HAVANA, Cuba.- If we unite we will be in a better position to fight and move forward, to stop and reverse the offensive on the right, and to overcome, Ana Maria Mari Machado, Vice-President of the National Assembly of People´s Power said.

In a meeting of parliamentarians, as part of the Twenty-fourth Sao Paulo Forum, Mari Machado urged legislators to prioritize objectives and tasks, to join forces in the midst of diversity, and leave no loopholes to the enemy.

The Vice-President of the National Assembly of People´s Power highlighted its composition, a vivid reflection of Cuban society, in which all municipalities and sectors are represented, in addition to the intense international activity sustained by the relationships with 140 parliaments.

In her speech, she remarked it is also up to legislators to denounce soft coups, unconventional wars and the use of parliaments to overthrow progressive governments.

Culture Is Also Politics

When speaking today in the Art and Culture Workshop, which meets in Havana as part of the Sao Paulo Forum, Cuban essayist and journalist Enrique Ubieta said the cultural battle is the most difficult and probably the most decisive one in the effort to build a new society.

Ubieta remarked that Socialism has to provide greater quotas of true and different democracy, and after remembering how the future needs of the past, he insisted that politics is also culture.

Intellectual Graziella Pogolotti warned about the need to study and make present each statement by Jose Marti in his essay titled Our America, when he said that peoples that do not meet each other have to learn to do it.

She called on the progressive and left-wing forces in the world to create a theoretical, conceptual and practical platform to give the hardest battle humanity has faced.

Undeniable Advances of Latin American Left

The increasing attacks of the neoliberal and reactionary wave in our region respond to the extraordinary successes of the left in recent years, and it is important to recognize how much we progress in the midst of enormous difficulties, Argentinean Tristan Bauer said.

The director of the film Illuminated by Fire denounced the attempts of neoliberal politics to destroy and deny history, with the desire to hypnotize with an illusory message that ultimately is impossible to sustain.

Tristan Bauer saluted the continuity of the Cuban revolutionary process as a lesson for all progressive forces, as Miguel Diaz-Canel had the virtue and the luck to be formed by Fidel and Raul, he said.

Nicolas Hernandez Guillen called to use as handholds in the cultural battle the work of poets like Nicolas Guillen, always akin to the rebellion and resistance of the peoples.

The Active Presence of Women

As part of the Sao Paulo Forum, members of the National Secretariat of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) exchanged with the more than 200 females participating in the meeting.

In the debate, with the participation of the Secretary General of FMC, Teresa Amarelle, second secretary Arelis Santana underlined the advancement achieved by the Cuban women, which confirms their strength as an expression of unity in the revolution.

Salvadoran Lorena Pena referred to the defense of women as a priority of leftist parties, and praised Cuba for the progress in that regard.

Pena urged to confront the new patriarchal policies, and pondered the unity of Latin American and Caribbean women to build a fairest world in the face of the growing onslaught of imperialism.