Today, the ownership, control, and fruits of economic production are still in the hands of a few. Deepening contradictions, arising from the dominant system, are driving multiple crises: in health, climate, debt, food, and conflict.

Peoples live under more miserable conditions. Working classes face rising unemployment, poverty, starvation wages, food insecurity, and inflation. They are increasingly unable to access expensive healthcare, water, and other public services. They often carry the burden of new taxes, imposed by governments just to pay back onerous foreign debts. Governments promote labour export instead of addressing unemployment, with workers forced to migrate despite cases of abuse and human trafficking.

Attempting to retain military dominance and stem its strategic decline, the US retains the largest military spending in the world. Its leading role in NATO fomented aggressive posturing that created conditions for the Ukraine war. In the Asia-Pacific, US forces expand bases and deployments to counter China, while supporting repressive elite dictatorships that sow disunity among the people. Military forces are emboldened to repress activists, trade unionists, Indigenous Peoples, and rights defenders. In the end, warmongering is a business for US arms corporations; repression of working peoples and resisting communities is a boon for foreign big business.

Increasing awareness of these ongoing issues could be a ground to advance unities and solidarity for common struggles, in support of peoples’ struggles to transform their societies against the rule of the moribund economic system.

The forum will discuss global economic and political trends affecting the struggles of working peoples, peasants, and other marginalized sectors. It will also provide space for people’s organizations and civil society to foster international solidarity based on common struggles and aspirations for social justice. #