 For more videos on People's Struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome back to Around the World in 8 Minutes, where we bring you stories of working class struggle from across the globe. People's movements and organizations across Europe are gearing up for a week of anti-militarist and anti-imperialist action against the NATO summit to be held in Brussels on Monday, June 14. The gathering of leaders from member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization comes on the heels of the Group of Seven meeting that is being held in the UK from June 11 to 13. According to the body itself, the discussions will be centered around Russian aggression, the threat of terrorism, cyber attacks, emerging technologies, the security impact of climate change and the rise of China. So what is NATO and why are people's movements against it? NATO was founded in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and 10 European states, including Fascist Portugal, as a strategic military alliance. This military alliance had the stated objective to counter the threat posed by the Soviet Union. Since its founding, it has played a key role in leading and supporting attacks against socialist countries, anti-colonial movements, and all those considered to be enemies. This has continued till today, and for many, NATO's purpose is clear. It is a tool to strengthen the partnership between the United States and European countries in countering whoever threatens US global interests. NATO has directly gone to war in former Yugoslavia, Libya, and Afghanistan, wreaking havoc in the name of security, democracy, and human rights. Today, NATO has expanded to 30 member states, and it has its eyes on some old and new targets. Ahead of this summit, people's movements organized in anti-imperialist, anti-war, anti-militaristic, and pro-peace platforms and networks have highlighted some of the key reasons they continue to declare no to NATO, no to war. First, no to the Cold War on China. In the NATO 2030 Initiative, a report commissioned in 2019 to propose reforms to the alliance, China is defined as a full spectrum systemic rival. Reading this report, you almost feel transported to the 1960s when the US was trying to convince the world that it had to keep amassing arms and invading countries to protect democracy and human rights from the threat of the Soviet Union and communism. The report calls on NATO to devote much more time, political resources, and action to the security challenges posed by China. This seems to directly correspond to the ongoing campaign of aggression against China by the United States to combat its economic rise and the possibility it represents as a multipolar world. This aggression has been most visible over the last several years through the intense trade war, but the US has also been undertaking a re-armament campaign. The United States already has around 400 military bases surrounding China and its warships regularly roam the South China Sea. The US military wants to strengthen its power even further by requesting an extra $27 billion for the next five years to build a network of precision strike missiles around the islands that surround Beijing. US aggression against China is most definitely a threat to world peace. Second, no to nuclear armament. There are 122 countries in the world that are committed to a world without nuclear weapons, but NATO and many of its member countries still see nuclear weapons as a guarantee to security. This too is often times directly against the will of the people. In Italy, for example, referensums were held in 1987 in 2011 to reject the permission of nuclear energy and the military use of nuclear power in Italy. However, today there are still 40 to 70 nuclear warheads in US and NATO military bases in Italy. This armament also has catastrophic impacts on the environment. In 2019, the carbon footprint of the European military industry was about 24.8 million tons of CO2, equivalent to the emissions of about 14 million cars. The CO2 emissions from one hour of flight of an F-35 fighter jet is roughly equivalent to those of eight cars over a whole year. NATO is well aware of the climate changes having serious impacts on the lives of people across the globe. The United Nations reports that by 2050 there will be 200 million climate refugees looking for a more habitable place to live. NATO sees this as not part of a multi-dimensional crisis of the system, but a potential threat to security. Finally, no-to-NATO activists are demanding welfare, not warfare. Amid the largest public health crisis in history that has had exponential impacts on the global economy, global military spending has reached a record high of $1.9 billion. NATO member states account for 55 percent of the global total. The U.S. calls on all member states of the body to spend at least two percent of their GDP on defense. With millions of the world's population hungry, suffering from poverty, unemployment, lack of access to healthcare, education, and basic services, NATO continues to prioritize war and profits over people. Anti-imperialists and peace activists have organized counter-summits, online discussions, street actions, and social media campaigns to raise their voices against NATO and all it stands for. The people's will for peace and true stability for all will prevail against war-mongering and profiteering. People in Gaza woke up to hundreds of Israeli airstrikes. In Palestine, they have suffered new waves of attacks and violence by the Israeli occupation government. The Palestinian people have returned to fill the streets with dignity and resistance. And the echo of their struggle has traveled all over the world. Dozens of South African dock workers picketed at a port in Durban on Friday as they showed their support for Palestinians. Today hundreds of protesters came to the port of Oakland blocking the unloading of an Israeli cargo ship. We will no longer sit and watch as the Israeli government massacres Palestinians as it continues 73 years of colonization, of dispossession, of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. While the peoples shout against imperialism and the alliance of the United States and Israel, in Brussels the leaders of the OTAN to increase the budget for the wars, the exploitation of natural resources and to increase the tensions against China. From Livorno to Durban and from Gaza to Oakland, the solidarity and the struggle for peace are extended. Its security is our poverty, its peace, our exploitation. Its wars are our lives. Yes to peace, not to the OTAN. Long live Palestine! Thank you very much.