UNITY STATEMENT
Peoples' Assembly Against the IMF/World Bank
April 2000
We, the Peoples' Assembly Against the IMF/World Bank, are firmly
united in the task of exposing and opposing the International
Monetary Fund/World Bank and advancing the people's resistance to
imperialist globalization.
Imperialist globalization must be unmasked and fully discredited. It
is monopoly capitalism masquerading as a new and wonderful product of
the electronic age. It ravages the environment, devastates countries
and subjugates entire peoples with unequaled ferocity and
ruthlessness.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) are tools of imperialist globalization. They are instruments of multinational
corporations (MNCs) and imperialist states for dictating financial
and monetary policy on client states. In the end, the IMF/WB cannot
be reformed, but must be dismantled. US imperialism controls the
IMF/WB contrary to the official propaganda that member states enjoy
decision-making powers.
Imperialist states, led by the United States, and acting as
protectors and promoters of the super-profits of giant monopoly
firms, are intensifying the exploitation and oppression of all peoples around
the world. They are the masterminds of increased worker exploitation, the perpetrators who violate peasants' and workers' rights leaving
them landless and in feudal and semi-feudal bondage, the chief
instigators of human rights violations, and the biggest plunderers
and polluters of the environment.
Imperialist globalization is not inevitable. It is not unstoppable.
We have proven this time and time again in tactical battles against
the neoliberal policies of liberalization, deregulation and
privatization against the debt trap and in the recent highly
successful anti-MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investments) Campaign.
The peoples of the world were successful in launching massive
protests and shutting down the World Trade Organization (WTO) in
Seattle, Washington last December 1999.
While we struggle for reforms and try to achieve palpable gains on
immediate issues, we make sure that we are not distracted from the
overall struggle against the main enemy of the world's peoples today
-- imperialism -- specifically the No. 1 imperialist power, the USA.
We vow to close ranks to confront the imperialist monster that has
taken away our land, jobs and livelihood and has further displaced,
commodified and turned women into modern-day slaves. We denounce
imperialist globalization that has impoverished us and left us
hungry, sick, without decent housing, and has stolen our youth's future.
We commit ourselves to bring down this system which is bringing
genocidal wars of imperialist intervention and domination upon the
peoples of the world. We demand an end to the economic blockade of
Cuba, the ongoing bombing of Iraq and the use of the United Nations
sanctions to bring sovereign countries to heel.
We firm up our resolve to promote and develop the anti-imperialist
and democratic struggle of the workers and oppressed peoples against the
inhumane policies and acts of the MNCs, their governments and
international instruments such as the IMF, World Bank, World Trade
Organization and military alliances.
We support the calls of the International League of Peoples'
Struggles which will be founded at the end of the year 2000.
Finally, we stand ready to fight for the following:
1. National and social liberation from imperialism and all reaction
and resistance to foreign aggression and intervention;
2. Human rights in he civil, political, economic, social and cultural
fields against state violence national oppression, class
exploitation, fascism, racism and religious bigotry;
3. The cause of peace against wars of aggression and against nuclear
and genocidal weapons;
4. Independent trade union and workers' and toilers' rights and
reduction of working hours at full pay against mass unemployment and
decreasing wage levels;
5. Rights of peasants, farm workers and fisherfolk against feudal and
semifeudal exploitation and oppression;
6. The rights of women and rights against all forms of sexual
discrimination, exploitation and violence;
7. The rights of the youth to education and employment;
8. Children's rights against child labor and other forms of
exploitation;
9. Rights of indigenous peoples oppressed nations and nationalities
against chauvinism and racism;
10. The rights of teachers, researchers and other educational
personnel;
11. The right of the people to health care and the rights of health
workers;
12. The rights, welfare and release of political prisoners;
13. Rights and welfare of displaced persons, refugees and migrant
workers;
14. Environmental protection against plunder and pollution; and
15. The right to safe and health food free from genetic manipulation.
