European Left Vice-President backs new anti-cold war campaign

Faced with the threat of a new cold war, due to increasingly aggressive statements and actions being taken by the US government, a number of individuals from the US, China, Europe, India, Latin America, and other countries have come together to launch a statement ‘A New Cold War Against China is Against the Interests of Humanity’. This has been published in 14 languages, accounting for those spoken by the majority of humanity. Maite Mola, Vice-President of the European Left responsible for international work, is one of the initial signatories.

An initial public online meeting of the campaign, with 15 of the signatories as speakers, will take place on 25 July at 14:00 British Summer Time (09:00 US Eastern Standard Times, 06:00 US Pacific Time, 21:00 China Standard Time). There will be speakers from eight countries – the US, China, Britain, India, Russia, Canada, Venezuela and Brazil.

The statement, initially drawn up by individuals, has also now been signed by two leading peace organisations in the US, CODEPINK and ANSWER coalition, and also in Britain – the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Stop the War Coalition.

Participants from 33 countries have already registered to participate in the launch meeting.

Other international organisations and political figures have signed the statement. A number are included below, and others will be released after the meeting.

This will be an ongoing campaign and further meetings and initiatives of both organisations and individual supporters of the statement will be announced in the coming period.

The statement is as follows:

“A new cold war on China is against the interests of humanity

We note the increasingly aggressive statements and actions being taken by the US government in regard to China. These constitute a threat to world peace and are an obstacle to humanity successfully dealing with extremely serious common issues which confront it such as climate change, control of pandemics, racist discrimination and economic development.

We therefore believe that any New Cold War would run entirely counter to the interests of humanity. Instead we stand in favour of maximum global cooperation in order to tackle the enormous challenges we face as a species.

We therefore call upon the US to step back from this threat of a Cold War and also from other dangerous threats to world peace it is engaged in, including: withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces agreement, withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Accords, and its increasing disengagement from UN bodies. The US should also stop pressuring other countries to adopt such dangerous positions.

We support China and the US basing their relations on mutual dialogue and centring on the common issues which unite humanity.”

The statement has been published in English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, French, Russian, Japanese, Persian, Filipino, Turkish, Dutch, Greek and Hungarian.

Initial signatories – in personal capacity

(*indicates speaker at the meeting)

Ajamu Baraka – BlackAgendaReport.com (US) *
Brian Becker- National Director, ANSWER Coalition (US)
Medea Benjamin – Codepink.org (US) *
Ben Chacko – Editor, Morning Star (UK)
Jenny Clegg – Senior Lecturer in International Studies, University of Central Lancashire, author of China’s Global Strategy (UK) *
Radhika Desai – Professor at Department of Political Studies, University of Manitoba (Canada). *
Camila Escalante – Producer teleSUR English and Kawsachun News
Lindsey German – Convenor Stop the War Coalition (UK)
Danny Haiphong – author of ‘American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News – From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror’
Kate Hudson – General Secretary Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK) *
Elias Jabbour – Associate Professor at Rio de Janeiro State University (Brazil) *
Martin Jacques- Senior Fellow, Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University (UK) *
Margaret Kimberley – BlackAgendaReport.com (US) *
Brian Mier – Co-editor Brasil Wire (Brazil)
Maite Mola – Vice-President, European Left Party (Spain)
Dirk Nimmegeers – Editor ChinaSquare.be (Belgium)
John Pilger – Prize-winning journalist, director of ‘The Coming War on China’ (Australia)
Vijay Prashad – Executive-Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research (India) *
Qiao Collective (China diaspora) *
Carlos Ron – Vice Minister for North America (Venezuela) *
John Ross – Senior Fellow, Chongyang Institute, Renmin University of China (UK) *
Ajit Singh – Journalist and China specialist
Yury Tavrovsky – author of ‘America Against China: A Cold War in Times of Coronavirus’, Izborsk Club (Russia) *
Yashpal Tandon – Professor, author and public intellectual (Uganda)
Ollie Vargas – Kawsachun News (Bolivia)
Yang Hanyi – Senior editor Guancha.cn (China) *
Wang Wen – Executive Dean, Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China (China) *
Colonel Ann Wright – US Army (retired), Veterans for Peace (US)

Peace organisations signing the statement

ANSWER coalition (US)

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK)

CODEPINK (US)

International Action Center (US)

Pivot to Peace (US)

Stop the War (UK)

Further details

Further details about the speakers and translations of the statement into other languages may be found at http://www.nocoldwar.org/.

Contact details

Carlos Martinez: +447974246228 notothecoldwar@gmail.com (UK)
Kate Hudson: +447739184335 or kate.hudson@cnduk.org (UK)
Danny Haiphong: +1 (617) 230-9010 or notothecoldwar@gmail.com (US)