By World BEYOND War, July 21, 2023
As NATO gathered for a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, antiwar activists across Canada united with pro-peace and anti-war actions occurring around the world at the same time to demand a ceasefire and negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
In protests, pickets and events held in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax, they highlighted that NATO is an aggressive, US-led military alliance designed to expand the military industrial complex. The idea that NATO is a benevolent entity–or that it’s the least bit concerned with democracy and human rights–is a trope of extremely well-funded propaganda.
When NATO was slated to fold in the 90s after the collapse of the Soviet Union it was none other than US weapons giant Lockheed Martin who swooped in and became the architect of its giant growth by FOUNDING the US Committee to Expand NATO.
As Tamara Lorincz explained in the history of NATO she published in the Toronto Star:
“NATO expansion guaranteed a market for American defence companies. To become a member, countries have to institute political, economic and military reforms. They have to move toward a free-market economy and upgrade their militaries to be interoperable with the U.S., which commands the alliance.
This explains why the White House constantly chastises allies like Canada to spend more on their militaries and why Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics are major funders of the NATO Association of Canada, which has its office in Toronto.”
NATO’s expertise and history is composed of launching and escalating wars causing profound misery and massive refugee crises, from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan to Libya. Right now it’s using Ukrainians as cannon-fodder by deliberately prolonging a war to weaken NATO rival Russia.
The idea that NATO keeps Canada secure is laughable. What it does do is militarize Canada’s whole foreign policy and support Canadian corporate interests like oil companies vying for control of pipelines and mining companies extracting minerals in active and recent war zones.
We also vehemently oppose the preposterous NATO demand that allies increase military spending to meet the arbitrary target of 2% of a country’s GDP.
Additional photos and information on the various events that took place are available on the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network website.
2 Responses
3 Cheers for Canadian Peace Workers! Hip Hurrah! Thankyou for doing this important work for Humanity and the Earth.
NATO is a military organization created and ruled by the US for the purpose of destroying Russia and turning the operators of what Eisenhower called the American “military-industrial complex” into billionaires. Anything we can do to curtail and put an end to the evil machinations of NATO is a blessing to the whole world.