1. The NATO Summit which will be held in a few days in Portugal will result in new and dangerous developments in the international situation and will mean new threats and dangers to all the peoples of the World.
One of the main goals of the NATO Summit in Portugal is the consolidation of the so-called “NATO’s new strategic role”, an extremely dangerous qualitative leap in the role, mission and goals of the Organisation. With its new strategic concept NATO plans to extend the territorial domination of its intervention and deployment of forces to the whole world; expanding the scope of its missions to matters like energy, environment, migrations and matters of internal security of states; restate as a nuclear military bloc despite the rhetoric of nuclear disarmament; develop still further the military industrial complex and military research and demand that all its members increase their military spending; include actions of direct intervention and occupation in its missions under the guise of missions of interposition and peacekeeping and further the instrumentalization of the UN to pursue its intents and strengthen its role as imperialism’s military arm.
New decisions are also expected from this NATO summit in terms of continuation and intensification of the military conflicts, namely in Afghanistan; the repeated and growing threats against sovereign countries like Iran; the prospect of NATO’s involvement in the US Administration’s project of the so-called “anti-missile system” and an increase in the military spending by an organisation that is already responsible for two thirds of the global military spending.
2. The goals of this NATO Summit confirm, very seriously, the lines of the strengthening of an organisation which, with every step it takes, denies its rhetoric of “security” and “defence of stability and peace” and which strengthens its aggressive alliance, responsible for several outbreaks of instability and tension presently occurring.
These goals are inseparable from the current situation of capitalism’s worsening structural and systemic crisis. They are expressions of a military and securitary drift by the world’s main imperialist powers in view of the deep contradictions and historical limits faced by the capitalist system, inseparable from imperialism’s aims of economic and geo-strategic domination within a framework of a clear economic decline of the main capitalist powers –namely the US – and inseparable are the attempts to contain and crush the resistance against capitalist exploitation and oppression, within the framework of a great anti-social offensive and historical regression in the rights of the workers around the globe.
3. The PCP condemns the commitment of the Portuguese government and of the President of the Portuguese Republic to hold this NATO Summit, which represents yet another serious sign of submission and collaboration of the Portuguese authorities with the strategy of the world’s main powers and a deeper involvement of the country with NATO’s militarist aims, constituting a threat to peace and international security. An attitude and commitment that clashes with the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, namely the principles set down in its article 7, and the principles and fundamental rights stated in the United Nations Charter.
4. The PCP condemns the increasing involvement of the European Union and its member states in NATO’s crusade of militarization of international relations and spreading of its intervention to the whole World. An involvement patent in the process of the militarization of the European Union accelerated by the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty and clearly seen by the exponential increase in EU spending on military missions outside its borders (from 30 million Euros in 2002 to 300 million Euros in 2009).
5. The PCP, which has supported from the beginning the construction of a broad unity of the movements of the workers and the Portuguese people in the struggle against this NATO summit, wholeheartedly salutes the exemplary intervention and mobilization effort that the Campaign “Peace Yes NATO No” (with PCP as one of the promoters) has been developing and will certainly be expressed in a wide participation in the Demonstration “Peace Yes, NATO No” , on November 20th., at 15.00, from Marquês do Pombal to Restauradores, promoted and organised by this campaign.
The PCP denounces the attempts to create an atmosphere of tension and insecurity concerning the actions against NATO, associating in a general and irresponsible manner all the planned actions with the idea that these initiatives that could turn into violent acts. These attempts – inseparable from a deep ideological offensive against those who speak out against the NATO summit and all that it entails – will certainly have a serene and decided answer through the participation of thousands of citizens in the demonstration “Peace Yes, NATO No”, a popular, peaceful and combative demonstration.
6. The PCP appeals to all workers, youth, Portuguese men and women - given the presence in Portugal of those mainly responsible for the present economic and social crisis plaguing the world, those responsible for the situation of instability and insecurity that characterize the international situation - to participate in the Demonstration “Peace yes, NATO No”, thus displaying their determination and combativity in the struggle for social justice, against exploitation and for a World of peace, cooperation and friendship among the peoples, in an act of affirming the pledge of the Portuguese people with the values of the April [Revolution] and of internationalist solidarity with the peoples of world victims of imperialism’s exploitation and oppression.
