APEC: An Instrument of Imperialist Plunder and War

By the International League of Peoples’ Struggle
International General Secretariat
17 November 2004

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On the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meetings in Santiago, Chile from 17-21 November 2004, the International League for Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) joins the peoples of the APEC Member countries in exposing, condemning and opposing the APEC as an Instrument of imperialism, especially US and Japanese imperialism, for further exploiting and oppressing the peoples of the Asia-Pacific. 

The APEC was formed in 1989 in the Canberra Summit supposedly as an "informal consultative forum" for furthering economic cooperation among countries in Asia-Pacific.  As in the WTO, to whose objectives and programs the APEC is unabashedly committed, the imperialist powers and their allied client states in APEC try to conjure the illusion of equality and harmony among member economies and a common goal  to promote the interest of all.  But in fact the US, Japan and other imperialist powers in the APEC are united against the weaker economies in forging and firming up agreements to further intensify the exploitation of the peoples of this region and to extract more super profits through looting and plunder of national assets and natural resources of the dominated countries.  Moreover, the imperialist powers in APEC have conflicting economic and political interests and attempt to outmaneuver each other within the APEC.

The imperialist powers are eager to dominate APEC because it means dominating sixty percent of the world's GDP,  fifty-five percent of world trade, and nearly half of the world population.  The annual Leaders' Summit has, since 1993, enabled the imperialist leaders to directly bargain among themselves, impose on the leaders of the weaker states and obtain the latter's commitment to implement "agreements"  that violate the  national  political and economic sovereignty of these states. The Leaders' Summit is preceded by the meeting of the trade ministers where WTO agenda items are discussed and impositions are fleshed out, and the meeting of finance ministers where IMF-WB matters are discussed.  The APEC actually takes pride in its role as catalyst for WTO and IMF-WB trade and finance negotiations.

The APEC has clearly become an undisguised instrument for furthering the designs of monopoly capital, acting through their respective imperialist states, and carrying out the neo-liberal policies of de-nationalization, deregulation, liberalization and privatization in the Asia-Pacific.  The 1996 APEC summit in the Philippines resulted in the "Manila Action Plan of the APEC" (MAPA) which contained the individual action plans (IAPs) of each economy and of collective actions in carrying out trade and investment liberalization and facilitation (TILF).  The MAPA provided for focusing on: (1) reduction of tariffs and increasing non-tariff measures, (2) increasing access to service markets; (3) providing an open investment regime; (4) reducing business costs; (5) creation of an open and efficient infrastructure sector and (6) strengthening economic and technical cooperation. 

These measures have sunk the dominated economies in the Asia-Pacific deeper and deeper in the ocean of debt and depression.  The 1997 financial meltdown in Asia, the subsequent financial and economic crises in other parts of world, and the economic decline and crisis in Europe and North America at the turn of the century unmistakably prove the utter bankruptcy of "neoliberal globalization" that has wrought devastation and ruin to world's peoples. 

The APEC is an instrument not only for the economic exploitation of the poorer member countries.   Although APEC is supposedly an economic forum, the US and other imperialist powers are eager to transform it into a military alliance and use it to rally and mobilize the other member countries behind the US-led "war on terror". The issuance by the APEC Leaders' Summit in October 2001, of  a declaration condemning the 9/11 attacks on the WTC and Pentagon and agreeing to cooperate on military and other measures under the pretext of  countering and fighting "terrorism",  marked the entry of APEC into the realm of geopolitical-military concerns.  The October 2002 summit produced the "Leaders' Statement on Fighting Terrorism and Promoting Growth" providing for the "Counter-Terrorist Task Force", formed in February 2003.

The US has effectively used trade, aid and investments as bargaining levers and arm-twisting devices to pressure so-called partners in APEC into accepting its geopolitical agenda, such as in forging bilateral agreements that have negated the latter's commitment to the International Criminal Court treaty.  Doubtless, US President Bush will come to the APEC-Chile 2004 summit aiming to shore up the dwindling support for US acts of aggression and intervention under the guise of "counter-terrorism", including military cooperation and stepping up political repression against democratic and anti-imperialist forces in Asia Pacific.  There are 100,000 US troops in East Asia alone, which flanks China to the east.  Southeast Asia, declared by the Bush as the "second front" in the "war on terror", is being targeted for its considerable oil and mineral resources and because half of world trade passes through the South China Sea.

The APEC summit in the Philippines in 1996 was met by unprecedentedly massive militant anti-imperialist protests from the Filipino people and the peoples of other APEC member countries as well.  The "People's Conference Against Imperialist Globalization", held simultaneous with the APEC Leaders' Summit and culminating in a People's Caravan, exposed and opposed the plunderous, anti-people and reactionary character of  the APEC.   Similar peoples' protest actions were waged in subsequent APEC summits in Vancouver (1997), Kuala Lumpur (1998), Auckland (1999) and others.   Indeed, the past decade was marked by protest actions against imperialist globalization and imperialist war on a larger and larger scale throughout the world.  As a result of the aggravation of the economic and political crises in all APEC countries, the US and other imperialist powers are bound to meet stiffer resistance and opposition from within the conference halls and private consultation rooms and more massive protests from without. 

The ILPS lauds and supports the peoples' growing condemnation of and opposition to APEC and rejects and condemns such imperialist engineered instruments of economic terror and plunder. Having recently concluded its Second International Assembly with the theme "Advance the peoples' struggles for national and social liberation against imperialist war  and plunder!", the ILPS resolves to carry on the peoples' just struggles against imperialist plunder and war in the Asia-Pacific region and throughout the world.   

Expose and oppose the APEC as an instrument of the US and other imperialist powers!

Advance the Asia-Pacific people's struggles for national and social liberation! 

Strengthen the solidarity of the world's peoples against imperialist plunder and war!

Bulatlat 

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