Milwaukee anti-war action against NATO troop expansion
Milwaukee, WI – On July 11, activists gathered at the “Sunburst” statue near Lake Michigan in downtown Milwaukee to protest further NATO escalation in the Ukraine war. Anti-war activists held signs reading “No to NATO, no to war.”
The rally came as NATO was meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania to further plans of deploying a total of 300,000 troops around Ukraine. The number marks a dramatic increase from the current total of 40,000 NATO troops stationed mostly in eastern Europe. NATO under U.S. leadership is putting aside any efforts toward peace negotiations to end the bloody war. President Biden and the U.S. only want to escalate the war, which pits working-class Ukrainians and Russians against each other.
The NATO summit comes as the United States is handing out blank checks to Ukraine, while working-class Americans continue to battle inflation and struggle to secure their basic needs. Biden also recently waived a longstanding ban on cluster bomb exports, weapons which are banned in over 100 countries for their tendency to fail to detonate. Experts say up to 14% do not detonate immediately, later causing civilian deaths for decades to come and violating human rights.
The Milwaukee Anti-war Committee (MAC) organized the protest and handed out flyers with the history of the NATO provocation in the Ukraine war dating back to the 2014 U.S.-backed coup that overthrew an elected Ukrainian government.
“As the media refuses to frame the war as anything other than an irrational, bloodthirsty offensive by Putin, the Milwaukee Anti-War Committee is fighting to educate and provide context to the war, in which we're forced to pay for the death and destruction,” said Ryan Hamann, a member of MAC.
MAC also handed out flyers for their upcoming protest at the Milwaukee Air & Water Show on July 22. The show’s aim is to glorify war, violence and U.S. imperialism. Military airshows also add to pollution in the city which recently experienced some of its worst air quality in recorded history.