30,000 in Strasbourg say ‘No to NATO’

The heads of state and governments celebrating NATO’s 60-year role as an international police force of world imperialism needed to impose a virtual state of siege in the region on the French-German border near Strasbourg to keep anti-war protesters away from their summit.

Anti-NATo activists oppose all imperialist occupations. Photo: Junge Welt

Tens of thousands of French and German cops and a few thousand soldiers were there to stop 30,000 people demonstrating in Strasbourg on April 4 from moving freely. They especially prevented or delayed many of the German demonstrators from crossing the Europe Bridge and joining their comrades in Strasbourg.

The police repression finally led to confrontations. According to reports from the events, when the anarchist section of the anti-war movement challenged the authorities, the cops immediately attacked the main body of demonstrators. They used tear gas, smoke bombs and even rubber bullets.

A broad sector of the traditional anti-war movement and other left forces were able to politically unite around the slogans of “No to NATO” and “Jobs not bombs” and general opposition not only to aggressive NATO expansion but also to the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

Observers told Workers World that the anti-war sentiment was shared by large sectors of the population on both sides of the border. People in the working-class neighborhoods of Strasbourg had hung anti-war banners in their windows in the days before the NATO meeting.

The political decisions at the NATO meeting included the continued expansion of NATO eastward. Croatia and Albania, two neocolonies of U.S. and West European imperialism, became full members of NATO. Essentially that means that Croatian and Albanian youth will be asked to serve as cannon fodder anywhere from the Balkans to Afghanistan, not that NATO will consult Croatian and Albanian political leaders.

The main question was Afghanistan. U.S. President Barack Obama presented a continuation of Washington’s program for NATO since the end of the Soviet Union: to turn NATO into a worldwide intervention force under the leadership of U.S. imperialism. He appealed for the European NATO countries to send more troops and resources to support the U.S.-led occupation of Afghanistan.

While the French, German and other European powers lauded Obama’s plan and welcomed his nonconfrontational style after eight years of George Bush’s arrogance, they offered only a few thousand troops and only for noncombat missions in Afghanistan, and with good reason.

More European troops dying in Afghanistan could turn the general anti-war sentiment in Europe into a massive and active anti-war movement.