General declaration of 6th ILPS Assembly

GENERAL DECLARATION OF THE 6TH ILPS INTERNATIONAL ASSEMBLY

“Win a bright socialist future for humanity! Unite the people to fight and end imperialist plunder, war, racism and fascism!”

The global capitalist crisis since the financial meltdown of 2008 has continued to the present. The addition of new imperialist countries, Russia and China, to the ranks of the big powers has further intensified the inter-imperialist contradictions. A new round of struggle for the redivision of the world has ensued.

The wanton abuse of finance capital in futile attempts to overcome the crisis of overproduction and imposition of austerity measures to pass the burden of the crisis on the shoulders of the working people have led to the escalation of the oppression and exploitation of the working people. Because of this, the broad masses of the people are increasing their resistance against imperialism and all reaction. They are fighting back even as the imperialists and reactionaries are resorting to all forms of devices, including reformism and terrorism, to head off the rise of the revolutionary movements of the people.

The theme of the 6th International Assembly is timely and fitting, “Win a bright socialist future for humanity! Unite the people to fight and end imperialist plunder, war, racism and fascism.” While the world capitalist system is in unprecedented crisis and is wreaking havoc on the lives of the people, socialism stands out as a beacon and the only real alternative. In addition, we recognize that patriarchy and the oppression of women is a central facet of imperialism and the oppression of humanity and must be dismantled.

Our present world faces the scourge of ceaseless wars of aggression, racism and fascism. We are witnesses to an unprecedented barbarism in the bloody crimes against the people, such as massacres of the Palestinians, Kurds, Filipinos, Rohingyans, Yemenis, Sudanese, Syrians, Libyans, Iraqis, West Papuans, and so many others upon the instigation of the imperialists and their reactionary puppets.

The neoliberal policy regime instigated by US imperialism has aggravated all the features of monopoly capitalism as the highest and moribund stage of capitalism. Now the US is swinging back to protectionism and engaging in a trade war against China. It is putting the US in an even worse situation and causing mutual damage. The US cannot take back its various concessions to China without further upsetting its already dire economic and social conditions.

The US neoconservative policy of ceaseless wars of aggression has not resulted in the expansion of stable and profitable economic territory that outweighs the high costs of aggressive wars. After devastating the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, it has come against the solid wall of the Russia-Syrian alliance and has failed to complete its war of aggression against Syria with the intended overthrow of the Assad government.

Russia and China have now used their veto power in the UN Security Council against US attempts to get UN backing for its foreign military adventures which has forced the US to resort to such farcical groupings as the “coalition of the willing” to go ahead with its war-making without any credible UN mandate.

In the meantime, Russia has made further inroads in the Middle-East using both military muscle and astute diplomacy. It has succeeded in courting Turkey to collaborate in the making of the so-called south stream of Russian gas, while the US recklessly seeks to provoke new wars of aggression by colluding with Israel and Saudi Arabia against Iran and with the Lima Group against Venezuela and the ALBA.

For decades in East Asia, the US has tried to vilify and isolate the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and to subject it to military and economic blockade and to threats of nuclear war. But the DPRK stood its ground and took the initiative in promoting the Korean people’s desire for peaceful reunification of their country. Recently, the people of the south opposed the deployment by the US of the THAAD missile system in their territory. Thus, all the US threats of devastating the DPRK and the entire Korean Peninsula have been rendered inutile.

Now, the US is taking on China which it considers as its strategic rival in East Asia and the whole world. But it is being stymied by the latter’s invocations of the WTO and declarations of avoiding war, despite its expansionist claims over 90 percent of the South China Sea. In its economic and military rivalry with China, the US is trying hard to keep Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the ASEAN and India as allies.

The trade war between the US and China is becoming more strident. The US is trying to upset the Chinese economy in order to undermine China’s development of its strategic military weapons and its drive to create the biggest new center of world trade through its Belt and Road Initiative which extends to Central Asia, Russia, Europe, South Asia, West Asia and Africa.

Even as the inter-imperialist contradictions between the US and China are sharpening, those between the US and Russia are also sharpening in Europe, Central Asia and West Asia. The US is banking on its traditional alliance with Western Europe and Japan in facing up to the Eurasian alliance of Russia and China. But among all the imperialist powers, there is still a complex interweaving of contentions and collaborations.

The imperialist powers try to maintain amicable relations among themselves by uniting against the proletariat and other working people in both developed and underdeveloped countries and shifting the burden of imperialist crisis to them. But they are inevitably driven to increase their superprofits, engage in economic competition and political rivalry and to expand their share of global hegemony.

There are increasingly sharper social and political contradictions in the home grounds of the imperialist powers. But the sharpest of them especially as manifested in electoral contests are still those between the reformist and fascist trends. The revolutionary parties of the proletariat still need to strengthen themselves ideologically, politically and organizationally in order to succeed in winning over the masses and gaining the initiative in leading the mass struggles.

To maintain the system of exploitation, the imperialists resort to racism and fascism in their own home grounds and in the underdeveloped countries of the oppressed peoples and nations. They foment ethnic tensions to divide and rule. But the proletariat and the people are getting more united and rising up on a global scale and waging various forms of struggle, including legal mass protests and armed revolutionary struggle such as in Palestine, India, Kurdistan and the Philippines.

US imperialism took advantage of its position as sole superpower in a unipolar world in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It has generated crises, unleashed wars of aggression, and inadvertently undermined its own privileged position through reckless military spending, accelerated its strategic decline and given way to a multipolar world.

US imperialism, although on strategic decline due to its internal problems, remains as the most dangerous, the most destructive imperialist power, and the number one enemy of the people of the world.

The triumphalism of the apologists for capitalism upon the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries has long worn off. Amidst the new world disorder under capitalism characterized by endless wars, social, economic and political crises around the world no one can now take seriously the claim that capitalism is the end of history.

In the wake of the crash of 2008, interest in Marxism and socialism has grown. There is now a widespread and profound disillusionment in capitalism and the people are looking for an alternative. That alternative is socialism.

More than ever, the proletariat and the people of the world need to further build their unity to resist imperialist plunder, war, racism, and fascism. They have to strengthen and steel themselves by waging various forms of anti-imperialist and democratic struggles.

We are in a period of transition from unprecedented imperialist dominance, inter-imperialist contradictions, social and political turmoil, state terrorism and aggressive wars to a period of great resurgence of the revolutionary forces of the anti-imperialist resistance and the world proletarian revolution.

We call on all progressive, democratic and anti-imperialist forces around the world to unite in a broad anti-imperialist and antifascist united front to stop imperialist wars and the growing trend toward fascism in many countries.

The ILPS is more than ever committed to advance the anti-imperialist and democratic struggles of the people of the world by arousing, organizing and mobilizing the people around its various concerns:

1. The cause of national liberation, democracy and social liberation against imperialism and all reaction: We call on all progressive and revolutionary forces to deepen their solidarity with the struggles of people fighting for national liberation, democracy and social liberation across the world, and call on these movements to strengthen their solidarity with one another in the struggle against their common enemies: imperialism and local reaction.

2. Socio-economic development for oppressed and exploited countries and nations and social equity for all working people: We resolve to arouse, organize and mobilize the people in the different continents and regions, foster solidarity among the various struggles and movements worldwide, and build a broad anti-imperialist united front; to resist imperialist plunder, war, renewed neoliberal push for austerity, privatization, PPPs, liberalization and deregulation, monopoly capitalist-led trade and investment agreements, and against the WTO, international financial institutions, multilateral banks, donor agencies and other international institutions, destruction of the environment, land grabbing and other forms of resource grabs.
We resolve to fight for the universal right to decent and productive work that ensures security and human dignity, but also work that is engaged in meeting social needs for the present and future generations, including ensuring the right to food, education, health, housing, basic services and a healthy environment; and to strive to build alternatives to the current unsustainable mode of production and consumption that is destroying the basis for life on the planet through global warming, mass extinctions and resource depletion.

3. 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;  and justice and indemnification for the victims of illegal arrest and detention (especially political prisoners), violations of due process, torture, extra-judicial executions, disappearances, mass displacement, and other blatant forms of human rights violations: We commit in helping build a broad united anti-imperialist and anti-fascist united front. We raise our voices and protest against systematic, massive and vicious human rights violations, state-sponsored terrorism through the implementation of counterinsurgency programs and repressive laws and policies, and fascisation of puppet regimes – which all aim to quell the rising tide of the people’s struggle against imperialism and their client states.
We must actively expose and oppose any form of fascist attacks against the struggling peoples of the world, as we commit to intensify the campaign to free all political prisoners in the world; to stop the killings of activists, revolutionaries, the poor and toiling masses; to surface victims of all enforced disappearances and hold all perpetrators and human rights violators accountable.
We assert and demand the pull out of military troops of fascist regimes from communities. We shall continue to unite and work with organizations of victims and rights advocates, and build a strong movement of human rights defenders and activists arising from the people’s struggle for a world free of exploitation and oppression.

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: The present world of ceaseless wars, genocidal crimes and sharpening contradictions requires the building of a united anti-imperialist, anti-war movement. We fight for just peace, and support armed struggles where negotiations for peace with social justice have been phoney, betrayed or denied. We pledge to continue research and education (ex. Into the war on terror, arms trade, peace processes, etc.), carry out campaigns against US military bases and military pacts and alliances such as ANZUS and NATO, and hold commemorations of the historic successes of the just peace movement. We call on ILPS members in countries where there is an ongoing peace process or a history of peace process to share experiences and draw lessons.
We call for a global day of action for just peace every year on September 21. As well, we propose to commemorate August 6 and 9 nuclear bombings annually, and to demand for apology and compensation for so-called “comfort women” on August 14, 2019, and support the tax day demonstrations on April 15, 2019 under the slogan “starve war, not the people.”

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: In response to the deepening crisis of global capitalism, certain factions of monopoly capital support the fascist options as expressed in Trump and in far-right governments in Europe and Latin America. This global crisis is both a challenge and an opportunity for the working class movement to struggle for democratic, ecological and socialist alternatives to the “solutions” imposed by the capitalists.
We fight for genuine trade unions everywhere. We fight to improve wages and working conditions for all, to resist the attacks on public services, pensions and environmental regulation, to resist trade union repression and to rebuild a strong militant global trade union movement.

6. Agrarian reform and rights of peasants, farm workers and fisherfolk against feudal, semifeudal and capitalist exploitation and oppression: We celebrate the struggles and victories of various rural communities in asserting and defending their right to land and resources and other democratic rights. We resolve to consolidate and defend these victories and further advance the struggle of the peasants and other toiling masses against state fascism, feudalism and imperialism.

7. The cause of women’s liberation and rights against all forms of sexual discrimination, exploitation and violence: Women everywhere are rising by the millions in resistance to the worst forms of class exploitation and oppression. Decades of neoliberal policies have caused a back slide in the general conditions and fundamental human rights of women in both industrial and backward agricultural countries. The crises generated by privatization and liberalization have robbed women of decent work and sustainable livelihood. Imperialism, propped up by authoritarianism and militarism, has further entrenched patriarchal values and systems that intensify the subjugation of women. It is for these reasons that women are rising–rising to place the emancipation of women at the center of social transformation, and envisioning a socialist future for all women where wage slavery is eliminated, genuine gender equality exists, and conditions for the full development of human capability have been laid down for all to enjoy.

8. Rights of the youth to education and employment: For the youth and student sector, the worsening crisis of imperialism and neoliberalism has manifested in many fronts, including: widespread poverty and hunger; increasing exploitation in the workplace, forced labor and slavery; unemployment and underemployment; detention, torture, and execution by state forces; mass forced migration, displacement, trafficking, and deportation; the denial of basic rights to education and healthcare; an acute mental health crisis among youth; targeted recruitment of youth to fight in imperialist wars of aggression; widespread violence against young women, as well as queer and trans youth; and an incessant cultural offensive conditioning youth to maintain the status quo rather than fight it. However, youth and students–together with the basic masses–are fighting back. The class consciousness of the burgeoning youth and student movement must be sharpened to link and raise issue-based fights to the struggle against imperialism as a whole; to avoid sectarianism between youth and students and the toiling masses; and to combat imperialist ideologies that deceive the youth into taking up forms of struggle that actually further imperialism rather than decisively end it. We affirm and resolve to building the strength of the youth movement through coordinated mass actions and campaigns; to counter the neoliberal offensive on education through our own learning and sharing programs; to coordinate exposures in one another’s regions; to combat sectarianism in all forms in the youth sector to unite the youth; and to counter the prevailing cultural offensive being waged on the youth through actively creating our own culture that is anti-imperialist, pro-people and scientific.

9. Children’s rights against child labor, sexual abuse and other forms of exploitation: Children are the future of the people’s struggle, thus their crucial role in attaining the people’s victory. However, children of the toiling classes are victims of imperialist global plunder, state fascist attacks, and social injustices. Children are used and abused by state forces in counter insurgency work to suppress national liberation movements worldwide. The anti-imperialist movement must take on children’s concerns within the broader people’s struggles and promote children’s participation in defending the people against capitalist exploitation and state oppression. If we fight for the rights of children, we also pave the way for a bright socialist future.

10. Rights of indigenous peoples, national minorities, and nationalities for self-determination and decolonization against discrimination, racism, and national oppression by imperialism and local reaction: We recognize and uphold the inherent rights of indigenous peoples, national minorities, oppressed nations and nationalities to self-determination, distinct identity, ancestral lands, territories, self-governance, culture and self-determined development. We wage sustained campaigns against imperialist plunder of ancestral lands, territories, and communities and development aggression by multinational and transnational corporations and reactionary states. We wage campaigns against national oppression, Islamophobia, chauvinism, and xenophobia in the context of escalating imperialist war of aggression. We strongly oppose repression and state terrorism systematized by brutal anti-terrorism, counterinsurgency, and national security policies and laws, militarization of indigenous peoples’ and national minorities’ lands and communities, criminalization of indigenous peoples human rights defenders and activists, organizations and communities. We oppose the forcible eviction, dispossession, removal, and resettlement from their ancestral lands and territories resulting to further marginalization and internally displaced indigenous peoples and national minorities.

11. The struggle of teachers, and other education workers against imperialism and for an alternative future: Teachers and other education workers all over the world have been struggling for their rights and welfare, including job security, better wages and living conditions, and the right to organize. These militant struggles have grown into a critique of neoliberalism as a class offensive of the global ruling elite against the working peoples of the world. Realizing that mere reforms and palliatives do not address the ravages brought about by the neoliberal attacks on education, we resolve to further consolidate and expand our ranks, and broaden and intensify our anti-fascist and anti-imperialist campaigns. We shall work for an alternative future and an education that advances human needs over instrumentalization of knowledge and production for profits.

12. The right of the people to health and the rights of health workers: Neoliberal imperialist globalization continues to wreck havoc on the lives and health of the people and to attack health workers economically and politically. On the other hand, countries with socialist health care systems serve as a shining example for humanity. We therefore commit 1) to intensify the struggle against imperialist impositions and deceptions on health such as commercialization, privatization and “universal health care” and social health insurance, remaining vigilant and exposing and opposing trade agreements that imperil further people’s health , 2) to fight for a free, comprehensive and relevant public health care system demanding from governments to fulfill this responsibility by giving adequate health budget for health provision and service delivery , 3) to fight for the rights and welfare of healthcare workers, asserting their right to unionize and collectively struggle for better working conditions and remuneration 4) to assert the right to serve, demanding justice and protection especially for all frontline health workers against threats, harassment, intimidation, arrests and killings as is happening in Palestine, Syria, Philippines and other countries, and 5) to build international solidarity among health workers and professionals against imperialism and the intensifying neoliberal attacks through active communication and exchanges, educational activities, and globally coordinated campaigns on urgent issues. We propose to declare April 7 as a global day of reclaiming people’s health. We call on progressive, anti-imperialist and democratic health organizations to unite and build genuine people’s solidarity, fight imperialist domination and exploitation; and together, build a bright socialist future.

13. Science and technology for peoples’ development: We live in a time when science and technology is developing at a pace that is unprecedented in history. Under monopoly capitalism, however, modern science and technology have been used and developed only when these deliver the most profitable method of organizing production, and defending the status quo.  Science will only grow in a socialist set-up that is committed to the fulfillment of people’s needs and not for the profit of a few. 
Progressive and anti-imperialist scientists, engineers, and science and technology advocates must unite with the broadest sections of society and together work for meaningful, just, and truly sustainable changes in the current exploitative and oppressive economic and social order.

14. Arts and culture and free flow of information in the service of the people and the rights of artists, creative writers, journalists and other cultural workers against imperialist and reactionary propaganda and oppression: Art has the power to distill and convey the full range of human experience and the rich dimensions of the people’s revolutionary movements. Progressive cultural work requires a comprehensive understanding and rootedness in the people’s struggles.
It is possible and desirable for different cultures and resistance movements to unite and develop ways to combat and do away with the barriers created by capitalist culture and imperialist divisions.
Art and culture can serve as a shield to defend peoples’ struggles, as a weapon for counterattack, and as a hammer to help forge a socialist future.

15. The rights and welfare of the diaspora, refugees and migrant workers displaced by imperialism and local reactionaries: We shall strengthen the migrants movement against imperialism and advance the active role of migrant workers, refugees, seafarers and the diaspora in the struggle for national and social liberation. We denounce the detention, criminalization, forced disappearances and the unlawful deaths of migrants and refugees in concentration camps built by the imperialists and their reactionary puppets. We fight to build a world without trafficking and exploitation, and fight for justice for the victims of modern-day slavery. Now more than ever, all victims of racism and fascism must unite to smash imperialism by fortifying the internationalist bond among the proletarians of the world towards a bright Socialist future for humanity.

16. Rights of elderly and other differently-abled people to a life of dignity and secure existence:

17. Rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people against discrimination, intolerance, homophobia, and transphobia: As the contradictions of fascism and imperialism sharpen around the world, all forms of oppression against LGBT people heighten as well, especially against trans people in particular.
Because the situation and struggle of LGBT people have gone through a long history of development in gender and sexuality, there exists a wide range and variety of LGBT experiences. What unites progressive LGBT people is that genuine LGBT liberation can only come from a struggle against imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism; that is, in the struggle for socialism.

18. The rights of homeless, urban poor and internally displaced people against gentrification, forced evictions, containment, criminalization and exploitation: The structural crisis of imperialism and the social, economic and spacial displacement that it engenders has produced a large urban population facing few avenues to regular employment at liveable wages, adequate shelter, basic social services and democratic freedoms.
Movements based in poor communities of cities must band together to draw strong anti-imperialist lines while generating solidarity in defense of these communities.
We resolve to undertake militant mass actions, reach out to other movements, hold educational events, and launch broad coordinated campaigns against repression, widespread homelessness, criminalization, surveillance and containment of urban poor communities. We shall fight for the people’s right to shelter, the right to remain, to decent work, liveable wages, social services and human rights.

19. Defense of the environment against imperialist plunder and overproduction as the main causes of ecological degradation, resource depletion, and climate crisis: Imperialism is causing massive ecological devastation and intensifying climate crisis. This has led more people to live in inhumane conditions while concentrating global wealth and resources to a small elite. In this light, we resolve to educate, unite, and mobilize the people in defense of the environment and against the causes of global ecological crisis. We shall struggle for a socialist society where humanity lives harmoniously with nature.

The central concerns of the ILPS represent the fundamental concerns of the peoples of the world. We must step up our efforts to arouse the peoples’ anger and desire to resist and fight for the peoples’ needs. The people united can and will change the world!

Down with imperialism and all reaction!
Advance the peoples’ struggle for democracy and national and social liberation for a bright socialist future!
Long live international solidarity!