Greeting by ANTARSYA to the 54th International Antiwar Assembly in Japan

ANTARSYA addresses a warm greeting to all the comrades in the 54^th International Antiwar Assembly which will take place in August 7 in 2016 in Japan and sends best wishes for its sessions. The Assembly takes place in a crucial time for mankind, signifying the need for an international antiwar movement which will fight imperialism, nationalism, racism and religious fanatism. There is a crucial need for an internationally coordinated movement of the working class which will effectively battle the brutality of a system that destroys people for the capitalistic profits. A movement which will display the vision of social liberation, for a world without exploitation, oppression and war.

In the anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the USA, in a display of imperialistic power that spread horror and had disastrous effects for decades, the declarations of the Executive Committee for the 54^th Assembly are timely and can be used as a basis for the international antiwar struggle that is currently needed. The war competitions between USA and Japan on the one hand and Russia and China on the other that reach to the point of nuclear destruction, the imperialistic interventions and competitions in Syria, the brutal treatment of refugees and islamophobia are basic threats for peace and humanity itself. The call of the assembly is of universal importance not only against arms trade and equipment, but as well as for the constitutional amendment that the Japanese militarism and neoliberalism are trying to achieve in order to avoid the restrictions imposed after World War II and also the people’s demand that the destruction caused by fascism, nazism, nationalism and militarism would not happen again.

ANTARSYA shares these thoughts, concerns and aims of struggle with the comrades of the 54^th International Antiwar Assembly, during its fight for the anticapitalist overthrow of the capitals’ attack against the people and the working class in Greece. The policy of memoranda in favor or repaying the illegal and usurious national debt is enforcing a series of capitalistic reforms which burden the people and the workers with the cost of the capitalistic crisis. The troika (EU, IMF, European Central Bank) along with the greek governments organize and impose the memoranda by crushing the people’s rights and liberties. The SYRIZA party discredits the values and the struggles of the left by governing with the far-right nationalist party ANEL having signed the 3^rd Memorandum of social destruction. The 3^rd Memorandum was also voted by those who imposed the first two, the neoliberal-neoconservative party of ND and the PASOK party (which participates in the “Socialist International”), along with their neoliberal allies. Amongst the left, the communist party KKE is keeping struggling forces in a parliamentary direction denying any clash with the government and the EU by blaming the people for the negative balance of power and by appealing to the need for better preparation. The LAE party separated itself from SYRIZA but has not separated entirely neither from the conditions that led to SYRIZA becoming the basic party of the ruling class, nor from remaining in a parliamentary logic that underestimates the power of the popular movement. ANTARSYA prioritizes the people’s struggle and the workers’ movement to doubt the policy of the capital, to defend the workers’ rights, to overturn the political balance of power, to carve a path into revolutionary events. Following this direction, ANTARSYA proposes an anticapitalist transitional program that mainly demands:

The overturn and removal of the memoranda, the overthrow of the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition politics

The unilateral refuse of debt payment and the complete deletion of it

The nationalization of banks and big corporation under public and workers’ control

The decisive defense and expansion of democratic rights and freedoms

The exit from the Euro and the European Union

ANTARSYA considers the fight against war, imperialism, nationalism and fascism to be of vital importance. The imperialistic interventions by the EU-USA-NATO in eastern Europe, Mediterranean Sea and Middle East and their competitions with Russia and its allies bring wars and authoritarian regimes uprooting the people and forcing them into abandoning their homes and becoming refugees. They are the ones who created the super-reactionary islamists and the monstrosity of the so called “Islamic State” which primarily turns against Muslims and mainly against the more progressive and struggling parts of them. The struggle of the Kurdish and Palestinian people against the repressive regimes of Erdogan and Israel are thrilling, inspiring and deserve the solidarity of any one who is fighting for a fair and just world. The heart-breaking solidarity to refugees by the Greek people, in contrast with the anti-migrant policy of the Greek government and the EU which does not recognize and respect any human or asylum rights to refugees is a hugely important struggle for ANTARSYA. Even so after the EU-Turkey deal which makes the consequences of this reactionary policy even worse and basically abolishes asylum search and declares Turkey of authoritarian Erdogan as a “safe country”.

In these circumstances it is crucial that we fight against war, imperialism, nationalism, racism and the bigotry of religious fanatism and separation. The world of capital in a reality devastated by a capitalistic crisis which cannot be resolved, with formulas of growth which depend on the impoverishment and the marginalization of the working class and the youth, is creating the imperialistic competitions and the clashes among the capitalists bringing the people on the brink of multiple wars.

The struggle against exploitation and the brutality of capitalism is connected, after many decades, directly with the struggle against war and the mutual extermination of the people for the interests of the capital and the oligarchy. The struggle for bread and freedom, for a life worth living is closely linked to internationalism and the slogan “workers of the world unite!” expresses the true need to fight for a world more just. The decisive liberation of humanity from the brutality of wars will come with the revolutionary overthrow of the capital’s domination.

With these thoughts ANTARSYA wishes good luck to the 54^th International Antiwar Assembly in Japan and hopes to contribute in the coming days with important initiatives in favor of the internationalist struggle of the people and the workers.