DECLARATION AT SERPA
Assembled in the cities of Serpa and Moura, the participants of the
International Meeting «Civilization or Barbarism – Challenges of the
Contemporary World»
Alert
to the gravity of the global crisis – social, economic, military,
cultural and environmental – faced by humanity, a crisis that threatens the
very continuation of life on Earth.
Testify
that, in the development of that crisis, capitalism, in its escalating
aggressiveness, has become an absolutely reactionary factor.
Underline
that the United States, the hegemonic power, in its search for a way
out of the system's structural crisis, has opted for a strategy of state
terrorism with so-called “preventive” wars that already assume neo-fascist
characteristics.
Identify
the European Union as a political-economic block resulting from the
convergence of monopoly capital interests, on its way to an anti-national
federalism which curtails civil rights and implements anti-social policies;
having expansionist ambitions and seeking world-wide economic competiveness;
undergoing a process of militarization, and at the international level
subservient to the same imperialist objectives regarding economic-financial and
geo-strategic matters.
Condemn
the aggressions against Iraq and Afghanistan and the heinous crimes
committed there by the armed forces of the US and Great Britain and their
satellite allies, including the complicity of the Portuguese government in the
above-mentioned aggressive acts, and pay homage to the popular Resistance to
the occupation and pillage in the struggle for freedom and independence.
Condemn
the Zionist crimes, supported by Washington, against the heroic
Palestinian people and proclaim their solidarity with the patriots that
struggle for a free and fully sovereign Palestine.
Manifest
their solidarity to all of those in Asia, Africa and Latin America who
are suffering the consequences of the neo-colonialist policies and that
mobilize to struggle against all forms of imperialist violence, namely the
re-colonization projects taking their form in ALCA and Plano Puebla Panama,
plans repudiated by the people from Rio Bravo to Tierra de Fuego.
Condemn
the direct and indirect US imperialist military interventions in Latin
America, namely in Haiti and Colombia; demand the closing of the North-American
military bases in the continent, including the one in Guantanamo, Cuba,
illegally occupied, and alert to the dangerous consequences of the continuation
of neo-liberal politics in other countries in the hemisphere, namely in Brasil,
Argentina and Mexico.
Denounce
the total absence of moral authority of the United States' Government,
that financed, executed, motivated and tolerates in its territory, the
organization of terrorist acts against Cuba and enacts, like its ally Israel,
state terrorist actions, while assuming the role of judge to produce lists of
countries and organizations, allegedly terrorist, among which are included
revolutionary liberation movements such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia – FARC-EP, whose leaders are on the “Wanted” lists, while the
perpetrators of horrendous terrorist acts stroll undisturbed in the streets of
Miami.
Demand
an end to the blockade imposed on Cuba, now reinforced, and of the
farcical laws that aim at suffocating and destroying Cuba's revolution, and pay
homage to the Cuban people for their heroic and victorious resistance to
imperialism.
Honour
the people of Venezuela and President Hugo Chávez Frias, leader of the
Bolivarian Revolution, for the victory attained against the oligarchy and
imperialism in the recall referendum, an event of great significance not only
to Latin America but for all Humanity.
Remember
the example of the revolutionary struggle of the people of the former
Portuguese colonies, which contributed in a decisive manner to the end of
apartheid and the independence of Namibia and South Africa.
Emphasize
the historic meaning of the April 74 Portuguese Revolution and the
fundamental important role played by the people and the armed forces, as an
alliance, towards an advanced democracy, and remember that it was the rupture
of that alliance that allowed the return to power of the conservative forces
and the capitalist counter-revolution.
Testify
that capitalism's compulsion for “economic growth” has required
colossal transfers of materials and energy that lead to the exhaustion of
finite natural resources (such as oil and natural gas) as well as the use of
renewable resources beyond their regeneration capacity (such as soil, water,
fisheries), overloading the environment with residues and pollutants that
degrade living conditions on Earth and undermine the availability of resources
for future generations.
Alert
to the great gravity of the energy crisis. Humanity has already consumed
half of the available oil. In 2008, according to specialists, the demand will
exceed the supply. The current rate of consumption – 82 million barrels per day
– will collide with the capacity of production, which will decline. It is
absolutely necessary and urgent to find energy alternatives, which nevertheless
cannot ignore solutions in the sphere of social production and consumption.
Proclaim
the conviction that Marxism will continue to play a central role among
the theoretical references applied not only by communists but by all
progressive people in the world as well. The re-appropriation and reinforcement
of Marxism, of its methodology and concepts (as adapted to contemporary world
reality) and of its revolutionary essence, continue to be an absolute need in
the current ideological struggle. Against the totalitarian disinformation
system, the alienation and manipulation of the masses by the dominant media,
the consumerist propaganda and “totalitarian thought”, Marxism as an instrument
of criticism and transformation of the world, not dogmatic nor tamed, remains
as the most precious intellectual weapon for workers and peoples who resist. To
renounce it would be giving up the struggle for socialism.
Call upon
the peoples to participate more actively in the struggles for peace
and against the strategy of imperial dominance of a power system that assumes
ever more neo-fascist configurations in its aggressions against the developing
world and the pillage of its natural resources. Only the globalization of these
struggles, a priority in the fight against imperialism, will be able to stop
the dangers that threaten humanity.
Express
the conviction that socialism is the only alternative to a capitalist
system that, in its senile stage, has opted for an irrational strategy of
desperate aggression that once again threatens to lead humanity to barbarism,
or even extinction.
Acknowledge with joy
the intensification of the workers' struggles in the
European Union in defense of their social historic victories now threatened by
neo-liberal policies, and highlight how meaningful it is to see a rise in the
mass struggle in almost all Latin American countries, recognizing that, the
reinforcement of the internationalist solidarity among the exploited of the
world is indispensable to the globalization of the struggle against capitalism
and imperialism.
Serpa, 25th of September 2004
Esta declaração encontra-se em
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