The WFTU attended the seminar on the subject “The Imperialist Aggression in the Eastern Mediterranean in the middle of the capitalist economic crisis, the risk of a global war and the stance of the organizations of the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF)”, that was organized by the Women’s Federation of Greece (OGE), in Athens, Greece on November 24th 2013. Also attending the seminar were representatives of women’s organizations from Europe and the Arab countries, the World Peace Council, representative of the WFDY and the Greek Committee for International Detente and Peace.
The WFTU was represented by Gilda Chacσn Bravo, Representative of the CTC Cuba in the WFTU Secretariat, who addressed the meeting with the following greeting message:
“Dear comrades:
On behalf of the WFTU I would like to thank the Women’s Federation of Greece (AICH) for the opportunity to participate in this important event.
The WFTU was founded on October 3, 1945 in Paris after the end of World War II. Its foundation was seen as a forerunner of the new era that began with the defeat of fascism at the hands of the anti – fascist alliance states.
Workers and democratic forces saw in the victory a new future for the world, a future without the existence of imperialism and colonialism, in which freedom, peace, democracy and prosperity would progress for humankind.
Therefore, it was necessary to build the unity of the workers and the oppressed nations of the world to achieve the goals of humanity.
Since its foundation, the WFTU has remained as an anti-imperialist, proletarian internationalism defender and class oriented principles organization.
Nowadays the world has changed dramatically, the international trade union is divided, other trade unions defend reformism and are in the side of capitalists while we are at the side of our workers.
Capitalism, with its neoliberal policies, its free trade agreements, monopolies, multinationals, have caused great economic imbalance in the world, they neither have answers to this crisis nor the wars unleashed.
The global financial crisis will have a lasting impact, no doubt. But in particular has a significant impact on women. Women, with the same conditions of men and working the same hours earn an average of 77% of the wage that men earn in the same jobs.
Women are falling into poverty faster than men, violence is increasing against women.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), latest report (2013) on global economic prospects, crisis recovery is still disappointing.
After years of austerity measures they have failed to generate jobs and growth, for example, Greece will not leave from the recession and will have a contract of 1.2 % next year. Unemployment was identified as “the most pressing challenge ” for the euro zone by new negative record in Spain with 27.3 % this year and 28.0 % next; Greece with 28.4 % next year and France with 11.1 %.
The measures required for Greece in exchange for the “bailout” of its sovereign debt constitute the deflationary attack meaning to reduce the economic status of workers through lower wages, higher unemployment, increased retirement age and decreasing of pensions, among other adjustment and austerity measures, those are anti-worker measures seeking to liquidate the historical conquests of Greek workers, that is why Greek workers are in the forefront of the struggle in Europe.
Historically, women have written brilliant pages in our struggles, Greek working women are playing a leading role in the struggles and protests that are consistently performed in this country, because economic situation and life are increasingly difficult for them, their future is very uncertain and they are among the hardest hit by the capitalist crisis.
The WFTU congratulates them for their courage, for their force and their total commitment with the fair cause they defend.
The WFTU has always recognized the important role played by women in society and in our struggles; no victory is possible without them, which is why it has accompanied them and it is with them in the front line.
The events of September 11, 2001, have served to increase wars. The pretext of the U.S. anti terrorist struggle has contributed to the destabilization, in some cases, and more inherence in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria, Democratic Republic of Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras, Bolivia, Palestine, with the help of its allies.
USA has 560 military bases abroad, many of them are legacies that remain from World War II, this data reveals a dark truth, one of the fundamentals of wars is to occupy strategic areas where arms trade, drugs, economic resources such as oil, natural gas, among others can be controlled, this shows that the U.S. Imperialism remains in the 6 continents.
The pretext of fighting terrorism, humanitarian wars, peace missions of the United States and its allies, has stirred major military offensives and invasions to countries, as well as, destabilizing social and political systems, but it is clear that their interests are economic: oil in the Middle East and Venezuela, natural resources such as gas, wood, among others in Latin America and Africa and in Syria we can say that the problem is natural gas.
We could cite specific examples, since the victory of Chavismo in Venezuela it has been a priority of the United States to destabilize this process and restore the capitalist system with the consequent control of the oil market in this nation, in the case of Cuba it maintains the economic financial blockade for more than 52 years, with threats of invading Cuban territory by arms and also causing attack attempts to the life of leaders of the Cuban Revolution.
United States proclaims its fight against terrorism, however it still keeps 4 Cubans imprisoned in U.S. jails for 15 years for fighting terrorism from the U.S. for Cuba and other countries, which contradicts its alleged fight against terrorism, but its main purpose is to overthrow the Cuban Revolution and its socialist system.
Another example is Palestine, USA with her unbridled support for Israel, which has occupied most of the Palestinian territory, preventing them to be an independent and sovereign nation, which has cost thousands of lives to the Palestinian brothers and sisters and with the consequent destruction of almost all the national territory.
When wars erupt civilian casualties are numerous, men, women and children, but women are double victims, in addition to the loss of their lives they are raped, battered and murdered by concepts of honour or revenge, and they also serve as sexual gratification to the invading troops.
Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban revolution, in a message to the world, in 2010 stated and led me quote a few sentences ¨ The use of nuclear weapons in a new war would be the end of humanity. Any government in the world is bound to respect the right to life of every nation and of all the peoples of the planet.
Albert Einstein himself stated textually: ” I don’t know what kinds of weapons will be used in World War III, but in World War IV sticks and stones will be used. ” We know what he wanted to express, and he was right, but no one will exist to use those sticks and stones.
There would be collateral damages, as always affirm American political and military leaders, to justify the killing of innocent people.
In a nuclear war the collateral damage would be the life of humanity ¨. End of quote.
It may be Iran, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, or other country but the result would be the same. The aggressive U.S. policy on our countries in order to appropriate our natural resources through war is disastrous, inhuman and irrational, if all the millions of dollars spent on the war were in order to solve the problems of hunger in the world, to build more housing, health and water supply to Africa and enable more jobs to workers, the reality of the world would be completely different today.
The WFTU, class oriented, unitary, anti-imperialist organization, representing 86 million members in 120 countries struggles against any manifestations of war, aggressions, invasions or interference in the internal affairs of any country, fights against any manifestation of aggression against workers exercising their rights, it fights against anti trade union, and anti-proletarian measures, fights against multinationals that manufacture and sell mass destruction weapons, fights against hegemonic politics of imperialism, against the austerity measures that lead wage cuts, unemployment, discrimination against women, against rising food prices, it struggles for access to clean water, for medicines, for a free public education and health as universal human rights.
We have the responsibility, all those who fight against imperialist hegemony and wars, to find a way to overcome capitalism, for the construction of socialism, and to avoid the chaos that probably will be spread across the world in the event that a new war effectively is configured, as a third and great world war.
We fight for life, we fight for peace, we fight for a better world!!
Thank you very much.”