| Say NO to Economic and Political Oppression!
Act Now to Oppose Imperialist Wars! ILPS General Secretariat
15 March 2002
The EU Summit in Barcelona under the European Union presidency of right-wing Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar is expected to pursue even more intensively the neoliberal policy of "free market" globalization. High on its agenda are the further liberalization and privatization of public services such as transport and energy, and more stringent security legislation in the guise of fighting terrorism. As liberalization and privatization run their deadly course, more and more working people lose their jobs, the price of public services skyrocket and deep cuts in social spending are carried out. Labor flexibilization renders thousands of jobs "redundant" giving the monopoly capitalists a blank cheque to fire workers. The interests of the big corporations take precedence over the interests of the working people. The European Union's canine support for George W. Bush's vengeful "permanent war" is condemnable. This war has already claimed more than 4,000 Afghan civilian lives in "collateral damage". Bush has expanded his war to the Philippines sending over 700 troops including a contingent of special forces to run after a small group of bandits which was actually a creation of the military of its puppet government in the Philippines. His vice-president, Dick Cheney, is now on a trip to the Middle East trying to cajole Arab leaders to lend support to America's plan to further expand the war to Iraq. Using the terrorist bogey, the European governments have followed the beat of the US in the dangerous course of steadily curtailing the democratic rights of their citizens. They consider the US Patriot Act as some kind of a model. This law passed hurriedly after September 11 without any democratic discussion is a vicious attack on the democratic rights of the people. It allows the US government to intensify surveillance on its own citizens, allows the police to arrest and investigate people based on racial and religious profiling and can be used by the state to suppress legitimate dissent. This new threat on the democratic rights of the people must be firmly opposed. The International League of Peoples' Struggle, an alliance of more than 200 democratic and anti-imperialist mass organizations in over 40 countries all over the world, stands in unity with the people of Europe and the world in opposing the economic and political oppression wrought by imperialist globalization. We call on the people of Europe and the world to close ranks and oppose the economic dictatorship of the big monopolies and the political dictatorship of the reactionary ruling elites. Let us oppose the attacks against the people's livelihood and right to work. Let us oppose the attacks on the people's liberties and democratic rights. Let us say NO! to Tony Blair's and George W. Bush's warmongering. Let us act now to stop the imperialist wars being fomented and carried out by the big powers led by the arrogant lone superpower, the United States of America.
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