The World Federation of Trade Unions calls upon all militant, class-oriented trade unions, its affiliates, and friends to organize activities, honoring the established International Action Day of Trade Unions for Peace on September 1st, 2025. The International Action Day for Peace constitutes an annual call for struggle, on the occasion of the dark anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War with the Nazi Germany’s attack on Poland, for the remembrance of millions of victims of Nazi and fascist atrocities and all those affected and suffering by imperialist conflicts and the endless thirst of big capital for profit.  Nowadays, with the intensification of new and old military conflicts, such as in Palestine and Ukraine, and in an era where the war economy is the imperialists’ agenda and the military expenses are skyrocketing, and while fascism, racism, and xenophobia rear their heads, the struggle for Peace is a necessity.

The international class-oriented trade union movement stands its ground against war plans and interventions. The WFTU strongly condemns the 2025 NATO summit’s decision to increase the military spending of its members to unprecedented levels, with NATO members being obliged to spend 5% of their GDP on “defense”, which is more than double the previous target of 2%. In addition, military spending is rising across every region, even with double-digit percentage jumps in some regions, namely Europe and the Middle East, while 15 countries spend roughly 75% of global military spending, which is more than $2 trillion, exacerbating confrontation and heightening the risk of a widespread, generalized imperialist war with dire consequences.

At the same time, it cannot go unmentioned the unacceptable and dirty stance of yellow unions and surrendered union leaders, such as the leadership of the ITUC and its regional structures who, either through the positions they express or through the conscious absence of any reaction or protest against these policies, in practice support imperialist militaristic plans, providing them with political backing.

The workers demand all these resources to be channeled for their needs, for a better life, for adequate health care and quality education, for dignified salaries and pensions, for welfare benefits, and not to be “invested” in the wars and bloodshed for the imperialists’ interests and monopolies profitability. We demand an immediate and unconditional end to all imperialist wars and interventions all over the world.  We assert the demand for the dissolution of NATO and all military coalitions, and the complete abolition of nuclear weapons. We demand an immediate ceasefire and the end of the war in Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan, and all the war zones, in the wider Middle East and elsewhere. We condemn and denounce with all our might the continuation of the unspeakable crime against the Palestinian people, and we demand the end of the genocide, the ethnic cleansing practices, and the use of famine as a war tactic. We intensify our struggle against the Israeli armed campaigns and aggression against Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, for the end of occupation and settlements in the occupied Arab territories, guarantee the right of return for the refugees, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

We demand full respect for the sovereignty, independence, and right of every people to choose their own path, and freely decide for their present and future. We condemn the exclusions, discriminations, embargoes, and sanctions orchestrated by the USA, EU, and their allies against a range of countries, resulting in a direct and detrimental impact on the everyday lives of ordinary people. We oppose with all our strength the war economy strategy, all the bourgeoisie governments that choose and pave this path.

It is clear that both the spending of the war economy and the implications of the economic war negatively impact the standard of living of the popular strata are already burdened by the consequences of economic hardship, including soaring prices, rampant inflation, and the enduring effects of long-standing austerity measures, while the ordinary people pay with their lives for the wars conducted for the increase of multinationals’ profitability.

The WFTU’s firm position is stated clearly and loudly: The workers, the people all over the globe, have nothing to expect and nothing to gain from the inter-capitalist rivalries for geopolitical, economic control, and monopolies’ profitability that resulted in death, poverty, and misery.  We relentlessly stand against the war economy and we refuse to work for it. Struggles and initiatives must grow in all countries, with unions and WFTU friends at the forefront. The workers must follow the militant examples of the class-oriented unions and stand against any imperialist war activity, oppose any involvement of their country in wars, to refuse to work for the production, loading and transfer of weapons and military equipment, and to boycott any collaboration or facilitation linked with the Israeli occupation or other active battlefronts.

The WFTU calls upon workers and militant trade unions worldwide to take active part in the International Action Day under the slogan “We refuse to work for the war”, amplifying the voice of internationalism and class struggle in pursuit of lasting peace against imperialist aggression and capitalist barbarity.

The Secretariat