The following document was sent as an invitation to a Conference to be organised by DIP (Revolutionary Workers Party) in Turkey and EEK (Workers' Revolutionary Party) in Greece on the occasion of the 2026 NATO Summit to meet in Turkey this year in on 7-8 July. The conference to be convened in Istanbul aims to bring together a multitude of organisations from all corners of the world as an incubator that will serve to put together an international movement that will fight, without prevarication or hesitation, imperialism as well as its loyal ally Zionism.
NATO, the biggest imperialist terror organization in the history of humanity, will be gathering in Ankara, Turkey, for its Annual Summit in July 2026. The terrorist organization called NATO is utterly unwelcome in Turkey, as the tens of thousands in the country made clear with militant actions in 2004, the last time NATO gathered in Turkey. 22 years later, on the occasion of yet another NATO meeting in Turkey, we, as the Christian Rakovsky International Socialist Center, and also as DIP (Revolutionary Workers Party) of Turkey, and EEK (Workers Revolutionary Party) in Greece, two members of the Rakovsky Center that are struggling in two countries of NATO's Southern flank, Turkey and Greece respectively, call for a conference of all international forces who are willing to wage an unrelenting fight against NATO and world imperialism. Hence, we call working-class parties, trade unions, anti-imperialist groups, and youth organizations across the world to join forces with us to raise the banner of anti-imperialism together. Our call is to all those who defend Cuba and Venezuela, Iran and Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, as well as the forces fighting poverty, exploitation, and oppression in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, in Indonesia and Nepal, but more than anything, those who fight for the glorious cause of Palestine. In fact, we propose to hold a special session on Palestine at the end of the conference. Our call is to those who fight the urgent cause of halting climate change, for the emancipation of women, or for the liberation of all the oppressed. In sum, our call is to forge together the devastating fist of anti-imperialist struggle on a permanent basis.
The mass protests against the NATO Summit in Turkey will, of course, be the work of a united front of different forces. Everyone is welcome when it is a matter of protesting the general staff of imperialist terror. However, as well as joining hands with other forces in protest, we at the Christian Rakovsky International Socialist Center wish to take this opportunity to bring together all those forces who agree that the main enemy is imperialism and its Siamese twin Zionism at a conference for mutual consultation and, hopefully, for future common action on a permanent basis. The Christian Rakovsky International Socialist Center marches ahead with a consistent anti-imperialist line – no ifs and no buts. It is for this reason that we call all the forces that aim to wage a similar struggle to take the first steps of a joint anti-imperialist fight.
This imperialist terror, spearheaded by none other than NATO, is once again visible all across the globe.The latest episode came in Iran with the unprovoked US-Israeli aggression against Iran. This case of utter imperialist barbarism, which targets not only Iran but also Lebanon, has shed even the last vestige of so-called “international law.” Through the sheer use of force and with the complicity of NATO, the US-Israeli aggression tries to make Iran and the anti-Zionist resistance in Lebanon capitulate. We, as anti-imperialists, stand with Iran and Lebanon without any hesitation.
The NATO-Russia war in Ukraine is another case in point. Decades of aggressive NATO expansion towards the former Eastern bloc heartlands, notwithstanding previous agreements to the contrary, sought, pursuing the Brzezinski strategy, to advance the fragmentation and colonization of post-Soviet Russia and the former Soviet space. When the inevitable happened, and Russia reacted forcefully to prevent the prospect of having NATO’s nuclear arsenal at a driving distance from Moscow, a full range of NATO’s military might, save for active combatants on the ground and the nuclear arsenal, was unleashed on Russia. For us it is clear that the present conflict in Ukraine is a NATO proxy war against Russia with the tacit purpose of forcing its genuflection before imperialism or even its fragmentation and colonization. The responsibility for the war lies squarely with the NATO powers, who strangled a potential peace treaty as early as 2022 when Ukrainian and Russian sides were on the verge of signing a deal in Istanbul. Despite ongoing talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine, the recent US and European provocations or meddling in Moldova, the West Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan carry the threat of spreading the hostilities to these countries, with the hope that Russia, with its limited economic capacity, would not be ableto fight back on all these fronts. This entire picture puts to shame those forces on the left that seem to strike a balance between the sides, i.e. to remain equidistant from or neutral towards NATO countries and Russia.
The Zionist genocide in Gaza is further proof of the persistently reactionary role played by NATO forces, internal rift or not. Notwithstanding the criticism voiced by countries on the periphery of the EU decision-making bodies, such as Spain and Ireland, the main core of NATO in Europe, comprising Britain, France, and Germany, as well as its Southeastern flank, Italy and Greece, has served as a “willing” bulwark in the defense of the Zionist occupier. Even though recently the British and French governments started, under the pressure of their internal public, to pay lip service and to offer toothless criticism of the current Israeli government, they showed no hesitation in defending Zionist interests when push came to shove. Among the countless examples of this pro-Zionist campaign, one can mention, as recent examples, the air defense provided to Israel during the latter’s aggression against Iran, as well as these three states’active and aggressive role in various campaigns to topple or disarm the opponents of Israel in Syria and Lebanon. Despite the so-called ceasefire, Israel continues to massacre Palestinians on a regular basis, benefiting from the tacit complicity of NATO countries. The recent Trump plan, which amounts to nothing less than the establishment of a new sort of colonial rule over Gaza, shows the extent of the role of NATO powers in the ongoing genocide. Given all this, it is again mind-blowing to see sections of the international left, mostly in the imperialist countries but also in Latin America and elsewhere, trying to keep their distance from the Palestinian people under the pretext of the ideological orientation of Hamas or the nature of the Al-Aqsa Flood of 7 October 2023. Silence before genocide is worse than tail-ending imperialism. It is complicity.
Imperialist aggression, led by NATO in general and the US in particular, struck once again on January 3rd in Venezuela. In an unprovoked US aggression against Venezuela’s sovereignty, scores of civilians and soldiers feel victim to imperialist terror, and the country’s elected president, Nicolás Maduro, along with his wife was abducted at gunpoint. Whereas the US provides the muscles, European members of NATO do not fail to fall into ranks, both in Venezuela and in Iran. At a moment when Venezuela and Iran face direct imperialist aggression, any hesitation to side against imperialism amounts to infamy. We, as revolutionaries, do not hesitate to join the fight for imperialism’s defeat.
War against war!
Down with imperialism, down with NATO!
Out of NATO, demolish NATO!
End the genocide in Gaza and occupied Palestine! Down with Zionism! From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
Hand of Iran, Lebanon, Yemen! Hands off Cuba and Venezuela! Forward for the defeat of US imperialism in Latin America and West Asia!
Forward for world socialist revolution!