Counter-celebration in Florence of the 70th anniversary of NATO

The 70th anniversary of NATO was celebrated by the 29 Ministers of Foreign Affairs, not at NATO headquarters in Brussels, but at its headquarters in Washington. The Master of Ceremonies was the General Secretary of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, who restricted himself to announcing the opening speech by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.

NATO – explained the State Department – is important because, due to its existence, « the United States can better handle, either by military or political force, any global threat against their interests - NATO remains fundamentaly dedicated to military operations by the USA in the transAtlantic region (in other words, Europe) or in other strategically critical areas, like the Middle East and Southern Asia ».

So it is the State Department which states quite clearly that NATO is an instrument of the United States. There was no political reaction from Italy.

The only response came from the Symposium organised by the Comitato No Guerra No Nato and by Global Research, the research centre directed by Michel Chossudovsky (Montreal). The Symposium united about six hundred participants at the Odeon cinema-theatre in Florence on 7 April.

The conclusions are set out in the

DECLARATION OF FLORENCE
FOR AN INTERNATIONAL FRONT NATO EXIT

The risk of a vast war which, with the use of nuclear weapons, could mean the end of Humanity, is real and growing, even though it is not noticed by the general public, which is maintained in the ignorance of this imminent danger.

A strong engagement to find a way out of the war system is of vital importance. This raises the question of the affiliation of Italy and other European countries with NATO.
NATO is not an Alliance. It is an organisation under the command of the Pentagon, and its objective is the military control of Western and Eastern Europe.

US bases in the member countries of NATO serve to occupy these countries, by maintaining a permanent military presence which enables Washington to influence and control their policies and prevent genuine democratic choices.

NATO is a war machine which operates for the interests of the United States, with the complicity of the major European power groups which made them guilty of crimes against Humanity.

NATO’s war of aggression in 1999 against Yugoslavia paved the way for the globalization of military interventions, with wars against Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and other countries, in complete violation of the international law.
These wars are financed by the member countries, whose military budgets are increasing continually to the detriment of social expenditure, in order to support colossal military programmes like that of the US nuclear programme which costs US $ 1.2 trillion.

In violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the USA is deploying nuclear weapons in five non-nuclear NATO States, under the false pretext of the ’’Russian menace’’. By doing so, they are risking the security of Europe.

To exit the war system which is causing more and more damage and exposing us to increasing dangers, we must leave NATO, affirming our rights as sovereign and neutral States.

In this way, it becomes possible to contribute to the dismantling of NATO and all other military alliances, to the reconfiguration of the structures of the whole European region, to the formation of a multipolar world where the aspirations of the People for liberty and social justice may be realised.

We propose the creation of a NATO EXIT International Front in all the European member countries of NATO, by building an organisational network at a basic level strong enough to support the very difficult struggle we must face in order to attain this objective, which is vital for our future.