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Volume III,  Number 48              January 11 - 17, 2004            Quezon City, Philippines


 





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Moving Anti-Imperialism One Step Forward
Resistance conference set as World Social Forum takes place in India

Mumbai Resistance 2004 seeks to take the more advanced anti-imperialist movement “one step forward as part of the international mobilization against the growing concentration of capitalist forces across the globe and the ravages of imperialist globalization” and imperialist war.

By Bulatlat.com

The anti-imperialist movement in the world strives to move forward when representatives and leaders of hundreds of people’s organizations convene on Jan. 17 in Mumbai, India for a forum dubbed, “Mumbai Resistance (MR) 2004.” To last until Jan. 21, the forum runs parallel to the fourth World Social Forum (WSF) that, for the first time, will also be held in Mumbai (formerly Bombay).

MR 2004 is being sponsored by the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS), the world’s biggest anti-imperialist formation, which groups more than 204 people’s organizations and movements in some 40 countries.

In a pre-forum paper, ILPS said MR2004 aims to build a “strong worldwide anti-imperialist movement that will take the people of the world, including those attending the WSF, beyond the limits of ‘reflective thinking and debate.’” Transcending the WSF event means organizing and mobilizing the resistance against imperialist globalization and imperialist wars, ILPS went further.

In a news release, WSF on the other hand expects the attendance of some 75,000 and 2,400 non-government organizations (NGOs) when it convenes on Jan. 16-21. More than half of these are from Asia while the rest from Europe and Latin America.

A yearly gathering of anti-globalization activists, WSF, bannering the “Another World is Possible” call, had been previously held in Porto Alegre. Hyderabad, a southern city of India, hosted the Asian Social Forum (ASF) in January last year.

Expected to attend the WSF forum in Mumbai are former South African President and Nobel peace laureate Nelson Mandela; 2003 Nobel peace prize recipient Shrin Ebadi; and former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Past WSF forums had seen the participation of critics of globalization coming from all shades of politics and political-economic analysis. The WSF however has been found to have failed in projecting a sharper critique of globalization much less surpass the radical activism that was first initiated in the anti-imperialist globalization campaign against the 1996 APEC summit in the Philippines followed thereafter in Seattle, Montreal and other world capitals.

Mumbai Resistance

In contrast, Mumbai Resistance 2004 seeks to take the more advanced anti-imperialist movement “one step forward as part of the international mobilization against the growing concentration of capitalist forces across the globe and the ravages of imperialist globalization” and imperialist war.

During the MR 2004 forum, strategies will be discussed to concretely define a people-oriented alternative socio-economic structure based on self-reliance and the junking of all controls, domination and subjugation by imperialism and its global instruments – WTO, IMF, World Bank, TNCs and others.

As part of its International Campaign against Overseas U.S. Military Bases, ILPS will mobilize its member-organizations throughout the world for the March 20 Global Day of Action. March 20 is the first anniversary of the U.S.-UK invasion of Iraq.

Founded in 2001 in The Netherlands, ILPS has member-organizations in the Philippines, the United States, India, Belgium, France and 35 other countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Its Philippine chapter counts Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan – New Patriotic Alliance), Gabriela (a women’s alliance), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, a peasant movement), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st Movement), Center for Anti-Imperialist Studies (CAIS) and other groups.

Co-sponsoring Mumbai Resistance are ILPS India-based member-organizations including the broad All-India People’s Resistance Forum (AIPRF), trade union and farmers groups and others. Bulatlat.com

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