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A look at the: International League of Peoples’ Struggle by Barbara Waldern
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Formed in 2001, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) answers the urgent need of the broad masses for the creation of an international rallying force in the struggle for national independence, democracy and social liberation. It is defence against the intensifying exploitation and oppression unleashed by “free market” globalization and the new world disorder under the hegemony of US imperialism. It strives to realize the unity, cooperation and coordination of anti-imperialist and democratic struggles throughout the world. ILPS is a democratic formation. Its participating organizations enjoy equal footing. Coming together for the Founding International Assembly, 339 delegates from over 218 mass organizations of 40 countries hammered out their common understanding of imperialism and their collective declaration to struggle for change. They also identified their leading collective concerns, passing resolutions to address them all. These concerns range from socio-economic development and social equality of the people to the cause of just peace, from indigenous peoples’ and national minorities’ rights and liberation to struggles against all xenophobia, discrimination and intolerance, and workers,’ women’s, children’s and elderly peoples’ rights and liberation. The concerns include agrarian reform, human rights in all fields, and health care, art and culture, science and technology, education and research, shelter and refuge for the people. In 2004, the Second International Assembly brought 240 delegates from 175 participating and observing organizations from 32 countries together to refine the democratic process, develop further the declaration, review the concerns, and establish ongoing study commissions on some concerns. (About 35 delegates were denied visas and could not attend.) Two special resolutions were passed, supporting the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples’ struggles for self-determination and opposing the occupations of their lands. At such a large international assembly, everyone networks according to her/his own areas of concern while the assembly forges its collective global perspective, basis of unity, and programme of action. Representatives to the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) are elected on the last day of the assembly, with each country being allowed a certain number of seats according to the number of participating organizations based in that country. The new ICC then meets to decide its Coordinating Group and Secretariat who will carry out the decisions of the assembly and run the organization daily. The ICC issued its three-year plan of political education, organization and mass mobilization in January, 2005. Exiled in Europe with the status of a political refugee since 1986, former head of the Communist Party of the Philippines turned peace negotiator and consultant for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (both organizations engaged in a civil war against the government of the Philippines), Jose Maria Sison, initiated the ILPS by building on his own political network. In 2004, he was elected as ILPS Chairperson. The Philippines, United States, Netherlands, European Union and Canada listed him as a terrorist in 2002. Therefore, the ILPS participates in the campaign to have him de-listed. The ILPS recognizes the US “war on terror” as a war on peoples’ liberation struggles in the context of the global crisis of capital. In this climate, activists often face travel restraints and even imprisonment. The ILPS’ first Chairperson, Memik Horuz, was imprisoned immediately after his return to Turkey in 2001. Two representatives from Canada were elected to the ICC. There are about 15 Canadian organizations participating in the ILPS. Interested mass organizations should refer to the website [www.ilps2001.com] and apply to the ICC. The only requirement is that they agree with the charter. Political parties, religious groups and government organizations are excluded. ___________________________________ Barb Waldern is the alternate Canadian Representative on the International Coordinating Committee of the ILPS. She lives in Vancouver.
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