No to Nato!

by Monty's statue in Whitehall

by Theo Russell

As the warmongers gathered in Madrid for the NATO summit this week, anti-war activists took to the streets in towns and cities across Britain for the International Day of Action For Peace In Ukraine on Saturday 25th June, with over 30 local groups participating across the country.
    As the Stop the War Coalition report says, the actions come “as Boris Johnson urges other world leaders to hold firm in their long-term support for Ukraine, meaning amplifying arms supplies and deploying more troops. As belligerents bang the drums of war, the anti-war movement sends its counter message to the government.”
    Stop the War Coalition’s convenor Lindsey German told activists in London: “This war has everything to do with what NATO is doing as well as what Russia is doing. It expanded in terms of its aggression, it was involved in wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Libya. And when you hear that NATO is a movement for peace that is a lie - it is a movement for war.”
    NATO has plans to increase the number of forces on high alert in the east from 40,000 to 300,000, and deploy yet more troops to NATO countries close to the Russian Federation.
    Kate Hudson, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary, said “We need to move beyond NATO and have a new security architecture internationally to create a situation of peace and justice.
    “We know NATO will be talking about their new strategic concept. And, every time NATO has a new strategic concept they are expanding the remit of NATO, whether it’s going into Latin America, Africa or Asia. As activists it is essential we raise public awareness about what’s going on. We have a responsibility to get that information out there.”
    The StWC statement goes on: “Boris Johnson recently said the financial cost of providing long standing support to Ukraine was “a price worth paying for democracy and freedom. As the British government pumps billions of pounds into the war in Ukraine, the UK is suffering the biggest cost of living crisis in decades.
    “But it’s impossible to ignore the mass fight back amid the summer of discontent. The International Day of Action for Peace in Ukraine coincided with the biggest rail strike in 30 years.
    “Stop the War Coalition rallies sent messages of solidarity to the RMT acknowledging that the emancipation of the working class goes hand in hand with the priorities of the anti-war movement.”
    “Boris Johnson has played a particularly crucial role in discouraging negotiations, telling President Zelensky on his May visit to Kiev that ‘no negotiations are possible’.
    “The weekend’s Day of Action was about showing there is another way. We must carry our message onto the streets and into the trade unions, while pushing back against the attacks on us from the Starmer-state bloc and its facilitators.”
    Meanwhile attacks on the peace movement have been stepped up, with Keir Starmer denouncing Stop the War in the Guardian after visiting NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, saying “At best they are naive, at worst they actively give succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies.”
    Stop the War responded, saying: “The attack on StW has been widely interpreted as a way of further distancing Starmer from his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn remains in the wilderness, denied the Labour whip in Parliament and will likely be blocked from standing again as a Labour candidate.
    “Corbyn was chair of StW as was his chief of staff, Andrew Murray. It’s interesting that Starmer chose this way to demonstrate his loyalty to British imperialism and Nato. It confirms that the establishment drive to destroy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party was motivated chiefly by his anti-imperialism.”
    The New Worker supports a negotiated end to the war, rather than a withdrawal of Russian forces, which were invited to intervene in Ukraine to end eight years of attacks on the Donbas republics in which 14,000 people died and over two million refugees left Ukraine.
    Inhabitants of the Kiev-controlled parts of the Donbas, including in Mariupol, have spent years under the heel of arrogant, violent, fascist thugs from the Azov Battalion and other 'nationalist' groups who made Mariupol their main base. Since the Russian intervention began there has been a reign of terror against the left and opposition across Ukraine with murders, including of at least 11 town mayors, torture and mass arrests.
    A leaflet from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), set up in 2019, was handed out at the London protest and was well received, providing an alternative view of the current Ukraine conflict to that of the capitalist mass media.
    More information can be found on the IUAFS Facebook Group and blogspot, including many videos exposing the barbarism of the 'nationalist' battalions, and the warm welcome from the Donbas people for those they regard as their liberators - the Russian military and the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s defence forces.