JUST PEAce COMMITTEE

Commission 4 of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS) supports renewed calls for action to protest the military assaults on Yemen and the imposition of the brutal and unjust economic blockade against the Yemeni people. Commission 4 is concerned with the struggle for just peace against wars of aggression and counter -revolution and all weapons of mass destruction. We joined in the global day of action against the bombing of Yemen on January 25, 2021. A year later, the aggression continues.

There had already been years of internal conflict when Saudi Arabia launched its military campaign against Yemen in 2015. The pretext was retaliation for a Yemeni armed faction’s hit on a Saudi Arabian target. An anti-Yemen coalition formed involving the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Though not officially members of this coalition, Israel and NATO countries are supporting Saudi Arabia militarily. Canadians have opposed the scandalous sale of armed vehicles to Saudi Arabia, for example. Saudi Arabia has also led an economic blockade against Yemen, multiplying the suffering experienced by civilian Yemenis.

A UN report released on December 6, 2021 stated that deaths to Yemenis directly resulting from this war would likely reach 377,000 by the end of that year. Humanitarian organizations cited the worst crisis in the world as of last year, decrying the blockade as it is depriving the people of necessary good including food and medical supplies.

Saudia Arabian-led forces heavily bombed Yemen on January 31, 2022, prompting a wave of response on the part of concerned observers in many countries. A national day of action was planned for March 1^st in the US, supported in Canada, and a national day of action is planned for March 26 across Canada. Meanwhile, US activists are pushing for the approval of the “War Powers Resolution” in the US Congress, as it would commit the US government to stop monetary and military aid and arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners. To this end, activists have been engaging in letter and social media barrages and gathering at the offices of Houses of Representatives. ILPS Commission 4 wholeheartedly supports all these initiatives that could bring relief to the people of Yemen and get its assailants to back down. We encourage ILPS and allied organizations to join in and signal their own messages of protest in ways they can.

End the blockade against the people of Yemen! Humanitarian aid now!

Oppose militarism and fascism!

Build the movement for just peace against imperialism!

A Pan-Canadian Counter-Summit on NATO, June 14 

Speakers including academics, youth leaders, communist organizers and leaders of women’s groups met online while local actions ensued over the weekend before and on the day of the NATO summit. 

One of the keynote speakers, Margaret Villamizar, pointed to NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg stated purpose of this NATO summit:  

“enhancing NATO’s role in preserving the rules-based international order, which he said is challenged by authoritarian regimes, like Russia and China. He said this requires strengthening existing partnerships and building new ones, including in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America — in other words extending NATO’s reach to regions far beyond the north Atlantic to China’s own neighbourhood…”. (“China as a Threat and the Fraud of NATO’s Values,” TML Monthly Supplement posted June 14, 2021, on www.cpcml.ca) 

She also cited Stoltenberg’s argument characterizing China as a predator state “seeking to control critical infrastructure in NATO countries and around the world” and raised alarm bells about its interest “some of the most important technologies, including parts of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems” the extent of China’s defense budget, naval expansion and military capabilities. (“Ongoing Threat to World Peace by a Cold War Relic”, ibid.) He insists that member countries must share the burden of defense against such threats. 

Another Canadian Counter Summit speaker, Nick Lin, underscored the US-led alliance’s framework about defense against China and Russia. “At a time when the U.S. claims that China and Russia pose a threat to global stability, NATO is using these countries as the pretext to demand increased war funding from member governments.” (ibid.) Furthermore, said Lin, NATO is seeking more control over its member states by “insinuating itself into the political and social affairs of member countries and the direction of their economies” and assuming an air of benevolence. (ibid.) Margaret Villamizar examined the language of NATO’s propaganda, city keywords that signify a false voice of peace: ” safeguarding the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law….to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area.” (ibid.)  

Both speakers called for Canada to withdraw from NATO and for NATO to be dismantled. They supported actions and discussions opposing NATO and analyzing NATO and US strategy, pushing the need for broad based unity in action against NATO and US aggression.  

CONDEMN COLOMBIA’S STATE TERROR!

US Military and NATO, Get Out!

The Venezuela Peace and Solidarity Committee of Vancouver (VPSC) condemns the state violence against civilians demonstrating and organizing for their rights and just peace. Colombia has one of the worst human rights records and is highly militarized thanks to its alliance with the US. With nine US military bases, US backed paramilitary groups, and extreme policies and practices of state repression, Colombia is a threat to the region, especially Venezuela.

The VPSC supports the just causes of the people throughout the Americas. We support the ongoing national strikes in Colombia. We oppose militaristic and reactionary states such as Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia. We oppose the criminal, anti-social and anti-democratic government of Colombia’s President Duque. It is an example of the most extreme regimes that uphold vast social inequality, neglect of services for the people, and the rejection of basic human, political and civil rights. Colombia systematically murders labour, indigenous, and social cause leaders. Nevertheless, the US and its allies including Canada defend Colombia as if it were a model society, while it is hostile to democratic, independent societies that work to solve the problems of the people, most notably Bolivarian Venezuela, as well as Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba.

A foreign military presence has evolved out of European colonial times into World War II and into the neo-colonial era, with the US having established a foothold in the 1940s and increased its presence ever since. Concerns about independence, democratization and socialization in Grenada, St. Vincent, Suriname, Jamaica, Cuba and Nicaragua drove its “security” practices while a doublespeak of cooperation for economic and social development was voiced in the Clinton period. Plan Colombia, a scheme to militarize the Colombia under the false pretense of fighting “the war on drugs,” was conceived and launched under Clinton’s administration. Coastal US and Central America, Caribbean Islands controlled by US and European states, and South American states languishing under Right-wing rule are overloaded with US and NATO military forces and regional military forces commanded by reactionary commands today. Another stage of US military expansion in this region began in 2010. There were 21 US military installations in the Caribbean by 1984, and that figure is now over 30. Forty are in Latin America as a whole, in addition to the bases on US territories. Besides the nine US military installations in Colombia, they are present in Ecuador and Chile, and there are four in Costa Rica, two in Panama, one in Cuba, four in the US territory of the Virgin Islands, one in French Guyana, one on Aruba and one on Curacao (Netherlands), one in El Salvador, one in Honduras, and one in the Dominican Republic. [Sources: Institute for Policy Studies, “US Military Bases in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Oct. 5, 2005 by Paul Lindsay. “Caribbean Security on the Eve of the 21^st Century” by Ivelaw Griffith, McNair Paper of October 1996, Institute for National Defense Studies at the National Defense University in Washington DC.]

Launched in 1999, Plan Colombia pushed forward US-led militarization of Colombia and its surroundings in the name of fighting narco production and trafficking. This sham was a massive undertaking when US bases and military cooperation were developed, creating an ever-present threat of direct military invasion of Colombia, Venezuela and other countries. Drug production and trade is thriving. The political objective is obvious. Colombian revolutionary campaigns were gaining ground through the 90s. 1999 was the year that Hugo Chavez, representing the Bolivarian Revolution, was elected to power with overwhelming mass support in Venezuela. The masses defended his right to govern through the 2002 coup attempt, as they continue defend his political successor, Nicola Maduro.

US and its partners and allies regularly conduct military exercises off Central America and South America coastlines. Here is one example.

In 2015 the U.S. conducted 6 major regional military exercises in the Western Hemisphere. When our delegation was in Chile in October, the U.S. aircraft carrier George Washington, a mobile U.S. military base itself with dozens of aircraft, helicopters and landing craft, and four other U.S. warships were in Chilean waters practicing maneuvers as Chile hosted the annual UNITAS exercises. The navies of Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, New Zealand and Panama were also participating. [“US Military Bases in the Caribbean, Central and South America”, Presentation for the 4th International Seminar for Peace and Abolition of Foreign Military Bases By US Army Reserves (Retired) Colonel and former U.S. Diplomat Ann Wright, Guantanamo, Cuba, November 23-24, 2015]

Canada’s military participates in military training, technological development, arms trade and exercises in the Caribbean and Latin America. Its policies are closely aligned with those of the US. Its capitalist class has specific interests in supporting the free market and neoliberal policies and practices, and embracing imperialist strategies to defend those interests. The Royal Bank of Canada was founded under the name “Merchants’ Bank” in the West Indies in 1864.

Canada’s hypocrisy knows no boundaries; it uses terms like “human rights” and “democracy” falsely to achieve its own aims, such as opposing people’s just struggles for a better life in Colombia and Venezuela. It continues military support and aid and diplomatic friendship with the worst of worst, from the Philippines to Israel to Colombia, while it moans ad nauseam about human rights in Venezuela and other politically incompatible countries. It has even been hostile to Cuba lately, violating a friendship seen as almost sacred to many Canadians. It actually orchestrates cooperation among reactionary states to support anti-social and anti-democratic regimes and practices, most notably the notorious Lima Group which is a rogue, Right-wing substitute for the Organization of the American States lacking in any legal authority. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other politicians and the Canadian mainstream media produce constant lies to cover up the US and NATO sinister projects and aims in the Caribbean and Latin America. They weave tall tales and try to prop up Juan Guaidó as a phony representative of the Venezuelan people, which is quite laughable today, considering he is no longer in an elected position.

The peoples of the America share the common dream of social equality, truly democratic governance, just peace and social support. They want social emancipation and freedom from foreign domination and interference. They are justified in demonstrating these demands and organizing to realize this dream. VPSC supports these mass movements in Venezuela, Colombia and elsewhere.

We hail the brave efforts of the Colombian people to win political, economic and social achievements to solve their problems. We applaud their national strikes. We condemn the vicious, murderous Colombian regime and its amoral and anti-social backers, the US and Canada. As well, we wholeheartedly denounce the US and NATO militarization of the region, especially Canada’s role in it.

International solidarity! Down with the criminal Colombian regime and all reaction!

Long live the just cause of the people of Colombia and Venezuela! US, go home!

Statement of the Venezuela Peace and Solidarity Committee of Vancouver

Copied from the May edition of the ILPS Commission 4 “Peace 4 the People Newsletter”

Veterans for Peace (VFP) e-news, March 23, 2021:  “Sixty years ago, the United States used approximately 19 million gallons of 15 different herbicides, including 13 million gallons of Agent Orange, over southern Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Between 2.1 and 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed during the spraying and many more continue to be exposed through the environment. Agent Orange exposure continues to negatively affect the lives of men and women in Vietnam and in the United States. “

VFP hosted a webinar on the lingering aftermath of the despicable use of agent orange by the US military since the 19602.  In this powerful panel, Hoan Thi Tran and Heather Bowser talked about their personal stories as disabled children of parents who were exposed to the toxic compound agent orange. A defoliant deliberately mixed strong enough to kill people, the US said it used agent orange to clear jungles where it suspected Vietcong forces were hiding. The US Army Chemical Corps and the Flying Crews were charged with the task. It was poured over people, too. US personnel ordered to spray it in many areas succumbed to illness as did Vietnamese people. Not only did they suffer from cancers and other diseases such as Parkinson’s, their children and grandchildren suffered deformities and illnesses, too.  Jonathan Moore discussed the U.S. legal cases around Agent Orange, and Tricia Euvard cited the current lawsuit in France. Susan Schnall laid out the broad health effects of Agent Orange, and Paul Cox briefly described and weighed the legislation on Agent Orange that U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee would soon introduce. This webinar also occurred in conjunction with the recent release of the powerful new film “The People Vs. Agent Orange.” 

In 1960, the United Nations passed a resolution to create a treaty against chemical weapons because of discoveries of damage related to their toxins to all people, animals and plants. The use of agent orange was a violation of this treaty and international law, and as such, a war crime.  

The struggle to get justice for this monolithic crime continues. Tracking the history, we can see how costly the use of agent orange has been in terms of life and dollars. The US Agent Orange Act of 2005 assigned some compensation totaling $75 billion to US military veterans. Though the US government cannot be sued, there have been lawsuits against chemical companies. Many litigation cases by US veterans and non-resident aliens have been dismissed. The US military and government claim the effects of agent orange were unexpected “collateral damage” rather than intentional harm. However, it has been shown that the level of dioxin in the mixture sold to the US military was designed to cause death. 

The effects of agent orange are still being studied and learned. For instance, hypothyroidism, Parkinson’s, bladder cancer and other illnesses have been known as consequences of exposure, though not officially recognized until 2021. 

Veterans and their allies persist in educating the public about the true crimes of US wars. VFP reported on one historic action in its e-news release of April 6, 2021. 

“Many veterans came home from Vietnam with a mission: to tell the truth about the wartime atrocities being committed and demand an immediate end to the killing. In April 1971, a group of more than 1,000 veterans launched the Dewey Canyon III operation, a ‘limited incursion into the land of Congress.’ April 23 marked the 50th anniversary of one of the most influential anti-war actions of the era.”

VFP and the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs are hosting an online forum about this operation and the lessons it offers on April 23. 

HANDS OFF SYRIA! NO WAR ON IRAN!

The International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS), Commission 4 on just peace condemns the recent airstrikes of the President Joe Biden-led US military on Syria. We call on all anti-imperialist and democratic forces around the world to stand in solidarity with the people of Syria against continued US-back aggression, which has included the military of the US and Turkey and their reactionary collaborators.

The US airstrike occurred on February 25, 2021, nearly 5 weeks earlier than it took the Trump regime into its term to order its first airstrikes against Syria. The Pentagon characterized the strike as a defensive measure that “aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both Eastern Syria and Iraq”. The Pentagon further tried to claim that this so-called “de-escalation” was in response to Iranian-backed militias launching rockets into Iraq. This claim is no different from Trump’s early 2020 assassination of Iranian General Qassim Suleimani within an Iraqi military base. It is clear, therefore, that Biden has signaled that his administration will continue the same policy of aggression towards Iran that all of his Democrat and Republican predecessors have followed, once again using direct attacks against the people of Syria and Iraq as its strategy for military dominance.

As the Resist US-Led War Movement recently wrote in its own statement on the issue, “Rather than heeding the calls of the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets in Iraq and worldwide last year demanding ‘U.S. Out!’, Biden is digging in his heels and jeopardizing chances for true peace in the region. This should come as no surprise, given that Biden and his cabinet members namely U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin III have carried the near identical Democrat and Republican Party strategy of increased sanctions and warmongering.”

This airstrike marks the first known ordering of military force by Biden, who almost immediately upon taking office declared an end to US support for the war on Yemen. Rather than living up to this falsified claim as a peace President, these airstrikes show that the January Yemen declaration was merely a ruse attempted to placate the hundreds of thousands who took to the street globally to demand an end to this brutal war of annihilation against the Yemeni people.

The US has maintained its long support for the war on Yemen for the same reasons that it has maintained its policies of sanctions, airstrikes and US-backed civil war in Syria: to increase its military supremacy and political influence in the region, particularly against Iran. As ILPS Commission 4 wrote in our “No War On Yemen!” statement in January, “The Yemen conflict has been time and again shown as a war maintained by the ‘Houthi rebels.’ The truth is that Saudi Arabia brutally invaded Yemen and was provided intelligence, fuel and military support from the USA, Israel among other allies including NATO and other reactionary states such as Turkey.”

As a Commission of a global anti-imperialist alliance organizing against all wars of aggression, ILPS Commission 4 stresses seriously the recent airstrikes against Syria are tied inextricably to US imperialism’s strategic assaults against the people of West Asia and North Africa, among them the support for the war on Yemen, the backing of the Zionist occupation of Palestine and the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, the continued drone strikes against Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the consistent military arming of fascist puppet states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey. We call on all those who aspire for a just and lasting peace to struggle against these acts of aggression by the leading imperialist power of today. With reaction and fascism rising and imperialist aggression intensifying on many fronts, the peoples of the world must share knowledge, organize and mobilize to unite in action as one movement.

peace4@vcn.bc.ca

https://peace450.wixsite.org/website

International League of Peoples’ Struggles (www.ilps.info)

STATEMENT OF COMMISSION 4 OF THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF PEOPLES’ STRUGGLE

The International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS), Commission 4, endorses and supports the call for a global day of protest against the slaughter and neglect of the Yemeni people. There will be actions on the ground in Canada, Sweden, UK, Germany, Italy and the US, as well as a main online forum on January 25.The situation is in acute crisis and utterly deplorable.  Anyone with a basic support for human rights and holding a humanitarian view must condemn the attacks on Yemen.

The people of Yemen, coming from one of the poorest countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are suffering from air raids, death and injury, loss of infrastructure and basic supplies and mass displacement for six years. According to refugee agencies, in a population of 29 million, 13.5 million people are at risk of starvation. Yemeni Union of Agricultural Cooperatives reports that coalition airstrikes have systematically destroyed local food systems by targeting agricultural land, poultry farms, food processing plants, rural markets, fishing boats, and ports. The recounting of cruelties and atrocities faced by the Yemeni people is beyond count. In short, URGENT ACTION is needed to stop this imperialist, unjust war!

According to one of the action day organizers, Stopwar UK:

Since 2015, the Saudi-led bombing and blockade of Yemen have killed tens of thousands of people and devastated the country. The U.N. calls this the largest humanitarian crisis on Earth. Half the country’s people are on the brink of famine, the country has the world’s worst cholera outbreak in modern history, and now Yemen has one of the very worst COVID death rates in the world: it kills 1 in 4 people who test positive. The pandemic, along with withdrawal of aid, is pushing more people into acute hunger (communiqué of Dec. 30, 2020).

It is ironic that almost two years ago, the calls put forward by ILPS in 2019, are still being echoed at the call for united action on January 25, 2021. We affirm and add to the demands put forward:

• Stop foreign aggression on Yemen, especially targeting of essential food and agriculture infrastructure, including fishing vessels and markets;
• Stop weapons and war support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates;
• Lift the blockade on Yemen and open all land and seaports free from attack;
• Restore and expand humanitarian aid for the people of Yemen;
• Resume payment of salaries to government employees suspended for the last two years and support for the Yemeni Riyal through a professionally managed central bank;
• Mobilize funds for humanitarian assistance and recovery programmes to help Yemenis to rebuild their millennial systems of food production;
• Support efforts to build national dialogue and to formulate peace agreement that respects Yemeni sovereignty;
• Call upon members of the international community, particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, Spain, Brazil, and Finland, to halt forthwith all arms sales to parties in this conflict;
• Countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, and Sudan must terminate their military engagement and to contribute to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

The Yemen conflict has been time and again shown as a war maintained by the ‘Houthi rebels.’ The truth is that Saudi Arabia brutally invaded Yemen and was provided intelligence, fuel, and military support from USA, Israel among other allies including NATO and other reactionary states such as Turkey. Human Rights Watch had even as early as 2015 warned that the US might be liable for laws-of-war violations in Yemen due to its continued sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi-backed Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi took over Yemen after Ali Abdallah resigned in 2014. Intended as an interim government, it overstayed its welcome.  The Houthis, who comprise 80% of Yemeni population, did not accept this change as a move towards democracy and forced Hadi’s resignation. Hadi accepted this and moved to Saudi Arabia in 2015 where he was convinced by the Saudis to rescind his resignation, and moved to Aden, calling it Yemen’s temporary capital. Hadi has been backed by a Saudi-led coalition marked by aggressive military intervention in Yemen against the people’s movement struggling for a legitimate representation and democracy.

The US Imperialism has enacted coercive economic measures against Yemen. Saudi-led coalition imposes restrictions on trade and controls the ports in Yemen, putting sanctions on fuel, food, and medicine and other basic essentials. It is a shameful façade that countries such as the US, UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and UAE have provided the vast majority of humanitarian assistance to this man-made crisis, yet these are the same countries that are directly or indirectly responsible for the coercive war by supplying arms and military equipment. The coalition-backed government selectively withholds salaries from civil servants, exacerbating Yemen’s liquidity and devaluation crisis. What was to be a seven-day siege has turned into six long years of nightmare for the Yemeni people.

Of course, it is no secret that the war provides a steady stream of customers for the arms trade of profit-seeking imperialist nations. The role of Israel and Turkey can be also be understood in context to their political and hegemonic aims and geopolitical strategy that entails militarization from West Asia to Africa and Central Asia. They have been establishing bases and engaging directly with neighbors such as Greece, Tigray in northern Ethiopia, and Azerbaijan. Israel is a major arms trader doing business with the worst reactionary regimes, even the fascist Modi government of India.

The US is still the leading aggressor and one extending a multi-faceted strategy to defend and sustain the global system of exploitation, domination and plunder. Its ideology and approach has developed since the Cold War to target independent states and independence or democracy movements and nationalization and democratization policies and projects. It has been expanding the territories and waters beyond the North Atlantic by building bases and plowing the waters of all the seas.  It has been forming new alliances and cooperative relations with reactionary and terrorist states on all continents and allowing some of them, such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel, to act as proxy aggressors. While its economy cannot keep up the financial demands of continued, multiple aggressions, the US has been relying on reactionary states to do its dirty work as long as independence, nationalization and democracy projects are kept in check and it maintains its regional market share and influence.

It is always the people who pay the cost of war. The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is extreme and merits a concentrated international campaign to rally concerned and compassionate people together to demand an end to the war.

For information on the global action, go to www.stopwar.org.uk/world-says-no-to-war-on-yemen-25-jan-2021/.

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The ILPS is the International League of Peoples’ Struggles, an anti-imperialist alliance.   (www.ilps.info)

Commission 4 is concerned with wars of aggression and counter-revolution and nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction.

Website: https://peace450.wixsite.org/website

E-mail: Peace4@vcn.bc.ca

Campaigns:

Stop the War on Yemen!

Humanitarian aid now!

End the economic coercive measures now!

Unite the people against aggression and weapons of mass destruction!

Build the people’s movement for just peace!

Oppose militarism and fascism!

BUILD THE GLOBAL MOVEMENT FOR JUST PEACE!
MARK U.N. INTERNATIONAL PEACE DAY WITH ACTIONS FOR PEACE WITH
SOCIAL JUSTICE, LIBERATION AND DEMOCRACY

Mass actions and organizations have been growing against imperialism and state terror. Keep up the momentum to build an even broader and greater movement of the people for peace with social justice, social and national liberation and genuine democracy! Take another step forward by organizing people’s actions on U.N. International Peace Day, September 21!

Challenge the United Nations members to confront the aggressors and occupiers, and negotiate resolutions the major issues facing the people: food insecurity, lack of housing and
infrastructure, violence, insufficient means of livelihood, state repression, climate change, etc.

Popular dissent in the forms of street actions and discussions have been intensifying as the world crisis has been intensifying since last year. Historic achievements have been made. There have been large international gatherings to analyze the crisis and oppose the chief cause of the crisis, the imperialist system led by the US. Solidarity and collective work are blossoming. People have been taking to the streets in resolute, direct response to police brutality, systemic discrimination and exploitation and the lack of decent health services. The world has also been witnessing great efforts to lift the painful chains of colonialism that still exist. The youth have been getting in motion to call for action to oppose racism, relieve climate change and stop large-scale extraction industries. Through these activities, ndividuals are getting politically active and new organizations are springing up, while previously existing groups are expanding and stepping up their work.

This is the correct path to take. Build on these developments. The people must become more politically aware nd engaged in grassroots organizing. Fundamental change will take a united, global movement that understands the exploitative and plundering nature of the global system of monopoly capitalism, its armed defense, policies of neo-liberalism and hostility to any non-compliant nation or state. The peoples of the world must represent themselves and take up the cause for just peace, liberation and real democracy. The powers that be will not simply give up unless the working people and oppressed actively and as a whole face them an demand it. The people must not gamble that capitalism will develop a heart or that new faces in the signify big change. They must not give up their struggles.

Imperialism as defined by Lenin is the contemporary form of global capitalism, with its monopolies dominated by financial oligarchs that put profits before people 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 scope of the law. Imperialism is an inherently irrational and violent system that operates without concern
for human welfare and that has abandoned social development and human rights altogether. The crisis of overproduction, inflation, disparity and debt never resolved, austerity measures have been imposed to grab more land, exploit labour further, privatize state resources, deregulate industry and trade to the max and rely on non-productive, even destructive, and intangible markets.

The chief result is more conflict. In fact, war and “state security” are a very lucrative industry that wants to keep business booming. States crack down on the people, turn over more land and ruin ecologies 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 and stirring up resistance. War and resistance rage. The US and its allies strategize to take every possible measure to damage states that nationalize industries and expand public services, and they punish national liberation movements that seek to throw out occupiers or build their own, self-reliant nations, even financing and unleashing terrorists and meddling in internal affairs to win. Misinformation is spread and racism, communalism and gender bias incited to preserve the status quo. Cruel economic blockades that deprive working people of daily necessities are exacted to strangle societies that do not conform.

Comprehending the motivations, relations and machinery of the imperialist system, one can see why the questions of, for instance, Palestine’s or the Kashmir’s independence, peace between North and South Korea, social equality and guarantees of home and livelihood are never settled. We can see how and why the Crimea, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq are in constant turmoil and why the US and company want to destroy Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The minority of the world’s very wealthy and their way of amassing private wealth would be greatly disrupted if such problems were properly addressed and resolved. They wish to stem and confuse popular criticism and rebellion. It does not make much difference which political officials they prop up. When Barrack Obama became US President, some political commentators suggested it meant the end of racism and a resolution to race relations. Hardly so, as we can plainly see today. Likewise, merely voting in women to high positions of power has not relieved women of daily oppression, inequality and discrimination. Counting on the election of nominally democratic or liberal political parties has not brought about real democracy or any substantive, lasting relief from war and crisis. Far from impeding militarization, aggression and the arms trade, they more often facilitate military practice and allow fascism to rise. Despite the people’s hopes, this has been the case no matter who gets into power or what narrative they tell in France, the UK or Canada, for example.

The people must get directly involved in movements for real change themselves. They must hold high a clear peoples’ agenda for just peace. The UN leadership has been calling for a global ceasefire because of the pandemic. Certainly, suspension of military operations and withdrawal of troops would reduce the spread of the coronavirus. It would not resolve the question of peace, however. A whole host of issues would have to be addressed for conflicts to be resolved. Perpetrators such as the US, its allies, Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia would have to be recognized as aggressors and they would have to give up arms trading and use, close bases, scale down and send their troops home. All weapons of mass destruction would have to be outlawed. Plans for reparations including reconstruction and legal justice would have to be drawn up, and treaties and apologies made. Land, social and political reforms that benefit the people would have to be negotiated, as well. Adherence to well-known principles of social equality, healthcare and education for all, human rights (labour, civil, gender, national, etc.) and national sovereignty would have to be respected and enforced.

Occupations and civil wars must go through peace processes with reconciliation and justice defined and planned. For example, Palestinian resistance to Israel’s occupation cannot be resolved until the occupation and aggression against Palestinians are acknowledged and ended. Then negotiations would have to work on a plan for reparations, demilitarization, justice for the victims of crimes against humanity, poverty and social inequality, expropriation, food insecurity and housing. Other examples are the peace process between the US, South Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and that between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the Philippines state. For the former, all parties would have to cease military activities, the US would have to pull back its forces and sign a treaty, territorial rights be respected, past wrongs addressed and issues concerning North-South relations negotiated. As for the Philippines, the questions of land distribution,
dire poverty, food insecurity, human rights violations, democratic norms and public services, as well as restitution, must be negotiated and settled. In that peace process, the human rights conditions have been signed off, but past and present governments keep balking at settling the land and social demands. Instead of settling the conflict, the government has walked away from the table to intensify its military operations and state repression against resisters and critics to heights not seen before. The human rights situation is worse than ever. The so-called democratic states such as the US, European Union and others continue to let the atrocities happen while they help the vicious state of the Philippines and profit from the abominable conditions.

With respect to world peace, aggressor states must be named and held accountable. Arms trade and the use of weapons of mass destruction would have to be sternly contained along with unconventional weapons including cyber- and psy-war, biological and chemical warfare. Unjust economic coercive measures (i.e., “sanctions”) would need to be suspended. Foreign militaries would have to withdraw and foreign bases close. Sovereignty and diverse models of political-economy must be respected. Reconciliation with indigenous peoples would have to be worked out and colonialism dismantled once and for all. These are huge, long term tasks. The main obstacle to accomplishing these steps is the global military-industrial complex that profits from conflict and imperialist expansionist and harbors land/ market-grabbing intentions. The US plays the key role in defending and overseeing the intrusions and bullying of monopoly capital. It and all its allies such as NATO and ANZUS
members have to be subdued and held accountable, international law and United Nations decisions followed.

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 us deepen our commitment to struggle against imperialism for just peace on September 21 and make Peace Day meaningful. Build a unified struggle for a better world!

The people cannot afford to give up their rights and future, and stand by as the chaos, excess, violence and suffering burn up the planet. Waiting for each election period to mark a ballot is not enough political involvement. Join the movement for change. It is a matter of life or extinction. There are many ways to be a part of it and contribute. Use your best skills and knowledge and the time and connections you have. Most of all, make sure your voice is heard and that you are there to listen to others and plan a workable, sustainable course
together with your peers and communities to guarantee a better world for future generations. Together the best of human know-how, values and wisdom will prevail.

Long live international solidarity! Peace with social justice! Social equality for all!
Stop the US war machine! No weapons of mass destruction!
Close the bases! Troops go home! Down with fascism, bigotry and all reaction!

Commission 4 is concerned with wars of aggression and counterrevolution and all weapons of mass destruction.
https://peace450.wixsite.org/website Peace4@vcn.bc.ca
Ilps.info.com International League of Peoples’ Struggles

Call for Just Peace and an End to Wars of Aggression and Military Sexual Violence Against Women

On August 14, 2020, the world commemorates the end of World War II in 1945. During the Great Depression, an acute global crisis of capital, conflict in the Eastern hemisphere was stirred up when imperial Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931. It had already been occupying Korea. In the Western hemisphere, the expansionist ambitions of Germany sparked an all-out international war when Nazi soldiers marched into Poland in 1939. Soon, both aggressive camps were aligned as the Axis powers led by Germany and including fascist Japan, Spain and Italy while the Western Allies including the USSR mounted their defense. This horrific war spanned continents from Africa to Asia (South, West, and East), from Oceania and the South Pacific to the Americas. Eventually, the aggressors were defeated only through great sacrifice by the peoples of both the occupying and occupied countries, a war that is the most devastating in human history, with deaths estimated at 75-80 million from combat, starvation, disease, mass extermination against Jews and others, the US bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and the Soviet’s decisive maneuvers against Germany and Japan. This date is also being commemorated in many parts of the world as International Day Against Japanese Wartime Military Sexual Slavery. This is to remember the war crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army in the Asia-Pacific region against women in countries it razed, occupied or colonized – Korea, China, the Philippines, and Indonesia, among others. The ‘comfort women’ system remains as one of the most atrocious war crimes committed against women where thousands were forced into servitude and sex slavery to Japanese soldiers. While many other instances of military sexual violence occurred during this period, the ‘comfort women’ system was the only instance where the state took a direct hand, issuing an imperial directive that enabled the systematic and large-scale transport or coercion of women and girls for such atrocious purpose. At the same time, the Japanese governments have repeatedly denied justice both to the former ‘comfort women’ and to many other victims including those who were mobilized for wartime forced labor. It is 75 years since the end of World War II but Japan still refuses to accept responsibility for this crime against humanity. In fact, as a junior partner of the US in the latter’s current pivot to Asia, Japan is now pursuing a track similar to what it took 75 years ago: the path of aggression and military expansionism, in whose name the Imperial government committed its wartime atrocities against women and against nations. The Shinzo Abe government uses trade and official development assistance as pressure points on debtor nations such as the Philippines to revise people’s understanding and remembrance of history. It obliterates all references to its wartime atrocities while promoting the false notion of being a savior to justify its invasion of Asian nations in WW II as well as to justify the current militarist thrusts of the Abe government. As we single out Japan and call for its official recognition of its war crimes, so do we shout out against wars of aggression and state terror in their various forms carried out by other imperialist powers in many parts of the world. We condemn the US imperialist alliance that is supporting and carrying out terror, threatening, attacking, meddling in and militarizing around numerous nations. In particular, we oppose the heightened US-China military conflict in the West Philippine Sea, a conflict fueled by the two countries’ common intent of seizing control of the international passage and thus establishing another point of control over international trade. We rise against these forms of aggression as they violate the sovereign will of the Filipino people and endanger the entire region. We rise against wars of aggression wherever they occur. Cases abound of how wars of aggression or intervention always trample upon women’s rights and women’s bodies, where rape becomes a heinous instrument to subjugate the population and render the populace, particularly women, into slavery and servitude. Today there is the most acute economic crisis ever, complicated by the pandemic, and tensions among states run high. The situation is very unstable. Terror reigns in many instances as reaction and fascism rise again. Budgets are being drained for military purposes. The extremely lucrative arms trade also drives conflicts. Amid the general violence, poverty, bigotry, morbidity, displacement and death are increasing. The people must organize, unite and build a global struggle against imperialism towards just peace. Justice for victims of Japanese military sexual slavery! No to another generation of “comfort women”! Justice for all victims of imperialists’ war of aggression! End wars of aggression! Stop the US war machine, its allies and reactionary regimes! Long live international solidarity! Joint statement by International League of Peoples’ Struggle Commission 7 (The cause of women’s liberation and rights against all forms of sexual discrimination, exploitation and violence), Commission 4 (The cause of just peace against weapons of mass destruction and wars of aggression and counter-revolution), and Commission 1 (The cause of national liberation, democracy and social liberation against imperialism and all reaction), and the International Women’s Alliance.

ACTION CALL OF ILPS COMMISSION 4, Aug., 2020
UNIVERSAL NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT NOW! STOP MILITARIZATION!
JUST PEACE FOR THE PEOPLES EVERYWHERE!
Join local commemorations of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and make these pledges in the fight for just peace.

The anti-imperialist alliance known as the International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS) met in Hong Kong from June 23 to 26 where 400 members and guests agreed to mark the anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with demonstrations in their areas around the world. The resolution came from decisions and a program of action made by the Commission for just peace against wars of aggression and counterrevolution and against nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction (Commission 4).
The Commission 4’s updated program for this year also entails actions and statements for August 6, 9 and 14, plus webinars on August 8 and 16 collaborated with Commission 13 opposing science and technology used for war. We have a statement and encourage actions at Japan embassies and consulates to demand an apology and compensation for so-called “comfort women” on August 14 again this year. There may be a webinar on US imperialism in the Asia-Pacific in September. We will conclude this series of activities with an international day of action against wars of aggression, militarization, militarism and imperialism on September 21, UN Peace Day.
However, Commission 4 asserts the demand for social, land and economic reforms to meet the peoples’ needs before the masses struggling against occupation, foreign aggression and state repression, starvation and human rights violations for national their rightful national and social liberation. They are justified in demanding these life and death concerns be addressed before ceasing their struggles. As we said in our statement to the UN in response to its call for a global ceasefire in view of the coronavirus pandemic: “We act according to the principles of just peace, that is peace through negotiations for a resolution to the issues that cause peoples’ revolutions and resistance. Only if and when social justice—land, political and social reforms—are seriously addressed and settled should the people cease their struggles. We also oppose state repression against people’s just struggles and state policies that result in mass deprivation and suffering.”
Tensions of inter-imperialist rivalries and all the contradictions of a global system in deep crisis are higher than ever before. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed this situation and the failures to meet the needs of the people. Military mobilization is increasing while militarist and terrorist ideas and groupings are flourishing and the arms production industries churning while the people everywhere are working to resist and create alternatives to the failing system. Every tactic of imperialism, from cyber attacks to misinformation campaigns, from economic attacks to support for terrorism, from internal interference for regime-change to armed interventions, is being deployed against states that deviate from the imperialist blueprint and movements that resist or pursue the path of independence. The people must rise to the challenge; the whole planet is at stake.
Reviewing history and acknowledging both injustices and victories for just peace is important. In commemorating the large-scale bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that murdered and maimed 100’s of thousands of unarmed civilians, including 30,000 Koreans and some Americans, we oppose nuclear and other weaponry of mass destruction. More than that, we oppose aggressions past and present of all states trying to take over others, capture markets and societies and dictate to and impose systems on them. In that light, the ILPS and its friends and allies together oppose US, Japanese, Chinese, Canadian, European and other imperialist bodies that are causing much destruction around the world.
Japan occupied and warred against neighbouring countries in the early 20th century. Its government has returned to an aggressive policy that celebrates this past and seeks to restore imperialist Japan. We condemn imperialist Japan’s past and present actions and policies.
We also condemn US imperialist’s past and present military aggression and militarism, from organizing coups and human rights violations against socialism in Latin America, to meddling and arming itself and terrorists against sovereign nations in Eastern Europe and Western Asia (aka “Middle East”). We strongly oppose the alliance between Japan, the US and South Korea and this alliance’s supporters in Canada and Europe in their efforts to deprive and destroy North Korean society. We are against the continuing massive nuclear presence and nuclear power expansion in the region. We applaud the ongoing real efforts to resolve the war and reunify Korea.
We stand firmly against the militarization of the Asian-Pacific region that is already stirring up international conflicts to skirmishes with fire power, driving retaliatory strategies, disturbing and monopolizing waters and lands important for food and traditional practices, harming women and children, and prolonging wars such as the just guerrilla war against the vicious repressive and greedy government of the Philippines.
Countries such as North Korea and Iran are struggling to survive against threats and sanctions. Nuclear energy development is a necessary component of providing energy to run industries and infrastructure; safer and smaller scale designs of nuclear plants are being made these days, nuclear weapons development is seen as a necessary deterrent against the blackmail and threats of states holding 1,800 active nuclear warheads at the ready, such as the US, Russia Federation and France. Missile testing is seen as necessary for launching communications satellites and preparing for defense. We see a return to Cold War attitudes and tactics in the conflicts between US, Russia and China.
US imperialist rhetoric, mobilizations and policies cause a ripple effect of violence and militarization, for which it refuses to take responsibility. The monopoly capitalist economy, still today represented by, centralized in and defended by the US, is based on principles of violence against others and it depends on production for war. It is a system that constantly produces violence: labour, gender, economic, family, environmental, cultural and military violence. Now that it is coming apart at the seams, it is even more violence prone. The US runs military bases around the world and uses bases and proxy armies where it can, such as in Yemen, Syria and Palestine. It is blocking trade and interfering to ruin advances in several democratic countries such as Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. It operates key international financial institutions that strangle social development. It supports multi-national corporations and exploit and plunder, especially those providing rare minerals and fossil fuels for weaponry and energy.
The people must continue to organize and rise to fight against this inherently violent system in order to achieve just peace. Conflicts cannot be resolved without properly and truly addressing just social, political and land reform demands. Negotiations are always preferred, and every act of legal, civil society must be attempted, but the armed self defense and opposition to repression and military aggression is often called for. The ILPS, while opposing wars of aggression and militarization/ militarism, defends such just struggles for just peace.
ILPS specifically calls on democratically minded and peace-loving to organize and mobilize for just peace. Oppose colonial relations and policies! End the support for and dependency on the arms trade. Demand an end to all economic coercive measures by US and allies, get out of Latin America, Western Asia, the Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe! Reject NATO, ANZA and other imperialist military pacts.

No more Hiroshimas! Oppose militarization and aggression!
Just and Lasting Peace! End the sanctions!

Dismantle NATO! Hands off Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, Yemen, Iran and North Korea!

Occupation is a crime! Free, free, Palestine!

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Commission 4: peace4@vcn.bc.ca; https://peace450.wixsite.org/website

STATEMENT #2 OF ILPS COMMISSION 4 IN SUPPORT OF CEASEFIRES AND RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS WORLDWIDE

PEACE WITH SOCIAL JUSTICE! END IMPERIALIST OCCUPATION AND AGGRESSION!

SUPPORT THE JUST STRUGGLES OF THE PEOPLES FOR SOCIAL AND NATIONAL LIBERATION!

Commission 4 of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS), an anti-imperialist alliance of organizations engaged in mass struggles, is concerned with wars of aggression and counter-revolution and nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, called for a global ceasefire in a statement issued on March 23, 2020. (https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/sgsm20018.doc.htm) He wrote, “The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war. That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world.  It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.” He repeated this call on April 3.

On March 25, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called for governments to reduce the number of people in detention and release every person detained without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners and others detained for expressing critical or dissenting views.

These appeals were made especially because of the circumstances of COVID. We agree with these calls in principle. However, there has been little cooperation. Imperialist and reactionary states who have released some prisoners merely making a token gesture as political window dressing. The few prisoners so far released have been those convicted of serious crimes. Worse, we have learned of conflict situations where COVID is being deployed as a weapon in that authorities in power have sent infected persons to certain sites.

The poorest people in the poorest lands are most at risk to both the virus and aggression. We wish to defend and protect the peoples currently in struggle for their survival, basic rights, basic services including health care, lands and sovereignty. They fight in self-defence against deprivation and hostile and reactionary governments. Ultimately, we aspire to realize demilitarization and a halt to aggression and occupation, state terror and human rights violations. With this objective in mind, we cannot advise the peoples, armed or not, to give up their life and death struggles.

We act according to the principles of just peace, that is peace through negotiations for a resolution to the issues that cause peoples’ revolutions and resistance. Only if and when social justice—land, political and social reforms—are seriously addressed and settled should the people cease their struggles. We also oppose state repression against people’s just struggles and state policies that result in mass deprivation and suffering.

Consider the views of V. I. Lenin, as interpreted and explained by S. Gnosh in 1960: “https://www.marxists.org/archive/shibdas-ghosh/1959/07/x01.htm, undated) “It would be possible to effectively preserve lasting peace if the significance of the principal characteristic features of the present-day changed international situation is properly understood and the task of conducting peace movement is grounded solidly in intensifying the national liberation movements in colonies and semi-colonies and the struggles for socialism in capitalist countries.”

If the UN is going to call for release of political prisoners and cessation of armed fighting, we challenge tthe UN to address mainly the states responsible to uphold, promote and protect the rights of the people while secondarily reaching out to non-state actors.

Therefore, we issue the following set of calls. We make these recommendations in the light of the global pandemic and the sound emergency measures to (1) minimize travel and (2) adjust state priorities to address health, food and housing first, ahead of non-productive sectors such as the military. It is an opportune moment to act in the interest of the welfare of all the peoples of the world.

cancel NATO missions, close NATO bases and send all NATO troops home

send all foreign troops to their home countries, including US troops

cancel all military exercises

end all general economic sanctions

free all political prisoners

cancel all arms trade and call for arms and military contract related production to be converted to the production of human necessities related to health care, food and housing

initiate a UN campaign to get states to reduce military spending and reprioritize their state responsibilities according to the UN Declaration on Human Rights, that on Indigenous peoples’ rights, and all universal standards set by the UN and other credible international bodies concerned with the rights and welfare of all

restrain states with penalties for continuing occupations, aggressions, economic sanctions and interference including regime change and elections rigging

Revised release of May 15, 2020

The ILPS is the International League of Peoples’ Struggles, an anti-imperialist alliance.