44th Congress of theWorld Union of Freethinkers, Mannheim 24th – 26th May 2013
The World Union of Freethinkers accuses western militatry powers and NATO of waging more and more wars adverse to international law in pursuit of their economic interests and striving for domination. Countries which are not prepared to subordinate to their geostrategical interests and their exploitation are demonized, defamed with false allegations and are destabilized through the support of armed groups. Through regime changes and the destruction of states, a new world order is being created with only a few oligarchist commanders and a large number of vassals to whom they are obliged to pay tribute. All of this is happening in contradiction to the UN Charta.
Besides stirring up ethnic tensions, “playing the religious card” is a tactic used increasingly to stir up hatred between people and nations and have them wage proxy wars for the imperialists who cause them.
According to their own propaganda, the western powers are allegedly waging wars “for human rights” or “the rights of women”. Allegedly they are fighting “against terror” or “against an Islamic danger”. In their home countries, they kindle islamophobic campaigns in order to win the support of their populations for their neocolonial wars. In doing so, they encourage racism and undermine peaceful coexistence. But the very same governments waging these wars have no problems whatsoever in uniting with the most reactionary Islamist regimes and organizations when it comes to fighting the enemies they have chosen.
Al Qaeda was founded by western secret services with the aide of Saudi Arabia against a governement in Afghanistan that was friendly towards the Soviet Union at that time. With reference to the acts of terror on 11th September 2001, this organisation founded by the west delivered the pretext for an intervention in Afghanistan. The same Islamist fighters were mobilized under western command to destabilize Yugoslavia and delivered the pretext for NATO aggression in Bosnia and in Kosovo.
After that, the Islamist fighters served well to destroy the laicistic Libya of Muammar al Ghaddafi. After some of these mercenaries had continued to fight in Mali, this served again as a pretext for further neocolonial intervention in Central Africa.
At the moment, the western powers want to destroy the laicistic system in Syria, and in doing so are making use of the Wahhabi/Salafist terror fighters, who are being financed and armed above all by Saudi Arabia, the Gulf monarchies and the Erdogan government in Turkey.
The western warlords are hardly bothered by the fact that the standard of democracy and human rights in the countries of these allies is often worse than in the countries being attacked; they are also little bothered by the fact that they are uniting in an alliance with the most reactionary and backward forces in Islam.
We freethinkers, united in our condemnation of racism, religious fanaticism and imperialist wars, also condemn these double standards of the west, the abuse of religion and the stirring up of religious tensions by the warmongers. We call for the immediate end to the aggression against Syria and the end to the threats of war against Iran; we call for the immediate withdrawal of all NATO troops out of Afghanistan, and we call for the end to the stealing of land, apartheid and occupation in Palestine!
