February 6, 2006

NPA’S WITHDRAWAL OF SUPPORT FROM ASSEMBLY OF MAYORS IS UNDEMOCRATIC AND UNCONSCIONABLE
Statement of participating organizations of International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS), Vancouver

Participating organizations of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS) in Canada respond with great disappointment to the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) dominated Vancouver City Council’s reneging of the Council’s previous decision to host a General Assembly of the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities and the Mayors for Peace in conjunction with the World Peace Forum 2006. We denounce this undemocratic and unconscionable act.

Disrespect for democracy
The phony excuse of fiscal responsibility does not fool us. The Council’s decision last year to support a mayors’ assembly and the World Peace Forum (WPF) arose from well-founded international concern for peace. The decision came out of the Council’s Peace and Justice Committee with the approval and backing of citizens’ groups. Yet Mayor Sullivan and company think that there is no worthwhile or material basis for such a gathering and they hold such disrespect for the people’s decisions and views that they would block it. The City would only bear a small portion of the costs.

Furthermore, now the City of Vancouver is in the ridiculous position of first inviting a group of mayors to meet and then not officially recognizing and assisting them to discuss an urgent matter of common interest. This position cannot help the international reputation of this wannabe “world class” city.

Lack of social commitment
The City has social responsibility. Surely peace is of the highest social priority and all governments and citizens should be concerned and working towards resolutions that would bring about genuine and lasting peace. Vancouver is already on record as being the peace capital of Canada, and that is one big reason for bringing the World Peace Forum here in the first place. What more worthy international contribution and social investment could a civic authority undertake?

We firmly support the holding of a World Peace Forum events and we are working to participate by leading a workshop. Our workshop will be based on our own pre-WPF conference (at Russian Hall, June 16-19) that will help carry forward an important debate about the understanding of peace and peace movements in the face of imperialism under the slogan of “Towards a Just and Lasting Peace”. All of us concerned for peace react with repugnance to the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, military intervention and expansion in may other regions from Colombia or Pakistan to the Koreas or Philippines, and the suggestion that invasion might be a just solution to the problems posed by Iran’s repressive regime.

Our concern for peace
The global crisis of monopoly capitalism is fueling the arms industry, prompting US-led aggression and state terror, and provoking nationalist sentiments and inciting regional conflicts. The roots of most kinds of violence and deprivation today lie in the imperialist system itself and the incumbent ferocious drive to exploit peoples, ideas and lands for profits at any cost by a shrinking number of dominant families and their administrators and thugs. ILPS strives to bring people together based on their criticisms of imperialism and their resolution to confront it and find a way out of the crisis. It is this context and framework of political action that we organize anti-war activity. We support the struggle carried out by mass movements in countries of the North and South for national liberation, democracy and social liberation which we view as integral to the struggle for a just and lasting peace.

canada@shawcable.com; ilps2005.tripod.com; 604-215-1905