Dear Comrades and friends
Allow me to begin by thanking you for inviting PCP and salute the CPU for their organization of this important initiative that coincides with the beginning of the NATO summit in Bucharest, where predictably NATO will take further steps in its process of expansion towards the euro-asian "vital space".
We have witnessed a continued eastward march of NATO since the defeats of the socialist camp and the disintegration of the USSR, an organic part of the offensive and expansionist strategy of imperialism in the under the present correlation of world forces and a testament to the increasing militarization of international relations. This represents a factor of destabilization and weakening of European security and a serious threat to peace, in Europe and the world. If there could be any doubts about the nature and character of the Transatlantic Alliance as an instrument of the imperialist strategy dominated by the USA, then the shameful and undignified pseudo-independence of Kosovo—orchestrated and sponsored by the USA, NATO and UE—, as well as the foreseen installation of US American anti-missile shields in Europe and the creation of US and NATO military bases near Russian borders—all parts of the same chain—, should suffice to dissipate them. The USA has already assumed that the so-called anti-missile defense project has as its aim gaining nuclear strategic supremacy, through the elimination of Russia's (and China's) power of dissuasion. If successful, its implementation would further alter, in a radical manner, the already complex world strategic framework. Within Europe, the anti-missile shield project—developed in articulation with NATO and the acquiescence of the EU—goes beyond specific military objectives, and has created a new line of division and confrontation on the political, economic and social levels.
If NATO's "democratic vocation" was already clear at birth, namely by the incorporation, as a founding member, of Portugal, then under the domination of the fascist dictatorship of Salazar, the trans-Atlantic block has definitely shed its defensive mythology with the criminal intervention in Jugoslavia and the war in Kosovo, assuming itself as a political and military force, whose range of intervention is global.
The new strategic concept of NATO, establishing its the role as a front for big Capital on the world scale and particularly the hegemony of USAmerican imperialism under conditions that point towards its historic decline, must be read in the context of the current dispute for the partitioning of the world, centered on the battle for control of energetic resources and raw materials and their respective supply lines, on the conquest and opening of markets, and on the demarcation of spheres of influence of "geopolitical control" among competitors and adversaries, having as its backdrop the gradual affirmation of emerging powers. This situation has become evermore effervescent and dangerous given the deepening of the capitalist crisis.
We are in the presence of an attempt of structure a new world order, that is oppressive and exploitative, that subverts international law, using concepts that range from «humanitarian intervention» to «preemptive war» and «war on terrorism», and that manipulates the UN and attempts to slowly replace its action with that of NATO.
On the other hand, the «transaltantic globalized strategy» already claims the constitution of a political direction between the USA, NATO and the EU and the imposition of a more rigid discipline in their relationship, capable of ensuring commons responses to the so-called threats to common interests. This alleged symbiotic relationships masks the truth of a new vertical line of imperialist subordination at the center of the system, based on the erosion, on an unprecedented scale, of state sovereignty, while not avoiding the deepening and resurgence of inter-capitalist rivalries and contradictions.
It is important to note that the eastward expansion of NATO and its projection as a global force go hand in hand, and are organically articulated with the path followed by the major EU powers, as consummated in the Lisbon Treaty. Be it by the federalization of the EU and the accelerated transfer to Brussels of member state's constitutional prerogatives, be it by the imposition and judicial establishment of revenues of neoliberalism as an economic model, be it by the increasing militarization of the EU, not only via the creation of a European Defense Agency and the "obligation" of member states to reinforce their defense but also by subordinating the EU to commitments and cooperation with NATO, as the European pillar of NATO, which is to say in obedience to the command of the USA in its fundamental aspects. It is under these circumstances that a country like Portugal, and in contradiction with its Constitution—that foresees the dissolution of political-military blocks and the establishment of a collective security system, as well as the abolition of imperialism, colonialism, and other forms of aggression, domination and exploitation in the relations among peoples— has multiplied the participation of Portuguese troops in actions with an interventionist and neoliberal character, from Chad to Kosovo and Afghanistan.
In a situation where never before has there been such concentration and centralization of capital, but also of narrow social support basis for capitalism, one must not loose sight that the aggressiveness of imperialism is not a sign of strength of the capitalist system, but a result of problems and contradictions that corrode it, of its incapacity to solve the problems of social development, and of its impotence to suffocate popular aspirations and crush the liberating struggle of workers and peoples.
In this context, one need underline the blatant class nature of the processes of militarization and belligerent surge in international relations, of which the processes of NATO expansion is a part. This is equivalent to stating, without undermining the need to take advantage of inter-imperialist contradictions and increase the factors of resistance and opposition to the imperialist offensive, that there is no purely "geopolitical" way out that is capable to serve there interests of peoples and social progress. The exit from this dangerous situation will depend, on last analysis, on the development of mass struggle in each country, on its growing articulation on the international level, and on the strengthening of the anti-imperialist front. There necessary force to stop exploitation and capitalist oppression and force imperialism to retreat in its dangerous escape forward lies in workers and the peoples. A struggle where communists have always been, are today, and should continue to be on the front line.
