Die dänische Regierung nutzt die Krise in der Ukraine auch, um die militärischen Beziehungen zu den USA weiter zu vertiefen und die Ausnahme des Landes von der Teilnahme an EU-Sicherheits- und Verteidigungsoperationen abzuschaffen.
Die Linkspartei Dänemarks, die Rot-Grüne Einheitsliste, hielt kürzlich ihre Jahreskonferenz ab, auf der ihre Ansichten über NATO und EU heftig diskutiert wurden. Dennoch, so betont Christine Lundgaard, hielt die Rot-Grüne Einheitsliste an ihrem Engagement für Frieden, Abrüstung und ein Ende aller imperialistischen Kriege fest.
Duroyan Fertl interviewte sie über die dänische Haltung zum Krieg, den Vorstoß für eine stärkere Militarisierung und die zu erwartenden Folgen.
Wie hat die dänische Regierung auf den Krieg in der Ukraine reagiert?
Die dänische Regierung hat den brutalen Krieg Russlands und die von ihm ausgelöste Angst als eine Art „Schockdoktrin“ benutzt und versucht, unter dem Deckmantel einer gewaltigen Krise überstürzt große politische Veränderungen durchzudrücken, die sonst in der politischen Debatte nur schwer zu vertreten wären. Dies gilt sowohl für Aufrüstung und Militarisierung auf nationaler und EU-Ebene als auch in der NATO. Es geht darum, Dänemark sicherheitspolitisch noch enger mit den USA zusammenzuschweißen. Und es geht um eine sich immer weiter zuspitzende Konzentration auf das Militär als Gegenreaktion zu Bedrohungen unserer Sicherheit.
Das klingt nach einem deutlichen Positionswechsel.
Inmitten der Ukraine-Krise kündigte Premierministerin Mette Frederiksen am 10. Februar an, die Regierung befinde sich in konkreten Verhandlungen mit den USA über eine neue Verteidigungskooperation, die auch amerikanische Truppen auf dänischem Boden einschließen würde. Ihr zufolge habe die Initiative nicht direkt mit dem Krieg in der Ukraine zu tun, aber niemand bezweifelt, dass der Krieg als Entschuldigung für einen politischen Schritt benutzt wird, der in Dänemark höchst umstritten ist.
Es handelt sich um eine Änderung der dänischen Sicherheitspolitik der letzten 70 Jahre, in der wir ausländischen Mächten die Stationierung von Truppen und militärischer Ausrüstung – insbesondere von Atomwaffen – auf dänischem Boden nicht gestattet haben.
Wir sollten jedoch den Teil unserer Geschichte nicht vergessen, dass dänische Regierungen geheime Vereinbarungen mit der US-Regierung getroffen haben, Dänemark entgegen der offiziellen dänischen Politik nicht über die mögliche Stationierung von Atomwaffen in Grönland zu informieren. Die Erfahrung zeigt also, dass Vereinbarungen mit den USA über Stationierungen auch für Atomwaffen gelten können, ohne dass die Bevölkerung darüber informiert wird.
Lesen Sie den vollständigen Artikel auf der Website der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung - Büro Brüssel.
The Danish government is also using the crisis in Ukraine to further deepen military with the US and to remove the country’s exemption from participation in EU security and defence operations.
Denmark’s left-wing party, the Red-Green Alliance, recently held its annual conference, where its perspectives on NATO and the EU were fiercely debated. Nonetheless, Christine Lundgaard insists, the Red-Green Alliance maintains its commitment to peace, disarmament and an end to all imperialist wars.
Duroyan Fertl interviewed her about Denmark’s position on the war, the push for greater militarisation and the expected consequences.
How has the Danish government responded to the war in Ukraine?
The Danish government has used Russia's brutal war and the fear it has created as a kind of “shock doctrine”, to rush through major policy changes – otherwise difficult to argue for in the political debate – under cover of a huge crisis. This applies to armaments and militarisation at both a national and EU level, and in NATO. It is about welding Denmark even closer together with the United States in security policy. And it applies to a narrowing focus on the military as a counter to threats to our security.
This sounds like a substantial shift in position.
In the midst of the heated Ukraine crisis, on February 10, the Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that the government was in concrete negotiations with the United States on a new defence cooperation, involving American troops on Danish soil. According to her, the initiative was not directly related to the crisis in Ukraine, but no one doubts that the crisis is being used as an excuse for a political move which in Denmark is deeply controversial.
It is a change to Danish security policy of the last 70 years, where we have not allowed foreign powers to deploy troops and military equipment, and in particular not nuclear weapons, on Danish soil.
We should not forget though that it is part of history that Danish governments have had secret agreements with the US government not to inform Denmark about the possible placement of nuclear weapons in Greenland, against this official Danish policy. So the experience is that agreements with the United States on deployments can also apply to nuclear weapons without the people being told.
Read the full article at Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung - Brussels Office.
There is a delicious irony in the recent news - reported by Aporrea.org - that the Somali "pirates" have offered to donate a significant proportion of their booty to the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Claiming to have connections all over the world, the Somalis promise to deliver the money undetected by Western "enemy" governments.
But why have they made this offer? The first connection that springs to mind is, perhaps, the piracy itself.
While the Somali youth based out of Eyl and other small towns in coastal Somalia are the modern face of seafaring piracy, Haiti is the traditional stomping ground of the swaggering buccaneers of legend (if we ignore, of course, the tame pets of the major capitalist powers such as Sir Francis Drake).
As Ecuadorians prepare for their first general elections under the
progressive new constitution adopted in a referendum last year, tensions
with the United States continue to rise with the government expelling a
key US diplomat.
In his February 7 weekly radio program, Ecuador's left-wing president
Rafael Correa officially expelled the US official Armando Astorga,
accusing him of bribery, suspending aid worth US$340,000 and meddling in
police affairs.
"Mr Astorga, keep your dirty money, we don't need it. We have dignity
in this country", Correa said. "We're not going to let anyone treat us
as if we were a colony here."
Astorga, who has left the country, is accused of taking computers and sensitive anti-drug police information with him.
On January 1, 2009, the small island nation of Cuba celebrated the
50th anniversary of a revolution that overthrew a brutal dictatorship
and set Cuba on its long and often complicated road towards socialism.
Worldwide, the media reports combined standard distortions and lies
on the question of democracy on the island with a focus on the
revolution's most obvious symbols: its historical leader Fidel Castro,
and the iconic guerrilla army that marched into Havana in the first week
of 1959 with Castro and Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto "Che"
Guevara at its head.
At best, this view presents only a partial picture of the Cuban
Revolution. It overlooks the hundreds of thousands in the urban
underground movement who opposed the murderous US-backed dictator
Fulgencio Batista who was brought down by the revolution — fighting
street-battles, conducting industrial sabotage, and organising general
strikes, such as the strike on January 2, 1959, that brought the regime
to its knees.
The same view of Cuba also ignores the struggle of workers and other
popular sectors that, after Batista fled, transformed the
anti-dictatorship struggle into a revolution that overthrew an entire
political class — whose corruption and autocracy threatened to betray
the Cuban people's aspirations for democracy and social justice. A
socialist revolution was begun on the doorstep of the greatest
capitalist power on earth.
The survival of the Cuban Revolution for half a century in the face
of endless aggression from the most powerful nation on Earth only 90
miles away is an outstanding feat in itself, but the reality of the
Cuban Revolution and its achievements deserves much deeper, and fairer,
treatment that it gets in the Western media.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa shook up the establishment in early
April after forcing the resignation of defence minister Wellington
Sandoval, the military Chiefs of Staff, and the countries police chief
amid accusations that the military and intelligence organisations were
infiltrated by, and under the control of, the CIA.
Among those accused was the army intelligence chief, Colonel Mario
Pazmino, who has been linked with White Legion, a far-right group that
has issued death threats against journalists, human rights activists and
social movement leaders.
The scandal broke out only 6 weeks after the Colombian military
illegally bombed and raided Ecuadorian territory on March 1, attacking a
camp of the left-wing guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC).
In the aftermath of Colombia's attack, news began to surface about US
involvement in the attack, and the prior knowledge of some sectors of
the Ecuadorian military.
Following the announcement by Fidel Castro on February 19 that he
would not stand in the election by Cuba's National Assembly (AN) for the
position of president, the Western media coverage has ranged from
grudging acknowledgement of Cuba's social gains in the face of 50 years
of US aggression, to outrageous claims of "dictatorship" and US
government plans for a "transition" in Cuba.
The coverage has also been full of speculation that a new president
could open the path to restoration of capitalism in Cuba, usually
presented as "bringing democracy", via a series of "reforms".
On February 24, the newly elected 614-member AN voted to promote Raul
Castro to the position of Cuban president. Fidel, whose image as the
quintessential bearded guerrilla came to symbolise Cuba's revolution,
led the revolution since the overthrow of the brutal US-backed dictator
Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
Fidel had been president of the Caribbean island since 1976. He
remains an elected member of the AN, and first secretary of the Cuban
Communist Party (CCP). Despite Cuba's long-standing policy of promoting
youthful leadership at different level of government, the Western media
have responded to the transition from Fidel as president, begun in 2006,
like vultures circling.
Protests by unionists, students and indigenous activists
against a free trade agreement (FTA) between Ecuador and the US have
strengthened, forcing the government to declare a state of emergency in
several states around the capital Quito on March 21.
Thousands of indigenous activists blockading roads and marching on
the capital were prevented from reaching their target by the army. Food
and fuel shortages are intensifying in Quito, and the main student
federation, the FEUE, brought thousands of students out onto the streets
on March 23.
The protests are against the proposed signing of the FTA, the final
rounds of negotiations for which began on March 23. Indigenous groups
and unions opposed to the FTA believe it will further harm Ecuador's
poor majority and indigenous population, and are demanding a referendum
on the agreement.
Protesters are also demanding the expulsion of US-based oil company
Occidental Petroleum, accusing it of environmental damage, breaking the
law and hiring the military to spy on activists in oil-producing
regions. They also want a popular rewriting of the constitution, to
allow more representative democracy.
Several weeks of turmoil have escalated as thousands of
workers, students and indigenous groups have taken to Ecuador's streets
and highways, bringing the country to a standstill, forcing the
resignation of the interior minister and demanding an end to
negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US.
The latest round of protests were sparked on March 6 when 4000
contract oil workers in Orellana province took industrial action
demanding back-pay and secure employment, and opposing environmental
damage from the US-based oil company Occidental Petroleum.
Since then, the protests have broadened rapidly to reject the
proposed FTA with the US and demand a new constitution and the removal
of US troops from the Eloy Alfaro air base at Manta. Protesters have
also demanded the expulsion of Occidental from Ecuador and the
nationalisation of the country's oil.
In the capital Quito, protesters occupied the metropolitan cathedral
and broke through a police cordon to blockade the presidential palace.
In rural areas, highways were blockaded across the central highlands and
throughout the Amazonian regions.
