Over 500 international delegates representing more than 100 leftist and progressive political parties or revolutionary movements from throughout the Western Hemisphere converged in El Salvador from June 23-26 at the 22nd meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum, known by its Spanish/Portuguese acronym FSP.
With practically no mainstream U.S. news outlets covering the event, the FSP delegates gathered to celebrate the most recent triumphs of the Latin American and Caribbean left, reflect on the contemporary political landscape, strengthen regional solidarity, and renew their commitment to find points of consensus for a progressive agenda that the members of this hemispheric movement will push forward.
The FSP began in 1989, hosted by the Brazilian Workers Party in the city of Sao Paulo, as a space to share political experiences and build regional unity. At the time, the international left was on the decline as the Eastern Bloc and Soviet Union were disintegrating. The Latin American left, like progressive movements everywhere at the time, was under enormous pressure to accept the hegemonic logic espoused in the right-wing mantra that declared: there is no alternative to neoliberal capitalism. In response to this ideological and political onslaught, movements and parties splintered at an accelerated pace among a regional left already known for its ideological divisions.
Since its inauguration the Sao Paulo Forum has grown into the premier space for Latin America’s leftists, progressives, and revolutionary movements to come together to discuss their challenges and victories, exchange experiences, promote unity, and create a broad general vision of progressive hemispheric change. Originally held every two years, the meeting has been held annually in a different host country selected from among the most successful of the FSP’s member parties since 2007. Several member parties, such as Cuba’s Communist Party, Brazil’s Workers Party, and Venezuela’s United Socialist Party have played major roles ideologically in the FSP, as they have each long-governed their respective countries and charted quite different and unique paths toward 21st Century Socialism.
Meanwhile, other national movements have played seemingly outsized roles in the FSP’s success, hosting the regional event more times than parties from the larger Latin American nations; these include Uruguay’s Broad Front (2), Nicaragua’s Sandinistas (3), El Salvador’s Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN (3). It is worth mentioning the historic significance of the first time the FSP was celebrated in San Salvador in 1997. As documented in a fascinating article by Duke University historian John French, and witnessed by the present author (then a young Salvadoran-American college activist attending the event), Hugo Chavez participated in the gathering shortly after his release from prison, but was met with suspicion by many in the FSP because of his military background and failed coup attempt against an elected government. In a skillful tactical maneuver Salvadoran FMLN leader Shafick Handal opened the doors for Chavez’s legitimacy with other members of the FSP at that meeting. The former guerrilla commander used his prerogative as host to invite the newcomer to sit next to him as an honored guest to preside the plenary session. That meeting brought together for the first time the two major pillars of the Latin American Left from whose unity would be forged what became known as 21st Century Socialism—Venezuela’s Chavez and Brazil’s Lula.
Unfortunately, the FSP still remains largely unknown, generally and even to most progressives, in the United States. As such, its importance in forging the victories of the Latin American governments that collectively embody the region’s 21st Century socialism is not really appreciated. The only time the FSP is talked about by the mainstream press is when right-wing pundits attack its member parties, especially those who govern many of the region’s countries.
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However, the true significance of the FSP lies in forging the Latin American left’s unity at a time when neoliberal capitalism was declaring itself triumphant and gaining converts even from among off-shoots of many leftist forces. The FSP built this broad hemispheric consensus around three major issues: 1) categorical rejection of imperialism (defined as external intervention in domestic L.A. affairs); 2) vehement opposition to neoliberalism (including various free trade agreements, such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the privatization of state owned enterprises); and 3) in favor of autonomous Latin American integration (as embodied in various agreements and institutions such as the Bolivarian Alternative for the People’s of Our America—ALBA, the Union of South American Nations—UNASUR, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States—CELAC). With these basic points the FSP set the foundation for the construction of 21st Century Socialism, and the rise to state power of the movements in the so-called Pink Tide, how they would govern, and how they would cooperate once in power.
What Are the Results of the Meeting?
The 22nd Sao Paulo Forum’s Final Declaration summarizes the meeting’s results by pointing out the victories that the members of the FSP have achieved in recent years. Economically, the most noteworthy of these advances is the marked decrease in poverty, inequality, and marginalization of millions of people throughout Latin America and the Caribbean through state policies of leftist and progressive governments. But even more impressively and despite adverse global conditions the members of the FSP have had several major political triumphs to celebrate. Paramount among these victories is the defeat of U.S. attempts to politically isolate the Cuban Revolution, which culminated this year when Obama visited Cuba and normalized diplomatic relations with the island. Of equal importance, the bellicose war policy that has long dominated the Colombian state’s attempts to militarily defeat the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, was definitively crushed last week with the announcement of a bilateral cease-fire marking the end of hostilities in the longest running internal conflict in the Americas, and opening the door for the final signing of the Colombian Peace Agreement. Lastly, the interventionist proposal to invoke the “Democratic Charter” against Venezuela, by the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States, OAS, Luis Almagro, was soundly defeated within the organization itself. Governments run by members of the FSP led the charge against this aggression, but the proposal’s failure ultimately resulted from a powerful demonstration of regional unity.
The Forum’s Final Declaration also goes on to urge its members to take up an agenda to confront the right-wing backlash seeking to delegitimize, destabilize, and oust leftist and progressive governments in Latin America and the Caribbean. To defeat this counteroffensive by the region’s right wing and its international allies, the FSP final statement highlights several crucial hotspots that merit particular support. Foremost among these, the declaration calls for the active and militant solidarity with the Venezuelan and Brazilian governments in their battles against domestic and foreign adversaries intent on ousting them from power via non-democratic or institutional, as well as electoral means.
Another key issue raised is the FSP’s rejection of imperialist domination over Puerto Rico and the Malvinas Islands; calling for Puerto Rican independence and a return of the Islands to Argentina. The final declaration also expresses its support for Rafael Correa’s proposal at the United Nations to eliminate all international tax havens that permit the rich to hide assets and evade taxation that would provide much needed resources to fund government social programs.
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Another important point, particularly championed by the FMLN, is the call for the U.S. government to pass comprehensive immigration reform in the United States that will protect the rights of the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants mostly of Latin American and Caribbean origin who reside there. In this way, the FSP seeks to link the demands for immigrants’ rights within domestic U.S. politics with the broader struggles for social justice in Latin America.
Additionally, the FSP called for the strengthening of supranational institutions for Latin American and Caribbean unity, such as UNASUR, CELAC, ALBA, and to support the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Peace Zone; free of war. Finally, the FSP committed itself to creating a broad social front which will be inclusive of the struggles for LGBT, youth, gender, indigenous, and afro-descendant rights, even if these movements do not do so as part of their political parties.
What Does This Mean?
The results of the meeting in San Salvador show that recent allegations by right-wing pundits, declaring the death of the Latin American left, are far from accurate. This meeting and its Final Declaration belie the false triumphalism of the US journalistic right, which has decreed the death of Latin America’s Pink Tide. Far from being defeated, the movements that make up the Sao Paulo Forum are learning from their mistakes and implementing improvements to continue on to more progressive victories. At the same time, they are expanding the constituencies of the traditional left both in terms of sectors (the rights of marginalized populations for which they’ll fight), and the geographic (to include immigrant populations in the United States and Canada) populations they encompass. At the same time, the members of the Sao Paulo Forum have set an invaluable example for global left of how to implement unity in action, even in the midst of far-ranging ideological and political diversity.