Antiwar forces flooded into The Hague in the Netherlands prior to the NATO 2025 summit to protest the meeting of this aggressive, imperialist military alliance. A People’s Summit was held by the Resist NATO Coalition. UNAC members are part of the Resist NATO steering committee. Other anti-NATO meetings were held by the Global Women United for Peace Against NATO (GWUAN), also represented on the Resist NATO steering committee, the No to war - No to NATO Network and other groups. All groups joined together for a mass protest in the Hague on Sunday, June 22 that drew an estimated ten thousand people.

The NATO summit itself was held in The Hague on June 24 - 25 and happened in an atmosphere of crisis in NATO. NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is being lost and the leading NATO power, the US, has been questioning its role in that war preferring to turn its attention towards its main, self-declared enemy, China. Some other NATO member states have also started to question their role in Ukraine. US talk of withdrawing its support for the Ukraine war has been used as a bludgeon against the other NATO member states to get them to spend more on their militaries and they passed a proposal to increase military spending to 5% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2035. This at a time when the European countries are going through sever economic problems and discontent is rising among the people as social programs are being cut while military spending increases.

Also, the NATO summit took place after the start or the Israeli/US attack on Iran, which along with their continuing genocide against the Palestinian people has exposed the true nature of the Zionist regime, the US and their NATO allies to the entire world. The attack on Iran refocused the anti-NATO forces and the actions against NATO also called for “Hands off Iran.”

More than 200 people attended the Resist NATO People’s Summit, mostly young, and many recently politicized people. The conference heard an important greeting and message of support from Ambassador Jorge Valero Briceno, the Venezuelan ambassador to the European Union. There were keynote addresses, panels and workshops throughout the day including one co-led, by UNAC coordinator, Joe Lombardo along with Rhonda Ramiro of the Resist US-led War Movement who is also a UNAC leader, on Defying Rising Militarism and Fascism. Another packed workshop called Organizing Women Against War and for Just Peace was co-led by UNAC and GWUAN leader Pippa Bartolotti, Ulla Klotzer from GWUAN and Donna Denina of the International Women’s Alliance (IWA). GWUAN also showed its slide show at the conference, which depicted women from countries throughout the world holding messages against NATO (click here for slide show).

After the march and rally GWUAN also held its own hybrid meeting with a full room of people in The Hague and many more from around the world through a zoom link. Women spoke in person and through Zoom about the fight against NATO and against war in their own countries.

Unlike past NATO summits, there was not much talk about Ukraine. Instead, there was a concentration on keeping the organization together and Ukraine would have been a divisive issue. They gave into the US demand that the various NATO members increase their military spending to 5 % but this is to happen over a 10-year period and Spain refuse to commit to this target. The focus of the Uniter States is shifting towards China, so they need to have the other NATO country play a bigger role in NATO and in its war against Russia for this to happen. Their increased military spending at the expense of social programs in their countries is meeting with resistance. During this period of crisis in NATO and among the Western imperialist power we must re-double our efforts to end this imperialist alliance and for peace.