The NATO summit in Vilnius is about to conclude. It faced some serious issues. Notably the situation in Ukraine and the controversy over an intended expansion into Asia. Critics point out that NATO is on a course towards war and that the push for the prevention of war and for a peaceful relationship between nations is critical to our collective future. The World Federation of Unions, representing 105 million workers in 133 countries issued the statement below just prior to the summit.

The World Federation of Trade Unions, on behalf of its 105 million workers who live, work and struggle in 133 countries of the 5 continents strongly condemns the imperialist plans of NATO and considers the 2023 Summit which is going to be held July 11-12 in Vilnius, Lithuania, one more blatant provocation to the whole peaceful humanity.

The peoples all over the globe know we well the bloody mission of this imperialist alliance is to maintain, and expand if possible, the existing favourable correlation of forces for the NATO countries in order to safeguard the profits of their monopolies.  In the imperialist system which is characterized by the fierce competitions of the imperialist forces for geopolitical control and the control of energy resources and their transport routes, both the peoples of the member-states of NATO and the other counties’ peoples have nothing to expect from the imperialist alliances and wars except death, suffering, poverty, and misery.

The class-oriented world trade union movement, the militant unions, and those who truly want peace consistently and continuously struggle against NATO which constitutes an aggressive war machine in the service of the interests of the imperialist countries of the alliance.   The peoples of the world have a first-hand experience of NATO crimes and they know that NATO means nothing but interventions, wars, juntas, refugees, starvation, destruction, and death.

The WFTU condemns the continuation of military interventions and wars, the accelerated militarization of international relations, and the soaring military expenditures; it demands an immediate end to all imperialist armed conflicts, full respect for the sovereignty, independence, and right of every people to freely choose their present and future.

We denounce the exclusions, discriminations, embargoes, and sanctions imposed by the US, NATO, and the EU against various countries, as they negatively impact the standard of living of low-income families, workers, poor small farmers, and popular strata in general.

The international trade union movement denounces the intention of the NATO Summit to add new Regional Plans but also to define a minimum limit of 2% of GDP in military spending, which sharpens the confrontation and deepens the preparations and the risk for a generalized imperialist conflict with disastrous consequences for the popular strata and the ordinary people.

In addition to conditions of generalized price rise, inflation, and the long-term austerity policies that have shrunk all the expenditures linked to popular needs and workers’ living standards; In an era where all workers’ demands for education, health, social security, and dignified living conditions, are rejected by bourgeoise governments under the pretext of lack of resources, etc, the further increase in military spending is provocative as well as revealing of their intensions.

The World Federation of Trade Unions firmly believes military spending deprives people of the fundamental right to live with dignity and that NATO destabilizing the world and demand unconditional and urgent dissolution of NATO. The WFTU calls upon the workers all over the world to fight against imperialist wars and the system that creates them, to struggle for world peace and the solidarity among the peoples, to oppose the waste of resources and money for military purposes, to demand the dismantling of nuclear weapons and the immediate disengagement from NATO.

The peoples of the world, the workers of the world have nothing to divide them, and they can live in peace, solidarity, and cooperation.