Every day people around the world are, in a thousand different ways, faced with the bitter and painful fact that this planet is controlled by a relative handful of super-wealthy people and the powerful corporations and countries they run. Their insatiable quest for power and profit comes at the expense of the livelihoods and lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. They have globalised pain and suffering to an extent never before seen in human history. They are even destroying the very ecosystems upon which all life depends. But blinded by their own gluttony they can only reply to challenges to this suicidal madness by accelerating the pace of devastation. Consequently, the intended victims of this rapacious reality - and all those who refuse to accept a world of misery - have but one path of action: to globalise the struggle against this monster and all the forms of exploitation and oppression it produces.

No effective resistance against these powers of prey can be organised without identifying their system of global domination for exactly what it is: IMPERIALISM. Recognising this truth opens the way to seeing the connections between all the different kinds of cruelty and abuse that the common enemy is bringing down upon people everywhere. Grasping its meaning strengthens the understanding that struggling people around the world share a common cause and future. There will be no reasonable ruler or saviour from heaven who will end the scourge tormenting our planet and the vast majority of its inhabitants. Casting aside the blinders of false hope and tearing off the veil of illusion that imperialism's apologists have always sought to maintain it is clear that in this struggle the people of the world can rely on one thing, and one thing only: themselves -- heir own unity, determined struggle and their desire to carry this battle through to a victorious conclusion.

For all the horrors their system is constantly producing, nothing in the last decade brings home these facts more than the current US-led offensive for world hegemony. Under the phoney banner of a "war against terrorism" that they say will last at least 30 years the US's rulers have declared their right to wage pre-emptive war against any country or people that does not bow down to their wishes and demands. The most recent crime of this offensive has been the invasion and continuing occupation of Iraq.

By defying the expressed wishes of the vast majority of the world's people and launching their murderous attack on Iraq the rulers of the US and their accomplices laid bare to millions around the world what truly lies behind their endless talk of "democracy". They boasted that just a few days of their "shock and awe" bombing would force Iraq to completely submit. They claimed that they would be welcomed by cheering crowds celebrating their "liberation". In truth they met with determined resistance even as they slaughtered tens of thousands with the aim of occupying Iraq, seizing its oil wealth and using it as a base to reorganize the entire Middle East and Gulf Region under the boot of their imperialist control. Since George W. Bush announced on May 1 that the "main fighting" was over and their "mission" was "accomplished" the mass resistance - including the armed resistance - inside Iraq to the US-led occupation has spread and stiffened. In addition, not only have millions of people around the world seen their cries about "weapons of mass destruction" to be nothing more than one of the greatest lies of the last 100 years, they have also witnessed how the occupying powers stood by as Iraq's infrastructure was looted and then cold heartedly refused to provide the people of Iraq with sufficient food, clean water, hospitals, electricity, etc. This denial of the minimum basic necessities of life to millions is continuing to cost additional innocent lives every day and is part of a conscious strategy to so impoverish the population that they will cease their resistance and accept foreign occupation.

This strategy is failing miserably. As usual the rulers have once again completely underestimated the power and willingness of the people to resist them. But true to their nature, their reaction to this situation is not to respect the wishes of the overwhelming majority of people in Iraq and around the world and withdraw their troops. On the contrary - the US-imperialists have announced their intentions to stay in Iraq for at least the next decade and have already begun selling off Iraq's industries and natural resources to multinational corporations (mainly from the US itself) at bargain prices. And they have openly repeated their intentions of continuing their drive for world domination by issuing one threat after another to use military force - including nuclear weapons - against Syria, Iran, Palestine, North Korea and other countries in order to compel them to submit to US demands. All of this is part of the hideous plans of the US-rulers to take advantage of the fact that with collapse of the Soviet Union there is currently no other imperialist country of group of countries that can challenge US power. The US-rulers have openly declared that they will use this advantage to establish their hegemony over the entire planet and thereby force all the other big powers to accept this US control for decades to come. It is this big power rivalry that lies behind the refusal of France, Germany, Russia and others up until now to take a direct part in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. They are demanding a joint imperialist occupation in which their "right" to a more "equal" share of the booty is respected. The US-imperialists on the other hand continue to insist that those who do not agree to accept its "leadership" will get little or nothing. Thus the UK, Spain, Italy, Poland and a few others have agreed to serve as running dogs for the US in the hope of at least getting a few crumbs. But it is not the rivalry between the big imperialist powers that holds out the hope that the current US-led offensive can be stopped. Nor are there any "international institutions" like the UN that can play any real part in stopping this juggernaut. No! This rivalry and the imperialist institutions through which it takes expression can only lead to more suffering and oppression for the people no matter how the balance of power between them tips at any particular time. As stated above it is the struggle of the people alone that can put a stop to this imperialist nightmare. The masses of people in Iraq are continuing to set an excellent example for how, in the face of great difficulty and danger, this can be done. And the worldwide movement against this aggression, although it was not able to stop it from happening, was unprecedented in the speed with which it grew and swept across the world. This display of resistance and solidarity took the US and other reactionary rulers by complete surprise and sent them into "shock and awe" as millions around the world took to the streets to protest the crimes they were hell-bent on committing. Their claims of all-powerful invincibility were shaken to the bone. Here the real potential of the people's power to disrupt, defy and even defeat the powers' plans and was demonstrated in a concrete way not seen in many years. This is a lesson we all need to truly take to heart.

Resistance to the imperialist overlords - including armed resistance - is strengthening and spreading. Not just in Iraq, but throughout the whole Middle East, and the oppressed countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia: in Turkey, Palestine, South Korea, Peru, Bolivia, the Philippines, India and in Nepal - where a People's War has liberated 80% of the country - to name just a few. In the imperialist centres of Europe and North America this resistance is growing and widening as well. Not just the movement against the invasion of Iraq, but numerous battles - from Seattle to Genoa to Gotheburg and beyond, indeed the Anti-Globalisation Movement as a whole - are all excellent examples of this. All the wrongs and injustices this system produces on a daily basis - including crimes like the current US-led offensive - will continue to occur and reoccur as long as imperialism itself exists. It is up to us to ensure that not only our resistance continues, but that it grows in unity, strength and clarity of direction and purpose. Only in this way we will be able to not only put a stop to the current US-led criminal crusade, but to rid our world of imperialism altogether!

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This week thousands of people from all over South Asia and around the world will be in Mumbai to discuss and debate all these questions and seek a road forward. At the various events taking place there will be a wide range of experiences, viewpoints and proposed solutions that will be expressed. The World People's Resistance Movement (WPRM) wholeheartedly supports all efforts to summarize our experience in battle, build the unity of struggling people everywhere and to chart a course that directs our fire at the common imperialist enemy. We are especially urging people to inform themselves about and attend the programs being organized under the auspices of Mumbai Resistance 2004 - Against Imperialist Globalisation and War where discussions will be held with the perspective described here (see below).

Beyond this we are calling on people everywhere who see the need to unite all those who can be united to link up the peoples' struggles around the world and aim them against our common enemy to join with the WPRM by forming chapters in your local areas or affiliating your group or organization with our Movement. The WPRM is a growing movement open to all who genuinely oppose imperialism and support the just struggles of the people, whether in Iraq or Palestine, in India or the Philippines or the Maoist-led People's War raging in Nepal. We do not seek to replace or supersede already existing anti-imperialist organisations, but rather to help unite them to build the kind of movement that can lead our common struggle to victory. We are currently organised mainly in Europe and South Asia and call on others to join ranks with and help build the WPRM. North, South, East and West - Unite the People's Struggles!