Havana, Cuba.- From July 15 to July 17, Cuba’s capital will host the 24th Annual Meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum, an event that will be focused on the unity of leftist parties and organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Forum founded in 1990 in Brazil will return to Havana -its headquarters in 1993 and 2001- in a complex regional context, when progressive forces need to articulate actions and proposals.

There are many challenges, including the return to power of right-wing governments in several countries and the escalation of U.S. interventionist positions on the continent, following President Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House in January 2017.

The Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) called the meeting to fulfill with the commitment assumed the previous year in Managua, Nicaragua, and in the opinion of the head of the Department of International Relations of the organization, Jose Ramon Balaguer, it constitutes an internationalist political commitment for the island.

Balaguer warned in a letter sent to the members of the Sao Paulo Forum about the urgency to join ideas and efforts, in order to stop, as soon as possible, the onslaught of the international and regional right.

INTENSE AGENDA

According to the program announced by the organizers, the plan is to receive the delegations, as well as their accreditation, on July 14, in addition to hold a meeting of the Working Group, in which the agenda, the draft of the Final Declaration and the new entries will be addressed.

The Forum’s inauguration will be held the next day, followed by the School of Political Formation and the plenary called ‘Against Colonialism and for Anti-Imperialist Solidarity.’

On July 16, meetings of youth, women and parliamentarians will be held, as well as a dialogue aimed at articulation with platforms and networks of the social movement.

That day will also include a debate on the need for unity and regional integration, the follow-up to the final document and the Plan of Action, and a visit to the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the largest mass organization in Cuba, with more than eight million members.

On the closing day of the meeting that will host dozens of delegates from Latin America, the Caribbean and other parts of the world, the participants will hold a plenary session dedicated to Fidel Castro’s thinking and will establish a position on the Final Declaration of the event.

It is expected that the 24th Annual Meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum condemns imperialism and neoliberalism, supports the political processes in Latin America that defy these systems, and rejects the U.S. blockade against Cuba and the destabilizing campaigns that Venezuela and Nicaragua’s governments are currently facing.

Likewise, the text will surely express solidarity with imprisoned Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and ex-Ecuadorian Rafael Correa, victim of a crusade to take him also to prison.

In addition, the Final Declaration is expected to deplore colonialism and call for the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean.

UNITY AS AN ANSWER

For the official of the PCC’s Department of International Relations of the Central Committee Idalmis Brooks, the meeting in Havana will allow to talk about urgent issues for the leftist forces of the region, in particular the importance of unity.

The Forum will make it possible to discuss the urgency of defending cultural symbols and values, and to undertake strategies of political communication, such as a network of left-wing communicators that make visible the social struggle, she told the press.

According to Brooks, an essential aspect will be to address the safeguarding of the principles of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, signed in Havana in 2014 in the context of the 2nd Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

As a transcendental moment, she mentioned the special plenary on Fidel Castro’s thinking and the Forum of Sao Paulo, to which ex-presidents and former prime ministers of the region are invited.

During the event, there will be a meeting between members of the Sao Paulo Forum and the European left where there will be signs of support for the progressive processes of the continent, she added.

For his part, the Vice President of the Commission of International Relations of the Parliament of Cuba, Rolando Gonzalez, insisted on the complex political context of the continent, characterized by the right’s aim of achieving the loss of progress in the area of social justice reached by the leftist governments during the last decade.

Given this scenario of crusades in pursuit of an imperial hegemony, he urged to take advantage of the 24th Sao Paulo Forum as a space for debate on the role of the Latin American revolutionary movement’s unity.

Gonzalez referred to the context that Cuba is currently facing, with the changes underway to update the socio-economic model of the island.

The Forum will offer the opportunity to dialogue with many friends in the world and express that Cuba does not stop at updating its model, but on the basis of the revolutionary principles that have always guided our country, he said.

THE LEFT AND ITS CHALLENGES

For the Argentine intellectual Atilio Boron, the return to Cuba of the Sao Paulo Forum shows the willingness of the Latin America’s peoples to fight against the onslaught of the right in the region.

In exclusive statements to Prensa Latina, the renowned political scientist stressed that in the 24th edition of the event, progressive and leftist movements and organizations will be able to defend positions and become strong in ‘the Cuban fortress,’ which has been resisting the attacks of U.S. imperialism for 60 years.

According to Boron, Latin America is subject to an intense imperialist counter-offensive, aimed at producing regime change in Venezuela, intensifying even more the blockade against Cuba and isolating Bolivian President Evo Morales’ government.

It also intends to plant an opposing beachhead in Nicaragua, as well as returning Ecuador to U.S. domination with the re-entry of the U.S. soldiers to the Manta base, he argued.

Likewise, the Forum of Sao Paulo will promote a fraternal and frank discussion in Havana of the progressive and leftist governments’ successes and mistakes, he stressed.

Boron also expressed the need to accurately diagnose the scope and limits of the imperialist onslaught; the strength and weakness of its local representatives; and to unravel the international plot that supports the right, both from the media and from diplomacy.

For his part, the leader of the Union of Young Communists of Cuba, Jose Angel Maury, highlighted the role of youth in the necessary transformations in Latin America and the Caribbean, the most unequal region of the planet.

Young people have been protagonists of important changes and have in their hands the future of the region, which depends on their capacity to strengthen themselves and contribute to the left-wing movement in Latin America, he told Prensa Latina.

In this regard, he pointed out that the new generations are the most likely to be manipulated in favor of the right’s interest, especially from the new communication scenarios.

Maury also insisted on the urgency that the progressive and left forces be integrated to preserve the sovereignty of the people.