English Home 45th International Antiwar Assembly in Japan August 5th 2007 Overseas Appeal for the Assembly Messages of solidarity In the midst of a surging tide of antiwar activities, Japanese workers, students and citizens held the Assembly on August 5th. 1200 people gathered at the central meeting in Tokyo (pic above). Regional meetings were held in Hokkaido, Hokuriku, Tokai, Kansai, Kyushu and Okinawa. (See Weekly Kaihoh, No. 1981, No.1982, No.1983) Overseas Appeal for the 45th International Antiwar Assembly Break through the crisis of global warfare caused by the new confrontation between the US and China/Russia! Stir up the flames of revolutionary antiwar struggle worldwide! The Executive Committee for the 45th International Antiwar Assembly - All-Japan Federation of Students' Self-Governing Associations [Zengakuren] - Antiwar Youth Committee - Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction) [JRCL (RMF)] Let us fight against the space arms race intensified between the US and China/Russia!Oppose their competitive strengthening of nuclear military power! Today, more than four years since the unjust invasion of Iraq, the barbaric military occupation by American imperialism has assumed an aspect of total bankruptcy. The Muslim people of Iraq have beaten off the hateful US occupying forces through their brave resistance. The Bush-led American Empire is now increasingly isolated from the rest of the world because of its arrogance with which it rushed into war even in disregard for the United Nations. US allies in the 'Coalition of the Willing' withdrew from the field of battle one after the other; even the closest one, Tony Blair's Britain, announced plans for a withdrawal in January this year. This has caused a complete collapse of what we call the Hakenkreuz alliance between the US, UK and Japan. Taking advantage of this plight of the Bush Empire so mired in the Iraq war, Hu Jintao's China and Vladimir Putin's Russia are building up a world-wide encirclement against US imperialism by involving Iran, Venezuela and other countries on the basis of their strengthened bilateral alliance. All this means that world domination by Yankee imperialism as 'the sole superpower' has totally collapsed. The Bush Empire, now covered with wounds, has been forced to review its notorious military strategy, i.e. that of 'pre-emptive attack'. In order to prepare itself for 'war on three fronts' - (1) the eradication of anti-American regimes in the Middle East in the name of the 'war on terror', (2) the containment of Putin's Russia, which has launched a major counteroffensive against the US move for an 'eastward expansion' of NATO, and (3) the containment of Hu's China, which is struggling to become 'a superpower in the 21st century' under the banner of destroying America's unipolar dominance over the world - the Bush Empire is launching new offensives, based on a strategy for world domination that identifies China and Russia as its main enemies. It is hurrying to strengthen its own nuclear military power and to deploy MD (missile defence) systems on its front lines, i.e. in Central Europe and Japan. To reconstruct the US-centred system of alliances, it is bent on forming a triangular alliance between the US, Japan and Australia, while trying to expand NATO 'eastwards' in Europe. In opposition to this imperialist America, which is in this way trying to maintain its overwhelming ascendancy in nuclear military power, China and Russia have started attempts to strengthen their own nuclear military capabilities, including those in outer space. Thus the clash between the US and China/Russia, which are starting a race to strengthen nuclear military power on an unprecedented level, is causing a serious crisis that could provoke a new form of world war. Like a latter-day Ivan the Terrible, Putin is fulfilling his ambition to reinstate Russia as 'a great power'. For this he can thank a steep rise in international oil prices, caused by none other than the US invasion of Iraq. With last November's summit meeting of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) as the pivotal point, he launched a major counterattack with the aim of smashing attempts by the Bush Empire to 'export democratization' to CIS countries and 'expand NATO eastwards'. Russia is threatening 'to target its nuclear missiles' at Poland and the Czech Republic, which have announced their acceptance of the US-planned deployment of MD systems. It is also taking a threatening attitude towards the US government by suggesting its withdrawal from the INF Treaty on the elimination of intermediate-range nuclear forces. Likewise Hu's China succeeded in its first experiment to destroy a military satellite, thanks to military technology supplied by Russia. It is even starting a space development project, symbolized by its launch of a Mars exploratory satellite jointly with Russia. These two states are overtly starting their challenge to break through imperialist America's exclusive military control of outer space, which is crucially vital for this state in maintaining its unipolar dominance over the world. With this, they have thrown down the gauntlet for a new space arms race between the US and China/Russia. China and Russia are preparing not only a bilateral military exercise in July but also a multilateral exercise by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Russian territory, with the official participation of Iran led by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to coincide with the SCO summit to be held in Kyrgyz this August. This military exercise can only be a blown-up ritual designed to elevate the SCO to an anti-American military alliance under the banner of 'opposing hegemonism and monopolism of natural resources'. Comrades all over the world! Let us stand up to stop the Bush Empire from deploying MD systems in Central Europe and Japan! This deployment is nothing but an evil-minded scheme of the US imperialist state, through which it seeks to gain a free hand for a pre-emptive nuclear strike in order to militarily overwhelm China and Russia with more than ten thousand highly advanced nuclear weapons it possesses - under the pretext of 'disabling the nuclear missiles of hostile states'. On top of this, it is even hurrying to develop small nuclear bombs 'for use in combat situations'. We must also resolutely oppose China and Russia expanding their nuclear armaments with a view to competing with US imperialism. Comrades! Be aware that we are now in a critical situation. For, if we fail to stop this new nuclear arms race started by the US and China/Russia, the result could be the annihilation of humankind by their nuclear weapons. We must not forget the unpardonable crime of the last century perpetrated by US imperialism, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Let us fight hand in hand to stir up the flames of revolutionary antiwar struggle against the US and Japanese governments, which are preparing for war with China and Russia on the basis of their strengthened military alliance, and at the same time against the Chinese and Russian governments, which are responding to this with their own military build-up. Denounce the continued military occupation of Iraq by the Bush Empire! George W. Bush now finds himself cornered in a critical situation in which he has to decide a 'gradual pullout' and to actually carry it out sooner or later. He sent an additional 35,000 troops to Iraq under the pretext of 'ensuring public security', but in reality, it was merely an attempt to gloss over the miserable defeat of the US occupying forces and give the appearance of an 'honourable retreat' to the forced pullout. This attempt, however, has already gone bankrupt. Although the Bush administration carried out a 'surge' offensive to wipe out Muslim guerrillas by deploying the Iraqi army of the Shiite-led Maliki government along the front line, as if boarding with the enemy on the same boat, the offensive has been broken up by Sunnite fighters linked to al-Qaeda. They delivered their attacks in waves on US and Iraqi forces (including jihadist suicide bombings and car bombs). Increasing their opposition to the Maliki government, however, Al-Qaeda-linked groups have gone so far as to commit indiscriminate acts of terror not only against Shiite and Kurdish groups but also against Sunnite forces that declare 'a break with al-Qaeda'. This has aggravated the tragic situation in which disagreements between different Islamic sects and different ethnic groups within the Iraqi nation have developed into a fratricidal war. The Bush administration, intending to shore up its failed military reinforcement, held an international conference on the civil war in Iraq to beg cooperation from European governments and the Chinese and Russian rulers. Under this cover, it started direct talks with the anti-American governments of Iran and Syria. This means that the Bush Empire has bowed down to Iran and Syria, the very targets against which it had been vigilantly watching for a chance to launch military aggression, branding them 'state sponsors of terrorism'. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, well aware of Bush's plight, is striving to possess an 'Islamic nuclear bomb' under an anti-American, anti-Zionist banner, for which he is receiving strong support from the Chinese and Russian governments. Iran is calling on Sunnites and Shiites in all countries to unite, overcoming conflicts between Islamic sects. It is building an anti-American, anti-Zionist front in the Middle East to besiege the state of Israel by banding together the Shiite-led Iraqi government, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas that leads the Palestinian government and the Syrian government of al-Assad. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faces the collapse of his government amid a surge of blame at home for the historic defeat in his occupation of Palestine and his aggression against Lebanon. His right-wing opponent Likud, ambitious to seize power through a general election, is brewing up an outrage - the aerial bombing of Iran's nuclear facility - as its government did on an Iraqi nuclear plant in 1981 in the midst of the Iran-Iraq war. To protect this Zionist state, the Bush Empire is inciting Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas to commit armed attacks on Hamas, which holds firm its anti-American, anti-Zionist position. This is an evil plot to ignite civil war in Palestine. Abbas must be seen as a traitor who is trampling down the original spirit and bitter struggles of the PLO, in that he has chosen the road to a humiliating 'peace' in which Palestinian people will be forced to accept 'shackled autonomy' under the control of American imperialism and Israel. Comrades all over the world! The Bush Empire has completely failed in its military aggression against and occupation of Iraq, which it committed violently under the false pretext that Iraq possessed 'weapons of mass destruction' - the real aim being to plunder the oil resources in the region. The brave struggle of Iraqi Muslims based on their anti-American, anti-Zionist belief, which defeated this unjust war, is of a world-historic significance. For it has completely shattered the vaulting arrogance of the militarist empire of America, which had become the unchallenged 'sole superpower' and was half-crazed in its rotten prosperity after the epochal end of the confrontation between imperialism and Stalinism. However, the Chinese and Russian rulers, who have won over the Iranian power holders, are attempting to exploit this Muslim struggle in their own interests in undermining imperialist America's unipolar dominance of the world. The toiling masses of the world should fully realize the significance of the struggle by Iraqi Muslim people and pursue antiwar struggles against the Iraq war in solidarity with them, based on proletarian internationalism. Iraqi Muslims! We know that Sunnite and Shiite leaders in Iraq are calling for a united front to denounce the 'devilish conspiracies' perpetrated by the Bush Empire to inflame sectarian conflict, and also to oppose 'extremism that threatens to demolish the country of Iraq'. We express our whole-hearted solidarity with you, Iraqi Muslims, and appeal to you: band yourselves together to put an end to the US military occupation beyond conflicts between different Islamic sects and different ethnic groups, and strengthen your anti-American struggle based on Islamic inter-nationalism! Smash the Japanese neo-con government's offensives for constitutional revision and the strengthening of the new US-Japan military alliance! Despite the fact that the Bush Empire is writhing in agony from the collapse of its world dominance, finding itself increasingly isolated internationally, the Abe-led Japanese government is still blindly obedient to it - literally alone among the imperialist powers. At the bilateral summit held in Washington on April 27th, Abe vowed to Bush that he would intensify 'the irreplaceable alliance between Japan and the United States' into 'an unshakeable one'. This most shameful pledge means that Japan will become 'a vassal state', serving the Bush Empire in order to strengthen, in reality, the US-Japan military alliance as an offensive and defensive alliance against China and Russia. The 'beautiful country Japan', which Abe seeks to build, must be the most undignified, dirtiest country in the world. Look! Abe readily expressed his full cooperation with the US government in both the deployment of MD systems on Japanese territory and the so-called transformation of US forces. Moreover, in order to transform Japan into 'a country that can engage in war' together with the US, his neo-fascist government is bent on producing a Bush-forced new Constitution of Japan. Branding the current Constitution as 'forced by the US occupation authority', Abe is seeking to abandon Article 9, which declares the 'renunciation of war' and 'no maintenance of war potential'. His aim is to openly assert the reinstatement of Japan's 'right of belligerency' and restrictions on 'fundamental human rights'. Faced with these historic offensives, however, the antiwar peace movement of workers, students and other toiling masses in Japan is in a grave crisis due to the extreme degeneration of its official leadership. The leaders of Rengo (the largest national confederation of trade unions) stress that the US-Japan military alliance is necessary 'in the national interests'. They are even producing a supportive response from below to the government-planned revision of the Constitution. Militant workers who rally under the banner of the revolutionary left are strenuously building up struggles against war and the US-Japan military alliance, by breaking through a 'war collaboration movement' led by these labour aristocrats. The Japanese Communist Party led by Chairman Tetsuzo Fuwa - which still calls itself a 'communist party' though it converted long ago from Stalinism as fake 'Marxism-Leninism' to revised capitalism - is seeking 'cooperation with conservative voters'. This party of converted Stalinists has scrapped its basic political idea, namely 'denunciation of the Japan-US Security Treaty'. Shamelessly, it offers the existing Japanese government what they call a feasible alternative that the Security Treaty should be operated according to its 'stated purpose', i.e. the 'defence of Japan'. This is nothing but a repeat of the criminal example of the Second International, which collaborated in the First World War in the name of 'defence of the homeland'. Today, we are faced with enough 'evils' of contemporary imperialism, which is plunging the world's working classes and other toiling masses into war, into neo-fascistic repressive rule, and into so-called absolute impoverishment (pauperization). For all this, the converted Stalinists have discarded their basic positions 'against the Security Treaty', 'against imperialism' and 'against monopoly capital' to curry favour with 'enlightened elements of the monopoly bourgeoisie'. This is the root cause of their degeneration away from the working class. Militant workers and students of Zengakuren in Japan are struggling - by overcoming the degenerated peace movement led by the JCP, which has abandoned its opposition to the US-Japan military alliance - against the jingoist revision of the Constitution and the strengthening of the US-Japan warmongering alliance. At this very moment, they are advancing their struggles in workplaces and campuses nationwide. Let us build ranks for the revolutionary antiwar struggle under the banner of working-class internationalism! We appeal to our comrades all over the world! Let us resolutely stop the Bush Empire from preparing another war of aggression in the name of the 'war on terror' or the 'new war against totalitarianism'! Fight to stop the continuation of its military occupation of Iraq! The 'freedom and democracy' of which imperialist America boasts is only another name for a holocaust against other peoples and a brutal rule of neo-fascism - exactly as was revealed through the invasion and military occupation of Iraq. This is not all. It has also been brought to light that this 'freedom and democracy' coincides with its evildoings designed to force the rest of the world to accept American-type political and economic systems based on neoliberalism. It plunges the toiling masses into 'absolute impoverishment' through harsh competition on the markets, and at the same time causes serious harm to the global environment. Let us denounce these atrocities of Yankee imperialism! We must denounce once more with our anger afresh. Today, after Stalinism went bankrupt with the pivotal collapse of the self-styled 'socialist state' of the USSR in 1991, the descendants of Stalinism, who bear its 'negative legacy', are spreading capitalist toxins in the position of the power holders of China and Russia. Out of the ruin of the Stalinist USSR, Putin's Russia revived itself as an authoritative state under a strong presidency based on the FSB (Federal Security Bureau, the former KGB). It is promoting the transformation of its politico-economic structure into state capitalism by making the most of huge benefits from its rich natural resources, including oil and gas. Hu's China is forming a politico-economic structure, which should be called state capitalism, by carrying out policies of 'a capitalist transformation from above', though it retains the framework of authoritative rule by an autocratic state under a Stalinist bureaucracy. Based on this politico-economic change, the state of China itself is in transition to a fundamental transformation. Both Russia and China must be seen as the 'negative legacies' of Stalinism, which went bankrupt despite its self-professed goal of 'transcending capitalism'. Working people all over the world! Let us break through the rising crisis of war rooted in the confrontation between the Bush Empire and China/Russia! We are confident that the revolutionary antiwar struggle we are promoting now is a fight to truly break through the threat of global warfare. It is also one that has momentum for a fundamental breakthrough in the multilayered crisis caused by contemporary capitalism in this 21st century after the collapse of Stalinism. Whether or not the toiling masses of the world can break through 'war and dark rule' in this century to open up a brilliant future depends on a world-wide promotion of the revolutionary antiwar struggle. Comrades all over the world! Let us fight together! (Issued on June 28th, 2007.) (Translation modified.) Messages of solidarity Revolutionary Marxists in Britain Workers' Revolutionary Party (EEK) Union Pacifiste de France Northstar Compass Socialist Appeal Democratic Socialist Alliance TAVINI HUIRAATIRA NO TE AO MAOHI - Front Libération de la Polynésia (F.L.P) Czech Humanist Party A World to Win News and letters Committees David McReynolds Региональная партия коммунистов (Ленинград) Владимир Пронин Тюменский обком РКРП-РПК и АКМ-Тюмень Марксистская платформа Revolutionary Marxists in Britain July 10th 2007, London, Britain Revolutionary Marxists in Britain send warm and comradely greetings to the 45th International Anti-War Assembly. We declare our solidarity with the struggle of the Zengakuren, Antiwar Youth Committee and Japan Revolutionary Communist League (RMF) against the Japanese Government's alliance with US imperialism, and against the imperialist occupation of Iraq. We fully support the Anti-War Assembly's call "for the revolutionary antiwar struggle under the banner of working class internationalism". In Britain, popular opposition to Britain's military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan helped to bring about the resignation of the notorious warmongering Prime Minister Tony Blair. However, the replacement of Blair by Gordon Brown does not mean any significant change in political direction. Brown in his first speech as Prime Minister used the word 'change' many times. Yet this man was Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) throughout the ten years of the Blair administration. Brown always supported the Blair-Bush imperialist occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. He also pushed through many privatisation measures, destroying public services. Brown's measures also worsened the position of Old Age Pensioners in Britain. Inequalities in wealth and income increased under Chancellor Brown. The recent failed bombings in Britain may be the work of militant Islamists opposing British imperialism. There may be involvement by the British state. Growing sections of the working class realise that such attacks will continue while Britain continues its military aggression against Muslim people in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Government's response, however, while talking of the need to 'engage with' Muslim leaders in Britain (in other words to recruit Muslim leaders into the state machine) is also to increase repressive legislation, strengthening state powers. Prime Minister Brown's proposals to give the power to declare war, etc., to Parliament, and his talk of a 'Bill of Rights', are little more than rhetoric. Such 'democratic' reforms are meaningless in the context of imperialist rule. They serve as a fig leaf to hide the reality of imperialism's military aggression. Brown's proposals do not include changes to the laws that restrict the rights of trade unions and the right of workers to strike. We in Britain will continue our struggle against British and US imperialism and the military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. We continue to study, and encourage others to study, the works of the late Comrade Kan'ichi Kuroda. Workers' Revolutionary Party (EEK) July 18th 2007, Athens, Greece Dear Comrades of the International Antiwar Assembly in Japan, The Workers' Revolutionary Party (EEK) of Greece sends its warmest internationalist greetings to your Assembly, an important focal point of the world wide anti-war anti-imperialist struggle and we wish you new successes. Now more than ever before we have to mobilize and organize the international working class and all the oppressed, both in the metropolitan imperialist centers in Europe, Japan and North America as well as in the countries of the periphery against the imperialist terrorist war led by US imperialism and misnamed as "war on terror". This war effort of the enemies of humanity, while creating enormous sufferings for the peoples in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Lebanon, has already failed. In all these countries US imperialism and all its allies, first of all Zionism, have suffered important setbacks. The campaign has not only failed to subjugate the peoples and their resistance but this failure and the continuing popular resistance is producing political regime crises both in belligerent and nonbelligerent countries as we see in Italy, Turkey and in the United States themselves. It is the duty of the international working class to bring down all the capitalist governments at home participating, directly or indirectly to this war campaign. The war cannot be defeated by simple wishful thinking or pacifist alliances with "peace loving" capitalists but with resolute class struggle methods. The failures of imperialism in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon - including its failure to overthrow by a coup the elected Hamas government and impose a pro-imperialist stooge regime in Gaza and Palestine - do not mean that the dangers are diminishing, on the contrary. The Bush-Cheney gang and their supporters among the hawks in Tel Aviv do not hide that they are preparing new wars and attacks against Iran, Syria, Gaza and Lebanon. In the case of Iran, the use even of 'tactical' nuclear weapons is suggested. As the tragic anniversary of the first nuclear holocaust suffered by the Japanese people approaches, we denounce these criminals against humanity: no more Hiroshimas! No more Nagasakis! Hands off Iran and the entire Middle East! Now more than ever we have to do our anti-imperialist internationalist duty by escalating our worldwide struggle to overthrow imperialism, the world capitalist system, which generates wars in its historical decline and crisis, and open the road to the victory of the world socialist revolution, the only guaranty of world peace. Long live proletarian internationalism! Down with imperialism and war! Forward to the world socialist revolution! For a new workers' revolutionary International! On behalf of the CC of EEK Savas Michael-Matsas, General Secretary Union Pacifiste de France July 21st 2007, Paris, France Dear friends of 45th Antiwar Assembly in Japan, 1945 was a year of horror, but also of hope with the end of WW2. May your 45th congress translate also all our hopes for a world without arms and without soldiers! We send you all our best wishes for a super fructuous meeting: it is more crucial than ever to enforce our total pacifism, and to close everywhere all the doors for the military. Keep in touch, because borders will never stop men! I press my red nose of clown, in order to empower all your massive derision against arms. Rene Burget Section representative for Union Pacifiste de France at WRI Northstar Compass July 10th 2007, Toronto, Canada Dear Comrades: The 45th International Anti-War Assembly is taking place at a more worsening and dangerous time than the previous 44th Assembly took place. The forces of reaction headed by US imperialism have become entrenched and much bolder, by using many forms of subversion, by using internal semi-hidden and outright fascist forces to promote the US agenda in countries of the world. The anti-war movement is growing and being more effective in the realization for unified actions against the New World Fascist Order. A prime example is your International Anti-War Assembly that points the way towards a unified and more effective action. But is this enough? Are there not other actions that will complement your wonderful and effective work? Your slogan for the 45th Assembly is right on the mark. This is the answer that all anti-imperialist forces should learn from and follow! As Lenin and Stalin often wrote: "Practice without theory leads to nowhere!" Despite some imperialist disunity in tactics in many aspects and its internal rivalry, they are on the whole united in their fight against the upsurge of revolutionary struggles taking place in many countries of the world. Unfortunately this is not the case at present in the anti-imperialist struggles. All of us should know who is our enemy ― no matter under what banner they may be standing under. Therefore, your 45th International Anti-War Assembly has a very, very important role to play in this life-and-death struggle! Progressive forces and all peace-loving people of the world are depending upon you comrades! Do not let us down! Yes Comrades - We are many, the enemy are few! On behalf of the International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet People and Northstar Compass journal Michael Lucas - Chairman / Editor Socialist Appeal July 25th 2007, Saint Paul, USA To the 45th International Anti-War Assembly: Revolutionary Greetings from the United States! The workers and youth comrades of the Workers International League, the U.S. supporters of the International Marxist Tendency organized around Socialist Appeal, send their red greetings and solidarity to our comrades gathered across Japan who are discussing the world crisis of imperialism, and of building a mass anti-war movement to defeat imperialism by mobilizing our class. Today, the general instability of capitalism is being reflected in every country. This is true in the United States as well. U.S. capitalism is riddled with problems on every front. The wars in Iraq in Afghanistan have added fuel to the fire. Just six years after 9/11, when President Bush enjoyed a 90% approval rating, his approval rating is now only 29%. Only 14% of the population approve of the U.S. Congress. There is a generalized lack of confidence in the bourgeois political institutions. The morale of the military has declined greatly ― there are too many desertions for the Pentagon to accurately count, and the number of soldiers gravitating to the anti-war movement has increased. And, comrades, this is taking place within the 'belly' of world imperialism! Capitalism cannot offer a way forward for the working class in any country. Ultimately, the only solution to the insanity and barbarism of capitalism is its overthrow by the world working class and the establishment of a World Socialist Federation. This idea is inherent in the anti-war movement, because war is an inseparable part of capitalism. American imperialism did not invade Iraq out of sympathy for the Iraqi workers, peasants and youth living under Saddam's boot or because of "weapons of mass destruction"― they invaded to gain geopolitical dominance in the region and greater access to its oil. While waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the imperialists still find time to threaten Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. U.S imperialism is just the biggest imperialist bully. Over the past years, the rivalries between all the imperialist countries have grown. From across the Pacific we have read that even the Japanese bourgeoisie, despite a "pacifist" Constitution, are making the first attempts towards re-militarization. Comrades, we give you our wholehearted support in the struggle against those attempts! To end war is to end capitalism! in International Solidarity, Socialist Appeal (Workers International League) Democratic Socialist Alliance July 30th 2007, Britain Dear comrades, Thank you very much for sending to the Democratic Socialist Alliance, your overseas appeal for the 45th International Antiwar Assembly in Japan. The Democratic Socialist Alliance sends solidarity greetings to the Assembly and expresses its support for the revolutionary antiwar struggle of the workers of the world. Warfare and capitalism are inextricably linked and only through the revolutionary supersession of the capitalist system by socialism can the horrors of war be permanently ended. Your appeal is correct to highlight the issues of the space arms race and the competitive strengthening of military nuclear power by the imperialists and the war in Iraq. The British capitalist state is, of course, a principal actor in all of these anti-human actions. I enclose for your information, a statement issued by the DSA against the British government's war upon the people of Iraq. Your appeal is also correct to draw attention to the conflict between different Islamic sects and ethnic groups in Iraq and to call for unity of the Iraqi people in fighting the US/British led occupation of their country. The DSA has no doubt that this internal conflict is being promoted by the occupation forces in an effort to secure their rule. Evidence of this was recently provided by the assassination by US special forces, accompanied by national guards of the Iraqi puppet regime, of Abd-alhussein Sadam, the head of the safety force of the Iraq Freedom Congress, a secular organisation which is fighting to unify the Iraqi people against the occupation. The occupying forces view such a unification as being contrary to their interests. I enclose the DSA's statement of condemnation, issued to the US Ambassador to Great Britain and to the British Prime Minister, against the assassination of comrade Abd-alhussein. Finally, may I seek the Executive Committee's permission to publish your appeal in the DSA's journal. After such publication and further discussion, we would intend responding in more detail to the ideas expressed in the appeal. For a successful 45th International Antiwar Assembly! In revolutionary solidarity, Democratic Socialist Alliance (Great Britain) TAVINI HUIRAATIRA NO TE AO MAOHI - Front Libération de la Polynésia (F.L.P) 31 Juillet 2007, Papeete, French Polynesia (Te Ao Maohi) Aux participants du Congres, Freres et S?urs: Au nom du President Oscar Temaru et des militants du Tavini Huiraatira, je vous adresse mes salutations nationalistes et fraternelles, a vous chers amis ainsi qu'a tous ceux et celles qui participent au 45eme congres antiwar. Je suis sincerement desole de ne pouvoir assister a votre congres mais j'espere que cette reunion sera productive et un succes pour tous. La situation actuelle continue a se deteriorer et votre mobilisation, la mobilisation de tous est necessaire pour amener le France ainsi que les pays colonisateurs a changer leurs politiques a l'egard des pays spolies et colonises; Cette situation doit cesser. Un mouvement de solidarite fort et actif sont des atouts importants pour surmonter les difficultes a venir; Nous devons utiliser les outils du droit international pour trainer la France en justice pour reparer les dommages subis au peuple polynesien et denoncer l'attitude du gouvernement Francais devenu le n°1 de la politique imperialiste. Nous esperons encore et malgre tout que celui-ci commencera a promouvoir une politique de paix et de justice si l'on se refere aux declarations du nouveau President Francais. Nous avons le devoir de denoncer ces comportements coloniaux et nous devons trouver la force de nous organiser et nous opposer aux projets imperialistes; Soyons unis, determines et travaillons ensemble pour la liberte de la Polynesie, pour la dignite, la fraternite et l'egalite de tous les etres humains a travers le monde; Nous devons creer une mobilisation consciente et ne jamais abandonner les objectifs de liberation des peuples opprimes. Ou que nous soyons et que nous luttons, que vive notre solidarite indefectible! Encore une fois, bonne chance dans vos travaux dans le cadre de votre 45 th congres et recevez les amities les plus chaleureuses du peuple Maohi. Czech Humanist Party August 1, 2007, Prague, Czech Republic Dear friends, Receive our greetings and positive thoughts during these difficult times of violence and human suffering. We are happy that we have this opportunity to express our solidarity with your antiwar activities. We in the Humanist Party in the Czech Republic are very much involved in a similar struggle - to prevent the US from building a military base in our country. We realize that this is a very dangerous step that would lead the world to a new arms race and perhaps a new cold war. It could even lead to a full-blown nuclear conflict. Therefore, we are doing all we can in a non-violent manner to prevent this plan of the current US administration from succeeding. We understand that people in the US are with us, as we know that majority of Americans disagree with the politics of confrontation of President Bush. Therefore we are working together with the people of the US and the other countries of the world so that a new, strong, non-violent, peace movement will form that will have the strength to stop the minority which currently runs the world affairs. We wish your assembly all the best and are looking forward to further strengthening the network of all positive people who want to build a better world for the future generations. We also invite you to participate in the International day of Non-violence this 2nd of October, which was recently announced by the United Nations. During this day, people of many different backgrounds, cultures, religions and beliefs will unite to express their hope and desire for a non violent world; a world, where violence and human suffering would once and for all disappear. With warm greetings Jan Tamas, Ph.D. chairmanHumanist Party A World to Win August 3rd 2007, London, Britain Dear Comrades and Friends Thank you for inviting us to send a message to your assembly this weekend. We appreciate your efforts to reach out across the world to organisations like ours. Like you we are totally opposed to the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan and the nuclear arms race. We too seek a revolutionary alternative to warmongering regimes throughout the world, especially our own government in Britain. You rightly warn about the highly unstable global re-alignment of power and the strengthening of nuclear military capabilities in countries like China and Russia. Pakistan, which also has nuclear weapons, is currently experiencing an unprecedented social and political crisis, which holds more new dangers. In the UK, one of the largest electronic monitoring station in the world at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire is being upgraded to provide early warning of missile attack that can be fed into the planned US national missile defence system. This is in breach of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the US and Russia and again shifts the balance of forces between the superpowers and will be used by Putin as justification to target nuclear missiles at Poland and the Czech Republic. Today's wars result from capital's built-in need to exploit human and natural resources in the quest for profit. We do not view the war against Iraq as purely resulting from the apparent strength of US capitalism, but rather the continuing economic and political crisis of the globalised system as a whole. The expansion and extraction of profit is only possible today by super-exploitation of labour and maintaining excessive levels of production and consumption. It is this aspect of the capitalist system that is driving today's climate change emergency. As China and Russia have been drawn more closely into the sphere of global capital, the turbulent inflation of fictitious capital is ballooning out of control. China and the United States confront each other in a balance of financial terror, Ecological crisis has brought a new dimension into the struggle against globalised capitalism and the governments that serve it. As governments throughout the world pour untold resources into futile wars of aggression, killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of innocent people, they are unable to protect their own citizens from ecological disasters such as floods, fires and hurricanes - as shown in today's floods in England and China and fires in Mediterranean area. Not only Bush, but the New Labour government in Britain, first under Blair and now under Brown, together with other capitalist governments including Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, seek to give themselves charisma and a role under conditions where "liberal democracy" has lost its old functions as a provider of services and buffer zone in the class struggle. In the UK, the "mother of parliaments" has become a rubber stamp for one-party rule, with virtually no difference between the major parties. It endorsed the war against Iraq and driven through countless "anti-terror" laws with the help of an entirely supine parliament. Brown and his Foreign Secretary David Miliband are presently conniving with Bush and Rice to provoke an attack on Iran. Under New Labour, we have seen the introduction of an authoritarian, surveillance state under the cover of anti-terror legislation, overturning centuries of rights. The police have been given unheard of powers to arrest and detain suspects. Brown is currently seeking even longer detention periods for supposed terrorists. This is the pattern, which we see repeated throughout the world. Japan's LDP government, with its continuing majority in the lower house, is seeking to extend its own anti-terror measures in line with governments throughout the world. As we know, these measures, whilst supposedly protecting the population, are in fact used against all and sundry, especially targeting ethnic and religious minorities, political opponents and anyone who does not fit in with the status quo. The ruling class itself is in a political crisis. The electoral debacle experienced by the Abe government and its Liberal Democratic party after 52 years in power shows the inability of the ruling class to rule in the old way. Ichiro Ozawa's Democratic Party offers no real alternative to the Liberal Democrats. In our book A World to Win, we have outlined our vision for a non-capitalist globalisation - we hope delegates to the assembly will study our proposals for the global economy, reconstructing the state and political system, our action plan for the ecological crisis and for a transformation of culture that will allow our collective human creativity to solve the problems we face. To arrive at our aim of putting an end to military and ecological destruction being wreaked by the present system we need to create political and economic structures aimed at replacing the profit motive and ensuring a democratic stewardship of resources. This means taking advantage of the political crisis of capitalist state structures and replacing them with popular organs of power. A World to Win extends warm wishes to all those attending the anti-war assembly. We hope that your meeting will be a resounding success. Corinna Lotz on behalf of A World to Win News and letters Committees August 5, 2007, Chicago, USA Dear Comrades: Revolutionary greetings from Marxist-Humanists in the U.S.! In six decades since the nuclear attack on Japan by the U.S., war has been constant, often on the brink of nuclear holocaust. The war in Iraq, though, reflects a new aspect related to the imperialist drive. Islamic fundamentalism has emerged in the 21st century as a contender, but not in the name of freedom and not as an alternative to this exploitative global stage of state-capitalism we live through now, headed by the U.S. The publication of Marxist-Humanists in the U.S., News & Letters, has amplified the voices of women's liberationists, workers, youth, and national minorities in the Middle East who are resisting Islamic fundamentalism and U.S. imperialism, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq. We say "amplified" because we also propose that it's time for our movement to concretely envision an alternative. Karl Marx's writings, his whole body of work, can be the philosophical foundation for working out an alternative to the state-capitalist world as well as religious fundamentalism. Our organization seeks to develop Marx's ideas about the future human society in his "Critique of the Gotha Program." Why have so many Marxists after Marx not pursued what it takes to achieve a society based on Marx's view of a new society: "From each according to her ability, to each according to her needs"? Raya Dunayevskaya, the founder of Marxist-Humanism, was committed to building a philosophy and a movement on Marx's view. Forgetting Marx's vision by many today coincides with the rise of ways to avoid total uprooting of globalized capital. Some revolutionaries propose building pockets of refuge. like cooperatives, which exclude capitalist trade relations and working conditions. Others seek relief in aligning with state-sponsored social programs. Left unchallenged either way is capitalism's value form of production, which will always impose its needs over human needs until it is uprooted. Creating directly social relations in a new society, Marxist-Humanism holds, is the only vision of freedom that can dispense with capitalism's alienated labor, exploitative relations, and wars. We join with you in solidarity at your antiwar assembly on August 6, 2006. As we have recalled for assemblies in the past, Dunayevskaya declared at a peace rally in Hiroshima on Dec. 8, 1965: "While I do not wish to minimize Japanese militarism's role in the second imperialist world war, the day of infamy that will never be erased from history is not Dec. 7, but Aug. 6. And when that day of infamy was extended, and on Aug. 9th, Nagasaki was atom-bombed, hell on earth seemed to be the only reality left. Because we are gathered here to make sure that that dehumanized version of reality does not repeat itself, our anti-war struggles must be inseparable from those aimed at eradicating that which is at the root of all wars: class society." In September we will be meeting to decide on our Marxist-Humanist Perspectives for 2007-2008. As part of our contribution to your antiwar assembly we include here the outline of our Draft for those Perspectives. Some excerpts are presented here too, in dialog with your appeal. The full Perspectives are on our web site (www.newsandletters.org) and in our newspaper. We will welcome your thoughts on them. The Resident Editorial Board, News and Letters Committees <Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2007 - 2008> (Excerpts) "Challenging the dominance of capital in theory and practice" Introduction: Two worlds in the U.S. I. Economic roots of political & cultural retrogression A. The drive for single world mastery B. Reversal of Reaganism? C. Transformations in state-capitalism II. Global crises and revolt, from Gaza to Latin America A. Palestine in crisis B. Freedom struggles in South Africa C. Battle of ideas in Latin America III. Marx's CRITIQUE OF THE GOTHA PROGRAM as a philosophy of revolution IV. Our tasks in the historic mirror David McReynolds August 8, 2007, New York, USA We do have some different approaches, as you know, and perhaps my views on some things are more moderatethan yours (or perhaps just not as correct). But we stand together in condemning, absolutely and without reservation, the US and British invasion of Iraq. And, withyou, I am alarmed that at the moves by the powerful forces in the Japanese government which want to push Japantoward re-militarizing and even to nuclear weapons. Fraternally, David McReynolds New York City Региональная партия коммунистов (Ленинград) 25 июля 2007, Санкт-Петербург, Россия Уважаемые товарищи! Региональная партия коммунистов (Санкт-Петербург-Ленинград, Россия) горячо приветствует участников 45-ой Международной антивоенной ассамблеи! Мы высоко ценим огромную работу её организаторов ― Союза японских революционных коммунистов, Дзенгакурэн и Комитет антивоенной молодёжи. Благодаря их активным действиям память о преступлениях американских империалистов против человечества, жертвами которых в августе 1945 стали сотни тысяч мирных жителей Хиросимы и Нагасаки, ежегодно всплывает в сознании японского народа и народов всего мира. Эта память мобилизует на борьбу против нынешних наследников Трумэна, продолжающих совершать одно за другим чудовищные преступления во имя сохранения и приумножения прибылей базирующихся в США транснациональных корпораций. В конце ХХ - начале XXI в. их жертвами стали народы расчленённой Югославии, Ирака, Афганистана. В последнее время позиции США и НАТО несколько ослабли. Однополярность мира, возникшая с распадом СССР, исчезает. Соединённым Штатам и НАТО противостоят Россия, ставшая страной капиталистической реставрации, и Китай, в котором всё более вольготно чувствуют себя капиталисты. Глобальное развёртывание стратегических вооружённых сил и военных баз США и НАТО, откровенно нацеленное против России и Китая, не могло не вызвать ответной реакции. Дан старт новой гонке вооружений, тяжёлым бременем ложащейся на экономику, и превращению ШОС в военно-политическую коалицию. Левые политические организации во всех странах сразу же после краха СССР, СЭВ и Варшавского договора стали постоянно, систематически предупреждать мировую общественность об огромной угрозе, проистекающей из превращения мира в однополярный с полным господством империалистических США. Но может ли трудящееся большинство населения Земли радоваться тому, что однополярность мира исчезает именно таким образом, с заменой на противостояние США и НАТО, с одной стороны, и Россией, Китаем и ШОС, с другой? Разумеется, нет. Хорошо, что по абсолютному господству США и ТНК, на них базирующихся, нанесён удар. Но новая гонка вооружений не только тяжело сказывается на положении наёмных работников. К этому фактору добавляется другой, не менее негативный. Правящие круги конфликтующих сторон отравляют массы псевдопатриотическим угаром, в атмосфере которого особенно трудно возрождать, а у новых поколений пролетариата воспитывать классовое сознание. Широкие социальные массы на всех континентах с 1999 развернули альтерглобалистское движение против навязанного финансово-промышленными ТНК современного миропорядка, мира войн, эксплуатации, национального угнетения. На мировых, континентальных и национальных социальных форумах, где активисты альтерглобалистских акций обмениваются опытом борьбы, господствующие настроения носят открыто антикапиталистический характер. Однако главный лозунг альтерглобалистов "За другой, справедливый мир!" не подкреплён чётким требованием мира социалистического, гарантирующего отсутствие войн и эксплуатации. Это происходит потому, что марксисты, являясь активными участниками альтерглобалистского движения, не смогли занять в нём лидирующих позиций. В свою очередь, это отражает состояние кризиса, который продолжают переживать левые политические силы. С одной стороны, многие партии, называющие себя коммунистическими, до сих пор заражены сталинизмом, дискредитирующим социалистическую идеологию, с другой стороны, многие левые организации поддаются разъедающему влиянию оппортунизма. Наконец, значительное число марксистских групп страдают замкнутостью, болезнью сектантства, оторваны от реальных проблем современного пролетариата - наёмных работников высокотехнологичных предприятий, составляющих ядро производительных сил капитализма ХХI века. Всё это не может не быть выгодным нашим общим классовым противникам. Поэтому, мобилизуя трудящихся на борьбу против империалистов и их приспешников, мы, марксисты, должны провести критический смотр собственных рядов и избавиться от всего, что нас ослабляет. В заключение мы вновь провозглашаем нашу солидарность с участниками 45-ой Международной антивоенной ассамблеи в Японии! За успехи в борьбе против агрессивной политики США и НАТО, против новой гонки вооружений! За марксистское обновление политического авангарда современного пролетариата! Исполком РПК Владимир Пронин Председатель Киевской городской организации "Прометей" член президиума Антифашистского комитета Украины 29 июля 2007, Киев, Украина 45-я антивоенная, антиимпериалистическая конференция происходит в атмосфере обострения межимпериалистических противоречий и дальнейших поражений войск американских интервентов и их пособников в Ираке и Афганистане. Народы всего мира не без злорадства наблюдают за этим, вспоминая как совсем еще недавно Буш и его английский "пудель" Блер, растерзав Югославию, обрушились на Афганистан и Ирак. Но они не учли тогда, что их победе в Югославии способствовало еще незначительное сопротивление международной общественности, умело дезориентированной массированной кампанией лжи и клеветы о мнимых сербских зверствах, а также то, что им удалось развести народы Югославии по национальным и даже религиозным квартирам. В результате значительная часть югославов не оказала серьезного сопротивления разрушению своего государства, а весьма многие из них приняли посильное участие в этом разрушительном процессе. Но последовавшая затем агрессия против Ирака под откровенно надуманными предлогами, лживость которых была очевидна для каждого нормального человека, угроза расползания агрессии на Иран, Сирию и КНДР, о чем сами империалисты в упоении своей кажущейся всесильностью сами твердили, не скрываясь, дали понять народам всего мира и, в том числе, народам самих империалистических государств, что надеяться на благоразумие империалистов не приходится и надо их остановить, пока они не втянули весь мир в новую кровавую мировую бойню. Со своей стороны иракский народ после падения режима Саддама Хусейна с каждым днем усиливал свое сопротивление агрессорам, нанося им все более возрастающие потери, особенно болезненно воспринимавшиеся на родине погибших в связи с тем, что они гибли в борьбе за бесчестное дело. Сейчас по всему мира не прекращается борьба за полный и безоговорочный вывод американских интервентов и войск их пособников из Афганистана и, прежде всего, Ирака. К этим требованиям уже присоединяются парламенты стран-интервентов. Блейр уже ушел в политическое небытие, а режим Буша также вскоре будет отправлен на заслуженное им место на мусорной свалке истории. И тем не менее, народам всего мира не следует тешить себя в связи с этим иллюзиями на радикальное изменение к лучшему во внешнеполитической стратегии стран США, потому что тот, кто придет на смену Бушу, в независимости от того, какую из двух ведущих партий империалистического монстра он будет представлять, обречен самой природой империализма на проведение агрессивной внешней политики в духе своих предшественников Клинтона и Буша и так же, как они, станут новыми военными преступниками. Поэтому, борясь с каждой конкретной агрессией, народы не должны упускать из виду свою главную цель - полную и окончательную ликвидацию империализма. Другого не дано, потому что пока существует империализм, угроза войн и агрессии будет постоянно сохраняться. В завершение хотелось бы сказать и о том, что несмотря на то, что агрессия против Ирака неумолимо движется к печальному для агрессоров исходу - позорному поражению, приходится вновь и вновь высказывать особую озабоченность всех искренних друзей мужественного иракского народа продолжающимися кровавыми столкновениями на религиозной, прежде всего, почве, ослабляющими национальное сопротивление империалистической агрессии и установленному им марионеточному режиму и несущими угрозу самому существованию Ирака как единого государства. Печальный пример Югославии, где искусственно созданное противостояние представителей фактически единого народа, но принадлежащего к трем разным религиям: православной, католической и мусульманской, было умело использовано для уничтожения единого югославского государства и установления во всех государствах-осколках бывшей Югославии одинаково марионеточных режимов, раболепно исполняющих волю своих американских хозяев во вред всем без исключения народам стертой с лица земли как единое государство, Югославии. Этот урок должен послужить напоминанием всем народам, что только единство действий всех народов сможет остановить и в корне пресечь агрессивные поползновения империализма к новым агрессиям и в конце концов поставить его на край гибели. Пока народы будут действовать разобщено, империализм вновь и вновь сможет предпринимать попытки к достижению своих бесчеловечных целей ценой крови и слез миллионов. Тюменский обком РКРП-РПК и АКМ-Тюмень 1 августа 2007, Тюмень, Россия Уважаемые товарищи! Тюменский областной комитет РКРП-РПК и "Авангард Красной Молодежи" г. Тюмени искренне поздравляет вас с юбилейной, 45-й, антивоенной ассамблеей. Мы рады, что Вы, не смотря ни на какие препятствия со стороны неофашистского правительства Абе, продолжаете вести борьбу за построение коммунизма во всем мире. Довольно знаменательным является также и то, что Вы не думаете о построении социализма только в своей стране, Вы смотрите шире, пытаясь выявить перспективу для будущего Мирового коммунистического общества, о котором писали Маркс и Энгельс. Вы прекрасно осознаете взаимосвязь всех мировых процессов, понимая, что ваше правительство на данном этапе является лишь марионеткой режима, навязываемого всему миру со стороны США. Вызывает уважение и Ваша позиция по поводу ситуации в Ираке. Отрадно, что Вы понимаете, что сунито-шиитский конфликт ― это лишь способ отвлечь иракцев от истинной борьбы ― борьбы за права нищих и обездоленных, которых в Ираке на данный момент большинство. Однако США также понимают, что им необходимо поддерживать этот конфликт, поскольку переход его на новую стадию чреват тем, что Америка очень скоро потеряет свое влияние в этом регионе, и, следовательно, лишится доступа к природным ресурсам Ирака. В то же время из Ваших заявлений довольно отчетливо видно, что Ваша борьба с США― это не месть за атомные взрывы в Хиросиме и Нагасаки, а борьба за мирную жизнь для всей нашей планеты. Уважения заслуживает и то, что, понимая, что на сегодняшний день большинство мировых процессов завязаны на военном противостоянии, вы тем не менее стремитесь чтобы все мировые преобразования проходили исключительно мирным путем. Тезис о прекращении "гонки вооружений" в сегодняшнем мире стал актуален как ни когда. Это связано с тем, что лидеры империалистических государств привыкли, что все споры нужно решать только силой оружия, чем подвели весь мир к тому, что из самой маленькой искры может разгореться огромнейшее пламя, которое поставить под угрозу вымирания все человечество. Искренне надеемся, что решения, которые примет и будет проводить в жизнь ваша ассамблея, помогут остановить этот процесс. Тюменский обком РКРП-РПК и АКМ-Тюмень Марксистская платформа August 8th 2007, Moscow, Russia Уважаемые товарищи! Не разделяя полностью всех положений Вашего заявления, мы, "Марксистская платформа", журнал "Просвещение" и газеты "Марксистский Листок" и "Момент истины" поддерживаем вашу последовательную борьбу за мир, против развязывания империалистами США новой мировой войны, и считаем, что борьба за мир становится сейчас главным направлением борьбы за социализм, за интересы мирового рабочего класса. Ваше заявление (или выдержки из него) будут опубликованы в ближайшем номере газеты или журнала. С коммунистическим приветом