NATO: A Virus as Deadly as COVID-19

By Adrien Welsh

The death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 40,000 and the number of people infected by this pandemic is approaching one million. Given the scale of this health crisis, there is no doubt that emergency measures, in particular to help the most vulnerable, are necessary.

However, the billions of dollars mobilized to respond to COVID-19 mean very little in the face of the colossal sums that the Western imperialist states are constantly pouring out not to fight, but to incubate another virus just as deadly, if not more, than COVID-19: NATO.

Feature essay on youth culture and war

Peter Miller and Daniel Lyder

Tommy Smith and John Carlos

An oft-repeated opinion in the sports media is that sports and politics should absolutely never mix. If an athlete chooses to use his or her spotlight to voice or display a social or political opinion sports journalists, sports owners, and sports executives will often voice their disapproval.

One of the most famous examples of this is Tommy Smith and John Carlos. The two African American athletes at the 1968 Games were stripped of their medals for their famous Black Power raised fist salute, wearing black-gloves in civil rights solidarity.

More recently, at the summer Olympics in London, Damien Hooper, an aboriginal boxer from Australia, was threatened with expulsion by the Australian Olympic Committee for wearing a black T-shirt with a picture of an Aboriginal flag, while warming up in the ring before a fight. Hooper had broken the Olympic games policy preventing athletes from representing flags unapproved by corporate sponsors.

Fidel and Camilo Cienfuegos play baseball
as the team "Bearded ones"

Shut up and play

Yet there is an immense self-serving irony contained in the ‘shut up and play’ culture perpetuated by the media.  Sports are constantly used by right-wing corporate forces and the military to promote their own pro-war, aggressively nationalist and repressive agendas. Therefore, the truth is that sports journalists, owners, and sports executives actually believe that sports and progressive politics should absolutely never mix.

Iconic ESPN host “Big Game” Brent Musburger famously analyzed Smith and Carlos’ demonstration by saying at the time "Perhaps it's time twenty year-old athletes quit passing themselves off as social philosophers."

Musburger has never apologized for his remarks.  And the attitude hasn’t changed much since then.

Consider the incredible backlash against Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen last year for simply admitting that he ‘liked’ Fidel Castro. Guillen was forced to recant at length or lose his job and was suspended for five games.

NFL 'salute to serive'

Military cheerleading

Yet anyone who’s watched an NFL game or the recient Super Bowl could easily attest to the open and unquestioned platform for pro-military viewpoints: from troop displays during the national anthem, to fighter jets buzzing over the stadium, to the bizarre statements and subsequent “USA” chants throughout stadiums announcing the killing of Osama Bin Laden and his family.  Their official website proclaims that "supporting the military is part of the fabric of the NFL."

In fact, capitalist countries like Canada and the USA actively use the sports "business" to promote the military and imperialism.

Canadian professional sports franchises openly promote war in conjunction with the mass media and the government. While the old Winnipeg Jet's logos (from 1972–1996) featured a civilian airliner, the True North Inc. new design explicitly pays "homage" to the Air Force with a fighter jet.

The federal and Manitoba provincial governments contributed over 11 million dollars to the construction of a new arena for the Jets to play in, quite a unique form of advertising.

Cherry signing bombs

Don Cherry

Perhaps the most infamous hockey ‘analyst’ in Canada is Don Cherry who makes a $700 000 salary, paid from public money, and uses his airtime to promote xenophobia, anti-Quebec nationalism and war during Hockey Night in Canada on CBC. In 2010 Cherry signed bombs and went as far as actually firing a shell when he visited occupied Afghanistan.  He later received an honorary degree from the Royal Military college (although not without protest) for his work supporting the war.

Unlike what the Harper Conservative government and Don Cherry would have us believe, however, the war in Afghanistan is not about justice or women’s rights. As Yves Engler points out in his latest book, The Ugly Canadian, the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has supported decrees from religious leaders in the country stating that women must be subordinate to men, and cannot be in public without their male partner or family member by their side.

This war, like all wars undertaken by the military industrial complex, has generated enormous profits for ‘defence’ corporations in Canada from the public purse.

The new Winnipeg Jets Logos

Case study: the war in Libya

Canada was ranked 6th in foreign military sales in 2009, according to the Federation of American Scientists Arms Sales Monitoring Project.

Perhaps then it is no surprise that the Winnipeg Jets’ new logo is a blue circle with a metallic grey silhouette of a McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet Fighter Jet above a red maple leaf.

This is the same plane used by the Canadian Forces to bomb Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Libya. In fact, the Winnipeg Jets military logo was revealed during Canada’s war in Libya.

Despite claims of humanitarian intervention or "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) which is often heard during the military cheerleading at sports events, the Libyan War was pursued for the benefit of big corporations and oil wealth. NATO simply used the Arab Spring to intervene and interfere with another country’s sovereignty.

Libya had bigger than average royalties on oil corporations. Its nationalized oil company interfered with profits for companies like Suncor, Canada’s largest energy corporation.  And the Libyan regime was an inconsistent ally of imperialism.

The US-led NATO alliance thus saw an opportunity to influence Libya’s uprising and actively supported the "Transitional National Council" to further increase profits, secure a geo-strategic military foothold in Africa and the Mediterranean, and push-back against the inroads of Chinese capital into Africa.

Canadian Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, officially commanded the NATO campaign signing off on every pre-selected bombing target.  15 Canadian Aircraft went on 15,000 missions and dropped at least 700 bombs.  On one occasion, a strike from NATO is alleged to have killed 47 civilians, and the total civilian death toll is estimated to be much higher.

Doctors Without Borders ended up pulling out of Libya, refusing to be complicit in the NATO mission and noting that they were actually treating many captured pro-Gaddafi soldiers who were tortured by rebels. (Gaddafi repeatedly called for a ceasefire, yet the NATO-backed rebels refused.)

Meanwhile, Don Cherry was busy praising the new Winnipeg Jet's logo.  "How could you do better than to honour the people who lay their lives down for us?" he told Sun News.

Canadian Forces Appreciation Night

Raptors Canadian Forces Night

Military cheerleading in Canada reaches beyond hockey and into sports like basketball as well.  On Saturday January 26 the Toronto Raptors held their 6th Canadian Forces Night at the Air Canada Centre. The Team and cheerleaders wore camouflage jerseys while pro-military programming aired during breaks throughout the game.

After the game, Raptors players, the coaching staff, and cheerleaders posed for a group picture with Canadian soldiers. Raptors and Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment described the camouflage jersey and Canadian Forces Night as a “natural extension of the Raptors and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s long-standing support of Canada’s military”.

The Canadian Forces Night was used by the Canadian Military to advertise it’s growing "brand." The Canadian Government spent 353.6 million dollars on public relations for the military in 2010-2011.

Advertising the military targets Canadian youth with commercials on television, ads on campuses across Canada, as well as recruitment displays at sports and public events. When sports franchises further help promote the Canadian Military with nights like the Canadian Forces night, Canadian youth are pushed to fall into a trap, join the military and become cannon-fodder for imperialist wars.

Positively, groups like "Hockey Fans For Peace" are taking on commentators like Don Cherry and calling on the anti-war movement to become more active and visible on sports issues, and in general.

Maybe it is time to flyer future Raptors games that have Canadian Force Programming and tell sports fans of the working class why it is wrong to support war and militarism.

Make hockey not war

Canadian Imperialism Flexing its Military Muscle

The Raptors game and the militarization of sports is taking place at a time when the Harper Conservative government seems to be constantly flexing Canada's military muscle. Canadian troops are still on the ground in Afghanistan. The Canadian government is also getting involved in the French-led and US-backed occupation of Mali.

Canadians are also faced with the threat of our country following NATO to go to war in Syria and Iran. While Canadian-based corporations do not officially have any direct investments in the country, Iran has a tremendous amount of oil wealth.

American and Canadian imperialist interests do not like that Iran provides oil for China. Canada’s government is basically lying about nuclear weapons in Iran to try to sway public opinion and start another war allied beside Israel, America, and NATO.

Despite claims of a 'peace dividend' after the overturn of the Soviet Union and socialist countries, military spending is 2.3 times higher in Canada now than during the peak of the Cold war. The Harper Conservatives ever-increasing military budget is being prioritized over public healthcare, public education, affordable housing, universal childcare, and other important social services like publicly funded recreation and, perhaps ironically, non-commercial sports, culture and physical activities.

Cuba's womens national volleyball team

Sports for a world at peace

While the Canadian Government is setting up military bases around the world, it’s the youth who are faced with a future that, for the first time in generations, is predicted to be worse materially than our parents.

Let us show fellow sports fans that the future does not have to be this way. Instead of joining the armed forces, let us convince the youth to join social movements. Together we can stop another greedy war by hitting the streets!

Progressive-minded and peace-loving people must not shy away from pushing back against the pro-military agenda on the sports field, arena, or court. Sports are part of popular culture and it is important to use this venue to get anti-war and socially positive messages across.

An important beginning is to recognize when anti-establishment political opinions are voiced by athletes, and to support those to the best of our ability. It doesn’t help that some of the most powerful examples of this is given no attention in the media or quickly drowned out..

Together, we can also promote a radically different sports culture.

Speaking at the United Nations on resolutions in support of sports for peace and development, socialist Cuba said that sports should "undoubtedly strengthen solidarity and friendship among peoples" and that for Cuba, after the Cuban Revolution, "sports ceased to be exclusive and became a right for all the people."

International Association of Red Sports
and Gymnastics Associations, c. 1928

Cuba has also condemned "athleticism that was purely motivated by financial gains," and "the theft of sport talent from developing countries."  "Let us invest in projects for the sake of education, sport and health”, instead of on weapons Cuba has said.

Officially, much of the past rhetoric of international sports and the Olympics also opposed war, like the "Olympic Truce."  The World Festival of Youth and Students traditionally holds an anti-imperialist soccer match at each gathering.

It is time that sports in Canada promote fair play and cooperation, as well as friendship, internationalism, and solidarity -- not militarism, elitism, or crude consumerism. Recreation, leisure time, and democratic culture like sports culture are rights and not privileges. Its time to stand up, together, for these rights and sports for peace!

F-35 Dangers Far Beyond Costs and Corruption, as Fighter Jet Program Also Used For Nuclear Weapons Development

Open letter from the President of the Canadian Peace Congress

Opposition to the Harper government's proposal to purchase 65 F-35 fighter jets has been consistent and growing. Most of it is focused on the related issues of costs and corruption that are associated with the procurement. This is critically important – military spending should always be conducted in an open and transparent manner, and it must be justified in the context of broader public spending. In an era of high unemployment, deep cuts to social programs and harsh austerity programs that target working people, Harper's intention of spending billions of dollars on fighter jets is thoroughly offensive, and it needs to be confronted and opposed by the largest possible mobilization of people.

The F-35 program is driven by the United States military and its NATO allies. In 1997, Canada signed onto the Joint Strike Fighter program, which was developed as a vehicle for the United States to capture international funding for a replacement jet fighter. Canada's initial investment in 1997 was $10 million. In 2001 the JSF contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin, who developed what is now known as the F-35. By 2010, the international procurement process was underway and Stephen Harper announced that Canada would purchase 65 fighter jets, through an untendered purchase.

New Jets logo: militarization of our hockey continues

J. Boyden

The Winnipeg Jets have crash landed.

The hockey team, supposed to bring good hockey back to a city with some of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods, has revealed its new design -- which features a killing machine.

The Jet's new logos were released Friday. The main design is a blue circle with the metallic grey silhouette of a McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet fighter jet above a red maple leaf, mirroring the Canadian air force's roundel. The Hornet is the same jet the Canadian military has deployed to bomb Iraq, Yugoslavia and now the million-dollar-a-week "humanitarian" destruction of Libya.

The design was put together by True North Sports and Entertainment (the union-busting company who own the Jets), the NHL and the transnational corporation Reebok. A secondary logo features a fighter pilot's set of wings.

“We felt it was important to authenticate the name Jets and we believe the new logo does that through its connection to our country’s remarkable Air Force heritage, including the rich history and relationship that our city and province have enjoyed with the Canadian Forces,” Jets owner Mark Chipman told reporters at a news conference.

That history and relationship starts with the bloody military suppression of the Metis and Red River people's uprising, which lead to the hanging of leader Louis Riel and the founding of Manitoba. One of the latest chapters was written by Operation Charging Bison, when over 500 Canadian troops (backed by helicopters, armoured vehicles, and artillery) took-over downtown Winnipeg for urban-war games.

True North Corporate Welfare

Winnipeg’s poverty is most highly concentrated in the inner-city (a recent report on poverty in the city by feminist writer Erin Vosters notes that over half of all inner-city households are affected by poverty, and many are Aboriginal families). That is also exactly where the MTS centre, future home of the team, is located.

Last May, protesters gathered outside the P-3 privitized MTS centre to oppose the spending of public money on the hockey capitalists.

“This is being rammed down on the public without any idea of what we’re facing,” Darrell Rankin leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Manitoba Committee) and organizer of the demo told the Winnipeg Sun at the time. “We don’t think it’s right to support union-busting billionaires that are going to buy an NHL team and want even more public money.”

Despite urgent demands for affordable social housing in down-town core, the provincial NDP has instead agreed to refurbish the MTS Centre for the Jets. The MTS Centre and True North contracted out the work of the 220-member International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 63, which staffed events at the old Winnipeg Arena.

Growing militarism of economy, society

The design comes after major controversy surrounding the Harper Conservative government's purchase of replacements for the CF-18 from US munitions giant Lockheed Martin. The total cost of the new F-35 fighters quadrupled in just two years.

Pentagon figures now indicate that the total cost of this purchase over a thirty‑year period is expected to hit $29 billion, a staggering sum for a country with serious social and economic problems.

The new Joint Strike Fighter, which carries more bombs and weapons, is not designed for defence, but rather offensive bombing runs. As a single‑engine aircraft, it is reportedly unsuitable to patrol the Canadian Arctic. The F-35 is just another example of the Harper Conservative Government's massive increase military spending and the adoption of a much more bellicose, overtly imperialist foreign policy.

According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, “the Canada First Defence Strategy, unveiled by the Harper government in 2008, promises that Canada’s military spending will continue to grow by an average of 0.6% in real terms (adjusted for inflation) and an average of 2.7% in nominal terms (not adjusted for inflation) per year from FY 2007‑08 to 2027‑28″. Total spending over the 20‑year life of this plan would likely be in the $415‑440 billion range (2009 dollars), or about $13,000 per Canadian.

On top of the massive increase in military spending there has been a renewed attempt towards the militarization of Canadian society. Recruiting booths, promoting the military's activity like the imperialist war in Afghanistan or the military "aid" to Haiti, are now common across Canada from Naniamo's Bath tub races on Vancouver Island to sports events in Halifax.

The Manitoba Moose, Winnipeg's previous AFL Hockey team before it re-acquired the Jets, held special "Manitoba Moose Military Appreciation Nights."

One of the most outspoken proponents of this pro-war jingoism has been controversial hockey commentator Don Cherry, already known for his sexist, homophobic, racist and anti-Quebec statements.

Cherry, who makes a special point of commemorating the occupation of Afghanistan in his commentaries and has started referring to hockey players as troops, went as far as visiting Afghanistan and signing bombs last December.

In response, a group called Hockey Fans for Peace formed, successfully staging several actions outside hockey games and engendering widespread interest and support.

Hockey Fans for Peace points to polls showing that the vast majority of Canadian's oppose the war in Afghanistan. Already, a significant number of the population are against the bombing of Libya (a majority in Québec).

Hockey Fans for Peace also encourages other sports to refrain from promoting support for the war in Afghanistan. The group calls for the NHL and the mass media to end the practice of using hockey games and broadcasts to promote the view that full support for the war is the only acceptable position for any genuine hockey fan -- or to give anti-war fans equal air-time.

Their message is a timely one for the owners of the Winnipeg Jet's.

Millions of Canadians enjoy hockey - and also oppose militarism and war.

Imagine what could be done with the $29 billion in savings by scrapping the F‑35 deal!

To give just a few examples, the public transportation systems of Canadian cities could be provided with 10,000 fuel‑efficient new buses for just $5 billion. We could restore the start‑up cost of the cancelled national child‑care program, for another $5 billion. To build 30,000 social housing units, at a cost of $200,000 each, would take another $6 billion ‑ an investment which would immediately save millions spent by provinces and municipalities on emergency services for homeless people. The federal government could provide free post‑secondary tuition for 50,000 students annually, for a total of about $8 billion over three decades. That would still leave another $5 billion for urgent needs such as providing clean drinking water to indigenous communities, or emergency aid to countries hit by natural disasters. These initiatives would create jobs, lower greenhouse‑gas emissions, and reduce provincial government spending.

Video review: nuclear series 3

These two videos show just how much taxpayers money was around for war research.

IBM and Bell (AT&T) got in on the action. In many cases, the rate of return on investment in war industries became too good to resist. Many companies that started out as manufacturers of civilian goods soon became full time defence contractors. An example of this is collins radio. The military-industrial complex was born.

A happy little missile. For a happy little war.

Here is a cartoon that explains how guidance systems for missiles work. Why a cartoon? I hope this wasn't for showing in a school classroom.

a missile named mac-bell telephone (from 1962)

IBM and militarism

on guard SAGE (1956)

Note the first few lines about protecting resources, and showing an example of "resources" children, as in future workers. We see the corporate mentality of this film.

This movie is interesting in how government can spend a huge amount of resources on military technology and also as a snapshot of the latest and greatest in computers in 1956. Remember a laptop one uses to play war simulation games today is more powerful than the machine shown here. But the SAGE is as big a humvee, if not as big as a parking lot of humvees, and probably consumed as much power.

Can we spend resources to create green technologies?

As far as post war investment in education is concerned, that came partly in response to Sputnik in 1957. Fearing falling behind in the space race, and especially what that meant for the ballistic missile arms race, the American government became concerned in a perceived lack of engineers and physicists. More emphasis in math and science became the call in children's education.

There was even a National Defense Student Loan program, and those with loans under the program were required to "complete an affidavit disclaiming belief in the overthrow of the U.S. government." -wikipedia

So education can and is very politicized.

Interesting interview with Justin Sane of Anti-Flag on counter-recruitment

Anti-NATO demos April 4th

Maybe you've received an e-mail. Maybe read about it in the People's Voice. If not, you know about it now.
NATO is turning 60 this year and already had its midlife crisis after the Cold War. It has been around for too long.

Here is an announcement of demonstrations from the Canadian Peace Alliance

Demonstrate on April 4, 2009
Canada and NATO out of Afghanistan
Worldwide demonstrations during the NATO Summit

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will mark its 60th
anniversary on April 4 and 5, 2009. At the same time, demonstrations
will take place all over the world calling for an end to NATO’s war in
Afghanistan. The Canadian Peace Alliance and the Collectif Échec à la
guerre are calling for pan-Canadian demonstrations on April 4 to
demand an end to the NATO-led occupation that has already killed
thousands of Afghan civilians and threatens to bring war to the entire
region.

After more than seven years of occupation, there is still no end in
sight to the killing in Afghanistan. Following the advice of US
General David Petraeus, the new Obama administration has agreed to an
Iraq-style “surge” in Afghanistan. The plan is to send an additional
30,000 US troops. The US also wants to buy the support of Afghan
militias by arming and paying them to fight on the side of the NATO
occupation forces. There is widespread fear that such a move will
increase tensions between ethnic groups and further destabilize the
country.

In addition, the war in Afghanistan has already expanded into
Pakistan, with an increase in US-led strikes in the border areas. The
spread of war threatens to create massive social and political
instability in a nuclear-armed nation.

NATO is a relic of the Cold War. It has tried to reinvent itself in
the years since, and has now become a military alliance that
aggressively pursues the interests of its member countries,
principally the United States, in areas far beyond the North Atlantic.
In doing so, NATO is creating and stoking conflict. The proposed
expansion of NATO membership to the Ukraine and Georgia, and NATO
support for a “Missile Defense” plan in Eastern Europe, are fuelling a
new arms race—and increasing the danger that Canada will be involved
in other NATO conflicts.

Even more worrying, NATO maintains its policy of pre-emptive
first-strike using nuclear weapons, a policy that encourages nuclear
proliferation, and heightens the prospect of nuclear war.

NATO members account for at least 75 per cent of global military
expenditures, allocating $1 trillion a year to military spending. In
Canada, both Liberal and Conservative governments have invoked “our
NATO commitment” in Afghanistan as justification for skyrocketing
military expenses, now earmarked at $490 billion over the next 20
years. Canada—like other NATO members including the United Kingdom,
Germany, France, and Italy—continues to support NATO’s war in
Afghanistan against the peoples will. On March 13, 2008—just three
weeks before a NATO Summit—Parliament voted to extend Canada’s mission
in Afghanistan to July 2011. Polls showed that 58 per cent of
Canadians opposed the extension.

Real security and prosperity will only be possible in Afghanistan when
Western governments end their support for NATO’s war. NATO members
must be accountable to their own populations, and not to NATO
generals.

Join us on April 4 to demand the withdrawal of Canadian troops from
Afghanistan, and an end to NATO’s war.