The Left Front-Unity convenes Latin American and US online Conference
On July 30, 31 and August 1
- The capitalists must pay for the crisis
- Imperialism out of Latin America,
- The IMF must go, no payment of external debts
- Long live the struggles of workers and the precarious youth. No layoffs or pay cuts. Down with racism and police violence and repression.
- For a Working class solution to the pandemic and the capitalist crisis
The parties of Argentina´s Left Front-Unity have decided to hold an online Latin American and US Conference on August 1. The Conference will be preceded by three discussion panels, that will be held on July 30 and 31. This Conference resumes the initiative accorded by the FIT-U´s parties at the beginning of the year that was suspended due to the pandemic crisis. This time, given the process of rebellion unleashed in the United States, the Conference will also host militant organizations from North America. The political and programmatic bases on which we reconvene this Conference are expressed in the declaration A New Scenario in Latin America and the Need for a Socialist and Revolutionary Solution, in the text The Latin American Conference called by the FIT-U is Postponed, in the FIT-U International Workers´ Day Declaration, and in this text. The important agreements, disagreements and differences are that we have among the convening organizations is expressed in these texts.
The situation gives the continental initiative promoted by the FIT-U´s parties renewed importance.
The rebellion in the United States, which has shaken the planet and corners Donald Trump, has a favorable impact on the masses of the world, generating actions of solidarity and conditioning the international scene. The outrage and rejection of police violence and racism that erupted in response to George Floyd´s brutal murder are linked to the growing discontent and despair of the masses, due to the combined effect of the pandemic and a deep recession. The impact of the largest capitalist crisis in the United States led almost 49 million workers to apply for unemployment insurance in just 16 weeks. Low wages and a for-profit health system pushes homeless, unemployed, precarious and informal workers to death. All this has cultivated the great popular rebellion that takes place in the country. The Democratic Party is trying to divert this imposing protest movement towards voting for Joe Biden – the candidate of the establishment – in the November election to prevent it from radicalizing. The rebellion not only represents a huge blow to the Trump Administration, but also affects all of the Latin American governments that in one way or another pay tribute to Yankee imperialism, and is a call to action and struggle for all peoples of the subcontinent.
The pandemic has highlighted the antagonism between the health and life of the working majority on one hand and the capitalist system on the other. Billion of dollars in bailouts have privileged the rescue of capital, and economic aid to the population has been reduced to a marginal proportion. The world has confronted coronavirus with drained and deteriorated health systems, victims of drastic cuts as a result of years of austerity applied by all governments, while allowing and encouraging the continuity of the profits of private health care.
What has been prioritized in the midst of the pandemic is capitalist profits, forcing workers to continue production, with total disregard for their lives and physical integrity. This is exacerbated in Latin America, where conditions of poverty and extreme deprivation create a fertile field for the spread of the virus, which has ravaged poor neighborhoods.
The coronavirus outbreak has aggravated the preexisting capitalist crisis. The world is going into a depression, only comparable to the post 1929 crash. The ILO is already talking about 480 million unemployed. The bailout of big business, banks and multinationals is intended to be financed by more austerity, layoffs, increasing misery, inequality and unprecedented social and environmental disaster. We are facing a profound capitalist crisis that has its roots in the Great Recession of 2008. Broad sections of the working class and the youth around the world are beginning to draw the conclusion that this system is no longer viable.
The new speculative cycle that followed the bailouts has not stopped capital flight in Latin America, which is combined with the payment of fraudulent and usurious debts by governments that goes hand in hand with austerity plans under the tutelage of the IMF in order to guarantee repayment to creditors.
In the context of the trade war promoted by Yankee imperialism, particularly against China, the United States seeks to reinforce its dominance in our continent, not only with economic extortion but also through direct interference, as seen in its aggressive policy against Venezuela, a fact that we repudiate despite our deep differences with the Maduro regime. At the same time, we denounce that both the United States and China seek to seize the natural and strategic resources of our region through partnerships with extractive capitalist corporations.
In this context, Latin America has become another of the epicenters of the pandemic crisis and also of the social crisis. Under the far-right Bolsonaro government, Brazil is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador have also suffered this scourge on a large scale, under governments located to the right. In Mexico and Argentina, the “national and popular” governments have been very far from touching the interests of the big businesses to confront the situation of sanitary decay and the social crisis. On the contrary, they have maintained a line of subordination to imperialism, as López Obrador demonstrated in his meeting with Trump and Alberto Fernández with his submission to the precepts of the vulture funds and the IMF. The latter also seeks a “social pact” with the business chambers that would imply workers paying for the cost of the crisis.
In light of this panorama, it is clear that all the social contradictions that motivated the Latin American popular rebellions in 2019 have become more acute. Therefore, the opening of a new phase of great struggles and rebellions of the exploited is resurfacing, as revealed by the new days of national protests in Chile, the demonstrations in Ecuador against Lenin Moreno and the growing unrest of the Bolivian masses against the coup plotter Añez, the expressions of rejection against Bolsonaro in Brazil, the reaction of the student movement in Colombia, the new situation in Paraguay since June 22, the return of still molecular protests in Nicaragua as well as the resistance workers and precarious youth in development in Argentina.
The Latin American and US Online Conference is thus framed in a moment of historical characteristics, which poses gigantic challenges for workers, calling to fight for emergency measures to combat the pandemic and austerity plans that attack working people, to fight for the crisis to be paid for by the capitalists in the perspective of fundamental working class and socialist solution. We invite the classist left, the militant workers’ movement, the rebelling youth, feminist and environmental activists, and committed academics, to be part of this Conference to debate the bases to fight under the banners of class independence, for workers’ governments and for the socialist unity of Latin America.
Schedule:
- Panel-debate: “World crisis and rebellion in the empire.” Thursday, July 30, 6:30 p.m. (GMT-3)
- Panel-debate: “The Latin American labor movement in the face of the capitalist crisis and the pandemic.” Friday, July 31, 5 p.m. (GMT-3)
- Panel-debate: “The Latin American situation.” Friday, July 31, 7:30 p.m. (GMT-3)
- Latin American and US Online Conference. Saturday, August 1, 2:00 pm (GMT-3)