No to war,
We demand peace in the Eastern Mediterranean!
No to dirty energy,
Yes to solar and wind power in the Mediterranean

Tension has been rising between the states of the region over the search for natural gas in the Eastern Mediterranean and plans to build a pipeline to carry this gas to Europe.

The pipeline agreement signed by Israel, Cyprus and Greece has been supported by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and France. The issue of sovereignty over the seas, and the maritime boundary treaties between Turkey-Libya and between Egypt-Greece are raising tensions and giving rise to the danger of military conflict in the area.

Imperialist powers such as the USA, the EU with France and Germany at the forefront have started playing diplomacy in an attempt to produce a “solution” both to the conflicts in the region and to the war in Libya.

What we see in the Eastern Mediterranean is a reflection of imperialism’s crisis of hegemony. All the governments are pushing their own economic, political and military interests. The cracks between the big powers is enabling the smaller powers to try to create room for maneuver for themselves. The crisis of capitalism is creating extremely dangerous situations where competing ruling classes can drag millions of workers into the deadly swamp of war.

The profits that energy companies will make from oil and gas is not going to go into workers’ pockets. And dirty energy policies deepen the climate crises and threaten the future of our planet. The same governments that refuse to invest in clean energy and take the necessary climate measures have taken the peoples of the region to the threshold of war.

We stand against wars that will only bring hunger, misery and destruction. We oppose policies that use military tension to foster nationalism in every country. We oppose the racist campaigns that target refugees. Refugees are the victims of war and poverty, we say they are welcome.

What we need to relieve the tensions is international solidarity between workers of all countries, not the “diplomacy” of the big imperialist powers. The chain of tension – conflict – military operations – warships threatening each other must be stopped immediately.

In every country, they are trying to make workers foot the bill for deepening economic crisis. The havoc and destruction wrought by the ecological crisis is also hitting poor people hardest. While the pandemic crisis lays bare the iniquity and injustice of capitalism as a system, the capitalists attempt to make workers pay for the pandemic.

Faced with all these problems, none of us have any interest in a military conflict. The workers and the poor in every country have a common interest in fighting back against the system that breeds poverty, racism and war. The demonstarations in the streets of Beirut have shown that the spirit of the Arab Spring is alive and gives inspiration to all of us. The demonstrations in solidarity with the refugees in the big cities of Europe show that we are not alone in this struggle. United we can win.

- No to war! We want peace! All the peoples of the region are sisters and brothers.
- Warmongers are running campaigns of racism and nationalism. No to racism and nationalism!
- All countries must stop natural gas exploration and military operations in the Eastern Mediterranean!
- Coal, gas and oil should stay underground!

We, member organisations of the International Socialist Tendency in the region, declare that we will redouble our efforts to raise the flag of socialism and peace internationally.

Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party (Turkey)
Socialist Workers Party (Greece)
Workers Solidarity (Cyprus)
Revolutionary Socialists (Egypt)
Revolutionary Left Current (Syria)