GREECE
Solidarity against U.S. agression prevails at World Peace
Assembly
Special to Workers World
Athens,
Greece
The U.S.-based International Action Center took part in
the World Peace Assembly and Conference in Athens, Greece,
from May 10-15. The gathering, organized by the World Peace
Council, drew nearly 200 delegates from 47 countries in Asia,
Africa, Latin America, and Europe.
Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
Yugoslavia, Vietnam, and Iraq were all represented. The
Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament was
represented for the first time. The event was hosted by the
Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace
(EEDYE).
On the final day of the assembly several thousand people
marched 26 miles from Marathon to Athens in a protest against
war and the U.S.-dominated NATO military alliance. In April
1964, legendary Greek anti-war leader Grigoris Lambrakis was
arrested along with 2,000 other protesters while attempting
to walk the same route. A right-wing death squad murdered
Lambrakis three months later. Each year Greek anti-war
activists honor his memory by walking the route, where the
marathon originated in ancient times. The film "Z" is based
on the Lambrakis case.
The march began with several hundred people but grew to
thousands as it neared Athens. Marchers carried red flags and
Cuban flags emblazoned with pictures of Che Guevara. They
chanted, "Our oath to Lambrakis, throw out the American
bases," "Not a soldier to Yugoslavia, we won't fight for the
U.S. and Germany," and "The imperialists redivide the world
with borders drawn in people's blood."
In villages along the route, residents held rallies to
welcome the marchers. IAC representative Bill Doares and two
members of the Belgian anti-war movement Vrede represented
the international delegates on the walk.
Struggle between two outlooks
The assembly itself was marked by a struggle between two
outlooks--one of uncompromising opposition to imperialist war
and another that accepted the "right" of the U.S. and Western
Europe to carry out sanctions and "humanitarian" wars of
intervention against Yugoslavia, Iraq, and other oppressed
countries. The latter view was backed by the French Movement
for Peace, which had dominated the leadership of the WPC
since the overthrow of socialism in the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe.
The Greek peace committee, which organized huge
demonstrations in solidarity with Yugoslavia last year, led
the fight for a principled anti-imperialist position and
rallied the majority of the delegates.
In his opening address to the assembly, EEDYE President
Evangelos Maharis said, "The struggle will be long and hard
but there is no other way. Those who favor compromises,
concessions, and so-called easy solutions merely facilitate
the plans of the imperialists, arms merchants, and
warmongers.
"The events in the Gulf and Yugoslavia should have
convinced them that the imperialists are insatiable and
merciless," said Maharis. "Modern imperialism is the most
savage form of barbarism in history. It is a mortal danger to
peace and the future of humanity."
Shift to the left
The final document adopted by the conference defended
Cuba, north Korea, Iraq, and Yugoslavia against imperialist
attack and called for the abolition of NATO and other
U.S.-backed military blocs. The conference also voted to move
the WPC headquarters from Paris to Athens and elected
Athanasios Pafilis of Greece to replace Lysanne Elisander of
the French Movement for Peace as WPC general secretary.
Speakers from many parts of the world gave eloquent and
powerful condemnations of Washington and Wall Street's "new
world order." The U.S. was roundly condemned for blocking the
ratification of arms treaties and accelerating the production
of nuclear weapons a decade after it proclaimed victory in
the Cold War.
One assembly document described the gruesome history of
genocide against Native Americans and other Indigenous
peoples around the globe. Another described how IMF/World
Bank economic policy is "globalizing" unemployment.
General Secretary Kim Il Bong of the Korean National Peace
Committee warned of the dangers posed by the massive U.S.
military and nuclear presence on the Korean Peninsula and
asked why Washington is unwilling to sign a peace treaty with
his country. Chen Jifeng of the Chinese delegation pointed
out that the Western media now admit that the vast majority
of refugees who left Kosovo last spring were fleeing the U.S.
bombing. He denounced the colonialist logic inherent in
Washington's "human rights above national sovereignty"
posture.
A statement by the International Action Center exposed
human-rights violations inside the United States--police
terror and the mass incarceration of Black and Latino youths,
the racist use of the death penalty, the slave-labor
prison-industrial complex, and the frame-up of Mumia
Abu-Jamal. Doares made the same points in an hour-long
interview on 902, the TV station of the Greek Communist
Party.
The strength and militancy of the Greek anti-war movement
impressed the delegates. The term "unsubdued Athens,"
originally a reference to the Greek resistance to Nazi
occupation, was frequently used to describe the fierce
protests that confronted Clinton when he came here last
year.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS
:: SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page