president Emmanuel Macron declared NATO was ‘brain dead’, saying: ‘Is our enemy today, as I hear sometimes, Russia? Is it China? Is it the Atlantic alliance’s purpose to designate them as enemies? I don’t think so.’
Macron has his own plans for a new military alliance, a European army that would concentrate on the real job for the European bourgeoisie – protecting themselves from a mass movement of workers and youth revolutionised by the crisis.
At the same time, both he and Germany are seeking economic help and trade with Russia and China as they suffer under the impact of Trump’s trade war.
They were traumatised by Trump’s unilateral decision to give the green light to Turkey, also a member of NATO, to invade the Kurdish-controlled border with Syria. This posed the real threat of Turkey clashing in a military confrontation with Syria’s ally, Russia.
The main principle of NATO is that an attack on one NATO member must be met with military action by all members and the prospect of Europe being dragged into a war with Russia on behalf of Turkey terrified the European powers.
Turkey, of course, has added its own twist to the disintegration of NATO when it recently snubbed the demands of the US and bought Russian warplanes instead of US ones.
NATO is breaking apart under the impact of imperialist rivalry driven by the world crisis. This prospect can only have the workers of the world cheering!
Far from being the defensive alliance protecting the security and peace of Europe, NATO has played a leading role in every imperialist war. It played a central role in the invasion of Afghanistan sending 130,000 troops at the height of the illegal war there.
In Iraq, NATO troops trained the reactionary Iraqi armed forces set up by the US the year after the illegal invasion of the country by US and British imperialism.
It played a central role in the illegal war in Libya, with the UK and France acting as American surrogates in smashing up the country, murdering Colonel Gadaffi, and destroying hundreds of thousands of lives. Rejoicing in their victory, Cameron and Sarkozy raised the cry in Benghazi of ‘On to Damascus’ and packed off thousands of Libyan counter-revolutionaries to overthrow Assad.
That is when it all began to go wrong – the Syrian masses defended their country with a tremendous courage and heroism that split the imperialist powers with some crying ‘forward’ and others crying ‘back’.
In every illegal, murderous war waged by imperialism for regime change and domination, NATO has been right up front. Now it is breaking apart as the imperialist brigands fall out!
However, significantly, this development has not led to any condemnation from the Labour Party leadership, of the conduct of the NATO imperialist alliance.
On the contrary, the official Labour Party line is complete support for NATO and complete support for maintaining Britain’s commitment to finance the NATO murder machine, insisting that all NATO allies must continue to pay at least 2% of their country’s GDP on NATO military spending and financing this murderous organisation.
Corbyn, who in his ‘leftish’ days railed against NATO at rallies, has now completely changed his tune. In a major foreign policy speech in 2017, he said: ‘It is vital that as Britain leaves the European Union, we maintain a close relationship with our European partners alongside NATO, to keep spending at 2 per cent.’
Corbyn is now a cheerleader for the alliance. Shame on him and shame on Labour!
