ILPS Commission on LGBTQ Rights

05/10/2022

05/10/2022

Join us this 13 October! 📌 Amid silence regarding the role of their neoliberal policies in creating crises and widening inequalities, let us speak out against their policy dictates over our economies, recovery, & future.

Sign up to attend: http://bit.ly/IMFWBGChains
Read more: https://imfwbgoutofrecovery.wordpress.com/recoverourfuture-virtual-speak-out/

13/09/2022

STATEMENT ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS IN PAKISTAN
by International League for Peoples Struggle – South Asia (ILPS-SA)

Capitalist mode of production, its imperialist impositions for centuries is responsible for the Climate Climate Emergency and the “Monster Monsoon” in Pakistan is a terribly tragic manifestation. With extreme weather patterns happenings at a much higher frequency across the world millions face acute misery and suffering. According to Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) Pakistan has been among the top 10 countries most affected by climate crisis since 1999, even though its emissions remain less than 1.0% of global emissions but the suffering of its people know no bounds: in 2017 there were record extremes in temperature of 54.0°C inTurbat, Pakistan. Since the Super floods of 2010, Pakistan continues to face very high temperatures, lashing rain, floods as well as drought in various parts of the country, and 2021 was considered the seventh warmest year on record (1961) across Pakistan. The monsoon season stretching from July to August has in certain areas received generally three times more rainfall than average. To make matters worse, there has been continuous melting of Pakistan’s 7000 glaciers, with several glacial out-burst floods. The country holds the most glacial ice found outside the polar regions.

The socio-economic cost of the current debacle is still to be fully understood; up till now more than 1,500 casualties as well as large number of injuries have been reported, with more than 33 million affected, mud houses having been swept away, standing crops and orchards over 2 millions acres of land have been entirely and heavy loss of livestock as well as infrastructure. There is extreme lack of food, safe drinking water, sanitary facilities, clothing as well cooking facilities, shelter for livestock; reports of many forms of diseases and for women and children there is added misery as there are issues of safety, maternal and child care.

The working class of Pakistan, especially the small and landless farmers, are paying a very heavy cost for the carbon emissions from the fossil-fuel dependent capitalist production of rich industrial nations, while the vulnerability of rural communities has increased many fold as they also have had to face the grotesque whiplash of neoliberal policies for decades.

The stark truth is that this calamity is not a ‘natural disaster,’ it is the result of consistent imperialist policies spearheaded by the US and G7 states, as well as other rich industrial nations that have not allowed any change in their fossil-fuel production; the goal of course has been amassing super-profits for their corporations. It needs no reminding that the US is the highest polluter, and even though it would like to point fingers at China and India, one must not forget that while the US population is only 4.25%, China and India combined population is 36 % of the global population, and hence US remains not only now but historically the worst polluter. The Paris Agreement in itself, and the following years have first, clearly shown the absolute disregard by rich industrial nations of the dire consequences of global warming, and the need for drastic cuts in carbon emissions, and second, the refusal to take historical responsibility of their critical role in global warming, consistently failing to honored their pledges on climate finance to the affected countries.

Imperialist countries, especially the US in the aftermath of such diabolical conditions are quick to take advantage: in the name of humanitarian aid there are methods devised to subjugate the people and the state to further forms of neo-colonization. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has sent an assessment team to Islamabad to determine what potential support Department of Defense (DoD) can provide to USAID as part of the United States’ assistance to the flooding crisis in Pakistan: nothing could be more ominous for the people of Pakistan. The long history of the US economic, political and military interference in Pakistan and Afghanistan has had a very heavy economic, political and social toll on both the countries and its people. Since 2003, the US has been carrying out direct drone attacks in the country; in 2008, millions of dollars of US military aid was provided to the Pakistan military for carrying out supposedly operations against the Taliban which led to vast displacement of the Pakistani people a large majority of whom still are living in extreme deprivation; during this period US economic aid including food aid was used to for extensive policy reforms to pave the way for corporate capture of the country’s resources and markets. After massive destruction, the US left the country accusing the Pakistan military of aiding and abetting the Taliban; this pattern was followed in Afghanistan last year. Of course one must remember, the much more devastating role of the US in Afghanistan where currently millions of Afghans, especially Afghan women and children facing acute hunger with famine staring in their faces.

As part of the larger geopolitical game, on one hand the US has done its best to isolate Pakistan for developing a closer alliance with China, and on the other hand, strengthening its ties with India and bolstering its military strength. One can see the immensely harmful foreign policy approach taken by the US which will result in vicious pitting of nations against each other, and further deteriorating stability in the region.

US imperialist policies are responsible for the acute economic disaster facing not only Pakistan, but many neo-colonial countries, they use the IMF and the World Bank to keep a suffocating grip on poor economies pushing us deeper into the suicidal debt trap while maintaining their colonial relations with the local elite, who of course cannot be absolved of the responsibility of maintaining these neo-colonial ties.

People’s demands for Climate Justice are:

* People-led decision-making and implementation process;
* Implement sustainable production and consumption policies;
* End imperialist corporate control over resources, production and markets;
* Genuine agrarian land reforms;
* Rich advanced countries to cut carbon emissions to bring back global temperature to levels fits for a stable ecological systems;
* Rich industrial states to pay for climate-related loss and damages in neo-colonial countries.

End Climate Imperialism! Climate Justice Now!

International League for Peoples Struggle – South Asia (ILPS-SA)

****

The ILPS-South Asia extend to all this call to support and aid the people of Pakistan. More than 33 million Pakistanis have been impacted, with more than 1,300 recorded deaths and 1,600 injuries due to the monsoon rains that brought massive flooding at the end of August 2022. Destruction to property are running into 300,000 houses destroyed and 700,000 houses damaged. With more than 700,000 livestock lost. The recent flooding is the worst ever recorded in history of the country.

16/08/2022

Condemn Israel’s “Truthful Dawn”! Resist Fascist Attacks Against Palestinian People!

The ILPS Commission 10 condemns the violence being lashed out by Israel against the Palestinian people. We demand that Zionist Israel and imperialist America to pull out all troops that wreak havoc against Palestinian people, including children and mothers.

Last week, in an operation named “Truthful Dawn” the Israeli regime once again rained bombs and unleashed full-on violence against the Palestinian people. 44 Palestinians died, 15 of which were children, in the 3-day bombardment, leaving a hundred more others injured.

Governments and diplomats around the world have given Israel full impunity by casting Palestine as the culprit of violence. At the commencement of operation Truthful Dawn, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said “The UK stands by Israel and it’s right to defend itself,”.

In a similar statement, US President Joe Biden said “Over these recent days, Israel has defended its people from indiscriminate rocket attacks” and even gave his approval of the Israeli regime’s action by saying “I commend Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his government’s steady leadership throughout the crisis.”

Statements like these further emphasize the reality behind the fascist offensives of Israel – an imperialist-backed regime set to drive out Palestinian people out of their genuine land, in the name of economic and political power for the few.

The reality is that Gaza, with over two million Palestinians, has been imprisoned by the attacks, sanctions, and blockades of the imperialist states for over 16 years. States and governments standing with the zionist Israeli occupation also stand for imperialist expansionism, whitewashing the massacre of Palestinian people, and denying the right of Palestinians to exist and resist.

We stand in solidarity with all Palestinians struggling against the Zionist occupation of their land. The Commission believes that the Zionist-Imperialist occupation of Palestinian land, through violence, war, and repression waged against the Palestinian people is an outright violation of International Humanitarian Law, and is unreservedly evil.

Oppressed nations and struggling people around the world must unite and rally behind Palestine against the imperialist-backed Zionist fascist Israeli regime. Through our common struggle against imperialism and reaction, we ensure that we land solid blows against our common enemy and move further strides towards liberation from colonialism, fascism, and all forms of repression and oppression.

Israel, Out of Palestine!
Down with US Imperialism and Zionism!

01/08/2022

29/07/2022

Execution of four Myanmar activists for democracy, revolting -- ILPS��

The International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS), the broad anti-imperialist alliance of grassroots organizations of the peoples of the world, vehemently condemns the ruling military junta in Myanmar led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing for reportedly executing four activists fighting for democracy on July 23. It sends its heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and comrades of those who were executed, and the people of Myanmar. It unites with those who love and look up to the four revolutionaries in seeking to transform despair over their untimely passing into revolutionary courage in the struggle for a democratic and free Myanmar.��

The ILPS decries the Tatmadaw junta’s killing of Kyaw Min Yu, better known as “Jimmy,” Phyo Zeya Thaw, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw. Kyaw Min Yu, 58, is a leading democracy campaigner who became famous as an activist leader in the 88 Generation Students Group and has been imprisoned many times with a total of more than 20 years. Phyo Zeya Thaw, 41, is widely known as hip-hop artist Zayar Thaw, a member of the first group to have released a hip-hop album in Myanmar, a former MP, a member of the National League for Democracy or NLD, and beloved by Myanmar youths. Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw are relatively unknown activists who were accused by the junta of killing a military informant.

As prominent leaders and supporters of the Myanmar people’s resistance against the illegitimate rule of the military junta, they are heroes of the Myanmar people and the peoples of the world. ��Reactionaries have always chosen to kill and silence revolutionaries and activists like Kyaw Min yu, Phyo Zeya Thaw, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw and their supporters instead of heeding their just demands that resonate among the people. The people of Myanmar are waging a most just armed struggle in pursuit of democracy and freedom, and the ILPS and the people of the world stand with them. We uphold the right of the peoples of the world to rebel and revolt against governments that act against the people’s interests and pose threats to the people’s safety without cause.

The execution of the four activists, accused of committing “acts of terror” in supporting the people’s resistance, once again shows the folly of US-instigated terror-tagging in maligning and demonizing revolutionaries and activists who struggle for genuine change.��The ILPS also condemns the particular circumstances of the execution. The four were convicted through secret trials run by the military, without aid of counsel, and in violation of due process. Their families were asked to meet them through Zoom on Friday, but were not informed that that would be their last meeting. The long-standing lack of access to them of their families, friends and comrades raises the possibility that they were tortured while in jail.

They were hanged, a most barbaric form of execution that insults the very dignity of humans. Their bodies were not immediately given to their families on Monday despite attempts to retrieve them.��The execution of the four activists calls attention to the military junta’s dire human rights record which results from its efforts to silence all opposition: 117 sentenced to death by military-run courts, thousands of political prisoners, more than 2,000 people killed, and communities facing aerial bombings. No less than Aung San Suu Kyi, 77, elected as the country’s leader in the 2021 elections, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison and faces 13 more counts that carry a total sentence of 180 years. Mass protests are brutally suppressed with water cannons, rubber bullets and actual live fire.��By carrying out the death penalty against the four activists, the military junta is showing how far back Myanmar has regressed under its rule. Most countries in the world have repealed laws legalizing death penalty, and Myanmar itself has not carried out executions since 1988.

Almost one year and six months after the February 1, 2021 military coup, the junta still has to resort to executions in order to try to put fear in the hearts of the public and stabilize its reign. The executions only highlight the illegitimacy of its leadership, and is firing up domestic and international anger towards its illegitimate hold on power and its anti-democratic role in Myanmar history. It is only breeding more revolutionaries who are most determined in waging the armed struggle, in putting the Tatmadaw in its place within a democratic society, and in attaining a democratic and free society.

��The ILPS calls on the peoples of the world to heighten solidarity with the people of Myanmar and condemn the brutal military junta. It supports calls for sanctions against this government that brutalizes its own people. It condemns Russia and China, the chief imperialist backers of the military junta, for supporting a murderous regime and then invoking non-interference in domestic affairs when questioned about this regime’s anti-people actions.��

The ILPS stands with the people of Myanmar in their arduous struggle for democracy and freedom and in breaking away from its long history of military rule punctured by a short period of a problematic democracy. It trusts that the execution of the four activists will arouse more Myanmar youths and people to the need to heighten the struggle for democracy and freedom. ��Long live Kyaw Min Yu, Phyo Zeya Thaw, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw! Long live the revolutionaries of Myanmar!�Justice for the four executed revolutionaries!

Down with the Myanmar military junta!� Solidarity with the Myanmar people’s struggle for democracy and freedom!

Signed by:

Len Cooper
ILPS Chairperson

July 29, 2022

Execution of four Myanmar activists for democracy, revolting -- ILPS



The International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS), the broad anti-imperialist alliance of grassroots organizations of the peoples of the world, vehemently condemns the ruling military junta in Myanmar led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing for reportedly executing four activists fighting for democracy on July 23. It sends its heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and comrades of those who were executed, and the people of Myanmar. It unites with those who love and look up to the four revolutionaries in seeking to transform despair over their untimely passing into revolutionary courage in the struggle for a democratic and free Myanmar.



The ILPS decries the Tatmadaw junta’s killing of Kyaw Min Yu, better known as “Jimmy,” Phyo Zeya Thaw, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw. Kyaw Min Yu, 58, is a leading democracy campaigner who became famous as an activist leader in the 88 Generation Students Group and has been imprisoned many times with a total of more than 20 years. Phyo Zeya Thaw, 41, is widely known as hip-hop artist Zayar Thaw, a member of the first group to have released a hip-hop album in Myanmar, a former MP, a member of the National League for Democracy or NLD, and beloved by Myanmar youths. Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw are relatively unknown activists who were accused by the junta of killing a military informant.

As prominent leaders and supporters of the Myanmar people’s resistance against the illegitimate rule of the military junta, they are heroes of the Myanmar people and the peoples of the world. 

Reactionaries have always chosen to kill and silence revolutionaries and activists like Kyaw Min yu, Phyo Zeya Thaw, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw and their supporters instead of heeding their just demands that resonate among the people. The people of Myanmar are waging a most just armed struggle in pursuit of democracy and freedom, and the ILPS and the people of the world stand with them. We uphold the right of the peoples of the world to rebel and revolt against governments that act against the people’s interests and pose threats to the people’s safety without cause.

The execution of the four activists, accused of committing “acts of terror” in supporting the people’s resistance, once again shows the folly of US-instigated terror-tagging in maligning and demonizing revolutionaries and activists who struggle for genuine change.

The ILPS also condemns the particular circumstances of the execution. The four were convicted through secret trials run by the military, without aid of counsel, and in violation of due process. Their families were asked to meet them through Zoom on Friday, but were not informed that that would be their last meeting. The long-standing lack of access to them of their families, friends and comrades raises the possibility that they were tortured while in jail.

They were hanged, a most barbaric form of execution that insults the very dignity of humans. Their bodies were not immediately given to their families on Monday despite attempts to retrieve them.

The execution of the four activists calls attention to the military junta’s dire human rights record which results from its efforts to silence all opposition: 117 sentenced to death by military-run courts, thousands of political prisoners, more than 2,000 people killed, and communities facing aerial bombings. No less than Aung San Suu Kyi, 77, elected as the country’s leader in the 2021 elections, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison and faces 13 more counts that carry a total sentence of 180 years. Mass protests are brutally suppressed with water cannons, rubber bullets and actual live fire.

By carrying out the death penalty against the four activists, the military junta is showing how far back Myanmar has regressed under its rule. Most countries in the world have repealed laws legalizing death penalty, and Myanmar itself has not carried out executions since 1988.

Almost one year and six months after the February 1, 2021 military coup, the junta still has to resort to executions in order to try to put fear in the hearts of the public and stabilize its reign. The executions only highlight the illegitimacy of its leadership, and is firing up domestic and international anger towards its illegitimate hold on power and its anti-democratic role in Myanmar history. It is only breeding more revolutionaries who are most determined in waging the armed struggle, in putting the Tatmadaw in its place within a democratic society, and in attaining a democratic and free society.



The ILPS calls on the peoples of the world to heighten solidarity with the people of Myanmar and condemn the brutal military junta. It supports calls for sanctions against this government that brutalizes its own people. It condemns Russia and China, the chief imperialist backers of the military junta, for supporting a murderous regime and then invoking non-interference in domestic affairs when questioned about this regime’s anti-people actions.



The ILPS stands with the people of Myanmar in their arduous struggle for democracy and freedom and in breaking away from its long history of military rule punctured by a short period of a problematic democracy. It trusts that the execution of the four activists will arouse more Myanmar youths and people to the need to heighten the struggle for democracy and freedom. 

Long live Kyaw Min Yu, Phyo Zeya Thaw, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw! Long live the revolutionaries of Myanmar!
Justice for the four executed revolutionaries!

Down with the Myanmar military junta!
 Solidarity with the Myanmar people’s struggle for democracy and freedom!

Signed by:

Len Cooper
ILPS Chairperson

July 29, 2022

27/07/2022

📢NEW PUBLICATION from IBON International!

Women throughout history and across the world have made great strides in advancing their rights. But despite these historical victories, billions of women in the global South are unable to enjoy their basic rights. They share the plight of the majority of working and marginalised peoples driven into poverty and excluded from decision-making and governance by corporate and elite power.

In this paper, IBON International provides an analysis of women’s systemic oppression, propose people-powered democracy as a framework for social transformation that would create conducive conditions for the advancement of women’s rights and development, and highlight the vital role of women and their organisations in this process.

🔗DOWNLOAD: https://bit.ly/3J7BIPR

📢NEW PUBLICATION

Women throughout history and across the world have made great strides in advancing their rights. But despite these historical victories, billions of women in the global South are unable to enjoy their basic rights. They share the plight of the majority of working and marginalised peoples driven into poverty and excluded from decision-making and governance by corporate and elite power.

In this paper, we provide an analysis of women’s systemic oppression, propose people-powered democracy as a framework for social transformation that would create conducive conditions for the advancement of women’s rights and development, and highlight the vital role of women and their organisations in this process.

🔗DOWNLOAD: https://bit.ly/3J7BIPR

27/07/2022

Statement by ILPS Commission 4:

ORGANIZE TO PREVENT GLOBAL WAR
AND NUCLEAR DISASTER!

The International League of Peoples’ Struggles demands that all states, beginning with and especially the US, commit to denuclearization and sign the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

On August 6, 1945, the nuclear blast by “Little Boy” immediately killed 80,000 people and wiped out 90% of Hiroshima city. Three days later, on August 9, a second atomic bomb dubbed “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki. All tolled, about 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 70,000 people in Nagasaki died by the end of the year due to direct effects of the bombings. In the aftermath, tens of thousands of survivors suffered various atomic bomb-related diseases. These attacks followed the US’ campaign of firebombing Japan’s communities for months, which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths of non-military populations.

ILPS Commission 4 remembers these historic atrocities and works to educate and mobilize mass organizations into action for just peace against wars of aggression and counterrevolution and nuclear and all weapons of mass destruction. We organize and support actions in the broad movement for these causes and call on all people of conscience to take part.

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are recognized as crimes against humanity perpetrated by US imperialism and its allies. Those attacksrepresent the first and only use ever of these weapons in war.

The use and mass production of nuclear weapons and the first-strike policy of US imperialism and its allies unleashed the dual strategies of nuclear terror and mutually assured destruction that marked the Cold War. Today they persist and are madly creating more and more dangerous weaponry, employing multiple types of aggression, stepping up their lies and propaganda, reaching further and further into waters and territories around the Earth with no concern for life. Thermal nuclear bombs (fusion, hydrogen bombs) each with a destructive capacity 1000-fold that of fission or atom-bombs, were invented and tested by 1958. Schemes to use them against China and other targets were hatched back then and are being contemplated today by reigning powers while the people and non-nuclear, non-imperialist states press for the prohibition of nuclear weapons.

NATO’s 2030 Strategy, proposed in 2021 and just ratified at its 2022 Summit, confirms this fact. They want nuclear weapons on the ready and consider tactical atomic bombs not only to coerce and terrorize the world but also as an option to start regional wars and create chaos. They rationalize these intentions by portraying China and Russia as boogeymen. They are expanding operations into Asia, adding military pacts, increasing the size and participation of military exercises, developing and trading more weaponry and expanding their tactics of aggression such as psy-warfare (propaganda), armed drones, cyber-tech and economic warfare. They are desperate to maintain the status quo and the system they feed off.

Over the decades since the horrific bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed over 200,000 people by the end of 1945, the death and sickness toll directly related to nuclear weapons development, stockpiling and testing mounts. Indigenous people, various workers and military personnel have been suffering. In North America and the South Pacific, indigenous nations and their sovereign land rights have been attacked because of testing and uranium exploration and mining. Uranium enrichment and plutonium production sites are fatally toxic. The survivors and their many friends and allies never rest in their efforts to get justice and educate and agitate against the nuclear industry and the industry of war.

With its policy justified by the deterrence argument, NATO prohibits its 29 member states to sign the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which came into effect with signatures by 50 Treaty parties in September 2020. That position has inevitably led opponents to the US alliance to arm themselves with nuclear weapons as a defense (North Korea, Iran, China...). By June, 2022, however, 62 states had signed the TPNW and numerous mass organizations were supporting it. It was a major concern of the peoples’ summits and demonstrations against NATO in Europe, North America and elsewhere in June 2022.

While the ILPS supports and participates in certain campaigns such as calls to close US bases outside the US and efforts to dismantle NATO, it remains an expression of the anti-imperialist movement bringing together mass organizations who share an understanding of the global system and its inherent contradictions as the main cause to most violence and conflict. It brings together all key sectors and causes to cooperate, develop a common analysis and carry out a common political agenda with a course of action aimed at challenging imperialism and building alternative societies.

The anniversaries of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be honoured and the memory of the victims of these horrific crimes against humanity kept alive. It is a time to voice a commitment to the prohibition of nuclear weapons forever and say never again. The ILPS declares the deterrence argument false and denounces all justification for wars of aggression and counter-revolution and all chemical, biological, nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

Furthermore, the ILPS rejects the NATO 2030 Strategy as it is a strategy of aggression, militarization and domination that is provoking military responses, stimulating more and more direct military engagement and putting the world at a greater and greater risk of world war three. We demand the closure of all foreign bases and the return of foreign military personnel to their home countries.

We call working people and all peace and justice minded people to take action to call to action to challenge the US and NATO states’ monopoly on nuclear weapons and demand they make good on their promise of nuclear disarmament. NATO must reverse its decision to reactivate its nuclear arsenals and take them off the table. All 29 NATO member states plus all NATO partners must sign the nuclear prohibition treaty and shelve their nuclear weapons before universal de-nuclearization can be considered.

The ILPS strongly supports the global campaign against nuclear weapons. We support the international peace movement and its key demands. All out to demonstrate for just peace on August 6 and 9, 2022!

NO MORE HIROSHIMAS!
ORGANIZE AND FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND IMPERIALISM!
UNITE IN ACTION AGAINST IMPERIALISM!

(The concern of Commission 4 is to oppose wars of aggression and counterrevolution, and oppose nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction in the name of just peace.)