English Home The 48th International Antiwar Assembly in Japan August 1st 2010 The Executive Committee for the 48th International Antiwar Assembly All-Japan Federation of Students' Self-Governing Associations [Zengakuren] Antiwar Youth Committee Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction) [JRCL (RMF)] The central meeting in Tokyo See Overseas Appeals for the Assembly Messages solidarity from foreign friends The Assembly's meetings were held in Tokyo and 6 other cities in Japan on August 1st. Given messages of solidarity from foreign organizations and individuals, every meeting was filled with the spirit of international solidarity. Thousands of workers, students and citizens assembled in the meetings. They have been fighting in the forefront of the struggle of the working masses in Japan against the US Marine base construction in Okinawa and every offensive to strengthen the US-Japan military alliance against China and Russia. Full of confidence and enthusiasm, they realized this year's meetings. Through the successful meetings, militant Japanese workers and students built a bridgehead for further development in the revolutionary antiwar struggle in solidarity with workers and people all over the world. Comrades! Let us fight to raise international waves of antiwar struggle! The Okinawa meeting in Urasoe City Overseas Appeal for the 48th International Antiwar Assembly in Japan Oppose the newly emerging race between the US and China-Russia to strengthen nuclear capability in the midst of serious confrontation between them! Strengthen international solidarity to smash coercion into 'war and poverty'! On the 1st of August, we, the anti-Stalinist revolutionary Left in Japan, are going to hold international antiwar rallies in Tokyo and 6 other cities throughout the country. Fully resolved to make a success of these rallies, we call on our comrades, colleagues and antiwar organizations all over the world to fight together, strengthen and expand our ardent international solidarity. Today, with the coming of the era of a serious confrontation between the US and China, there is an impending crisis of warfare in the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East. The outbreak of war must be stopped, no matter what. Let us create a torrent of international forces that will advance a revolutionary antiwar struggle. Let us rise by fundamentally overcoming the degeneration of the official opposition movement leaders, including converted Stalinists, social democrats and Trotskyists turning into social democrats! (1) Right now, the Korean Peninsula is on the brink of war. 'North Korean forces used a torpedo to sink the corvette Cheonan on March 26th' - this was the conclusion drawn by the South Korean government on May 20th. As a result, it demanded that the Kim Jon Il government 'punish those responsible for the attack'. The US and Japanese governments promptly gave their full support to South Korea's decision. On the one hand, the rulers of South Korea, the US and Japan each referred to the possibility of a 'diplomatic solution'; but on the other, they have mobilized their land, sea and air forces on a massive scale, placing them on a war footing against North Korea. Affronted by these developments, the North Korean government vehemently protested and threatened that it would 'initiate a full-scale military strike', a 'merciless military strike that could even turn Seoul into a sea of fire.' It has put its whole army on standby for full-scale combat. Since June 21st, the US imperialist Obama administration has been carrying out trilateral military exercises in the sea near Okinawa, together with the Kan government of Japan and the Rudd government of Australia (Rudd was replaced by Gillard on June 24th). This has involved mobilizing its 19 warships, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington. And together with the Lee Myung-Bak government of South Korea, this administration is planning to conduct anti-submarine manoeuvres in the Yellow Sea from early July, within a stone's throw from Qingdao where China's North Sea Fleet is based. The US government is thus repeatedly - almost continuously - carrying out joint military exercises off the Korean Peninsula and in the East China Sea by mobilizing Japanese, South Korean and Australian troops under the command of US Forces in Japan and South Korea. At the same time, these military actions against North Korea are designed to put on a show of US military presence to China and Russia, staunch supporters of North Korea. The Obama administration is now intending to form a stronger 'military encircling net' against Hu Jintao's China, which is rushing headlong towards strengthening its own naval forces by openly setting the goal of winning command of the East and South China Seas from US imperialism. Precisely for this purpose, the US is hurrying to forge links between its military alliances with South Korea, Japan and Australia, pivoting on the new US-Japan military alliance. Meanwhile, the Hu-led government of China and the Putin-Medvedev government of Russia are calling for 'calm and restraint, so as not to further escalate tensions' (over the sinking of the South Korean warship). At the same time, they are taking military measures to counter moves by the US, Japan and South Korea to place their armies on a war footing against North Korea. The Russian government, especially, has officially voiced doubt about the US and South Korean allegation of 'North Korea's torpedo attack', and has dispatched its own experts to investigate the sinking incident. It is going so far as to prepare large-scale naval exercises in the Far Eastern sea area from late June, including mobilization of its Black Sea Fleet. These are being prepared in accordance with its plan of operations 'to cope with the deployment of US forces in the event of an emergency over the Korean Peninsula'. The South Korean warship sinking incident is being fully exploited by US and South Korean rulers as a pretext for placing their armies on a war footing against North Korea (or a quasi-war footing against China). But it is presumed that this was, in the first place, a major conspiracy engineered by US imperialists to produce the fiction that it was war provocation by North Korea. At present, the Obama administration is desperate to contain Hu-led China, which is steadily building up its position as a hegemonic 'world power' and making rapid progress in strengthening its nuclear capability (i.e. comprehensive military capability with a core in nuclear arms), based on its close ties with Russia. Thus, with the aim of containing this 'rising dragon' - as we surmise - the Obama administration forged a conspiracy to sink the South Korean warship. It intended to create a convenient pretext for rebuilding and strengthening the triangular military alliance between the US, Japan and South Korea. War is always triggered by conspiracy. The ongoing crisis of warfare in the Korean Peninsula shows that a spark of war has been kindled at last in this tense situation, which must be called a 'serious confrontation between the US and China'. Coinciding with this war crisis over the Korean Peninsula, another tension that could trigger open hostility is growing in the Middle East. Mobilizing its assault commandos, the Netanyahu-led fanatical Zionist regime of Israel attacked a flotilla of the Free Gaza Movement, murdering at least 10 volunteers (May 31st). This Movement, a human rights organization, was created to save Palestinians in Gaza, with the support of the Erdogan-led Turkish government. The Zionist regime perpetrated this brutality out of hatred for the Erdogan government, which has embarked on measures to strengthen its aid activities for Palestinians in Gaza in firm protest against the continued Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip since the end of 2008. This is not all. Another strong motive that drove the Zionist regime was undoubtedly its anger and irritation towards the Turkish government's announcement that it would mediate in the transfer of Iran's nuclear substances. In doing so, it was seen to be openly colluding with the Ahmadinejad government, which is now pushing towards the development of an 'Islamic nuclear weapon'. Nuclear development by Iran, which is forming an 'anti-US, anti-Zionist' joint front in the Middle East, is what the fanatical Zionist regime fears most of all. This regime is watching vigilantly for a chance to carry out air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, in the same way as it bombed Syria's minor nuclear facilities (for experimental uranium enrichment) to destroy them in 2007. This regime could be about to trigger Armageddon. In today's world, with its impending crisis of war, we, workers and students in Japan, are fighting to block another Korean War from breaking out due to the 'serious confrontation between the US and China'. We do so by denouncing the degenerated leadership of the existing opposition movement, including the Koga leadership of Rengo (the Japanese Trade Union Confederation) and the central leadership of the Japanese Communist Party headed by Tetsuzo Fuwa and Kazuo Shii. They have not raised a single objection to the preparations for war against North Korea by US, Japanese and South Korean rulers. We are also fighting in Japan to denounce the US imperialist war of aggression against Afghanistan and to overcome the crisis of another outbreak of war in the Middle East. Workers and people all over the world! Rise in a fight together with us. Fight in solidarity with the South Korean people who have risen up against war, and with Muslim people in the Middle East who have risen one after another in an 'anti-US, anti-Zionist' struggle. (2) The US imperialist Obama administration contrived the conspiracy to sink the South Korean warship; it used the incident as a lever to press the (then) Hatoyama-led Japanese government into accepting the need for the US, Japan and South Korea to cooperate in coping with the 'threat' from North Korea. The Hatoyama government had originally raised the banner of 'Japan's independence from the US' and sought to relocate the US Marine Air Station at Futenma in Okinawa 'out of the country or, at least, out of Okinawa'. But under this pressure from the US, it was forced into submission. And finally, the Hatoyama Cabinet had no choice but to resign. The Joint Statement of the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee (the so-called 2-plus-2 agreement), announced on May 28th, was not only the Hatoyama government's pledge to the US government to construct a new base for US Marines off Cape Henoko in Nago City, Okinawa. It also meant that the Democratic Party-led government of Japan has agreed to subordinate the military strategy of Japanese imperialism to the US imperialist strategy for world domination - as seen in Obama's 'National Security Strategy', released on May 27th, the day before the US-Japan Joint Statement was announced. And in fact, the new DPJ-led government, with Naoto Kan succeeding Hatoyama as Prime Minister, is also promoting full collaboration with US and South Korean rulers in preparation for war against North Korea, while also calling for 'stronger cooperation between the US, Japan and South Korea' on the basis of the Joint Statement, which stresses the need to 'deepen the US-Japan alliance'. We shall never let this triangular military alliance between the US, Japan and South Korea be rebuilt or strengthened. Neither shall we let imperialist rulers make strides in strengthening the new US-Japan military alliance - the core of the triangular alliance - as an offensive and defensive alliance against China and Russia. In the recent struggle for the immediate removal of the Futenma base and against the construction of the new base in Henoko, we have always taken the lead in denouncing the criminal guidance (or misguidance) of the official leaders. The labour aristocrats of Rengo, who are of a single mind with the DPJ government, ran about frantically trying to throw cold water on the workers' struggle, so as not to drive the Hatoyama government into a predicament. Above all, the leaders of the JCP, headed by Fuwa and Shii, showed an abominable attitude. They placed their hopes on 'progressive aspects' of the Hatoyama government and tried to distort the anti-base movement into one of begging the government to fulfil its 'election promise' (to relocate the Futenma base 'out of the country or, at least, out of Okinawa'). Worse still, they have totally abandoned their opposition to the US-Japan Security Treaty [Ampo]; instead, they insist that the Ampo Treaty should be 'deployed according to its stated purpose, i.e. for the purpose of Japan's defence' or that 'abnormalities in the US-Japan military alliance should be corrected' and that it should be 'reformed into an equal, impartial alliance'. They played the role of preventing the anti-base struggle from developing into an anti-Ampo struggle. This is not all. JCP Chairman Kazuo Shii, who visited the United States for the first time in May under the pretext of attending the UN meeting to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is spouting the most aggravatingly flagrant flattery and praise for Obama, by saying that the United States has a 'tradition of democracy', or that the Obama administration 'has a receptive ear'. From base motives, the leaders of this party are selling themselves as 'a party that can talk frankly to the US (unlike the DPJ)'. Their aim is merely to get as many votes as possible in the coming Upper House elections on July 11th. By paying compliments to the Obama administration, which is pushing the Japanese government for the new Marine base construction in Henoko and in actuality is preparing for war against North Korea, this converted Stalinist party in Japan has signed its own death warrant. Denouncing this fathomless degeneration of the official leaders, we have been striving to transform the anti-base struggle in Japan into a militant struggle to oppose the strengthening of the new US-Japan military alliance, and further to aim for the 'complete removal of bases and abolition of the US-Japan Security Treaty'. Thus, all over Japan, there is a growing upsurge of anti-Ampo struggle. We are advancing our struggle to smash the present offensive, launched with the US-Japan Joint Statement as a bridgehead, to rebuild and strengthen the triangular military alliance between the US, Japan and South Korea. (3) Today, the world is witnessing new developments centring on the rapid rise of China as a hegemonic 'power', while its basic structure remains comprised of conflicts between the three poles of (1) the US-Japan alliance, (2) the European Union led by the Franco-German axis, and (3) the group of emerging and developing economies led by China and Russia. In particular, it is increasingly assuming the aspect of 'serious confrontation between the US and China'. Behind the deceitful collusion between US and Russian rulers in the 'nuclear arms reduction agreement', competition between the US and China-Russia to strengthen their respective nuclear capabilities is intensifying more than ever. One of the characteristics of this newly emerging competition between them lies in the qualitative strengthening of their respective nuclear capabilities. Day by day, this competition is increasing the danger of an outbreak of war. It is also connected with a worldwide scramble for natural resources, an economic war over currencies, trade and financial issues (spurred by the proposal for 'IMF reform' by the BRIC countries led by China and Russia, both ambitious to undermine US dominance over the world based on the dollar system), and an economic war linked to conflicts over environmental issues. The prime focus of this crisis is on East Asia, where military rivalry between the US and China is becoming increasingly intense. China has been conducting naval exercises in a defiant manner, its warships breaking through the 'first island line' and cruising near the 'second island line'. On this strengthening and deployment of the Chinese navy, the Obama-led US administration is openly expressing great caution, saying that China's 'anti-access strategies seek to deny ... the ability to project [US] power into a region, thereby allowing aggression or other destabilizing actions to be conducted' (the Quadrennial Defense Review). For this reason, it has revised its previous plan of 'transformation' (whereby US forces in the Far East would be reorganized by making Guam the hub of their operations) and is seeking to strengthen its bases in Okinawa, the keystone on the 'first island line', as well as all US military bases in Japan, as forward bases against China. Moreover, in its Nuclear Posture Review, this administration stresses the need 'to forward-deploy non-strategic nuclear weapons in support of its Alliance commitments' and publicly announces that the F-35 next-generation fighter will be armed with tactical nuclear weapons. This is what Barack Obama is doing behind the mask of an 'advocate of nuclear disarmament'. In opposition to the scheme of the American imperialists, Hu Jintao's China has disclosed its resolve to block hostile forces (which means the US Navy) from taking military action that threatens the 'national interests' of China, even in international waters ('anti-access' strategy). It has also made it public that it will prohibit enemy countries from engaging in free activities within China's 'defence lines' ('area denial' strategy). According to these strategies, China's rulers have defined East Asian seas as 'access denial zones'. By making more elaborate preparations to prevent US and Japanese troops from entering these sea areas, they are seeking to take over the command of these seas from US imperialism. This military strategy of Hu Jintao's China is based on its ambition to secure its sea lanes to Africa (from the East China Sea, via the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Middle East) for the transport of oil and other mineral resources. It also intends to monopolize continental shelf resources in the East and South China Seas. According to these 'military strategies for active defence', Hu's China is bent on building two domestic aircraft carriers and developing the latest model of attack submarines in the name of 'maritime capabilities with both nuclear and non-nuclear means of operation'. Furthermore, under the banner of 'improving the ability to guarantee safety in seas, outer space and cyber space', China's rulers are hell-bent on developing China's own MD [missile defence] system, promoting military build-up in outer space and strengthening their nuclear arms (in collaboration with Russian rulers). Certainly, the Obama administration and its Russian counterpart, the Medvedev government, signed the new nuclear arms reduction treaty in place of the expired START I (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) on April 8th. However, this is merely an agreement resulting from a community of interest to the effect that, for nuclear arms reduction and control, the US and Russia will take the lead as the two 'major nuclear powers'. On the one hand, Obama has a driving ambition to recover the prestige of the US as the leading state in 'nuclear arms reduction' and 'global peace and security'. He intends to roll back Hu's China, which has come to hold hegemony in international politics. On the other hand, Putin and Medvedev, who are collaborating with Chinese leaders in forming an international encircling net against US imperialism, are nevertheless annoyed at heart because Russia alone, among all the BRICs, is suffering from economic stagnation, shattering their dream of reinstating Russia as 'a world power'. Their conclusion of the treaty eloquently shows that both sides have colluded with each other to recover their respective national prestige by taking advantage of their status as 'major nuclear powers'. As such, this is another phenomenon produced by the seismic change in the international situation, i.e. the 'serious confrontation between the US and China'. The signing of the treaty on the reduction of strategic nuclear weapons by both US and Russian rulers is based on the reality that they are both suffering from growing financial deficits amid unprecedented economic difficulties. They are merely seeking for 'nuclear arms reduction' in a way that is favourable to their respective state interests. The Obama administration is anxious to safeguard its overwhelming supremacy in nuclear military power. For this purpose, it is intent, in actuality, on maintaining and upgrading tactical nuclear weapons, which are exempted from reduction, and on deploying missile defences worldwide (including those in South Korea and Romania) to be systematically deployed in connection with said tactical nuclear weapons. It is steadily implementing these measures, while using the new treaty to contain its counterpart so as not to promote another military build-up. In rivalry with the US imperialists, Russian rulers have incorporated stipulations favourable to them in the new treaty - namely, that this treaty 'binds the obligation to reduce strategic offensive weapons to the development of missile defences' and that each side has the 'right to withdraw from the treaty if ... an increase in US strategic missile defence significantly harms the effectiveness of Russia's strategic nuclear forces'. Meanwhile, they are frantically developing a new type of missile that can slip through the interceptors flying from US MD systems. And the rulers of China, now rubbing their hands at the US and Russia's 'arms reduction', are seeking, for their own part, to catch up with the US nuclear military capability. They are busy constructing China's own missile shields (inseparable from the development of new technology to blast US military satellites) and building up China's naval forces in collaboration with Russian rulers. In this connection, at the 'Nuclear Security Summit' held in mid-April, Obama tried to lead the meeting by stressing his achievements in 'arms reduction' talks with Russia. He sought to involve the Chinese government, which rejects 'nuclear arms reduction', in forming an 'international framework for nuclear arms reduction and control (i.e. non-proliferation)'. He also attempted to form an international containment whereby to press the Ahmadinejad government of Iran (which had announced a plan to start enriching uranium to a higher level) to give up its program for nuclear development. (These attempts by Obama were intended to break through the latest international context, in which China has become the 'sole winner' in the arena of international politics (as shown dramatically at COP15, the international conference on climate change at the end of the last year). This situation has been brought about against the following background: firstly, China successfully formed a worldwide encircling net against US imperialism during the years of 'Bush's wars'; secondly, China is enjoying high economic growth despite the simultaneous global recession. We can well presume that Obama intended to change this state of affairs and produce a new international framework - a US-China condominium or a G-2 system, so to speak. Hu Jintao, however, has rejected such an invitation, saying that China is 'among the developing nations'. This is because his government is ambitious to unseat US imperialism from the position of a 'sole superpower' and promote China as a hegemonic 'power for the 21st century'.) At the United Nations meeting held in May to review the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Obama sought a resolution to prevent Iran's nuclear development. However, the Brazilian and Turkish governments, led by Lula and Erdogan, respectively, presented counterarguments to this. As a result, the issue of Iran's nuclear development was deleted from the final document despite obstinate resistance and pressure from the US government. Instead, it stipulated the convening of a 'conference in 2012, to be attended by all States of the Middle East, on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction', as proposed by the Egyptian government. The Erdogan government, in particular, raised a proposal that Turkey itself should mediate in shipments of nuclear materials to contribute to the 'peaceful use of nuclear energy' by the Iranian government. This proposal gained the support of many representatives of economically emerging and developing countries, and finally foiled the US imperialists' attempt. These developments signify that behind-the-scenes manoeuvres 'against US imperialism' by Hu's China and Putin-Medvedev's Russia have started to take effect. Among Islamic countries in the Middle East, there is a growing trend to initiate counteroffensives both against the state of Israel, which already possesses nuclear weapons, and against the imperialist state of America, which is sticking to its double-standard policy - i.e. patronizing nuclear-armed Israel on the one hand, while trying to hamper Iran's nuclear development on the other. The Turkish Erdogan government is determined to take the lead in this tide 'against US imperialism and against Zionism', even if it means collaborating with the Iranian Ahmadinejad government, which is bent on possessing an 'Islamic nuclear weapon'. In the past, Turkey used to be a pro-American state and even had a military cooperation agreement with Israel. But after Israel's invasion of Gaza (December 2008), the G・-Erdogan government (the first Islamic government in Turkey's history, coming to power in 2002) made its 'anti-Zionist' position clear. This is the very reason why the fanatical Zionist Israeli regime, having lost its only 'friendly nation' in the Middle East, assaulted the Gaza aid flotilla with open hatred for the Turkish government and murdered Turkish volunteers. With burning anger, we condemn the deadly attack on the Gaza aid flotilla by the bloodthirsty Netanyahu regime of Israel! Denounce the Obama government that permits the Israeli blockade of Gaza! We are sounding the alarm. There is a growing danger that the cornered Israeli rulers will launch a military attack against Iran. We call on workers and people all over the world to rise in solidarity with Muslim people fighting against the US, against Zionism. Fight to stop the frantic Zionist Israeli regime from committing further brutality! Fight to end 'Obama's war' that is still making Afghan people wallow in pools of blood, though repeatedly routed. In the midst of the serious confrontation between the US and China, war is imminent in both East and West Asia. The root cause of this crisis, of course, lies in the competition between US imperialism and China-Russia to strengthen their respective nuclear capabilities on a new level. We must resolutely create a revolutionary antiwar struggle, based on proletarian internationalism, against this race to strengthen nuclear capabilities between the US and China-Russia. Workers and toiling masses in Japan, the only country in the world that has ever experienced a nuclear holocaust, know very well that it is nothing but a fantasy to place hopes on the 'abolition of nuclear weapons' through 'nuclear disarmament' talks between state power holders. This fantasy arises from the fallacy of regarding nuclear weapons in themselves as the cause of threats to the 'human community' or 'peace'. It results from seeing them in isolation from the confrontations between the states, the US and China-Russia, all of which produce nuclear weapons, arm themselves with them, and confront each other with them (this confrontation is, in itself, the root cause of the war crisis). For this very reason, the banner of our struggle must not be to 'abolish nuclear weapons' but to 'oppose the competition to strengthen nuclear capabilities'. There is no force in the world that can create 'truly permanent peace', other than that of advancing the struggle of the working class and people who are united across borders to break the competition between the US and China-Russia to strengthen their nuclear capabilities. Workers and people all over the world! Expose every deception in our rulers' claims of 'nuclear disarmament' or 'arms control'! Now is the time to rise up in struggle, united under a single banner: 'Oppose the newly emerging competition between the US and China-Russia to strengthen their nuclear capabilities!' (4) The coercion to war by the rulers of the US (and Japan and South Korea) as well as by those of China and Russia (and North Korea) is inseparably linked to their coercion of poverty upon the toiling masses in every country in the world. The Kan-led Japanese imperialist government has placed the whole nation on a war footing against North Korea (and China) in alliance with the Obama-led US imperialist government and the South Korean Lee Myung-Bak government. In the name of a 'responsible policy for security and foreign relations', this government has openly declared that it will relocate the US Marine Base in Futenma to the area off Henoko, Nago City, and that it will move and expand US military drill grounds in Okinawa to various places across the country under the pretext of 'reducing the burden imposed on Okinawa'. This is not all. This government has promised to pay the Obama administration an enormous amount of money to cover the expenses for US forces' transformation, in accordance with a bilateral agreement during the days of former LDP governments headed by Jun'ichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe. Not only that, it regards the huge defence budget effectively as a sacred cow. What's worse, in order to secure financial resources for this military expenditure, and to steamroller a corporate tax cut to support monopoly capitalists, this government is watching for a chance to increase the rate of consumption tax (from 5% to 10%). In this way, the new Kan-led DPJ government that has taken over from the Hatoyama government has thrown away even the previous Hatoyama-Ozawa-style catchwords, 'Free Japan from its excessive dependence on the US' and 'Priority to people's daily lives'. It is launching reactionary offensives more openly than ever to force 'war and poverty' upon the working class and toiling masses in Japan. In spite of this, the Koga leadership of Rengo has expressed its 'full support for the DPJ government' and is ordering its rank-and-file members to devote themselves to vote collecting activities for the coming Upper House elections. The Fuwa-Shii leadership of the JCP has no intention whatever of opposing US, Japanese and South Korean rulers in their preparations for war against North Korea. Far from raising an objection, it has gone so far as to join the chorus of voices citing a North Korean threat. In the end, it has started to praise the Obama administration, the one that had imposed the new US base construction in Henoko upon the Hatoyama government, saying that this administration has 'a receptive ear'. We denounce the leaderships of the official opposition movements that are perpetrating these criminal acts. We are fighting to achieve a great upsurge of antiwar, anti-Ampo struggle. Our slogans are: 'Oppose the preparation of war against North Korea', 'Stop the new US base construction in Henoko' and 'Remove the Futenma base immediately'. We are also fighting to advance our politico-economic struggle against intensified mass taxation and other expropriation by the government. By advancing these struggles in a unified form, we are striving to form and strengthen the ranks of the working class that can overthrow the Kan government. Working people all over the world! Our world today is revealing the characteristics of our times, an age of serious confrontation between the US and China. Under these circumstances, toiling masses all over the world are suffering more and more severely from war and poverty. We call on every one of you, workers and people. Let us rise in a fight against war and impoverishment with the aim of radically overcoming the crisis of the dark 21st-century world! Overcome the crisis arising from the death agony of contemporary imperialism and from the contradictions of state capitalism brought about by the descendants of those Stalinists who ruined themselves after they had kept up the pretence of 'socialism'. Let us fight in unison across borders on the basis of proletarian internationalism! (June 25th, 2010) The Kansai meeting in Osaka City Messages from Foreign Friends Speeches by Revolutionary Marxists in Britain Address through phone from the International Leninist Trotskyist Faction Messages of solidarity from Tavini Huiraatira no Te Ao Maohi (Liberation Front of Polynesia) Vladimir Pronin (Ukraine) The Russian Communist Workers Party - Revolutionary Party of Communists The Russian Party of Communists David McReynolds(US) News and Letters Committees (US) Workers International League (US) A World to Win (Britain) Union Pacifiste de France Workers Revolutionary Party (EEK) (Greece) All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) (Russia) Revolutionary Marxists in Britain Comrade Jim Lane Comrades! We, Revolutionary Marxists in Britain, send our warm and comradely greetings to the 48th Anti-War Assembly. The world capitalist recession has seen massive attacks by the bourgeoisie on the living standards of the working class and the poor. There has in turn been resistance by the working class. This resistance has not developed a coherent political form. The need for a revolutionary workers' international based on the principles of Revolutionary Marxism has never been greater. The irrationality of capital's drive to cut costs to make profits regardless of the risks has revealed itself on the shores of the world's Number 1 imperialist state, the USA. The leak of oil from BP's Deepwater Horizon rig caused huge environmental damage and ruined the livelihood of local people. This is not a new issue for oppressed people in other parts of the world. The people of the Niger Delta in Nigeria have endured massive pollution from Shell and ExxonMobil's oil installations for the past fifty years. More oil is spilled in the Niger Delta every year than was spilled in the recent Gulf of Mexico disaster. The oil companies make the profits, their lackeys in the government gain a small portion, and the people in the region lose their health and livelihoods. Imperialism's drive to control energy sources means the continued use of armed force to maintain imperialist rule in Iraq and the brutal war in Afghanistan. The "Wikileaks" exposure of the civilian deaths caused by both US and British troops in Afghanistan underlines the barbaric nature of imperialism. Britain's new "coalition" government has continued the war in Afghanistan. Its junior partner, the Liberal Democrats, has had to abandon all pretence of being anti-war. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg had to be reminded that as Deputy Prime Minister he could no longer admit that the Iraq war was illegal. The Liberal Democrats now fully support the war in Afghanistan. They support the renewal of the Trident nuclear missile system, which they previously opposed. The Liberal Democrats support the Conservatives in cutting welfare, pensions, health and education. Their finance spokesperson, Vince Cable, now business secretary in the coalition government, has exposed his party's hypocrisy in defending the rise in Value Added Tax, which he opposed during the election. Cable has stated that he only opposed the rise to "score points" - he therefore lied to the voters. The rise in Value Added Tax hits poor people hardest, as it is a tax on goods, including necessities. The cuts in services and welfare benefits also punish the working class and the poor. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat budget will make the poorest 10% of the British population over 20% worse off. The richest 10% will be only 1.6% worse off. Of course, the very rich, in Britain and throughout the world, have continued to become richer. The younger generation will suffer. The government has stopped the programme to build new schools. Meanwhile, 70 new graduates seek each available job. The old will suffer. The Government has launched an attack on the pensions of public sector workers. This follows private companies, who have closed their pension schemes. Yet Britain has one of the lowest state pensions in Europe. The previous Labour Government initiated many of the coalition's policies. The working class needs a new leadership, in Britain and internationally. We therefore welcome the 48th International Anti-War Assembly as a contribution to the struggle to the development of proletarian internationalism as the basis of the struggle against imperialist war, poverty and environmental destruction. Let us fight together! Comrade James White Comrades! I want to tell you how much we communists appreciate what you have done here in Japan. This is especially true of the writings of Comrade Kuroda. Comrade Kuroda has shown us that in order to build the necessary leadership for the working class it is necessary to rebuild the working class movement on class struggle lines. This necessitates a fight against the trade union and labour bureaucracies, who are dedicated to class collaboration. We are therefore attempting to follow Comrade Kuroda's approach to the connection of the building of mass movement with the building of party organisations. Comrade Kuroda's descending-ascending dialectic enables us to use our thought to penetrate beneath superficial and phenomenal appearances to grasp the essential features of whatever it is we have to understand. Having grasped these essential features we then have to ascend in thought to understand how these essential features find their expression in phenomenal appearance. We consider Comrade Kuroda's theory on materialist subjectivity to be of great importance. It enables us to help militant workers to become dedicated communists. Through materialist subjectivity workers can obtain a self-awareness of their real position in society. Under capitalism workers are no more than things or objects to be used by the capitalist class. Comrade Kuroda has coined the term 'thingivation' to denote the position of workers under capitalism. However, if workers are able to subordinate themselves as individuals to the historic needs of the working class as the revolutionary class they can thereby consciously influence the future of the working class of which they are a part. The theory of materialist subjectivity is closely linked to self-revolution. All communists have to learn to fight against the worst aspects of capitalist ideology, ideology such as arrogance, petty-bourgeois pride, hero worship of the leadership, failure to help other communists who may be in need of help, cowardice in face of repression and so on. Let us fight together against imperialism, Stalinism and social democracy. Comrades, if we all fight together then Comrade Kuroda will live on in our struggles. International Leninist Trotskyist Faction Fracción Leninista Trotskista Internacional 30 de Julio de 2010, Buenos Aires, Argentina Estimados camaradas Hace un año, desde la FLTI nos hacíamos presentes en persona con un delegado de nuestra Fracción Internacional en la 47 Asamblea Internacional Antiguerra. La calidez y solidaridad revolucionaria con la que fuimos recibidos por ustedes sentó las bases para una lucha en común de nuestras fuerzas, levantando juntos por encima de los océanos, como lo hicimos, la lucha junto a los mineros peruanos atacados por el régimen asesino de Alan Garcia y Fujimori; y poniéndonos de pie junto a las masas palestinas masacradas por Obama y el estado sionista contrarrevolucionario. El estado de Israel, gendarme del imperialismo en Medio Oriente transformó a Gaza en un campo de concentración cercado por el hambre y por los muros del oprobio, en los cuales han colocado como esclavos en su propia tierra a las masas palestinas. ... El comando yanqui ponía en pie un nuevo estado mayor bajo el mando de Obama, el continuador de la política criminal y genocida de Bush. El último año, desde que nos reunimos personalmente en la anterior asamblea antiguerra, podemos afirmar que las masas no han hecho más que pelear e intentar mil y una vez iniciar una contraofensiva frente a un capitalismo en bancarrota, que sólo busca de forma despiadada arrojarle su crisis a los explotados y a los pueblos oprimidos del mundo. En este año que pasó, pudimos vivir en carne propia el apotegma del marxismo de que: ¡Para que la clase obrera viva, el imperialismo debe morir! Éste aun no ha sido derrocado por el proletariado y se sobrevive mandando a la civilización a la barbarie y redoblando la superexplotación contra la clase obrera mundial. ... En esta época imperialista el capitalismo se sobrevive sólo comprando a un sector de su clase enemiga. Un rejunte de direcciones traidoras fueron centralizadas para cercar y estrangular los procesos revolucionarios y para impedir que en una contraofensiva el proletariado avance a la única solución a sus penurias, que no es otra que la toma del poder y la conquista de la dictadura del proletariado sobre las ruinas del régimen burgués. Digamos la verdad. La clase obrera no se hizo del poder por traición de su dirección y hoy son las masas las que pagan con despidos, desocupación, masacres, aumentos infernales de los ritmos de producción, saqueos y guerras contrarrevolucionarias la sobrevida de este sistema putrefacto. ... Lo mismo sucede con miles de inmigrantes latinoamericanos que son expulsados de EEUU, abarrotados en cárceles de Obama, mientras con métodos fascistas se levanta un muro entre EEUU y México para separar al imperio del patio trasero que oprime y explota desde hace décadas. Es un sistema capitalista putrefacto, cuyos países “más avanzados” no pueden darles ni siquiera una cama en un hospital o un banco en una escuela a los obreros y a sus hijos que traen para explotar en su propia nación. Hasta ahí ha llegado la pudrición de este sistema, su descomposición, que no es otra que la tardanza del triunfo de la revolución socialista internacional. ... En EEUU, con la AFL-CIO traicionaron la lucha de los obreros de la Toyota. Y con organizaciones como Conlutas y el ELAC, dirigidas por los renegados del trotskismo en el continente americano, estrangularon al ala izquierda de la clase obrera que se levantaba contra la guerra en EEUU, que despertaba en revoluciones como en Bolivia y en Argentina, y que anhelaba derrotar a los golpistas de Honduras. ... Este es el rol del Foro Social Mundial: dividir al proletariado mundial y actuar como anestesia para que luego el bisturí del capitalismo aplaste a las masas. Ese ha sido el rol de las direcciones contrarrevolucionarias que se juntaron con Conlutas y el CONCLAT en Santos, Brasil: cercar los procesos revolucionarios, romper la unidad internacional de la clase obrera en su combate, centralizar las fuerzas del reformismo y dividir las del proletariado mundial. ... Compañeros de la 48 Asamblea Internacional Antiguerra, ha llegado la hora de enfrentar esta guerra contrarrevolucionaria de clases que declaró el imperialismo y las burguesías nacionales: una guerra abierta, descarnada y cruel contra la clase obrera mundial. Una monumental guerra del capital financiero contra las masas que tiene millones de muertos de hambre, de esclavos coloniales, de obreros suicidándose como en China en la fábrica Foxconn por no resistir más las condiciones de trabajo, viviendo atados a las máquinas para producir. Una guerra contrarrevolucionaria con 43 millones de obreros sin techo, viviendo con 3 dólares por día de subsidio en EEUU; o con centenares de miles de despidos y nuevos ataques contra todas las conquistas como sucede con la clase obrera europea y japonesa; y con las masacres en África, o las protagonizadas por las tropas contrarrevolucionarias de Putin y su genocidio en Chechenia. Una guerra abierta contrarrevolucionaria, con masacres como en Irak, Afganistán y Palestina, con miles de presos políticos, que son verdaderos rehenes de los explotados en las garras de las clases enemigas. Ha llegado la hora de declararle la guerra de los explotados a los explotadores, de preparar una enorme contraofensiva para ponerle el pie en el pecho a los capitalistas. Ha llegado el momento de la unidad internacional de las fuerzas revolucionarias e internacionalistas de la clase obrera para centralizar nuestras fuerzas y dispersar las fuerzas del reformismo y de los sirvientes pagos del capital que sólo se dedican a desorganizar y dividir las filas de la clase obrera mundial y sus combates. Se vuelve urgente poner en pie un polo de organizaciones obreras revolucionarias del mundo para preparar y organizar una contraofensiva de masas, que ponga a la orden del día la lucha por la toma del poder por la clase obrera y el derrocamiento de los estados y regímenes burgueses de todo el planeta. ... En esta 48 Asamblea Internacional Antiguerra, les hacemos dos propuestas para luchar juntos: Como primera moción: impulsemos juntos una campaña internacional para, con una política de la clase obrera mundial, realmente derrotar el cerco contra las masas palestinas, llamando a todas las organizaciones obreras a poner en pie brigadas obreras internacionales para ir a combatir en la Gaza cercada y masacrada, y junto a la clase obrera de Egipto demoler el muro de la vergüenza de Rafah. ... En el África martirizada por el imperialismo se han puesto en pie los Comités por la Libertad del Movimiento Palestino. Con la WIVL (Workers International Vanguard League) de Sudáfrica a la cabeza, la FLTI ha tomado en sus manos el llamado de estos Comités a poner en pie brigadas internacionales de las organizaciones obreras del mundo para derribar el muro del oprobio de Rafah que cerca y garantiza la masacre contra el pueblo palestino. ¡Impulsemos juntos este llamado en todas las organizaciones obreras de Japón y todo el Extremo Oriente! ¡Brigadas internacionales para derribar el muro del oprobio! ¡Por la destrucción del estado sionista fascista de Israel! Ustedes camaradas, tienen una gran obligación internacionalista. Japón acompaña a EEUU en sus aventuras militares, no solo en Irak sino fundamentalmente en Afganistán. Hace tan sólo 3 meses los obreros revolucionarios de Kirguistán dieron un paso decisivo armándose, derrocando al gobierno odiado de Bakiev y desmantelando al estado. Ellos demostraron como se para la guerra. En ese país está la base yanqui desde donde se dirigen los comandos y el ataque contra Afganistán. Por ello, nuestra segunda moción es luchar para romper el cerco que se impuso a la gran revolución de Kirguistán, y demoler las bases yanquis y su comando asiático desde donde se ataca Afganistán, .... Se ha puesto en pie, centralizada y disciplinada por el capital financiero internacional, la así llamada “Quinta Internacional”, no menos contrarrevolucionaria que la internacional de Stalin o la de Kautzky en el siglo XX, integrada por Chávez y las burguesías bolivarianas. En ella tiene un lugar de honor el asesino contrarrevolucionario y esclavista de su propio pueblo Hu Jintao junto a los mandarines rojos chinos. Esta internacional contrarrevolucionaria se nutre con los deshechos del stalinismo y con la burocracia restauracionista castrista, que ha avanzado a pasos agigantados a entregar la conquista de la revolución cubana al capitalismo mundial, luego de traicionar la revolución latinoamericana y el despertar de la clase obrera de EEUU. A su vera, los renegados del trotskismo legitiman el pérfido accionar de estas fuerzas contrarrevolucionarias y se preparan para desmoralizar y derrotar al ala izquierda del proletariado internacional, como ya lo vienen haciendo. Estas fuerzas se han centralizado en Europa, en África y en América. Hoy se preparan para en noviembre organizar sus fuerzas y centralizarse en Japón. ... La moción aprobada en el último congreso de Conlutas de marchar a un agrupamiento impulsado por Chukaku-ha en Japón en noviembre indica que ya las masas chinas, coreanas, y del Pacífico han entrado en combate, y que el imperialismo necesita a sus sirvientes y sus agentes para desde Japón contener todo proceso revolucionario en Asia. ... Chukaku-ha es la “nueva estrella” que utilizan como mascarón de proa, para desorganizar al proletariado japonés y asiático. Ustedes denuncian en su carta cómo estos sirvientes del estado imperialista japonés intentaron a cada paso desorganizar las filas del proletariado en su país. Pero ha llegado la hora de que comprendamos que esto es lo que están haciendo y han hecho las direcciones reformistas a todo el proletariado mundial. El planeta se ha llenado de “Chukaku-has” para desorganizar y tirarle tiros por la espalda a lo mejor del proletariado mundial. La crisis de dirección revolucionaria del proletariado mundial no deja de agravarse. El planeta está superpoblado de direcciones contrarrevolucionarias, que el capitalismo en crisis necesita para salvar sus ganancias y defenderse de la revolución proletaria. ... Ha llegado la hora de romper el aislamiento de las fuerzas revolucionarias del planeta. Es la hora de pelear juntos, con un programa que llame al proletariado a combatir por la toma del poder y que realice un llamamiento audaz para reagrupar las filas de la clase obrera en un Congreso Internacional. Porque, sobre todo, es tiempo de juntos dar golpes decisivos que permitan un salto hacia adelante en la subjetividad del proletariado mundial. Ustedes y nosotros, y todas las organizaciones que se reivindican de la lucha por la revolución socialista, tenemos el deber de hacerlo. ... Camaradas: ¡Golpeemos juntos! ¡Rompamos el aislamiento a la clase obrera mundial! ¡Congreso internacional de las organizaciones obreras revolucionarias en Tokio en noviembre para enfrentar y presentarle batalla al congreso de los sirvientes de Obama, de los deshechos del stalinismo, sostenidos todos por los renegados del trotskismo! En el congreso de Conlutas en Brasil junto con la Intersindical (Conclat), hace menos de dos meses, los fabriles de La Paz plantearon la moción de enfrentar a la demagogia de las burguesías nacionales. Su moción fue rechazada por centenares de organizaciones que dicen hablar en nombre del socialismo revolucionario. En la moción de los obreros fabriles de La Paz, en el combate internacional por la causa palestina, en los combates revolucionarios de Kirguistán, en las huelgas generales de Grecia y en las aguerridas luchas de la clase obrera europea, y en el proletariado chino y asiático que se pone en marcha están las fuerzas para convocar a este congreso internacional ya. Ustedes denuncian correctamente, en una carta, cómo el proletariado japonés fue atacado por la espalda en decenas de oportunidades, como es el caso de Chukaku-ha, cuestión que por primera vez se conoce en el proletariado de occidente. La clase obrera mundial debe saber que en esos congresos de los sirvientes de Obama en EEUU, en los congresos que como en Madrid cercan la revolución griega y europea, o los que como en Brasil someten a la clase obrera americana a las burguesías nativas, se presentan como amigos de la clase obrera mundial los que le han disparado por la espalda al proletariado japonés decenas y centenares de veces. Ha llegado la hora de desenmascarar tanta infamia, mentira y ocultamiento de la verdad ante los ojos del proletariado internacional. La clase obrera china, de Indochina, de África y Europa necesita saber la verdad. Como diría Lenin, es necesario luz, luz  y más luz, para que los obreros del mundo puedan distinguir quiénes son sus aliados y quiénes sus enemigos. Ustedes tienen en sus manos la posibilidad de clarificar esto ante el proletariado asiático e internacional. Por ello queremos hacerle una última propuesta antes de saludar a los presentes en esta asamblea y levantar el puño junto a ustedes como lo hemos hecho durante años. Habrá que poner en pie un Comité Obrero Internacional que investigue y diga toda la verdad sobre los crímenes cometidos contra los mejores elementos de la vanguardia obrera japonesa desde los años ’70 a la fecha. Ellos fueron asesinados por una verdadera quinta columna que masacra por la espalda a la clase obrera. Así actuó el stalinismo durante la guerra civil española tirando por la espalda contra los mejores combatientes del proletariado. Camaradas, ha llegado la hora de que los crímenes cometidos contra la clase obrera japonesa sean conocidos por la clase obrera internacional. Convoquen ustedes a un Comité Obrero Internacional que investigue, juzgue y condene a los sirvientes de las corporaciones japonesas. La clase obrera internacional necesita saber quiénes son sus aliados y quiénes son sus enemigos. Esto exige el combate que está por delante. En su carta, ustedes denuncian con datos y pruebas el nefasto rol de Chukaku-ha y la utilización de esa corriente por parte del estado asesino japonés. Las pruebas que ustedes presentan deben ponerse a disposición de un Comité de Organizaciones Obreras Revolucionarias del mundo para que busque la verdad y toda la verdad. Así se hará justicia por los mártires del proletariado japonés. ... Desde la FLTI afirmamos que si ésta no triunfa, el fascismo, la contrarrevolución y la guerra llevarán al proletariado y la humanidad a la barbarie. La última palabra no está dicha en la historia. El proletariado aún no ha desplegado toda su potencialidad. Millones de explotados se incorporan al combate. Los obreros chinos, norcoreanos y tailandeses, que han comenzado a pelear, anuncian que el proletariado del Pacífico está próximo a ingresar en maniobras revolucionarias. La vanguardia proletaria japonesa debe ligar su suerte a la suerte del proletariado asiático, donde su imperialismo ha cometido y comete los peores crímenes. Todo depende entonces de la celeridad con la que la vanguardia revolucionaria logre reagrupar sus fuerzas. La lucha por la revolución socialista se ha puesto a la orden del día. ¡Esas son las banderas que debemos levantar juntos! Obreros revolucionarios de Japón, les enviamos nuestros más calurosos saludos internacionalistas ¡Viva la combativa y revolucionaria juventud agrupada en los Zengakuren! ¡Golpeemos juntos a la bestia imperialista y a las direcciones traidoras que la sostienen!   Carlos Munzer, Laura Sánchez y Aníbal Vera Por el Secretariado de Coordinación Internacional de la Fracción Leninista Trotskista Internacional Integrada por: Liga Trotskista Internacionalista (LTI), de Bolivia Liga Obrera Internacional de Vanguardia (WIVL), de Sudáfrica Liga Revolucionaria Internacional-CI (IRL-FI), de Zimbabwe Liga Obrera Internacionalista-CI - Democracia Obrera, de Argentina Liga Trotskista Internacionalista (LTI), de Perú Partido Obrero Internacionalista-CI (POI-CI), de Chile Fracción Trotskista - Vanguardia Proletaria (FT-VP), de Brasil Tavini Huiraatira no Te Ao Maohi (Liberation Front of Polynesia) Message de solidarite aux partis et mouvements de lutte contre le colonialisme et l'imperialisme a travers le Monde. Chers camarades! Nous suivons avec enthousiasme les nouvelles de la lutte combative et prolongee de vos peuples contre l'exploitation extreme, contre la pauvrete et la politique d'austerite impose par les gouvernements coloniaux, contre l'effort de la grande bourgeoisie de faire payer sa propre crise aux masses populaires, aux travailleurs et a la jeunesse. Nous devons etre solidaires dans nos luttes pour une mobilisation populaire et legitime, parce que chez vous, comme chez nous, ces «d'en bas» en ont marre de la misere, de l'exploitation, de la repression et des mensonges de ceux «d'en haut». A Tahiti nous avons vecu des revoltes extraordinaires pendant la periode des essais nucleaires Francais. Des milliers de personnes ont manifeste avec certains d'entre vous en 1995 leur rage contre ce systeme qui assassine le futur de la grande majorite populaire et ne sert qu'une poignee de profiteurs capitalistes. Ici aussi le gouvernement et les medias bourgeois nous ont accuse de «casseurs et émeutiers» et ont appele «au retablissement de l'ordre»; des centaines de manifestants, surtout jeunes, ont ete arretes et emprisonnes. Maintenant il y a des milliers de nouveaux militants et la bourgeoisie a perdu toute une generation durcie dans la lutte contre la repression et l'exploitation. Chers camarades! Votre combat est aussi le notre. Nous crions avec vous: Ça suffit avec l'exploitation et le colonialisme. Nous n'allons pas payer leur crise! Victoire a la mobilisation populaire! Message from Vito MAAMAATUAIAHUTAPU Member of Parliament TAHITI POLYNESIA TE AO MAOHI Владимир Пронин (Ukraine) член президиума Антифашистского комитета Украины 19 июля 2010, Киев, Украина На период между нынешней XLVIII-й международной антивоенной конференцией и прошлогодней XVLII-й конференцией пришёлся пик тяжелейшего финансово-экономического кризиса мировой капиталистической системы, из которого она только сейчас с трудом выкарабкивается, с тревогой и опасением ожидая прихода второй его волны. Этот кризис, впервые за последние двадцать лет носивший столь глубокий и всеохватывающий характер, потряс всю капиталистическую систему. Многие люди даже левых убеждений, после краха СССР и мировой социалистической системы давшие себя убедить в незыблемости и даже вечности капитализма как чуть ли не высшей стадии развития человеческого общества, в этих условиях осознали правоту марксизма и его основополагающих постулатов о неизбежности кризисов при капитализме и его преходящем характере как социально-экономической системы. Более того, многие так этим кризисом капитализма вдохновились, что стали предрекать уже в ближайшее время его скорый конец, тем более, что американский империализм, в очередной раз получивший по носу в его безумном стремлении к мировому господству, вынужден признать очевидное ослабление своей мощи и потерю, скорей всего, временную, своей руководящей роли в однополярном мире. Тем более, что этим временным ослаблением империализма янки сразу же попытались воспользоваться его конкуренты из империалистического лагеря, заявившие свои претензии на относительно самостоятельную политику при обсуждении и решении современных мировых проблем. Но мы не должны впадать в эйфорию, даже если в ходе антиимпериалистической борьбы народы добиваются серьёзных побед в борьбе с империализмом, как это имеет место в последнее время. Весь мир с волнением и симпатией следит за продолжающейся героической борьбой народов Ирака и Афганистана, стойко сопротивляющихся агрессии США и их союзников по НАТО. Народ КНДР, по словам его представителя в ООН, одержал великую победу – принятая резолюция Совета Безопасности об инциденте с потоплением южнокорейского корвета «Чхонан», несмотря на давление США и их сателлитов, не выдвигает прямого обвинения в адрес Северной Кореи, содержит призыв не допустить дальнейшего обострения обстановки на Корейском полуострове, а все возникающие проблемы предлагает решать мирным путём. Это, кстати, свидетельствует о том, что мир ещё не забыл урока с так называемым Тонкинским инцидентом в августе 1964 года, когда Северный Вьетнам был обвинён в нападении его торпедных катеров на американский миноносец, что было использовано в качестве предлога для развязывания крупномасштабной агрессии протии социалистического Вьетнама. Лишь спустя годы США вынуждены были признать, что тот инцидент был от начала и до конца грязной провокацией американской военщины! Не сходит со страниц мировой прессы информация о мужественной борьбе греческих трудящихся, не позволяющих национальному и международному капиталу решать кризисные явления в греческой экономике традиционным для капитализма путём – за счёт трудящихся. И мы видим, как шаг за шагом буржуазия вынуждена делать уступки единым действиям трудящихся. Таких примеров антиимпериалистической борьбы по всему миру можно привести великое множество И это естественно для капиталистического общества – без этого повседневного сопротивления трудящихся империализм давно бы уже безжалостно загнал всех трудящихся, все непокорные народы в гигантские концлагеря смерти. Но мы не должны обольщаться этими большими и малыми победами, достигнутыми в результате мужественной борьбы трудящихся в разных странах мира, также как и временным ослаблением агрессивных действий империализма, и приглушать накал антиимпериалистической борьбы, потому что при первой же возможности империализм сделает всё для того, чтобы эти победы отнять. Свидетельством этого является уже тот факт, что внутри американского политикума в верхушке республиканской партии уже группируются самые реакционные силы, стремящиеся возродить печально известные традиции времён Рональда Рейгана и Джорджа Буша-младшего. Только окончательная победа над мировым империализмом окончательно освободит трудящихся всего мира от империалистической угрозы, а этой победы можно достигнуть только едиными действиями антиимпериалистических сил и в период наибольшего ослабления империализма. Любые частные победы, большие или малые, отдельных отрядов трудящихся, к которым, конечно же, надо повсеместно и повседневно стремиться, ведут к ослаблению мирового империализма, действуя наподобие стенобитных орудий при осаде средневековых крепостей, подрывают силу сопротивления империализма, ослабляют его волю, выращивая одновременно новые поколения борцов за освобождение трудящихся от капиталистического гнёта. Но сами по себе эти победы не ставят под угрозу само существования империализма. Для этого необходимо бороться за единство всех антиимпериалистических сил, все ещё действующих во многих случаях разобщённо, поднимать его на более высокий уровень международного сотрудничества и на основе этого единства переходить от оборонительной тактики к тактике наступательной. В связи с этим искренне желаю XLVIII-й антивоенной, антиимпериалистической конференции новых успехов в борьбе за достижение этого единства, за наши общие цели. Российская коммунистическая рабочая партия – Революционная партия коммунистов 21 июля 2010, Санкт-Петербург, Россия   Уважаемые товарищи, соратники по борьбе! Российская коммунистическая рабочая партия – Революционная партия коммунистов (РКРП-РПК) горячо приветствует участников митинга и поддерживает Ваше обращение «Против новой гонки ядерных вооружений в условиях серьезного противостояния между США и Китаем-Россией!» Мы готовы бороться плечом к плечу с вами за международную солидарность трудящихся всех стран, против гонки ядерных вооружений. Мы знаем, что корень зла в мире - в капитализме, угнетающем трудовые народы всех стран. И единственная возможность сбросить с себя ярмо угнетения – это сбросить сам капитализм! Не дрогнем на избранном пути! Пролетарии всех стран – соединяйтесь!   Первый секретарь ЦК РКРП-РПК В. Тюлькин Российская партия коммунистов   29 июля 2010, Санкт-Петербург, Россия   Исполнительный Комитет Российской партии коммунистов шлёт горячий привет участникам 48-ой Международной антивоенной ассамблеи в Токио и других городах Японии! Мы высоко ценим верность Союза японских революционных коммунистов  (Фракция революционных марксистов),  Дзэнгакурэн и Комитета антивоенной молодёжи благородной традиции – проведению международных антивоенных конференций в каждую годовщину американских варварских атомных бомбардировок Хиросимы и  Нагасаки. Человечество никогда не забудет это страшное преступление империализма США. Капиталистические кризисы XXI века, первый из которых мир только что пережил и за которым, согласно самым разным прогнозам, последуют вскоре новые, отличаются от кризисов прошлых веков. Их природа – не перепроизводство, а выстроенные на эксплуатации трудящихся, в первую очередь, стран третьего мира гигантские спекуляции и финансовые пузыри. Локальные войны в Ираке и Афганистане также внесли свой вклад в кризис 2008-09 гг. Сопротивление и массовые выступления осознающего свои классовые интересы пролетариата более всего страшат капиталистов. Назревающий кризис Еврозоны и Европейского Союза в целом рабочие Греции, Португалии, Испании и других стран встречают мощными, всеобщими забастовками и массовыми демонстрациями, главное требование которых выражено в лозунге «Заставим капиталистов оплачивать их кризис!» Новое рабочее движение зарождается в России, в частности, на ряде предприятий Петербурга, и в Китае, где в этом году состоялись организованные снизу, самими рабочими, забастовки на заводах японских компаний Хонда и Тойота. Сила и сплочённость сопротивления трудящихся одновременно служат средством предупреждения и даже предотвращения новых локальных конфликтов и военно-политических манёвров центров силы глобального капитала. Так акции протеста японских трудящихся против невыполнения правительством Хатоямы обещания закрыть военные базы США на Окинаве привели к отставке правительства. Мы убеждены, что JRCL и Дзэнгакурэн внесли немалый вклад в организацию этих акций протеста.  С другой стороны, локальные конфликты служат правящим классам, будь то экономически развитые капиталистические страны первого мира или диктаторские режимы мира третьего, средством отвлечения трудовых масс от классовой борьбы национал-патриотическим угаром и разжиганием межнациональной ненависти. Глобальный капитал координирует свои усилия, используя различные формы координации: саммиты G8, G20, слёты мировой элиты в Давосе. Ему противостоит альтерглобалистское движение. Так, последнему саммиту G20 (июнь 2010, Торонто, Канада) резко «оппонировал» собравшийся там же «антисаммит» 10000 альтерглобалистов. На только что состоявшемся (1-4 июля 2010) в Стамбуле Шестом Европейском социальном форуме активисты альтерглобализма среди многих обсуждённых вопросов выразили солидарность с испытывающими насилия и унижение народами Палестины, Ирака, Афганистана. Альтерглобалистское движение нуждается в большей радикализации и политизации. Это одна из задач, которые должны решить революционные марксисты мира, если они на деле хотят стать ведущей силой в борьбе против развязывания новых войн, вытеснив оппортунистов с руководящих позиций в движении. Другая задача – разъяснять массам, что сегодняшние жертвы – это жертвы не только государственного террора США, стран НАТО, Израиля, но и безжалостного террора как исламских фундаменталистов, так и тоталитарных режимов современного Ирана и Северной Кореи. Ни Ахмадинежад, ни называющий себя «коммунистом» Ким Чен Ир не обращают внимания на судьбы собственных народов, когда разворачивают свои амбициозные авантюры. Третья наша общая задача – убеждать участников всех протестных движений внутри и вне альтерглобализма, что источником всех социальных несправедливостей, источником всех войн является капитализм, что сверхзадача поэтому заключается в революционной смене его социализмом. Желаем успеха 48-ой Международной антивоенной ассамблее! Да здравствует пролетарский интернационализм! David McReynolds (US) Dear friends and co-workers, First, let me extend my personal greetings to the International Antiwar Assembly. We have political differences, but we are united in a serious struggle against a world so heavily armed, particularly with nuclear weapons. That struggle is so serious that we need, where possible, to have the highest degree of unity. In this matter I would probably have chosen different words than calling for the "overcoming the degeneration of the official opposition movement leaders, including converted Stalinists, social democrats, and degenerate Trotskyists revealing their social democratic conversion". As you know from other discussions, and meetings here in New York City, my own politics are democratic socialist (perhaps best exemplified by the great American socialist leader, Eugene Debs), and pacifist. The Korean situation is always a serious problem. May I suggest that those of us in the US often do not realize that one reason the North Koreans do not revolt against a government which has so totally failed to meet the most basic human needs, is because the Korean War (about which Americans today have little memory) involved such massive destruction in Korea, such terrible casualties, such enormous suffering, that the experience has made it possible for the North Korean government to remain in power by playing on that memory. And, of course, the US poured capital into South Korea, making possible enormous economic development. Let us demand the withdrawal of all US forces from South Korea, from Japan, from Okinawa. I appreciated your analysis of the situation in which China has emerged as a major world power, threatening the US world domination of the past half century. I would, if I could be permitted, caution about the problems of the Middle East. I strongly support the need for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, to end the blockade of Gaza, and either to accept a genuine two state solution or to move toward a democratic and secular single state. However I am concerned that some of the major elements within the Muslim world have not only opposed the policies of Israel, but have fallen for the historic trap of anti-Semitism. We must, together, work for a democratic and secular movement in the Middle East, among both the Jews and the Arabs. I hope your regional meetings go well and if any of your comrades are in New York City you will visit our National Office. I know I would be honored to meet with any of you. Solidarity, News and Letters Committees (US) Dear Comrades: The members of News and Letters Committees, the U.S. Marxist-Humanist organization founded by Raya Dunayevskaya 55 years ago, send our revolutionary greetings to the 48th International Antiwar Assembly meeting in Japan, August 1, 2010. It is with great pride that we, once again, call to your attention our long-established solidarity with you in the international antiwar struggle. It grows more important to us every year that our fundamental opposition to imperialist war was established directly in the Constitution to News and Letters Committees, adopted in 1956, which established: "The age of state-capitalism, whether in its single-party totalitarian form or its parliamentary form, can offer nothing to humanity but the prospect of another war. The advent of nuclear weapons, possessed by all contenders for world power, seriously raises the question of the survival of humanity in the event of such a struggle. We believe that the working people are the only force in the world today capable of changing present-day society and of evolving the forms and shape of future society. "The necessity for a new society is clear from the working people's opposition to war. That opposition is based upon a vision of a new society in which they, to a man, woman and child, control their own lives." Every year it is that principle that we seek to develop and present in our Perspectives Theses, in terms of the new situations confronting us. The first paragraph of our Marxist-Humanist Perspectives for 2010-2011 begins: "So deep is global capitalism's decay that it raises the specters of war and revolution. From the deepening long-term unemployment and homelessness and new outpourings of U.S. racism to never-ending imperialist wars abroad, a myriad of crises grip the globe -- and are being met by revolt, including an international upsurge of labor." That revolt is detailed in the pages that followed. [The full thesis is attached and is available at http://newsandletters.org/Issues/2010/May-Jun/DPMayJun_10.asp.] We are proud that our newspaper, News & Letters -- which is based on our principle of the unity of theory and practice that Marx lived and that his Marxism stood for -- became a voice for the 90,000 Okinawan men, women and children who demonstrated on April 26 against the U.S. military base, and appealed for our solidarity with their demand that "U.S. get out of Okinawa now!" (See N&L, July-August 2010, p. 11, and at http://www.newsandletters.org/issues/2010/Jul-Aug/okinawaJulAug_10.asp.) As we seek to demonstrate in all our writings and activities, we strongly support your June 25, 2010, Call: "Let us fight in unison across borders on the basis of proletarian internationalism!" For freedom, The Resident Editorial Board of News and Letters Workers International League (US) Again Comrades, we in the Workers International League offer our solidarity. Well into Obama's term as President, it is clear that they are not the peace candidates many had hoped for. In fact, quite the contrary as they have escalated the imperial occupation of Afghanistan and continue to occupy Iraq. It is clear to us here in the United States, that the world's working class is the only force that can stop these bloody wars. We offer our solidarity and revolutionary greetings! A World to Win (Britain) Dear Comrades and Friends A World to Win sends warm revolutionary greetings to the 48th International Antiwar Assembly in Japan. Thank you for continuing to organise the Assembly and inviting us to send a message. You are right to warn about the warmongering by the world's super-powers. The U.S.-South Korean military exercise, 'Invincible Spirit' on July 26 has stoked up tension between the US and China and reveals a renewed threat of military confrontation and wars. The casualties being suffered by NATO forces and the WikiLeaks affair prove beyond any doubt that the US-British military adventure in Afghanistan is in ruins. And, as you point out in your appeal, the United States has lost supreme domination, both economic and military. It now faces a historic challenge from the (BRIC) countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China. Meanwhile, nationalist leaders in those countries and elsewhere brutally suppress peoples and ethnic minorities within their borders, not to mention the continued occupation of Palestine by the Israeli state. The decline in production and economic slump is now affecting the global economy, which still unravelling from the collapse of the giant bubble of fictitious capital and debt in 2008. Contradictorily, the very search for stable investment has led to synchronised markets which are inherently unstable. We now see the surfacing of the inherent contradictions of the capitalist system itself which is driving towards the destruction of productive capacity, intensifying the threat of war. Today's economic, ecological and political crises demonstrate that, far from being in overall control, events are spinning out of control for the ruling classes. We support your work for a mass anti-war movement and against the construction of military bases in Japan and elsewhere. We are for the downfall of capitalist governments east and west, north and south. Here in Britain, we are campaigning for the replacement of the Conservative-Liberal Coalition government by a true democracy, based on a network of People's Assemblies. We hope participants in the Assembly will read and support our Manifesto at www.aworldtowin.net The global economic crisis is destabilising political systems everywhere. Millions of people in every country no longer believe official propaganda about the virtues of free market capitalism. Equal numbers are disillusioned with political systems that are pawns of big business and finance. Leaders who have held sway with rhetoric and nationalism are losing their grip. It is time we seized the opportunity by joining together to work for revolutionary change. We have a world to win! Revolutionary greetings, Corinna Lotz Secretary, A World to Win, UK Union Pacifiste de France Dear friends, The Union Pacifiste de France sends all his best salutations to the people of the antiwar assembly in Japan. Your action is very useful for peace. We do hope that the nations will hear you. We did work for the New-York assembly too. May all our efforts to stop arms and particularly atomic arms succeed for peace. The Union pacifiste de France send to the antiwar assembly his best message. Friendly yours, Maurice Montet, Secretary Union pacifiste de France Workers Revolutionary Party (EEK) (Greece) Dear Comrades, The Central Committee of the EEK (Workers Revolutionary Party), Greek section of the Coordinating Committee for the Re-foundation of the Fourth International pays tribute to the memory of all the victims of imperialist barbarism in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an unforgettable and unforgivable crime against humanity and a warning for the present and the future: the very survival of humankind is threatened by this decayed world social system, imperialist capitalism, and our future depends on the world socialist revolution to overthrow this system. Three years now, the entire capitalist world is plunging in a historically unprecedented crisis, which now, with the European and international sovereign debt crisis and the draconian measures taken by all capitalist governments, enters a new phase, more explosive than that following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. The international banking system as well as sovereign States, like Greece, faces the specter of bankruptcy. The leading capitalist elites themselves recognize the threat of a "double dip recession" engulfing Europe, America, and even Asia. Our country, Greece, already is at the center of the international financial tsunami. The pseudo-socialist government of George Papandreou (the Chairman of the so-called Socialist International!) implements faithfully the anti-popular orders of the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Union, to make the people to pay for the crisis of the capitalists. A barbaric social "experiment" takes place to smash all the social rights and gains of the working class and of the poor popular masses, and the results will be generalized all over Europe. But the workers movement fights back, despite the treachery of the trade union bureaucracy and of the official bureaucratized "Left". Seven General Strikes took place up to now this year and coming September could be much hotter than the current Greek summer! Our Party, active in all social struggles, is fighting for an indefinite General Political Strike to bring down the capitalist government and to kick out of the country the imperialist troika of the EU/ECB/IMF, to open the road for workers power and Socialism. In this struggle to the end, we know that we are not alone: we fight side by side with the workers of Europe and of the entire world, including, of course, our brothers and sisters in Japan. Let us make this sad anniversary of imperialist barbarism, a step forward in our common struggle to change the world, to establish humankind liberated from all the chains of exploitation, oppression, and humiliation of human beings by human beings. With communist internationalist greetings On behalf of the Central Committee of the EE Savas Michael-Matsas, General Secretary All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) (Russia) Дорогие товарищи! Центральный Комитет Всесоюзной Коммунистической партии (большевиков) шлет вам, дорогие товарищи, поздравления в связи с началом успешной работы семинара! Мы искрене желаем вам новых успехов в борьбе за интересы рабочего класса Японии, за солидарность всех прогрессивных и антиимпериалистических сил. Александр Лапин Первый Секретарь ЦК ВКП(б), доктор Зинаида Смирнова Секретарь ЦК ВКП(б)