All Success to the Anti-Imperialist Convention
PUBLISHED IN PROLETARIAN ERA 1ST NOV. ISSUE 2003 THE
CENTRAL ORGAN OF S.U.C.I. !
The All India Anti-Imperialist Forum (AIAIF) is going
to hold an Anti-Imperialist Convention at the
University Institute Hall, Calcutta on 15-16 November,
2003 to express solidarity with the struggle of
the Iraqi people against US imperialism, to demand
that the imperialist aggressors vacate Iraq
immediately and to strengthen the anti-imperialist
movement. Delegates from all over India will attend
the Convention. Besides, confirmations have already
been received that fraternal delegates representing
organizations in USA, France, Syria, Turkey, Cuba,
Algeria, Mauritus, Palestine, Congo, Nepal and
Bangladesh supporting the anti-imperialist movement
will be present at the Convention. More such
confirmations are expected from other countries.
The spate of US imperialist attacks on the peoples of
the world in recent years climaxed by the invasion,
devastation and occupation of Iraq and the present
extreme intensification of US-backed Israeli brutality
on the Palestinian freedom fighters have necessitated
this Convention at the present juncture. For the past
few years, US imperialism has increasingly been more
aggressive, blatant and virulent. On the one hand,
economic onslaughts on the peoples of the world by the
imperialist countries led by the USA have become more
widespread and intensified through the GATT and the
WTO. On the other, plagued with intense recession and
enormous budgetary and trade deficits for successive
years, and because of such strong contenders like
Japan and the European Union (EU) on the world
economic scene, the USA no longer enjoys global
economic superiority. To crisis-ridden US economy, war
has become an endemic, urgent and recurring necessity
in the bid to mitigate the crisis. Relying on the
decisive superiority in military strength that it has
over the rest of the world, the USA is now out to
enforce its hegemony in all parts of the globe by
military means. It must dominate everywhere, must
exercises control over the natural resources of the
world and will brook no dissent from any quarters.
Making use of the 11 September, 2001 terrorist attack
in the USA as the pretext, the USA, in the name of
fighting global terrorism, has officially declared its
‘right’ to launch peremptory strikes against any
country that it considers dangerous to US security,
that is, a hindrance to the unfettered exercise of US
hegemony, harmful to the interest of US monopoly
capital. In pursuit of this declared evil design, the
USA led an invasion of Afghanistan laying waste that
country and installed a puppet government there,
establishing strategic control over the surrounding
countries of central Asia, over their oil and natural
gas resources. The USA is adept in cooking up excuses
to suit and ‘justify’ the attacks launched by it in
furtherance of its evil design. The excuse to provide
‘justification’ of invasion of Afghanistan was that it
was for destroying Osama bin Laden and the network of
his terrorist organization Al Quaida. The next on the
US hit list was Iraq, with the object of gaining
total control of the oil riches of the middle-east and
crushing the voice of dissent against US domination in
the region that was personified through Saddam
Hussein. The excuse to 'justify' invasion of Iraq,
cooked up by doctoring US and British intelligence
reports, was that the Saddam regime had embarked upon
a nuclear weapon development programme and had already
stockpiled a mass of biological and chemical weapons
of mass destruction (WMD) which posed a threat not
only to USA and Britain, but to the whole world. The
invasion on Iraq was launched by the USA with Britain
as the accomplice in March this year. The country was
devastated and occupied. But the charge of Saddam
having undertaken nuclear weapon programme and having
procured raw materials for such weapon from Nigeria
has been proved to be a false one. And no trace of the
WMD stockpile could be found! This time, the USA
dispensed with even making use of the UNO to rubber
stamp its evil design as it had done on numerous
occasions in the past, as the support of the UN
Security Council was not forthcoming, but went ahead
without UN sanction. Now the USA is engaged in a
conspiracy to foist a subservient government in Iraq,
a puppet government that will serve US interest,
through a fake and rigged election, organized in the
name of the UN if possible. With the occupation of
Iraq a fait accompli, USA is now trying to get the UN
involved in managing Iraqi affairs in the hopes that
this would lend some acceptability to the occupation
of Iraq internationally and that other UN members
would provide 'peace-keeping force', thus reducing the
US worry and huge cost in maintaining its troops in a
hostile country in the face of guerilla attacks by
patriotic Iraqis, and also share the huge costs that
would be incurred in the name of rebuilding Iraq.
There is no doubt that under the UN umbrella, it is
the USA that would exercise real control. And of
course, the lion's share of the 'rebuilding' contracts
would be bagged by US firms with some crumbs thrown to
Britain. Meanwhile, all-out US economic and political
exploitation of occupied Iraq goes on, ruthless
atrocities are being perpetrated on the people there.
The Iraqis have not been cowed down by imperialist
might. Organized, armed freedom movement is developing
fast in the country, involving not just the supporters
of Saddam Hussein but all sections of patriotic
Iraqis.
The USA has taken upon itself to decide who will rule
which country and which country should possess what
arms, what military strength. It is no secret that
countries like Syria, Iran, Cuba and North Korea could
be the targets of US attacks in the coming days. For
decades, Israel has been brutally suppressing the
Palestinian freedom movement with full US backing,
violating international law, canons of justice,
treaties and accords.
So, it is the need of the hour that an immediate US
withdrawal from Iraq is effected, not only to ensure
the freedom of the people of Iraq but also to rebuff
US imperialism, which poses the gravest menace to the
mankind, in its nefarious activities. For this, every
help should be extended to the freedom-loving Iraqi
people internationally, an international umbrella, so
to say, that can be provided to them only through
united, concerted movement of anti-imperialist
organizations from country to country.
To us, the communists, the present spurt of US
imperialist onslaughts has not been unexpected. It is
not something that has come about all of a sudden, out
of nothing. Rather, it has followed from the
developing international situation during the past
decade and a half.
With the fall of the working class states in the
Soviet Union and East Europe, imperialism-capitalism,
particularly US imperialism, went on the offensive in
the unipolar world with the USA as the sole super
power, taking advantage of the absence of the powerful
socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union that had so
long stood as the guarantor of independence,
sovereignty and security of the developing countries
against imperialist attacks and machinations, as the
bulwark of peace against the forces of war. Naturally,
after the fall of the Soviet Union, armed
interventions in or attacks on different countries by
the imperialist powers, particularly the USA,
increased in number. The imperialist powers led by the
USA reduced the UNO to virtually a rubber stamp for
endorsing their nefarious designs and perpetrated, in
the name of the UNO, the attacks on Somalia and Haiti,
the genocide in Rwanda, the intervention, attacks and
genocide in the territories of former Yugoslavia,
notably Kosovo and the devastation of Iraq through the
Gulf War. The USA tried to strangulate socialist Cuba
through decades of economic sanctions and blockade and
deprived Iraq of food, all essential commodities and
even medical supplies ever since the Gulf War, killing
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis through starvation,
malnutrition and diseases. Thus, omnipresent threat of
imperialist attack made outbreak of war a distinct
possibility in any part of the globe, any time.
Besides, danger of war is inherent in
imperialism-capitalism. In the face of worldwide
intense general crisis and recession, militarization
of economy became a general feature in all capitalist
countries, advanced or developing, in a bid to
mitigate the crisis by artificially stimulating the
economy through military orders by boosting up
military expenditure. But the armaments thus
stockpiled must be released, used up from time to time
through war as otherwise the economy would again be
overtaken by all-out crisis in no time. So, war or
war-like situation is an endemic economic necessity
under present day capitalism and danger of war is ever
present while imperialism-capitalism rules.
Rivalry of the major imperialist powers over
domination of world market further heightened the
danger of war. It is to be remembered that two world
wars had been fought between rival groups of
imperialist countries out to dominate the world
market. While one group fought to retain its
domination, the other sought a redivision of world
market in its favour through the world war. In the
changed scenario at the beginning of the last decade
of the 20th century, with the whole world reeling
under intense recession when every technological
advance further aggravated the market crisis and
sharpened the contradiction and conflicts between the
imperialists over markets and spheres of influence,
the imperialist powers hit upon the course of
globalization and liberalization of the world economy
as the way out. After having failed to resolve their
trade conflicts in a series of rounds of talks, the
imperialist powers led by the USA formulated a new
General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) primarily
with the object of reducing their conflicts over
markets by intensifying their exploitation of the
underdeveloped countries in an organized and
systematic manner through the GATT. They foisted the
GATT upon the world and formed the World Trade
Organization (WTO) to implement the provisions of the
GATT. The function of the WTO was to supervise and
regulate trade and commercial activities in accordance
with the GATT and to arbitrate in disputes between the
signatory countries.
How could there be free trade between the imperialist
and the underdeveloped countries on equal footing ?
The GATT and the WTO, controlled by the imperialists,
appeared as powerful tools in their hands, further
intensifying imperia-list exploitation of
underdeveloped countries in the name of free trade.
Again, through the clauses of TRIPS (Trade Related
Intellectual Property Rights) etc., a wider sphere of
imperialist exploitation of developing countries
covering the fields of agriculture, scientific
research and education was created, impeding the
development of those countries in these spheres.
Globalization, instead of mitigating the conflicts
between the imperialists, actually globalized and
sharpened their conflicts for dominating the global
market. The imperialist powers got engaged in trade
wars with one another, with each trying to obstruct
penetration by the others into its own market, its
sphere of influence, while demanding unrestricted
right of entry into others’ markets. While talking
about global market and free trade, they were actually
grouping into contending regional market blocs like
the European Union and the NAFTA. Intense trade wars
were thus on, which had potential to generate shooting
war if the conditions for it ripened. The US desire to
establish its supremacy, hegemony and overlordism by
any means grew strong.
With imperialism thus threatening world peace, freedom
and sovereignty of nations and the living and
well-being of the peoples of all countries and with
the danger of war ever present, the cardinal need was
to build up anti-imperialist movement and through it,
to work towards giving birth to a worldwide, mighty,
militant peace movement which alone could provide the
deterrent to imperialist attacks, interference,
intervention and machinations, force the hands of the
imperialists and thrust peace upon them.
It is from the realization of this urgent necessity
that the All India Anti-Imperialist Forum was formed
through a Convention in Calcutta from November 14-17,
1995, attended by delegates from all over India and a
number of fraternal delegates from some countries in
different parts of the globe.
Since then, the AIAIF has been trying to build up
organizational structure from grass-roots level in
different parts of India, and along with it, has been
organizing protest demonstrations, agitation and
movement against imperialist attacks and conspiracies
for imperialist domination as well as pro-imperialist
policies and steps of the Indian government. Some
progress has been made in establishing and maintaining
contacts with the anti-imperialist forces of different
countries. AIAIF representatives participated in
anti-imperialist programmes in several countries
including Iraq, Germany and Greece.
At the present critical juncture, only a wave of
global protest movement can thwart US machinations and
put an end to continued US occupation of Iraq flouting
all cannons of international law and justice, in utter
disregard of world public opinion.
The AIAIF strongly feels that it is the duty of the
people of the world to stand united by the side of the
heroic Iraqi people at this hour of their trial. A
worldwide united effort is needed on the demand ‘Hands
off Iraq’ in order to force the US imperialists to
leave Iraq.
With this aim in view, the AIAIF is going to hold a
Convention in Calcutta on 15-16 November to step up
its activities, to deliberate upon ways and means to
build up a strong wave of global anti-imperialist
movement. It is to be noted that the people of the
world burst out into unprecedented protests against
the unjust invasion of Iraq, but the imperialist
invaders went ahead undeterred by such spontaneous and
unorganized protests. The need of the hour is to build
up strong nuclei of anti-imperialist movement from
country to country and by strengthening, broad-basing,
coordinating and integrating these under the banners
of anti-imperialist platforms, to give birth to a
strong global wave of militant peace movement capable
of foiling imperialist designs, conducive to
anti-capitalist socialist revolution for putting an
end to exploitation of all sorts.
We appeal to all to make the Convention a resounding
success, towards developing such a mighty upsurge of
anti-imperialist movement.