4. The anti-imperialist movement, the peace movement, The anti-war movements and other popular movements

An important fact is the development and appearance of movements, centres of resistance of the people, of radical forces that tend to touch on the full spectrum of imperialist policies with their demands and aims of struggle. At the centre are the issues of unemployment and poverty, of wars and interventions, of profits and the profit-making character of capital. There are also the issues of militarization, state repression and violence, the struggle for democratic liberties and political rights, against the robbery of the environment and raw materials by the monopolies, the fight against racism and the persecutions against those who challenge the new world order.

The workers’ struggle in some cases and regions take on bigger dimensions, fights are developing against privatization, the problems of education and social policy. The struggles concerning social problems tend to expand on all continents and in duration using varied forms of struggle. The anti-war struggles involved greater mass mobilization, a higher level of international coordination, however they have not taken on a permanent character nor continuity.

These developments showed that imperialist aggression did not succeed in immobilizing and subjugating the different movements, the peoples’ struggles against imperialist occupation and intervention.

In recent years, the people have challenged in a more concrete manner the policies of the EU, NATO and other imperialist unions. Slogans have been put forward against the concept of “one-way roads”, as well as demands for more general social change. Such tendencies appeared also in Europe, in the referenda and in the recent Elections for European Parliament.

The development of the movements reflects, to a large extent, a spirit of awakening that has not taken on, however, an upward course and dynamic yet. It is still very far from expressing a comprehensive alternative political proposal in confrontation and rupture with the monopolies and imperialism, both at the national and the international level.