MARCH FOR SCIENCE, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND THE PEOPLE!
RESIST IMPERIALIST PLUNDER, ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION, AND DECEIT!
ILPS Commission 13 Sign On Statement
March 25, 2017
The people and the planet are now more than ever facing grave threats from the voracious thirst for profits and plunder by multinational and transnational corporations, and their financial institutions that embody the global monopoly capitalist system.
US President Donald Trump, true to his character as a monopoly capitalist drummer boy and mouthpiece, is now pulling out all the stops in blurring, if not outright erasing, the reality of the global climate crisis. In his first week in office, a gag order was issued preventing federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency from publicly disclosing research findings. What used to be publicly available government data on environment and climate change is being removed from agency websites and data repositories. Now, the U.S. administration under Trump is backing the Keystone XL and Dakota Oil Access Pipeline projects, withdrawing from commitments to the Green Climate Fund, and dismantling regulatory frameworks and policies related to climate change and environmental protection.
Trump, a multi-billionaire businessman with millions of dollars in investments in oil and gas industries, is a desperate face of U.S. imperialism. Unable to rule in the old way amid public rage over human and financial costs of the U.S. war machine, the mortgage meltdown, loss of social protections, and a weakening economy kept alive by foreign loans and precarious financial speculation, Trump won a contested US vote amid promises of economic protectionism, crackdowns on immigrants and minorities, and a “safe” conservative rule. Now in power, he and his cohorts are wielding alternative truths like holy gospels to remove restrictions on US oil and gas production.
These recent events are prompting scientists and environmental defenders to stand side by side with marginalized peoples of the world in condemning climate change denial and the continuous violation of peoples’ fundamental right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
We believe that scientists from across the world must forge a strong alliance not only with fellow scientists but also with the people suffering from the impacts of imperialist plunder and monopoly capitalism. Scientists must unite with the broadest sections of the society who are disproportionately affected by climate change, and together, work for meaningful,just, and truly sustainable changes in the current economic and social order.
We are now at a crucial point of struggle. On Earth Day, the 22nd of April, a March for Science will be held worldwide by the scientific community and the people against US imperialist exploitation of global resources, climate change denial, environmental plunder, and the continuous violation of people’s rights.
We enjoin you to take part in the March for Science by holding a satellite march in your respective area and/or by signing up the petition here to show your support for this global initiative.
YES TO A PRO-PEOPLE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY!
NO TO IMPERIALIST PLUNDER, ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION, AND DECEIT!
ILPS Commission 13 