WFTU Statement on the Situation in Syria and the “new Middle East”

MIDDLE EAST, SYRIA

Yesterday, July 4, 2018, the negotiations for the resolution of conflicts in southern Syria ceased. The negotiations were a COMPLETE FAILURE. Today, July 5, the Security Council of the UN holds its extraordinary session. The hypocrisy triumphs again! All claim that they are interested in the establishment of “peace”, “democracy”, “freedoms” etc. For 8 years, intra-imperialist antagonisms have been increasing in the South-East Mediterranean, the Gulf region and the Middle East. Strong actors claim to get their own part in Syria, Iraq and North Africa, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen and everywhere.

The World Federation of Trade Unions denounces the projects of manipulation, enslavement and separation of employees and peoples according to religious, sectarian, racial, and national differences. The division and segmentation of workers aims to hide the real causes of poverty, exploitation and wars. These real causes are the dispute over the control of natural resources and the transport routes for energy, the acquisition of new markets, the demarcation of new frontiers. The millions of refugees, migrants and innocent victims are the result of imperialist antagonisms.

In parallel with our struggle against imperialist interventions, against the policies of NATO, the United States, the EU and their allies, the WFTU firmly expresses its solidarity with the progressive and anti-imperialist forces in Turkey, Lebanon , Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Jordan in their struggle for popular, labor, trade union and democratic rights.

The firm position and principles of the WFTU have always been and will be that it is the peoples themselves – and not the imperialists – who have the right to decide on their present and future freely and democratically.

At the same time, we take advantage of our presence within the International Organizations to support human rights in the Gulf monarchies, both for the citizens of these countries and for the migrants from Asian countries. There are many cases that migrant workers in the Gulf countries are treated as animals and not as human beings.

We call on all the militant unions all over the world to inform their members about the reality of the situation, the real responsible persons, by revealing the hypocrisy of the International Organizations which regularly follow the same lines as those of NATO and the imperialists.

The Secretariat