As the Biden Administration took office in the U.S., one of their first actions was to increase US troop levels in the north eastern region of Syria currently occupied by the United States and its proxies. Shortly thereafter, the United States bombed a Syrian town on the eastern border killing as many as 30 Syrians, purportedly to target hostile “Iraqi militiamen” or to “send a message” to Iran. US proxies are selling Syrian grain in Turkey and a Hayt al Tahrir, a terrorist organization, now operates a refinery in the Syrian territory occupied by US troops and proxies.
Last year, congress passed the Caesar Sanctions as an amendment to the massive Defense Appropriations Bill. These sanctions cause the Syrian people to go without the basic necessities such as food, energy and medicine. They have destroyed the Syrian currency and are literally causing starvation. At this time, it is impossible, even for the United Nations, to bring aid into Syria.
Moreover, these sanctions block reconstruction and the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees from impoverished camps in surrounding states. Syrians can’t return if there is no potable water, food or housing for their families. Meanwhile, the only Syrians who can receive international aid are those in U.S. occupied territories and those in areas controlled by the US ally, Al Nusra/Al Qaeda.
There has been a recent swell of anti-Syria propaganda, supported by prominent activists on the “left.” This has included attacks on the majority of the US antiwar movement, which has focused on opposing US and outside aggression against Syria, and which supports the right of Syria to defend its national sovereignty against this outside aggression. The clear fact is that the US government, along with its allies in NATO, Israel and other reactionary Middle Eastern states, is the primary cause of the current devastation of the Syrian people. The US and its allies have facilitated the entry into Syria of tens of thousands of foreign fighters to support their regime change agenda.
As with the lies about Weapons of Mass destruction that led to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, the U.S. and its allies have put forth accusations about Syria using chemical weapons and terror against its own people, which have now been totally discredited and disproven.
Therefore:
- We condemn the illegal occupation of Syrian territory by US forces and their proxies, and their illegal and unprovoked military attacks on Syrian soil and Syrian people.
- We condemn the ongoing theft of Syrian oil and Syrian grain by US proxies, resources desperately needed by the Syrian people.
- We condemn the so-called Caesar Sanctions as illegal, immoral unilateral coercive measures.
- We condemn the U.S. war on the Syrian Republic and the callous violation of Syrian Sovereignty.
- We demand the withdrawal of ALL U.S. troops and U.S. funding of foreign mercenary forces, U.S. funding of armed internal opposition forces from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and a lifting of the U.S. Naval blockade of Yemen.
- We demand an end to illegal U.S. Sanctions on Syria.
The United States, NATO and the Ukrainian government are escalating their provocation of Russia, risking war with a nuclear power. It is urgent that the anti-war movement oppose this.
In recent days, Russia has recalled its ambassador to the US after Biden broke with diplomatic protocol and called Putin a “killer.” This from the leader of the US that has forces in 172 countries around the world and has killed millions in recent years through its military adventures.
In 2020, the US provocatively moved Navy ships into the Black Sea 7 times. The Black Sea is an inland sea with shores on both Ukraine and Russia. Britain, the US’s junior imperial partner has now announced that it will send Navy ships into the Black Sea in May.
The US has pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia (which required parties to eliminate nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles) and is using this dangerous situation to further its anti-Russian campaign. It has been sending weapons to Ukraine, and hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the Ukrainian military. In March, a group of senators from both parties called for an increase of $300 million to the Ukrainian military and other top military officials have called for providing Ukraine with jet fighters, smart munitions, and cruise missiles.
Fighting has been escalating in the Donbass region of Ukraine as the Kiev government has moved forces into the area and started shelling. Donbass is an area the includes the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, which are autonomous governments that rejected the 2014 US engineered coup that overthrew the elected government of Ukraine and installed a pro-western government that includes extreme right-wing, neo-Nazi parties and organizations.
Recently, Ukraine and NATO announced joint military exercises and the Ukrainian president Zelensky has called upon NATO to admit Ukraine into the alliance. NATO forces and bases have been surrounding Russia in past years and NATO has conducted military exercises on Russian borders.
Ukraine has a longer border with Russia than any other European country and is seen by the US and NATO as an import factor in their military encirclement of the country. Last month the Ukrainian government proclaimed a military strategy aimed at Russia and to reclaim the autonomous regions in Donbass and to “recover Crimea.” Crimea has historically been part of Russia. It became part of Ukraine in 1954 when both Russia and Ukraine were part of the Soviet Union. The people of Crimea also rejected the US supported right-wing coup in 2014 and voted overwhelmingly to return to Russia.
In response to the aggressive moves on the part of the Ukrainian government along with the US and NATO, Russia has been amassing forces along its border with Ukraine. Russian troops are on Russian soil, yet US and NATO claim this is Russian “aggression”.
These dangerous provocations must be opposed by the antiwar movement.
UNAC demand:
Hands off Donbass!
Hands off Crimea!
Hands off Russia!
No military aid to Ukraine!
Keep Ukraine out of NATO!
Below are 2 reports from UNAC members who went to Ukraine in 2019 to express solidarity with a memorial of people killed by right-wing forces in Odessa for opposing the coup.
[Kiev: unac.notowar.net/2019/05/04/odessa-reports-1/ ]
[Odessa: unac.notowar.net/2019/05/04/odessa-report-2-mayday-and-the-may-2nd-remembrance-in-odessa/ ]
Let's raise our struggle across the world on May Day for secure jobs, bread and freedom!
This International Workers' Day / May Day / May 1st statement by the Coordination Committee of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations ( cipoml.net/en/?p=269 ) was translated (not by this blogger) from an article in the PCMLE's newspaper ( pcmle.org/EM/spip.php?article11148 ):
From En Marcha #1951, April 28 to May 4, 2021
Central Organ of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador
On May Day, let us raise up our fight for secure employment, bread and freedom around the world!
Comrade workers and laborers,
All the workers of the world are preparing to celebrate the Day of Unity, Struggle and International Solidarity of the working class at a time of special historical conditions.
In almost all countries the international bourgeoisie, imperialism, the capitalist states and bourgeois governments have intensified the capitalist exploitation and oppression of workers, relying on the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Part-time work, unpaid leaves of absence, salary deductions, furloughs and other casual work practices have been applied de facto, and layoffs have become widespread under the pretext of the pandemic. In the last year, tens of millions of people have lost their jobs and been deprived of a regular income. Most of those who have lost their jobs are women. They have felt capitalist exploitation and double oppression to their bones. Violence against women and femicides have increased, particularly domestic violence.
In response to the adverse effects of the pandemic that is intertwined with the capitalist crisis, the "economic packets" announced by the bourgeois governments under the pretext of social measures have been and continue to be an instrument to transfer resources to the capitalist monopolies. At a time when the workers and exploited sectors of the people have been pushed into the arms of unemployment, misery and hunger, the capitalist monopolies have multiplied their profits.
The capitalist attack on "democratic rights" and political freedoms is no less than the attacks on the social and economic front. Any small attempt by the workers and laborers, the poor people of the countryside and city, the youth and women who seek their rights have been the object of restrictions that still continue. Popular protests and demonstrations face police violence, detentions and arrests. Capitalist states and governments, especially Germany, France and the United Kingdom, have already taken steps to empower the police and gendarmerie and to ensure that “police measures” are permanent. Even in countries known as the cradle of "bourgeois democracy," political reaction is on the rise and reactionary and fascist practices are more widely applied against the working class and popular social opposition.
Workers, brothers and sisters, reality cannot be hidden forever!
The pandemic has shown the workers, laborers and oppressed the true face of capitalist imperialism, the bourgeois governments and the front of capital. Capitalist exploitation and imperialist plunder and the fact that the capitalist system is the enemy of humanity and the environment cannot be hidden for long. Especially in current conditions, when unemployment, poverty along with the use of force against the people have skyrocketed and when polarization has deepened, no demagoguery, crude or dirty propaganda can hide this truth. Indeed, more and more sectors of the workers and laborers are becoming aware of the reality and social opposition is growing. The fact that the fight against the consequences of unemployment and poverty is increasing in many countries does not mean that the working class and the exploited masses are embracing capitalism and do not want change by rejecting the rule of monopolies. On the contrary, as their awareness of social reality and their own power grows, the number of those who are demanding a change in the system of capitalist rule is increasing.
At the opposite poles of capitalism today are the working class, increasingly poor and alienated from its work while producing social wealth, and at the other extreme, intensified capitalist accumulation, based on the wage slavery of the working class and the plunder of the dependent countries, as well as a handful of increasingly parasitic and decadent monopoly capitalists.
According to Oxfam's 2020 report, in 2019, the wealth of the 2,153 richest people exceeded the total wealth of 4.5 billion people. The wealth of the richest 1% was more than double the wealth of 6.9 billion people combined. The wealth of the 10 richest men, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, increased by a net total of $540 billion between March and December 2020. China, with its 626 billionaires, led by Zhong Shanshan and Ma Huateng, is the second country – after the United States – with its abundance of billionaires. The report notes that the increase in the wealth of the ten wealthiest people, during nine months of the time of the pandemic, was enough for everyone to get vaccinated several times.
On the other side of the coin, we see hunger zones in different parts of the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Around the world, nearly 25,000 people die of hunger every day. In 2019, the number of people living with hunger increased by 10 million and reached 690 million people. In Africa, children die because they cannot buy antibiotics at a cost of $1. However, the money spent in the global cosmetic industry exceeds $200,000 million.
Between the years 2011 and 2017 there was almost no increase in real wages. In addition, during the pandemic these have decreased and problems have increased, with access to the vaccine being the first and most important.
Let us show the strength of the working class!
The working class and laborers around the world, from Cambodia to the US, from France to India, from Italy to Ecuador, from Greece to Chile, from Turkey to Brazil, from Egypt to China and Bolivia have tried to respond to this capitalist barbarism with strikes and resistance, where they have been able to overcome the barriers established by the bourgeois governments and the union bureaucracy. Rising prices of basic consumer goods, rising taxes, job losses, low wages and rising poverty, along with deteriorating working and living conditions, and the lack of future security in many countries, have paved the way for increased struggles of the workers and the popular masses. Demands for work, bread and freedom have been raised around the world.
We are approaching May 1, 2021, in a period in which the contradictions between labor and capital, imperialism and the oppressed peoples, and among the imperialists themselves, are intensifying. The probability that these "conflicts" will move from diplomacy to the battlefield is increasing. A combative May 1 with mass participation will show the power of the working class. A strong May 1 will give the working class and oppressed peoples the morale they need to take steps to engage in more advanced struggles, and will help the struggle move forward.
For the working class, May 1 means a day when it tests its strength against the capitalist front. For this reason, the working class must unite on May Day in the most organized way. Whenever possible, workers should form “May 1 Committees,” elected through the broadest possible participation in factories, workplaces and in all areas, in order to avoid the emptying of May 1 by the union bureaucracy. By organizing May 1 according to its meaning, the working class will find not only millions of workers thrown into the arms of unemployment, but also poor peasants unable to produce, small merchants facing ruin, the poor from the countryside and the city, the youth and women who are fighting against capitalism and reaction. To a certain degree, May Day can play the role of lever in the struggle of the working class and peoples.
Today, the workers face two tasks against capitalist monopolies that do not recognize limits on exploitation and looting and that are now intensifying force and violence by taking action against the discontent and reactions that arise: to strengthen the ranks of the working class, reinforcing its unity in each country and on an international scale; and to develop their unity and alliance with the oppressed working peoples.
Therefore, let us move forward to celebrate May Day in a manner worthy of its historical significance!
Long live May Day!
Long live the unity, struggle and international solidarity of the working class!
We demand secure jobs, bread and freedom!
Long live May Day, long live proletarian internationalism!
Coordination Committee of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations – ICMLPO
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