By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples´ Struggle
9 November 2012
In representation of the over 250 member-organizations of the International League of Peoples´ Struggle (ILPS) in over 40 countries, we the International Coordinating Committee express our solidarity with ILPS Canada on the occasion of its Second General Assembly.
We congratulate you for your success at convening the Assembly and initiating such related events as the Keynote speakers event featuring outstanding and inspiring anti-imperialist figures; the Right to Exist, Right to Resist Conference; and the Mass Artillery of People’s Culture.
The Second General Assembly is an occasion to review the situation in Canada, your role as the Canada chapter of ILPS and your experience since the First General Assembly, to clarify the public and internal issues vital to your further development and to define the tasks by which to strengthen your Chapter and advance the struggle for the rights of the people of Canada.
We are confident that you will continue to arouse the people through the most effective undertakings of education and information, to attract existing organizations to join your Chapter, to motivate the formation of new organizations and to mobilize the broad masses of the people on issues of multisectoral and sectoral interest.
It is excellent that the Right to Exist, Right to Resist Conference immediately follows your Assembly and makes the call to build a united front against Canadian imperialism, capitalism and colonialism on four major fronts in which the Canadian imperialists carry out wars on the people’s resistance, on the working people, on the communities and on the land defenders and the environment.
We see that the conference provides content and direction for the further development of your Chapter and struggle. It can expand and deepen your understanding of the various aspects of the Canadian situation and the people´s struggle, the objectives and the activities and campaigns that you need to carry out.
The four tracks of the conference bring together activists, organizers and concerned people from various sectors of Canadian society to share and expand points of unity and struggle against Canadian imperialism, capitalism and colonialism. The participants are bound by the call for a united front against imperialism and by the resolve to issue a statement of unity. We hope that the conference can strengthen the unity of the ILPS member-organizations and motivate other mass organizations to join the ILPS.
We take this opportunity to elucidate on the building of the ILPS. Like any country chapter of the ILPS, ILPS-Canada is basically a united front of mass organizations, which may include those based on sectoral interests like those of workers, youth, women, immigrants, indigenous people, scientists and technologists, writers and artists and other types of professionals as well as those based on multisectoral or sectoral issues such as any of the concerns of the ILPS as enumerated by its Charter.
As a united front form of organization, the ILPS is replicated by ILPS-Canada on a country level and to the widest extent possible, with due consideration to the specific characteristics of Canada and the existing organizations available for combining along the anti-imperialist and democratic line.
At whatever level, the efforts of ILPS initiators or conveners intent on building and strengthening the ILPS as a united front formation must focus on convening the existing mass organizations that have an anti-imperialist and democratic character and are willing to comply with the ILPS Constitution. At a given time, there may be only a few member-organizations that can be united to form an alliance, but subsequently through expansion efforts more mass organizations can join, or in the meantime become steady allies external to the ILPS.
Expansion efforts can be made in various ways, including direct approaches, general calls and conferences and other gatherings initiated or co-sponsored by the ILPS, and allowing the participation of organizations which share the same values and aims but are not yet members. Your Right to Exist, Right to Resist Conference is a good example of bringing together ILPS member-organizations and a wider collection of other organizations as well as individuals.
The leadership and membership of every mass organization in the ILPS remains intact. Every member-organization maintains its independence and initiative even as it agrees to unite with other organizations in order to form an alliance and be able to achieve a higher level of strength through common purpose, closer cooperation and coordination of larger numbers of people in various types of activities and campaigns.
The ILPS benefits from the political and organizational synergy arising from the united front or alliance of its member-organizations from the level of cities and municipalities to that of country chapters and further to that of global regions and still further to the international level. However, the member organizations basically take care of themselves.
Higher levels of leadership are formed through the method of representation in committees and assemblies. Officers can use the email, social media, online and/or telephone consultations or conferences (eg. Skype) to implement and sharpen previous decisions or if necessary to make new decisions. Thus, the costs of transport and communications among officers can be reduced, especially in a country the size of Canada. A minimal number of staff personnel can suffice at every level.
We wish the utmost success of your Second General Assembly and all the related events in paving the way for the further advance of ILPS-Canada and the people of Canada in the struggle for greater freedom, the democratic rights of the working people, the rights of women and children, equality of the various communities, respect for the First Nations and protection of the environment against Canadian imperialism, capitalism and colonialism.
Long live ILPS Canada!
Advance the people’s struggle!
Long live the anti-imperialist fighting spirit of the people of Canada!
