Info-letter about the Outcome
of the Assembly of the WPC

Dear friends and comrades

The Assembly of the World Peace Council was successfully held in Athens from May 6-9,2004. We would like to inform you about the essential decisions and outcome as well as about the new elected Executive Committee and Secretariat, according to the amended Rules and regulations of the WPC.

The WPC Assembly was attended by 134 delegates from 62 Organizations from 47 countries. Amongst them 6 International Organizations were present as invited guests, which addressed the Assembly in the opening.

In the opening session Evangelos Mahairas, president of the Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE) and President of honor of the WPC, welcomed warmly the delegates of the Assembly to Greece. Romesh Chandra, President of Honor of the WPC spoke as well stressing on the importance of the Assembly for the World Peace Movement today.

The Vice-speaker of the Greek Parliament, Ioannis Tragakis, conveyed a speech of greetings congratulating the WPC for holding its Assembly as well as Fofi Gennimata, prefect of greater Athens and chairperson of the Union of local governments of Greece. Stelios Benetatos, mayor of Nikaia, conveyed militant peace greetings to the participants of the Assembly.

During the Assembly of the WPC, Thanassis Pafilis, outgoing Executive Secretary of the WPC, presented the report of the Executive Committee. After having realized regional meetings in the framework of the Assembly, the respective regional coordinators informed the plenary of the Assembly about the respective evaluations and proposals of the regions for the coming plan of actions. The Regional meetings elected as well their new regional coordinators.

A fruitful discussion was held about the report of the outgoing Executive Committee and the regional reports as well as about the experience from the struggle of the WPC membership and the friendly organizations during the past 4 years. More than 90% of the different delegations took part in the rich discussion, which concluded with the unanimous approval of the Declaration of the Assembly by all participants.

The Assembly issued a statement condemning the recent measures of the US administration against the Cuban people and a congratulatory message to the Vietnam Peace Committee on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the glorious anti-colonial struggle in 1954. The Assembly expressed in a special letter to the President of the Palestinian National Authority and of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, the solidarity and support of the WPC to the just cause of the Palestinian people and the concern about the treatment of its elected leader by the Israeli occupying forces.

In the framework of the Assembly an important international event organized by the host EEDYE, took place on the 6th May with the participation of progressive Greek and foreign retired military officers. The event was dedicated to the current threats to peace and global security by the policy of the imperialist forces.

The Assembly of the WPC elected towards the end of its deliberations a new 39 member Executive Committee composed by respective number of Member organizations. The New Executive Committee in its first meeting on 9th May elected the President of the WPC, Orlando Fundora, from the Cuban Movement for Peace and the sovereignty of the Peoples (MOVPAZ), and the General Secretary of the WPC, Thanassis Pafilis, from the Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE). The Secretariat is composed furthermore by the five Regional Coordinators, and five Secretaries, amongst them the Organization of the host country where the central office of WPC is based.

The Assembly re-elected Romesh Chandra and Evangelos Mahairas as presidents of honor of the WPC.

The closing of the Assembly was celebrated together with the closing act of the Peace Marathon and the “Peace Olympics” in the center of Athens on 9th May, day of the anti-fascist victory of the peoples.

The WPC Secretariat
Athens May 17,2004 The Executive Committee of the World Peace Council concluded its meeting on 16th and 17th November 2003 in Athens, after a fruitful and rich discussion about the growing peace movement all over the world and the new threats and dangers to world peace and security, with the following statement:

Humanity is moving through a period marked by crucial political developments and the daily threat to global peace and security, the growing aggressiveness of the world strategy of the USA and its allies against peoples and nations, and the need to take initiatives for a peaceful world without nuclear weapons, with disarmament, development, and the right to national self determination Never before in recent history have the peoples stood up and organized such huge protests within the anti-war movement as those against the war of the US and its allies on Iraq. There is a growing world-wide trend towards peace.

On the pretext of terrorism and the supposed threat to the world posed by chemical, biological and other weaponry and supposedly for the sake of the security of our planet, the US and its allies have already unleashed two wars, against Afghanistan and Iraq, leading to the occupation of both countries and the deployment of nuclear capable forces at the borders of Syria and Iraq. They have proclaimed the new doctrine of pre-emptive war. They have adopted the strategy of preemptive nuclear strikes, abandoning the commitment made by all nuclear states to not make first use of nuclear weapons. They have openly listed the states making up the "axis of evil," thus determining their next targets. Many countries have been placed on the list, which remains open-ended, ready to include those countries, peoples and all movements that do not comply with the domination of the US and its allies.

Further reactionary measures and policies are being launched by the EU with the creation of the EU-army and the plans for its deployment in Africa, while many EU countries are taking an active part in the occupation of sovereign states.

Strong efforts are being made to prepare world public opinion for other wars and interventions under various pretexts. NATO is adjusting itself to the new conditions with a new and more aggressive structure, while a new generation of nuclear weapons is being researched and developed by the USA. The expansion of US military bases in the Gulf countries and the Central Asian Republics is further threatening peace in the entire region.

The US administration is reinforcing its military alliance policy in Asia, involving Japan, South Korea and other allied countries in its preemptive attack strategy, with the presence of huge military forces and bases in those countries. However these moves deepen the contradiction with the peace trends in the region.

All of these decisions, particularly the US preemptive attack strategy, overturn the statutory principles of the UN, as well as the principles of international law as they were formulated after the Second World War. Thus humanity in the 21st century is confronting the application of the law of "might makes right" and the principle that all ways and means are allowed for its implementation.

It therefore becomes one of the most important tasks to fight back against the new world order of aggression and to defend and establish a world order of peace based on the UN Charter.

Over the last decade resolutions taken previously have been revised or abrogated (with regard to Palestine, Cyprus, Western Sahara, etc.). There are imperialist attempts aimed at "closing" regional problems by political means serving first of all their own interests. The WPC demands that solutions be based on International law, implementing the respective UN resolutions.

As it has in the past, the World Peace Council will continue to safeguard the statutory principles of the UN, will stand decisively at the side of the peoples, defending their rights, and, based on this, will take positions on whatever decisions are taken by the Security Council and other international bodies.

In past few years the offensive launched on the working people and popular strata of society has become generalized, with the implementation on a global scale of successive neo-liberal measures. All sectors of life are being targeted: workers' rights, social security, and collective labor agreements. The wealth-producing resources of countries, public utility enterprises and social rights to health care, education, culture and sport are being handed over to big capital. World organizations such as the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO intervene openly, extorting governments and countries. Poverty, hunger and misery are taking on explosive dimensions. In their fierce competition for new markets and spheres of influence the imperialists have, amongst others, Africa as their target. Neocolonial rule is being imposed on many African countries, which are even the poorest of the least developed countries in the world.

At the same time, unbelievable wealth is being concentrated in the hands of a few. Huge amounts are being spent on armaments. This volatile situation makes it all the more imperative for the WPC and peace movements the world over to link their struggle up with those of other movements that are fighting to block this path, which leads to the death and misery of the peoples.

The struggle of the peoples for peace is, more than ever before, linked with the struggle for national sovereignty and dignity. In this context we salute the popular movements in Latin America (Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador etc.) in their struggle against the FTAA, the "Plan Colombia" and all kinds of imperialist interference.

This shroud of terrorism, which the new world order is attempting to spread over the peoples in order to consolidate this barbarity, is accompanied by a strengthening of authoritarianism and suppression within the countries.  New laws abolishing individual and democratic rights are being passed and implemented.

The WPC has stood throughout this time in the forefront of the mobilizations for peace and against the war on Iraq. On February15, when many millions demonstrated all over the world, the WPC committees were actively involved and played an important role in the most massive demonstrations ever. The WPC took the initiative of organizing the worldwide mobilization on April 12, to which sixty-seven (67) countries responded with millions of demonstrators.

It is extremely important for the WPC, taking into account the experience gained from this struggle, to help to reinforce the national peace movements, to come into contact with peace movements and organizations in countries where we have not had such contacts before and to develop cooperation with them.

The WPC salutes the ongoing and growing movement worldwide against the war and the occupation of Iraq and expresses its sincere solidarity with the people of Iraq in their desire for the end of the occupation of their land and the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops.

The WPC joins its voice to those of millions of people in support of the Palestinian people, which has suffered thousands of victims in the last three years, and is still facing the rule and control of Israeli occupation under the auspices of the USA. We warmly salute the Palestinian people, demand the immediate and complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 and support the only viable and just solution, the establishment of an independent State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside Israel.

The US and its allies are once more targeting Cuba, while the Cuban people defend its revolution.  We denounce the fact that the US administration is engaging in provocation, aiming to overthrow the Cuban government by providing support to criminal elements. The WPC expresses its sincere solidarity with the Cuban people against the US blockade, for the implementation of the UN General Assembly resolutions and demands the immediate release of the five Cuban patriots illegally imprisoned in the USA.

The WPC expresses its sympathy and solidarity with the victims of the toxic chemical AGENT ORANGE used by the USA during the Vietnam War and calls for action to help alleviate their sufferings.

The WPC expresses its solidarity with the peoples of the former Yugoslavia in their striving to overcome the consequences of the US/NATO aggression.