Reclaim the Planet, Unite With the Peoples’ Struggle Against Imperialist Plunder and Militarism

Statement of the ILPS Commission on Environment and Climate Justice

On this People’s Earth Day, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) Commission on Environment and Climate Justice calls on all peoples to reclaim the planet from the grip of imperialist plunder and militarism. The global environmental crisis is not a natural disaster, but a direct consequence of the relentless drive for superprofits by monopoly capitalism and imperialist powers. The world’s richest countries and their mega-corporations – representing just a fraction of the global population – are responsible for the majority of historical emissions and the large-scale extraction, pollution, and destruction of ecosystems. Meanwhile, those in the frontlines –  Indigenous nations, peasants, workers, and the poor are left to bear the brunt of climate catastrophe, displacement, and hunger,

Imperialism’s assault reaches beyond land and minerals to the theft of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. For centuries, Indigenous peoples and peasants have been the true stewards of biodiversity—nurturing seeds, cultivating diverse crops, and preserving ecosystems through sustainable practices rooted in deep respect for the earth. Yet their wisdom and genetic resources are routinely stolen, patented, and commodified by Western corporations, who profit while the original custodians are left dispossessed and unrecognized. This modern biopiracy is a continuation of colonial plunder, undermining both cultural and biological diversity. Despite this, peasants and Indigenous peoples remain at the forefront of defending and fostering biodiversity. Their agroecological knowledge and traditional farming systems safeguard a vast array of plant and animal species, offering real solutions to the biodiversity and climate crises even as industrial agriculture and extractivism erode genetic diversity and destroy habitats.

Nowhere is the burden of imperialist climate destruction more visible than in the Pacific Islands. Pacific peoples are on the frontlines of rising sea levels, extreme weather, and the devastation of ocean ecosystems. They also face a new wave of “blue colonization,” as imperialist powers and corporations scramble to exploit deep-sea minerals and maritime resources under the guise of the “blue economy.” Yet Pacific Islanders, with their spiritual and cultural ties to land and sea, are resisting this new colonial assault—fighting for sovereignty, environmental protection, and the right to define their own future.

Imperialism’s insatiable appetite for resources fuels wars of aggression, military occupation, and fascist violence. From the genocide and ecocide in Palestine and West Papua, to the ravaging of forests and rivers in Burma, Togo, and the Congo, to the relentless expansion of U.S. military bases and NATO aggression, imperialist domination devastates ecosystems, uproots communities, and criminalizes resistance. The U.S. military alone is the world’s largest institutional polluter, emitting more greenhouse gases than over 140 countries and leaving a trail of toxic waste, deforestation, and destroyed livelihoods in its wake. These are not isolated crimes, but deliberate strategies to maintain imperialist control and suppress peoples’ struggles for self-determination and sovereignty.

Instead of addressing the crisis, imperialist powers and their corporations greenwash their destruction with false solutions—carbon markets, offsets, and “green” technologies that only deepen neocolonial control and dispossess Indigenous and rural communities. Climate summits are sponsored by weapons manufacturers and polluters, while the real culprits of climate collapse evade accountability and continue to profit from war, land grabs, and extractivism. Neoliberal “climate action” is used as a cover for new waves of land and resource theft, displacing rural peoples and undermining food sovereignty. The so-called “transition” to renewable energy has become another pretext for a new scramble for “critical minerals,” opening up resource-rich poor and developing countries to further plunder and violence, while the root causes of the crisis remain untouched.

But the people are not defeated. Across the world, grassroots movements are rising up—defending land and water, reclaiming forests, replanting what is destroyed, and building new systems rooted in justice, solidarity, and liberation. From Palestine’s Million Tree Campaign to West Papua’s struggle for independence, from the Karen people’s Indigenous conservation in Burma to the resistance against mining and land grabs in Africa and Latin America, the seeds of a new world are being sown by collective action and international solidarity.

As we have seen in the courageous resistance of Berta Cáceres and Nelson Garcia in Honduras, and in the growing movements of youth, Indigenous peoples, and workers worldwide, the fight for the environment is inseparable from the fight for liberation.

On this Earth Day, we call on all peoples’ movements to unite and intensify our fight against imperialist plunder and militarism. Let us reclaim the planet from imperialist destruction—our liberation and the survival of our planet are one and the same. There can be no climate justice without ending imperialism. The fight for the planet is the fight for the people.Down with imperialism!

Down with militarism!

Long live international solidarity!

End imperialist plunder and militarism! 

Pull out military troops from our communities! 

Hold polluters and war criminals accountable! 

Uphold the rights of Indigenous peoples and frontline communities! 

Advance genuine people’s solutions for climate and ecological justice!