Minnesota says “No to NATO”
Minneapolis, MN – On July 11, about 40 protesters assembled in front of Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office to speak out against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its role in the war in Ukraine.
The protest took place during the first day of a NATO summit meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania to discuss drastically increasing its military forces deployed near Russia, as well as the potential admission of Sweden – and possibly Ukraine – into the organization.
Speakers from the Anti-War Committee (AWC) and Veterans For Peace, Minnesota Chapter 27 condemned NATO for being directly involved in destabilizing the region and provoking an ever-growing war with Russia, while protesters chanted and displayed signs with anti-war slogans for over an hour. Their message was well received by passing drivers and pedestrians.
Wyatt Miller of the AWC stated, “For the U.S. and NATO, this is merely a proxy war and Ukrainians are mere test subjects for new weapons, and politically convenient cannon fodder to use for U.S. geopolitical aims.” He went on to describe how easily NATO could trigger the conflict into becoming another world war.
The United States so far has sent $46.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including increasingly advanced weaponry. This has only caused more deaths and prolonged the war, the protesters argued. Meanwhile, U.S. megacorporation’s such as BlackRock and Halliburton have made moves to take possession of Ukraine’s resources and economy.
Mike Madden of Veterans For Peace said, “Bring the troops home. Bring all the military hardware home. Melt it down. Build girders and beams – for schools, for housing, for transportation. End militarism.”
Organizers chose Senator Klobuchar’s office because the U.S. senator from Minnesota has prominently advocated for expanding NATO’s membership and for further antagonizing Russia and escalating the war.
The demonstration was organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition (MPAC). MPAC’s next action will be Saturday, August 5, 1 p.m. outside the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at Hennepin and Vineland, to commemorate the 1945 nuclear bombings of Japan and call for “no nuclear war.”