International Coordinating Committee elects officers, directs International Coordinating Group to meet

Press Communiqué No. 2
20 Nov 2004

The newly-elected International Coordinating Committee (ICC) of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) held its first meeting in two sessions, the first in the evening of 13 November and the second in the morning of 14 November 2004.

In the first session, the ICC clarified its own functions and those of the International Coordinating Group (ICG), the officers and the general secretariat in accordance with the pertinent provisions of the ILPS charter and the organizational practice since 2001.

The ICC elected as its officers the following: Prof. Jose Maria Sison as chairperson, Manolis Arkolakis as deputy chairperson, Metin Atak as first deputy chairperson for internal affairs; Dr. Carol P. Araullo as deputy chairperson for external affairs; Arman Riazi as general secretary; Yasser Felistini as first deputy general secretary; Dr. Azra Sayeed as second deputy general secretary; Jan Beentjes as treasurer and Elmer Labog as auditor. They comprise the ICG.

In the second session, the ICC received a quantitative report on the Second International Assembly (SIA) from the assembly secretariat. The chairperson urged all the ICC members to submit preliminary assessments before they left the assembly site and to make their full assessments subsequently. The forthcoming ICG shall consolidate the various assessments.

The ICC made decisions on certain urgent matters:-

1. designation of the outgoing chairperson Crispin Beltran and deputy chairperson Memik Horus as honorary chairperson and honorary deputy chairperson, respectively;

2. letters of gratitude to the outgoing ICC members and staff;

3. issuance of press communiqués on the results of the Second International Assembly (SIA);

4. publication of the SIA documents in English on the website and in book form and the translation of these in major languages;

5. firming up the communication lines among the chairperson, general secretariat, ICC members and participating organizations; and

6. protests against the denial by the Dutch and other European governments of scores of visa applications from scores of Filipinos and other lawful travelers on mere suspicion of seeking to attend the SIA of ILPS.

The ICC decided that the ICG, specific officers and study commissions would recommend further definitions and clarifications of their respective functions. The chairperson declared that to perform well his function as chief representative and spokesperson of the ILPS he must be promptly provided with the drafts of press statements, position papers and studies from the pertinent national chapters, study commissions and participating organizations.

The chairperson urged all the ICC members to submit to the ICG proposals for immediate and three-year plans of campaigns and activities in accordance with the new tasks put forward by the SIA General Declaration. The ICG shall consolidate the proposals into plans. Some of the ICC members called for statements and actions on current issues and impending events, such as Iraq, Palestine, the inauguration of Bush and the WTO conference in Hongkong.

The ILPS will soon publish the General Declaration and other important documents of the Second International Assembly at http://www.ilps-news.com