Right now, leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are preparing for their annual Summit at The Hague.
Reports suggest an agenda of escalation and armament, raising military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 — more than doubling the current average — while cutting public budgets already stunted by decades of austerity.
“NATO is not at war, but we are not at peace either,” reads the Summit press release, as its members traffic arms, conduct surveillance, and provide legal protection to war criminals and mercenaries from Quito to the Congo.
“It will be a NATO-wide commitment, and a defining moment for the alliance," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said of the increased spending target, citing the threat of a Russian attack on Europe and unspecified “long-term threats” from China, Iran, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The Summit comes at the heels of a major escalation in West Asia. Early on Friday, 13 June, Israeli forces launched a brutal attack on Iran — the next salvo in a deadly war that threatens once again to engulf the wider region. Over the weekend, the United States joined in the assault, dispatching a fleet of B-2 Spirit bombers to strike nuclear targets in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.
The Progressive International Cabinet had warned against this escalation. “Billions in weapons shipments, vetoes at the UN Security Council, and political protection have enabled Israel’s assault [on Gaza], while advancing Western interests in the region. This same apparatus of support now threatens to facilitate an even more devastating war,” a statement published on 13 June warned. “A war on Iran risks spilling far beyond the borders of these two nations.”
But the Trump administration has plowed ahead with attacks on Iran — against overwhelming public opinion in the United States and elsewhere — making the motive of regime change as clear as day: the son of the last Shah of Iran is puffed up across Western TV studios as a potential “transitional” leader and US Senator Lindsey Graham calls to “take this regime down” on cable television.
“It’s not politically incorrect to use the term ‘Regime Change’,” Donald Trump posted to Truth Social, “but if the current Iranian regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime Change? MIGA!!!”
Such an absurd justification for Trump’s illegal assault on Iran has already been parroted by leaders across the West. After the US airstrikes, Washington’s junior partners — the UK, Canada, Australia, and the EU — issued near-identical statements as if sent through US State Department cable instructions. They warned of the Iranian nuclear threat, called for Iran to cease its “regional destabilisation” and urged Iran “return” to the negotiating table.
The irony is acute: Iran does not possess a nuclear weapon, according to US intelligence. Israel has a hundred. The US has thousands. Over the past year, Israel has bombed five countries in the region. Iran, meanwhile, has been negotiating the future of its nuclear sector when Israel launched its 13 June strike — targeting, among others, Iran’s chief negotiator. The choice imposed by the West is clear: compliance or extermination.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the “unprecedented and grave” US assault, calling it a blow to the entire United Nations system and the Non-Proliferation Treaty. "Humanity has come too far as a species to allow a lawless bully to take us back to the law of the jungle,” he said.
That bully is now boarding Air Force One to fly to The Hague, where its leaders will champion democratic values while dragging their Atlantic allies into permanent war and planetary plunder. As PI Council member and Colombian President Gustavo Petro told his fellow heads of state at a 2023 meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States:
"What we see in Palestine will also be the suffering of all of the peoples of the South… The West defends its excessive consumption and its standard of living based on destroying the atmosphere and climate, and to defend it, knowing that it will cause the exodus from the south to the north, and not only of the Palestinian people, it is ready to respond with death.”
But we are not condemned to NATO’s vision for our future. From the BRICS Summit to The Hague Group conference, we can see that a genuine alternative is already taking shape: a new international order grounded in cooperation, mutual respect, and peaceful coexistence.
Progressive forces are already mobilizing to advance that alternative. Last week, movements from around the world converged in The Hague for a counter-summit and historic march through the city in opposition to NATO’s agenda of war. The counter-summit caused so much contention that The Hague is mobilizing the largest security operation in Dutch history to protect it.
And now, progressive forces are gathering in Brussels for the International Forum for Peace, co-hosted by the Progressive International, the Party of the European Left, the International Peace Bureau, the São Paulo Forum, the International Peoples Assembly, and ALBA-TCP, among others.
“The world is drifting toward total war — if we do not act now to prevent it,” the organizers write. “Trump and his NATO allies have already made clear what they hope to do with that power: pursue the dominance of ‘Western civilization’ across the planet, and enrich themselves along the way. So as they bay for war, we must plan for peace.”
Read the full program on the Forum website here — and join organizers from across the world as they mobilize in Brussels, at The Hague, in Bogotá and beyond to secure a just and lasting peace.
The global logistics giant Maersk has announced that it will cut ties with companies linked to West Bank settlements. The move follows the #MaskOffMaersk campaign by Progressive International member the Palestinian Youth Movement, as well as Iranian strikes against Israeli ports.
"Doing business with Israel’s illegal settlements is no longer viable,” said PYM’s Aisha Nizar.
The UK government is set to proscribe direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. Offering support, in word or deed, to a proscribed group in the UK can be punishable with a 14 year prison sentence.
Since 2020, Palestine Action has challenged the Israeli war machine, forcing site closures, loss of financing and additional costs on Elbit, Israel’s biggest arms company. Last week, the group enterer an airforce base and damaged two military aircraft. Flights from RAF Brize Norton depart daily to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, from where British planes collect intelligence, refuel fighter jets and transport weapons to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
PI Council Member and UK MP Zarah Sultana has defended Palestine Action, saying “You can repair a plane. You can replace a broken window. But you can’t bring back the dead. We must defend the right to protest.”
Economists from across the world have united in support of Zohran Mamdani’s plan for New York City, “a bold yet practical blueprint to tackle the city’s most urgent challenges.” Read their full statement here.
Amazon moved into its new headquarters in Berlin last week. German trade union ver.di and activists protested and demanded a collective agreement. This comes ahead of a hearing on working conditions at Amazon in the EU Parliament next week.
Turmoil is an artwork by Iranian artist Tanaz Modabber. In her continued work with scroll-format drawings and lightweight installations, she explores the collision between terrestrial and built landscapes.
Turmoil is an artwork manifested in three parts. The first is a sculpture made at the artist’s home in Tehran. The second and third parts were a digital recreation of the sculpture to be seen via VR in the park, and a musical score made in collaboration with Jeffrey Bossin, the carillonneur and initiator of Berlin Tiergarten’s Carillon, one of the largest bell towers of its kind in Europe.
