IN TIMES OF PANDEMIC, LET US TURN THE WEEK OF ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE INTO A MOBILIZATION FOR THE DEFENSE OF DIGNIFIED LIFE

PDFs:

The spread of COVID19 across the globe has generated a severe crisis, which will impact more than the thousands of people who have already been infected with this coronavirus. The way of life of the majority of the world’s people has been impacted; the international economy has suffered a serious setback. This situation has revealed the weakness of a society that is built on the interests of capital, and therefore has dismantled social protections – particularly of public health – fought for by workers.

In the so-called First World, the deregulation of the market and of the economy in general has compromised the assurance of a dignified life for the people. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America – where the regimes of austerity and the programs of structural adjustment of the IMF have dismantled social institutions – social life has been compromised, leaving people vulnerable to climate and financial catastrophes as well as global pandemics.

The dramatic consequence of the possible infection of millions of people during this global pandemic will stretch to the limit this collapsed social system; we are therefore in an international humanitarian emergency. As such, it is crucial that all the anti-imperialist forces take a stand and engage in an intense debate on possible ways to resolve this situation.

In light of the current international humanitarian emergency, as the social and political organizations that have been working since 2019 to organize the Anti-imperialist Week of Struggle in 2020, we call for this mobilization to become a struggle against the attempt by the capitalist sector to make the working-class and the masses bear the consequences of costs of this crisis, as happened in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008.

As such:

1. We demand that all public and private resources be put at the service of controlling and alleviating the effects of this pandemic with special attention to the most vulnerable people.
2. We demand that governments and international organizations make immediate cuts to their immense military spending. This expenditure supports a security system that is designed to defend the elites. It is founded on military alliances – such as NATO – and it has a global footprint through military bases on all continents; it possesses a nuclear arsenal with the capacity to destroy the planet several times over.
3. As we cut military expenditure, we propose that the resources be used to construct a human security system that invests all the resources of the planet to create dignified lives for people; this would include a significant increase in social spending, so that we can adequately respond to the current humanitarian emergency.
4. We call for the strengthening of the social system, especially of the public health system, which has been eroded by neoliberal policies over the past several decades.
5. We call for solidarity with all health workers who are putting their lives at risk to save thousands of sick victims of the COVID-19 despite the lack of state investment in public and universal health.
6. We call for the promotion of a dignified life for all people, with a right to employment and workers’ rights, in response to the capitalist strategy of using this health crisis to fire workers, evict the poor, and cut wages and benefits.
7. We call for an end to the unilateral criminal sanctions that the United States government imposes on more than fifty countries - especially Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. These sanctions have a direct and cruel impact on the healthcare systems of these countries, impeding the arrival of medicine and hospital supplies, and causing the avoidable death of thousands.
8. Finally, we call for solidarity and the spirit of internationalism amongst the people of the world; in a time of international humanitarian crisis of this magnitude, it is fundamental that solidarity, cooperation, and mutual support be the dominant values of the inter-state system and of humanity.

Above all, we want to make it clear that the current global emergency underscores the necessity of building a project for a new society; this project must be grounded on the principle of solidarity so that all the resources of the planet go towards the construction of an international community that is fair, free, and egalitarian.

We call for the formation of a great tide of solidarity in the coming period because we know that our strength lies in our mobilization.

Let us unite our hope to build a world where all live with dignity!

International Week of Anti-Imperialist Struggle