Statement of ILPS Commission 4
UN International Peace Day on September 21, 2022
JOIN THE FIGHT !!
Organize people’s actions for International Peace Day, September 21! SUPPORT THE STRUGGLES OF THE PEOPLE FOR JUST AND LASTING PEACE EVERYWHERE!
US-led imperialism is in decline and on a disastrous path. The cases of Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Ukraine reveal the state of anarchy and furious panic it has sunken into and total disregard for human suffering and human rights. The US and its allies persist in propping up the worst states including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and the Philippines as fascists consolidate themselves. Provocations against Russia and China are flirtations with global disaster. After having facilitated the Right in Ukraine and threatened Russia, the US and company is blocking the possibilities of ceasefire and negotiations in favour of prolonging the carnage and destroying Ukraine. Taunting China over the Chinese territory of Taiwan and interfering, it is setting the stage for a similar tragedy there in which China may mobilize its forces to integrate Taiwan into the People’s Republic of China, the US may mobilize for control of Taiwan, and the people of Taiwan will suffer extreme hardship and mass death. It is all about domination and plunder.
Building its military alliances and expanding its 100s of bases, installations and shared spaces, the US still dominates militarily. In fact, though, it has not won a war since WW2. It has orchestrated coups to bring in dictators, supported occupations that serve it or invaded regions to take direct control (Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan). The profit motive dominates most aspects of state affairs so that the war profiteers can benefit. The US righteously violates international laws, standards and norms all the time, still ridiculously clinging to the line of self-entitlement (“exceptionalism”) and is engaging of multiple forms of aggression including economic, cyber, misinformation and manipulation, collaboration with terrorists and reaction. The worldwide militarization and preparations for war must be stopped!
The people of the world are becoming more politically aware and engaged in grassroots organizing. They are getting active, taking up the cause for just peace, liberation and real democracy. Fundamental change that benefits the people will take a united, global movement that understands the exploitative and plundering nature of the global system of monopoly capitalism, its armed aggression, policies of neo-liberalism and hostility to any non-compliant nation or state. The imperialist powers will not simply give up unless the working people and oppressed, actively and as a whole, face them and stop it. Organized masses around the world united in coordinated action can block imperialism and fascism and move towards socialism. The people cannot gamble that capitalism will develop a heart or that new faces in the capitalist countries signify signs of care. They must extend and carry on their struggles.
Imperialism as defined by Lenin is the contemporary form of global capitalism, with its monopolies dominated by financial oligarchs that economically and geographically divide the world in their quest for exponential growth and ceaseless, forceful, worldwide expansion. Military and industry are tied. They work in tandem mostly outside the political processes and even beyond the scope of the law designed to protect the rule of monopoly capital. Imperialism is an inherently irrational, violent system that operates without concern for human welfare and that has abandoned social development and human rights altogether.
The system plummets into high unemployment, inflation and slow production and hence slow purchasing every few years. The capitalist class of the US and Europe have tried again and again to resolve each crisis by social austerity measures, deregulation, increased lending and increased investment in military-related industry and war, to no avail. The result is always mass suffering, perpetual warring, various conflicts, ruin and unrest. The oppressed and socialist states pit themselves against the most powerful states, classes war and inter-imperialist rivalries go on. Now stagflation is occurring, as happened in the late 1970s. Neo-liberalism, instituted in the 1980s, could not avoid this inevitability. Brute force is the only means remaining to US-led imperialism, which will not solve anything. Its aim to gain tighter control over lands, markets and working people.
As before, capitalist states crack down on the people, turn over more land to plunderers and wreck ecology at the behest of foreign and local corporations, violating indigenous lands and rights more and more, destroying nature and farmlands, displacing communities, causing starvation, pandemics and other hardships, to which the people must respond with resistance. Misinformation is spread and racism, communal and gender bias incited to hold onto power. Cruel economic blockades that deprive working people of daily necessities are exacted to strangle societies that do not conform. US-based capitalism is sinking into permanent warring and mayhem, providing fertile ground for fascism to grow.
Comprehending the motivations, relations and machinery of the imperialist system, one sees why the questions of, for instance, Palestine’s or the Kashmir’s independence, peaceful reunification between North and South Korea, a resolution for Russia and Ukraine and social equality and guarantees of home and livelihood, are never settled. Despite the people’s hopes, this has been the case no matter who gets into power or what narrative they tell.
When informed and aroused, the people take action to support a clear peoples’ agenda that on one hand challenges imperialism and, on the other, stakes their clear rights on decent livelihoods, a sustainable planet, social justice and equity that would ensure a classless society that would yield a just and lasting peace. They must ENSURE THAT THEIR ISSUES AND DEMANDS BE ADDRESSED BEFORE GIVING UP THEIR FIGHTS. To the ILPS and Commission 4, peace does not mean acquiescence and silence. Humankind would be doomed were we to be passive and quiet as the world becomes increasingly dangerous and unsustainable and human life more precarious. Let’s deepen our commitment to struggle against imperialism for just peace on September 21 and make Peace Day meaningful. The UN is ineffective; in fact, it is often a springboard to launch aggression. Build a unified struggle for a better world! The people are struggling to win and defend their rights and future. They do not stand by as the chaos, excess, violence and suffering burn up the planet. Voting periodically is not enough. Join the movement for change to preserve life and avoid extinction.
JUST PEACE NOW! CEASEFIRES AND NEGOTIATIONS NOW!
DISMANTLE NATO, AUKUS AND ALL IMPERIALIST MILITARY ALLIANCES!
SOCIAL, NOT MILITARY SPENDING!
NO MORE WAR GAMES! CLOSE US AND NATO BASES! NO MILITARY AID!
NO MORE HIROSHIMAS! END THE ARMS TRADE! NO TO FASCISM!
SIGN THE TREATY FOR THE PROHIBITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
Peoplesstruggles.org peace4@vcn.bc.ca http://www.facebook.com/ILPSOfficial
JUST PEAce COMMITTEE 