Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by the World Federation of Trade Unions.

The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing more than 105 million workers who work live, and struggle in 133 countries all over the world, strongly condemns the continuation of military interventions and wars, the accelerated militarization of international relations and confrontational rhetoric, the soaring of the military expenditures, as well as the NATO plans amid the escalating intra-imperialist confrontation. The 2024 ΝΑΤΟ summit which will take place in Washington D.C. on 9-10-11 July 2024, constitutes one more step toward the intensification of NATO’s aggressive imperialist plans, interventions, and wars.

NATO has already announced an increase of its military budget for 2024 by 12% to 2.03 billion euros and its civil budget by 18.2% to 438.1 million euros increasing even more the operating capacity of NATO Command Structure headquarters, missions, and operations around the world. This year’s figures confirm the continuation of an at least 10 years-long course of moving towards a “war economy” for the member states of NATO, with NATO’s Secretary General emphasizing that “burden sharing is improving within NATO” while military spending is up 18 percent across European Allies and Canada in 2024, and 23 member states will spend at least 2% of GDP in military spending this year.

The International class-oriented trade union movement unequivocally condemns the war plans of the imperialists and strongly opposes the uninterrupted increase of the NATO budget which sharpens even more 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 who always pay the cost of the imperialist antagonism.

NATO’s history demonstrates nothing but interventions, wars, juntas, refugees, starvation, destruction, and death. In addition, the continued soaring in military spending constitutes a provocation for the people who constantly see their living standards affected due to generalized price rises, inflation, and long-term austerity policies.

The militant class-oriented trade union movement intensifies the struggle against imperialist wars and the system that creates them. The WFTU fights for the dissolution of NATO which constitutes an aggressive war machine in service of the imperialist interests of its member states, aiming to maintain, and expand if possible, the existing favorable correlation of forces for the NATO countries in order to safeguard the profits of their monopolies.

Simultaneously we reiterate our firm demand for the immediate dissolution of all military coalitions, the complete abolition of nuclear weapons, an immediate end to all imperialist armed conflicts, and 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, negatively impacting the standard of living of low-income families, workers, poor small farmers, and popular strata in general.

The WFTU calls upon workers all over the globe, the militant trade unions to join the ranks and the struggles of the international class-oriented trade union movement for lasting peace, for a world free of imperialist interventions and man-by-man exploitation.

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