Declaration of the Second International Assembly

Advance the People’s Solidarity and Struggle for Liberation and Democracy Against Imperialist Plunder and War

The general crisis of imperialism has been worsening despite the seeming triumph of monopoly capitalism due to the revisionist betrayal of socialism, the growth of fascism, racism, sexism and jingoism. The crisis of overproduction, financial collapses, growth of fascism and wars of aggression manifest the crisis.

In the face of increased oppression and exploitation, the working class and the oppressed peoples of the world have been steadily waging all forms of resistance for democracy and liberation against imperialism. The emergence of the ILPS is a major development in the people’s resistance.

Since the First International Assembly of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) in 2001, a new world situation has surfaced, with US imperialism brazenly taking the path of militarization, war and fascisation, thus compounding the situation of the previous decade, involving the far worsened crisis of the world capitalist system, the aggravation of imperialist oppression and exploitation and the vigorous upsurge of the people’s resistance throughout the world. Imperialism is moribund capitalism. It drives the people to carry out protests and revolution.

It is necessary to update our tasks along the general line of anti-imperialist and democratic struggle by the people of the world. Therefore, the Second International Assembly of the ILPS hereby issues this declaration to call on all the people of the world to advance their solidarity and struggle for liberation and democracy against imperialist plunder and war.

The New Situation

Following the collapse of the stock market in the first half of 2000 and the abrupt decline of industrial production in the second half of the same year in the US, the crisis of the world capitalist system has engulfed the US economy itself and has become far worse than ever before for all the imperialist countries, the dominated countries and all the oppressed peoples of the world.

The policy of “free market” globalization pushed by the US since 1980 has proven to be totally bankrupt. It has aggravated and deepened the crisis of overproduction and made exceedingly destructive the financial meltdowns. The crisis of the US economy is quite devastating for the entire world because of the over concentration and over centralization of productive and finance capital in the US.

Amidst crisis, the US has launched aggression and provocation against the people and used the September 11, 2001 attacks to whip up war hysteria and repression under the pretext of anti-terrorism in the US and on a global scale. It misrepresents as “terrorist” national liberation movements, anti-imperialist forces and progressive leaders. In fact, the US is the No. 1 terrorist power in the world because of the plunderous and aggressive character of imperialism.

It has fomented and used Islamic fundamentalism in the Cold War and continues to use it to justify chauvinism, racism, religious bigotry, fascism and wars of aggression. Today, it is trumpeting the so-called war of civilization and uses Islam as a scapegoat against the people’s struggles for national and social liberation in the Middle East and elsewhere. It seeks thereby to justify US military intervention and aggression.

All along the US has adopted the scheme of seeking the revival of its economy by providing tax cuts to the monopoly firms, directing them towards increased military production and engaging in wars of aggression in order to use up old military inventories and build up new stocks of high tech weaponry.

According to the US strategic planners, especially those who call themselves neoconservatives, the US must take full advantage of its position as the sole superpower and ensure a new century of unprecedented US global hegemony by using or threatening the use of high tech weapons of mass destruction against any state that challenges or disobeys the US, by expanding the sources of oil and other raw materials, markets, fields of investment and spheres of influence and by proliferating US military bases and stations throughout the world.

There is continuity in the US policy from the Clinton to the Bush regime. Either by using the UN Security Council, the NATO and bilateral military treaties or by taking initiatives independent of its imperialist allies, the US has gained control over the sources of oil and gas and supply routes by waging wars of aggression in the Middle East, Balkans and Central Asia. The strategic plan of the US is to subordinate the economies of Europe, East Asia, South Asia and the rest of the world by tightening control over energy sources.

The US can destroy fixed structures from afar with the use of cruise missiles and thereby overthrow governments without strong popular support. But it is also compelled by its own greed to deploy military, business and bureaucratic personnel in order to gather the spoils of war. These personnel and their facilities are vulnerable to the armed resistance of the people. Thus, the US has placed itself in a quagmire in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries.

In turn, the European and Japanese imperialists have tried to tighten their stranglehold on neo-colonies. Europe has expanded and has sought to increase free-trade agreements with neo-colonies in Asia and Africa. Japan and Germany have increased their military capacity and have deployed troops overseas and military bases and stations in Asia and Africa.

As a result of the unbridled plundering and aggressiveness of the US as No. 1 imperialist power and No. 1 enemy of the people of the world, the overall contradiction between imperialism on the one hand and the proletariat and oppressed people of the world on the other hand is intensifying. All types of struggles or contradictions in the world are becoming more acute.

The oppressed peoples and nations in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the former revisionist-ruled countries are rising up on a widening scale against the intensifying oppression and exploitation unleashed against them by the US and other imperialist powers as well as by puppet governments.

In the main struggle today, the broad masses of the people are demanding and struggling for national and social liberation against imperialism and all reaction. The imperialist powers are being resisted by mass actions and armed revolutionary movements for national and social liberation.

The broad masses of the people are the actual target of further oppression and exploitation when the imperialist powers pressure and threaten or wage wars of aggression against countries and governments. At any rate, the US has increasingly attacked countries and governments that invoke or assert their right to national independence. Certain countries have been subjected to wars of aggression and other countries are threatened. A number of these countries have resisted or are resisting imperialist threats and aggression.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US has declared war on Afghanistan and Iraq and has occupied these countries. It has emboldened Israeli Zionists to intensify their attacks against the Palestinian people. Today the peoples of Iraq and Palestine are heroically waging resistance against the US imperialists and their puppets and have scored brilliant victories.

The US and other imperialist powers are united against the proletariat and people of the world but they are increasingly at odds with each other over questions of economic, political, military and other interests. Inter-imperialist rivalries are intensifying. Germany, France and Russia have objected to the US war of aggression and US monopoly over the spoils of war in Iraq. There are more kinds of goods and services that have become bones of contention among the imperialist powers in the World Trade Organization. All centres of global capitalism are in severe crisis and are increasingly embroiled in a struggle for a redivision of the world. This is a struggle for political hegemony and economic territory.

The trend is for the entire world capitalist system to become more and more rotten and decadent and for the inter-imperialist contradictions to sharpen and deepen. There are growing contradictions between the US and European Union. These two imperialist powers have colliding interests in all major global regions and are likely to generate conditions in which other imperialist powers like Japan and Russia undertake initiatives that can further upset the balance of forces among the imperialist powers. We are on the eve of far greater upheavals and struggles in the 21st century.

Amongst the proletariat and other oppressed people in imperialist countries, a growing number are outraged that the neo-liberal policies of the monopoly bourgeoisie and their governments are viciously violating their democratic rights and dismantling social welfare. They are waging mass protests and holding strikes against the monopoly bourgeoisie for the mass unemployment, social displacement, increased exploitation, repression, racism, sexism, and wars of aggression. So far the biggest risings of the people have been those against the preparations for the US war of aggression in the last quarter of 2002 and in the first quarter of 2003. The broad masses of the people are increasingly aware of the dangers of fascism and war consequent to the current global depression.

The sharpening contradictions among the imperialist powers point to the danger of a world war. The greatest danger to the world is the possibility of a new world war in a situation where the US is invading one country after another. But the people can wage revolutionary struggles, including antiwar movements, to avert or stop imperialist war and if these cannot be stopped to transform this into revolutionary civil war as during and after World War I and World War II.

Along the general line of the anti-imperialist and democratic struggle, the League fights for the following:

1. the cause of national liberation, democracy and social liberation against imperialism and all reaction;

2. the socio-economic development for oppressed and exploited countries and nations and social equity for all working people;

3. defense of human rights at the collective and individual levels in the civil, political, economic, social and cultural fields;

4. the cause of just peace and struggles against wars of counterrevolution and aggression and against nuclear, biological, chemical and other weapons of genocide and mass destruction;

5. promotion of trade union and other democratic rights of the working class, improvement of wage and living conditions against all forms of intensifying exploitation of labor and the destruction of working class organizations in their pursuit of the historic mission of fighting for social liberation;

6. agrarian reform and the rights of peasants, farm workers and fisherfolk against feudal, semi-feudal and capitalist exploitation and oppression;

7. the cause of women’s liberation and the rights of women against sexual discrimination, exploitation and violence;

8. the rights of the youth to education and employment;

9. children’s rights against child labor, sexual abuse and other forms of exploitation;

10. rights of indigenous peoples, oppressed nations, national minorities, nationalities for self-determination and decolonization, against discrimination, racism, caste-ism and national oppression perpetrated by imperialism and local reaction;

11. rights of teachers, researchers and other education personnel and the struggle against ideas and research directed against the people;

12. right of the people to health and the rights of health workers;

13. science and technology for the people, environmental protection and the right to healthy food and water;

14. arts and culture and the free flow of information in the service of the people, and in defense of the rights of artists, creative writers, journalists and other cultural workers;

15. freedom for political prisoners and prisoners of war, and justice for victims of human rights violations;

16. rights and welfare of homeless people, refugees and migrant workers displaced by imperialism;

17. rights of the elderly towards a life in dignity and secure existence;

18. the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people against discrimination, intolerance and homophobia.