NATO expansion hits a wall during capitalist crisis

Amidst the cataclysmic capitalist crisis, the U.S. and Western European governments are pressing for an expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Instead of dissolving after the Warsaw Pact ended, it became the tool of imperialism to break up Yugoslavia, the last socialist economy in Europe. NATO was reorganized to promote and protect capitalist “neoliberal” expansion into Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

But capitalist experimentation in Eastern Europe and the former USSR has failed. Latvia’s economy has crashed, forcing its right-wing government to resign on Feb. 20. Ukraine is on the verge of bankruptcy. People losing social services and jobs realize that NATO military spending is expensive and accounts for nearly 70 percent of the world’s military spending. (CIA World Fact Book, 2008)

When the Soviet bloc existed, jobs, free education and health care were guaranteed. Now they are not. Capitalist governments in these former socialist countries are dealing with high youth unemployment by making deals with U.S. imperialism to send their young men to the war in Afghanistan.

In the past quarter, Slovak industrial output fell by 17 percent and Ukraine’s by 33 percent. While the USSR had zero unemployment, the number of jobless in Russia is now 6 million. In Bosnia, and parts of Serbia, unemployment is over 40 percent. (Associated Press, Feb. 3)

While the imperialist powers are after the oil, natural gas and human resources of Eurasia, “the global economy is decelerating at the fastest pace on record. Forty percent of global wealth has been wiped out.” (Counterpunch, Feb. 17)

The NATO drive east is foundering. Opposition to NATO threatens U.S. satraps in Georgia and the Ukraine. (McClatchy Newspapers, Feb. 15)

Opposition grows in Europe

Thousands of Czech and Polish citizens oppose the U.S. and NATO interceptor missile systems designed for their countries. Seventy percent of Czechs oppose U.S. missile defense emplacements. (Russia Today, Feb. 19) On Jan. 31, about 1,000 protesters marched in Prague against the planned U.S. radar site in the Czech Republic. Organized by Czech communists, the protest included 130 mayors and citizens of towns located near the base. (Ohmy News, Korea, Feb. 6)

That same weekend, at a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament conference in London, activists from Great Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic, France and Germany met to oppose the U.S. missile defense systems. (Mouvement de la Paix)

On Feb. 19, over 100 Czech mayors testified at NATO headquarters in Brussels against the missile shield installation.

That same day, the Kyrgyzstan parliament voted to terminate the U.S. military’s lease of the Manas air base, a logistical hub for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. (New York Times, Feb. 19)

In Krakow, as NATO ministers discussed expansion, hundreds rallied in opposition to the anti-missile system the U.S. wants to install in Poland. (krakowpost.com) “We’re against NATO’s politics, and we demand pulling out forces from Afghanistan and a halt to the arms race,” said protester Katarzyna Puzon. “We find it equally absurd to be spending public money in times of crisis.” (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Feb. 19)

The world economy will be even worse when anti-NATO protesters in Europe gather in Strasbourg, France, to protest the 60th anniversary of NATO in April.