The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) was present at the Conference, represented by cde Ilias Baltas, who delivered the following intervention:
“Dear friends and comrades,
Let me first of all thank the World Peace Council and
the “Belgrade Forum for the World of Equals” for organizing and
inviting the WFTU to this very important conference on the occasion of
the 15 years since the NATO aggression against the peoples of Yugoslavia
in 1999 that paved the way for later imperialist aggressions in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali and the threats today against the Syrian
people. The imperialist aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999 and its
detrimental impact on the peoples in the region and on world peace is a
crime that should neither be forgiven, nor forgotten.
Let me start with an assessment expressed during the
latest session of the WFTU Presidential Council of the WFTU, held in
Rome, Italy last month. Today, when the capitalist financial crisis that
hit all developed capitalist countries has dramatically worsened the
situation for the working class in all aspects of their lives. In all
countries and continents, the capitalists the monopolies, taking
advantage of the world capitalist crisis, accelerate the anti-workers
measures they had elaborated long before with the aim to extort bigger
surplus value. In all continents and regions, the policies aiming to an
“exit from the crisis” elaborated by capitalist governments, no matter
the name or the composition of the parties governing, and the
international imperialist mechanisms (IMF, World Bank, European Central
Bank etc.) have as a main prerequisite very low wages and salaries,
their constant decrease, less workers and union rights, unemployment,
state and employer sponsored terrorism, oppression and increase of the
exploitation rate for the youth, especially of the children of the
working class
On the international arena, the financial crisis
generates big overturns and shakings of the imperialist system. It
intensifies international rivalries and creates a shift in the
correlations of economic power. As the global capitalism is getting
deeper into the international capitalist crisis, facing its own
contradictions, the competition of life and death among the large
monopoly groups is intensifying. This means that the imperialist
aggressiveness, aiming at the exploitation of natural and economic
resources and energy transfer routes becomes more ruthless. This means
new wars and imperialist aggression against the people. The imperialist
interventions against the people of Syria, in Mali, Libya, Central
African Republic, Ukraine, confirm the assessment that there are risks
of generalized warfare.
The imperialists try to fool the people, hiding their
real goals under the hypocritical covers of lies, misinformation,
numerous appeals for “freedom”, “democracy”, “justice”, “fight against
terrorism” etc.
Their
pretexts are totally hypocritical. The NATO and the EU countries bombed
Libya, now they threaten Syria, under the pretext of “democracy”, while
on the same time the US and its allies have excellent relations with
the oppressive regimes of the Gulf Monarchies, while they try to
destabilize democratically elected governments –like in Venezuela- or
supporting coups d’ etat (see Honduras), even creating alliances with
nazi and fascist forces like in the recent case of Ukraine. The US and
the NATO led the “war against terror”, while still keeping in prison
Cuban patriots for fighting against terrorism. Here in Serbia, the
imperialist aggression led to the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, the
illegal secession of Kosovo, in the name of “freedom”. At the same time
in Palestine, the USA with their unbridled support for Israel, which
occupies most of the Palestinian territory, deprive Palestinians of
their freedom and independence, of the right to be sovereign nation, a
fact that has cost thousands of lives to the Palestinian brothers and
sisters and with the consequent destruction of almost all the national
territory.
International law is –in these cases- flexible and
relevant. Today, international law is shaped, interpreted and applied
according to the needs of the powerful, according to the plans and
alliances of the imperialists and the international monopolies. UN
Resolutions, international conventions and international laws have no
meaning when they are inconvenient for the plans of the imperialists.
Their violation by the imperialist governments bears no consequences.
For example, the UN has voted various and repeated resolutions on
Palestine, on Cyprus, for the end of the criminal US blockade against
the people of Cuba. But up to today, the imperialists attitude has not
changed.
Imperialist wars, imperialist aggression and
interventions of every kind are always against the workers and the
peoples, generating new suffering for them. Millions of people are
fleeing as migrants and thousands get killed, among them children and
non combatant civilians. The workers have no common interests with the
imperialists or the bourgeoisie of their countries. So, they have
nothing to gain from their wars and rivalries.
The WFTU takes sides. It takes the side of the
working class and simple people in every country. It is the duty of the
WFTU, of the international class oriented trade union movement to inform
workers, tell them the truth about who’s to blame for this dire
situation.
The WFTU is a class oriented, anti-imperialist,
internationalist organization, which fights for the interests of the
working class, for peace and friendship -not between social classes-
but among the workers and the peoples of the world, against imperialist
wars. We strongly defend the right of every people to decide for
themselves on their present and future.
In this framework, the WFTU, along with its
affiliates in the 5 continents, representing more than 86 million
unionized workers, organize various activities (protests, conferences,
international campaigns) to raise awareness within the workers and the
trade union movement and express our solidarity with the people who
suffer because of imperialism, against imperialist interventions of any
kind. These events are spread all over the world, in America, Asia,
Africa, even in Europe where our forces are still smaller.
The WFTU has always expressed its solidarity with the
peoples that were affected by imperialism, denouncing the imperialist
wars in Lybia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Mali, the Central African
Republic, while, other so called workers representatives –like the
International Trade Union Confederation ITUC- have even expressed their
support, like in the cases of Mali, Libya, siding with the imperialists
arguments for “democracy” and “international law”… The WFTU has, also,
been a stable friend and ally of the Palestinian people, in their cause
for an independent viable state, a stable supporter of the Cuban people
in their fight against imperialist aggression of the US, who maintains
the criminal blockade against Cuba and imprisoned the 5 Cuban patriots.
We solidarize with the people of Cyprus, the people of Venezuela and
their respective struggles against imperialism. We have undertaken
various initiatives to support all those causes.
Dear friends, dear comrades,
There is no reason why the workers and our peoples
should live in poverty, experience imperialist wars, destruction,
torment, capitalist exploitation, lack of proper public healthcare and
education. The WFTU calls for the unity of the workers on the world for
their own class interests, their alliance with the poor farmers, the
self-employed, the women, the youth and their fight for social justice,
against imperialism and war and against the causes that generate these
wars and the suffering for the peoples.
Because, the workers, the working class has to be
-also- in the first line of the struggle for peace in the world. And
there won’t be a lasting and socially just peace, without the
overturning of the last exploitation system of the human history, the
capitalist system, if we don’t end the exploitation of man by man.”
No comments:
Post a Comment