English Home 42nd INTERNATIONAL ANTIWAR ASSEMBLY Reporting the meetings See Overseas Appeal for the Assembly See Messages from Foreign Friends See The Central Meeting in Tokyo Reporting the meetings Okinawa Meeting in Ginowan Hokkaido Meeting in Sapporo Hokuriku Meeting in Kanazawa Kansai Meeting in Osaka Tokai Meeting in Nagoya Kyushu Meeting in Fukuoka The 42nd International Antiwar Assembly was held in the midst of struggles against the Iraq war. 1400 workers, students and citizens attended the central meeting in Tokyo and hundreds of people participated in each of the constituent meetings in six regions on the same day, August 1st. All meetings were full of vigour for international development of antiwar struggles. The following sentences report on the central meeting. On behalf of the Executive Committee, Mr. Toru Sakamachi gave the keynote speech. After describing the characteristics of the present situation in Iraq, he clarifies the root cause for the bankruptcy in the US aggression and occupation of Iraq. The US empire as the world's 'sole superpower' launched its aggression against Iraq according to its strategy of pre-emptive strike, calling it 'asymmetrical war' for 'eradication of terrorism'. This war has been given the ideological character of being a religious war (connected with antagonism between nations). As having the significance of being a religious war (between the aggression by the self-styled 'Crusaders' in the name of 'holy calling' and the Islamic holy war to kick out US imperialism as the 'big Satan'), it has, at the same time, the significance of being a national war, i.e. a clash between US nationalism (unilateralist nationalism) and anti-American Arab nationalism. The underlying aim of the US imperialist rulers is their monopoly of the oil resources and the implementation of colonialism for it. In this sense, the essence of the Iraq War is an imperialist aggression. Mr. Sakamachi then raised a question: How do we in Japan understand and respond to the death-defying struggles by Iraqi people? We issued the call tow years ago: 'Muslims of all countries, fight in unity on the basis of Islamic inter-nationalism!' The praxical nature of this call has been clearly shown in the fact that Muslim fighters are rushing to Iraq and Palestine from the rest of the world. We ourselves fight on the basis of proletarian internationalism; however, as far as Muslim people in the Arab world or the Middle East wage their fights against US imperialism, in reality, on the basis of their religious belief, we understand the significance of their struggles and fight in solidarity with them. In the midst of this fight, we must develop our ideological struggles over the issues of how the struggle is to be developed and what can be the basic theory and guideline for the struggle. This is exactly the same attitude as that taken by Marx to the Paris Commune in 1871. Sakamachi's confident speech reminded the audience of the importance of the revolutionary Marxist standpoint of the 'immanent transcendence'. The keynote speaker referred to the policy adopted for the Iraq issue by the central leadership of the Japanese Communist Party. He criticized the JCP's alternative of 'a UN-based assistance to Iraqi people's efforts to build their independent state', saying that it is a criminal mistake. 'Breaking with the illusion of the United Nations, we must fight under the banner against the US-Japan military alliance by overcoming the JCP-led peace movement', he said. 'Don't let Iraqis or Palestinians fight alone! In solidarity with them, let us fight to stir up the flames of antiwar struggle in Japan! Let us fight to create international waves of struggle!' With these calls he concluded the keynote speech and received great applause from the audience. Following the keynote speech, messages from foreign friends were presented. The Executive Committee received messages of solidarity from 15 organizations in 8 countries. This reflects the fact that active, supportive responses to the Overseas Appeal are expanding internationally. After a break, the latter half of the meeting was started with the presentation of the message from Tavini Huiraatira No Te Ao Maohi - the Liberation Front of Polynesia, with whom Zengakuren students fought together against the French nuclear testing and for the independence of the Maohi people in 1995. The participants responded with great applause to the news that the FLP-led coalition won the latest election and FLP leader Oscar Temaru was elected as President of French Polynesia. All the way from Britain, two comrades brought their greetings to the Assembly. Their resolute addresses referring to the missions for revolutionary Marxists in their country moved Japanese workers and students. A militant worker from a teachers' union in Tokyo took the platform. 'The latest Convention of the Tokyo High-School Teachers' Union adopted a militant policy to fight back against the administrative punishment on over a hundred teachers, who rejected the national flag and anthem at school ceremonies. Militant members of the union criticized the leadership oppressing the fight-back and won the revision.' The Chairman of Zengakuren reported their propaganda for the Assembly in the street in Tokyo. He also announced that students in Waseda University smashed the oppression against a students' self-governing association by the authority. In closing the meeting, all the participants chanted antiwar slogans and sang the International. The central meeting, together with the six regional meetings, consolidated the foundations for international development of antiwar struggles. Let us fight together! Overseas Appeal for the Assembly Let us stir up the flames of worldwide struggles against the Iraq War in solidarity with Muslim people in Iraq, in the Middle East! Oppose the continued occupation of Iraq by the US-led multinational force! Pull out Japanese troops, accomplices in the occupation! Iraqi people, rise up for the overthrow of the US puppet Allawi government! The Executive Committee for the 42nd International Antiwar Assembly - Zengakuren [All-Japan Federation of Students' Self-Governing Associations] - Antiwar Youth Committee - Japan Revolutionary Communist League - Revolutionary Marxist Faction [JRCL-RMF] 1 In the name of the 'transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people', an interim government, a puppet government for the US occupation forces, has been installed with Iyad Allawi as Prime Minister. This government was set up by Coalition Provisional Authority Administrator Paul Bremer (who led the aggression against Iraq to complete failure) after all the rejection of proposals made by UN envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi. In the background to the start of this government, there was the unanimous adoption of Resolution 1546 by the UN Security Council on June 8th. This newly formed interim government (Iraqi interim government, or IIG) is mainly comprised of former Iraqi exiles, who remain active CIA agents. In the form of a request from this interim government to maintain security and stability, 138,000 US occupation troops have been authorized to continue their presence in Iraq beyond the 'transfer of sovereignty' on June 28th. The coalition forces led by the US and Britain have thus repainted their signboard; they have put up a 'multinational force' sign. In spite of this reorganization, part of the 'Coalition of the Willing' have started to pull their troops out from Iraq, following in Spain's footsteps. This is because guerrilla attacks occur frequently against the US occupation forces, against American imperialism, together with the uplift in anti-American resistance spread over the 'Sunnite triangle' (particularly in Fallujah) and over the Shiite areas in the middle part of the country. Upset by this development, US President George W. Bush is now trying desperately to mobilize NATO forces in the occupation of Iraq in order to reinforce the isolated US-UK forces. In fact, the summit meeting of NATO was held in Istanbul on June 28th, the day when Iraqi sovereignty was transferred. With the US Presidential election in November just round the corner, undeniable facts have been brought to light one after another: (1) that the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which was emphasized as the primary 'cause' of the war, and which justified Bush's exercise of the strategy of pre-emptive attack, was a downright lie, a fabrication from start to finish; (2) that despite Bush's declaration of 'the end of major combat operations' (May 1st, 2003), coalition casualties after the declaration have outnumbered those right in the middle of the war of invasion; (3) that the range of targets for guerrilla attacks have expanded to all infidels involved in the invasion and occupation; (4) that the Anglo-American forces massacred more than ten-thousand Iraqi people with their devilish high-tech weapons, and that the whole of the land of Iraq has been seriously contaminated with depleted uranium munitions; (5) that there have been widespread, persistent torture and murders of Iraqi detainees (not treated as prisoners of war, as stipulated in international laws) at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere, carried out even by mobilizing a group of specialists from Guantanamo Base. In order to wriggle out of the unequivocal bankruptcy of the aggressive war against Iraq launched in the name of 'Jesus Christ', the Bush administration attempted to change its policy towards Iraq (on November 6th, 2003), since when it has been scheming for a 'UN-based reconstruction'. Taken in by this crafty scheme, the erstwhile opponents of the war in the UN Security Council (France, Germany, Russia and China) made a compromise with the rulers of this country. This is but a necessary consequence of the fact that they are trying to resist US plans for 90% cancellation of Iraq's foreign debts taken over from the Saddam Hussein regime, and at the same time, are ambitious to secure their rights and interests in oil resources in Iraq. We resolutely oppose the continued occupation of Iraq by the multinational force under the cloak of the United Nations. We will strongly advance our struggles by denouncing rulers in EU countries, who made a compromise and conducted deceptive diplomatic negotiations with the world's 'sole superpower', the militarist empire of America, and by impeaching China for taking a 'stay-at-home' stance towards the invasion of Iraq, merely occupied with its growing tendency towards a bubble economy. 2 Muslim people in Iraq, who have seen through the deceptive nature of the 'transfer of sovereignty', are escalating their battles to overthrow the interim government and smash the infidels' scheme to continue their military occupation of Iraq, by inciting Iraqi nationalism. Against the US forces' siege and aerial bombings of Fallujah, launched at the beginning of April to cover up the bankruptcy of the CPA and the Governing Council of Iraq [GCI], the remnants of Saddam loyalists and militants of Sunnite tribes firmly carried out their armed struggles, together with Muslims in the 'Sunnite Triangle' who rose in bold resistance. Their determined fight obliged the US forces to retreat from the city about a month later. In solidarity with this uprising in Fallujah, Shiite Muslims also rose up in arms in the central part of the country. The Mahdi Army, led by Muqtada al-Sadr, an anti-American radical Shiite cleric, rose in revolt against the US-led occupation forces, together with the angry masses following this Army. Through these armed struggles and resistance against the occupying forces, against US imperialism, a number of groups among Shiite and Sunnite Muslims, which had refused to participate in the GCI, converged to form a National Conference for Building Iraq in response to a call issued by the Islamic Clerics Committee, overcoming the long-standing antagonism between religious sects (May 8th). This organization for joint struggles, which is ideologically based on Iraqi patriotism and Islamic doctrine, has significance as being an organizational matrix from which an advanced united front aiming for 'liberation from the US military occupation' grows and develops. On June 2nd, Iraq's most influential Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa, which endorses Iraq's interim government for the present upon the condition that direct elections to form an 'independent government of the Iraqi people' will be held at the earliest possible time. Persuaded by Ali al-Sistani to accept a truce with the US forces, Muqtada al-Sadr reluctantly followed the fatwa. Ali al-Sistani also envisages, as a matter of course, that he will organize a popular uprising (as Ayatollah Khomeini did for the Iranian revolution in 1979) if the US-led multinational force interferes with direct elections to be held no later than January 31st, 2005, or attempts to perpetuate its military occupation. In response to and in solidarity with the Iraqi people's resistance, Palestinians are now waging intense fights against US imperialism and Zionism. Trampling down the 'roadmap' on the Palestinian issue formulated in June, 2003, President Bush gave support on April 14th 2004, to America's puppet Arial Sharon in forcibly building West Bank barriers and successively assassinating Hamas leaders. He even praised state terror by the Israeli government, calling it part of his 'war on terrorism'. This is not all. Arrogantly enough, Bush declared the denial of Palestinian refugees' right to repatriation, which no past US administration had ever done. This means that he made a 'devilish pact' with the mini-Hitler Sharon, who is plotting to turn the whole of the occupied area into ghettos. Iraqi and Palestinian people's bold struggles have aroused sympathies among Muslims in the Arab world, provoking actions against American imperialism and against Zionism in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, and in the whole area of the Middle East. Based on its 'Broader Middle East Initiative', the US government is scheming to propel its military colonialist domination over the region in the name of the 'democratization of the Islamic world'. To this imperialist plan, too, the erstwhile war opponents in the UN Security Council have given their endorsement. This has very serious implications for us, workers in the world. 3 The massacres of Shiite Muslims amid their Ashura rituals (on March 2nd) were nothing but an imperialist state conspiracy, organized by the US occupation forces and the CIA - the method employed was the same as that in the assassination of the Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim (on August 29th, 2003). Nevertheless, this conspiracy was propagandized as a crime committed by Sunnite militants or al-Qaeda members. The fact of the matter is that the massacres were plotted by US imperialists to repress Iraqi Shiites (60% of the country's population) and to instigate sectarian conflicts between Shiites and Sunnites. For this very reason, both Shiites and Sunnites immediately saw that the incident was a conspiracy by the US forces and PMCs (private military companies) led by the CIA, and thereby further strengthened their solidarity against the Coalition forces beyond their sectarian antagonism. Another series of plotted train bombings in Madrid on March 11th - engineered by Bush's empire to give them the appearance of 'international terror' by al-Qaeda members - brought about the crushing defeat of the pro-American fascist Aznar government in the Spanish general election. Naturally, the newly formed Spanish Socialist government led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero pledged to withdraw the 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq, and immediately put it into practice. This triggered successive decisions of other governments in the "Coalition of the Willing" to pull their troops out. The Zapatero government has turned 180 degrees, from a pro-American policy to one of 'cooperation in the EU first'. Thus, from the viewpoint of multilateralism, French and German rulers are now trying to isolate the Bush administration, which is still sticking to its unilateralist principle. They have started attempts to reorganize the United Nations while expressing their will to assist the reconstruction of Iraq after the 'transfer of sovereignty'. In actual fact, however, the Franco-German axis, together with Russia, has made a compromise with US imperialists who have deceptively begun to mutter 'cooperation with the United Nations'. This means that the rulers of the former are taking advantage of the latter's strategy of bringing their democracy to Iraq and to the Middle East under the screen of the UN's initiative. As a matter of fact, both sides have started to scramble for a larger share of the oil resources in this region. The beginning of this new economic battle was shown clearly in a violent clash of opinions between Bush and Chirac at the recent Summit in Sea Island over the declaration of the 'democratization of the Broader Middle East and North Africa'. The war of aggression against Iraq has provoked the division of the 21st-century world into three (or four) blocks which converge on the following poles: the coalition of American allies centring on the US, UK and Japan (which we call the 'Hakenkreuz Alliance'); the Franco-German axis, plus Russia (which are strengthening ties among each other to break through the domination of the world by the 'sole superpower'); and China, which keeps step with the latter while maintaining a relative independence from both. Driven by the antagonism between these mutually opposing poles, and besides, fuelled by Muslim people's revolts all over the world against US imperialism, a new crisis of warfare is intensifying more than ever. This structure of the world, emerging as a tripartite (or quadripartite) structure at the beginning of the 21st century, has been produced with the self-destruction of Soviet Stalinism in 1991 as a nodal point, and with the three US-led wars (launched between 1999 and 2003 without UN resolutions - the aerial bombings of Yugoslavia and Kosovo by NATO allies, the air strike on Afghanistan, and the aggressive war against Iraq) as a turning point. The latter three wars are the very explicit expression of the real transformation in contemporary world history. 4 Today the militarist 'sole superpower' is totally isolated from the rest of the world. Because of this isolation, it is inevitable that Bush will be defeated in the forthcoming Presidential election in November by the Democratic candidate John Kerry. Amid this situation, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro alone was quick to demonstrate his loyalty to Bush at the Summit Conference by voicing his decision to incorporate the military of this country dispatched to Iraq into the US-led multinational force, as becomes a member of the 'Hakenkreuz Alliance'. In South Korea, the ruling Uri Party won a historic landslide victory in the National Assembly election. The Roh Moo-hyun government is now rushing towards the realization of the nation's long-cherished wish for the unification of North and South Korea, working in cooperation with the Jian Zemin / Hu Jintao government in China. Faced with these trends, the Koizumi government is deepening its sense of crisis. By extensively propagandizing 'threats' from North Korea and China, it is making a desperate effort, based on the US-Japan military alliance, to start a drastic military build-up, as well as the construction of a missile defence system. This is nothing but a naked expression of its ambition to promote imperialist Japan to be the strongest militarist state in Asia. On the real basis of the dispatch of the Japanese military, the Koizumi government has started attempts to nullify the existing war-renouncing Constitution of Japan. This is tantamount to openly declaring the state's exercise of the 'right to collective self-defence'. We are resolved to overthrow this neo-fascist government upon our honour as the Japanese working class. 5 We call on you, workers and students, people all over the world! Let us rise and fight now for the powerful advancement of worldwide struggles against the Iraq War! Shatter the ambition of the 'sole superpower' in the world to perpetuate its military occupation of Iraq, to expand its war of aggression in the name of the 'democratization of the Broader Middle East'! Smash every attempt by the Japanese and other governments in the Coalition to join in the schemes made up by this militarist empire! The so-called 'war on terrorism', chanted by the Bush empire, together with its followers, is a new form of war, which conceals and justifies its evil intentions to dominate the whole world under this sole superpower, namely its ambition to plunder oil resources and colonize backward or developing countries with immense forces. This is precisely the expression of Bush's strategy of pre-emptive attack based on his doctrine of unilateralism. 'Eradication of terrorism' as asymmetrical war is manifesting itself as the barbarities of those imperialists who believe in the absoluteness of European-born values of 'freedom and democracy' and try to impose these values upon Islamic nations and people, whom they regard as barbaric, with their military strength. Moreover, this 'war against terrorism' is regarded as a 'holy calling'. Muslims not only in the Arab world but in the rest of the world are fighting indomitably against state terrorism by the imperialists of the US, calling themselves today's Crusaders and against bloody terror by the Zionist state. It is by no means permissible to brand their resistance in Iraq and in Palestine as 'terror', much less to make it the target of annihilation. Bush's 'war on terrorism', having broken out at the beginning of the 21st century, obviously has the ideological character of being a religious war between today's Crusade and Islam. From the side of the Arab world, Muslims' struggles against this imperialist aggression have significance as being the promotion of nationalism against US imperialism based on Islamic inter-nationalism. These struggles are connected with the rise of nationalism in each artificially bordered country in the Arab world. Precisely for this reason, the true nature of American democracy and freedom has been revealed. First, it found its expression in atrocious massacres of Iraqi people. It also showed itself in physical and mental torture of Iraqi detainees. Furthermore, it manifested itself as the relentless destruction of Muslims' traditional culture (including Mesopotamian civilization), as religious persecution. From their first-hand experience and through their own struggles, Muslim people have seen through the falsehood and deception of today's Crusade, for certain. Right at this moment, we call on you, workers in the US! Never harbour illusions about the leadership of the AFL-CIO, the power base of the Democratic Party. Remember the decisive betrayal by the Sweeney leadership, who made a shameless about-face and supported the war right after Bush announced the launch of attacks. We should never overlook this betrayal. Let us rise in antiwar struggles to smash the ambition of Bush's empire by extensively creating a firm solidarity from below, among militant workers! In Japan, we have been advancing our struggles against the war in Iraq by exposing the degeneration of the official Japanese left wing, which has been engulfed in a chorus of approval for the 'eradication of terrorism' and just feebly wishes for the re-establishment of the UN's lost authority. By so doing, we have won many workers and toiling masses - who had been under the influence of degenerate social democrats and converted Stalinists calling themselves the Japanese Communist Party - over to our side, to our line of battle. Workers, toiling masses, and students all over the world! Now is the time to advance our struggles against the Iraq War worldwide, based on proletarian internationalism, in firm solidarity with Muslim people fighting in Iraq, and in the Arab world, under the banner of 'anti-US imperialism, anti-occupation'. Stir up the flames of antiwar struggles to break through the darkness of the 21st century, on the basis of the unity of the working people all over the world! We, the Executive Committee for the 42nd International Antiwar Assembly in Japan, call on comrades all over the world to advance in solidarity with us. (June 28th, 2004) Messages from Foreign Friends - Revolutionary Marxists in Britain - TAVINI HUIRAATIRA NO TE AO MAOHI-THE LIBERATION FRONT OF POLYNESIA (F.L.P) - Владимир Пронин(председатель Совета Киевской организации "Прометей") - Тюменский областной комитет Российской коммунистической рабочей партии - Российской партии коммунистов (РКРП-РПК) - Региональная партия коммунистов - Всесоюзная коммунистическая партия (большевиков) - The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP - Peasant Movement of the Philippines) - David McReynolds (Former Chair of the War Resisters International) - News And Letters - The Workers International League - Northstar Compass - Movement for a Socialist Future - New Communist Party of Britain - Workers Revolutionary Party of Greece(EEK) - International League of Peoples' Struggle - USA (ILPS-USA) Revolutionary Marxists in Britain I bring revolutionary greetings to this assembly from revolutionary Marxists in Britain. In Britain there is great opposition to the occupation of Iraq by American and British troops. Last year over a million people marched through London against the war. Yet there is a great weakness in this anti-war movement. This is because the trade unions are led by social democrats who either support the imperialist occupation of Iraq or at least are unwilling to lead a fight against it. The fight against imperialism is now being spearheaded by the Iraqi working people whilst in countries such as Britain, the fight against war and imperialist occupation is held back by Stalinism and social democracy. The social democratic government, besides supporting the imperialist occupation of Iraq, is leading a fight against the living standards of the working class. Our task in Britain is to politically destroy social democracy and Stalinism. We have learned from you that this has to be done in and through a fight to rebuild the working class movement on a class struggle basis. The Iraqi working people must not fight alone! Revolutionary Marxists in Britain and elsewhere thus have a great responsibility. Let us fight together against imperialism! Against Stalinism ! Against social democracy! We have much to learn from you. Your fight is our fight. Long live proletarian internationalism TAVINI HUIRAATIRA NO TE AO MAOHI - THE LIBERATION FRONT OF POLYNESIA (F.L.P) Au nom du Tavini Huiraatira no Te Ao Maohi - F.L.P - et a l'occasion du 42nd ani-war assembly , je souhaiterais vous adresser nos salutations fraternelles a tous les congressistes presents en vous renouvellant encore une fois notre soutien total et inconditionnel au combat que vous menez contre toutes les formes de guerres a travers la planete toute entiere et en particulier contre les injustices qui existent dans votre pays. Pour ma part, je vous informe qu'apres pres de trente annees de lutte, nous avons gagne les elections du 23 mai dernier dans notre pays et c'est ainsi que Monsieur Oscar Temaru (que beaucoup d'entre vous connaissent bien) est devenu le President du Gouvernement de la Polynesie. Plus de 160 ans de colonialisme, et plus de 30 annees d'experiences nucleaires dans notre pays par un Etat etranger Terroriste ne nous arretera pas dans la lutte dans laquelle nous nous sommes engage pour l'accession de notre pays a l'Independance. Le chemin est certes encore long mais nous sommes plus que jamais determine a continuer la lutte avec votre soutien. Je souhaite, cette annee encore, que d'importantes resolutions soient prises a l'issue du 42 nd congres international et qu'un jour nous puissions ensemble eradiquer la guerre sous toutes ses formes a travers le monde. SOLIDARITY AND LET'S FIGHT TOGETHER! "IAORANA" Владимир Пронин председатель Совета Киевской организации "Прометей" Агрессия против Ирака должна закончиться поражением империализма! Наглая, ничем не спровоцированная агрессия США и Великобритании против Ирака, совершенная вопреки воле даже нынешней ООН, раболепно прислуживающей Вашингтону, и несмотря на многомиллионные народные протесты во всем мире, в том числе - в самих империалистических странах, совершенно очевидно зашла в тупик. Это очередное отвратительное преступление империализма, совершенное в значительной степени на волне эйфории из-за чувства безнаказанности, возникшего у империалистических разбойников из-за недостаточно массовых и энергичных народных протестов против предшествующих агрессивных действий против законного правительства Югославии и оккупации Афганистана, может стать поворотным пунктом мировой истории. Разбойничьи действия США и Англии в Ираке открыли глаза многим из тех, кто, цинично обманываемый буржуазной пропагандой, сохранял еще крохи веры в демократизм и справедливость капиталистического общества, кто слепо верил грязной лжи об изначальной агрессивности социализма и надеялся, что после поражения социализма в СССР и европейских социалистических странах, ликвидации Варшавского договора, связанного с этим обвального сокращения вооруженной мощи этих стран наступит мир и всеобщее благополучие, а империалистические страны, избавившись от оказавшейся мифической угрозы со стороны Советского Союза и его союзников, прекратят выбрасывать сотни и сотни миллиардов долларов в пасть ненасытного Молоха гонки вооружений и смогут направить высвободившийся огромный финансовый потенциал на социальные нужды, на реальную помощь беспощадно угнетаемым и подвергающимся самому безжалостному ограблению народам стран третьего мира, на развитие образования и медицины, на спасение окружающей среды. Теперь все, имеющие глаза, видят что происходит на самом деле. Гнев и возмущение миллионов и миллионов на всех пяти континентах находит свое отражение не только в борьбе за прекращение империалистической агрессии против Ирака, но и в массовом антиглобалистском, по сути своей, антикапиталистическом движении. Наконец, впервые за многие десятилетия фактом стало обострение межимпериалистических противоречий между ведущими империалистическими государствами, прежде обычно выступавшими единым фронтом. Империалистический коготок увяз всюду, где за последнее время ступила его до зубов вооруженная разбойничья нога: в Югославии, Афганистане, Ираке… Но нет никаких гарантий, что следствием ощущения бессилия своей непомерной силы может стать еще какая-нибудь авантюра, которая может иметь неисчислимые последствия. Материальные же возможности империализма столь велики, что может встать вопрос о самом существовании всего живого на Земле. Поэтому задача всех антиимпериалистических сил, всех прогрессивно мыслящих людей состоит в том, чтобы добиться поражения империализма в Ираке и всюду, где они осуществляют свою варварскую стратегию порабощения. Народы подвергшихся стран должны получить право самим решать свою судьбу, а оккупационные войска США и Великобритании, их сателлитов, по-холуйски присоединившихся к войскам интервентов, должны быть незамедлительно выведены из Ирака. Все народы, исключая кучку империалистических разбойников, заинтересованы в обуздании захватнических инстинктов империализма! Коммунисты, сохраняя свою автономию и свои структуры, должны стать авангардом этого антиимпериалистического движения. Другого выбора у нас, как и у всех народов, нет, потому что в противном случае впереди человечество ожидает вселенская катастрофа. Тюменский областной комитет Российской коммунистической рабочей партии - Российской партии коммунистов (РКРП-РПК) Дорогие товарищи! Уважаемые участники 42-й интернациональной антивоенной ассамблеи! Приветствуем вас и поддерживаем в борьбе против американской агрессии против Ирака, против американской тирании свободолюбивого иракского народа. Позор всем оккупантам! Их главари стоят в одном историческом ряду с людоедом Гитлером и их ждет такое же проклятие в веках, какое постигло Адольфа Гитлера. Все пособники американского президента Буша копии пособников Гитлера. И за это им нет и не может быть прощения! Американцы и их пособники! Руки прочь от свободолюбивого Ирака! Да здравствует мир во всем мире, да здравствует свобода! Региональная партия коммунистов (Ленинград) Дорогие товарищи! Региональная партия коммунистов (Ленинград, Россия) шлёт братский привет участникам 42-ой Международной антивоенной ассамблеи! Современный империализм, империализм транснациональных корпораций, возглавляемый США и НАТО, пытается разрешить свои острейшие противоречия, развязывая одну за другой агрессивные войны. Их жертвами в последние годы стали народы Югославии, Афганистана, Ирака… Отбрасывая в сторону международное право, не считаясь с Уставом ООН, правители США используют отсутствие после краха СССР той силы, что блокировала в недавнем прошлом их экспансионистские устремления. Сегодня остановить агрессию может только организованное, сплочённое сопротивление трудящихся во главе с политическим авангардом, руководствующимся учением Маркса - Ленина. Поддерживая национально-освободительное движение народов Ирака, Афганистана, Палестины против американских угнетателей и их ставленников, мы обязаны видеть и другую опасность - со стороны местных диктаторов типа Саддама Хуссейна, безжалостно терроризировавшего собственный народ (шиитов, курдов, любых "инакомыслящих"), зверски уничтожавшего коммунистов, и со стороны террористических организаций типа аль-Каиды. Те и другие объективно только помогают американским правителям и их союзникам оправдывать преступную политику государственного терроризма "войной против терроризма". Более того, бен Ладен и ему подобные сами являются уродливым продуктом современного империализма. Они паразитируют на отчаянии угнетаемых масс Ближнего и Среднего Востока. Необходимо решительно бороться и против капиталистических идеологов, которые пытаются столкнуть пролетариат стран капиталистического ядра и капиталистической периферии с путей единства в классовой борьбе против общих угнетателей на пропагандируемую ими и разного рода религиозными фундаменталистами так называемую борьбу христианской и мусульманской цивилизаций. Мы солидарны с позицией Рабочей коммунистической партии Ирака, выступающей "за вывод войск США и их союзников как главного источника отсутствия безопасности и против политического ислама, который стремится увековечить человеческое рабство и абсолютное бесправие, извлекая свою выгоду из государственного терроризма Америки, за полное отделение религии от государства и образования". Залог свободы, залог нашей общей конечной победы - пролетарский интернационализм! Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! Всесоюзная коммунистическая партия (большевиков) Дорогие товарищи! Большевики России шлют Вам революционный большевистский привет и пожелания успешной работы Вашей 42-ой интернациональной антивоенной ассамблеи. Большевики России приветствуют делегатов конференции, представляющих тех, кто не смерился перед наглым диктатом империализма, тех кто не встал на колени перед властью капитала и борется за мир, за права человека, свободу угнетённых и эксплуатируемых, за социализм. Большевики России выражают искреннюю солидарность с Вашей борьбой. Нынешний антинародный режим России, ставшей марионеткой империалистических стран и распродающей оптом и в розницу нашу Родину транснациональным корпорациям открыто заявляет о том, что он находится "по одну сторону баррикад с борцами против международного терроризма". К "международным террористам" сегодня причисляют всех, кто осмелился поднять свой голос против войны, угнетения и эксплуатации, за право человека на жизнь. Но если правители России находятся по одну сторону баррикад с империализмом, то мы большевики России, находимся по другую сторону баррикад. Мы там, где борцы против империализма, реакции и захватнических войн. Примите, дорогие товарищи, нашу солидарность в борьбе общего классового врага. The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP - Peasant Movement of the Philippines) The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP - Peasant Movement of the Philippines) extends our most militant greetings and congratulations to the organizers and participants of the 42nd International Antiwar Assembly in Japan on August 1, 2004. Raising the slogan of the "War on Terror", US President George W. Bush in collaboration with the governments of other leading countries including Japan and the Philippines are currently launching a military campaign of aggression and intervention in Iraq. President Bush and his cohorts claim that this so-called war against terrorism is their "benevolent" effort to uphold justice and democracy and to bring freedom to the Iraqi people. In reality, this brutal and unjust war is meant to assert US military dominance in the region as well as expand and secure the interests particularly of US imperialism. The presence and continuation of attacks by troops from the US, UK and other countries in Iraq are not helping the Iraqi civilians but making them victims and casualties of the war. Through this "War on Terror", US-imperialism is asserting its military dominance throughout the world especially in Southeast Asia and Middle East countries in order to secure its economic interests. Led by the US, the imperialist countries initiated the war to escape from the worsening economic crisis and further pressure particularly Third World countries to bow down to the policies of institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO), which promotes deregulation, privatization and liberalization, and plunders all the resources of the poorer countries, leaving their people in debt and extreme poverty. In the Philippines, the masses of poor and struggling Filipinos do not benefit from imperialist globalization and the US war of aggression. Both do not bring genuine democracy, liberation and assure the basic needs of the Filipino people. This is especially true for the millions of poor and landless Filipino peasants who are suffering under a worsening economic, social and political situation. Land is life for the Filipino peasantry. However, because of the pro-imperialist policies of the WTO, lands for rice and corn are converted for cash crops to promote agribusiness leaving the peasants with little or no land to cultivate their crops and be able to feed and support their families. And because of the importation of cheap rice and other crops from abroad under the WTO agreement, the local produce of the farmers cannot compete and they are losing their way of living. The big agrochemical transnational corporations also make the lives of small farmers more oppressive by introducing and promoting harmful modern technology such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or genetically engineered (GE) crops that destroys soils and traditional organic farming as well as pushes the peasants into further debt. Not only are the land and livelihoods of the farmers threatened, but the lives and human rights of the peasants are in danger as they face intensified militarization and presence of US troops in the countryside. The Philippine government headed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) has given its all-out support to the "War on Terror" and sees it as a green light to intensify fascism and human rights violations throughout the country. The Macapagal-Arroyo administration increased the military budget, opened the doors for further US intervention in the Philippines through the US-Philippine joint military exercises, and continues to deploy more and more troops in the rural areas. Though the government claims that these are measures to fight terrorism in the country, the US-GMA Regime is only concerned with protecting US economic interests in the country and silencing the strengthening and advancing people's struggle. The number of HRVs committed under the GMA administration are alarming, with the majority of victims coming from the peasant sector. We are very concerned with the position of the Japanese government as well as Philippine government on the US war of aggression. Prime Minister Koizumi sent Japanese troops to Iraq for the sake of supporting the US. By doing so, he denies the voice of the significant number of the citizens of Japan who are opposed to sending troops. There is no democracy if the leader does not listen to the voice of the people. The holding of this anti-war assembly is significant in further uniting the Japanese people and giving voice to their opposition to the US war of aggression. This will also further strengthen and advance the anti-imperialist and anti-war movement in Japan and internationally against the aggression and plunder of US-imperialism. KMP highly commends again the organizers and participants of the 42nd International Antiwar Assembly in Japan. We stand in international solidarity with you in our common goal to end imperialism and to bring about peace, justice and freedom. Down with US Imperialism! Stop the US War of Aggression and Intervention! Long live the 42nd International Antiwar Assembly in Japan! Long live International Solidarity! David McReynolds Yes, the Bush Administration is a disgrace in every sense, the invasion of Iraq representing a clear absolute case of aggression, a war crime under the UN Charter and the principles of the Nuremburg Tribunal. Yes, the Japanese government is to be condemned for being such a willing ally of the US government - and I am delighted that you, and many other Japanese peace and social justice workers, are struggling to change the course of your government. You will understand that I may not agree with all the points in your analysis and still am glad that we are both working hard to achieve peace, to end the US invasion of Iraq, and to disarm all nations. Peace. NEWS AND LETTERS Dear Friends: Revolutionary greetings from Marxist-Humanists in the U.S.! We stand in solidarity with you on the days that forever will be remembered for the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and for the movement to abolish nuclear warfare that arose from the ashes. The 20th century saw the possibility of the extinction of humanity. Our struggle is for the 21st century to be witness to revolution in permanence and the release of all human capacities for self-development, peace and freedom. Our Marxist-Humanist Perspectives (Draft) for 2004-2005 contributes a Marxist-Humanist view of the world at the beginning of the 21st century and explains our role in its revolutionary transformation. Here we offer excerpts [ed: Omitted; See http://www.newsandletters.org/index.htm], and we welcome your responses to them as part of our ongoing dialogue with revolutionaries everywhere on the struggle for a new alternative to the barbarism of capitalism. The Workers International League Dear comrades, Greetings from the Workers International League in the USA. Thank you kindly for your invitation, but we will be unable to attend this year due to other engagements at that time. We send you revolutionary greetings from the heart of imperialism. Socialist revolution is the only way to end war once and for all! Only the working class can stop the war on workers at home and abroad! Please keep us informed of your activities. Best regards, Northstar Compass Dear comrades: Although we cannot be with you in person, we are with you in spirit and dedication to the noble cause that mankind is struggling against. Your Assembly is meeting at an extremely dangerous time for the world - with US militarism-fascism showing no restraints and the people of the world must take a united stand against this New World Order. Your Appeal to the Assembly is excellent and very well written and to the point - it cannot be improved upon. On behalf of the Editorial Board of Northstar Compass, being read in three languages in 79 countries of the world, we send you our best greetings for great successes in your efforts. Please send us your post-assembly statement so that we can publish it in NSC. Your as ever Movement for a Socialist Future Dear Comrades, We send you warm greetings on the occasion of your assembly. The Movement for a Socialist Future is with you in opposing the occupation of Iraq by the US and British-led forces. The Bush-Blair crusade has been exposed as nothing to do with combatting terrorism. It is an attempt to make the world safe for global corporations. They seek to destroy all opposition to their need to exploit the resources in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. The so-called war against terror is unleashing yet more terror against ordinary people in Iraq and elsewhere. It is also a strategy for destroying democratic rights at home. As countless demonstrators have shown, especially in those countries whose governments have sent forces to Iraq, there is global opposition to these warmongering governments. Every form of resistance - peaceful and armed - against the occupying forces is a blow to the big powers and their plans. But resistance on its own is not enough. To show the common interests between the exploited masses of every country, to expropriate corporate power and for the masses to control their own destiny, new socialist, revolutionary leaderships must be built internationally. New Communist Party of Britain Dear Comrades, The New Communist Party of Britain and its weekly, the New Worker, sends warm, fraternal greetings to the 42nd International Antiwar Assembly in Japan. We pause to remember the tragic sacrifices and losses of the Second World War due to the criminal ambitions of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan for world domination and we vow to struggle to prevent another holocaust engulfing the world. The old, hated, colonial system was smashed by the peoples of the world following the victory in 1945. Now American imperialism is trying to restore it in a new bid for world domination. The primary contradiction in the world today is between United States imperialism and the peoples of the world. American imperialism, backed by British imperialism, has invaded Afghanistan and occupied Iraq. Now it threatens the independence and sovereignty of Iran. US imperialism is determined to control the global oil industry in its bid for world domination, which it calls the "new world order" or "globalisation". But the imperialists and their local lackeys are facing fierce resistance from the people - in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Colombia and elsewhere. The capitalist system cannot solve the problems of the world nor will working people tolerate indefinitely the brutal system which oppresses and exploits them to ensure that a tiny elite live in luxury and ease. Millions were spent to fund British imperialism's substantial contribution to the American invasion of Iraq. Millions more are being squandered to prop up the futile imperialist occupation in the face of a ferocious resistance. Though the British ruling class is openly divided over the Iraq war the one thing they all agree with is that none of them should pay a penny extra towards it. That cost, as always, is being dumped on the working class. All wars have to be paid for and imperialist wars are always paid for by working people in lives and money. The Iraq war is no exception. Another world is not only possible. It already exists. The superiority of socialism and the inevitability of change is demonstrated by the success and determination of the masses in People's China, Democratic Korea, Vietnam, Cuba and Laos. And in the oppressed world communists are in the vanguard of the fight for freedom and socialism. The flames of resistance are burning bright and an anti-war movement has spread across the world to demand the withdrawal of all imperialist troops and their lackeys from Iraq. With best wishes, Yours fraternally, Workers Revolutionary Party of Greece(EEK) Dear comrades, The Workers Revolutionary Party of Greece(EEK), Greek Section of the Coordinating Committee for the Re-foundation of the Fourth International (CRFI), sends to the 42nd Anti-War Assembly and to all the Japanese workers and oppressed popular masses its warmest fraternal greetings in commemoration of the horrendous imperialist crimes against humanity committed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The same forces of capitalist barbarism that initiated the Cold War by bombing millions of innocent Japanese civilians with the nuclear weapons of mass destruction, now, decades after these crimes, have spread devastation in Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. imperialism helped by its "coalition of the willing" criminals is waging a permanent terrorist "war against terror" to find out a way out from the insolvable structural crisis of the world capitalist system and to impose its supremacy in the chaotic post Cold War world. One year after the imperialist invasion of Iraq and the occupation of the country, the heroic Iraqi popular resistance threatens imperialism with a new, more devastating Vietnam. Already popular rebellions are spreading from the Mediterranean to the Gulf, from Palestine to Iraq. Furthermore, the impasse that imperialist America faces in Iraq and the Middle East as a whole starts to produce one political crisis after another at home and in all imperialist metropolitan countries, first of all in Europe. The governments that supported the war drive face now the wrath of their own people; the Aznar government in Spain was smashed in the elections after the Madrid bombings and the governments of war criminals in Britain and Italy were voted down in the recent Euro-elections, last June. The anti-war movement could and should be transformed into an all powerful mass movement to overthrow the capitalist governments and the system that generates war. Only the world working class, at the head of the entire oppressed can achieve peace by its own methods of class struggle and direct action, opening the road to Socialism. To achieve this historic goal, it's needed now more than ever before a revolutionary International of the working class and all the oppressed. Down with imperialism and its war drive! Imperialist troops out from Iraq and Afghanistan! Victory to the Iraqi resistance against Occupation and to the Palestinian Intifada against Zionism! Long Live proletarian internationalism! Against the war and the capitalist system that generates it, for peace and freedom and social justice, build a combat International of combat workers organizations all over the world! The Central Committee of EEK, Greek Section of the CRFI International League of Peoples' Struggle - USA (ILPS-USA) A militant greeting of international solidarity to the organizers and participants to the Tokyo International War Assembly! We, in the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS-USA) recognize our responsibility to expose and oppose US-led war of imperialism and corporate globalization. We commit ourselves to coordinated action to defeat the intent of transnational corporations, particularly that of the US, to subvert governments, in its scheme to the implement globalization's policies of deregulation, privatization and trade liberalization. As we acknowledge and accept the responsibility to ensure that the democratic rights of the people of the US are protected, deepened and expanded. We commit ourselves to unified action like this Tokyo International War Assembly to oppose any and all attempts to subvert, constrict, erase or render conditional all rights and freedoms guaranteed by national and international laws. We firmly oppose the Bush' Patriot Act and all other legislation seeking to contract the political and civil liberties of the people of the United States, as well as treaties and agreements which would exempt any act of state from national and international justice. We recognize and accept the responsibility to ensure that our government acts on the behalf of the people and for the greater good of the international community. One of our assumed responsibilities is to provide support to the just struggles of peoples all over the world for genuine freedom, democracy and liberation, and to immerse us in the broad international anti-imperialist, anti-interventionist and anti-globalization movements. We commit ourselves to coordinated action to oppose and resist the doctrine of "pre-emptive wars" which merely enables transnational corporations to pillage nations and enslave the people of the world. We are one with you in spirit in opposing and exposing the US War of Aggression against Iraq, and all other forms of US interventions in every part of the world! Long Live International Solidarity! No to War!