Cuba: ILPS declaration at Anti-imperialist Conference of Solidarity

Dear colleagues.
To the heroic Cuban people.
To the Cuban Chapter of Social Movements.

On behalf of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), an anti-imperialist movement made up of more than 350 organizations from over 45 countries and territories on 5 continents; receive our combative and revolutionary greetings. Know that from all corners of the planet we recognize that the Cuban people, their revolution and current leader Miguel Díaz-Canel, worthy successor of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz and in the great Ernesto Guevara de la Serna “El Che”, are raising high the banner of the struggle against imperialism and fascism in the world.

We thank the comrades of the great Central Organization of Cuban Trade Unions (CTC) and the Cuban Chapter of Social Movements for inviting us to this Anti-imperialist Conference of Solidarity for Democracy and against Neoliberalism. We greet all the delegates from different countries of the world who have gathered here at the heart of the anti-imperialist struggle of Latin America and the Caribbean: to discuss the reality that our planet is going through today, to outline the tasks to allow to us to stop imperialism and fascism, to assume specific commitments of struggle and to strengthen the unity of all the workers and peoples of the world.

This important Conference is taking place in a particularly delicate context for humanity; all the costs of the international economic crisis unleashed 10 years ago are being paid by the working class and popular sectors all over the planet. The capitalist-imperialist system has not been able to recover, and will not be able to do so because its own nature prevents it, because the reason for very existence is to destroy its two main sources of wealth: human labour and nature.

Far from seeing an economic recovery on a world scale, today we are on the threshold of a new cycle of economic crisis involving the various imperialist powers which risks being deeper and more aggressive. All the forecasts point out that soon, very soon, the world will be plunged into one of its deepest cyclical crises in the entire history of capital.

And what are the solutions that exist in the face of this crisis?

On the one hand, the United States has treated Latin America and the Caribbean as its backyard for too long, exploiting people and plundering natural resources, fomenting coups d’etat and regime change operations for more than a century and a half. Now other rising imperialist powers are maneuvering to take its place. But Washington has no intention of easily renouncing the spoils, so the danger of war is increasing and sharpening the contradictions between the imperialist powers, especially the U.S. with China and Russia.

The profound economic, political, social and cultural crisis of the capitalist-imperialist system has also led to the rebirth of the most retrograde ideas, which are gradually gaining political strength in various parts of the world. Based on ultra-nationalist, xenophobic, macho, anti-diversity, anti-environmental positions. Over the past decade, fascist organizations and the most recalcitrant ultra-right have returned to political, economic and social life. In the case of our continent, with the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House and more recently with Jair Bolsonaro as head of state in Brazil, these forces are being promoted on a continental scale. Their mission is the bloodiest imposition of the fascist way out of the crisis of capitalism.

Fortunately, the proletariat has not stood idly by in the face of the danger of a new imperialist war, nor in the face of the rise of fascism. The working class and the peoples of the world have intensified the struggle in the streets. The growing number of general strikes, rebellions and street struggles in recent years is very encouraging. At the same time as the crisis deepens and the imperialist institutions seek to impose their neoliberal measures, the class struggle intensifies.

It is true that the balance of forces in the world is still maintained in favor of the financial oligarchy and the national bourgeoisies. But the struggle of the masses has achieved important victories. They are rejecting some of their measures dictated from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund aimed to control the situation and appease the spirit of struggle that is generalizing in various parts of the world. The great mobilizations against the war have momentarily stopped the aggression to the region around Rojavá and have managed to temporarily contain the attempt of military intervention by Yankee imperialism against the Venezuelan people.

In spite of these small victories, the imperialist roots of the danger of the plundering war and the rise of fascism remain intact; in the face of a new cyclical economic crisis, the world imperialist system will intensify its aggression against the peoples of the world. The domination of financial capital over the peoples of the world is the main cause of these calamities, and the only way to extirpate forever the danger of war and fascism in the world is the change of the capitalist-imperialist regime that today dominates our planet by governments of the working class and the peoples.

Therefore, today, it is indispensable that all the democratic, progressive and revolutionary forces of the whole world assume a serious and responsible commitment to strengthen unity, to unite as one force, to defend as one family all the peoples of the world that are being hit by imperialism and to build a great anti-imperialist and anti-fascist united front that will rise as a great fortress of the working class and the peoples of the world forming a great retaining wall into which the imperialists will crash and their attempts at imperialist war and fascism will be smashed to pieces.

The unity that we require today is no longer only to resist the imperialist offensive, it is necessary to prepare the working class and the peoples of the worl and, to develop a new offensive. The rise of the struggle of the exploited and oppressed masses in various corners of the world gives us sufficient elements to state that today before in the face of the imperialist threats of a new world war and the danger of the fascist plague, the world proletariat must pose the opening of a new era of proletarian revolutions. This is the only way for us to move from resistance to the offensive, to overcome this stage of always being victims of imperialist depredation, to rise up as a social class that can lead the destinies of humanity.

From this Conference, it is necessary to put into practice active and militant proletarian internationalism, for which it is indispensable that we show solidarity with the working class and the peoples of Ecuador, Chile and Haiti, who are fighting a heroic battle, against imperialist and neoliberal policies at this moment. We must actively and militantly support the Kurdish people, who fought heroically against the retrograde Islamic State, and now have resisted the invasion of Turkey in northern Syria. May our solidarity be added to the Catalan people, who have risen up against the oppression of the Spanish State for the right to self-determination. Special mention should be made of the broader solidarity that we must maintain with the Palestinian people, who for decades have maintained a long struggle against Israeli Zionism and US imperialism ¡Viva Palestina Libre!

The list of solidarity that we need to develop is very long, because this is how many aggressions the peoples of the world have been subjected to by imperialism; the peoples of Kashmir in India and West Papua are peoples that deserve our total support and solidarity; likewise, we request in this Conference demand that the massacre that the Duterte regime imposes on the Filipino people, including displacing indigenous communities and assassinating social leaders, be stopped,

Of course, we cannot fail in our historical responsibility to raise solidarity with the Cuban people throughout the world to the point of defeating the economic blockade imposed by Yankee imperialism, as well as the immediate end to the occupation of Guantanamo. We stand for the unrestricted defense of the national sovereignty of the Venezuelan people. We must demand that U.S. imperialism take its hands off Latin America and the Caribbean. We stand in solidarity with the struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico and against the border wall that Donald Trump is building on his border with Mexico. We likewise stand against the anti-immigrant policy of the White House, which has caused thousands of deaths of Latin Americans, mostly in Central America.

As the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, we have come to participate in this Conference which is already a great success in bringing together delegates from all over the world, to establish fraternal ties with all the organizations from the various social movements, and to offer our humble efforts to strengthen the struggle of our peoples.

Long live the Anti-imperialist Conference of Solidarity for Democracy and against Neoliberalism!
Long live Fidel, Long live Che!
Long live the Cuban Revolution!

Long live International Solidarity!

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF THE PEOPLES’ STRUGGLE (ILPS)

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator