APL Message of Solidarity to ZENROREN

In behalf of the entire membership of the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), I write to convey our warm greetings of solidarity to our sisters and brothers in ZENROREN on the occasion of its 20th Regular Convention, 24-26 July 2002 in Tokyo, Japan.

We are one with you in your struggle to defend and advance workers' and trade union rights in an era where the agents of capitalist globalization are on the warpath to put down any resistance against its desperate efforts to shape the world according to their liking - a world where profits reign supreme over people.

For several decades, transnational corporations, through multilateral institutions controlled by a few powerful countries, have destroyed all barriers to trade liberalization and instituted greater freedom for large capital to move around the world, leaving in its wake a world where people live in uncertainty. In the North and the South, secured jobs, decent livelihoods, land, water, security and safe and accessible food are getting scarce.

To make matters worse, we now live under the overwhelming presence of the US-led "war on terrorism" which has ushered in a wave of anti-terrorism legislations around the world, threatening to stifle our resistance by criminalizing political dissent.

But at the same time, our "enemies" are not without weakness. The multilateral institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank and other international financial institutions as well as the TNCs are now reeling from a crisis of legitimacy as more and more people become aware that the "Washington Consensus" cannot deliver its promises of a better life.

Today, more and more people, workers in particular, are starting to realize what socialists have always believed in, that another world is indeed possible!

It is in this context that we view the importance of the direction that the ZENROREN has set for itself: the struggle to build an environment where workers can "work in humane conditions"; the initiative to "extend dialogues with all social forces and groups"; and the commitment to "strengthen the functioning of ZENROREN, including (the) vitalization of its international cooperation." These are crucial elements of "globalization from below" that we critically need. Rest assured that we are one with you in all these efforts.

Again, we congratulate you on the occasion of your 20th Regular Convention.

More Power to ZENROREN!
More Power to the Japanese Working Class!
Workers of the World Unite!