For the next four days, delegates from people’s movements, trade unions, and left political forces will be gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the third Continental Assembly of ALBA Movements. Members of ALBA Movements announced the launch of the assembly in a press conference organized on Monday April 25 in the headquarters of the Argentine Federation of Press Workers (Fatpren).
Manuel Bertoldi, a member of Frente Patria Grande of Argentina and the International Peoples’ Assembly secretary told members of the press: “This third continental assembly is taking place here in Argentina, understanding that we are going through a moment in our continent of a lot of struggles and resistance. In this last period, we have had some setbacks, and also advances and we have high expectations to launch an agenda of work, and above all of action, of people’s movements, to advance in the integration of a project which centers people, and works for sovereignty, independence, and emancipation.”
The ALBA Movements platform was officially founded in 2013, following the creation of several regional integration platforms by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Cuban President Fidel Castro, that worked above all on the state level. The creation of the platform sought to create unity amongst the people and amongst diverse social forces fighting against neoliberalism and for a future with dignity.
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“We see ourselves as sons and daughters of the struggles that were launched in resistance to the neoliberal model, that in another historic moment were part of the World Social Forum, and that accompanied the change of the era at the beginning of the 21st century, along with the leaders in Latin America that understood the necessity of the integration of our Great Homeland,” Bertoldi explained. “In this sense, we keep the legacies present of Commander Fidel Castro, of Commander Hugo Chávez Frías, the fathers of this initiative who understood that continental integration had to have people’s movements in the forefront to build an emancipatory process to liberate our continent,” Bertoldi added.
Laura Capote, a member of the Operative Secretary of ALBA Movements and a Colombian social movement Marcha Patriótica, explained that the Continental Assembly is the highest level of organization and political decision making. “The different organizational structures of ALBA carry out the political decisions and work that are decided on in the Assembly.”
María del Carmen Barroso González of the National Association of Small Farmers of Cuba, and a member of the coordination of the Cuban chapter, outlined the agenda for the four days of work. The first day will discuss the current context in the world and in the region. On the second day participants will carry out a structural review and evaluation of the functioning of the ALBA Movements Secretary. On the third day participants will hear from different international platforms that ALBA Movements is part of and discuss its relationship to these spaces, as well as debate the challenges in the current moment. The fourth day of work will be dedicated to the plan of action, work, and mobilization.
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“We are faced with a huge responsibility to discuss what is the current political moment of our continent,” Capote commented, “the transformations in those historically neoliberal countries, aligned with the right, have taken place thanks to the movements and thanks to people’s mobilization.”
To follow the debates and activities of the Assembly follow Peoples Dispatch as well as ALBA Movements across social media.