Declaration of the Fourth International

Throughout the world, working and oppressed peoples are
looking to the future with great anguish.  What will occur
in the coming days, in the coming hours?  A spokesperson for
the Bush administration declared on Sept.  18, "We are at
war.  ? It will be a massive and long-term war." U.S.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld spoke about a
"protracted war effort that will last not days or weeks, but
years."

A war that will be sustained over many years?  Across the
globe, including in the United States itself, millions of
people are asking themselves: What is the meaning of a war
that will be carried out over such a prolonged period of
time?  Will this war unleash further misery and destruction,
and cause even greater harm to the exploited and oppressed
masses the world over?

The convulsive events that have shaken the planet over the
past days have confirmed - unfortunately in this most tragic
form - the validity of the positions of the Fourth
International.  Without flinching, and despite difficulties
of all sorts, the partisans of the Fourth International have
affirmed - based on verifiable facts - that a system based
on exploitation can only foster war.

Who today can deny the fact that the "New World Order"
 imposed by the U.S.  leaders and their allies not only has
 failed to chart a positive course for the nations and
 peoples of the world, but in fact, in the name of the
 market economy, has simply deepened all the contradictions
 inherent in a system based on the private ownership of the
 means of production?

Ten years have passed since President George Bush (the
father of the current U.S.  president) hailed the advent of
a "New World Order."

Over the past 10 years, the world has witnessed the heinous
war carried out by the U.S.-led international coalition
against the people of Iraq, a war that was followed soon
after by a deadly embargo.  Implemented as well in the name
of the "New World Order," this embargo already has taken the
lives of 1.5 million Iraqi children.

Over the past 10 years, the countries of Rwanda, Burundi,
Somalia, Sierra Leone and Congo have been torn apart by
so-called "ethnic" wars.  Millions of innocent people have
been massacred, victims of clashes between various factions
and cliques, all of them manipulated from beginning to end
by the large "democratic" imperialist powers whose aim is to
control the resources of the sub-soils of those countries.

Over the past 10 years, a succession of wars have torn
asunder the peoples of the Balkans.  Millions have perished
under the blows of the different factions of the old
bureaucratic nomenklaturas, all of whom had rallied to the
privatization programs of the international financial
institutions.  In their quest to be the best proponents of
the IMF and World Bank plans, these nomenklaturas lashed out
at each other and, in the process, fueled the bloody battles
waged in the name of "ethnic cleansing" and "regional
purification."

Over the past 10 years, all the so-called "peace agreements"
imposed by the large capitalist powers have only created new
"ethnic" divisions and new massacres.

The truth is that this "New World Order" is no order at all.
It is rampant unemployment.  It is the destruction of all
the conquests wrested through the class struggle; indeed, it
is the destruction of all the conquests of human
civilization.

On all continents and in all countries, at a time when the
development of science and technology is now able to ensure
a dignified life for everyone on this planet, what we are
witnessing instead is massive unemployment and untold misery
for the vast majority of the 5 billion people living on
earth.

The simple fact is that with each passing day, the rich are
getting rich and the poor are getting poorer.

With each passing day, the vast majority of humankind is
plunged further into abject misery:

o In Russia, the average life expectancy has dropped
dramatically in recent years, with official statistics
forecasting that 40 out of every100 youth 16 years of age
will die before the age of 60.

o In Africa, 50 million people are fated to die within the
 next 10 years.  Forty-two percent of the population lives
 on less than one dollar per day.  Three-hundred million
 live beneath the poverty level.  Indeed, Africa, a
 crucified continent, is today beset by genocide resulting
 from wars, AIDS, malnutrition, and epidemics - all fueled
 and aggravated by the weight of the foreign debt and
 imperialist plunder.  Ten of the African countries will see
 their average life expectancy plummet by 17 years on
 account of the AIDS epidemic alone!

o In Europe, Asia, and the Americas, the policies of
privatization and deregulation increase by the day the
levels of precariousness and insecurity facing working
people and youth.  The World Bank itself recognizes that in
all the so-called "developing" countries (with the exception
of China), the number of poor people has increased by 100
million over the past 10 years.

This past September 11, working people throughout the world
were seized with horror at the sight of the thousands of
victims killed in the attacks in New York, Washington and
Pennsylvania.  The overwhelming majority of those killed
were working people just like them.

But how can one not see through all the hypocrisy and the
lies of those who today are beating the war drums?

All it took was a few hours for people around the world, who
were horrified by the attacks on the workers at the World
Trade Center, to learn that the presumed author of these
attacks, Osama Bin Laden, had been trained by the CIA.

And as for the regime of the Taliban, it is now public
knowledge that the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan with
the political, material and financial support of the U.S.
government.  In fact, in the course of the first six months
of 2001 alone, the Taliban received more than $120 million
from the United States.

Today, the world is on the brink of war.

Who, for one second, can believe that the famished people of
Afghanistan represent a threat to world peace?  Who can
believe that wars can ensure the independence of nations?
Just take a look at what has been going in Palestine: Is
there not a progressive and peaceful solution to the
unending war that has devastated this region for more than
half a century?  Is not such a solution the constitution of
all Palestinian territory of a Democratic and Secular
Palestinian Republic, without distinctions based upon race
or religion?

Today, the world is on the brink of war.

The horrific attacks of September 11 have been manipulated
 by the U.S.  government and placed entirely at the service
 of engaging the United States - and all other governments
 the world over - in the preparation of an all-out war.  Let
 there be no mistake about it: It will be a war waged
 against peoples considered to be "accomplices" of the
 terrorists.  It will be, as well, an economic and social
 war against the workers of the United States and the rest
 of the world.

Already, hundreds of thousands of U.S.  workers are being
hit or targeted by massive layoffs.

The $40 billion allocated to finance the U.S.  military
intervention in the Middle East was approved unanimously by
both houses of the U.S.  Congress.  Also unanimous is the
view in Congress that U.S.  workers must bear the cost of
this war, even if this means dipping deep into the coffers
of the Social Security administration.

In a country where 43 million U.S.  citizens have no access
to healthcare insurance, this "sustained" war drive will
inevitably drive millions more into the ranks of the poor
and dispossessed; it will only accelerate the march toward
social collapse.

In the United States - just as in all countries of the globe
- the pressure will increase on the organizations of the
working class, primarily the trade unions, to renounce their
role as defenders of the material and moral interests of the
wage-earners.  In the name of forging a "national unity"
against the "war on terrorism," in the name of the "general
interests" of all society, the workers' organizations will
be summoned to drop their struggles around their specific
demands.  They will be told to place their struggles against
privatization and deregulation on hold indefinitely.

The workers and peoples of the world will face difficult
 moments ahead.  The peoples always want peace, but it is
 always they who must pay the price for wars and armed
 conflicts.

In this difficult new period so rife with dangers of all
sorts, the workers' movement in each country and on a world
scale can remain loyal to its mission only on the condition
that it does not stray from the basic principles upon which
it was founded:

- full independence of workers' organizations, primarily the
trade unions, in relation to the bosses, the States, the
governments and the internati onal institutions such as the
IMF, World Bank, WTO and European Union; - defense of all
conquests and guarantees won through bitter class battles;
primarily the defense of labor codes and
collective-bargaining agreements, as well as the defense of
all the social protections systems, public services and
public enterprises threatened with privatization; - defense
of all democratic rights; defense of the right to strike and
the right to assembly; - defense of the right to
self-determination for all oppressed peoples.

The Fourth International has no interests that are separate
and apart from those of the workers' movement as a whole.

The Fourth International has only one objective: to help
humanity free itself from the chains of exploitation and
oppression.  It has only one method: to promote the mass
action of all the oppressed and exploited, and to promote
the defense and strengthening of the working class
organizations while safeguarding all democratic rights.

No to War, No to Exploitation!
For Peace, Liberty and Democracy!
For International Workers' Solidarity!
For the Independence of the Organizations of the Working Class!

International Secretariat of the Fourth International Paris,
September 19, 2001
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Universite de CRETEIL-PARIS12 Tel.  : (16) 1.48 89 18 37
Internet : Barrois@univ-paris12.fr
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