Millions of workers, citizens of the world, have demonstrated against the wars which are causing thousands of civilian victims and bring only death, destruction and hatred. The IMF and its affiliates must express their own opposition to the strategy of “preventive war”, to military occupations, as well as to all forms of terrorism.

The IMF must intensify its efforts to curb the uncontrolled dissemination of arms around the world, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the exponential increase in military expenditures. To that end the IMF and its affiliates support the “Control Arms” campaign promoted at the international level by the non-governmental organizations Amnesty, IANSA (International Action Network against Small Arms) and Oxfam, and to that end they support the nuclear weapons convention and the “Abolition Now” campaign.

We cannot forget that, despite the silence surrounding them, over 50 states in the world are at war or experiencing situations of armed conflict. Conflicts often caused or encouraged by unscrupulous multinationals and by the sales of arms despite prohibitions and embargoes imposed at the national and international levels.

With regard to the conflict in Iraq, the IMF considers that the United Nations must play a central role in the new political phase after the elections, in which the Iraqi people have the chance to determine their own future.

In this area the IMF, together with the entire world labor movement, could also play a key role, helping and cooperating with the free Iraqi trade unions in economic reconstruction and social cohesion, struggling to ensure respect for human rights and in particular for the rights of the working class, as a basis for a true democratic society.