Canadian Peace Congress


Canadian Peace Congress
The Canadian Peace Congress hosted the 2nd Tri-Lateral Conference with our fraternal intenational organizations in the US and Mexico which was held in Toronto ON October 2-4, 2009.

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Member of World Peace Council


Second Trilateral Peace Conference of the WPC - Final Declaration

1/19/2010 8:55:19 PM - US Peace Concil, MOMPADE, Canadian Peace Congress

 Second Trilateral Peace Conference
of the
World Peace Council

Canada ~ Mexico ~ United States
October 2-4, 2009 ~ Toronto, Canada
 
  
Final Declaration
 
The Second North American Trilateral Conference of the World Peace Council – Canada, the United States and Mexico – took place in Toronto, Canada from October 2-4, 2009. Special guests included Socorro Gomes, President of the World Peace Council and of the Peace Council of Brazil (CEBRAPAZ), and Jose Ramon Rodriguez, President of the Cuban Movement for Peace (MOVPAZ).
 
The participants from both Canada and Mexico expressed deep concern about the effects of the invasion of U.S. imperialism on their sovereignty. In all three countries people have been severely hurt by the global economic crisis, but more so in Mexico and among the poorest people in all three countries because they are the objects of economic aggression by imperialism.
 
Mexican sovereignty is specifically affected by:
 
·         NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) which compels workers and farmers, by pushing them off their own land, to leave their communities and migrate, leading to increased economic dependence of Mexico on the U.S.;
·         the U.S. security apparatus via Plan Merida, which provides money, armaments and intelligence to the police;
·         the occurrence of joint exercises of the Mexican and U.S. navies for the first time in history, and other issues that erode the national independence of Mexico.
 
Canada's ruling class is pushing for more economic integration with the United States and is increasingly complicit with the most aggressive policies of U.S. imperialism, expressed in its role in NATO and its rejection of all criticism of Israel's brutal occupation of Palestine. Only a handful of the wealthy benefit from the ongoing wars of occupation by Canada in Afghanistan and Haiti, and from the internal colonial and genocidal occupation of Aboriginal nations. NAFTA has brought de-industrialization to Canada, at the expense of Canadian sovereignty and workers. Canada's resources – oil, gas, hydroelectric power, water, minerals and lumber – are increasingly being exploited on behalf of U.S. corporations.
 
These concerns take place at the same time that the people of Latin America are fighting back against centuries of imperialist aggression; and where people's governments have been elected in Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. These countries form a new alliance against U.S. imperialism and are thwarting U.S. domination. Two outstanding features of this struggle were Ecuador's cancellation of the U.S. lease of its base in Manta, and the expulsion of the corps of 800 U.S. soldiers in Paraguay.
 
In its attempt to maintain its domination of Latin America and reverse the progressive developments there, the U.S. military is using Colombia as a military hub by setting up seven military bases there. This is in addition to maintaining military bases throughout Latin America, including the base in Guantanamo, Cuba. The United States is re-establishing the Fourth Naval Fleet to patrol the waters as a threat of U.S. power. The coup that overthrew the elected president of Honduras raises the question of complicity by the U.S. government. All of these actions have alarmed the people and leaders of the new Latin America.
 
The people of the United States are suffering from:
 
·         the massive economic crisis that has funnelled even more wealth to the rich corporations;
·         the increased military budget that diverts huge resources from state and local governments and human needs;
·         standing wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and an undeclared war on Pakistan.
 
The broad people's movements that elected the Obama administration after eight years of an extremely violent, arrogant and corrupt government signified the demand for radical change.
 
We express our solidarity with Cuba and the Cuban 5, and salute the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution which has inspired the new Latin America and the left and progressive political forces throughout all of Latin America, who combined in the Sao Paulo Forum in its 10th anniversary.
 
We greet the final declaration of the 62nd Annual Conference of the Department of Public Information of the Non-Government Organizations of the United Nations, entitled Disarm Now! Work for Peace and Development.
 
The three peace councils agree that out of our historic responsibilities we must reach out widely to educate and mobilize millions of people to struggle on common actions of peace, economic security, independence and sovereignty against imperialism.
 
Common Actions:
 
1.    Work to build coalitions and actions to end the wars on and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and join the global day of action to end the war on and occupation of Afghanistan;
2.    Build actions opposing foreign military occupations in Haiti and in Palestine, and all threats of military action on Iran;
3.    Join and build the Network to End Foreign Bases; dismantle the U.S. Fourth Naval Fleet; block the seven military bases in Colombia and close military bases that the U.S. has established throughout Latin America;
4.    Build the campaigns to free the Cuban 5 and to end the U.S. blockade against Cuba; return Guantanamo to the people of Cuba;
5.    Circulate the petitions calling for abolition of nuclear weapons; respect nuclear weapons free zones;
6.    Mobilize for and participate in the international Disarm Now! conference and demonstration in New York from April 30 – May 2, 2010;
7.    Support the 4th Special Session on Disarmament and the International Decade of Disarmament;
8.    Work among youth, including soldiers who resist committing war crimes in the name of imperialism, to reject militarism and war; defend the rights of war resisters and students engaged in anti-imperialist solidarity;
9.    Support the full rights of Aboriginal nations;
10. Strengthen efforts to designate the Arctic a zone of peace, free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and respecting the full rights of Indigenous Peoples and the development of the region in their interest;
11. Support the call for Canada and the United States to sign and ratify the international conventions banning the development, production and use of land mines and cluster bombs;
12. Join actions to cancel NAFTA and similar integration and trade agreements that only benefit transnational corporations at the expense of all working families and the environment, but particularly in Canada and Mexico;
13. Support and participate in the continental anniversary conference marking the bicentennial of the independence of the nations – Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador, Venezuela – in September 2010;
14. Build our peace councils; the U.S. Peace Council shall begin preparing for the Third Trilateral Conference.
  
Canadian Peace Congress ~ MOMPADE ~ U.S. Peace Council
Toronto, Canada ~ October 2009