ARTICLES & SPEECHES, 2001 - Present

Unite Against US Impreialism, Wage Militant Struggles of the People
Message to the Participants of Thessaloniki Resistance 2003
15 June 2003

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairman, International Network for Philippine Studies
General Consultant, International League of Peoples’ Struggle

Let me express my gratitude to the organizers of Thessaloniki Resistance 2003 for inviting me to participate. I wish so much to go there and be with all the participants. But unfortunately, the Dutch authorities continue to do the bidding of the US government in maligning me as a "terrorist" and in curtailing my freedom of movement.

I take this opportunity to thank all of you for defending my democratic rights against the inclusion of my name in the European Council’s list of so-called terrorists and for supporting the Filipino people’s struggle for national liberation and democracy against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes in my country.

In the spirit of the people’s revolutionary struggle against imperialism, I feel strongly that I am with you. Let me now extend to you warmest greetings of solidarity. I am confident that you will be successful in clarifying the crisis of the world capitalist system, the intensification of exploitation and oppression, the imperialist propensity for war and the need for the broad anti-imperialist struggle and the proletarian revolution.

1. Worsening Crisis Under Neoliberal Globalization

In a little of over two decades, the shift of imperialist policy stress from state interventionism (Keynesianism) to neoliberal (actually monopoly capitalist competition) has proven to be totally bankrupt. No less than the US, the imperialist power that has benefited most from "free market" globalization, has become an economic disaster since the year 2000. It has plunged the entire world capitalist system to new depths of crisis.

The overconcentration and overcentralization of capital in the hands of the US monopoly bourgeoisie have spelled the worst forms of exploitation and impoverishment of the people. As a consequence of monopoly competition, profit maximization and reduction of wage levels, there is a crisis of overproduction in which the effective market demand for the goods of all types has shrunk. The epidemic of mass unemployment, production cutback and bankruptcy continues to spread.

The crisis in the real economy or in the productive system has exposed all the colossal chicanery, the speculation and swindling, in the realm of finance capital. So many financial houses of cards have collapsed, with huge bank loans worth trillions of US dollars unpaid to the detriment of bank depositors and the economy in general and with the values of stocks evaporating by the trillions of US dollars at the expense of pension funds and retail stock buyers.

As a result of the economic and financial crisis of world capitalism, all imperialist powers are becoming more exploitative and oppressive within their own national borders and abroad. They continue to press down the wage levels, disemploy people, privatise social services and cut back government social spending. At the same time, they are fomenting chauvinism, racism and fascism in order to counter the growing resistance of the working people.

Bad enough by their own character, measure and ways, the imperialists of Europe are becoming worse. They deserve to be targets of relentless struggle by the working class and the rest of the people. But the US is by far the worst imperialist power that deserves the people’s attention and action. It is their No. 1 enemy.

Under the Bush regime, it continues to hold high the dogma of neoliberal rapacity of the monopoly firms and it combines this with military Keynesianism, the use of state funds to promote military production. The prevalent notion within US ruling circles is the use of military production to stimulate the declining US economy and to further strengthen the US military for policing and "reconfiguring" the world for the aggrandizement of the US monopoly capitalists.

2. Aggression and Repression under the Pretext of Anti-Terrorism

Even before the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the so-called neoconservatives in the Bush regime were already manoeuvring to whip war hysteria and repression under the pretext of antiterrorism throughout the world in order to justify intensified US war production, wars of aggression and repression. These are supposed to take advantage of the fact that the US is the sole superpower and is in a position to realize an invincible Pax Americana in the 21^st century.

As matters stand in the world today, all imperialist powers are still allied against the people of the world, against national liberation movements, against any government that takes a significant anti-imperialist position and against anti-imperialist leaders like those listed as "terrorists" by the US and the European Council.

They continue to demonstrate their alliance in the Group of 8, in the UN Security Council and in such multilateral agencies as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organization. They have differences, especially in the face of crisis. But they always seek to override these by shifting the burden of crisis to the people.

In the run-up to the US war of aggression against Iraq, the governments of France, Germany and China were protective of concessions that they had earlier clinched from the government of Iraq and were opposed to the war policy of the US, Britain and their partners. But as soon as the US succeeded in toppling the Saddam regime and occupying Iraq, the representatives of the imperialist powers secretly met and agreed to let the US take the lion’s share of the spoils of war.

So far, what has most shaken the alliance of the imperialist powers is the propensity of the US to grab most of the spoils of war and aggression. The imperialist allies of the US have noted the long string of US in getting the most advantages from the series of wars in the Gulf, in the Balkans and Central Asia, especially in terms of taking control of sources and routes of oil and gas.

But the US continues to get what it wants up to the present time, as its imperialist allies adjust themselves to US policies and plans. Right now, the US is using its occupation of Iraq and control of Iraq’s oil resources as lever for "reconfiguring" the Middle East in favor of Israel, subordinating the OPEC to the US oil policy and manipulating the fuel requirements of China, North Korea, Germany and Japan.

3. Broad United Front, Forces of the Left and the Party

In opposing US imperialism or any other imperialist power under certain circumstances, it is necessary to bring about the broadest possible united front in each country or on a global scale. Such a united front should include the Left or the most consistent anti-imperialist forces that follow the leadership of the proletariat and take up mainly the interests of the working people. It should also include the Middle or less consistent anti-imperialist forces that have a progressive petty bourgeois viewpoint. It should further include some forces of the Right as temporary and unstable allies against the enemy, which is the worst of the Right according to circumstances.

The objective of the broad united front is to arouse and mobilize the broad masses of the people in their millions within the shortest possible time against the common enemy on an issue in which the side of the enemy is so unjust and unreasonable and the position of the people is so just and reasonable. It is not for any reason of ideological failure or weakness that the forces of the Left can conjoin with the Middle and some of the Right. It is for the political reason of reaching and activating the masses beyond those already organized by the Left.

In relation to the broad united front, the forces of the Left have to maintain independence and initiative. They must hold on to their revolutionary principles even as they maintain common political ground and platform for common action with other political forces. From every groundswell of the mass movement, the Left should be able to harvest a significant number of mass activists. Thus, even when the mass movement takes temporary dips because of the vacillations of the Middle or betrayals by temporary allies from the Right, the Left can expand and consolidate its strength.

In mass movements that become big as a result of the broad united front, the unstable and unreliable allies from the Right can abruptly stop participating in the anti-war movement and influence the Middle to become lukewarm. Right now, in several countries, we currently observe such a phenomenon appearing after the success of the US war of aggression. This is exactly the time to intensify resistance against that successful US aggression, which has passed into the US occupation of Iraq.

But that is not the end of the story if the Left has been able to attract more people than its original number and has the organizations and methods for absorbing them and raising the level of their revolutionary consciousness and militancy. In times to come, the Left would have a more massive and more robust strength of its own and would be able to attract more allies from the Middle and probably again from the Right.

The story of Iraq does not also end with the US occupation of Iraq. We can expect more resistance of the people to arise. This is true wherever US imperialism and its allies have so grossly violated the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of a country. The successes of the recent wars of aggression undertaken by the US, with or without the NATO, are bound to result in the anti-imperialist resistance by the people.

In particular countries and on an international scale, the people’s struggle against imperialism can be resolute and effective and can continue to advance only under the leadership of the revolutionary parties of the working class. In the era of modern imperialism and proletarian revolution, the communist and workers’ parties guided by Marxism-Leninism are indispensable.

Such parties must be built and continuously strengthened on the basis of a growing mass movement of the proletariat and other people. They must have the historical hindsight, the contemporary insight and the revolutionary foresight to be confident of being able to lead the people’s resistance against crisis, fascism and imperialist war and to aim for national liberation, democracy and socialism. ###