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DEFEND SISON CAMPAIGN |
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Workshop #3 As the crisis of the world capitalist system was not solved by the arrogant push for imperialist globalization policies like deregulation, trade liberalization and privatization, the global centers of capitalism- the US, the European Union and Japan- are all afflicted with internal crisis and faced with an abruptly shrunken world market. But the nations most devastated by the ongoing crisis of overproduction in the world capitalist system are those of Asia, Africa, Latin America and several countries of the former Soviet bloc. These nations make up the overwhelming majority of the people of the world. The are squeezed by the global oversupply of mostly raw materials and low-grade manufactures that they produce for export. They are crushed by perennial trade deficits and foreign dept. Unable to service the ever mounting foreign dept burden, onerous conditions are imposed on them by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and WTO. The results are cuts on social services, staggering loss of jobs, increased forced migration, massive displacements, disease, abject poverty, hunger, death, and conflict to millions of peoples. Most governments of these countries have been very willing tools in implementing policies and programs of imperialist globalization. They protect and defend the interests of big business and corporations to enable them to extract superprofits from their own peoples. To defend their lives and livelihood, the masses have no recourse but to resist the burdens imposed by imperialist globalization and the ruling elite. They continue to organize themselves, to fight for their rights, to protest their ever-worsening situation, and to build organizations that genuinely serve the people and build movements of national liberation. In some countries, armed struggle continues to rage and is the only alternative of the people to free themselves from the clutches of poverty and foreign control and to achieve social transformation. The new world disorder is increasingly becoming more turbulent and is breeding the conditions for fascism, militarization and war. This situation compels the oppressed to wage different forms of peoples' struggle. With an ever worsening economic crisis, US imperialism has become more aggressive and vicious than ever before. It seeks a way out of the crisis by whipping up a hysteria for a so-called war on "terrorism" and launching wars of aggression. Military intervention and aggression against the people and the forces of anti-imperialism are justified by dubious claims that these are needed to fight the communists and "terrorists". Exploiting to the hilt the so-called "war on terror", the Bush regime waged war in Afghanistan to pave the way for the opening of oil routes to Central Asia. Bush launched "the first war of the 21st century" to recolonize Iraq in open violation of international laws and the UN Charter in order to control its oil reserves, fuel the sagging American economy, facilitate US corporate access to " rehabilitation projects" and maintain its hold as the primary imperialist power in the region. Tens of thousands of ordinary people have been maimed and murdered, entire communities and the social infrastructure of Afghanistan and Iraq have been destroyed with the use of totally disproportionate bombs and artillery fire. In gross violation of international law on human rights and humanitarian conduct in time of war, hundreds of thousands have been arbitrarily arrested, humiliated, detained under inhuman conditions, tortured and murdered. Immediately after 9/11, hundreds of people in the US were required to register, arbitrarily arrested, and hauled off to prisons, their rights to be seen by relatives and counsel denied. Hundreds of Afghans and other nationals were arrested and incarcerated in Guantanamo in blanket isolation. The horrifying accounts of torture and humiliation in Abu Ghraib attest to the worst human rights atrocities by US forces against peoples whom the US government labels as “terrorists.” These kinds of practices have been perpetrated long before 9/11 by the US and other imperialist countries. The “terror threats” were exploited in cracking down on undocumented migrants and their families, profiling and targeting of certain groups of people in the US and other countries in order to rid the so-called undesirable aliens including their own citizens who belong to minority groups. Racism and xenophobia are promoted as a policy against refugees and asylum seekers. Hysteria against them and other migrants is being fomented, depicting them as criminal, fraudulent, parasitic and resulting in violent attacks against them. In many cases, crackdowns on suspected “terrorists” were conducted, wherein Muslims and people of Mediterranean descent became the usual suspects and their communities were subjected to illegal searches and raids purportedly for harboring possible “terror suspects” blamed for bombings or other imagined acts. In the US itself, the Bush war regime has railroaded draconian laws and measures like the USA Patriot Acts that expand the legal framework for broader state repression. US allied and puppet states adopted similar unprecedented repressive anti-terrorism laws and paranoid security regulations at the behest of the US as well as their own will. Through this “war on terror,” national liberation movements, their leaders, members, sympathizers and even solidarity groups are targeted, maligned and demonized as “terrorists” and criminals. An outstanding case in point is that of Filipino patriot Prof. Jose Ma. Sison who has been listed, in cahoots with the Philippines government, by the US, Dutch, EU states and other countries as a “terrorist” in violation of basic due process. This labeling is also used to force the capitulation of national liberation movements. Democratic groups perceived to be supportive of these movements are also subjected to attacks and threats. Under this “war on terror,” an all-out war is being waged by governments against all groups, individuals, movements and parties that are very critical of imperialist globalization, the US wars of aggression and US military interventions in different countries. Leaders and members of these groups have become victims of the worst forms of human rights violations as killings, massacres, disappearances, torture, displacements, harassments, arbitrary arrests and detention. Even human rights workers themselves have been subject to attacks by state terrorism, including cold-blooded murders of those investigating violations committed by state security forces. The full weight of the legal apparatus is used to stifle dissent and protest. In many cases, various laws and spurious legal charges are slapped against leaders and members of these organizations and even human right workers. The Bush regime has also underscored the fact that US imperialism is a superterrorist force by its blatant violations of the Geneva Conventions and their arrogant claims that civilians and fighters labeled as “enemy combatants” are outside the protection of international humanitarian law and can be humiliated, tortured and murdered inside and outside US military prisons and virtual concentration camps. Under the pretext of the “war on terror,” the US has justified its military presence in several parts of the world in complete transgression of the sovereignty of nations. Since 9/11, the US has once again proven itself to the world as the biggest terrorist force in the entire history of humankind. Given this global and systematic oppression and repression of nations and peoples desirous of independence and liberation from foreign domination, there is an imperative to unite all democratic and anti-fascist forces against the continuing specter of fascism, war and imperialist plunder. We therefore hereby commit and resolve ourselves to: 1. Condemn and resist the “war on terror” and all the other wars of aggression by monopoly capitalists and their client states. 2. Coordinate international campaigns and mass mobilization against the policies of the monopoly capitalists and their client states that suppress the rights and trample the dignity of the majority of the people. 3. Support the people’s struggle against fascism and militarization 4. Develop and strengthen international cooperation as well as regional solidarity in the struggle for the defense of people’s democratic rights. 5. Organize international people’s tribunals to investigate, put on trial and condemn the worst violators of human rights and international humanitarian law. 6. Campaign for the delisting of liberation movements and progressive leaders from the list of “foreign terrorist organizations” instigated by the US government. 7. Support the call for justice and indemnification of the victims of human rights violations and punishment of the violators. 8. Respond to cases of human rights violations by establishing an international network of organizations that will undertake works such as documentation, monitoring, international fact-finding and immediate assistance to the victims. |
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