Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
1 May 2012
We, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, join the workers of the world in celebrating the day in their honor, express our militant solidarity with them and support their struggle against imperialism, the biggest cause of the suffering of the toiling masses. The current severe crisis of the world capitalist system is worsening the exploitation and oppression of the people.
We raise our fists in salute to the workers and peoples of the world. We applaud them for waging militant collective struggle against the ill effects of the crisis, for raising their consciousness about the root causes of the crisis and for sharpen their will to fight in order to overthrow the imperialist system.
We pay tribute to the countless martyrs of the international working-class movement. Their struggles, sacrifices and successes continue to inspire us in fighting for the rights and welfare of the workers’ and the people and for radical social change. They continue to motivate us to think bigger, dream higher, and work harder for genuine fundamental social change.
The severe economic and financial crisis that has become manifest since 2008 in the global centers of capitalism has resulted in a global depression. The imperialist powers have not found a way out of the crisis because they cling to the neoliberal economic policy of monopolistic greed, which has the first place caused the crisis. As a result, the workers and peoples of the world, especially in underdeveloped countries, are suffering rising levels of unemployment, sinking incomes, soaring prices and widespread poverty.
In imperialist countries, the bailouts given to the big financial institutions and favored corporations, the tax cuts, subsidies and overpriced contracts for monopoly firms and the wanton spending on the military and bureaucracy have resulted in huge deficits and debts for the governments. In order to pass the burden of the crisis on to the backs of the workers and the people, brutal austerity measures have been adopted and implemented.
In underdeveloped countries, extreme hunger and poverty among workers and the people continue to mount. Exports of raw materials and semimanufactures are decreasing. The reduced demand from the developed countries has aggravated the long-standing overproduction of such goods. International credit, foreign investments, and the demand for migrant workers are all decreasing.
The imperialists are stepping up war production and unleashing wars of aggression in an attempt to spur production through the military-industrial complex and expand economic territory abroad. As a result, all kinds of contradictions are sharpening and the whole world is in a state of turbulence. State fascism is being unleashed against workers’ and people’s protests in both developed and underdeveloped countries, while wars of aggression are being unleashed by the imperialist powers against countries assertive of their independence.
Even as it faces severe fiscal constraints and even as it remains mired in its wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, the US is trying to expand its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region avowedly to encircle and contain China as a potential imperialist rival with growing and economic and military power. It is using one-sided treaties with its puppet governments in order to increase military forces in the region. It follows the same pattern of engaging in military intervention in other regions.
The bleak economic and political landscape is being lit up by the flames of revolutionary resistance and by the red flags of the protest actions of the workers and peoples of the world, who are now incited by the governments’ austerity measures to rise in opposition. The forces of anti-imperialism, people’s democracy and socialism are rising to the occasion by raising consciousness on the basis of the burning issues of the day, expanding their ranks, and promoting revolutionary alternatives.
We are calling on the workers and peoples of the world to intensify our struggles against imperialism. Let us take the governments of our respective countries to task for implementing neoliberal policies. Let us deepen our understanding of the root causes of the present crisis, the alternatives to this rotten kind of society, and the various forms of struggle needed for revolutionary social change.
We are calling on all progressive, anti-imperialist and socialist-oriented workers’ and people’s organizations to take advantage of the rare opportunity being provided to us by the current global depression. Let us aggressively arouse, organize, and mobilize workers and the rest of the people for genuine radical social change.
Let us continuously expand and consolidate our ranks in order to effectively fight and eventually defeat imperialism and its reactionary stooges. Let us make sure that this crisis, which is leading to greater barbarism on the part of imperialism and its allies, will give birth to a fundamentally new society where freedom, democracy, social justice, all-development and peace reign.###
