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WFTU PRESS RELEASE No.6, 3 May 2000 >From World Federation of Trade Unions, 5/05/2000 07:09:22 WFTU DECLARATION ON THE 55TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF SECOND WORLD WAR The World Federation of Trade Unions joins all peace-loving forces and anti-fascist fighters in observing the 55th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the defeat of nazism, fascism and militarism which unleashed the bloodiest war in human history. The WFTU pays respectful homage to the millions of people who lost their lives and who sacrificed their lives in the bitter struggle to save human civilization. In order to prevent all such wars and conflicts and to build peace through international cooperation, the peoples of the world established the United Nations. Simultaneously, the trade unions of the world established the WFTU as a symbol of their anti-fascist democratic unity and an organ of struggle for peace and social progress, based on national independence, sovereignty, trade union rights and human rights. As we observe the 55th anniversary of the end of the second world war, the threats to global security continue to mount. The accumulated stocks of nuclear and other mass destruction weapons can destroy all living beings on this planet several times over. Despite the strategic arms limiation treaty, the development of new weapons continues, threatening security and devouring billions of dollars which could have been used to end poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. The imperialist military-industrial complexes continue to make huge profits through military contracts and the arms trade. To gain their ends, they build tensions and provoke conflicts in many parts of the world. The security of several countries was also undermined by border wars and bloody internecine conflicts. Member countries of United Nations are subjected to blockades, bombing and missile attacks, as was the case in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, etc. Israeli forces continue to occupy Arab territories! despite the resolutions of the UN Security Council and Lebanon is subjected to repeated Israeli bombings. Cuba has been subjected to illegal blockades and sanctions by the United States for four decades. In the name of a "new world order", there are continuing dangerous attempts to ignore, diminish or destroy international laws as well as the international institutions, undermining, violating and destroying the fragile international system of world peace and security created over the last fiftyfive years. The comprehensive agenda for global security and survival which evolved and developed all through the last 55 years and even before, is opened up again with the singular attempt to reformulate it from the positions of the unchallenged ambitions of imperialist powers and for the benefit of the world capital and Big Business. On this solemn occasion, the WFTU reiterates the call of the 14th World Trade Union Congress for the total elimination of all nuclear and other mass destruction weapons, an end to all wars and conflicts, the dissolution of all military blocs, sharp cuts in arms budgets and the reallocation of these funds for social development projects. The United Nations should be saved from the domination of hegemonistic interests led by the United States and fully democratised through the active participation of all countries committed to peace and security of all nations and peoples and to international cooperation for social progress.
