Let us Enter the New Year with More Militant Struggles

Against Imperialism and All Reaction

 

Crispin Beltran

Chairperson

International League of Peoples' Struggle

1 January 2002

 

On behalf of the members and the International Coordinating Committee of the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS), I wish to extend to you my heartfelt and most militant greetings for the New Year, 2002.

 

Indeed, the year just past - 2001 - had brought dramatic changes to the peoples of the world and in the US, in general, and for all those mass organizations and their members striving to build a broad united front to oppose US imperialism, in particular.

 

On September 11, terrorists rammed two jetliners against the World Trade Center in New York that left around 3,000 dead and brought this symbol of US economic power to ground zero.  This was a reprehensible and unacceptable terrorist act against the civilian population which gained almost universal condemnation.  In its wake, the US unleashed a vengeful retaliatory war against the Taliban and the people of Afghanistan for "harboring" Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in masterminding the attacks. President George W. Bush then called on all states in the entire world to join its "international coalition against terrorism" to recover the world order that is now being shaken by the world recession and by anti-globalization and anti-US struggles.

 

In its home-front, US imperialism has instituted measures that curtail the basic democratic rights of American citizens.  George W. Bush's jingoistic outcries have incited racist attacks against Arab Americans, Muslims, South Asians, and other colored communities. Other reactionary governments have followed the beat of the US and are enacting draconian laws purportedly against terrorism but which can be used against anyone opposed to their oppressive and exploitative social and economic policies.

 

The crisis of overproduction brought about by fierce competition among monopoly capitalism in the US, Europe and Japan remains unabated .  It has resulted in the massive destruction of productive forces, wreaking havoc on the industries and agriculture especially of the underdeveloped countries, creating millions of jobless and plunging the entire world into worsening economic depression.  The three global centers of capitalism are facing deficits, market contraction, and inability of debtor countries to pay their debts.  

 

It was also in the year 2001 when we witnessed again the outrage of the people when they marched militantly and bravely faced the phalanxes of police and military during the meetings of imperialist-dominated multilateral formations, such as the EU Summit in Gothenburg, Sweden and the G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy.  In 1999, the world was stunned by the Battle of Seattle that saw the workers rising in opposition against the WTO, one of the main instruments for imperialist globalization.

 

In the midst of the turmoil and gloom brought about by the unprecedented economic crisis and the attempts of US-controlled formations (the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, the US-Japan Security Cooperation, etc.), including those imperialist-funded NGOs that masquerade as anti-globalization but are in fact peddling reforms, to derail or coopt the mass struggles against imperialist globalization, we saw the birth of the International League of Peoples' Struggle.

 

On May 25-27, 2001, leaders from 232 peoples' organizations from the different regions of the world gathered to create a broad mass formation with an anti-imperialist and democratic character.  It was a historic meeting, for it brought together peoples' organizations borne out of their own revolutionary and mass struggles for national independence, democracy, and socialism, for several years now. The League hopes to attract the broad range of mass formations, pro-people institutions, and  eminent personages that will launch anti-imperialist and democratic struggles.

 

Henceforth, millions of workers, peasants, fisherfolk urban poor, youth, women, lawyers, doctors, artists, migrants, human rights victims and advocates, religious, etc. will have a rallying point - the International League of Peoples' Struggle - against the economic power and policeman of the world that is US imperialism.

 

As we wage our respective mass struggles and as we form a united front against imperialism and reaction, let us tirelessly carry on with our daily tasks of arousing, organizing and mobilizing our basic sectors and their allies, immersing ourselves in their struggles, engaging in mass work, leading mass struggles and forming more alliances.  In this way, we shall be in a better position to wage more militant struggles, further build our strength, accumulate victories and deliver harder blows against imperialism and all reaction. #