People across the country are set to gather in Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday, May 25, to demonstrate against NATO’s planned Parliamentary Assembly. Activists, traveling on buses from New York City, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cleveland, Akron, and car caravans from Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Toledo, and Louisville will join hundreds in Dayton for the “People’s Assembly for Peace and Justice.”
The organizations endorsing the event include the ANSWER Coalition, The People’s Forum, CODEPINK, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, National Students for Justice in Palestine, the Dissenters, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Palestine Diaspora Movement, Cleveland Palestine Advocacy Community, Veterans for Peace Pittsburgh, New Era Cleveland, and others. Speakers include peace activist Gloria La Riva and Danaka Katovich of CODEPINK.
“We are rallying to say no to this ultra-right, billionaire war mongering agenda led by Trump and NATO, and to say yes for peace and justice for our people,” said Greg Levy, a Navy veteran and an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. “Our people need money right here at home, to end child poverty and homelessness, instead of funneling hundreds of billions towards Trump’s war machine. Trump may publicly pose himself as no friend to NATO, but we see through his lies.”
This year marks the first time in over 20 years that the United States has hosted a NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Dayton was chosen to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords, which marked the end of the Bosnian War.
Danaka Katovich of CODEPINK, discussing the significant historic links between the military alliance and the city of Dayton, said that NATO “effectively destroyed the country that my family is from,” the former Yugoslavia.
“One of the peace agreements that was signed [to end the wars in Yugoslavia] was called the Dayton Accords, because they were negotiated in Dayton, Ohio,” Katovich described. “Dayton, Ohio, is not anywhere near Yugoslavia… the negotiating process was led by the West and the US with very, very little regard for the people actually living in Yugoslavia at the time.”
The Dayton Accords sheds light on the history of NATO’s intervention in Yugoslavia, including the 78-day-long NATO bombing of the former state, resulting in the deaths of over 2,000 people. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, despite labeling itself as a “defensive” organization, is notorious for its expansion and campaigns of intervention throughout the world, including Yugoslavia as well as throughout the Global South including the African continent. NATO has been a force to expand militarism throughout the globe, with NATO countries controlling over 80% of global arms exports and top NATO members including the US and UK demanding more military spending of other member nations.
