On Feb. 25, nearly 40 people, including CBS 8 news, gathered at the San Diego Justice Center for a community forum about NATO expansion and aggression since the alliance’s inception. The event was co-hosted by the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition, featuring speakers from each.
ANSWER San Diego organizer Tori Barron chaired the event. Barron was joined by Russian American antiwar activist Juliana Musheyev, U.S. Army veteran Tucker Davis and Isa Rios.
Musheyev, the keynote speaker, is a longtime member of the PSL. Her talk took place after a lengthy interview with CBS 8. Musheyev primarily discussed the context of the current crisis unfolding in Ukraine: “The reality is that in order to dominate, the United States needs to prevent the possibility of any other major great power. One of the biggest threats to U.S. hegemony is that Europe will find a new trading partner in Russia or in China. It is in this context that we have the expansion of NATO and the demonization of [Russia].”
Also begging the question of why NATO still exists despite the USSR’s collapse, Musheyev posed, “If NATO was formed as an anti-Soviet alliance and the Soviet Union no longer exists, what is the purpose of its continuous existence and expansion? It is clear that NATO now exists — with no counterbalance — to ensure the continued economic and political involvement of the U.S. in Europe, and to be a vehicle for the ever-expanding military industrial complex.”
Musheyev also pointed out that, “As NATO integrates more countries into the alliance, new markets open up for the sale of military weapons. NATO members are subordinate to the will of the United States.”
She later provided some more recent context, largely blaming the U.S.-backed fascist-led coup against former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s government for the situation that’s unfolding today. “This conflict did not begin on Feb. 22 and it will not completely end until NATO is disbanded and Ukraine’s neutrality is secured.”
Tucker Davis, a veteran, teacher and PSL member, gave a fiery speech about the history of solidarity between Black Americans and the peoples of the former Soviet Union — including Russia and Ukraine.
Davis said, “From the USSR’s inception to present day, anti-Russian sentiment has been a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. … In the time the USSR was in existence it accepted African Americans during the Great Migration in the 1930’s and was an educational center for many Africans seeking higher education.”
He also spoke about W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson’s travels to and writings about the Soviet Union. Additionally, Davis argued that the enemy of fellow Black Americans, along with all working-class and oppressed people, is U.S. imperialism.
All speakers urged participants to join organizations like PSL, ANSWER and the Peace and Freedom Party, who are organizing to bring about an end to U.S. imperialism — starting with the immediate disbanding of NATO.
Juliana Musheyev summarized the collective spirit of the evening near the end of her speech: “We can and should be outraged that another war has broken out due to NATO aggression. Now as much as ever, the antiwar movement must unite under the banner of no war with Russia, disband NATO!”
