China, the West, and the Uighurs: a Special Report

[OMAR LATIF, a Canadian trade unionist and peace & solidarity activist, gives a first-hand report on what he

March 1, 2021

Tell Justin Trudeau: End all Canadian Military Involvement in the Middle East!

Canada has ended its active role in the destructive and illegal bombing of Syria. This shows that public opposition to the airstrikes, along with the Syrian people’s resistance to both terrorism and “regime change” have affected Canadian government policy.

But Canada is continuing to assist the bombing campaign through reconnaissance and refuelling. The Trudeau government’s plan to expand Operation IMPACT, by tripling the number of advisers and assistants to the Iraqi Kurdish forces, is really a way to increase Canada’s “boots on the ground.” It also plays into the strategy of fragmenting Iraq into several smaller states.

The escalation will embroil Canada in another prolonged, dangerous and destructive war. Canadians must demand that Trudeau end all Canadian military involvement in the Middle East!

March 13, 2016

On March 19, peace and anti-war groups in several cities across Canada will be demonstrating against the continued and escalating war in the Middle East. The Canadian Peace Congress endorses these actions and has been working to organize and support events in many areas. We will prepare a leaflet for distribution on March 19, outlining why we oppose intervention by Canada, the United States, and their NATO allies. The imperialist plan for a New Middle East must be confronted and stopped! Please attend events in your area – if nothing is planned, please consider getting in touch with us – we can help you organize an information picket and we can send you some leaflets to distribute.

The following is a list of March 19 actions. If you know of other events, please let us know and we’ll update this list.

#PeaceDemoMarch19

March 3, 2016

Canada must withdraw from Syria, oppose Turkey’s aggression

The Canadian Peace Congress is alarmed that NATO countries are escalating their aggression against Syria, and calls for the immediate and full withdrawal of all Canadian military from the region. Furthermore, Canada must condemn and oppose Turkey’s military action against Syrian government forces who are fighting terrorist organizations in Syria. The current surge in intervention by NATO countries will only deepen the suffering of the Syrian people, prolong the war that has already claimed 260,000 lives, and increase the risk of an expanded regional conflict.

It is shameful that, despite a grandiose pledge to withdraw Canadian fighter jets, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau actually increased the number of airstrikes against Syria. The US-led airstrikes were deliberately coupled with renewed material and organizational support to anti-government groups in Syria. Justin Trudeau’s statement that Canada will increase its troop presence for “training purposes” is completely in line with this agenda, and needs to be stopped.

February 15, 2016

Goa, India 26-28 November 2014

The Executive Committee of the WPC took place in the Indian city of Goa from 26-28 November 2014. The meeting, hosted by the All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation (AIPSO), concluded after discussions on the threats to peace in different parts of the world with the following statement:

The World Peace Council, in its 65th year of struggle, salutes the peace loving forces of the world and calls upon them to fight together with the WPC and its member organizations, against imperialism and its brutal wars, for Peace.

The WPC identifies today the enemy of peace in the world to be imperialism in all its forms of expression, ideologically, politically, militarily and economically. Despite the economic crisis the military expenditure last year (2013), according to SIPRI, has reached worldwide in 2013 the $1,474 trillion, which constitute the 2,4 % of the global GDP. We underline that 37 % of this sum is spent by the USA alone and that altogether the military spending of the USA, NATO and its allies constitute the vast majority of world spending. The WPC demands the drastic cuts in the military budgets and the respective dedication to social welfare.

May 25, 2015

On April 19, World Peace Council members and friends in all countries mobilized a Global Day of Action

May 25, 2015

The Canadian Peace Congress opposes any renewal, under any pretext, of imperialism’s war in Iraq. The Congress further calls, again, for Canada to reverse the process of military integration with the United States military, and for Canada to withdraw from NATO. These are concrete steps by which Canada can avoid being dragged into causing another humanitarian catastrophe, and instead assume a foreign policy of peace.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has led the calls for a new imperialist intervention in Iraq, using the argument that Western interests – and even the territory of Britain itself – are threatened by developments within Iraq. This argument is perverse. It is the Britain, the United States and Canada, directly and through NATO, who repeatedly invade and occupy one country after another – imperialism is the main threat to peace in the world. Blair and others are parroting the same thoroughly discredited arguments they used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction were found after that murderous invasion, and this alone should serve as a reminder that imperialism’s true interests are not peace, democracy and security. Imperialism’s real interest is the division and re-division of the world, with war and aggression as tools to control the world’s resources in violation of the sovereignty and basic rights of the peoples of the world.

June 28, 2014

On August 30, 2014 the World Peace Council calls on the peace loving people in the world to mobilize for a Global Day of Protest against NATO

2014: Centenary of the First World War -75 years from the beginning of World War II
The year 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. It was one of the deadliest imperialist conflicts in human history, a tragedy that killed 17 million people. It was described as “the war to end all wars,” but today, a century later, the military potential to destroy lives and a liveable environment is at a terrifying level and continues to rise.

Everyday, all over the world, people suffer from armed conflicts, military build-up, occupation, acts of intimidation and aggression, modernization and proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. The capitalist economic crisis is further aggravating peoples’ life while profits of the war industries are growing. The ground for military aggressions and imperialist wars was never determined by accidental events or personal decisions.

May 22, 2014

We Must Still Work “To End All War”

A Peoples’ Response to the Centenary of the First World War

The year 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in human history, a tragedy that killed 17 million people, including 67,000 Canadians. It was described as “the war to end all war.”

A century later, the peace and progressive movements in Canada mark this anniversary by reminding ourselves that the “Great War” did not end all war. Today, the military potential to destroy lives and a liveable environment is at a terrifying level and continues to rise.

Everyday, all over the world, people suffer from armed conflict, military build-up, occupation, acts of intimidation and aggression, proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and countless acts of violence in communities and homes.

We declare that the end of all war will be achieved by the elimination of policies of military supremacy, first use of nuclear weapons, preemptive war and permanent war – the doctrines of imperialism. The end of war will be achieved by comprehensive and mutual disarmament. Peace cannot be achieved through provocation and aggression.

April 22, 2014

Statement of the World Peace Council on the developments in Ukraine

The World Peace Council (WPC) expresses its deep concern about the situation in the Ukraine after the installation of the new government in Kiev by the imperialists of the European Union, NATO and the U.S., hand in hand with reactionary neo – Nazi groups who were active throughout the last time in the country. On the backs of the Ukrainian people the last few months a dangerous and bloody game was played by US, E.U. and NATO that reflects their expansion to the East and their competition with Russia with the aim of control of geopolitical spheres but also of the rich energy sources in the region.

The Ukrainian people , who have suffered so much from capitalist restoration since 1991 , has the sole and non-negotiable right to decide for its leadership and its fortunes without any foreign interference or intervention. The repetition of “violent regime change” exacerbated the already tense atmosphere in the country and the region.

March 5, 2014

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War One, the “war to end all war”. We expect the Harper Conservative government and the Canadian military to mark this event by unleashing a full, frontal assault of narrow nationalist, militaristic propaganda. This will be carefully engineered to try to generate support for recent and ongoing military campaigns – the coup d’etat in Libya, the occupation of Afghanistan, the provocation against the government of Ukraine, the imperialist intervention in Syria – as well as for increased military spending, deeper participation in NATO and other aspects of Harper’s aggressive foreign policy.

In contrast to this, the Canadian Peace Congress is initiating a cross-Canada campaign to facilitate of 100-day peace-oriented forum for commemorations of the centenary of WWI.

The “To End All War” campaign has four main objectives:

March 1, 2014

The deteriorating crisis in Ukraine is extremely dangerous. There is an immediate threat of a regional or world war. Interference by foreign powers in complex internal affairs has widened divisions and deepened the crisis, and has even helped strengthen openly fascist forces within the country.

The Canadian Peace Congress is particularly concerned that the US, EU and NATO – the most powerful forces of imperialism – have been manipulating and encouraging the conflict, in an effort to provoke “regime change” in Ukraine and bring about a realignment of Europe in the process.

March 1, 2014

The Canadian Peace Congress condemns the ongoing foreign interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela, as part of their plan to destabilize the country and provoke “regime change.” The Congress calls upon all peace and progressive forces in Canada to express their solidarity with the Venezuelan people, who have the right to determine the path of their social and economic development, free from foreign provocation.

The violent attacks against the Venezuelan people and their democratically elected government began on February 10, involving masked demonstrators armed with Molotov cocktails, rocks and even sniper rifles. The leader of the right-wing Popular Will Party, Leopoldo Lopez, incited these events. Lopez is a member of one of the wealthiest families in Venezuela, and participated directly in the failed coup attempt in 2002. Since the election of Nicholas Maduro to succeed Hugo Chavez as president, Lopez and other wealthy oligarchs have worked with foreign powers to destabilize the country through economic sabotage and, now, through a widespread campaign of violence.

February 23, 2014

The World Peace Council expresses its serious concerns and worries about the recent discussion on a possible future presence of NATO troops (under United States leadership) in Palestine in order to “guarantee” and “supervise” the implementation of a “peace plan” between Palestine and Israel. The interviews by the President of the Palestinian National Authority and the PLO Mahmoud Abbas to Israeli and US Media in this regards, create many questions to peace loving forces and people around the world.

February 8, 2014

The ongoing imperialist aggression against Syria – in which the NATO countries, Israel and reactionary Arab states have

January 20, 2014

The Executive Committee (EC) of the World Peace Council held successfully from November 23-25, 2013 in Caracas its first meeting after the Assembly of Kathmandu (July 2012). The meeting was hosted in excellent conditions by the Committee of International Solidarity (COSI), the WPC member in Venezuela.

We recall very well the holding of our World Peace Assembly in 2008, where we declared Caracas as the “World Capital of Peace and Anti-imperialist struggle”. Our Assembly then was held under the auspices of the late President, Commander Hugo Chavez, to whom we paid our deepest respect for his huge contribution and successful leadership in the Bolivarian revolution, as a genuine leader of his people with broad recognition worldwide.

The WPC salutes the people of Venezuela which is struggling and defending its achievements, trying to open ways for the deepening of the Bolivarian process, against the subversive actions and the economic war carried out by the local oligarchy and imperialist forces, especially this period. We defend the sovereign right of the Venezuelan people to decide upon its future and wealth, for its empowerment in order to become the true master of its destiny.

The EC of the WPC met in a period of increasing aggressiveness of imperialism in all corners of the world, all fields and aspects of human life.

December 10, 2013

The 2012 Assembly of the World Peace Council was held from July 20-23 in Kathmandu and hosted by

December 9, 2013

Sixty-eight years ago, on August 6th and 9th, 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 innocent civilians. The devastating consequences of this heinous act remain to this day. Almost seven decades later, the U.S. government still refuses to acknowledge the criminal nature of this act and to compensate its victims.

This massive crime against humanity, which has been left unpunished until today, was justified by the U.S. government as a “military necessity,” aimed at bringing about an “early end” to the war. But it is a wellknown and documented fact now that this was not an act in response to “military necessity,” but a wellcalculated move to establish U.S. imperialism’s military supremacy over the rest of the world. Humanity is still threatened by the use weapons of mass destruction, namely of nuclear weapons.

August 1, 2013

Canadian Peace Alliance Statement on Federal Budget 2013

The Leaky Department of National Defence

March 21, 2013

For the third year in a row, a document has been “leaked” to the press warning of cuts to military spending just as the federal budget is due to be released.

The reality is the Conservatives have overseen billions in additional spending on the Canadian forces. When they came into office in 2006, spending on the military was $15 billion. Even with the proposed reductions, they are due to spend roughly $19 billion each year.

That extra $4 billion is enough to provide free post-secondary tuition for all Canadian students. It would also be enough to provide adequate housing for all Canadians living on the streets or to hire almost 40,000 nurses. Harper wants to fund war instead.

March 22, 2013

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