Final declaration of the Assembly of Resistances (AoR) held in Budapest on 2-4 March 2018
(Version 8.- FINAL )
In preparation of the International Assembly of Peoples` Movements and Organizations that will take place next automn in Caracas, following the positive traditions of the World and European Social Fora, after a three-day theoretical and intensive debates we, the participants of the regional Assembly of Resistances (AoR) held in Budapest on 2-4 March 2018 came to the conclusion that beyond the logic of profit and war „another world is possible and necessary”.
The systemic crisis continues to favor the right-wing hiding behind a populist discourse in most of the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). Social democracy, not to mention the communist parties have suffered electoral defeats in Western countries like Austria, France and Germany, whereas in Greece, Spain and Portugal some promising developments of popular movements have started, but still, no strong left-wing has emerged on the European political horizon. In the last decades we were and are confronted with an enormous international neoliberal offensive with all its horrible consequences: unemployment, precarity, social cuts, attack against trade unions etc. This led to combined social, economic, ecological and political crises.
The traditional left mainly took over the neoliberal paradigm. An ideological vacuum came into being and in this vacuum the far right is intervening – successfully- with „easy answers”- for above all by creating scapegoats.
In the spirit of international solidarity the discussions in Budapest have strengthened our common will to fight against neoliberalism, neocolonialism, oppression, exploitation, social degradation, environmental destruction, militarisation, racism, sexism and the rise of far-right. We condemn military interventions of world and regional powers in the Middle East and elsewhere. We support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement of the Palestinian people struggling for freedom, justice and equality. We support initiatives aimed at ending the war in Syria by a negotiated political solution taking into account interests and rights of all groups of the Syrian people.
Now the time for a massive social resistance has come again, based on a realistic anti-systemic, anti-capitalist alternative. The concept and the idea of a socialist world, beyond-capitalism should not be reduced to abstract theoretical declarations. We have concrete demands, plans and strategies shaped in each country according to its national specificities. Thus we want to build a global society, based on cooperation and not on competition.
The specific purpose of this regional meeting was to determine some axes for concrete common international activities and we came up with decisions about concrete solidarity actions and campaigns we can realize all together on a regional and international scale.
The issues raised in the following program can be considered as non-capitalist alternatives, especially in the CEE region, where the “overthrowing” of the authoritarian regimes can be achieved only by launching an inclusive and massive social self-defense movement.
1. The root for nearly all other problems in the region lies in absence of a systemic change of the CEEC where a completely distorted ownership structure leading to the “oligarchization” of private property came into being. The existing system must be attacked at these points, that is, for the wider groups of the society creating a plural property structure, e.g. the freedom for founding cooperatives in all sectors of the economy. Jobs have to be created from the public resources which the governments have squandered for their own clientele. Instead of public-financing of their own clientele in general using public work as forced labor, investments are needed to build community based social and cultural infrastructure, public health-care and higher education as well as to widen the job-creating needs and capabilities of local governments. This is a small step towards the multisectoral mixed economy;
2. In the social field, the living conditions of the lower classes must be improved. We demand the introduction of the Universal Basic Income (UBI). Instead of nationalism, racism, ethnic insanity, persecution of the Roma people and the migrants the most important social task of the resistance movements – independently of their political affiliations – is to root a cultural revolution through strengthening the people`s educational structures and self-learning circles;
3. The concept of political democracy needs to be complemented with the notion of economic, environmental and cultural democracy so that every person becomes part of the concept of ‘democracy’. Bourgeois parlamentarian democracy is a very limited concept, which is now under big pressure in the CEECs. The authoritarian regimes based on social exclusion must be rejected. Social rights must be declared in the national constitutions and be implemented in harmony of the UN International Conventions which guarantee the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of every human being.
4. The social base of this anti-capitalist, left-wing politics should be the trade unions and the self-organization processes of the civil society. Namely, if the Left is above all not the advocate of the wage earners, the workers and the unemployed, it liquidates itself on the altar of a semi-peripheral capitalism that does not give any a perspective either for the CEE countries, or for the vast majority of the societies of the world.
Unity and action now! Fight on!
We will combine our forces and act together on international scale to the following issues:
– International Women`s Day March 8th
– International Day against Racism March 17th
– Memory of Nakba 1948 (expelling of the Palestinians from Israel) – in spring
– 4th anniversary of the Odessa massacre May 2nd
– Bicentinary of the Birthday of Karl Marx May 5th
– NATO summit in Brussels July 12th
– Summit of the „Peoples in Struggle” in Caracas – in automn
– Memory of the end of World War I: „Never again war! Never again fascism!”- November.
Endorsed by the participants of the Regional Assembly of Resistences in Budapest
Statement/Proposals for the Budapest AoR by the Ukraine/Russia Working Group
On Ukraine:
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We demand that the Ukrainian authorities officially recognize the Rusyn ethnic identity in the same way as it is recognized in Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland.
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We demand that the Ukrainian authorities investigate the arson attack on the Hungarian cultural center in Uzhgorod, punish the perpetrators and officially apologize before the Hungarian community in Ukraine.
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We demand that the Ukrainian government include a clause requiring unconditional fulfilment of the Minsk agreement in the Donbass reintegration law.
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We condemn glorification of the radical Right forces who are responsible for the fire in Odessa Trade Union House on May 2, 2014. We demand that the Ukrainian law enforcement authorities punish the real perpetrators. We call for holding in Europe, on May 2, 2018, a joint action of progressive forces in memory of those killed in the Odessa massacre.
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We demand that real freedom of speech and freedom of expression for the Left political opposition be guaranteed in Ukraine for democratic participation in presidential and parliamentarian elections in 2019.
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We demand to stop persecution of political opposition and independent journalists in Ukraine and support initiatives in Ukraine aimed at defending and freeing political prisoners.
On Russia.
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We demand that the Russian authorities stop persecution of opposition political activists in Russia, and particularly protest against prosecution of anarchist and antifa activists from Penza and St.Petersburg where torture was used to extract confessions with fabricated charges, and also of anarchist and Left activists in Sevastopol. We call the left and progressive forces in Europe to launch a solidarity campaign against these repressive actions of Russian authorities.
(Alexander Buzgalin’s additional proposal: We call for creating a “fast response group” consisting of Left European parliamentarians, deputies of national parliaments, and other prominent persons for these and other solidarity campaigns.)
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We demand to revoke the decision liquidating the Interregional “Workers independent’ Association” trade union and express our support to really independent trade unions in Russia and to their right to conduct international and intersectoral solidarity activities without intervention from authorities.
General proposals.
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We demand that laws on “decommunization”, and any other laws banning “Communist propaganda” are abolished in Ukraine and all other European countries where such laws were adopted before.
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We consider creation of a united European army as a road to a war.