The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS):

Groups from 40 countries tackle global crisis

in Fourth International Assembly

Part 3

 

Part 1    Part 2
 

Manila, Philippines

 

July 7-9, 2011

 

 

■    General Declaration of the ILPS issued by the 4th International Assembly

 

■    Communique of the ILPS Fourth International Assembly

 

■    Resolution in defense of the ILPS against sectarianism and sabotage

 

■    Building a bright future by Carol Araullo

 

 

 

Visit ILPS website  

 

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Photos courtesy of Ina Alleco Roldan Silverio and Raymund Villanueva
           
     

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I


 

International League of Peoples’ Struggle

Fourth International Assembly

 

Theme: “BUILD A BRIGHT FUTURE! MOBILIZE THE PEOPLE TO RESIST

EXPLOITATION AND OPPRESSION AMIDST THE PROTRACTED GLOBAL

DEPRESSION, STATE TERRORISM AND WARS OF AGGRESSION!’”

 

7-9July 2011

Philippines

 

  

General Program of Activities

 

 

7 July 2011

 

Plenary Session

 

Assembly and Opening Song (ILPS Hymn)

Official Opening and Welcome

Agenda of the Assembly

Rules of Participation in the Assembly

(includes rules for nominations & elections)

 

Coffee Break


 Political Report by the Chairperson

Organizational Report by the General Secretary

Report of the Treasurer

Report of the Auditor

Ratification of Amendments to the Charter

 

Lunch Break


 Plenary session: Discussion on the Reports

and on the further strengthening of the ILPS

 

Coffee Break and announcement of workshop venues

 

Workshops on Concerns Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17

Welcome and Introductions

 

Workshops on Concerns Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18

Welcome and Introductions

.

Dinner Break

 

 

8 July 2011

 

 

Workshop Sessions

 

(including coffee break)

 

Concerns Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17

1. Speeches of Resource Speakers

2. Discussions and Action Planning

3. Resolutions: One comprehensive and the others specific

 

Lunch Break

 

 

Workshop Sessions


 (including coffee break)

 

Concerns Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18

1. Speeches of Resource Speakers

2. Discussions and Action Planning

3. Resolutions: One comprehensive and the others specific

 

Workshop Reports of Study Commissions (1,3, 5,7,9,11,13,15,17)

(10 min per concern x 9)

 

Dinner Break

 

9July 2011

 

Plenary Session

Workshop Reports of Study Commissions (2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18)

 

Coffee Break

 

Plenary Session: Deliberation and Approval of the General Declaration

 

Lunch Break

 

Plenary Session: Presentation of the Nominees

for the International Coordinating Committee

 

Voting

 

 

Counting of Votes and Announcement of Election Results

 

Dinner Break

 

 

Solidarity Night: Cultural Evening

 

Presentation of Newly-Elected Members of the International Coordinating Committee

 

  

Please take note of the following schedules and activities:

 

1. The following shall be conducted for every incoming batch of delegates starting

at 14:00 hrs on 6 July 2011

Ø Reception & Registration

Ø Orientation and Accommodation

 

2. Meeting of the outgoing International Coordinating Committee

When: 6 July 2011 at 16:00 hrs

Where: Venue of the 4th IA

 

3. International Festival of People’s Rights and Struggle 5-6 July 2011. If you wish

to attend the Festival, inform us or contact the organizers directly by email:

Contact Person: Norma Binas

Email Address: ilps.ifps@gmail.com

 

4. ILPS Fourth International Assembly 7-9 July 2011

 

5. Meeting of the newly-elected members of the International Coordinating

Committee is on 10 July 2011 at 09:30 at the 4th IA Venue

 

6. Meeting of the Commissions

 
     
     
     
     
     
           

 

Communique of the ILPS Fourth International Assembly
Monday, 11 July 2011 19:00 ILPS International Coordinating Committee
Manila, Philippines
10 July 2011

The International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) successfully held its Fourth International Assembly (4th IA) from July 7 to 9, 2011 held in Manila, Philippines under the theme, “Build a Bright Future! Mobilize the People to Resist Exploitation and Oppression Amidst the Protracted Global Depression, State Terrorism and Wars of Aggression”!

The 4th International Assembly of the ILPS marks a milestone as it celebrates its ten years of existence. It was a resounding success.

The 4th IA was attended by more than 430 delegates and observers from 200 organizations in 43 countries, territories and autonomous regions namely Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong (SAR), India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Macau, Malaysia, Manipur, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Senegal, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, United States, Venezuela, West Papua and Zimbabwe.

The number of participants surpassed all previous records and is a shining testimony to the vitality of the League.

Len Cooper from Australia, Vice Chairperson of the ILPS, opened the 4th International Assembly by paying homage to ILPS founding Chairperson, Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran, a true internationalist.

The Assembly approved the Agenda and the Rules of Participation including the Rules for Nominations and Elections to guide the conduct of the whole proceedings.

Unable to personally attend the Assembly due to travel restrictions, Prof. Jose Ma. Sison, Chairperson of the ILPS based in The Netherlands, participated via Skype. He presented the Report of the Chairperson in which he laid out the most significant political and organizational achievements of the League in the last ten years since its founding in 2001.

He discussed the major aspects and trends regarding the current global crisis of the capitalist system, the intensifying exploitation and oppression on the people by imperialism and reaction, and the growing resistance of the people.

He then proposed to the Assembly the important tasks in Political Education, Organization and Mobilization. Among the tasks the Chairperson lined-up for the League are: to conduct study meetings, seminars and conferences on major issues; to expand ILPS in the global regions of Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, South Asia and Eastern Europe; and to seek the cooperation of national liberation movements, campaign centers, organizations, institutions and alliances for the purpose of mass mobilizations and building the broadest united front against imperialism and all forms of reaction.

He said that the broad masses of the people are struggling resolutely and militantly and moving in the direction of building a fundamentally new and better world.

Malcolm Guy, General Secretary of the ILPS, delivered the report of the work of the general secretariat by highlighting the growth of the League with the formation of new chapters in Canada and Hong Kong and Macau. These new chapters join the chapters in the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia. He also cited the advantage of having a regional coordinating committee such as that in East Asia and Oceania, which was established in 2005, and recommended the setting up of a regional coordinating committee in North America.

He said however that this growth is a good start but stressed the need to expand even more boldly and widen the anti-imperialist united front into a truly global force capable of organizing against imperialism on all fronts. Towards this end, the General Secretary called for the consolidation and strengthening of the League by doubling its forces within the next three years, paying particular attention to Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, and the establishment of more ILPS chapters worldwide.

He also emphasized the need to strengthen the staff of the General Secretariat based in Utrecht, The Netherlands and the development of regional secretariats. Finally, he reminded the members of the League about their financial obligations.

Theo Droog, the ILPS Treasurer, gave his report on the finances of the League. Membership dues have been the primary source of income for the operations of the central organs of the League. The League's expenses were kept at the minimum and at the barest of necessities such as running the offices of the chairperson and the general secretary.

He pointed to the problems related to collecting the membership dues. One problem is how to more efficiently collect the dues and send them to the treasurer for safekeeping. Another is some member organizations from underdeveloped countries find the dues too high which discourages them from paying regularly. The treasurer therefore proposed to have some way of setting the amount to be paid according to the varying financial capability of the member organizations.

ILPS Auditor Chito Quijano of Bayan USA said that he was attesting to the accuracy and integrity of the treasurer’s report after reviewing it. He pointed to the fact that the activities organized and carried out by various organs and sections of the League were mainly self-financed. Various tasks have been accomplished through countless hours spent by volunteer workers and staff.

Workshops on the different concerns of the League were successfully held. They passed important resolutions and approved major campaigns on their respective areas of concern. The results of the workshops were presented in the plenary and these were enthusiastically received and approved by acclamation.
 

The Assembly discussed and approved the General Declaration of the 4th International Assembly. It contains the analysis of the continuing crisis of the world capitalist system and the rising resistance of the world’s peoples. The portion from the Report of the Chairperson on the new and constant tasks of the League was incorporated into the General Declaration.

The Assembly passed a resolution to defend the integrity and unity of the ILPS against the attacks and sabotage by a group of sectarians and as a means to remove an obstacle to the healthy expansion and consolidation of the League. The large number of participants was a clear repudiation of the call of the sectarians to boycott the Assembly.

 

As in previous assemblies, the major documents from the 4th International Assembly such as the Report of the Chairperson, the Report of the General Secretary, the ILPS Charter as amended, the General Declaration and the resolutions resulting from the workshops on the various Concerns and other special resolutions approved by the assembly would be published as a book.
 

The election of the new members of the International Coordinating Committee was held and the following were elected as regular members of the ICC: Ario Adityo (Indonesia), Cho Akira (Japan), Carol Araullo (Philippines), Binda Man Bista (Nepal), Ramon Bultron (Hong Kong), Fatima Burnad (India), Poguri Chennaiah (India), Len Cooper (Australia), Rudi Hartono Daman (Indonesia), Demba Moussa Dembele (Senegal), Bill Doares (United States of America), Theo Droog (Netherlands), Luis Dutan (Ecuador), Malcolm Guy (Canada), Kuusela Hilo (United States of America), Wahu Kaara (Kenya), Mustafa Kilinc (Germany), Elmer Labog (Philippines), Florentino Lopez Martinez (Mexico), Lyn Meza (United States of America), Peter Murphy (Australia), Nikos Noulas (Greece), Jose Ma. Sison (Netherlands), Antonio Tujan (Philippines), Nestor Villatoro (Guatemala), Jang Chang Weon (South Korea) and Daphna Whitmore (New Zealand).

And the following as alternate members: Rey Casambre (Philippines), May Kotsakis (Australia), Dennis Maga (New Zealand), Liza Maza (Philippines), Malem Ningthouja (Manipur), Rafael Mariano (Philippines), Steve da Silva (Canada) and Barbara Waldern (South Korea).

The 4th International Assembly was concluded and a Solidarity Cultural Night was held to celebrate the achievements of the League with the participants expressing their continuing commitment to the struggle through song, dance and poetry.

Revitalized and energized by the resounding success of the 4th International Assembly, the delegates were one in affirming their commitment to raise higher their political will and capabilities in facing up to the challenges and in effectively advancing the work of the League in every arena of the anti-imperialist and democratic struggle of the world’s peoples.

 

 

Communique of the First Meeting of the newly-elected International Coordinating Committee
Monday, 11 July 2011 20:23 ILPS International Coordinating Committee
Manila, Philippines
10 July 2011
Prof. Jose Maria Sison, the outgoing Chairperson of the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) opened the meeting and then asked the Vice Chairperson Len Cooper to preside over the meeting.

The ICC elected its officers to comprise the International Coordinating Group. They are as follows:

Prof. Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson; Len Cooper, Vice Chairperson; Carol Araullo, Vice Chairperson for Internal Affairs; Bill Doares, Vice Chairperson for External Affairs; Malcolm Guy, General Secretary; Wahu Kaara, First Deputy General Secretary; Antonio Tujan, Second Deputy General Secretary; Theo Droog, Treasurer; and Lyn Meza, Auditor.

The ICC examined, amended and approved the draft Communiqué on the Fourth International Assembly by way of summing up the assembly from July 7 to July 9. The ICC was unanimous in describing the assembly as historically significant and resoundingly successful.

Subsequently, the ICC members took turns in assessing the political, technical and financial aspects of the assembly. The ICC members cited the large number of delegates and countries represented that surpassed all previous records as a shining testimony of the vitality of the League and a clear repudiation of the call by the sectarian disrupters who called for a boycott of the assembly

 

 

The ICC members were one in commending the Host Country Committee for a job well done. The ICC was informed by the head of the Host Country Committee that not only were the expenses for the assembly well covered by the registration fees but a surplus was acquired that can then be added to the ILPS central fund

 

The ICC approved the publication of the proceedings of the Fourth International Assembly, including the program of the assembly, reports of the outgoing officers, the reports of the commissions, the regular and special resolutions, the General Declaration, and the lists of the outgoing and incoming International Coordinating Committee, the International Coordinating Group, the commissions, the communiqués on the assembly and first ICC meeting, and the list of delegates, their organizations and countries.

The ICC discussed how to improve communications among members and how to use the ilps.info website for internal and external communications. The ICC also decided to take steps to stop the further operations of the website usurping the name of the ILPS.

The ICC discussed briefly the need for intensifying campaigns, expanding alliances and cooperation and raising resources for the purpose. It was pointed out that the ICC can pass to the ICG the task of planning the collection of membership dues and resources.

The ICC decided that its next meeting would be in the first quarter of 2012 in The Netherlands.

 

REPORTS OF THE VARIOUS COMMISSIONS

 

■  International alliance of people's organizations calls for protection of the rights of migrants and refugees

■  Arts and media unite with ILPS Conference
 

■  Teachers up against education cuts, unemployment and low pay

■  Indigenous peoples suffer under global plunder

■  International gathering tackles effects of world crisis and wars on children

■  Youth, students and young workers demand a bright future – humanity's future deserves one

■  Women of the world at the forefront of peoples’ struggles

■  Global landgrabbing pushes peasantry’s defense of land

 

 

 

 
           
     
     
     

Streetwise
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo

Building a bright future

Four hundred thirty participants from two hundred organizations and forty three countries, territories and autonomous regions from all continents packed the plenary hall of the 4th International Assembly of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS) held in Manila last week.

They came from far and wide responding to the clarion call of the League: “Build a bright future! Mobilize the people to resist exploitation and oppression amidst the protracted global depression, state terrorism and wars of aggression!”

Remarkably, a diverse crowd gathered under one roof -- trade unionists and migrant workers; peasants and farm workers; indigenous peoples; youth and students; health workers and professionals, teachers, lawyers and other professionals; human rights defenders; researchers and development workers; scientists and technologists; artists and media practitioners; environmentalists; and advocates of the rights of women, gays, lesbians and bisexuals as well as children and the elderly. Most were seasoned activists in their fields or advocacies, in their own countries and internationally.

The ILPS 4th International Assembly was by far the biggest, broadest and most energetic international conference of social activists here in the Philippines in recent history, calling to mind the spectacular people's caravan from Manila to Subic that capped the People's Conference against Imperialist Globalization in 1996.

They were all motivated by the desire to gain a broader, deeper and common understanding of the causes of the protracted global economic crisis and the widespread political disorder involving wars and other armed conflicts together with peoples’ mass protests and uprisings. And they were bound by the conviction that such an understanding was imperative in order to effectively deal with these scourges and build a new world without war and plunder.

The participants committed themselves to working for immediate as well as fundamental changes in the world by raising people’s awareness, organizing and mobilizing them – especially the exploited and downtrodden – for national liberation, genuine democracy and social emancipation.

The failed promises, distortions and outright lies of neoliberal “globalization”, the touted “new world order” and the US-led “war on terror” were dissected and laid bare.
The incalculable misery, hardships, death and devastation to peoples, social and physical infrastructure and the environment wrought under these imperialist-constructed signboards were exposed and denounced.

The General Declaration of the Assembly minced no words in identifying the worsening global crisis as that of the world capitalist system and in welcoming the rising resistance of the world’s peoples to the “harsh consequences of the crisis and government measures that make them shoulder the burden of the crisis”.

It underscored the fact that the financial meltdown that started in 2008 has become a full-blown global depression with still no end in sight despite optimistic pronouncements of the G8 countries.

The toiling peoples of the world, whether in the advanced capitalist countries or in the poor and underdeveloped Third World, “create society’s wealth (but) suffer the most from unemployment and underemployment, lower income and rising prices of basic commodities and services” made worse by the downturn.
 

 

The so-called solutions to the crisis have not resulted in any real economic recovery with production and employment continuing to stagnate and even further decline as governments persist in pursuing neoliberal policies such as privatization, deregulation and liberalization that undergird the crisis in the first place.

The unprecedented trillion-dollar bail-outs by Western governments of the “too-big-to-fail” banks and corporations have served merely to improve balance sheets, revive the stock markets and pay for the golden parachutes of their overpaid executives.

In the process, these governments are incurring huge budget deficits and public debt because of tax cuts for the wealthy, subsidies for favored monopoly firms, overpriced contracts and bailouts for the big bourgeoisie on top of which are the bloated expenditures for military production and wars of aggression and intervention.

 

Once more, it is the people who must pay the price through harsh austerity measures pushed by governments and the ruling elites that include attacks on wages, job security, and conditions of work in the private sector and cutbacks on jobs, wages, pensions and health care in the public sector together with spiraling costs of living all around.

But as the Assembly Declaration pointed out it is still the poor peoples in the third world who suffer the most from the ravages of global capitalism in crisis. Untrammeled speculation in oil and food has caused prices to skyrocket pushing millions into destitution. Transnational corporations are taking over vast tracts of land, forests and marine resources, violently dispossessing peasants, farm workers, fisherfolk, and other rural communities from their means of livelihood throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

For the past ten years, the ILPS has steadily gained the capacity to launch globally coordinated campaigns and mass actions led by its member organizations in several countries on a wide range of people’s issues.

Among them are the wars of aggression and counterrevolution under the guise of counterterrorism, the neoliberal policies of globalization being pushed by the WTO and other international agencies, environmental plunder, the exploitation and oppression of the peoples, the extrajudicial killings and other gross human rights violations against progressives, the chauvinist, racial, gender, religious and other forms of discrimination and the anti-labor, anti-immigrant and anti-youth policies in imperialist countries and many others.

Unlike many conferences where the energy of the participants wanes from day to day of listening to speeches, the energy of the participants at the ILPS 4th IA was not only sustained but visibly rose to a high point towards the close. Everyone was happy with the process and outcome, each one was prepared and eager to carry out the tasks of the ILPS which had been clearly defined and united on

Doubtless, the ILPS is in an even better position now to serve, as it had been conceived to, as a rallying center for anti-imperialist and democratic forces all over the world as they struggle to uphold people's rights, interests and welfare.

According to newly-elected ILPS Chairperson, Jose Maria Sison, “The people have a bright future because they wage revolutionary struggles and build their strength against those forces that oppress and exploit them…The broad masses of the people are moving in the direction of a fundamentally new and better world.” #

Published in Business World
15-16 July 2011
     

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MEMORANDUM

 

TO: THE INTERNATIONAL COORDINATING COMMITEE, COMMISSIONS,

COMMITTEES AND MEMBER-ORGANIZATIONS

 

FROM: THE INTERNATIONAL COORDINATING GROUP

 

SUBJECT: INITIAL DRAFT INTRODUCTION TO THE GENERAL DECLARATION

DATE:  15 MAY 2011

 

We are herewith sending to you the Initial Draft Introduction to the General

Declaration of the 4th International Assembly of the ILPS. To what shall be the final

version of the Introduction shall be added the main resolutions of the various

commissions which shall become the main body of the General Declaration.

 

We urge all of you to examine this Initial Draft and do your best to edit and improve it.

We advise you to keep the length of the introduction within 2 to 3 A-4 pages single

spaced. Please send to us your track-edited copy not later than 7 June 2011.

 

Thank you.

 

For the International Coordinating Group

 

Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Chairperson

 

Text Box:  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Initial Draft Introduction to the General Declaration

of the 4th International Assembly of ILPS

 

Build a bright future! Mobilize the people to resist exploitation and

oppression amidst the protracted global depression, state terrorism and

wars of aggression!

 

The global capitalist crisis continues to worsen and the broad masses of

the people are rising up to resist the harsh consequences of the crisis and

government measures that make them pay for the crisis.

 

The protracted crisis exposes the bankruptcy and rottenness of the entire

world capitalist system. It likewise points to the necessity for the world’s

peoples to intensify their struggles to build a new and better world.

 

1. The Global Crisis Persists

 

The economic and financial crisis that started in 2008 has persisted and

has become a global depression. That is because the imperialist states

continue to stick to the bankrupt policy of neoliberal globalization.

 

In spite of the crisis, the monopoly bourgeoisie have continued to reap

profits by reducing the incomes and social benefits of the working people

and by engaging in a myriad of speculative financial activities.

 

Public money has been used to bail out the big banks and corporations,

improve their balance sheets and revive the stock market. But there has

been no real economic recovery and the general trend is for production

and employment to stagnate and decline. The working people suffer the

most from unemployment, lower income and rising prices of basic

commodities and services.

 

Governments are incurring huge budget deficits and public debt because

of tax cuts for the wealthy, subsidies for favoured monopoly firms,

overpriced contracts and bailouts for the big bourgeoisie. Expenditures

for military production and for military intervention and aggression have

also contributed to the mounting deficits and public debt.

 

But the public sector employees and the rest of the working people are

blamed for the so-called wage inflation and the soaring public deficits to

justify the adoption of austerity measures that further put the burden of

the crisis unto the backs of the working people.

 

The ever worsening crisis of the world capitalist system is driving the

imperialist powers headed by the US to increase military production and

launch wars of aggression. The US and its NATO allies have no qualms in

brushing aside international conventions in launching wars of aggression

such as those against Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. In such

wars of aggression, they commit the most heinous war crimes and crimes

against humanity.

 

The imperialists are united against the oppressed peoples and nations

and countries that assert national independence. But they become

increasingly entangled in contradictions as they fight for a redivision of

the world. Wary of the US for monopolizing the spoils of war, certain

countries that have previously collaborated with the US in wars of

aggression are seeking to form other alliances such as the Shanghai

Cooperation Organization to pursue their own self-serving agenda.

 

2. The People Rise UP in Resistance

 

In the imperialist countries, there is widespread social unrest because of

the high rate of unemployment, the erosion of hard-won social benefits,

the curtailment of trade union and other democratic rights and the harsh

austerity measures that punish the working people the most. Workers,

youth and students, women, migrants and other sectors of society are

joining mass protests and general strikes.

 

On the other hand, the monopoly bourgeoisie has been shrewdly using the

mass media, the political parties and the schools in propagating anti-

communist ideas and prejudices and stirring up chauvinism, anti-migrant

sentiment, racism, religious bigotry, war hysteria and fascism to divide

and deceive the people and cover up the real roots of the crisis in the

world capitalist system.

 

However, the crisis conditions persist and provide the opportunities for

the people to develop and strengthen the mass movement for

fundamental social change.

 

In the underdeveloped countries, the people are carrying out and

intensifying various forms of struggle against the imperialists and the

local reactionary forces. They are waging armed resistance against

imperialist aggression and occupation as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan

and Palestine. There are also the armed struggles against the reactionary

ruling systems in India, the Philippines, Colombia, Peru, Turkey and

elsewhere.


The people who wage armed revolutions for new democracy and wars of

national liberation have the best chance of seizing political power and

establishing a state with an anti-imperialist and democratic character.

 

The legal mass movements and unarmed mass uprisings that have

recently shaken the pro-US repressive regimes in North Africa and the

Middle East cannot by themselves change the reactionary ruling system

even if they succeed in overthrowing autocrats or authoritarian regimes.

But they create the conditions for proletarian parties and progressive

mass movements to strengthen and develop the factors for revolutionary

transformation.

 

The persistence of the crisis of imperialism and the growing

contradictions among the imperialist countries opens the possibility for

the general weakening of imperialist control over the underdeveloped

countries. It can give more room for underdeveloped countries to assert

national independence and pave the way for anti-imperialist and

democratic mass movements to advance.

 

The conditions are ever becoming more favourable for the peoples of the

world to take matters into their own hands and build a world free from

imperialist exploitation, oppression and wars--a world of freedom,

prosperity and peace. ###

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
           
     
     
     

General Declaration of the ILPS issued by the 4th International Assembly

 

Friday, 15 July 2011 22:18

 

Build a bright future! Mobilize the people to resist exploitation and oppression amidst the protracted global depression, state terrorism and wars of aggression!

 

The global capitalist crisis continues to worsen and the broad masses of the people are rising up to resist the harsh consequences of the crisis and government measures that make them shoulder the burden of the crisis.

The protracted crisis exposes the bankruptcy and rottenness of the entire world capitalist system. It likewise points to the necessity for the world’s peoples to intensify their struggles against imperialism and local reaction and to build a new and better world.

The global crisis persists

 

The economic and financial crisis that started in 2008 has persisted and has become a global depression. The immediate cause of the crisis has been the runaway and unregulated indulgence by the monopoly bourgeoisie in financial speculation. But the underlying cause is the crisis of overproduction due to the inherent contradiction in capitalism between the high degree of socialization of production on the one hand and private appropriation of the social product on the other.

 

READ MORE...

 

Resolution in defense of the ILPS against sectarianism and sabotage

 

Friday, 15 July 2011 06:08

 

 

 

 

Presented by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC)
to the 4th International Assembly of the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) and approved unanimously on 09 July 2011

 

The 11 ICC members and 1 alternate member (see Annex for names) whose term of office ended upon the election of the new ICC today and who previously constituted an ultra-Left and sectarian group within the ILPS have engaged in propaganda and related acts extremely hostile not only to the ICC and the Chairperson but to the entire ILPS. This resolution is meant to defend the integrity and unity of ILPS against the attacks of these sectarian elements.

 

By their articles dated 26-06-11, 27-06-11 and 02-07-11, they have publicly and maliciously attacked the decisions of the ICC and the ILPS Chairperson far beyond the confines of the ILPS and have declared their boycott of the ICC meeting on July 6, 2011 and from the sovereign Fourth International Assembly of the ILPS and called on ILPS member-organizations to withdraw from the activities of the ILPS. They have engaged in a patent act of sabotage while hypocritically paying lip service to the ILPS.

The hostile actions of this minority group that has recently attacked and withdrawn from the ICC and ILPS are merely the culmination of a series of acts inimical to the efforts of building the ILPS as a broad anti-imperialist and democratic alliance.

 

READ MORE...

 

 
     

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CHARTER

OF THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF PEOPLES’ STRUGGLE

 

Preamble

 

We, the undersigned representatives of organizations, hereby proclaim the formation of the

International League of Peoples’ Struggle (hereinafter referred to as League) and the

promulgation of the charter as herein defined.

 

The League is an anti-imperialist and democratic formation. It shall promote, support and

develop the anti-imperialist and democratic struggles of the peoples of the world, including the

workers, peasants,

women, youth, professionals and other sectors of society against the ideological, political,

military, economic, social and cultural domination and attacks of imperialism and reaction.

 

It shall have a broad mass character, shall not be subordinate to any political party, government

or religious authorities and shall afford equality to all member organizations. It shall strive to

realize the unity, cooperation and coordination of anti-imperialist and democratic struggles

throughout the world.

 

The League shall expose and oppose the oppressive and exploitative policies and acts of the

imperialist and puppet states, the multinational companies and imperialist-dominated

international agencies, such as the IMF, World Bank and WTO, and the military alliances such

as the NATO and the US-Japan Security Council.

 

The League shall stand and fight for the following:

 

1. The cause of national liberation, democracy and social liberation against imperialism and all

reaction;

2. Socio-economic development for oppressed and exploited countries and nations and social

equity for all working people;

3. Human rights in the civil, political, economic, social and cultural fields against state violence,

national oppression, class exploitation and oppression, gender oppression, fascism, castism,

racism and religious bigotry;

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;

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;

6. Agrarian reform and rights of peasants, farm workers and fisherfolk against feudal, semifeudal

and capitalist exploitation and oppression;

7. The cause of women’s liberation and rights against all forms of sexual discrimination,

exploitation and violence;

8. Rights of the youth to education and employment;

1

9. Children’s rights against child labor, sexual abuse and other forms of exploitation;

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;

11. The rights of teachers, researchers and other educational personnel and struggle against ideas

and researches directed against the people;

12. The right of the people to health and the rights of health workers;

13. Science and technology for the people and development, environmental protection against

plunder and pollution and the destruction of the foundations of human life, the right to safe and

healthy food and water and opposition to manipulation of genetic technology for imperialist

profit;

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;

15. 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.

16. Rights and welfare of homeless persons, refugees and migrant workers displaced by

imperialism and local reactionaries;

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

18. Rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people against discrimination,

intolerance and homophobia.

 

Article I. Aims and Purposes

 

Section 1. The aims and purposes of the League shall include the following:

 

1.1 To promote a common understanding of those concerns and issues as enumerated in the

preamble,

1.2 To stimulate, facilitate and coordinate common lines of action and undertake definite actions

on the aforesaid concerns and issues,

1.3 To cooperate with all possible organizations, institutions and personages in the attainment of

the aims and purposes of the League, and

1.4 To raise such resources as to enable the League to realize its aims and purposes and perform

its functions.

 

Section 2. The activities of the League shall include the following: advocacy, research,

publications, conferences, seminars and social and political action.

 

Article II. Member Organizations

 

Section 1. Any organization or formation of a mass character which agrees with the Charter of

the League may apply or may be invited to become a member organization of the League.

 

Section 2. The application shall be evaluated and acted upon by the national chapter as soon as

possible after such application is submitted. In cases where the national chapter does not exist,

the International

Coordinating Group shall receive and act on the application for membership, subject to approval

of the International Coordinating Committee.

 

Section 3. All member organizations shall assume responsibilities in accordance with the

resolutions and decisions of the International Assembly.

 

Section 4. All member organizations shall have equal basic rights and duties.

 

Section 5. A member organization may cease to be such by resignation, self-dissolution or by

expulsion for serious violation of this Charter, resolutions or decisions of the International

Assembly. A member organization may be dropped from the rolls by the national chapter or the

International Coordinating Committee for prolonged passivity or non-participation in the

activities of the League and failure

to perform its duties and responsibilities in the League.

 

Section 6. All member organizations shall maintain their independence and initiative and shall

accordingly have equal basic rights and duties.

 

Article III. International Assembly

 

Section 1. The International Assembly of the League shall be convened once every three years,

unless there are unavoidable circumstances or reasons accepted by the majority of member

organizations for convening it earlier or later. The International Coordinating Committee shall

decide the number of delegates and the criteria and methods for the selection and apportionment

of delegates in the next International Assembly.

 

Section 2. The International Assembly shall be the highest decision-making organ of the League.

It shall review the implementation of the resolutions and decisions of the previous assembly and

the performance of the outgoing International Coordinating Committee. It shall deliberate on

issues of international significance and make pertinent resolutions. It shall elect the members and

alternate members of the International Coordinating Committee after deciding their number.

 

Section 3. Issues shall be decided by simple majority vote, except on issues of amending the

statutes of the League. The International Assembly shall give full play to the efforts of the

member organizations most affected by an issue to resolve their differences, if any. Whenever

consensus is not possible, voting shall be done to resolve an issue within the time allocation of

the assembly.

 

Section 4. The International Coordinating Committee or one-third of the member organizations

of the League may convene a special assembly whenever necessary, provided that due notice is

given at least one month in advance. The decisions of such assembly shall be subject to

ratification by the next regular assembly.

 

Article IV. The International Coordinating Committee

 

Section 1. The International Coordinating Committee shall be the highest decision-making organ

of the League between international assemblies. It shall abide by the spirit and letter of the

resolutions and decisions of the International Assembly. It shall meet at least once a year.

 

Section 2. The International Coordinating Committee shall decide the theme and program of the

International Assembly and shall ensure that the resolutions and decisions of the International

Assembly are pursued and implemented and shall report and make recommendations to the

International Assembly.

 

Section 3. The International Coordinating Committee shall elect its own officers, a Chairperson,

a Vice Chairperson and as many Vice Chairpersons as may be needed according to specified

functions and geographic distribution, a General Secretary, a Deputy General Secretary,

Treasurer and Auditor. They shall constitute the International Coordinating Group, which shall

be the highest decision-making organ between meetings of the International Coordinating

Committee and shall guide the General Secretariat in accordance with the prior decisions of the

International Coordinating Committee.

 

Section 4. The chairperson shall be the chief representative and spokesperson of the League and

shall be strictly bound by the resolutions and decisions of the International Assembly and the

International Coordinating Committee.

 

Section 5. The International Coordinating Committee shall facilitate the exchange of

information, meetings, cooperation and common actions among the member organizations of the

League. It shall give

full play to the efforts of the member organizations to maintain their solidarity and broad

character in accordance with the Charter of the League and resolutions and decisions of the

International Assembly.

 

Section 6. The International Coordinating Committee shall not administer or govern all or any of

the member organizations of the League and shall have no authority whatsoever to decide on

issues internal to any member organization as well as on issues of controversy outside of the

League among several member organizations.

 

Section 7. Subject to the approval of the International Assembly, the International Coordinating

Committee shall create commissions, each responsible for a major concern of the League, and

define their tasks and guide and supervise their work. Among the tasks of these commissions

shall be the drafting of resolutions for the International Assembly and other documents for the

timely information and guidance of the member organizations, holding of conferences or

seminars on the various concerns, and carrying out campaigns on concrete issues related to the

major concerns of the League.

 

Section 8. The member organization may for any reason replace its representative who sits as a

member of the International Coordinating Committee.

 

Section 9. A certain number of candidates to the International Coordinating Committee (ICC)

who gets the highest number of votes below those of the candidates elected to the ICC shall be

deemed elected as alternate members of the ICC. They may attend ICC meetings and perform

tasks for the ICC but may not vote. An alternate member shall be elevated to the ICC in case an

ICC member is incapacitated and is not replaced by his or her organization.

 

Article V. The General Secretariat

 

Section 1. The International Coordinating Committee shall form and direct the General

Secretariat on the basis of recommendations of the General Secretary. The General Secretariat

shall consist of the General Secretary and as many deputies as may be appointed by the

International Coordinating Committee to undertake administrative functions.

 

Section 2. The General Secretariat shall be responsible for the daily administration and

implementation of all other functions as may be assigned by the International Coordinating

Committee and shall report and make recommendations to the International Coordinating

Committee. Between meetings of the International Coordinating Committee, the International

Coordinating Group shall guide and supervise the General Secretariat.

 

Article VI. National Chapters

 

Section 1. The International Coordinating Committee shall define and issue the general

guidelines for the formation of the national chapters of the League, as country coordinating

centre and broad alliance of member organizations. The International Coordinating Group shall

process every proposal for the formation of a national chapter of the League, subject to the

approval of the International Coordinating Committee.

 

Section 2. The national chapter shall serve as country coordinating center and broad alliance of

member organizations based in the country.

 

Section 3. Every national chapter shall elect its officers in a national assembly of representatives

of member organizations. The national chapter shall determine its own organizational structure.

 

Section 4. The national chapter shall receive and act on applications for membership in the

League. In this connection, it shall promote the broad alliance of member organizations in

accordance with the aims and purposes of the League.

 

Section 5. The national chapters shall have equal basic rights and duties in the League. Each

national chapter shall have independence and initiative in promoting and contributing to the

advance and realization of the aims and purposes of the League.

 

Section 6. In the event no national chapter exists in any country, the International Coordinating

Committee shall receive and act on applications for membership in the League.

 

VII. Global Region Committees

 

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▼  Election of new set of officers  ▼
     
     
           
▼ SOLIDARITY NIGHT ▼
     

 

COMMISSION 6: Agrarian Reform & Rights of Peasants, Farmworkers & Fisherfolks
As poverty and hunger rise across the world, so does the tide of resistance.

The displacement of peasants is pushing more rural population to resist and struggle for their rights to land. But the battles are not only fought locally as organized peasantry link arms across the world.

International advocacy groups are protesting the acquisition of large chunks of land in developing countries by foreign governments and agribusiness companies for the production of staple grains. A World Bank report reveals that, in 2009, up to 111 million acres of agricultural lands were acquired by global investors, 75 percent of which are in Africa. Governments are buying farmlands in Africa and even in the Philippines to ensure their local food supply.

Many land acquisitions were, however, not for food production, but for planting feedstock or for bio-fuel. This has resulted in the displacement and worsened exploitation of farmers globally.

The plight of peasants

In San Mariano, Isabela province, an international team led by the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines) exposed the worsening condition of farmers in the biggest bio-fuel project in the country.

The farmers used to grow rice, corn and vegetables, but now they cannot eat the produce of the land. Their farms form part of the 11,000 hectares of agricultural lands and forest cover that were included in the bio-ethanol project of the Philippine government.

The farmers were attracted to rent their land to the Japanese-owned Green Futures Innovations Inc. (GFI) which promised Php 20,000 a year, but paid only Php 5,000. The farmers became wage labourers of the corporation, which exposed them to exploitation through low wages and health hazards. Labourers are paid only Php 15 to Php 30 a day to weed and spray and Php 100 to harvest the sugarcane. This is a far cry from the Php 230 minimum daily wage for plantation workers in the region.

The company does not provide any protective gear subjecting farm workers to toxic chemicals. Their farms and water system also suffer environmental damage.

The project also pushed the foreclosure and eviction of farmers from their land, many of whom are beneficiaries of the government’s agrarian reform program and were awarded certificates of land ownership award. Syndicates scam many farmers by pretending to facilitate the release of their land titles for free, but actually transferred the documents in their name.

As a growing number of the laborers join the opposition to the project, soldiers came and encamped in the communities.

The international team appealed to the Philippine government agencies as well as the senate, to look into the plight of the farmers, and withdraw the national government’s support to the GFI.

Food or bio-fuel?

The pressure to increase food production grows as 219,000 people are born all over the world every day. The United Nations World Food Programme reported in 2009 that there are 1 billion hungry people, or one-sixth of the world population. The trend among transnational companies, however, is to expand plantations, not to grow food, but for fuel.

In the U.S., almost half of its grain production in 2009, or 119 million tons out of 416 million tons, went to ethanol distilleries. Such amount of grain could have fed 350 million people for a year.

In Europe, where there is a huge demand for bio-diesel, croplands are being converted into plantations of rapeseed and palm oil for auto fuel. Companies have turned to other countries, such as in Indonesia, producer of half of the world’s palm oil supply and where even the forest cover and indigenous peoples’ lands were destroyed for its production. The Indonesian government declared a two-year moratorium on granting new concessions to companies to protect its remaining rainforests.

The moratorium pushed companies to look towards Africa. Sime Darby, the world’s biggest company in palm oil production, has leased 220,000 has. of land in Liberia, and is targeting 300,00 has. for palm oil plantations in Cameroon. The Food First institute for Food and Development Policy reported that in Ghana, one million hectares of farms planted to sorghum and maize were converted to the production of jatropha and palm oil.

Environmentalists and peasant federations have warned that the widespread production for bio-fuel has detrimental impact on food security, soil productivity and water systems. Brazilian development specialist and lawyer Camila Moreno said that monocropping and the chemical dependence of bio-fuel production caused devastating effects in her country. It also triggered massive land grabbing and violation of the rights of peasants and indigenous peoples.

There are 7.2 million hectares of lands in Brazil devoted to jatropha in the past 25 years. Moreno said that Brazil now imports much of its food crops, including patented seeds. The people’s food habits also changed, turning more to fast food, junk food and other cheap but unhealthy food items.

International peasant solidarity

In the face of global land grabbing and other violation of their rights, organized peasants comprise a bulk of the poor masses protesting rising food prices, joblessness and repressive regimes.

In Indonesia, the Alliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria or AGRA is leading the call in the provinces to stop land grabbing and violence against peasants in the palm oil plantations. In Africa, peasant federations assert the right of small producers who are being divested of their farms, as governments welcome the influx of foreign investors.

In the Philippines, farm workers have initiated to cultivate rice and vegetables in the idle sugarcane lands within Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province, even as they await the Supreme Court’s decision on whether to distribute the hacienda farms or not.

This July, an international gathering in Manila will even bolster the global solidarity among peasant groups. The current phenomenon of global land grabbing and its impact on the rights of peasants and small producers will be among the issues to be discussed at the fourth assembly of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle or ILPS. The conference, which has the theme “Build a Bright Future” will be attended by hundreds of international delegates.

The conference will serve to strengthen the solidarity among peasant groups in the global fight to defend farm lands and peasant rights. Also to be tackled are the attacks on the peasantry, genuine land reform and food rights.
     
     
     
           
     
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MESSAGE FROM THE ILPS CHAIRPERSON TO THE FOUNDING OF ILPS-HONG KONG
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
22 May 2011
Dear Colleagues and Friends,

As Chairperson, I wish to convey to you the warmest greetings of solidarity of the International Coordinating Committee, the commissions, the territorial organizations and all the member-organizations of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) on the occasion of the founding of ILPS-Hong Kong.

We congratulate the ILPS member-organizations in Hong Kong for their successful preparations. We are confident that the founding of ILPS-Hong Kong will result in the strengthening of ILPS-Hong Kong as an alliance of anti-imperialist and democratic forces.

We anticipate that this chapter will further raise the level of political consciousness of the member-organizations, their organized strength and their ability to mobilize themselves, their allies and the people in general. You shall be in a better position to carry your mission forward and contribute to the advance of the ILPS on a global scale.

The founding of ILPS-Hong Kong is timely and highly significant. It is a major contribution to the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the ILPS. It prepares your delegations for the Fourth International Assembly in Manila. Most importantly, it is a consolidation of your forces for greater struggles ahead in the face of the ever worsening crisis of the world capitalist system.

The global economic and financial crisis is persistent, protracted and ever deepening. It is not being solved but being aggravated by the imperialist powers because they cling to the dogma of neoliberal globalization. They believe perversely that everything would turn out alright so long as the financial oligarchy and the entire monopoly bourgeoisie continue to accumulate capital, press down the wage level and government social spending and get more profit-making opportunities through liberalization, privatization, deregulation and denationalization of the developing economies.

For causing the crisis of overproduction and financial meltdown, the banks and the big corporations have been rewarded with public money in the form of bailouts and stimulus packages. These have improved the balance sheets of the favored banks and companies and stimulated the stock market but have not resulted in economic recovery in terms of the steady expansion of production and employment.

The biggest bubble has been created by the rapidly expanding public deficits and public debt. The reaction of the imperialist powers and their puppet states is to adopt a policy of austerity measures, reducing public employment and social services and further passing on the burden of crisis to the people. The rapidly rising public deficits and public debt are blamed on social spending but not the tax cuts for the corporations and wealthy, overpriced contracts with private companies and rising costs of military production and wars of aggression.

The imperialist powers and the puppet states are becoming more repressive and aggressive as they become more rapacious in plundering the world. The so-called war on terror instigated by the United States continues to whip up state terrorism, military intervention and wars of aggression.

The imperialist powers and the puppet states are more prone than ever before to use state terrorism against the people. But the people are not cowed and keep on rising up in various parts of the word. Their needs for socio-economic well-being and for fundamental freedoms and democratic rights drive them to wage resistance, be this in the form of mass protests or armed revolution.

The imperialist powers are more prone than ever before to engage in military intervention and wars of aggression. They bully and attack countries that show a significant degree of national independence or that have precious natural resources over which the imperialists wish to have a tighter control. Thus, the world has become turbulent with several wars of aggression going on at the same time.

The imperialist powers appear united against the developing countries. But increasingly contradictions are arising among them over economic, financial, trade, political and military issues as well as over the division of spoils in the wars of aggression. The struggle among the imperialist powers for a redivision of the world is becoming more conspicuous than ever,

The founding of the ILPS-Hong Kong is a significant step forward in meeting the challenges that arise from the worsening crisis of the world capitalist system and the growing world of turmoil and disorder. We are cognizant of the fact that member-organizations of ILPS-Hong Kong are composed of overseas contract workers. Further restrictions and repression can arise in Hong Kong even while the socio-economic and political conditions deteriorate in your home countries.

It is important that you consider and study the problems that you now face and seek the solutions to these during your founding assembly. You can further discuss the problems and solutions in the forthcoming international conference of migrants and in the Fourth International Assembly. We look forward to the resolutions and decisions that you take in order to uphold, defend and advance the rights and interests of your constituency.

Long live ILPS-Hong Kong!

Carry forward the anti-imperialist and democratic struggles of the people!

Long live the ILPS!




 
     
     
     
           
     
     

 

FURTHER STRENGTHEN ILPS-AUSTRALIA AND HELP BUILD THE ILPS IN THE REGION
Keynote to the 3rd National Conference of ILPS-Australia
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson,
International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
28 May 2011

As Chairperson, I convey warmest greetings of solidarity from the International Coordinating Committee, the commissions, territorial organs and all member-organizations of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle on the occasion of the Third National Conference of ILPS-Australia.

We are deeply pleased to know that you are holding the conference in order to raise the level of your political consciousness and work in Australia by defining and taking up issues along the anti-imperialist and democratic line as well as in order to prepare yourselves, especially your delegation, for the Fourth International Assembly in Manila in July.

As you have informed us, the issues that you are going to discuss are of urgent importance and are the main content of your Country Report. We see certain issues as mainly the outgrowth of the US-instigated plunderous policy of neoliberal globalization and the concomitant policy of state terrorism, military intervention and wars of aggression, all misrepresented as war on terror, especially since 9-11.

Because the US and its camp followers like Australia continue to cling to these policies the crisis of the world capitalist system, which plunged to a new depth in 2008, has worsened, aggravated and deepened. The financial oligarchy and the entire monopoly bourgeoisie continue to escalate the level of exploitation and oppression and pass the burden of crisis to the working class and the middle social strata.

In more than three decades of neoliberal globalization, the monopoly bourgeoisie has failed to recognize and address the crisis of overproduction and tried in vain to overcome it by abusing debt financing at the level of government, corporations and the households and by waging a vicious class war against the working class, blaming so-called wage inflation and government social spending as the cause of crisis and consequently doing everything to press down the wage level and cut back on social spending.

The monopoly bourgeoisie has propagated the dogma that economic prosperity can be maintained by its having all the opportunities to accumulate capital and increase profits through liberalization, privatization, deregulation and denationalization of developing economies. Within this context, the monopoly bourgeoisie has denigrated social welfare in favor of corporate welfare, used new technology to split the work force and resort to outsourcing, played off the previous immigrants against the new ones and adopt oppressive laws to suppress and curtail workers’ rights, especially the right to unionize and to strike.

For sometime and to some extent Australia has buffered itself from the crisis that we have described above by benefiting from the mining boom and the export of mineral ores and food (wheat and meat) to China, India and other countries. However, the Australian state in the service of the monopoly bourgeoisie has harmed the interest of the Australian people from the very beginning by following the US-dictated neoliberal economic policy and letting the monopoly firms and the banks increase their profits, pay less taxes, press down the wage level, require the working people to work longer hours and subject them to the rising prices of basic goods and services.

The pro-US neoliberal economic policy is a systematic attack on the working class, the small farmers and the local manufacturing industry. The Australian state has churned out anti-worker and anti-union laws and regulations that limit the workers’ ability to unionize and to strike. Now, it is pushing harsh austerity measures and cutbacks on social spending to overcome the government deficit. The working people now increasingly see that their standard of living is under attack. They run up personal debt and receive less social services from government.

The Australian state continues the long history of dispossessing and discriminating against the indigenous Australians and attacking the poorest sections of the people. It widens the scope of “intervention” in the Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory. It plans to extend “income maintenance” into new areas, including welfare recipients. It pushes “welfare to work” conditions to reduce the number of people on pension and welfare aid.

It panders to foreign and domestic monopoly firms with tax concessions and infrastructure spending. It is pushing further the privatization of government services, education and health care. It gives big concessions to the big polluting energy and mining companies, while skimping on funding for clean alternatives.

Australia is bound by the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement which lopsidedly favors the US. It blocks certain investments from China in order to favor the US, Europe and Japan. The latest ”free trade” agreement now being pushed and negotiated behind closed doors by both the US and Australia is the so-called Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) which is supposed to include Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

The TPPA aims to further liberalise trade among the Asia Pacific nations, but the main objective of the US is to use it as a one-sided mechanism to protect and enforce its copyright interests. As the world’s largest exporter of copyright content, the US is poised to benefit from tougher copyright standards. The other participants in TPPA are net importers and will be made to pay royalty to US companies without receiving any countervailing benefit.

The US continues to impose on the Asia Pacific countries an energy policy that favors the profitmaking by the US oil companies that control the oil and gas resources. Thus carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase the pollution of the environment in the Asia Pacific region. The conditions and factors of global warming have not been restrained but have in fact increased.

As in economic policy, the Australian government is subservient to the US in security policy. US-Australian military alliance is the key element in Australian foreign policy. Thus, Australia has followed the US policy of global war of terror. The US has major military bases in Australia that are used in wars of aggression sit unleashes. These US military bases are being expanded as part of the encirclement of China as potential US enemy. Instruments of electronic surveillance, which receive and transmit real time images from spy satellites, are based in Australia. They cover not only the Asia-Pacific region but also other parts of the world.

Australian military strategy is subordinate to that of the US. Thus, Australia is required to acquire planes, ships, weapons and other equipment that are compatible with those of US military forces. It keeps Australian troops and military specialists in Afghanistan. It supports the bombing and subversion of Libya. It consistently follows US positions regarding Palestine, China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and every other major country.

In following the US policy of global war of terror, the Australian state has adopted anti-terror laws to undercut and curtail most civil rights of the people. It maintains harsh detention policies for refugees and asylum seekers. It has instituted greater powers of electronic surveillance by intelligence agencies.

The crisis of the world capitalist system continues to worsen. Thus, the Australian people have reason to worry that the global crisis would harm them more than ever before in terms of jobs, incomes and social benefits. They are concerned about the consequences of the mining boom, such as the loss of manufacturing industries, skills and uneven development. They are wary about the growing contradictions between the US and China. They are also concerned about climate change and related events that have afflicted Australia: the forest fires, floods, cyclones and rising level of carbon dioxide pollution.

The dominance of Labor Party bureaucrats and labor aristocrats, who have collaborated with the monopoly bourgeoisie over decades, has undermined and weakened the trade union movement. . At the same time, the Liberal Party opposition is pushing more extreme anti-people policies, flagrantly whipping up the most reactionary fears and prejudices, including chauvinism, xenophobia, racism and religious bigotry. Fascists are being emboldened as the monopoly media ridicule, marginalize or completely ignore progressive voices.

At any rate, fighting unions and militant leaders still command the respect and loyalty of their members and their community. In recent years, a significant solidarity movement has been developed across the trade union movement in support of strikes and picket lines. Union activists and sympathetic community members have been successful in gathering wider support, especially when unions on strike need to counter the threat of prosecution, heavy fines and detention.

The working people are dissatisfied and are in a protesting mood. The trend is steadily shifting towards militant resistance. The Australian people have a fine history of struggle and are now being goaded by sharpening crisis conditions to rise up. In recent years they have engaged in massive rallies against war in Iraq and Afghanistan, against Howard’s industrial laws and against culpability of the monopoly firms for environmental damage and disasters.

The US continues to impose its hegemony over Asia Pacific countries and transgress their national sovereignty and territorial integrity by economic, financial, commercial, political, cultural and cultural means. The broad masses of the people are outraged by the anti-national, anti-democratic and anti-people policies of the US and its rabid followers. They demand the end of imperialist plunder and war, the oppressive laws that stifle the right to form unions and strike, the pollution of the environment and aggravation of global warming and the persistence of US military bases and other military outposts in the region.

It is imperative for the organizations affiliated with the ILPS-Australia and the organizations cooperating with them to clarify and carry the issues and proceed to arouse, organise and mobilize the broad masses of the people, including the workers, the migrants, the women, youth, the intelligentsia and indigenous people, for the purpose of resistance against the evils of capitalism and imperialism.

ILPS-Australia must further strengthen itself and generate a mass movement in Australia in order to take a key role in building the ILPS in the Asia-Pacific and Oceania. There are now several chapters of the ILPS in the region and eventually more shall be formed. We are hopeful that they shall soon be able to establish a coordinating committee for the entire region. The 4th International Assembly of the ILPS presents itself as the occasion for discussing this prospect. ###
 
     
     
     
     
 
           
 
     

 

THE URGENCY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF FOUNDING ILPS-CANADA
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
21 May 2011
Dear Colleagues and Friends, thank you for inviting me as the keynote speaker. As chairperson of the International Coordinating Committee, I convey to you the warmest greetings of the entire International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS).

All member-organizations of the ILPS wholeheartedly welcome and applaud the founding of the ILPS-Canada as a national chapter.We congratulate all the Canadian member-organizations for the success of their preparatory work.

We are grateful for the steadfast and fruitful participation of the Canadian member-organizations of ILPS in the assemblies, campaigns and activities initiated, organized or coordinated by the ILPS during the last ten years. You have a major share in making the ILPS the strongest global alliance of anti-imperialist and democratic forces.

The founding of ILPS-Canada is a culmination of your contributions to the advance of the anti-imperialist and democratic mass movement in Canada and the whole world. It is a major contribution to the celebration of the tenth founding anniversary of the ILPS.

We are deeply pleased that the founding of the ILPS-Canada comes as a consolidation of all member-organizations from the west coast to the east and opens the way to further expansion and a higher level of unity, coordination and militancy in developing an anti-imperialist and democratic mass movement in Canada.

Your draft Constitution is in consonance with the general principles, concerns, aims and purposes and organizational structure of the ILPS as laid down in its Charter. At the same time, it takes into account the concrete conditions of Canada, the needs and demands of the Canadian people of various nationalities.

We are confident that the ILPS-Canada will develop at a faster rate than before as an anti-imperialist and democratic coalition of organizations that take up the concerns and issues of the workers, farmers, youth, indigenous peoples, professionals and other sectors of society against the economic, political, military, social and cultural domination and attacks of imperialism and reaction.

We are united with you and support you in all the struggles that you have spelled out in your statement of aims in your draft Constitution. We appreciate your clear-sightedness about the key issues that you must pay attention to.

We stand with you in defending the workers’ right to organize and unionize and to give special attention to winning full rights for all migrant workers, including temporary “foreign” workers, seasonal agricultural workers, live-in caregivers, workers who are victims of trafficking and undocumented workers.

We support you in defending civil rights and democratic liberties, including freedom from police harassment, profiling and brutality which target particularly racialized communities, indigenous people and working class youth. We are vigorously against chauvinism, xenophobia, racism and fascism.

We struggle against all forms of national oppression, dispossession, and impoverishment of indigenous peoples. We stand for the right to self-determination and we fight for national and social liberation. We are for gender equality and the liberation of women from exploitation, male chauvinist domination and oppression by capitalism and imperialism.

We fight vigorously against the rise of unemployment, the deterioration of wage and living conditions, the erosion of social benefits and social services, the rising costs of basic goods and services, We struggle for the improvement of public services, including health, education, housing, childcare, and transport. We oppose the privatization of public utilities and services.

We oppose the “War on Terror” in Canada as elsewhere in the world. This has whipped up racial profiling, unjust deportations, criminalization of people’s resistance and discrimination against people of colour, migrants in general, new immigrants and indigenous communities.

We are against the marginalization, persecution and criminalization of refugees and asylum seekers who flee state terror, imperialist aggression and national oppression. We are especially concerned with the plight of the Tamils, Palestinians and other people escaping repressive regimes which enjoy the support of the Canadian government.

We support you in promoting the peace with justice movement and demanding the dismantling of US foreign military bases. We oppose Canada’s role as a global supplier of military equipment and materiel.

We support your demand for the end Canada’s participation in all imperialist wars, the homecoming of Canadian military and police personnel from all zones of foreign occupation (particularly Haiti and Afghanistan) and the withdrawal of Canada from all imperialist military alliances, including NATO and NORAD.

We oppose the Canadian state’s active support for the Israeli state’s aggression, expansion and furthering of imperialist objectives. We support the Palestinian peoples’ struggle for their homeland, liberty and justice and their campaign boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Zionist Israel.

We endorse your demand against the dismantling of Canada’s industrial base under the US-dictated policy of neoliberal globalization. At the same time, we oppose Canada’s use of so-called “free trade agreements” to open the door to other countries for plunder by Canadian monopoly firms.

We are against Canada’s use of tied aid within and outside the frames of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and other global agencies to promote and support its imperialist interests. We oppose the role of Canadian mining companies in plundering mineral resources abroad, trampling on the rights of the peoples, particularly the indigenous populations, and wreaking massive environmental destruction.

We defend the natural environment against destruction and pollution by the US and other imperialist powers. We oppose the development of the nuclear power and nuclear waste industries and we support total nuclear disarmament through the scrapping of all nuclear weapons.

We commend your determination to promote and carry forward the anti-imperialist and democratic struggles in Canada and to support those of the people of the world, particularly throughout the Americas.

We appreciate your support for the International Migrants Alliance, the International Women’s Alliance, RESIST! (International people’s campaign to confront crisis and war) and other ILPS-sponsored formations and initiatives.

We agree with your proposed campaign for the decriminalization of the people’s struggle for liberation and self-determination. This campaign will serve to unify the struggles of the anti-imperialist people’s organizations with those of the indigenous peoples and other nationalities.

You must struggle resolutely and militantly in order to stop the continuing attack on democratic rights being carried out under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a piece of legislation which introduced amendments to numerous other laws, including the Criminal Code, the Official Secrets Act, the Canada Evidence Act, the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) Act, the Income Tax Act, and others.

It is fascism for the executive department and its intelligence agents to be able to criminalize groups on mere suspicion that they are involved in what is loosely defined as terrorist activity. This is supposed to include any violent act committed with a political goal, irrespective of the context. It also conflates legitimate people’s resistance with dictatorial and oppressive regimes.

The so-called anti-terror laws have provided a sweeping basis for witch hunt and for the criminalization of the people, their struggles and the liberation organizations like those of the people of Colombia, El Salvador, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Somalia, and Tamil Eelam.

Under the pretext of anti-terrorism, Canada has supported the regimes in Israel, Colombia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines, which systematically engage in state terrorism. The so-called war on terror has given the US imperialists and their allies the license to engage in wars of aggression and state terrorism in order to suppress the peoples resisting neoliberal globalization all across the world.

We appreciate that the campaign is aimed at uniting the broad masses of the people under the banner of anti-imperialism and democracy and at asserting the peoples right to national and social liberation in Canada and throughout the world. We also appreciate that the campaign is not limited to legalistic liberal-democratic challenges to the rulers but is aimed mainly at developing the political struggle for the people to realize their aspirations for liberation and just peace.

We agree with the ILPS-Canada’s description of Canada as a capitalist-imperialist society, with its large corporations deriving much of their wealth from the exploitation of labour and plunder of resources from all around the world as well as from the continuing colonization of indigenous people’s treaty lands and the plunder of their resources. It is necessary to unite the global anti-imperialist struggles with the anti-colonial self-determination struggles of indigenous peoples throughout Canada.

The founding of the ILPS-Canada is timely and highly significant in the face of the persistent and ever worsening crisis of the world capitalist system. The financial oligarchy and the entire monopoly bourgeoisie have become more rapacious and repressive than ever before.

They continue to maximize profits by pressing down wages, appropriating public funds and manipulating the financial markets. The more they pass on the burden of crisis to the working people, the more they use the means of mass deception and mass coercion to preempt, prevent and suppress the rising resistance of the people. The people must stand up and fight the exploiters and oppressors.

The ILPS-Canada is urgently needed to focus on the problems of the Canadian people and organize popular resistance in Canada as well as to participate actively in the campaigns and activities initiated or joined by the ILPS against the global system of imperialist plunder and war.

ILPS-Canada must always do the best it can to arouse, organise and mobilize the people of Canada in order to uphold, defend and promote their rights and interests and contribute to common understanding, solidarity and cooperation among the people’s organizations in Canada, across the region and throughout the world.

Long live ILPS-Canada!

Advance the peoples’ struggle for national and social liberation!

Long live the ILPS!

 
     
     
     

 

VIDEO MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY AND INPUTS ON MILLENNIUM

 

 DEVELOPMENT  GOALS AND THE CONVENTION ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY
 

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
July 5, 2011

 

Song of the League

www.reverbnation.com
Written by Danny Fabella,

arranged and performed by Karl Ramirez

www.facebook.com/karlramirezmusic 

 
     
 
     
 
           
This Video is a contribution to the Workshop No.: 11 of International League of Peoples' Struggles (ILPS) 4th International Assembly which is being held on July 7-9, 2011­­ at Manila, Philippines.

Workshop No.: 11 "On the Rights of Teachers, Researchers and other Educational personnel" is spearheaded by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Philippines.­­
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Rationale: 
Imperialist globalization led to the remarkable experience of commercialization, deregulation, privatization, and rationalization of the educational system of most countries. Increasingly, education institutions were faced with insurmountable challenges characterized by withdrawal of state funding and support; penetration of profit motive in the academia; increasing pressure to pass the cost of education to the people; and the reconfiguration of academic programs and policies to one that would cater to the demands of capital, and not of social upliftment..

The commercialization of education led not only to the increasing visibility of profit motivation becoming the major motor of academic operations but also to the reorientation of academic work that caters to the formation of workers and professionals that would serve the interest of private enterprise and capitalist competition

With these in mind, the ILPS Workshop on Education, Imperialism and Resistance aims to gather together academic unionists, teacher leaders and faculty organizers to address organizational issues and concerns that confront its sector and challenges the very core of institutions where they belong.

 
 

Part 1    Part 2     Part 3
 

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