Communiqué of the EC of the WPC, Guantánamo, November 20-21, 2015

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Forward for strengthening the WPC towards our next World Assembly in November 2016 in Brazil!

The Executive Committee of the WPC took place in the Cuban province of Guantanamo from November 20-21, 2015. It was hosted by the Cuban Movement for Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples (MOVPAZ).
The EC was followed by the IV. International Seminar for Peace and the elimination of Foreign Military Bases in the world, co-organized by the WPC, MOVPAZ and the Cuban Institute of Friendship of the Peoples (ICAP), from November 23-25 at which time a final declaration was issued.
The WPC EC meeting reviewed the world situation regarding threats to peace and stability, increasing imperialist aggressions and wars in several parts of the world, as well as the response of peoples and peace movements and expressed its gravest concern about the growing dangers for a catastrophic conflict of large proportions. On the other hand, it was also pointed out that public opinion and peoples’ movements against imperialist aggressions and wars and for peace and stability are developing in various parts of the world.
By holding its EC in Guantanamo, a few kilometers away from the US military base and its concentration camp of torture, the WPC reaffirmed its unconditional demand for the immediate and permanent closure of the Base, which is occupied against the will of the Cuban people, and for the return of the territory to Cuba.
The WPC conveyed also its sincere and unwavering solidarity with the Cuban people and its revolution, in defending its achievements and for ending the criminal US blockade against Cuba, the lifting of the “Common Position” of the EU against Cuba and other sanctions and interference.
We share the joy and satisfaction of the Cuban people for the complete return of the Five Cuban heroes to their fatherland.
From Latin American soil the WPC salutes the peoples of the region and expresses its solidarity in their struggle for the sovereign right to decide for themselves alone and free from foreign machinations and subversion their own future and path of development. We underline the important decision of CELAC to declare in 2014 in its summit in Havana the region as a “Zone of Peace,” which reflects the genuine feelings and aspirations of the vast majority of the population in Western Hemisphere.
The WPC denounces and repudiates all attempts at imperialist interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela leading to its parliamentary elections, including attempts to attack, subvert and remove the democratically elected Government. We acknowledge and support the progressive measures and achievements on behalf of the Venezuelan people of the last 16 years, as well as the challenges and the need to deepen the transformation process and confront the oligarchy and its power.
The WPC acknowledges the steps achieved in the “Peace Talks” between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP in Havana for the final signing of a comprehensive Peace Accord, underlining as well the challenges and risks to secure full guarantees for a political solution with justice and dignity which the Colombian people fought for over more than half century.
The WPC expresses its solidarity with the people of Argentina to exercise their sovereign rights over the Malvinas islands and condemns the gross violation of those rights by the United Kingdom.
We support the right of the people of Puerto Rico, a US colony in the Caribbean Sea, for its self-determination and freedom along with our demand for the release of political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera from his US jail.
We condemn the attacks like those perpetrated in Paris a few days ago and we express our most sincere solidarity with the French people in their pain. Moreover, as the responses of the French government and its role in the conflict in Syria have shown, the alleged fight against terrorist groups - many of which emerged as a direct result of imperialist action and in particular of the US, NATO and their allies in the region - is used to attack the democratic rights of France’s own citizens or immigrants throughout many European countries.
Day by day the Aegean Sea is becoming a graveyard for hundreds of families fleeing from wartorn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The Greek islands are being converted into refugee camps, without sufficient or adequate resources to receive and host these people. A key issue in this tragedy remains EU regulations in the Schengen and Dublin II agreements and the hypocrisy of the EU and governments of many of those countries through which the refugees are crossing that are openly hostile to the refugees.
We reaffirm our solidarity with the people of Cyprus, who for more than 40 years have been under partial occupation of 37% of their land, and express our concern that the right wing government is strengthening its bonds with the oil multinationals, the US, NATO and Israel along with reactionary monarchies in the Middle East. We reject any “solution” of the Cyprus issue that converts Cyprus into a protectorate in order to serve the geostrategic and energy interests of the imperialists in the region and that degrades the people of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, into victims. The WPC reaffirms its position for a viable and just solution based on a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation, with one sovereignty, one citizenship and one international representation, with political equality as required by the relevant UN Security Council resolutions on Cyprus.
We express our condemnation of the plans of the Greek government to install a new US military Base in the Aegean Sea (Island Karpathos) and to extend the US and NATO military operations beyond the Souda Base to other parts of the island of Crete with plans to deploy US-Drones on Greek soil.
The WPC denounced and condemned the recent military manoeuvres of NATO under the name “Trident Juncture 2015” in Spain, Italy and Portugal, as one of the biggest in NATO’s history, with heavy military ordnance which received firm opposition from WPC member organisations, namely in Portugal. NATO proves once again to be the main global aggressor and armed tool of the US and the EU imperialism. The WPC supports the struggle in each NATO member-State against the greatest war machine of imperialism and the right of each people to withdraw from it and demand the dissolution of NATO on a global level. The WPC is giving high priority to the struggle against NATO, particularly as it heads towards its next summit in Poland in July 2016.
Eastern Europe remains very tense where the USA, the EU and NATO are dangerously deploying forces from the Baltic States to Bulgaria with tens of thousands of troops along with the “Missile Defence Shield” in order to expand their geo-strategic agenda aimed towards Russia and Ukraine, where an orchestrated Coup in 2013 installed a reactionary government with the support of neo-fascist forces. We express our solidarity with the anti-imperialist and progressive forces in Ukraine and denounce the attacks against the population and cities in the eastern part of the country (Donbass) and the “witch hunts” organized by the illegal government though fabricated cases aimed to destroy the legality of the Communists and other progressive forces in the Ukraine.
The WPC notes with extraordinary concern that the situation in the Middle East is escalating dangerously. The concentration of all sorts of military power over the skies and on the ground in Syria and Iraq, are creating an explosive situation and threatening generalized war for the sake of geo-strategical control of energy resources, pipelines and spheres of influence as well as violent regime change and redrawing of borders. The WPC calls upon the peace loving people of the world to be vigilant and mobilize forces in their respective countries against a new, this time, generalized war. We express our solidarity with the Syrian people who are facing the imperialist and terrorist attack on their people.
The WPC strongly denounces the imperialist plan for a “new Middle East,” which is spearheaded by the USA, the EU, its allies in the region by a dangerous crusader mentality. The Islamic fundamentalist forces, for so many years tolerated and nurtured by the imperialists themselves, assumed a new role with armed “holy warriors” in various countries, particularly Iraq and Syria. The project of “ISIS” is the other side of the same coin of the imperialist agenda in the region. The emergence of “ISIS” was a result of the aggressive war and occupation of Iraq by the US and its allies. The imperialist agenda is aiming to construct spheres of influence and control energy resources; it requires willing regimes and ignores any consequences for the peoples of the region.
There cannot be any “humanitarian military intervention” furthermore waged by the ones who have slaughtered the same peoples. Special responsibility for all this rests on the Turkish government, without which the plans in Syria could not have been applied. The millions of refugees in Turkey and other neighbouring countries is the tragic result of a plan to overthrow the regime in Damascus by multinational armed gangs entering mainly from Turkey, co-sponsored by the Gulf monarchies. Taking note of the recent concentration of military forces, the WPC is troubled over increased NATO involvement against Syria aimed at countering the Russian Federation’s military presence which came at the request of the Syrian government.
The WPC expresses its deep concern about the growing tendencies of religious fundamentalism in the region as part of a plan to manipulate peoples’ consciousness whether through “brain washing” or through open terror, while hiding the actual collaboration of those forces with the US, NATO and EU imperialists and their willing partners in the region, namely Israel, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The World Peace Council joyfully welcomes the raising of the Palestinian flag in front of UN headquarters, even while the inalienable right of the Palestinian people for a full membership of Palestine in the UN remains unfulfilled. We note with deep concern and rejection the escalation of violence and the increasingly brutal actions of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. The repetition of this fatal and unacceptable cycle is due to the persistent impunity of the Israeli regime for war crimes committed on a daily basis against the brave Palestinian people with the collusion of the United States, which supports a regime of oppression and threat against the peoples of the region, while monopolizing a false "peace process" that for two decades has favoured the occupation. The WPC reaffirms its calls for the end of the occupation, the establishment of a free, independent and viable Palestinian State within the borders existing before 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Likewise we support the right for the return of the Palestinian refugees according to UN resolution 194 and demand the release of all Palestinian political prisoners from Israeli jails.
The WPC demands the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Syrian Golan Heights and the Lebanese Shebaa farms. We support a Middle East as a zone free from nuclear weapons. There cannot be double standards towards Israel, especially after the agreement with Iran on its right for peaceful use of nuclear energy. We also express our solidarity with the progressive and peace loving forces in Iran and Israel in the struggle for people’s rights, democratic freedoms and social justice.
The EC strongly rejects the US “Pivot to Asia,” including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and plans to deploy 60% of its military in the Asian/Pacific region aimed at securing its geostrategic interests. The WPC follows with concern the developments in the South China Sea, where the regional territorial dispute should be resolved only through dialogue between the parties concerned based on the UN Convention for the Law of Seas (UNCLOS) of 1982. We reject the provocative role of the USA which insists on trying to interfere in the situation through its Navy, its Air Force and through bilateral military agreements with its regional allies, particularly Japan, the government of which recently altered its defence legislation allowing it to deploy military forces and to carry out military operations abroad with the US forces, against the will of the Japanese people. The WPC expresses its support and solidarity to brave struggle in Okinawa against the installation of a new US Military Base in Henoko.
The WPC underlines its solidarity with the Korean people for the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula as well as against the military manoeuvres, the establishment of a new US base on Jeju Island and threats of US imperialists and its allies against the Korean people.
We declare our support for the victims and families of the toxic “Agent Orange.” The US must be held accountable for crimes against humanity during its dirty war against Vietnam. We demand just compensation for all victims of the war and removal of contaminated soil and remaining explosive ordnance.
The WPC congratulates the Nepalese people for their achievement of the progressive and democratic constitution after a long 65 years of struggle to draft a peoples’ constitution by Nepalese people themselves. WPC stands in solidarity with the people of Nepal on its future nation building efforts. The WPC condemns the proxy aggression and blockades against Nepal by the current government of India with an intention to interfere into the sovereign right of people of Nepal for promulgating its own constitution. We are concerned with the humanitarian crisis in earthquake-hit country and call for lifting the blockade immediately.
The WPC notes with concern that in Africa the inter-imperialist rivalries continue to afflict the continent where the US-imperialist interests run head-on against European Union, British, French, German and others - collectively and individually. With China's strong presence in the continent, US and EU agreements with African countries have been threatened and rolled back. The imperialists do not hesitate to trigger wars where their interests are not advancing. The UN and African Union are often being used to re-establish control through military intervention.
In Africa, brutal exploitation by multinational corporations continues with the full military support of the US and EU. The newly created AFRICOM and new US bases in Africa (e.g., Chad), the military interventions of France in Francophone Africa, are a part of imperialism’s direct interventions in Africa. Imperialism is also fostering divisions and proxy wars there to make it easier to plunder Africa's mineral resources. The US's, EU’s and NATO’s interventions in Somalia and Libya have resulted in the collapse of these states, leading to local insurgencies and their spilling over into neighbouring counties. Religious Fundamentalism continues to be major source of tensions on the continent and has a potential of wreaking havoc in Africa. The migration problem has recently been brought to the attention of the world with the dead bodies of many refugees found along the coasts of Europe. African migration to Europe in particular has been a problem for many years and racist attitudes have corrupted much of the process. That many African youth migrate to Europe to escape poverty, war, unemployment and for a better life is proof of the internal problems as well as the imperialist policies in Africa that still plague the continent.
The WPC reaffirms its solidarity with the people of Western Sahara. We condemn the occupation of Western Sahara by the Kingdom of Morocco and underline our solidarity with the just struggle of the Saharawi people, for their inalienable right to self determination under a free and democratic referendum.
The World Peace Council reaffirms, with growing alarm, our determined position for the immediate and complete abolition of all nuclear weapons, demanding an end to the logic of blackmail and first strike that threatens all humanity. The Stockholm Appeal, launched 65 years ago by the WPC, remains current.
Seventy years after the end of the World War II and from the founding of the United Nations in 1945, the WPC believes that the principles of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are essential tools for movements tirelessly struggling for Peace among people who, along with the World Peace Council, esteem the principles set forth in those documents as humanity's common goals. Therefore, it is also very important to recall the abuse of the UN's role today, its double moral standards, due to its instrumentalization by the USA and its allies for their domination over the world.
We hereby emphatically state that the consequences of imperialist domination are knocking ever harder at the doors of all countries. US and EU imperialism, as reflected in the structure and the “strategic concepts” behind their war machine, NATO, has frequently run over the most essential principles established by the UN Charter. For the WPC the protection of human rights, sovereignty and self-determination must not remain pretexts or instruments for the promotion of military and criminal imperialist interventions.
The WPC is pleased to announce the holding of its next World Assembly for November 2016 in the city of Sao Luis, Brazil, with CEBRAPAZ as host Organization. The next Assembly of the WPC shall become the meeting point for the global peace movement, in the struggle for a world of peace and social justice, free from imperialist domination and exploitation.
The WPC and its member Organizations have been these four years in the first line of the struggle, facing the challenges and the threats to peace against the imperialist aggressions. We call upon all peace loving people in the world to unite forces and efforts and to build a strong global peace movement.
General guidelines of action till the next WPC Assembly
• Global Campaign against NATO and its crimes- towards the summit in Poland, July 2016
• Campaign for the elimination of all Foreign Military Bases
• Promotion of the abolition of nuclear and other mass destruction weapons
• Active participation in the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to be held in Caracas/Venezuela in July 2016
• Solidarity actions with the people under imperialist aggression with concrete plans to visit Palestine and Syria in 2016
• Regional Meetings in five regions in the course and preparations towards the Assembly
• Holding of WPC Secretariat meeting on 28-29 May 2016 at the Head office of WPC in Athens