Due to space restrictions, it is impossible to publish all the interventios, which can be heard on the webpages. Here we present the words of Luis Meiners in the panel of International Situation, of Joaquín Araneda in the panel of Latin American Situation and of Cele Fierro about Argentina.
Luis Meiners, Socialist League of the United States (ISL)
…The pandemic has been the trigger for an economic crisis in which fundamental elements were already in development. These have to do with the crisis of 2008, and more profoundly with the fall in the rate of profit. The way out of this crisis involved the bailout of the banks, and a series of policies such as tax cuts to the big capitalists in the US, which has generated the growth of a huge speculative bubble. These contradictions were accumulating and were expressed, for example, in a sustained fall in productive investment, which foreshadowed an economic crisis of great magnitude.
…enormous opportunities are opening up for revolutionaries. But nothing is mechanical or linear. The lack of revolutionary leadership also raises the possibility of defeat. The perspective of reformist sectors that argued that the insurrection would not be posed for decades, and that therefore it was necessary to focus on the elections has been marginalized by current events. The pandemic and the economic debacle are putting fundamental aspects of our revolutionary socialist program on the agenda. We have to discuss how we deploy the greatest unity of action to face what is coming, and build large revolutionary organizations from the revolutionary left. Because this crisis raises the possibility of building revolutionary organizations with mass influence…
…It is not right to think that the United States and China are great allies, rather we are going on a collision course that is marked by the inter-imperialist dispute itself. This is reflected in the Silk Road project, in the case of China, which implies a capitalist expansion of that imperialist power. This marks the process of collision, which does not mean that there is the possibility of a war in the short term, but it does mark the dynamics of the situation, reflecting the growing dynamics of inter-imperialist dispute.
…We see that there is a very important contradiction in the leadership of the DSA that is turning more and more to the right, which political center is the elections, at the time the support for Sanders and now there has not been a policy of intervention in the new open rebellion, with a base that is becoming more and more radicalized. It is on this basis that we must act with tactical audacity, intervening in the concrete reality as it is. Respecting the horizon of class independence, forgetting self-proclamation and sustaining the tactical cunning employed by the Bolsheviks.
Joaquín Araneda, Anticapitalist Movement of Chile (ISL)
…The current characterization is tinged by a strong polarization, although without a doubt, since 2019, the tone is set on the rise of masses and the development of strong political and social processes throughout the continent. Since 2018, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Haiti, to name a few, have been in tune with the dynamics of the situation… Although the highest point came with the indigenous-Ecuadorian rebellion and the revolutionary process in Chile, which led to the fall of Piñera, the government. We can also include the coup d’état in Bolivia, where there was a great process of resistance despite the fact that the MAS leadership had left the masses orphaned, after having applied the neoliberal policies it had carried out. This brief review indicates that, prior to the pandemic, we were coming from a rise that marked the limits of the right-wing governments that came to power, as a sub product of the disaster of the cycle of governments called Latin American progressives .
…The revolution that was the result of the accumulation of mobilization in recent years, which took a leap in quality in October 2019, to break with the Pinochetist heritage and assault the streets, had the appearance of street assemblies, direct confrontation with the forces and general strikes despite the existing leadership. It was an expression of the masses that raised “out with Piñera” and “Constituent Assembly”, as a way to change capitalist Chile… A vanguard of this process has been the youth, precarious, working and student, that became the first line and infected large layers of the population, working and popular sectors, together with the feminist tide (…) The problem was the leadership, which was at the rescue of the regime. The pact signed by Frente Amplio and the dismantling of any working class action by the Communist Party sought to contain the mobilization and radicalization. This change of stage, in Chile, in tune with the process of continental mobilization, but being its most advanced expression, cannot be described as anything but a revolution, unfinished or in process of development .
Cele Fierro, MST FITU of Argentina (ISL)
With the arrival of the coronavirus in the country, we have raised a policy that is completely alternative and opposite to the one that the traditional parties have been carrying out. With the tale of “defending health and life”, they were advancing over the rights of the workers. This can be seen in the permission they gave to lay-off, suspend, and send thousands of workers to the streets after having opened non-essential activities. This government policy is just a sample of what is to come, because now they sit down to discuss the post-pandemic with the big business chambers and the union bureaucracy?
…That’s why, more than ever, we have to keep applying and putting a lot of strength into the FIT-U. This is the only political alternative that truly defends workers’ lives. What we cannot allow is for the right wing to take the initiative, as it did on July 9th with the flag-waving and now with the preparation of a new one. We have to be the ones, in the streets, who confront the policies of Alberto Fernández and also the right…let’s call for a great action from the left, the combative unionism, the youth, the women’s movement and dissidents, the human rights organizations, precisely to defend each and every one of our rights. As for our front, comrades, we have to advance in intervening in a common way in the class struggle, in the unions, in the student movement. We have to discuss and resolve all the debates democratically, including the electoral ones, to guarantee a greater democracy so that everyone can express themselves, contributing and making their ideas visible. Only in this way will we strengthen the FITU for a favourable outcome for workers.