Sao Paulo Forum in Cuba to Debate Consensus of Our Americas

The upcoming 24th Annual Meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum (SPF) in Havana will continue the dialogue on the Consensus of Our Americas, Monica Valente, executive secretary of the organization, said today.

Adopted in July 2017 in Managua, the purpose of the Consensus, in which we affirm the principles and purposes that inspire us, 'is to continue to debate with popular forces, trade unions and social movements, establishing a great anti-neoliberal and anti-imperialist wave and building strategies for the unitary struggle,' she said.

In statements to Prensa Latina, Valente, who is also the secretary of International Relations of the Workers' Party (PT) of Brazil, highlighted that this is one of the major documents issued by the forces of the Sao Paulo Forum, as it also offers a diagnosis of the situation to be transformed.

The Consensus, which 'is not a closed document,' also reflects the issues and the project for which we fight, the objectives, the strategy of struggle and the prioritized tasks, she said.

Among other issues is to increase the participation of young people in our political movements, social movements and youth organizations, she said.

Referring to the main challenges the meeting will face in Havana on July 15 to 17, Valente mentioned the analysis of the current crisis of capitalism, the neoliberal counter-offensive in the region and its new methods of action through media, judicial and military attacks.

Valente considered that holding the debates will be indispensable to take the ideas of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, as a guide.

The words expressed by Fidel Castro in 1993 are still relevant today, she said and recalled that at the time, the Commander-in-Chief said: '... today in Latin America, the priority battle is, in my opinion, to defeat neoliberalism, because if we do not defeat neoliberalism, we disappear as nations, we disappear as independent states, and we will be more colonies than the Third World countries ever were.'

The meeting in Cuba will also be a plaform for international denunciations of the imprisonment of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as a result of legal instruments for political persecution, and the promotion of actions of continental solidarity, in which the Sao Paulo Forum has been an essential protagonist, she said.

We are experiencing in Brazil a period of intense struggle and resistance. We suffered a parliamentary-media and judicial coup with the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016, and now our leader was arrested to try to prevent him from participating in elections for the Presidency of the Republic in October 2018, she stated.

'That will be the main issue that the PT will take to the 24th Meeting of the Forum in Havana,' she noted.