Hundreds Protest NATO Summit

The Resist NATO coalition held a People’s Summit, rally and march to condemn NATO’s expansion, its role in military aggression and in resource extraction across the globe. Workers World Party actively mobilized from several cities and aided in publicity and materials with the Resist NATO Coalition to respond to the danger of the NATO War Summit, held in Washington, D.C., from July 9 -11.  

Sara Flounders, a contributing editor of WW newspaper and member of the Administrative Committee of the United National Antiwar Coalition, chaired the First Panel. She opened by praising the International League of Peoples’ Struggles’ numerous political webinars and educational material on the dangers of NATO and on the U.S.-organized RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) Naval maneuvers in the Pacific. Flounders explained that the Resist NATO Coalition focuses on militantly defending resistance and the right to resist from Palestine to the Philippines to national oppression in the U.S. as the only way to confront U.S. imperialism. 

The coalition issued the following news release on July 8:

Washington, D.C.

On July 6 and 7, the Resist NATO coalition, formed by more than sixty anti-war, human rights and diasporic grassroots organizations from across the U.S., held its own conference, rallied and marched to protest the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit in Washington, D.C. The coalition highlighted the role of NATO as the largest U.S.-led military alliance and its function to promote wars of aggression, increased militarization in the Indo-Pacific and across the globe, sanctions, cyberwarfare and surveillance on people’s organizations.

NATO’s 75th summit is occurring during the ongoing war in Ukraine in response to U.S.-NATO military escalation and territorial expansion, which has emboldened NATO to call on its members to provide billions in weapons and military aid. The summit also took place while NATO continues to build military partnerships with Indo-Pacific countries to counter the influence of China. Protesters demanded that resources be allocated away from militarism and into economic, housing, health, education and climate initiatives. 

The U.S. chapter of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS), a global alliance of anti-imperialist organizations, served as one of the key convenors of the Resist NATO Coalition. Ali Husseini of Palestinian Youth Movement, a member organization of ILPS-U.S., opened the People’s Summit by stating clearly, “NATO is a weapon of modern day imperialism; it is a weapon of modern day hegemony.” In a fiery conclusion to said summit, Nyusha Lin of ILPS-U.S. emphasized how this situation of modern day imperialism and hegemony means that “NATO has declared war on the people!” and [NATO itself] is the driving force to resist NATO on the streets.

July 6 People’s Summit  

With the NATO summit set to convene from July 9-11, organizers with the Resist NATO coalition held their own People’s Summit at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. Over 300 people, from New York to Philadelphia to Milwaukee to the West Coast, from abroad and in the DMV (D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area), came together to plan organizing strategies and educate each other about the links between national liberation struggles abroad and local organizers fighting state repression. While organizations present represented a broad coalition of anti-war and pro-human rights advocates, they were all united under the purposes of resisting NATO’s imperial expansionism, blatant militarization and surveillance of Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Asia-Pacific and supporting the right of peoples and nations to self-determination and sovereignty.

The Philippines is a major example of U.S. militarization that threatens the country’s sovereignty through the construction of an Asian NATO, explained BAYAN USA chairperson Andan Bonifacio. 

“They are trying to make Asian countries like the Philippines the next Ukraine,” Bonifacio said at the July 7 rally that was held as part of the People’s Summit. “In the Philippines, more than a dozen youth were recently killed by the fascist Armed Forces of the Philippines, who are backed by the U.S. 

“These are youth who dedicated their lives to the cause of national democratic revolution, who, when faced with the convergence of NATO in Asia Pacific, including the Philippines, and the guns of the U.S. military — they did not back down, and they pointed their guns back! … They gave up everything, so we must continue their struggle and never hesitate. After more than a century of oppression from the U.S., the Filipino people continue their struggle for national liberation … [and] beyond that, this is a struggle of the working class against its oppressors for a better society.” 

Acting Ambassador for Nicaragua Mauricio Lautaro Sandino Montes, who visited the People’s Summit in solidarity with activists, echoed Bonifacio’s sentiment: “We as people have the right to decide what we have, what kind of society that we have.” 

Representatives of national liberation struggles in Palestine, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Africa spoke about the meaning of solidarity and resistance and how we from within the U.S. can support their movements. Bree Hemphill from Pan-African Community Action, a grassroots Black and African organization serving the D.C. community, also added a local perspective, commenting: “NATO represents the imperialist dominance we’re trying to resist, but it also represents what we’re resisting here. As we counter the D.C. crime bill [“Secure D.C.” Omnibus bill], we counter NATO. Struggling against NATO is a people’s struggle!”

Jasper Reno, representing the Resist U.S.-Led War Movement, added onto this point, elaborating how the “Secure D.C.” bill represents the broader challenge of surveillance and counter-insurgency faced by the international anti-imperialist movement today. 

Reno referenced tactics unleashed against national liberation movements such as, “brutal offensives, bombing campaigns and assassinations of revolutionary leaders,” included in state programs which require billions in funding. Reno went on to emphasize the importance of connecting attacks against all forms of resistance and understanding that “these issues have the same root causes — a ceaseless drive for profit and domination that is at the root of people’s exploitation here and around the world.”

The People’s Summit asserted itself as the opposite of NATO’s upcoming summit in D.C. Its focus on supporting human rights, community needs and international solidarity, as well as defending people’s rights to self-determination, stood as an antithesis to the NATO Summit’s plans of militarily backing U.S. and western hegemony. 

July 7 march and rally

First rallying at McPherson Square, over 400 organizers in the Coalition and community members marched to Lafayette Square in front of the White House. Chants of “Down with NATO, Defend people’s struggles!” and “No boots on the ground, No bombs in the air, U.S. out of everywhere!” reverberated as the coalition marched. 

While rallying in front of the White House, Cody Urban of the ILPS U.S. chapter commented on the “convergence of various fronts of U.S. led war, especially in the Asia Pacific and the Middle East, as it desperately funnels money into the Israeli regime. The U.S. is putting an all out effort into expanding NATO as one of the most consolidated military expressions of the U.S.,” sorely condemning the U.S. funding of war incitement around the world at the expense of basic social services for the people. 

From there, the coalition continued to Farragut Square Park, drawing the attention of dozens of passersby for the conclusion of the protest. Serine (identity withheld to avoid retaliation), member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, elaborated on the role of NATO as “the armed wing of U.S.-led imperialism suppressing liberation movements, led by ‘Genocide Joe’ and ‘Bloody Blinken.’ NATO member countries have led genocide and wars not only against Palestine, but Syria, Iraq and Libya. Steadfastness is what drives Palestinians in Gaza against the genocide by Israel and all people in the world around NATO.”

Joe Lombardo, a long-time anti-war activist of the United National Antiwar Coalition and with the Steering Committee of the Resist NATO coalition, reflected on his experience organizing as a college student for Vietnam when “900 people [were] arrested on our campuses.” He emphasized that today’s youth are taking up the torch of “the new anti-war movement. These are the people we need to end this genocide, end Zionism and end NATO.” 

During the coalition’s march and rally, Lombardo later remarked how thousands attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention. In 2024, a similar year of heightening international conflict and domestic tension, he called on “tens of thousands” to do the same at the DNC this August 19-22 in Chicago, due to the international implications of the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza, in addition to: “people protesting and waking up around the world — from Ukraine, a war of choice, where NATO and U.S. imperialism decided to wage a battle with Russia. But far after this week, we must build our coalition and our movement.”

While the U.S. backs genocidal campaigns in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Palestine, Nolan C. of Nodutdol, an organization of diaspora Koreans and allies, cited Korea as another target the U.S. has set its sights on — in part by storing nuclear submarines and conducting over 80 military exercises on the Korean peninsula. 

Nolan described how Korea has been dragged into escalating tensions in the Asia Pacific, being developed into one of the frontlines against inter-imperialist war with China as the U.S. spearheads the formation of an “Asian NATO.” This is done by strengthening pre-existing relationships between NATO countries and most notably AUKUS (a partnership between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S.), [which] forms strategic military alliances with [South] Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and New Zealand.

 While the U.S., U,K. and Australia make up AUKUS, countries like the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and Japan make up the “first island chain” — the main countries utilized as launching pads for war over capital at the expense of the people.

The Resist NATO coalition brought together dozens of organizations and movements all united against NATO and against U.S.-led war.  Calls to action from Lin of ILPS-U.S. emphasized the need to “intensify the solidarity and unity between movements and unity in the struggle against the common enemy and root cause, imperialism, until total liberation.”

The Resist NATO coalition was also invited to speak at the rally of No to NATO, a coalition of anti-war, pro-peace advocacy organizations. 

For more info, go to ilps.us/resistnato.

This statement has been lightly edited.