Friday, August 22, 2014

Hiroshima and Nagasaki sixty-nine years later

From Palestine to Ukraine: The timeliness of the struggle for peace


Marking the sixty-ninth anniversary of the launching by the United States of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, the PCP draws attention to the serious international developments arising from the escalation of interference, aggression and war led by US imperialism.
     Creating and promoting widespread outbreaks of tension and destabilisation in virtually all regions of the world, the United States, with its NATO allies and the European Union, promotes aggression and launches a war against all those who, defending their sovereignty and national independence, resist their aim of imposing world domination.

     In this framework the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian population of Gaza is particularly serious. After a month of methodical and indiscriminate bombing, which did not spare schools, hospitals, mosques, and even UN facilities, it has already killed approximately two thousand Palestinians and left more than nine thousand wounded—including thousands of children—and destroyed homes and several basic infrastructures, essential to ensuring the living conditions of the Palestinian population.

     This new massacre and act of state terrorism by Israel, carried out with the support of the United States and the European Union, demands the strongest condemnation. The interruption of the military offensive by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip is not the end of the Zionist aggression: the illegal and criminal occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people continues. It is unacceptable that the Portuguese government, ignoring the explicit constitutional duty, not only has not condemned the Israeli aggression but keeps silent on the demand to apply the UN resolutions that demand Israel’s withdrawal from the Arab territories occupied in 1967 and the recognition of the right of Palestinian people to their own independent and sovereign state.

     Reaffirming its solidarity with the cause and the heroic national liberation struggle of the Palestinian people against the oppression of the state of Israel, the PCP calls for participation in the public act “Free Palestine! End the aggression! End the occupation!” promoted by several organisations, which takes place tomorrow, 7 August, at 6 p.m., in front of the Israeli embassy in Lisbon.

     Moreover, following the February coup—instigated and supported by the United States, EU and NATO and materialised with the decisive participation of forces of an assumedly neo-Nazi and fascist nature—continues in Ukraine, under a cloak of silence and premeditated distortion of the reality, a brutal campaign of repression against the people who reject fascism and do not bow to the powers resulting from the coup. The criminal military operation that the Kiev authorities are stepping up against the Ukrainian population of the Donbass region—involving militarised neo-fascist groups—has already caused, following the Odessa massacre, thousands of victims and hundreds of thousands of refugees, a military operation that is part of a broader campaign of violation of fundamental rights and freedoms, which include systematic actions of intimidation, persecution and violence against the communists and other democrats and the stated aim of outlawing the Communist Party of Ukraine.

     The serious development of the situation in Ukraine is part of imperialism’s advance to the east following the dramatic defeats of socialism and of a dangerous escalation of tension and confrontation by the United Statesd and the EU against the Russian Federation that, if not halted, will represent a serious threat to peace in Europe and the world.

     Stressing the need to engage in a political process between the parties, the PCP reiterates its solidarity with the Ukrainian workers and people and their aspirations and struggle for a free, sovereign, democratic Ukraine of social progress.

     The PCP reaffirms its strong condemnation of the repressive and persecutory campaign against the Ukrainian communists and other democratic forces and its solidarity with those in Ukraine who resist and stand in defence of their rights, against the power and oppression of the oligarchs and of imperialism and against the neo-fascist threat.

     The Israeli military aggression against the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip and the premeditated worsening situation in Ukraine are an integral part of imperialism’s strategy of global domination, which includes the destruction of Yugoslavia; the war and occupation of Afghanistan, of Iraq and Libya and the breakdown of those countries as sovereign states; the operation against Syria; the sanctions and threats against Iran; the increasing interference, military interventionism and recolonisation operations in Africa; the galloping militarisation of the Far East, targeting China; the permanent tension in the Korean peninsula; Japanese revanchism and expansionism; and the blockade against Cuba and the interference and destabilisation in Venezuela and other Latin American countries.

     Hypocritically instrumentalising “human rights” and the “duty of humanitarian intervention,” with the use of huge campaigns of misinformation and manipulation in seeking to whitewash their criminal objectives and actions, the United States and its allies systematically violate the UN Charter and international law by attacking the sovereignty of states and the rights of peoples, intensifying exploitation, implementing anti-democratic measures, and promoting and perpetrating criminal wars.

     With the deepening of the structural crisis of capitalism, imperialism seeks to ensure and control the exploitation of resources and geo-strategic positions, suppressing the resistance and struggle of the workers and peoples in defence of their inalienable rights and legitimate aspirations—a policy to which successive governments have been binding Portugal. Portugal must break with the policy of submission to the United States, NATO and the EU which is involving it in imperialism’s aggressive operations, ruining the country and undermining the very sovereignty and independence of Portugal.

     The most aggressive circles of imperialism are launching humanity into a spiral of exploitation, oppression, and war. It is in the hands of the people to stop it. Sixty-nine years after the launching of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the PCP reaffirms the timeliness and urgency of the struggle for peace and its commitment to contributing to the strengthening of the peace movement and its solidarity with the people who are victims of imperialist aggression. Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not forgetting its hundreds of thousands of victims, and in their memory, intervene so that never again humanity will have to suffer nuclear horror.

     In the year that marks the fortieth anniversary of the April Revolution, which put an end to the fascist dictatorship, the PCP calls on all democrats and patriots to intensify the fight against fascism, against militarism, against imperialist interference and war, for peace, disarmament—particularly for nuclear disarmament—for the peaceful resolution of conflicts, the end of foreign military bases, the dissolution of the political and military blocs, respecting sovereignty and national independence, for social progress and friendship and co-operation among peoples.

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