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MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY FROM THE ILPS CHAIRPERSON
TO THE INTERNATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF MIGRANTS, REFUGEES AND ADVOCATES
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples' Struggle
October 28, 2008
On behalf of the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS), I wish to
convey warmest militant greetings of solidarity to all the delegations now
convened in this International Assembly of Migrants, Refugees and Advocates.
I congratulate all the organizers, including the International Alliance of Migrants,
Migrante International, Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants, IBON Foundation and
BAYAN for the successful preparation of this assembly, especially through a
campaign since August.
We in the ILPS are deeply pleased and inspired that you are challenging the
intergovernment-directed Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD)
and that you have put forward the thematic call: End poverty, ensure jobs at
home, stop forced migration! Uphold and protect the rights of migrants and
refugees. We are gratified that the assembly's program of activities is designed
to let the migrants speak for themselves.
We are confident that your assembly will fulfil such aims as to deepen and
sharpen among the migrants and the people in general the critical awareness
of the pro-imperialist and anti-migrant GMFD framework and agenda, lay bare
the exploitative foundation and consequences of so-called neoliberal globalization
on the lives of migrants, refugees and their families, build the process of attaining
consensus on the platform of migrants in opposition to the GFMD and on the
basis of consensus strengthen unity and solidarity of migrants, refugees and
advocates.
The phenomenon of large scale migration, displacement of people and refugees
is the result of exploitation and oppression by foreign monopoly capitalism and
local reaction. Migrants are driven to leave their families and friends to seek
jobs abroad because of poverty, lack of employment and persistent
underdevelopment. People are displaced because foreign corporations and
their local collaborators covet and grab the land and other natural resources
and use violence to achieve their vile objective. Political refugees leave their
homeland because of intolerable persecution and the suppression of the
people's resistance.
To the sending governments, the migrant workers are no more than an
object of further exploitation. They are a source of exorbitant fees with no
real services given in return. They are a source of foreign exchange which is
used not for development and job creation but for the aggravation of
underdevelopment and poverty. The sending governments and the receiving
governments collaborate in depriving the migrant workers of their rights and
pressing down their wages. The GFMD is perversely hyping migration as a tool
of development even as it is a product of underdevelopment and a cause of
further underdevelopment.
Now, the policy of "neoliberal globalization", which has aggravated underdevelopment
and poverty in nearly three decades, is unravelling due to the crisis of overproduction
in the real economy and to the extreme abuses of financial speculation and
derivative-making by monopoly finance capital. The migrant workers face the
consequences of the worsening global economic and financial crisis, which is
expected to run for at least two years and up to ten years.
The receiving countries are in the throes of economic stagnation and rising
unemployment. Currents of chauvinism, racism, religious bigotry and fascism
are growing. From year to year, the economic and political conditions are bound
to become more adverse to the migrant workers. And yet these conditions will
become far worse in their impoverished and underdeveloped homelands.
We are confident and hopeful that in the assembly you can discuss and arrive
at the ways and means by which you can meet the challenges posed by the
worsening economic and political crisis. There are problems to solve regarding
the employment and rights of the migrant workers and refugees while they
remain in the receiving countries. The migrant workers and refugees can
have their respective national organizations abroad. These become components
of the International Alliance of Migrants. They need to develop solidarity with
the internationalist organizations and institutions of the host countries.
There are also the problems to solve regarding the migrant workers who return
to their homelands. There ought to be organizations and institutions that
facilitate their integration in the movement and struggle of the people for
national freedom, democracy, social justice, development and just peace.
The problems of one's country can be solved only by the people themselves
through collective struggle. ###
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