I thank the organisers of the anti-imperialist camp 2004, August 2-6, Assisi, Italy for inviting me to address the camp. I take the this opportunity to congratulate the organisers and send greetings to the participants of the camp.
The present day US imperialism may be described as the highest stage of imperialism, a stage at which it holds its own by virtue of its financial strength, its control of technology and above all by its military might. It is also a stage at which it tends to stretch itself beyond its span of control, and unleashes the power of resistance of the oppressed nations and peoples throughout the world by its acts of wanton, ferocious and utterly callous exploitation, plunder and armed attacks on them.
The recent formulation of US President George W Bush and his administration of the doctrine of pre-emptive attacks on any nation which dares to rise against their dictates, clearly demonstrates not only their drive for plundering other countries resources, but also the truth that imperialism today is dependent on war and war economy more than even before, and for that it cannot even wait for a real war situation to develop. Instead, it has to create a war situation in a planned way for launching military attacks against other nations. The war against Iraq on the totally false pretext of the presence of WMD in that country is a recent glaring example of such pre-emptive war. Amazingly they remain quite silent about the manufacture of WMD including nuclear weapons by Israel, the most dangerous terrorist state in the Middle East. They even extend massive financial assistance and political support to Israel in the development of these weapons and their terrorist attacks against the Palestinian people.
In the name of liberating Iraq and also eliminating the possibilities of terrorist attacks on other nations, particularly the US, President George W Bush thrust a war upon that country and occupied it. Since then the Iraqi people are enjoying the taste of imperialist freedom and democracy which, in real terms, means death and torture, joblessness, starvation, lack of health, education and other facilities, and above all a kind of insecurity which they had never known before.
US President George W Bush goes on telling his people everyday that Iraq without Saddam has made the life of Iraqi people secure and beautiful and it has also made the people of US secure from terrorist attacks. These apparently lunatic, but deceptive, assertions are daily disproved by what is happening in Iraq since the beginning of US occupation and by the developing situation in that country. The people of Iraq find themselves in a miserable condition. Indiscriminate attacks are being made on them by US army, they are being mercilessly gunned down by tanks, helicopters etc. They are being detained in US controlled prisons and tortured in an inhuman manner. The torture of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Graib prison has already proved that the freedom fighters of G W Bush variety are worse than the criminal fascists who were let loose on the German and other European workers and Jews by Hitler.
This has given rise to a resistance movement in Iraq, a movement which is daily growing in strength and getting more and more organised and connected. They are now returning blows by blows and the number of US casualties and the casualties of the puppet government set up by them are rising daily, clearly disproving the George Bush claim that Americans are now much safer than they were before the fall of Saddam. The fear of being attacked on their own soil is also increasing and they are now apprehending a kind of attack before the presidential election which took place in Spain.
The US imperialist network over the less developed backward and poor countries creates a condition in which the US needs the other countries more than the other countries need the United States. Not only that. An indispensable condition of development of other countries is their liberation from the US network. On the other hand, the break up or liquidation of the US network is bound to deal a mortal blow to the US imperialist system by loosening their grip on dependent countries and also by increasing the contradiction within the imperialist system in general.
Thus in this age of imperialist globalisation US imperialism is organically related to its clients all the world over, and it cannot survive as an imperialist state without such relations. It is, therefore, necessary to wage a relentless struggle not only against US imperialism but also against the whole system of imperialist relations over which the US presides.
Struggle against US imperialism is fruitless and is bound to remain a mere abstraction at the propaganda level if this struggle is not directed at the same time against the lackeys of US imperialism in each country, the lackeys who hold state power and act as its minions.
The resistance struggle which made a new beginning before the WTO meeting at Seattle in 1999 is assuming new forms and gaining strength with the mounting ferocities of US imperialism and consequent military aggressions against other nations.
In this world situation it has become necessary to have an international Co-ordination Committee to connect and co-ordinate anti-imperialist movements in various parts of the world. It is time that initiatives are taken for the formation of such a committee.
With this, I, on behalf of our organisation, send our revolutionary anti-imperialist greetings to you and endorse the event of this year.