Translated "Avante!" article by Jorge Cadima, Member of the PCP International Department

The NATO greatest military manoeuvres in East Europe, are in progress, involving 31 thousand soldiers, from 24 countries. It is enough to one look upon the map, in order to understand the Anaconda manoeuvres’ provocateur nature: involving an tenacious operation, fencing Kaliningrad Russian enclave ( in the Baltic Sea coasts). The Russian territory is, henceforth, divided by intermediary USA/NATO troops. In order to incite even more the provocation, “ German armoured vehicles ought to cross [ Poland] from West to East, for “the first time” since the Nazi Russia invasion[1941.06.22], on the eve of its 75th anniversary (in the Guardian, 2016.06.06). NATO celebrates important past events.

NATO’s provocation precedes the 8/9th July summit, in Warsaw. This organization’s 50 years anniversary, of which Salazar was a co-founder, in April 4th, 1949, were celebrated , simultaneously, at the summit where NATO’s mission and ranks were widened ( by incorporating former socialist countries: Poland, Check Republic and Hungry); and by launching the war against Yugoslavia – that had refused to join the NATO. For the first time, upon World War II ending, one assisted to an open aggression war, within the European territory. Clinton, the husband, was the then USA president. During this war, the USA bombarded the China embassy, at Belgrade. International policy new rules were being dictated: those that do not submit to the imperialist superpower, ought to pay for it. Since then, the number of NATO members duplicated. The alleged reasons for the NATO creation, do not exist anymore. But NATO never was what it alleged to be. Far from being a defensive organization, it always was an imperialist domination instrument, which, in the words of the British, Lord Ismay, its first secretary-general, wanted to “ keep the Russian away, the American inside and the German down” (in the New York Times, 2013.09.16). Much more than that, it was a domination instrument over countries ( such as France, Italy, Greece) where powerful anti-Fascist resistance movements had turned their communist parties into great political forces.

A domination instrument that used terrorism. Italian judges, such as, Felice Casson and Guido Salvini, carried out investigations, which proved the intimate liaisons among the Fascist bombing networks, intelligence and NATO. An Italian parliamentary inquiry commission concluded that “ the bomb that killed 85 people, at the train station, in Bologna, in 1980, was issued from an arsenal, used by the Gladio, the NATO network Italian branch, of resistance to communism”, (in the Guardian, 1991. 01.16). And according to judge Salvini, “ it was America and NATO that inspired the Piazza Fontana massacre”, a bank in Milan bomb,, which in 1969 begun the “tension strategy”, which tarnished Italy during 15 years (in Liberazione, 2000.02.15). Following the USSR fall, NATO was, at last, able to assume itself as a bellicose organization. Currently, NATO is the “war party” greatest instrument, amid the leader classes, of this capitalism, in a deep systemic crisis. Misinformed are those who underestimate this reality. According to the Guardian (2016.06.06), the “ [Anaconda] manoeuvres, take place at a sensitive moment for thousand of Polish soldiers, upon the stepping down or the compulsive retirement of a quarter of the country’s generals.[…] The professional soldiers are particularly concerned with […] the creation and the role of a territorial army, holding 17 brigades, partially recruited amid the 35.000 Polish weapon clubs and paramilitary groups members, some of them being linked to football racist hooligans, in that country. Two of these volunteer brigades ought to give assistance to the Polish professional army, during the Anaconda exercises”. In order to serve imperialism, new subversion instruments are to be created.

It is the time to stop this war, aggression and provocation machine.