Final Declaration of the XXV International Seminar on the Problems of the Revolution in Latin America
The following statement was composed at the 25th International Seminar on the Problems of the Revolution in Latin America. The American Party of Labor signed this declaration, and The Red Phoenix carried extensive coverage of the presentations on our twitter.
The Social Struggle and the Role of the Left in Latin America
A new period of the rise in the struggle of workers, youth and peoples is taking place in Latin America and the Caribbean. These are battles that express the dissatisfaction with the living conditions imposed by the capitalist-imperialist system; they are struggles against a series of accumulated socio-economic problems, which are growing as the policies of the governments are implemented, which do nothing but guarantee and raise the rates of profit obtained by the ruling classes, at the cost of greater levels of exploitation and oppression of the working masses and peoples.
It can well be said that this is a new chapter in the constant struggle that seeks to free the people from poverty, low wages, unemployment, lack of access to public education and health, forced emigration, the depredation of nature, patriarchal violence, racism, discrimination and oppression, in defense of life and liberty. In the last months of 2019, the continent was shaken with the protests in Haiti, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia, which in some cases put in check their respective governments and forced them to adopt policies contrary to the economic-political projects of the rulers.
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic forced a truce, but the serious living conditions and the effects among the workers and peoples caused by the crisis of capitalism that broke out at the beginning of 2020, opened the doors for a gradual revival of the social protest that, today, has high and diverse manifestations.
The struggle of the Colombian people is unprecedented, as well as courageous and heroic. For more than 60 days the streets belonged to the people in struggle, even at the cost of dozens of dead, missing and thousands of wounded and mistreated. The social upheaval forced Iván Duque, one of the most reactionary rulers in the Americas, to take steps back from his attempted anti-popular measures. With brief intervals, the Haitian people have been fighting for years against hunger, unemployment, corruption, for political rights and democracy; they have also been the victims of brutal repression, which has claimed the lives of many men and women, most of them young. The popular mobilization prevented the consolidation of the far-right government of Jeanine Áñez in Bolivia, forcing an electoral process in which the forces that supported her were defeated. Jair Bolsonaro's fascist project could not be realized because of the mobilization of the workers, youth and people, who are now waving the banner of Bolsonaro Out! which is gaining ground throughout Brazil. The call for the Constituent Assembly in Chile has taken root in its streets and plazas, with the pressure of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who put in check all Chilean institutions. The right to abortion in Argentina would not have been possible without the constant mobilization of hundreds of thousands of women. The victory of Pedro Castillo in Peru is explained by those millions of workers, peasants, unemployed, young people and others who saw in him the option of change, a progressive and left-wing alternative. A similar situation occurred in Ecuador, with the candidacy of Yaku Pérez, and only electoral fraud prevented his victory. We are just emphasizing the most important actions, but Latin America and the Caribbean is a region in which the peoples are standing up and fighting in the search for social change, yearning to turn the page and close the chapter of exploitation and oppression.
In all these struggles the leading role of the workers, the indigenous peoples, the youth, the women of the popular sectors is evident, but the effort made by factions of the bourgeoisie is also evident — camouflaged with reformist and pseudo-leftist speeches — to contest the leadership of these protests and turn them into supports for their political projects, functional to the prevailing capitalist system.
We, the left-wing organizations and parties, with the particularities of each country, have played important roles in the articulation and development of these struggles. In general, we are acting so that these have class independence as elements of identity, and are part of the strategic objectives of social change, of the anti-imperialist struggle, of the struggle for the revolution and socialism. We must continue our fight under these principles.
The political period that the continent is experiencing is conducive to the development and strengthening of the organization of the workers, youth, women and people, for the wide dissemination of the theses and proposals of the revolutionary left, to take the popular struggles to higher levels, to advance in the revolutionary organization of the working masses.
The current circumstances call for the strengthening of the popular unity in each country, for strengthening the ties of active union and solidarity among the peoples, and for the promotion of joint actions to confront the policy of the various imperialist powers.
We, the organizations participating in the XXV International Seminar Problems of the Revolution in Latin America, have analyzed these problems present today in our region, and we proclaim to the world that our struggle continues.
Quito, July 31, 2021
Signing Participants:
Revolutionary Communist Party Bolivia
Revolutionary Communist Youth Bolivia
Revolutionary Communist Party Brazil
Popular Unity for Socialism – Brazil
Revolutionary Communist Party Chile
Communist Party of Colombia Marxist Leninist
Movement for the People's Constituent Assembly
Popular Democratic Youth - Colombia
Communist Party of Labor Dominican Republic
Independent Workers' Movement
Pablo Duarte Magisterial Current
Flavio Suero Student Front
University Front of Renewal
Caribbean Youth
Commission on Human Rights
Communist Party of Mexico Marxist Leninist
Revolutionary Popular Front Mexico
General Union of Workers of Mexico
Peruvian Communist Party Marxist-Leninist
Popular Antifascist and Anti-imperialist Front Peru
Union of Student Youth
Movement of Women for Social Liberation
American Party of Labor
Red Star Publishers U.S.
Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Uruguay
Revolutionary Communist Party of Uruguay
Ecuador:
People's Unity Party
Popular Front
General Union of Workers
National Single Federation of Affiliates of Peasant Social Security
National Union of Educators
Federation of Secondary Students
Federation of University Students
Women for Change
Manuela León Women's Collective
United Confederation of Neighborhoods of Ecuador
Single Confederation of Retailers and Self-Employed Workers
National Union of Popular Artists.
Revolutionary Youth of Ecuador
Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador