Progressives meet in a seething Latin America

Tens of thousands of delegates and participants in the sixth World Social Forum crowded the streets here from Jan. 24 to 29. Huge numbers came from all parts of South and Central America and the Caribbean—especially Brazil, Cuba and Colombia.

Workers World banner at World Social Forum in Caracas. WW photo

The presence of Indigenous groups from throughout the hemisphere was noticeable in many events and the issues of cultural, land and water rights were highlighted throughout the discussions.

In addition, sizable delegations came from the United States, Canada and Eur ope. Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was one of many well-known leaders from the U.S. who attended the WSF, as well as Curtis Muhammad from the People’s Hur ricane Relief Fund of New Orleans and Lucius Walker from IFCO/Pastors for Peace.

Founded in 2001 to counter the annual meeting held in Davos, Switzerland, at which executives of multi-national corporations, government heads and other power brokers strategize on global matters, the World Social Forum brings together diverse elements from civil society—workers, students, peasants, intellectuals, activists of all kinds—who are in opposition to the neoliberal policies that are impoverishing the vast majority of the world’s people.

This year the World Social Forum was polycentric, holding three sessions on three continents. The first session was held in Bamako, Mali, which drew 10,000 participants, mostly from Africa; the one in Caracas followed and the last will be held in March in Karachi, Pakistan.

In Caracas, approximately 2,200 different organizations held almost 1,800 seminars, panels and workshops on a broad range of topics. In addition, there were art exhibits, concerts, street theater and poetry as well as spontaneous marches, singing and dancing.

While the WSF is an international meeting place where ideas, experiences and tactics are shared and debated, it increasingly serves as a mobilizing center where expanding networks undertake concrete campaigns and actions.

Numerous proposals for coordinated activities were presented and accepted, such as global days of protest of the U.S. occupation of Iraq on March 18-19, the third anniversary of the war.

Buoyed by change
sweeping the continent

The Caracas meeting was buoyed by the tremendous social and political gains sweeping South America; for example, on the eve of the WSF, Evo Morales became president of Bolivia—the first elected Indigenous head of state there and an other outspoken opponent of imperialist domination and privatization of natural resources.

Thousands of Venezuelans attended the various meetings and spoke about the Bolivarian revolutionary process taking place in their country, with its emphasis on participatory democracy and advancement of social justice.

Many delegates had the opportunity to see the free health care instituted by the Hugo Chávez government and carried out by a mobilized population throughout the country.

Cuba has sent a large brigade of doctors and nurses who are assisting Venezuelan medical teams in setting up clinics. Each clinic serves 250 families, providing free basic and preventive health care such as vaccinations, prenatal services and birth control.

The poor neighborhoods that cling to the steep mountains around Caracas had been ignored by the previous ruling class governments and were bereft of basic services. Now clinics, community grocery stores with subsidized food stuffs, recreation facilities, community kitchens that provide one meal a day for the elderly, children and the ill, and computer centers with free and accessible equipment have elevated the living standards of millions of Venezuelans and cemented their support for people’s power.

Members of the UNT, a progressive national labor federation formed in 2003, spoke in numerous panels describing the role of workers in the Bolivarian Revolution and how that affected the programs of the Chávez government.

Under the former constitution, all strikes were illegal and unions were small. Since 1999, however, the minimum wage has been increased above or at least equal to inflation every year; all attempts at privatization have been stopped; democratically elected safety committees have been established at job sites; and 18 trade unionists from the Bolivarian Force were recently elected to the Venezuelan Congress.

José Ramón Rivero, one of those elected labor leaders, told delegates from the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange that the new Congress would be changing labor laws this session to legalize worker take overs of factories and to recover lost jobs caused by corporate layoffs.

The U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange invited the UNT to tour the U.S. this spring to promote worker-to-worker solidarity.

Throughout the WSF, Colombian trade unionists raised the issue of the tremendous government repression in their country, where paramilitary forces have murdered more than 4,000 union leaders and members.

The thousands of Colombian activists who came to Caracas enhanced international awareness of their struggles. They focused on campaigns against Coca-Cola and Nestlé, in particular, for their complicity in the deaths, disappearances, imprisonment and torture of members of SINALTRAINAL, the Colombian food and beverage workers union.

Much support for the Cuban 5

The highly visible Cuban delegation, with their red baseball caps and shirts, turned out in impressive numbers at every event concerning the case of the Cuban 5, a heinous example of U.S. injustice.

Gerardo Hernández, René González, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero had volunteered to quietly gather information on the terrorist activities of the right-wing Cuban exile groups in Miami, following an escalation in bombings of tourist hotels in the Havana area that resulted in the death of a young Italian man.

After collecting evidence of violations of U.S. and international law by exile groups such as “Brother to Brother” and others, Cuba turned this information over to the FBI. Rather than taking steps to stop terrorist activity from being organized on U.S. soil, the U.S. arrested the five Cuban patriots in Miami in September 1998, charging them with conspiracy to commit espionage and other related charges. They were convicted in a sham trial in 2001.

On Aug. 9, 2005, a three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned their convictions, based on the many violations of law and procedure in their trials. The Bush administration then appealed that decision and requested that the entire 11 members of the court hear the case. The legal arguments for reversing the convictions will be heard on Feb. 14.

Chávez says revolution is urgent

On Jan. 27, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez spoke to thousands of WSF delegates at a rally in a huge stadium.

In a two-hour speech, interrupted repeatedly by thunderous applause and chants, Chávez exhorted the crowd to “take the revolutionary energy from those who have struggled in the past,” naming Simón Bolívar, Che Guevara and Schafik Handal, among many others, to “make the new world possible now.”

Chávez stressed unity and inclusiveness during his speech. On the prospects for socialism in Venezuela, he made it clear that this would be a socialism rich in the experiences of the Indigenous cultures there. He emphasized that Venezuela is a country containing the blood of African and Native peoples, and said that attempts at change in the past that did not include the struggles of Africans failed as a result.

Citing the many destructive characteristics of the capitalist economy and imperialist war machine, he stated that the world does not have centuries to achieve this goal of a cooperative and just society.

“Socialism or death” is more than a slogan, Chávez said. “The human species is in danger because capitalism is destroying the environment and life of all kinds.”

He declared that “the empire is not infallible. It has failed in Iraq and in Vene zuela and in Cuba.”

Chávez asked the crowd to imagine what a progressive government in the U.S. could do for the world if all its resources, technology and skills were directed for social progress, not profit and domination.

Addressing the many activists from the U.S., he said, “We in the rest of the world are counting on you sisters and brothers” to join in this global march towards victory over death.