The first part: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/247313

In other words, Gladio was designed to instill fear in the civilian population so that they would consent to the increase of state authority and the elimination of civil rights and freedoms “in the name of state security”. The BBC documentary[1] on the operation reveals that NATO member states were fully aware of the activities of fascist groups within Gladio. Another aim of these parallel armies was to break strikes and stage a coup should the Communists come to power anywhere in the West. In the name of Gladio, numerous terrorist acts were committed, such as the explosions at Peteano, Piazza Fontana and Bologna railway station (where 85 people were killed on 2 August 1980), the assassination of the leader of the Communist party in Belgium, Julian Lahaut, and many others.

While in Eastern Europe the Nazis were being tried and executed for their crimes, in the “free world” they were transformed overnight from criminals to democrats, taking up leadership positions in West Germany[2], Japan, South Korea (these remain essentially the same officials and politicians as in the recently ended fascist regime). Former Nazis have also served in the leadership of NATO (Adolf Heusinger), the UN (Kurt Waldheim) and the EU Commission (Walter Hallstein).

Moreover, according to investigations by the US Department of Justice, many of those who worked for various radio stations designed to broadcast “freedom and democracy” (in the style of Radio Free Europe) to Eastern Europe had been part of the Hitler Einsatzgruppen, responsible for anti-Semitic pogroms in the USSR. An example of a democracy steward working for these stations was Stanislaw Stankievich, under whose command babies of Jewish families were buried alive to save ammunition. [3]

We also have the more recent example of the fascist Azov battalion, trained and armed by NATO forces.

Modern barter in the world of capital. NATO member countries take resources and bring free market and political instability

NATO member countries are notorious for installing numerous dictators over the years and assassinating dozens of progressive leaders. It is instructive to ask the question: what is the logic behind these acts? Well, these dictators, in addition to numerous abuses, cases of torture and flagrant violations of human rights, have opened the door to investment by Western companies, have left resources and working people to be exploited by multinationals, have not imposed laws on working conditions or environmental protection, and have immediately trampled on trade unions.

Many leaders were overthrown because they sought independence from the West, either by trying to develop a parallel industry to the private one in which Western companies were advancing capital, or by nationalizing the latter’s enterprises. Some leaders were toppled simply for making economic agreements with the USSR, China or Eastern Europe, or for refusing to ban communist activity. Here are some examples found in Killing Hope:

Bolivia’s regime was overthrown in 1971 for nationalizing the Gulf Oil Corporation, Arbenz’s Guatemalan regime was overthrown for taking land from United Fruit as part of land reform, Mossadegh’s Iranian regime was overthrown for nationalizing Anglo-Iranian Oil, Juan Bosch’s regime in the Dominican Republic was overthrown for initiating land reform and numerous public projects aimed at improving the situation of the people. In the case of Cuba, an embargo was imposed that cost the Cubans almost a TRILLION dollars, and the CIA brought swine fever to Cuba, thus drying up 500,000 pigs.

Nor should we forget the NATO interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan which brought not only destruction, poisoning of the population by depleted uranium bombs and sanctions which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children, but also some of the most corrupt governments. Libya has gone from having one of the highest life expectancies in Africa to a country torn apart by mercenary conflict and slave markets, all for the sin of wanting independence from the West[4].

CONCLUSION

We are told in the press that NATO is a defensive organisation and that it is in our interest to support it, as it protects us from Russian imperialism. But what do the facts tell us, namely the hundreds of military bases all over the globe, the huge expenditure on the army that could be used for social services, the continued expansion and aggression against states that are not even close to the borders of any NATO member?

We can only CONFIRM the fact that NATO is a defence organisation, but NOT one for the defence of working people, but one for the defence of Western capitalist interests, which go as far as collaborating with Nazis, exploiting children in factories, installing dictators and developing torture manuals to protect their sources of profit.

And capital does not discriminate! Western capitalists would also like to reduce workers in the US and Europe to as miserable a state as possible, but the limits to exploitation are imposed on capital by labour, by the workers themselves. The death knell of exploitation can only sound if organised workers overthrow the rule of capital and establish the rule of labour. The workers have no reason to want the domination of one imperialist military bloc over another, but their historical task is to eliminate all military powers, to eliminate the system that gives rise to wars and exploitation.

  1. Operation Gladio – Full documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGHXjO8wHsA ↩︎

  2. Majority of West German Justice Ministry officials were ex-Nazis following WWII https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/report-majority-of-west-german-justice-ministry-officials-were-ex-nazis-following-wwii-469899 ↩︎

  3. John Loftus, The Belarus Secret, New York 1982 ↩︎

  4. Ben Norton, Media Erase NATO Role in Bringing Slave Markets to Libya https://fair.org/home/media-nato-regime-change-war-libya-slave-markets/ ↩︎