Athens 4-7 may 2006
At the dawn of the 21st century, and as the crisis of the capitalist system intensifies, the whole of the conquests and rights, the life itself of the working class and the peoples are targeted by the barefaced onslaught of imperialism and the capital. The demagoguery for a better management of the symptoms of the crisis and the promises for a “globalization with human face” become even more insolvent, and even if they are not identified with the designs of the multinationals, they disorient the toiling masses and facilitate the antipopular onslaught.
At the same time the resistance of the working class and the peoples gain a new impetus. Signs of this new age are the world antiwar movement against the invasion of Iraq, the Latin American movements and uprisings, the mass disapproval of the Euro-Constitution, the uprisings of the Paris young outcasts, the resistance of the Cypriot people on the Annan Plan, the uprisings of the Chinese workers and farmers, the tough strikes in Europe, the demonstrations in Seattle, Genoa and the capitalist metropolises, an so on.
The big bet of the times to come can be clearly put. Will these resistances take the direction of overthrow, will they create a new radical left movement, will they build an independent internationalist anti-imperialist movement, will they claim their social and political liberation? Or they will be recycled, assimilated and finally subjected and defeated by the contemporary domination of capital and imperialism?
The existing and future tendencies of the left, their influence on the developments, and the rephrasing of the demand for a society without oppression and exploitation will be judged through this confrontation.
We the undersigning seek the answers first of all on the ground of everyday resistance and struggle, within the movements of the peoples, the workers, and the youth: Against the warmongering policy of the imperialist powers headed by the US, who through interventions, wars and redrawing of the borders seek the world dominationË™ against the policies that bring misery to the majority of the people on this planet, that uproot millions in the Third World, that are responsible for starvation, epidemics, and brutality, that destroy the environment and the future of lifeË™ against fascism, the crashing of people’s rights, the Guantanamos, anticommunism, and the persecution of every seat of resistance in the name of antiterrorist hysteria.
In this policy the rest of the imperialist centers, and especially the European Union, are moving in the same orbit and are accomplices against the struggles of the toiling masses who fight against capitalist barbarity, the struggles of the middle and poor farmers, the youth, the immigrants, women, minorities: against the brutal policies of plunder, privatizations, exclusions, racism, oppression, and discriminations that want to make slaves out of themË™ without collective contracts, fixed working hours, and rights, with hunger wages, and working conditions that remind us of the first brutal capitalist yearsË™ with armies of unemployed, and replacement of the minimum post-war social state with charity policies and throwing of large parts of workers and young into the garbage heap. In this policy the governments, either right or left-center, either in America or Europe, agree and comply with the orders of capitalists and multinationals. Especially in Europe, the EU plays a determinant role in the imposition of this barbarity.
The internationalist struggle must be strengthened so that the peoples’ voice can be heard louder beyond any exploitation, appropriation, and hypocrisyË™ so that the voice of the revolutionary movements who fight against imperialism, capitalism, and any reactionary force can also be heard loudly, side by side to the heroic Iraqi Resistance, the liberation Palestinian movement, the struggling forces of the Turkish and Kurdish people, the peoples of Latin America and the revolutionary people of NepalË™ so that the opposition to any interventionist war policy of the imperialists against countries and people, and the criminal embargos against Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran and N. Korea can be strengthened.
In this general context of imperialist onslaught all over the world and in our country and given their rivalry against the hegemonic imperialist US, the imperialist countries of the EU have thrown away any “social” guise. Unfolding the most brutal capitalism they have given to the private sector almost all social services, deepened the class distinctions resulting in throwing millions into a labor Middle Ages, and keeping pace with the US “antiterrorist war” created a reactionary social environment.
The political crisis resulting from the overthrow of the Euro-Constitution has allowed the development of more broad manifestations of political disobedience and resistance by broad social sectors, in this way fraying the European vision. The theory of counterbalance to the US aggressiveness led to forms of assimilation of popular sectors, but also of movements that have flirted with the notion of an alternative pole. Today Socialdemocracy and the dominant forces within the European Forum are the basic carriers of the assumption that the antipopular mask of the EU can be transformed and become “Europe of the Peoples” and acquire “social dimension”.
Our country’s governments, either PASOK or New Democracy, undertake the implementation of the antipopular policies of US and EU against the will of the vast majority of the people. Marginalization and misery of large popular strata, adoption of brutal anti-labor measures (abolition of 8-hour workday, part time work, abolition of permanency, privatizations in health care, education, services, etc), annihilation of poor and middle farmers, unemployment, waves of lay-offs, Greek-Turkish contradictions, open or covert support of the Annan Plan for Cyprus, military missions to occupied countries under NATO or EU, American bases, terror laws : all these are only part of the reactionary path taken by the present government as a continuation of the same antipopular policy of the PASOK governments.
To face these new challenges the strongest possible rally of forces, together with grass roots unity in action in every place and every level, is necessary: in factories, unions, associations, universities, and neighborhoods. An independent international coordination and cooperation with resistance, radical, anti-imperialist, and anticapitalist tendencies is necessary.
It is also necessary the dissociation and confrontation with tendencies that preach subjection, compromise and assimilation to Socialdemocracy and reformism and project as the sole realistic version the “humanization” of imperialism and the betterment of capitalism.
We hold out a cooperative and solidarity hand to radical, left and revolutionary forces and movements caged within the Social Forum structures and headed by Socialdemocracy and western NGOs, in order to build an independent anti-imperialist, and anticapitalist trend of resistance.
We the undersigning this invitation, understanding the urgent need for discussion and projection of the radical movements of resistance and overthrow that are born on the ground of capitalist-imperialist aggressiveness, propose a three-day organization of anti-imperialist anticapitalist discussions, activities, and actions. This will be a place of dialog, meetings, communication, mutual interaction, and coordination of anti-imperialist, antiwar, political, social, trade union, and municipal groups, organizations, initiatives, committees, and rallies that want and strive to build the conditions for a mass overthrowing movement. This proposal is addressed to all Greece as well as internationally to forces of resistance, trade unions, social organizations, immigrant unions, youth movements, political parties of the Left, radicals, left intellectuals, etc, to all who want to contribute views and experiences and trace the possibilities of common steps.
THE INITIATIVE IS SIGNED UP TO NOW BY:
Labor associations, Municipal movements, Youth collectives:
-Taxiki Poria
– Militant Movement of Students
– People’s Militant Movement
political parties and organizations:
-Revolutionary Workers Party (RWP)
-Revolutionary Communist Movement of Greece (RCMG)
-Communist Party of Greece (Marxist-leninist) (CPG(m-l))
-Radical Left Front (RLF)
-New Left Current (NLC)
Athens, Greece February 2006
