The following article was published by Peoples Dispatch on May 27, 2025. ANSWER Indiana organized a caravan to participate in the mobilization.
This past weekend on May 25, hundreds of protesters traveled from cities across the US including New York City, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cleveland, Akron, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Toledo, and Louisville to demonstrate against the Parliamentary Assembly of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Dayton, Ohio. Central to the demonstrations was the claim by protesters that NATO is a force for increased war and militarism across the globe, with hundreds chanting, “NATO says more wars, we say no wars!”
Demonstrators answer: What is NATO?
“NATO is not simply an alliance. It isn’t simply a meeting of nations,” Dallas Eckman of the ANSWER Coalition told protesters in Dayton. NATO leaders were in Dayton in order to plan “their next deadly conquest, their next regime change, the next occupation,” Eckman asserted.
NATO was founded in 1949 on the so-called principle of “collective defense” against what Western nations viewed as a “Soviet threat.” The Parliamentary Assembly was created in 1955 to link the NATO alliance with the parliaments of NATO member states. The US has not hosted a Parliamentary Assembly in over 20 years, and was chosen to host this year to mark the 30-year anniversary of the Dayton Accords, one of the treaties that marked the end of the Yugoslav wars which decimated the former Yugoslavia.
Dozens of organizations came together to form the “People’s Assembly for Peace and Justice” in opposition to NATO’s gathering in Dayton. These included the ANSWER Coalition, as well as 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.
“NATO is marketed to the world as a peacekeeping force, a protector of democracy, a security treaty that’s supposed to protect all member states from aggression,” said Danaka Katovich of the anti-war organization CODEPINK, addressing the crowd at the People’s Assembly. Katovich contrasted NATO’s peacekeeping image to its actions in the former nation of Yugoslavia, where her family is from. “NATO killed people and committed war crimes in Yugoslavia. NATO partnered with fascist death squads in Yugoslavia that slaughtered villages of civilians. NATO killed people and committed war crimes in Libya. NATO participated in the illegal occupation and war on Afghanistan,” Katovich outlined.
The crowd of hundreds marched through the city of Dayton, holding signs with slogans including “US/NATO out of Africa!” and “Money for Jobs and Education, not for war and occupation!” The crowd then marched to the St. John’s United Church of Christ to hear an additional program of anti-war speakers, including activist Gloria La Riva and Joe Tache of the ANSWER Coalition.
“I have a feeling that when [NATO] decided to organize their Parliamentary Assembly here in Dayton, they didn’t expect a lot of pushback,” said Tache at the St. John’s United Church of Christ. Instead, Tache described, “we came even all across the United States to say that we reject a foreign policy that is based on domination and exploitation. We reject a political and economic system that prioritizes militarism over the needs of the people and our planet.”
An attendee, Julii Upright, traveled several hours to Dayton from Chicago for the People’s Assembly, which was also held on the same day as African Liberation Day. “NATO, the United States, and AFRICOM, are all occupying Africa,” Upright said. “They say they’re there for peacemaking, but really they’re there to divide and conquer, to divide and open up the natural resources of Africa, of Asia, and really the whole world.”
Featured photo: Hundreds gather in Dayton, Ohio for the “People’s Assembly for Peace and Justice.” Credit: Mike Adams.