For a just & lasting peace,
resist us-led war
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The following was drafted at the Solidarity and Fightback: Resisting US-led War, Militarism, and Neo-fascism conference at the University of Toronto on August 7, 2017. The conference gathered over 250 peace activists from 21 countries. The manifesto, however, aims to go beyond the conference participants towards a broader movement for peace based on justice worldwide by calling for greater coordination and cooperation of mass actions.
A CALL TO ACTION
All around the world exploited and subjugated nations and peoples are rising up against the tides of war, militarism and neo-fascism brought about by the crisis endemic to the global capitalist system. This is US monopoly capital and the rest of the monopoly capitalist system in decay. Every hour, workers in the factories and workplaces, farmers and peasants in the fields and plantations are being killed. Women and girls are degraded by systemic rape culture as a tool of war. Natural resources and the environment are plundered and destroyed. Families are displaced by wars. Villages and cities are hit with bombs and missiles. Hospitals, schools, places of worship and other public centers are being occupied and wiped out. Mothers and fathers lay their bodies to shield their children from bombs and airstrikes. Indigenous peoples and other oppressed nations face discrimination, genocide and displacement from corporate plunder and extractivism. Youth, people of color, LGBT, women and the poor are preyed upon and recruited to fight and perish in these wars at the behest of corporations as well as face increasing brutalization, mass incarceration, and racism by the militarized police state in their home countries. The whole world is threatened by the nuclear arsenal, chemical weapons, and other weapons of mass destruction of the United States. Peoples resistance and struggles for liberation DO NOT CEASE to proliferate in all corners of the globe, fighting for life, livelihood, sovereignty, peace, justice, and dignity. Peoples are also self-determining their forms of resistance and paths for liberation. There remains an urgency to find bases of unity across cities, countries, and global regions impacted by imperialist war, militarism, and neo-fascism. There is an urgency to amplify our calls and multiply our collective actions to RESIST US-LED WAR and militarism, including the withdrawal of US military troops, occupation, bases, war games and exercises in West Asia, Africa, East, Central and South Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands, and East Europe. Resist US-NATO, AFRICOM and CIA counterinsurgency operations, proxy wars, and other forms of covert intervention. Fight Zionism, apartheid, and systemic racism. Fight against the US military-industrial complex, including divestment from the hundreds of billions spent on war and militarization and redirecting of public funds towards peoples needs, development, and infrastructure. BUILD JUST PEACE through justice, social equity, and solidarity amongst peoples, including the recognition of the right to self-determination, economic, and food sovereignty, and self-defense of nations and oppressed peoples from reactionary aggression and violence. Build peace through genuine sustainable development, job creation, and the health and well being of our communities. Resist Imperialist War! Build Peace! Long Live International Solidarity! Signed: Organizational Signers International League of People's Struggle International Women's Alliance Asia-Pacific Research Network Asia-Pacific Mission for Migrants Network Against Famine and War United National Anti-War Coalition Ban The Bases Network Viet Unity Iraq Veterans Against the War Individual Signers Rania Masri |
