PEACE 4 THE PEOPLE

NEWSLETTER OF ILPS COMMISSION 4

Issue 9, Oct. 2020

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MARK ARMISTICE DAY WITH ANTI-IMPERIALIST ACTION! BUILD THE PEOPLES’ GLOBAL MOVEMENT FOR JUST PEACE!

Commission 4 strongly urges ILPS organizations and allies to organize and engage in activities for just peace during UN Disarmament Week from October 24 to 31 and around Armistice Day on November 11. The arms trade and US-led imperialism are trying to snuff out independence and democratic movements and destroy established revolutions by direct military intervention, severe economic pressure and the deliberate strategy of either coups or chaos. Hoping to manage the all-sided crisis of global capitalism this way, the imperialists are making direct deals with reactionaries, fascists and terrorists and encouraging them on with offers to share the spoils of war, plunder and exploitation.

This fall, Commission 4 puts a challenge to the United Nations Organization. UN Secretary-General Guttierrez declared that International Peace Day was a time to take climate action last year. We ask, “Who really causes climate change?” It is a natural phenomenon being sharply accelerated and causing severe upheavals by military and industrial activities. Monumental climate disasters are results of greed and excessive plunder and exploitation.

This year, the UN’s theme is “Shaping Peace Together” and floating wishes for kindness, compassion and hope. We ask, “Where are the plans to stop aggression and bring about lasting peace? What is it doing about the lawlessness of aggressors?”

The UN has also been calling for a ceasefire in the time of COVID. We say that the people cannot drop their struggles for the necessities of life, land and livelihood, liberation from occupation, tyranny and aggression, for food, shelter, health care and education. In fact, these struggles are even more justified at this time because states resources and planning have come up short, causing undue death and loss of livelihood. The people are within their rights to carry on such just struggles and we support them, even if they take up arms. The international community and authorities should uphold human rights and international law. The UN should be speaking out against occupation, state terror, fascism, aggression and economic coercive measures in the name of just peace. They should defend the peoples and their just struggles in Disarmament Week and on Armistice Day and call the aggressors, warmongers, war profiteers and tyrants to account.

The imperialist system is giving to higher and higher levels and more and more devious forms of violence which are causing ill-health of the environment, the people, nationhood and sovereignty and the environment. Imperialist structures, policies and strategies should be examined, understood, analyzed and protested by the masses. They must continue to organize to defend their rights against aggression and militarization, to unite widely in common causes against imperialism.

To Commission 4 and the ILPS, peace is not an abstract ideal. Peace is food, land, basic services in the absence of tyranny, occupation, militarization, aggression and interference. Yes, we prefer negotiations to armed action, but human needs and rights must be respected and solutions to the peoples’ problems fully and properly addressed and settled. We shout, “NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!”

State and military authorities hosting the ceremonies on Armistice Day typically restrict their memory and respect to the military victims of wars. They contradict wise veterans who desire and end to all war by glorifying war and encouraging more youth to step forward to sacrifice for war. These authorities do not pay respects to the civilian victims

of war who have perished from indiscriminate bombings and fire, contaminants, disease and starvation during times of war, though 10s of millions of people, military personnel and civilians died in World War One and again in World War Two. Many civilians perished as volunteer fascist-fighters. The ILPS and the anti-imperialist movement work toward ending wars of aggression, occupation and trade in arms for profit.

Monopoly capitalism and state violence and militarization go hand in hand. Capital requires force for a few oligarchs and corporate billionaires to benefit. World War One dragged in citizens of many countries to be sacrificed for the sake of competing empires in Europe. After the great tragedies of scenes such as Vimy Ridge and Gallipoli, more working people living in the colonies of Britain wanted independence. Some peoples’ independence movements eventually won independence through ardent struggle. Many were willing to join the fight against fascist, imperial Germany and Japan in the 1940s. Germany and Japan and their allies were defeated, and the British Empire came to a close after World War Two ended.

Stealthily, the US was waiting in the shadows to play the hero while it sought to profit from the war and the rebuilding of Europe and East Asia. Moreover, it began to turn some colonies into neo-colonies, such as Korea and Canada, by buying up the lion’s share of the economy and raking in most of the profits. This was a solution to the economic crisis of the period. It occupied Germany, Japan, Korea and the Philippines to undertake a project of rebuilding them in its image, to dominate and exploit the situations. Thus, the imperialist superpower arose.

After transferring most of its capital and production abroad as a solution to the deep recession of the 1970s and 1980s, especially to Asia, however, the US finds its tail has eaten its own head; its status crumbling today capitalist rivals, having consumed capital investments and US debt bundles, grow into monsters in their own right. Tensions are extreme. The security and weapons develop industries may be having a hey-day, but economic crisis combined with inter-imperialist rivalries and contradictions spell great danger for the working people of the world.

The appeal to sacrifice for a small class of the very rich and powerful rings on incessantly. Not only are the people to sacrifice in war on demand. The people are to sacrifice themselves at work, suffering injuries and deaths at work and most often being underpaid. The are expected to sacrifice themselves by doing without proper healthcare and safety standards, without secure and steady livelihoods, without state support in times of need and without adequate emergency planning, all for the good of a tiny minority and the profit-making wheels of private industry and finance. Furthermore, many people are victims of state terror, especially dissenters.

Many activists and community representatives step forward voluntarily to risk the livelihoods and lives in defending their rights, lands, dignity and basic needs. We remember and honour the martyrs of liberation struggles. We pay special homage to the activists and guerrilla fighters of the Philippines and those of Palestine this fall. Commission 4 joins in the month of solidarity for the Palestinian people all this October. Free, free, Palestine!

We have everything to gain and many problems to solve by building a united anti-imperialist movement. Let us march on to continue to build our struggles this year and beyond. The times are crying out for a global people’s movement for just peace. We must build on the momentum of resistance expressed so far in 2020 and carry forward anti-imperialist analysis and action.

FALL ACTIVITIES October 1 Day of Action to Shut Down AFRICOM, called by the Black Alliance for Peace “Out of Africa Network”

October 2 National Day of Action in Canada to stop the Canadian sale of armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia

October 3 Launch of a month of global solidarity for Palestine (on Facebook live and Zoom 11PM Melbourne, 8AM PDT)

October 15 virtual forum by the Venezuela Peace and Solidarity Committee of Vancouver on Venezuela and the Dec. 6 elections featuring Luis Augusto Acuña Cedeño, Chargé d'Affaires for Venezuela in Canada https://www.facebook.com/events/320524155710553

Disarmament Week (October 24 to 31) and November 11 Armistice Day actions for just peace against imperialist aggression and militarization

https://www.facebook.com/events/320524155710553

October 24 webinar hosted by Commissions 1 and 4, and Resist US-led War on peace negotiations, just peace and false narratives of peace October 27 all day virtual rally “Colors of Resistance”- display of visuals for Palestine solidarity. Submit photos, quotes, messages, artwork, electronic posters or short videos by October 25 to gensec@ilps.info

December 10 International Human Rights Day actions

SUCCESSFUL ILPS INTERVENTIONS IN SEPTEMBER: Opposing state terror, occupation, and wars of aggression in the name of

national and social liberation, social equality and real democracy

Following through with the education and action program laid out by Commission 4, ILPS contingents organized and mobilized for activities to mark UN International Peace Day with a clear agenda of just peace and opposition to imperialism. They also carried out an energetic and ambitious campaign for human rights against the state terror of the Duterte regime in the Philippines. The ILPS exists chiefly as a people’s united defense against imperialist war and militarization. The summer 2020 work arose out of a series of commitments made by the ILPS earlier in 2020 in response to international events developing since the 6th ILPS International Assembly and Peace Day mobilization in 2019. The ILPS joined in global actions to prevent a new war in West Asia in early January and held a global day of anti-war action on January 25. Furthermore, it joined in the Sanctions Kill! Campaign in the spring. It then organized a series of online activities for its international anti-imperialism week at the end of May, a culmination of a series of webinars on Leninism and Leninist interpretations of current events. In response to the current world crisis, old mass organizations are regrouping and coalescing as new ones are arising. For example, ILPS Canada Chapter has had representatives participating in national discussions to form a network for just peace. This step follows the formation of the anti-arms trade coalition “No CANSEC” and the Ottawa area Anti-Imperialist Alliance. The International Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines is expanding as is the MALAYA solidarity organization; the launch of MALAYA-Canada was held on September 20. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines is expanding, as well. Commission 4 created a program to engage with ILPS organizations and their allies in just peace programming from August 6 to September 21. This program coincided with a global month of opposition to the extrajudicial killings and reinstituted Martial Law by the vicious Duterte regime of the Philippines, which has stepped its murderous campaign against activists resulting in more fallen comrades. Two global days of solidarity with the people of the Philippines against the Duterte regime’s Anti-Terror Law on September 18 and September 21, the latter being the anniversary of Martial Law enacted by the former Marcos regime. There were many social media posts, videos, webinars, cultural performances and artistic works devoted to these solidarity days and the Philippines solidarity campaign. The month of action concluded with cultural presentations on September 30. The main concern underlying all this activity is just peace, and Commission 4 has not seen a conflict in the fact that anniversary of Martial Law and International Peace Day both fall on the 21st of September. Just peace is the over-arching theme and the main raison d’être for creating an anti-imperialist alliance.

Some ILPS organizations and their allies carried out specific anti-war activity in September. In Canada, for example, ILPS-Ottawa took part in the regional Anti-Imperialist Alliance’s webinar to oppose NATO on September 24. On September 20, Just Peace Committee was part of a demonstration to call for peace with social justice and oppose the arms trade in downtown Vancouver. At the Vancouver rally, Derrick O’Keefe spoke on behalf of Labour against the Arms Trade to oppose Canada’s contract to sell light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia. LAAT members were part of a day of protests organized by Amnesty International-Canada and that anti- arms trade labour front in several Canadian cities on Sept. 21. https://www.facebook.com/LAATCanada/) The Australian peace movement carried out a discussion online, in which ILPS participated. For its part, the ILPS Latin America Regional Chapter held a notable webinar on solidarity with the Palestine and Philippines national liberation struggle on September 19, a benchmark in the history of ILPS’ advancement. Samidoun Palestinian Political Prisoners Solidarity made further breakthroughs in serving as guest speakers in a Worker’s World forum as well as the Latin American forum. On September 22nd, RESIST and ILPS Commission 10 held a webinar about the Palestinian and Moro struggles for land, territory and self-determination against imperialist and fascist attacks. Likewise, the Asia-Pacific Regional Chapter of the ILPS hosted a three-part, online educational series on the Filipino people’s struggle for social and national liberation. It concluded on September 18 with a poignant discussion of the peace process, in which speakers indicated that the revolution will not fall for trickery and lies and lay down its arms until human rights and social, political and economic demands are fully addressed and guaranteed. Further progress in addressing the social and land demands of the people was made until Duterte put the brakes on the peace negotiations in 2016. The armed fighters would prefer to hold and complete serious negotiations, but the issues for which they are fighting must be dealt with. That is, peace with social justice is the aim. In the cause of the Filipino peoples’ liberation, a wonderful virtual rally transpired on September 21, which is also anti-Martial Law Day. ILPS Asia-Pacific the organizer, it was based in Hong Kong and featured spokespersons for human rights, solidarity, migrant workers and women’s groups all over East Asia and beyond. As well, there were high-quality and very moving cultural performances.

https://www.facebook.com/LAATCanada/https://www.facebook.com/ilpscommission10https://www.facebook.com/ilpscommission10

Vancouver action Sep. 20 The Canadian webinar, organized by the Anti-Imperialist Alliance of Ontario in which ILPS-Ottawa is a participant, featured Chris Black as guest speaker. To quote the event page on Facebook, “Chris Black is a Canadian international criminal lawyer with over 40 years of trial experience, and for the past 20 years has been involved with international issues and war crimes, successfully defending accused before the International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda and Yugoslavia and is on the counsel list at the International Criminal Court. He is Vice Chair of the International Committee for the Defence of Slobodan Milosevic ...” Black described the US imperialist doctrine of “Humanitarian Intervention” and “Responsibility to Protect” as a Eurocentric, elitist, self-serving perspective of Western imperialism’s self-assigned moral right to intervene wherever and whenever it deems “necessary.” Added to its jargon are expressions such as “war on terror” and “failed states.” After WW2, the Nuremburg and Tokyo Tribunals proposed global definitions of human rights and sovereignty and the UN was founded. Despite this achievement, international relations have become lawless, beginning with the illegal founding of NATO that violates the UN Charter, which states that all nations are equally sovereign, therefore standing against expansionism, and only the Security Council can authorize interventions and only when real threats to international peace exist. NATO exists to counter communism. Black holds that socialist Rwanda and Yugoslavia were testing sites that succeeded as UN and NATO ally troops participated in destroying these two societies and carrying out genocides. An assembly of the UN, fed by academic arguments, re-interpreted UN language as a right to intervene. However, the imperialist states never intervene when the people call for support against state terror or aggression where lives could be saved. Aggressions and interference against non-compliant states have become normal and the propaganda omnipresent, motivating China, Russia and other states to excessively militarize in defense. The danger of a great war and nuclear deployment is very real today, asserted Black. The ILPS Asia-Pacific webinar on the Philippines peace negotiations was pivotal. The new Chief Negotiator for the NDF, Julia da Lima, gave a brief history of the peace negotiations, describing the seminal junctures of the human rights agreement and the land and social reforms agreement with the Philippines state. While the former is signed and sealed and can be implemented now. The latter, said another presenter, is unique in that no other such agreement on land reform has ever been formally drawn up for conflict resolution negotiations before. However, the peace talks have been disrupted repeatedly and President Duterte, “a tricky dealer” who routinely makes grand promises only to betray the people, shut down the talks in 2016. State terror is worsening as the regime becomes more and more desperate in the face of the accomplishments of the people’s struggle. A solidarity activist in Australia highlighted the importance of international solidarity and the relevance for struggles abroad since the successes and failures of one struggle bear consequences for them. Elmer Labog, the Chairperson of the red labour federation KMU, emphasized the necessity to analyze and tread carefully when negotiating with the state. Some struggles, such as those in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Colombia capitulated, ruining the advances of their armed struggles. It is paramount that the social, political and economic demands be defended and relentlessly demanded. Elmer Labog assured the audience that the movement keeps growing despite the repression, and the struggle is gaining ground with more organizations forming and more leaders stepping up. ILPS-Australia Chapter member Spirit of Eureka endorsed an online discussion entitled “Will the US Alliance Drag

Australia into another War?” on September 19. It was organised by IPAN Victoria in Melbourne and boasted the

following speakers: Vince Scappatura, author of “The US lobby and the Australian foreign policy”, and Greg Barns, SC, democratic rights lawyer and barrister, Advisor to Julian Assange Campaign. Unions and other peace

groups supported the event. (ipan.victoria1@gmail.com; https://ipan.org.au/) Speakers focused on US-led militarization

mailto:ipan.victoria1@gmail.comhttps://ipan.org.au/

and installations in the Asia-Pacific region, summed up as a strategy signifying war preparations, that put Australia in the

firing line. AFter underscoring the severe harassment and punishment against whistleblowers and other truth-tellers,

citing the Assange case, the forum also treated Australia Defense Policy as it lines up with US warmaking strategy.

ILPS-Portland in the US spoke at a virtual forum on September 21. Its statement criticized the UN’s message of “Shaping Peace Together” with the advice to spread compassion, kindness and hope in the time of the pandemic.

We mark today, International Peace Day, with both celebration and warning. Celebration of the struggle for a just and lasting peace around the world, of which we are definitely a part. Warning against the abstract language used by the UN and other institutions under the hegemony of US imperialism, hiding the root causes of conflict around the world today. ... While compassion, kindness and hope are indeed ideals to strive for, they remain only ideals without an analysis behind their absence and a program of action for achieving them. While the people are not enemies to each other, there is an enemy to the people and that is US Imperialism. There is nothing abstract about peace, and we must precisely clarify our definition of peace so that our mass movement will not be led astray by the false premises of peace peddled by the global institutions of US imperialism that thrive off of a concrete absence of genuine peace.

Full Spectrum Dominance: From AFRICOM to Indo-Pacific Command

Report on a virtual forum organized by the Black Alliance for Peace and supported by the US Peace Council,

held on September 23, 2020

In 2009, China overtook the U.S. as the African continent’s largest trading partner, destroying the West’s monopoly over

export markets and investment finance. China’s $208 billion in trade with the African continent in 2019 dwarfed the United

States’ $39 billion in 2017.

The response from the West to this development has been a military one. G. W. Bush, Obama and Trump administrations of

the US have all been orchestrating AFRICOM and the Indo-Pacific Command while striving to divide and impede peace

movements. The U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, puts most African states under the effective military control of the

United States. The Indo-Pacific Command is the counterpart to AFRICOM in the Asia-Pacific and is being used to direct military

aggression towards China. BAP's US Out of Africa Network held this virtual symposium about the connection between the

expansion of AFRICOM and the growing U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific and the work to shut down AFRICOM, and

defund, and abolish US militarism world-wide.

“Full Spectrum Dominance" is a slogan of US militarization of Asia and Africa, said guest speaker Aziz Fall, a progressive

academic, which he characterized as a “marshal strategy” of self-preservation by increased ferocity. These are the features of

US imperialist relied on in past decades: unipolarity, the Monroe Doctrine, coercive state function at home and abroad,

supremacy of NATO, control of major resources and markets and propaganda about the US humanitarian aims. However, the

world is becoming multi-polar and the economic and political reach of the US weaker today.

Writer Daniel Haiphong claimed that US-led imperialism is shifting its economic, political and military attention to Asia and

Africa to meet the challenges of its crisis. It is competing to install infrastructure such as high-speed rail and 5-G tech in those

arenas while it tries to block “South-to-South" cooperation. Also, it has been ramping up the propaganda to justify its

incursions, painting Africa as chaotic and China as authoritarian in order to justify its maneuvers and growing presence.

After providing a history of AFRICOM, Affiong L. Affiong described how the US and its allies have been gaining acceptance in

Africa and normalize US militarization of African countries. The tactics include diplomacy, media, NGOs, hobnobbing, and

doublespeak. Its agents have been very friendly, and busy making promises while telling lies about the necessity for

militarization and benefits in store for Africans. At the same time, the US and allies (such as Israel) have been engaging

militarily in Kenya and Somalia.

The speakers argued that building international and Pan-African and Pan-Asian solidarity and mass struggle was necessary. A

broad movement to oppose the US bases is especially important. Activism needs to be well informed and protected by a

thorough analysis as well as unity. It needs to be prepared to take up direct action.

JOIN THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION ON OCTOBER 1

SHUT DOWN AFRICOM! Organized by the Black Alliance for Peace’s Out of Africa Network

The ILPS is the International League of Peoples’ Struggles, an anti-imperialist alliance. www.ilps.info Commission 4 is concerned with wars of aggression and counter-revolution and nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction. https://peace450.wixsite.org/website Peace4@vcn.bc.ca

EDUCATION AND ACTION FOR ARMISTICE DAY on November 11 and

http://www.ilps.info/https://peace450.wixsite.org/websitemailto:Peace4@vcn.bc.ca

DISARMAMENT WEEK from October 24 to 31

Remember all the victims of the great World Wars! Remember the martyrs of liberation struggles!

Organize and mobilize to stop US aggression and militarization!

THE GANGJEONG OPPOSITION TO THE JEJU MILITARY BASE DRIVES ON The Jeju Base is a component in the US-Asia Pacific and US-India “Security” Strategies

The people of Gangjeong Village and many around Jeju Island have been protesting the South Korean military base since its inception in the mid-2000s. Their effective and compelling message reached all corners of the world and garnered mass international support. Now that this base is fully constructed and operational, the struggle continues. There are currently 570 regular South Korean naval personnel and two South Korean warships stationed there. Jeju is a semi-autonomous island province in the farthest southern waters of the Korean Peninsula. Treasured for its cultural heritage, its beautiful and sensitive ecology and agricultural bounty, citizens have feared that the construction of a military base would destroy the island. They cite the damage to the Hawaiin Islands wrought by its US naval base. They have questioned the purpose and need for such a facility. However, a few hoped to benefit from the new base and the thousands of base builders and users. Also, the investors and owners of island businesses from outside the island vociferously lobbied in favour of the construction.

Though not a foreign base, there is a large presence of the US military in South Korea and base-sharing agreements between the US and its neo-colonial state of the Republic of Korea. Indeed, US and other foreign forces used the Gangjeong base in early September to carry out war exercises.

The anti-base citizens’ group, the Gangjeong Peace Network, held a protest on September 11 against the war exercises. A message on the “No Naval Bases on Jeju” Facebook page explained (posted on September 10th), “The Jeju Naval Base that is becoming the first base of the U.S.-India Pacific Strategy.” Four state navies participated in a war exercise from Sept. 9 to 10th: the US, Australia, Japan and South Korea. That exercise followed the annual August exercises in the Sea of Japan near North Korea shores, which involved navies and technical and command support from 22 countries from August 17th to 31st. In defiance of its own Constitution which has kept Japanese military forces to Japanese waters and territories, the Abe government of Japan has chosen a new interpretation and allowed its forces to wander beyond Japan’s boundaries. It did so despite strenuous popular resistance of millions of people in Japan. Moreover, the US has been inviting the involvement of NATO partners like Canada and France and right-wing states of East Asia including Brunei and Singapore. Meanwhile, says the Gangjeong Peace Network, the US is scheming with India to increase so-called security in Asia, mainly as a challenge to China as well as a threat to North Korea and all national liberation and democratic movements in Asia. Japan is particularly strident in voicing its “Red Base Attack Theory.” The opponents of the Jeju Naval Base in Jeju are deeply concerned about the militarization of the Hanil (Korea Peninsula-Japan archipelago) region. Japan and the US maintain a “fortress” in the Okinawa area, with the US adding two more bases there and expanding the Iwakuni Base in southeast Honshu. The Jeju Base is not the only new military station in South Korea. Another one has been constructed in Pyongyang, also against the will of many local residents. Besides the main US base in the center of Seoul, there are several other South Korean air and naval bases shared with the US. Appeals to the South Korean Minister of Defense, Kang Kyung-Hwa, and other ministers have been met with limp responses downplaying the danger and dismissing the doubts about the US strategy. The people have been adamantly rejecting South Korea’s recent partnering with the Japanese military, a painful development in view of the lengthy and cruel occupation of Korea by Japan in the first half of the 20th century. They have been persistently trying to influence the politicians of the National Assembly.

There were rays of hope for the peace process between North and South Korea from 2018 to 2019 when the new South Korean administration took an independent stand and pushed forward with peace talks with its counterpart in the

North. Military exercises were suspended in 2019. Possibly in an effort to make the most of the signs of a weakening US, North Korea became bolder. At one point, it fired on a small facility at the DMZ, the ceasefire boundary just north of Seoul. Tensions with the South Korea presidency have since ensued. Known for an unwillingness to backdown or admit mistakes, the Trump government of the US remains belligerent and aggressive. The international community can help. Go to the “No Naval Base on Jeju” Facebook page, click “Like” and leave solidarity messages. More importantly, send appeals to Korean authorities in your country and call on your own state authorities to push the US to sign a peace treaty with North Korea and reduce its military presence in Korea and Japan.

Stop Turkey and Israel Imperialist Aggression! Deutsche-Welle's talk show, “To the Point”, discussed the conflict over waterway rights between Greece and Turkey. This discussion was posted on Youtube on September 3, 2020. It raised the problem of clashes between Turkish and Greek warships over access to island waters in the Aegean Sea. Greece has hundreds of islands and the question of foreign ships passing among them has often been an issue. Turkey and Greece, reported the DW host, nearly began a war in 1996. One guest speaker noted that Greece is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, but Turkey is not. Turkey therefore sees that its navy has rightful passage. He said that Turkey is aggressive and intends to use force. This is a big problem for NATO as both Greece and Turkey are NATO members. However, said another analyst on the DW program, Erdogan is bent on deflecting criticism from the restless Turkish voters by stirring up national sentiments in executing military challenges abroad. He also wants access to oil and gas in the Mediterranean Sea, although this industry is no longer very profitable. It appears that Turkey has growing imperialist ambitions. A former base of the Ottoman Empire which suffered defeat in World War One, perhaps Erdogan and the ruling class of Turkey wish to regain this former status. That would be similar to the Japanese elite’s ongoing efforts to rise again as an imperialist power and recover from the damage to corporate Japan in the last two decades by engaging militarily outside its own shores. Both have the blessings of the US, which is quite happy to have other imperialist powers lead the charge in the Asia-Pacific against North Korea and China and in the Mediterranean and West Asia theaters against independent states and peoples’ movements. Israel and Turkey have had the role of aggressive defenders of monopoly capitalism that seek to stamp out democratic and liberation movements. They seek power and domination themselves. What Israel could do for US and European imperialism was the compelling reason to support the formation of Israel and keep it well supplied. By containing or disrupting independence and democratic movements and states, most of all oppressing and trying to extinguish Palestine, the interests of controlling markets, extending exploitation and plunder and squeezing out big profits could be realized. The US and Europe are not at all serious about arriving at peace with Palestine. This subject arose in the ILPS Latin America Chapter forum on solidarity with the Palestinian and Filipino causes held on September 19. In fact, they indicated, Israel has a dastardly role in the world. Writer and activist Khaled Barakat confirmed that Israel has had the role of a center of arms production and trade. It has supplied and funded South African apartheid and Guatemalan state terror. It has military bases in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Kenya. It has had troops in Syria and Libya. It has warred against Lebanon and harassed and threatened Iran and other states seen as deviant from the neo-liberal, monopoly-capitalist, Euro-centric imperialist norms and dictates. Solidarity with the Palestinian and other liberation struggles is vital. Building the boycott, especially the arms embargo, against Israel is tactically important. It is necessary to build a broad, democratic alliance against occupation and wars or aggression. This alliance must analyze developments and conditions so that it can see through false narratives of peace while constructing a powerful mass movement that can result in resolutions to conflict and neutralization to aggression.

Oppose US-led Imperialist Interference and Reactionary Shenanigans in National Elections! The people of Bolivarian Venezuela, Sandinistan Nicaragua and other sovereign

states prepare defenses and will decide their own representatives

BOLIVARIAN VENEZUELA The Bolivarian socialist party of Venezuela launched its election campaign on September 8, introducing several candidates who gave unscripted speeches. The event was broadcast on Facebook live stream for anyone to witness. The election of National Assembly representatives is due to take place on December 6, 2020. The Bolivarian government is expecting another wave of misinformation and more interference and threats from reactionaries inside the country and the US and its allies outside the country. Therefore, they are calling for international solidarity to protect Venezuelan democracy and sovereignty. For example, the UN conducted a special investigation and falsely accused the current Venezuelan state of human rights abuses.

The United Nations Human Rights Council issued a report* by the Independent Mission to Determine the Facts in Venezuela (Independent Mission), which accuses Venezuela of “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment committed since 2014.” The veracity, timing, and political intent of this report is best understood in the context of a campaign led by the U.S. to overthrow Venezuela’s democratically elected government of President Nicolás Maduro and before him of Hugo Chávez. (US Peace Council e-news message, Sept. 28)

The US Peace Council reports that this report was extremely biased, considering that it gathered data by interviewing Venezuelans abroad, who largely oppose the Bolivarian government, and does not have an office inside the country. The US and all the other Rightist governments hostile to Bolivarian Venezuela approved it. Candidates including President Maduro spoke urgently against US lies and schemes to attack the Bolivarian revolution. “The people will decide,” declared Maduro. He said that discussions with several opposition parties in the multi-party system were under way to build an alliance to defend the democratic process and national sovereignty. One candidate says that the National Assembly serves the people, and that the Bolivarian candidates want to realize the “beautiful dream” of the Bolivarian project. The Bolivarian socialist campaign is entitled “Campana Nacional-Dario Vives.” This name honours Dario Vivas who died from COVID-19 on August 13 while leading the sanitation and disinfecting efforts of the nation—a close comrade of Hugo Chavez who was the Party leader and the Head of Parliament. The main slogan of this campaign is “VEN, Vamos Juntos!” (Venezuela, come and go forward together). The Party’s platform defends the social contract, territorial integrity and the democratic process. It is presented as an opportunity for all Venezuelans to build the nation, select leaders to solve problems and raise living standards. All the Bolivarian socialist candidates swore an oath that they would work in the name of Simon Bolivar for real democracy, that they would correctly and devotedly execute their duties for the revolution and the well-being of the people, following the democratic process as they are required.

SANDINISTA GOVERNMENT OF NICARAGUA National Elections will be held in Nicaragua next year. The Alliance for Global Justice held a webinar to inform the public and seek international solidarity in defending the Sandinistan socialist project and the sovereignty and democracy of revolutionary Nicaragua. Nan McCurdy, editor of Nicanotes and longtime resident of Nicaragua, provided an overview of Nicaraguan political history. Once the FLSN won the elections in 1980 after decades of Samosas dictatorships, US interference and all sorts of destabilization plots transpired. USAID made contracts and funded several so-called human rights groups to carry the

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agenda of US imperialism and reaction, sew confusion and disrupt the Sandinista leadership. The right-wing, US-backed parties rising to the top as of 1990 and through the 2000s, and disastrous neo-liberal policies were instated. Nan McCurdy reported that the US puts forward pre-selected candidates and rigs elections. Brian D. Wilson, a former US combat security unit commander in Vietnam and former lawyer who is now a permanent resident in Nicaragua, demonstrated the lawlessness of US society and its arrogance that clings to the notion of US exceptionalism. “The media and judiciary are corporate owned or ideologically stacked,” he insisted. The US rigs elections and suppresses voters at home and abroad, he added. Wilson believes that the US very much fears another Hugo Chavez may emerge in Latin America. Reams of documents prove the US’ intention of regime change in Nicaragua, he stated. When its hand-picked and groomed candidates don’t succeed, it tries to destabilize the society. Documents show that millions of dollars have been poured into such efforts, including $31 million paid to three fake HR groups among all the non-profits it has funded to the tune of $65 million. Destablization involves false news, interference with the delivery of basic services, establishing local collaborators, feeding social media. Meanwhile, said Wilson, the US cannot support its own people. Inequality is growing in the US. Magda Lanuza, a Nicaraguan with a master's degree in international relations, is an activist. She described the coup attempt in 2018. Agents pretending to be students influenced real students. A false uprising was staged, and a psy-war started. The regional media falsely reported that state forces were attacking the people, torturing and disappearing many, which generated intense fear and confusion. Robberies were causing shortages of supplies already jeopardized by the US-led sanctions. When the state withdrew police forces from the streets, however, the real perpetrators were revealed. It was criminals who were mugging people in the streets and killing and maiming citizens. There were even narco snipers. The victims were all from among the poorest classes.

BRAZIL As his legal challenge proceeds, Luiz Lula da Silva may surface from prison to be a candidate for the presidency in Brazil. That would be a serious challenge to the reactionary leader currently in office, President Jair Bolsonaro who is under fire for austerity measures and ignoring the pandemic. The US-backed Right supports characters such as him, while they cause destabilization, rumours and dissent against more democratic and progressive figures. They combatted the social programs the Lula administration installed and his stands for world peace. After falling ill with cancer in 2011, he recovered, but pursued with charges of corruption. His appointment as Chief of Staff in 2016 was denied when the Supreme Court convicted him of money laundering and corruption. The same kind of schemes, interference and propaganda were launched against Lula’s successor, President Dilma Rousseff. The first woman in the president’s office and a representative of democratic politics, she was impeached because of a financial scandal.

BELARUS First elected in 1994, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has maintained nationalized industry and public services, resisting the austerity trend in Europe. Belarus is not a NATO member; rather, it is an ally of Russia. Therefore, his government has been a thorn in the side of imperialist states which earned him their distrust and antipathy for many years and subjected him to the usual rhetoric. The economy in difficulty this year, according to the mainstream media, Lukashenko is rumoured to have reversed course with a privatization agenda. Insightful, progressive observers chalck the rumours up to imperialist propaganda and interference. Lukashenko’s election victory is being disputed by some of the populace as a result. It seems that the US and its European allies are taking advantage, perhaps even stirring the pot by defending the protests with profuse but vague accusations against him. The situation is akin to the scenario in Hong Kong, where US, Britain and other allies persistently try to use the unrest to discredit China and implant their own agenda in the mass movement.

PEOPLE’S PLATFORMS IN THE US

Many people in the US oppose imperialism and their ranks are ballooning. Mass organizations stand against the US government’s aggression, interference and misinformation aimed at regime change in targeted countries that do not follow the neo-liberal dictates. Aware of the corrupt political process, they are pledging to continue street actions and build progressive organizations rather than depend on the two-party system and its imperialist henchmen. Some held actions at the Democratic Party and Republican Party national conventions while others extended their protests against police brutality, bigotry of many sorts and fascism. The US presidential elections are due to happen in November. Moreover, many people’s organizations are developing their counter-platforms, hashing out their own political agendas and making pledges to principled stands for social justice, true democratic principles, just peace and exploitation of humans and the environment. For example, the ILPS-US Chapter and the International Migrants Alliance presented their own platforms, which the presented during a virtual conference on September 9. ILPS-US has a five-point platform: 1. economy with equality (planning, wealth redistribution, equal opportunity and accessibility); 2. opposition to all bigotry, fascism and state terror with an agenda to rectify slavery and colonialism, arrive at gender liberation and grant amnesty to migrants; 3. solutions to poverty such as guaranteed employment/ income and pandemic relief to all in need; 4. unity in action against imperialist war with international solidarity and a view to shutting down all US bases; and, 5. an end to plunder, the root cause of injustice to indigenous peoples, environmental disaster and climate change. IMA revealed its five-point platform: 1.end the causes of forced migration; 2.tackle the roots of displacement; 3.legalize migrants; 4. stop fascist oppression against migrants; and, 5. provide migrants with health care, livelihoods and services during the COVID crisis.