2019/04/06 Madrid, Spain
“70 años de guerra. OTAN no, bases fuera” | Embajada de los EEUU
Internationalist Front (FAI) has organised a rally in front of the US
embassy in Madrid, Spain. We are forwarding the report from the rally
and the statement that was read.
After an intense but brief hailstorm, some 50 people accompanied the
representation of “the NATO clown”, with a satirical interpretation of
the role in security and stability that politicians and the mass media
try to convince us NATO plays and of the complicity of the Spanish state
and the cession of military bases to the US.
Slogans were chanted against NATO and its interventions, such as “NATO
no, bases out”, “Military expenses for schools and hospitals” or “NATO
provokes, Venezuela is not to be played with”, some songs of
anti-imperialist resistance were interpreted and this communiqué was
read, and the participants were reminded of the existence of the
campaign and to be attentive to further actions to be called.
—
Nothing to celebrate: 70 years of criminal violence
Communiqué of the Internationalist Anti-imperialist Front on the
occasion of the 70th anniversary of the creation of NATO. The 4th of
April marked the 70th anniversary of the decision of the Euro-Atlantic
capitalist powers to found NATO. Its long history of bombings, attacks
and war allows us to call it a “criminal organisation”.
For 70 years, NATO has not only carried out wars against states it has
considered uncomfortable, but has also carried out terrorist operations
using Nazi and fascist figures in order to put an end to left-wing
movements. Today, NATO directs its military troops towards urban combat,
showing once again that one of its objectives continues to be to
intervene within countries for the control and submission of peoples who
do not accept the dictates of the capitalist order.
Successive Spanish governments have always subordinated national
sovereignty to US interests. Franco’s dictatorship offered troops to the
United States for its war in Korea and with the Pact of Madrid 4
military bases were installed in our territory. The integration into
NATO took place after a deceptive campaign full of threats and
blackmails to the population. After becoming full members, we have
contributed to the dismemberment of the ex-Yugoslavia, participated in
the invasion of Afghanistan, in the destruction of Iraq and in the
absolute ruin of Libya and we have collaborated with France in the
plundering of Africa, operations that have caused countless innocent
victims.
Today there are important deployments of Spanish troops in combat
missions in the Baltic States, Lebanon, the Horn of Africa, Turkey, the
Mediterranean Sea and several African countries, in addition to other
training missions for the obedience to NATO of local forces in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Sub-Saharan Africa. All of them, under the umbrella of
NATO or at the service of the colonial interests of the allied
countries, taking advantage of NATO resources.
In all military interventions in Africa, the Near and Middle East and
Eastern Europe, US bases in Spanish territory have served as a resupply
point for its military forces. In recent years, its offensive role has
been reinforced with the stationing in Rota of the four destroyers of
the anti-missile system, which they now intend to raise to six, and the
Air-to-Earth Rapid Intervention Force of the US Marine Corps in Morón.
All this, with the threat of making the allies pay for the costs of
deploying their troops in each country.
The recent establishment in Torrejón of the Combined Air Operations
Centre for NATO’s southern flank is another addition to these bases.
The Spanish Armed Forces also play a fundamental role in Colombia’s
integration into NATO, which seeks to ensure that the US offensive
against Venezuela and Latin America in general is backed by all its allies.
Our growing role in the imperialist war has taken the risk to the
Spanish population to an unacceptable level. And the cost of this
adventure has meant a commitment to raise military spending to 2% of
GDP, as demanded by the US.
We denounce the surrender of sovereignty that implies the formal and
informal submission of State institutions, companies, political parties,
the media and the country’s own territory to foreign interests and the
moral responsibility that their acceptance, explicit or implicit,
implies for the enormous damage they produce, both NATO itself and the
US military forces and agencies that use our country as a base or as
support for their criminal activities. Sovereignty that is even more
limited in the face of growing difficulties in defending the rights of
the popular classes in an environment of generalized fear and
diminishing freedoms.
The suffering inflicted by the imperialist war results in a dramatic
appeal to the working classes of the central countries and to
internationalism that we cannot ignore. We demand of our governors the
exit from NATO, the denunciation of the “Treaty of Friendship and
Cooperation” with the United States, the closure of the North American
bases and the development of policies of peace and negotiation for the
management of the legitimate interests of the Spanish people, in
opposition to the customary policies of threats, impositions and wars to
which NATO drags us.
For all these reasons, we join our voices to those of masses around the
world who cry out “70 years of NATO – 70 years of militarism,
destruction and violence, misery, expulsion and death”.
Not in our name!
Expulsion of U.S. troops and closure of bases!
Immediate exit and dismantling of NATO!
They will not pass!