The YCL-LJC strongly denounces Canada’s new NATO commitments that were announced following the Alliance’s summit on July 11th and 12th. In response to Trump’s desire to increase military spending to skyrocketing levels (he even called for a target of 4% of the GDP invested in the defence budget), Canada has attempted to calm the game and to show that it is ready to assume a greater role in this criminal alliance.

Among the new commitments, Canada will deploy up to 250 troops in Iraq to assume command of the NATO training mission in that country ravaged by nearly 30 years of ongoing warfare and still occupied by NATO forces. In addition, Canada will strengthen its presence in Eastern Europe, taking further part in the logic of confrontation with Russia. Thus, the reassurance mission in Latvia will be extended by 4 years, until 2023 and will be reinforced by an increase in the military strength from 450 to 540 troops.

It is with pride that Trudeau declared that Canada offers more support to NATO, even adding that the role of the Alliance is now more important than at the time of the Cold War; proof that the avowed aim of the Atlantic Pact has been since its origins an arm constituting the military guarantee of Western imperialism’s interests throughout the world.

The measures announced this year are in line with last year’s announcement to increase military spending by 70% over the next 10 years, increasing the military budget to nearly $30 billion annually,  money that will not be injected into social programs including education, health or culture. The ,measures are also linked with the announcement earlier this year to send troops to support the soldiers currently occupying Mali.

Canada taking a step further,inscribing itself as a proactive player military aggression should be a cause of great concern for the progressive, and democratic forces of peace, especially as the danger of the proliferation of wars and globalized military conflicts are growing. It iseasy to interpret the signals sent by the NATO member countries which are preparing us for more war, a war where working-class youth is destined to be killed for the profits of the Western imperialism.

NATO, far from being a defensive alliance, represents an offensive alliance. It is responsible for the deaths of millions of women, men and children; destruction of countries including Libya, Yugoslavia; the occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and even the partition of the Korean peninsula. Far from having faded as a result of the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact (which was used to justify the existence of NATO), the alliance grew stronger by extending eastward at a rampant pace. In addition, the announcement of former Colombian President Santos who has made his country a “partner” of NATO, the first country in Latin America to have risen at this stage, shows the willingness of Member States to consolidate their influence in this region declared a “zone of peace” by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and to counter the influence of progressive processes, primarily Venezuela and socialist Cuba, as well as to undermine the process of cooperative unity in the region.

NATO is also the main cause of the migration crisis that has displaced more than 68 million in 2017, an average of one person every three seconds, through wars, occupations, interventions, embargos and blockade of which it and its member countries are responsible.

Considering that NATO’s  avowed purpose is to militarily defend the interests of big multinational companies and Western imperialism, it cannot be amended nor reformed.  The YCL-LJC calls for all progressive, anti-imperialist and peace-loving forces to unite in fighting for a lasting peace, to mobilize for Canada to leave NATO immediately, to substantially reduce Canada’s military budget and to repeal all military forces stationed outside the country.

Canada’s actual military budget sums up to $20 billion, of which the majority is allocated to NATO operations. Guaranteeing free education from elementary school to university would cost only half of that sum.

No more money, not a penny for dirty imperialist wars!