Today, the world monopoly capitalist system is caught up in one of its biggest
crises since the Great Depression. This is principally due to the unravelling
of the imperialist policies of "neoliberal globalization" and
"global war on terror." The US, which is the core of the system, is
afflicted by a grave economic and financial crisis and is generating waves of
economic and social ruin in all imperialist countries, in the largest so-called
emerging markets and worse than ever before in the general run of semi-colonies
and dependent countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
At the base of this global crisis is the crisis of overproduction in the real
economy. New technology has raised higher the social character of production
but has also increased the private monopoly character of appropriation. "Neoliberal
globalization" has accelerated the concentration and centralization of
capital in the US and a handful of monopoly capitalist countries through the
denationalization of the economies of the less developed countries,
liberalization of investments and trade, privatization of public assets and
deregulation at the expense of the social rights of the working people, women,
children and the environment.
The maximization of monopoly profit by reducing the wage fund and social
spending in the
The current socio-economic crisis in the world capitalist system is expected to
be prolonged because it is the result of so many decades of abusing domestic
and foreign credit for the benefit of the imperialist powers and at the expense
of the oppressed peoples and nations of the world.
Even before the current severity of the crisis, the dependent countries of
Asia, Africa and
Under the auspices of
The crisis of the imperialist system and the crisis in each imperialist country
is driving the imperialist powers to re-divide the world and expand their
respective sources of raw materials and cheap labor, markets, fields of
investments and spheres of influence.
The European Union has growing economic interests that clash with those of the
The
The severe socio-economic and political crisis of imperialism and the ongoing
so-called global war on terror have laid the ground for fascism. In fact, the
enactment of so-called anti-terrorist laws in the wake of 9/11 has intensified
repression and spawned state terrorism within the imperialist countries and on
a global scale.
The monopoly capitalists reap their profits at the expense of the world's
working people and of the planet's fragile ecology. The rapacity of the
monopoly firms has been principally responsible for the widespread destruction
of the environment bringing about such phenomena as global warming with dire
consequences to the future of humanity.
The removal of global investment barriers under “neoliberal globalization” has
resulted in the effective doubling of the global cheap labor force that
capitalism can prey on. Unions have been attacked to bring about declines in
real wages and social benefits. Welfare systems are being privatized and
dismantled. Since 1980, the share of labor's wages and benefits in national income
in the imperialist countries has fallen by 4 percentage points even as
corporate profits as a percentage of GDP increased by the same amount to reach
historical highs.
Backward agricultural and industrial producers in the dependent countries have
been overrun at the same time as scarce natural resources have been exploited
to the utmost by monopoly corporate mining and agri-business firms. Millions of
peasants and indigenous people and national minorities have been economically
and physically displaced.
Global unemployment and poverty are massive. Some 3 billion people, or more
than half of humanity, struggle to survive on US$2 or less a day most of them
in the dependent countries. Over 750 million people are without jobs worldwide.
And even among the 2.8 billion employed labor force, one half are unable to
earn enough to bring their families above the US$2 a day poverty line. Nearly a
billion people are undernourished worldwide most of whom are in Asia, Africa
and
"Neoliberal globalization" has resulted in unprecedented inequality.
The richest two percent of adults worldwide own more than half of global
wealth, while the poorest 50 percent own barely one percent. Meanwhile,
nine-tenths of the richest one percent of adults worldwide lives in the
imperialist countries. Indeed the net worth of the richest 500 monopoly
capitalists of US$2.6 trillion is equivalent to the annual output of the
world's 48 poorest countries or to the income of the world's poorest 416
million people.
In the face of the intensified exploitation and oppression by the imperialists
and their reactionary puppets, the people have intensified their resistance.
Throughout the world, the broad masses of the people have engaged on varying
scales in protest mass actions and strikes to resist imperialist plunder and
aggression. The largest mass mobilizations on an international scale have
involved tens of millions of people in hundreds of cities against the
In the US, Western Europe and elsewhere, strikes and protest marches have
broken out against attacks on the rights of working people, deteriorating
working conditions, racial and minority discrimination, the criminalization of
migrant workers and discrimination against the youth in employment. In the
former Soviet bloc countries, struggles between the exploiting and exploited
classes and between the dominant nationality and the minorities are
intensifying. In
The peoples of
There are revolutionary movements for national and social liberation and
struggles for democracy led by revolutionary forces in
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) is more than ever
determined to promote, support and develop the anti-imperialist and democratic
struggles of the people of the world especially of the workers, peasants,
women, youth, national minorities, indigenous people and other sectors of
society against the ideological, political, military, economic, social and
cultural domination and attacks of imperialism and reaction. The ILPS is also
ever vigilant and committed to struggle against all forms of reformism and
opportunism which serve as props to imperialism and reaction. The ILPS will
continue to propagate radical democracy, consistent anti-imperialism and
tireless internationalism.
After seven years since its founding in 2001, the International League of
Peoples' Struggle is now in an excellent position to expand its ranks and build
anti-imperialist and democratic united fronts at the level of national
chapters, global regions and the whole world. The daily worsening conditions of
oppression and exploitation require the ILPS to intensify its efforts to
arouse, organize and mobilize the people in their millions in building a new
and better world of greater freedom, development, social justice and global
peace.
Resolution of Workshop
1: The cause of national liberation, democracy and social liberation against
imperialism and all reaction
The imperialist policy
of “free market globalization” has wrought extreme poverty, misery,
backwardness and social degradation on the world’s peoples. This has especially
affected the exploited and oppressed in semicolonies and dependent countries of
Asia, Africa and
Contrary to the claims
of the imperialists and their apologists that the end of the Cold War would
bring peace, the world has been pushed toward unprecedented militarization and
build-up of arms by the imperialist powers.
Everywhere imperialism
has set back the historic gains of the toiling people in the struggle against
capitalist exploitation and oppression. It has negated the historical struggles
of oppressed and exploited nations and nationalities that fight for liberation,
sovereignty and self-determination.
The broad masses of
the people throughout the world have been roused by the exploitative character
of “free market globalization” and by the oppressive character of “the new
world order.” The peoples’ resistance to imperialism is spreading and
intensifying. The resistance from the toiling masses of workers and peasants is
the strongest, most inexhaustible and most important challenge to imperialism.
There are the
revolutionary armed struggles for national and social liberation such as in
Armed resistance to
The massive protest
actions in the imperialist countries against the US-led invasion of
Struggles between the
exploiting and exploited classes and between the dominant nationality and the
minorities are intensifying. The workers, peasants and the lower petty
bourgeoisie across the world are frequently rising in large numbers against
intensifying exploitation and oppression.
Monopoly capitalism is
in the throes of an extremely deep crisis of overproduction and destructive
financial collapse. It is passing on this crisis to the world’s peoples through
its policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization. The bankruptcy
of the imperialist policy of “neoliberal globalization” manifests itself
sharply in the recent financial meltdown.
The
Monopoly capitalists
have whipped up financial speculation far beyond the real economy in the
imperialist countries and the rest of the world. Unregulated financial markets
where speculators are reaping huge profits on the skyrocketing prices of oil,
grain and other commodities impact heavily on the world’s peoples.
Since the collapse of
the Soviet Union, the
While the imperialist
are united in exploiting and oppressing the world’s peoples, their divergent
and conflicting interests and priorities, under conditions of extremely deep
crisis of imperialism, drive them to compete with each other to acquire, keep
and control sources of raw materials and cheap labor, markets, fields of
investments and spheres of influence. The inter-imperialist contradictions are
showing up breaches in the anti-people front of the imperialist powers.
Furthermore, there are
other contradictions in the international sphere which revolutionary movements
for national liberation, democracy and social liberation and peoples and
nations struggling for democracy and for their rights to freedom and
self-determination can effectively utilize to amplify their independent
strengths based on their mass support and their revolutionary integrity.
The
There are
contradictions between the
Under pressure of the
crisis of the world capitalist system, imperialist countries can engage in
proxy wars among their client states or back different conflicting parties
within a client state. Another major potential cause for hostility among
imperialist powers would be the rise to power of fascist forces within any or
some of them. The severe socio-economic and political crisis of imperialism and
the so-called global war on terror have laid the ground for fascism and
inter-imperialist wars.
So long as imperialism
exists, the people’s struggle for national liberation, democracy and socialism
will continue.
Calls to action
1. 1.
Consolidate and broaden the international anti-imperialist united front by
supporting the struggles for national liberation, democracy and social
liberation. Extend support and solidarity to the struggles of oppressed nations
and nationalities and uphold and defend their right to self-determination.
Undertake internationally-coordinated campaigns against imperialist war and
plunder. Undertake sustained and widespread anti-imperialist education
campaigns as well.
2. 2. Expose
and oppose the
3. 3. Oppose
direct military intervention and threats of military invasion by imperialist
countries led by the
4. 4. Oppose US
and other imperialist-instigated armed conflicts especially in
5. 5. Oppose
the drive of the imperialist powers and
6. 6. Condemn
and campaign against the demonization as “terrorist’ and blatant fascist
attacks against anti-imperialist and national liberation movements and their
leaders and organizations. Call imperialist powers and their client regimes to
account for using state terrorism to suppress the people. Condemn
7. 7. Continue
to fight the imperialist corporations and banks, the IMF, World Bank and World
Trade Organization (WTO) as tools of neocolonialism and the U.S.-instigated
neoliberal policy of imperialist globalization and unbridled plunder. Struggle
to dismantle the WTO, regional free trade agreements and intensify the
campaigns against bilateral economic agreements as new means to push the
neoliberal agenda against weaker countries and peoples.
8. 8. Fight for
the right of the people to affordable and safe food, to self-sustaining and
self-reliant food production against the superprofiteering and market manipulation
of the agro-chemical, seed and food processing cartels and financial
speculators in grain and other foods. Expose and oppose the imperialist policy
of “neoliberal globalization” behind the worsening global food crisis.
9. 9. Persist
in exposing and opposing the various types of pseudo-reformers and
imperialist-funded non-government organizations and other formations that seek
to undermine and frustrate the people’s just struggles.
10. 10. Continue
to seek out and foster greater unity, cooperation and coordination with all
forces desirous of a broad anti-imperialist united front nationally, in global
regions and worldwide.#
Resolution of Workshop
2: Socio-Economic Development for Oppressed and Exploited Countries and Nations
and Social Equity for all Working People
The deep problems of
the imperialist-dominated world capitalist system have worsened and are in very
sharp focus today. The majority of humanity has long suffered unremitting
poverty and exploitation. But the people are being pushed into even greater
difficulties by the current episode of intense economic and financial crisis
which is feared to be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The
current descent into greater socioeconomic turmoil doesn’t just underscore the
inevitability of crisis under capitalism – it also exposes how imperialism’s
dogged and vicious efforts to secure profits are precisely what create the
conditions for ever greater instability. All this affirms how there can never
be true socioeconomic development or equity for the people under this
oppressive and exploitative capitalist system.
The global capitalist
system has seen a generalized growth slowdown in the nearly four decades since
the early 1970s. The relatively high finance and speculation-driven growth of
recent years hasn’t been able to reverse this trend and is anyway short-lived
and unsustainable. The masses are further and further away from the false
promises of prosperity through neoliberal “globalization”. The number of those
living on a conservative $2 (PPP) or less a day has doubled in the last three
decades and reached 2.8 billion people or nearly half the world’s population. A
billion people go hungry everyday and two billion do not even have clean water.
The current explosion
of crisis appears to begin from financial excesses in the United States (US)
leading to domestic troubles with subsequent repercussions on the rest of the
world. Yet while the sub-prime loan crisis in the
In its effort to
maintain its profits, monopoly capital forced greater trade and investment
liberalization on the neocolonies to exploit their cheap neocolonial labor, to
plunder their raw materials, and to capture their markets. But these been less
and less effectual and so it has relied more and more on paper profits and
digitally conjured capital. The financial crisis manifesting first of all in
the
The people are also
now severely burdened by rapidly increasing food and energy prices. Neoliberal
“globalization” of agricultural production and trade has destroyed backward
rural food systems and depleted food supplies aside from worsening poverty of
agricultural producers. Subsidized food imports flooded domestic markets at the
same time as producers were ever more tied to overpriced inputs from big
foreign agri-business. The giant transnational oil corporations have used their
monopoly control to drive prices up, which has even been exacerbated by
speculation in oil futures markets. Rising energy prices have driven food
prices up even further.
Imperialist
“globalization” thoroughly exposed
Imperialism has become
increasingly aggressive in seeking to relieve its crisis and maintain its
superprofits. The intensification of the global crisis in the 1970s and the
severe profit squeeze on the advanced capitalist powers drove them to seek
deeper in-roads into neocolonial markets through their “globalization”
offensive.
Backward agricultural
systems were overrun and vast numbers of the peasantry thrown into greater
hardship. At the same time there were more vicious attacks on labor even in the
advanced capitalist countries. This economic assault continues to press down
wages, salaries and benefits across the globe while political assaults pummeled
unions and other organized workers in systematic trade union repression.
Usurious debt burdens have also been used to directly extract surpluses from
the neocolonies on a massive scale. Neocolonial external debt has already
reached US$3.4 trillion as of 2007.
The 1980s and 1990s
saw the expansion of global labor markets for capitalism to exploit. In
particular the opening up of China, the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and
the greater openness of various Southeast and South Asian economies effectively
doubled the number of people for exploitation. Imperialism tapped these
hundreds of millions both through setting up investment enclaves overseas as
well as by directly bringing in migrant labor or exploiting displaced refugees.
Social services and public utilities were turned into sinister opportunities
for profit.
However the limits of
these wide-scale efforts to supporting capitalists’ profits and deepen misery
on a global scale, were quickly reached. The economic dispossession of large
swaths of humanity further constricted opportunities for investments which in
turn further accentuated the glut of finance capital. By the 1990s imperialism
increasingly relied on getting its profits from purely financial schemes
disconnected from any productive activity. Parasitic capital took advantage of
advances in information and communications technology not just to facilitate
its global production networks but also to fashion complex financial
instruments for creating profits outside of any actual productive activity.
Previously unseen
levels of profits were made from sheer speculation. But while seemingly
increasing the capital stock these huge amounts of capital existed only
digitally and were greatly diverging from real economic values. The economic
impact upon massive financial losses are however very real. Imperialism sought
to surmount its crisis with a bewildering array of financial instruments that
are innovative only in creating unprecedented debt- and speculation-driven
illusions of prosperity and growth. Global financial assets have bloated
sixteen-fold from US$12 trillion in 1980 to US$190 trillion in 2007, over a
third of which are in the
The self-limiting and
destructive nature of this conjured economic dynamic was however soon exposed.
The constriction of global markets continued and could not for long be
compensated by increasingly debt-driven and unavoidably shallow growth in
construction, real estate, commercial trading and finance sectors. Real
economies are dragged violently down when financial crises erupt.
Peoples’ resistance
Hundreds of millions
of the people across the imperialist countries and in the neocolonies have
risen up to expose and resist imperialism’s economic aggression. The ranks of
the oppressed working people that are mobilizing have broadened and prevented
imperialism and neocolonial governments from easily pushing through with their
plundering agenda. This strengthens the ability of the people to face the great
challenges in the struggle against the oppression and exploitation intrinsic to
capitalism.
Since the Second
International Assembly, peoples’ movements have been advancing and waging
successful struggles against imperialist “globalization”. The ILPS and its
organizations have been among those at the forefront especially of the most
important struggles and in many cases have been their leading formations. Among
the peoples’ major achievements in recent years have been contributing to the
paralysis of the World Trade Organization (WTO) including through massive
protests against its 6th ministerial in Hong Kong, the discrediting of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) and exposing its
burdensome debt offensive against the peoples of Africa, and the scores of
peasant struggles against the distorting of agriculture in the countryside of
neocolonies in South and Southeast Asia.
Challenges
continuing
Imperialism’s
international mechanisms for the domination of world trade, investment and
economic life continue to set global rules and distort national economies. They
establish exploitative economic relations between advanced capitalist powers
and neocolonies. The international finance institutions of the WB, IMF and
other regional banks are thoroughly discredited but remain influential. Even if
the talks at the WTO remain stalled it remains imperialism’s most potentially
expansive mechanism for pushing its plundering agenda. And particularly
important in the last few years are the bilateral and regional free trade
agreements (FTAs) that the US, European Union (EU) and
In the neocolonies and
other dependent nations these are done with the compliance of increasingly
subservient governments. They craft the domestic economic regimes most
favorable for imperialism and its need for profitable opportunities and outlets
for its capital. They maneuver to deliver labor and natural resources to
imperialism at the cheapest possible price. They wield state force to stifle
peoples’ resistance and to try and make the masses docile and submissive.
General resolutions
The majority of
humanity is chronically deprived with generation upon generation going through
lifetimes of hunger and destitution. The world’s working people have less and
less options for decent living, they are losing jobs and livelihoods, and their
incomes are collapsing on a massive scale. Some 1.5 billion people do not have
or are otherwise lacking jobs in 2007 – the 190 million unemployed and 1.3
billion so-called “working poor”. Farmers, workers, indigenous communities,
especially women and children, are driven into deeper misery. It is urgent for
the people to achieve socioeconomic development, social equity and justice.
We people of the
exploited countries and nations reaffirm our commitment to confront imperialist
systems of plunder, exploitation and oppression. We assert our sovereignty and
independence. All grossly unequal imperialist trade and investment deals and
policies must be outright rejected. We shall begin to build alternative
international relations of cooperation and solidarity between peoples. Our
efforts to build more progressive and democratic economies will be all the more
effective the more peoples there are working together on a regional and global
scale.
Our domestic economies
must be built where our countries’ natural resources and our peoples’ labors
serve the needs of the masses most of all. This means a socioeconomic program
serving and thus wholeheartedly supported by the people. This shall
redistribute wealth to peasants and workers and other basic sectors, beginning
with true agrarian reform and development that breaks feudal backwardness in
the world’s vast countryside. There must be genuine national industrialization.
The people’s basic and vital needs for education, health and housing must be
assured. We will take approaches as appropriate depending on the sizes,
resources and economic strengths of our economies.
We shall chart a
humane, equitable and just path that does not exploit other peoples and
economies and that is ecologically sound. Here the masses will be decisively in
control of their lives, as well as at the center of building just and peaceful
societies. The need to continue building and strengthening democratic mass
movements is as urgent and vital as ever as well as underpins our movements for
national liberation. The accelerating economic deterioration points in the
direction of an upsurge in social and revolutionary movements worldwide.
Specific
resolutions
The peoples’ struggle
for socioeconomic development against imperialism is integral to our overall
struggle for national liberation, democracy and social liberation. We resolve
to operationalize the Commission towards being able to:
1. Launch
coordinated global and national campaigns to restore national food systems
ravaged by “globalization” and address deepening rural poverty, to confront
global oil monopolies and profiteering, and to tackle the excesses of monopoly
banks and financial institutions.
2. Launch,
coordinate or otherwise support anti-imperialist struggles by social and mass
movements against neoliberal “globalization” and in particular against the WB,
IMF, WTO and the increasingly aggressive FTAs as well as link with other
movements in a broad campaign against imperialist globalization.
3. Further
deepen international peoples’ solidarity and strengthen coordination among
social movements in launching anti-imperialist struggles on socioeconomic
issues. Build a broad anti-imperialist front on peoples’ socioeconomic issues
in particular confronting plundering imperialist economic deals.
4. Launch,
coordinate or otherwise support national campaigns and struggles by social and
mass movements for the defense of jobs and livelihoods, increases in incomes
and benefits, and securing social services and welfare services.
5. Launch a
global campaign for genuine development cooperation premised on solidarity
among peoples and equality, mutual cooperation and benefit among countries,
involving the mobilization of solidarity, financial and other support from
anti-imperialist groups in industrialized countries to those in the
neocolonies.
6. Fulfill the
Commission’s study objectives: exchange experiences and knowledge on
international, national and theoretical political economic issues as well as on
the features of each of our social systems; share information on specific
socioeconomic struggles in our different countries; continually monitor
maneuvering by imperialism and neocolonial governments in the economic field.
7. Propose,
discuss, coordinate and implement, as necessary, Commission action plans for
research, advocacy, campaigns, forums and conferences. Among others this
includes developing and maintaining a website to support the Commission’s work.
Resolution of Workshop 3: Human rights in
the civil, political, economic, social and cultural fields against state
violence, national oppression, class exploitation and oppression, gender
oppression, fascism, castism, racism and religious bigotry.
Contemporary
imperialist aggression has taken on the face of “globalization” and “war on
terror.” It is an excuse for
The so-called fight
against terrorism has been used and abused by imperialist countries as a tool
for aggression. The US-led “war against terror” as illustrated in
Civilian victims of
imperialist wars of aggression have been labeled as “collateral damage,” which
in reality reveals the treatment of peoples as obstacles to be eliminated.
Revolutionary, anti-imperialist and national liberation movements on the other
hand are labeled as “terrorists” because the objective of this global war of
terror is to eliminate every resistance to
The
Reactionary
governments, most often installed or supported by imperialism, conspire with
their imperialist masters in using vicious methods, both subtle and overt like
“development” and military aid, to dominate the world and heap suffering on
people’s lives and human rights.
These methods also
include the use of the law and the coercive state powers as an instrument of
repression by the ruling class against those who get in the way of unbridled
imperialist greed.
It is, therefore, with
more reason that oppressed peoples and nations of the world defend and fight
for their rights, strengthen the struggle, unite and build a new world against
imperialist aggression, state terrorism, plunder and social destruction. It is
a fundamental right that cannot be denied or deprived peoples desiring to be
free from all forms of exploitation.
Everywhere in the
world, the dispossessed and exploited peoples have been transformed from being
victims to defenders and they have responded to oppression with resistance.
The hundreds of
thousands of people from different nationalities and ethnic groups in
In the
In
In imperialist
countries like
Resistance is the
defense of our lives, liberties and land. Resistance is destroying the old and
building the new.
We must resolve to
establish democratic governments, break free from foreign domination, change
exploitative economic systems and pursue the path to genuine development for
all, free from foreign interference.
We - the ILPS
Commission on Human Rights in the civil, political, economic, social and
cultural fields against state violence, national oppression, class exploitation
and oppression, gender oppression, fascism, casteism, racism and religious
bigotry - recognizing the urgent need to consolidate and ensure that this
Commission is active and contribute in the ILPS mission to challenge
imperialism and all reaction in an international scale, resolve to:
n
Monitor, document
and expose in the international community the gross violations of human rights
resulting from the US-led ‘war on terror’ and its localized versions in the
various countries.
n
Compel legal
institutions of states to account for their human rights violations —
investigate, prosecute, penalize or hold accountable the perpetrators and make
indemnification, compensation, restitution and rehabilitation for the victims.
n
Campaign for the
junking of security/”anti-terror” laws imposed by the US and its puppet states
in the name of ‘war on terror’ that grossly trample on fundamental rights and
liberties.
n
Sustain and
intensify international campaigns to demand immediate and unconditional freedom
for all political prisoners.
n
Pursue the
campaign for the de-listing of liberation groups and movements and progressive
leaders like ILPS Chairperson Jose Maria Sison from the “terrorist” lists
instigated or at the behest of the
n
Expose and oppose
military aid from imperialist countries and their allies (e.g.
n
Support
initiatives of lawyers to participate in resistance movements developing in
many countries and encourage them and other groups in other countries to also
organize, strengthening resistance to imperialists’ use of law against the
people.
n
Launch internationally-coordinated
protest actions to denounce and demand an end to fascist rule, imperialist wars
and plunder.
n
Support national,
regional and global struggles against fascism and militarization by projecting
ILPS action alerts on outstanding cases of human rights violations.
n
Initiate efforts
in building an international network of organizations that will undertake work
such as documentation, monitoring, international fact-finding missions and
immediate assistance to the victims.
n
Actively
propagate the ILPS general declaration and specific calls/actions on the human
rights agenda in all relevant international, sub-regional, regional, national
and local campaign networks.
n
Further develop
and strengthen international cooperation and regional solidarity for the
defense of people’s democratic rights.#
Resolution of Workshop 4: The cause of
just peace and struggles against wars of counterrevolution and aggression and
against nuclear, biological, chemical, missile and other weapons of mass
destruction
Expose and Oppose
Imperialism as the Main Source of War and the Deadliest Wielder of Weapons of
Mass Destruction in the 21st Century
Barely a decade into
the 21st century, imperialism has clearly proven itself as the main source of
war and the deadliest wielder of weapons of mass destruction. It remains the
greatest threat to genuine peace and the all-rounded development and well-being
of the peoples of the world. As the crisis of the world capitalist system
deepens, the rivalry among imperialist powers intensifies even as they
collaborate to further exploit and oppress the world’s peoples for greater
profit.
The conversion and
expansion of mission of the US Strategic Command indicates the intention of
The “war on terror”
has long been exposed as a mere pretext for blatant aggression and military
intervention in violation of international law, and for
The
The
More and more, the
designs and schemes of
Amid increasingly
intolerable hardships due to the intensification of the global crisis of
imperialism, the peoples’ struggles against imperialist war, plunder and social
destruction are gaining in strength and scope. Peoples’ resistance and
opposition has been an important political constraint to US and other
imperialist designs for aggression and intervention.
The Iraqi and Afghan
armed resistance against US-led occupation exacts the heaviest toll on US lives
and resources, and weakens
In
In Australia, Greece,
Japan, Philippines, Turkey and other countries where ther are US military bases
and activities , the people of these host countries protest and demand the
dismantling of these bases, the halt to US military operations and withdrawal
of all foreign troops.
General
Resolutions:
1. Initiate
global and regional coordinated actions on specific cases and issues against
imperialist war of aggression, military intervention and against weapons of
mass destruction.
2. Activate,
expand and strengthen ILPS global and regional campaigns against
3. Oppose
imperialist-sponsored and supported state terrorism,counterrevolutionary wars
and intervention in the domestic affairs of sovereign countries. Demand a stop
to foreign military aid, especially to repressive regimes.
4. Undertake a
campaign for the disarming and destruction of all nuclear, chemical, biological
and other weapons of mass destruction. Oppose the development and production of
new weapons and weapons systems such as space-launched weapons, tactical
nuclear weapons and anti-ballistic missiles.
Specific
Resolutions (submitted or intent to submit)
1. Resolution
Calling for the Dismantling of
2. Resolution
in Solidarity with the People of Iraq and the Withdrawal of all
Other
Foreign Troops and Mercenaries from
3. Resolution
Opposing the
4. Resolution
on the Militarization of
5. Resolution
Supporting the Actions of the West Coast Dockworkers in US and
6. Resolution
Condemning the Imperialist Threat of Using Nuclear Weapons and
Weapons of Mass Destruction
7. Resolution
Calling for Campaign to Oppose US-sponsored Joint Military
Exercises
8. Resolution
on the Right to Return of the Palestinian People on the 60th
Anniversary
of Al Nukbeh (expulsion of Palestians from their homeland)
9. Resolution
Supporting the Resistance of the People of
10. Resolution
Condemning the US-Israeli and other Imperialists plans against
11. Resolution on
12. Resolution
for Withdrawal of US troops from
Resolution of Workshop 5: Promotion of
trade union and other democratic rights of the working class
Preambular part
Working people
everywhere are sentenced to a life of insecurity and, for the great majority,
deprivation, even as they create the wealth for today’s globalised, volatile
and increasingly crisis-ridden capitalism. Under imperialist globalisation,
workers worldwide have been facing determined attacks on their rights and
living standards over the last three decades. Now, a global economic recession
is unfolding from the heart of capitalism in the
Hard-won wages,
benefits and social services have already been eroded through policies of
‘labor flexibilisation’ in the name of ‘free trade’ and ‘international
competitiveness’ – this is the neo-liberal agenda of the multi-national
corporations. Even workers’ solidarity is being criminalised and the right of
workers to unionise and to fight collectively for their legitimate rights is
under attack. In some cases, attacks on workers’ rights to organise are being
justified by ‘anti-terrorism’ hysteria.
In the imperialist
countries, many workers suffer from low wages, high unemployment and job
insecurity, and millions of migrant and guest-workers with few rights are also
now part of these economies. The worker’s democratic rights to form unions and
to strike are being restricted. Pension schemes now directly connected to the
share markets mean that retired workers no longer have company paid guaranteed
pensions and are highly vulnerable to the developing global recession.
All this could get
much worse in the next few years, in both poor countries and imperialist
countries, because of the unfolding global recession.
The workers and other
toiling people of the world, especially those in the poor countries of Asia,
Africa and Latin America are subjected not only to the overt violence of the
neocolonial state, they suffer even more from the daily violence of the
exploitative and oppressive system of imperialism.
Through neo-liberal
policies of trade and investment liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation
imposed by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade
Organisation, the economies of oppressed and poor nations are further
impoverished and maintained as perpetually backward, export-oriented and
import-dependent. WTO agreements and hundreds of bilateral free trade
agreements today function as instruments of monopoly capital in their economic
attacks on the working class.
Governments and
multinational corporations prevent workers from exercising their fundamental
rights to organise at the workplace, bargain collectively and to strike. More
and more forms of labor flexibilisation, along with labor sub-contracting
schemes like outsourcing, are pushed to go along with the implementation of
neoliberal economic policies of liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation
against working people. Unions are undermined when contractual employees – who
are stripped of their rights to form and join unions and to participate in
strikes – comprise a large part of the total workforce.
With the erosion of
job security, there are fewer jobs and work opportunities available due to the
implementation of these imperialist globalisation policies which pull down the
wages of workers overall. Workers have suffered a reversal of union rights in
Even more vulnerable
and under attack are immigrant, migrant, guest-workers and undocumented workers
whose numbers are only increasing and whose exploitation is intensifying.
Cheaper, more mobile and flexible guest workers, migrant and immigrant labor
are used to fill the relentless demand for cheap labour, especially under the
deepening crisis of imperialism and its never-ending pursuit of private profit.
The rise of repression
of workers’ rights is also seen in outright violence against picket lines and
even the murder of labor leaders and unionists, in attempts to dampen the assertion
of labor rights. Union activity is considered to be a ‘subversive activity’
because it challenges corporate profits. Harassment, abductions and killings of
union leaders and trade union members coincide not only with ongoing labor
negotiations, but also during campaigns exposing human rights violations and
political repression.
There is an urgent
need to sharpen our understanding of the global attacks against working people.
In this period of imperialist globalization, the overarching challenge is how
can the international working class strengthen its resistance, promote trade
union and other democratic rights of the working people, improve wage and
living standards in the face of intensifying exploitation of labor and prevent
the destruction of working class organizations.
The workers workshop
highlighted the sustained attack on working class communities in all countries
by capitalists who try to crush union organization and ignore workers’ basic
right to collective bargaining. Governments attack working class communities,
in particular their own employees, through privatization and application of new
forms of anti-worker labor laws. Privatization of social services has a big
impact on women because caring and reproductive work that was once socialized
is thrown back on individual families and domestic workers.
Capitalists are using
a barrage of flexibilization techniques to increase exploitation and crush
unions.
Added to these
assaults, capitalists demand access to temporary migrant labor and these women
and men are meant to have even fewer rights than workers in the host country.
New labor laws today
give employers greater power then ever over the lives of workers. These laws
are backed up by harsh legal penalties against militant action, strikes, rallies,
pickets, and even basic organizing. If these laws still fail to repress the
workers, then abduction and murder is often the next resort of the capitalists.
The bottom line objective is higher profits.
This drive against
workers and their families is integrated with the objectives of the hundreds of
free trade agreements and the trade and investment negotiations in the World
Trade Organization (WTO).
The capitalists also
use ideology to crush trade unions and working class struggles. They constantly
claim the ‘death of ideology’ and the ‘death of class struggle’. By this means,
revisionists and reformists try to assert their hegemony over class
organizations and argue for them to destroy themselves. It is important to
struggle against all forms of this ‘liquidationism’.
Just as the peasant
movement in poor countries has paralyzed the WTO, the workers everywhere have
been organizing, resisting, and fighting back against the capitalist offensive.
These struggles need greater coordination, deeper organizing and more clarity,
if we are to win our rights in a world of justice and peace.
All of these threats
arising from flexibilization, extended use of migrant labor, privatization,
repressive labor laws, and violent repression will now be amplified as the
global recession continues to develop under the
New challenges arising
from the impact of global warming and the economic crisis are sharply
increasing costs of food and fuel. Workers everywhere need higher wages to cope
with these impacts and employers and governments will vigorously resist these
demands.
Action plan
We will consolidate
study commission no. 5 and its steering committee, and propose that it meet
four times a year by skype conference.
Publish the papers of
workshop 5 at the TIA to promote the ILPS more broadly in the global trade
union movement and recruit more unions to the ILPS.
Create a website and
communications for ILPS workers study commission to alert our members to
incidents of repression, promote our publications and events, and provide
educational material for workers and to promote the ILPS.
Participate in the
alternative activities against the U.N. Global Forum on Migration and
Development to be held in
Day of action against
trade union repression on November 16, the anniversary of the Hacienda Luisita
massacre. Organize participation from beyond the trade union sector.
Organize strategy
meetings and annual international conferences between now and the fourth
international ILPS assembly on the following topics: wages, privatization,
repression on workers, and job securiy.
Resolution of Workshop 6: Agrarian reform
and the rights of peasants, farm workers and fisherfolk
The last
decades of the 20th century have seen the gravest crises of imperialism and in
response to these crises, the rapacity of monopoly capitalism. While wealth and
resources, including land, water and forests are increasingly concentrated in
the hands of a few, the vast majority of the world’s population is being
subjected to the demands of imperialist globalization. They are facing
increasing domination and exploitation by monopoly capital and its domestic
lackeys resulting in their further impoverishment and marginalization.
The peasants,
farm workers, peasant women, fisherfolk, dalits, herders and pastoralists who
make up the majority of the world’s population, are hit hard by the nefarious
consequences of imperialist globalization. In agriculture, the imperialist
monopolies are imposing high prices for farm inputs while pushing farm-gate
prices down. Big commercial fishing is plundering the seas depriving the
majority of small fisher folk from their livelihoods.
The policies of
import liberalization, privatization and deregulation, principally authored and
engineered by the
Peasants, farm
workers and fisher folk alike are driven from their lands and main source of
livelihood, and the massive displacement is being carried out to pave way for
bogus industrial and destructive commercial projects funded by financial
monopolies, foreign and local big businesses. And now even water is being
privatized.
At the same
time, imperialist globalization has continued the feudal bondage that keeps the
majority of the world’s peasantry, dalits, fisher folk, agricultural workers,
peasant women, herders and pastoralists enslaved. Indeed, the age-old problem
of landlessness is still the principal problem of the vast majority of farmers,
especially in the underdeveloped countries. Big landlords, who monopolize the
ownership of land, are intensifying their exploitation of the peasants.
Besides, peasants, agricultural workers and fisherfolk suffer from usury,
resulting in indebtedness, and unfavorable market prices.
Even public,
tribal and communal lands are being privatized. Land and water use conversions
carried out by transnational corporations (TNCs), big agro corporations and
local big landlords, in connivance with the government, in the name of
export-bane industrialization had already displaced millions of farmers,
agricultural workers and fisherfolk and this has further aggravated the
condition of rural poor and intensified land reconcentration in the hands of
TNCs and big feudal lords in the countryside.
The
institutions of imperialist globalization like the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), the World Bank (WB), regional banks and financial institutions like the
Asian Development Bank and Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF), the World
Trade Organizations (WTO) and the transnational corporations (TNCs) are
brazenly conniving as they share the same interests. The imperialist camp
headed by the United States also utilizes regional trade formations like Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) and Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) to ensure and
perpetuate their dominance over the world’s economy and satisfy their endless
thirst for super profits at the expense of exploited peasants, farmworkers,
peasant women, fisherfolk and other rural producers across the globe. The
failure of the Doha Round and the stalled 6th WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong
Kong in 2005 prompted US and other centers of world capitalism to pursue
bilateral talks in the form of free trade agreements (FTAs) as well as the ‘Aid
for Trade’ which was meant to be a complement to the Doha Agenda. Worst, WTO
claims that the
While
exploiting and making life difficult for their own working people, imperialist
countries, the resurgence of bilateral free trade is ushered and intensified by
the persistence of the United States, Japan and the European Union to
comprehensively exploit the working people and available resources for super
profiteering, and for passing the burden of the global crises to working people
in Third World countries and underdeveloped nations.
Farm workers
also suffer from low wages and substandard and unacceptable living and working
conditions, unacceptable even to international labor standards. It also comes
to a point that many of them are forced to migrate to have a better living.
Farmers and
farm workers in Europe and
The
reprehensible and destructive effects of imperialist globalization are largely
felt among the poor and exploited people of the world—bringing billions of
rural producers and the world’s working population to the deepest quagmire of
poverty. Prices of food and other basic commodities and services are on their
sky high rates, bringing poverty to unprecedented levels, which are higher and
incomparable to the last decades of the last century.
High food
prices compounded by sky rocketing prices of oil and other petroleum products
instigated by the US through massive speculation and all-out privatization,
monopolization and destruction of natural and human resources contributed
further to super destruction of rural labor and working population all over the
world. The intensifying resistance put up by farming people and workers is a manifestation
of the irreversible and incurable crisis of imperialism and the dawn of
people’s victory against imperialist globalization and exploitation the world
over.
Organizations
of peasants, farm workers, peasant women, and fisherfolk the world over are
braving increasing state repression to rise against these obnoxious trends.
Puppet and anti-farmer and anti-people states and governments launch all-out
war and large-scale military operations to repress farmers and other toiling
masses in the rural areas fighting massive landlessness, injustice, poverty and
hunger. Even the joint US-national military exercises are meant to suppress and
repress farmers fighting imperialist globalization, war and plunder. They are
opposing the further onslaught of the agents of imperialist globalization on
their lives and livelihood while they are striving to cast off the feudal ties
that are restraining them.
They are
actively campaigning for their democratic rights to land and fishing grounds as
only genuine agrarian and fisheries reform can give them their due. They are
forging ties with the other oppressed sectors of society, especially the
workers and indigenous communities, in a joint campaign for development and
industrialization that is geared toward the needs of the people.
Increasingly,
other progressive and democratic sectors and organizations are supporting the
just demands of the peasants, peasant women, dalits, farm workers and
fisherfolk as they are also opposing imperialist globalization. They are eager
to link arms with the organizations of peasants, peasant women, farm workers,
dalits and fisherfolk in a broad opposition to any kind of exploitation and
domination.
The
intensifying resistance put up by rural people and workers across the globe are
met with increasingly and intensifying state fascism backed up openly or
discreetly by imperialist powers like the
Disguising
state fascism or state repression supported by the United States and imperialist
powers as “war against terror,”, state puppets and clients of imperialist
powers dropped any pretension of democracy and went aboveboard in establishing
martial law and repressive regimes in suppressing the people’s resistance
against imperialism and imperialist globalization and their client governments
and states. Due to people’s resistance, fascist regimes resorted to all-out and
left-and-right militarization and violations of people’s human rights and civil
liberties not only in poor and underdeveloped countries, but as well in host
nations of imperialist powers and transnational exploiters.
The militant
struggle of the peasants, farm workers, peasant women and fisherfolk is already
bearing fruit through many initial victories. Despite increasing reign of state
terror characterized by violent break up of people’s protests, full-blown
militarization, political killings, persecution, liquidation of political
activists by state agents and enforced abductions, numerous farmers, supported
by militant peasant organizations, have been able to resist eviction from their
lands, to reduce the land rent or to improve the conditions of the farm
workers. They have resisted all forms of state fascism and confronted the
programs and policies of state fascism and campaign of terror and brutality.
Other organized
farmers have been able to carry out land occupations through militant assertion
of their rights. Militant protest demonstrations have confronted meetings of
pro-imperialist organizations like the WTO, Food and Agricultural Organization
(FAO), the regional trade blocs and one-sided, pro-imperialist free trade
agreement or FTAs.
In the
countryside where armed revolutions are taking place, the peasantry has
succeeded in implementing genuine agrarian reform programs from its minimum
program (e.g. the lowering of land rents, increase in prices of agricultural
products, etc) to maximum level of free land distribution.
We vow to
continue the struggle of the farmers, farm workers, dalits, peasant women,
pastoralist, herders and fisherfolk against all forms of imperialist and feudal
oppression and exploitation.
Therefore,
we put forward the following immediate calls and demands:
1. Implement and pursue
genuine agrarian and fisheries reform, a just and democratic demand of peasants
and fisherfolk. “Land to the tiller, land to the landless peasants” should be
its basic principle.
2. Expose and oppose the agrochemical and agribusiness transnational monopolies and stop their development and promotion of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Through their intensifying monopoly on agriculture, these corporations are respons