[asia-apec 272] Declaration of the People's Conference Against Imperialist Globalization

[bayan]

DECLARATION OF THE PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE
AGAINST IMPERIALIST GLOBALIZATION

Quezon City, Philippines, Nov. 21-23, 1996


     We, participants in the People's Conference Against 
Imperialist Globalization, representing people's organizations,
nongovernmental organizations, solidarity groups, movements, 
networks and individuals from 34 countries in Asia-Pacific, 
Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, North America and Europe, 
have come together to confront a common danger and respond to a 
common challenge.
 
     Monopoly capitalists, frontlined by multinational/trans-
national corporations (MNCs/TNCs) backed by their respective 
states,  are in haste to expand and tighten their rule in the world.  
They have created the  bandwagon of "globalization" with its 
three elements: trade and  investment  liberalization, deregulation 
and privatization.   These monopoly  capitalists, invariably called
modern-day  imperialists or  neocolonial powers, use globalization to 
extricate themselves from three decades of recurring prolonged 
recessions induced by the international debt crisis and the crisis 
of overproduction.

     In the post-Cold War era, the traditional imperialist powers
that have long divided the world among themselves -- the United
States, the leading states of the European Union, and Japan --
are colluding more than ever.  They connive, using their
MNCs/TNCs, to exploit and oppress the peoples of the Third World
and of the former Soviet bloc, and their own workers too.  But in
the inevitably intensifying rivalry, each power plots to penetrate 
and take over the other's domains and  redivide the world.  

     Thus, the promised "new world economic order" of prosperity
and peace is far from coming.  Emerging instead is a new world
disorder far more destructive of the lives of billions of peoples, 
in industrial and non-industrial countries alike. The prescribed 
path, free trade, is not free at all.

     To advance their unified goal, the major imperialist powers
have harnessed various instrumentalities.  Chief of these are the
United Nations Security Council, the International Monetary Fund-
World Bank tandem and its nefarious structural adjustment programs, 
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, lately restructured 
as the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as international, 
regional and bilateral military alliances and agreements.  
Reactionary regimes, particularly of imperialist client-states in 
the Third World, have conspired with imperialism to further this 
goal.

     The major and minor imperialist  powers are using regional
free trade blocs -- principally the European Union, the North
American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), and the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) -- to speed up the WTO trade and investments
liberalization timetable.  Meantime, they secure their national
and regional markets.  With NAFTA in its tight grip, the US  has
seized the initiative in APEC to regain economic preeminence over
Japan in Asia-Pacific, check China's  growing influence, and
consolidate American geopolitical hegemony in the region.
 
     In face of this situation, we, participants in the People's
Conference Against Imperialist Globalization hereby resolve
collectively to oppose globalization in every way and by every
means possible in our respective countries and worldwide.  

     We denounce and oppose the subservient client-states for
selling out their peoples' interests.  They connive with 
imperialism in promoting distorted concepts  of "democratization,"
"civil society empowerment," and "sustainable development"  in a
bid to  disarm the people and co-opt their organizations into the 
imperialist strategem.

     We oppose imperialist globalization because the schemes it
promotes worsen the uneven development among and within nations,
intensify the exploitation of peoples, and deepen inequality and
social polarization.  They accelerate the concentration of wealth
in the handful of imperialist states, their MNCs/TNCs and the
billionaire-owners, and drive the majority of nations into deeper
impoverishment. These schemes also foster mindless consumerism
and trash Western culture that warp, marginalize or efface the
cultures of Third World peoples and debase their humanity. 

     Globalization schemes are wiping out jobs and livelihoods in
industry and agriculture, both in industrial and non-industrial
countries.  Evidence we have seen undoubtedly show that globalization is
causing mass layoff of workers via "downsizing," "labor 
flexibilization," "labor-only contracting" and other management 
designs; massive landlessness and worsening forms of feudal and 
capitalist exploitation of peasants and farm workers;  displacement, 
commodification and modern-day slavery of women; eviction of the urban
poor; deprivation of indigenous peoples of their ancestral lands
and patenting of their human genes; wanton human rights violations 
and political repression; commodification of migration; razing of 
the environment; de-industrialization and bankruptcy of small and 
medium enterprises; cutdown or total absence of  state social services;
rising costs of consumer goods and services and declining levels of 
income and standards of living of the majority of the people. They also 
aim to deprive the toiling masses of their capacity to organize and
effectively fight for their rights and survival and to resist imperialist
domination. 

     No wonder workers and peasants of many countries, men and
women alike, have raised their banners in defiance. They and
their fellow oppressed represented in this conference -- indigenous 
peoples, women, youths and students, intellectuals, the middle 
classes, among others -- are determined to shatter the myths 
and expose the false promises of globalization by showing
its all-too-real adverse impacts on peoples'lives and environments.  
More than that, they are waging varied forms of struggles to 
frustrate globalization.
     
      By its own rapacity and cupidity, monopoly capital
is fast bringing together the world's exploited and oppressed
peoples to share their common pains as well as their common
struggles and aspirations.  In more and more countries, they are
developing new means of struggle or taking up proven ones, 
including the revolutionary recourse to armed struggle.  Having
resisted and survived state reaction and brutal repression, the
people are resolved to win.

     We hereby resolve to carry out the following actions: 

     = Fully expose and vigorously oppose the deceptive slogan,
destructive schemes, and the programs and policies of globalization 
in our own countries and worldwide;

     =  Junk APEC, NAFTA, the European Union and the WTO as
imperialist instruments to further subjugate and exploit the
toiling masses and peoples of the world;

     = Fight for the dismantling of imperialist military alliances, 
the abrogation of Cold-War vintage security agreements, and the  
withdrawal of overseas US military bases and troop deployments.

     = Struggle to establish a social, economic, political and
cultural order in our countries that shall ensure freedom from
foreign domination and domestic exploitation and oppression. 
Develop our natural and human resources for our peoples' 
well-being.  Foster international cooperation based on
equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit.

     = Resist imperialist economic, political, military and 
cultural aggression, political repression by reactionary states.
Campaign for the freedom of all political prisoners, and demand
justice for the victims of all human rights violations; 

     =  Strengthen our anti-imperialist solidarity, perseveringly
build our national organizations and alliances and enhance our
capacities to carry out both independent and coordinated action
programs.  Forge strong solidarity links among ourselves and
with other anti-imperialist and progressive organizations to
further advance the world's anti-imperialist movement.  
 
(Approved and adopted in plenary session by the participants, People's
Conference Against Imperialist Globalization, November 23, 1995.) 

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