The 1997 São Paulo Forum
Fifty-eight parties from 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries participated in the 7th Sao Paulo Forum, the annual gathering of the continental left. José Martínez Cruz The first São Paulo Forum took place in 1990, at the initiative of Brazil's PT. Their goal was too seek alternatives to globalisation, at a time when, more than ever before, it was clear that no left-wing project can exist in a purely national framework.
This year's festival had a festive atmosphere, thanks to the recent electoral success of Mexico's PRD (see pages 2-7), El Salvador's FMLN and Haiti's Lavalas movement.
This year's meeting took place in Porto Alegre, the south Brazilian town famous for its "participative budget" and other innovative policies of the Workers Party (PT), which has governed locally since 1989 Citizens can receive information, give their opinion, discuss and decide on the main elements of the municipal budget. Under Prefieto Raúl Pont, a prominent leader of the left in the PT, the town symbolises transparent government in the interests of the majority, with participatory democracy,
The town gave the Forum a very warm welcome. Though the majority of local and national media, particularly television, either ignored the event or focused on the most conflictive moments. The Forum was preceded by a range of well-attended events, including a homage to Che Guevara, and the launch of the Landless Movement (MST)'s new magazine Terra (Land) Today's challenges
Workshops included racism • solidarity with Africa • the indigenous question and the left • the new challenges facing indigenous determination • cultural identity and land • traditional rights, pluri-ethnic and plurinational states • human rights • municipal politics • local government and democratic socialist strategy • the city as a space for citizenship and democracy • the participatory budget • municipal management, social movements and innovative public policies • environment • ecosocialism v. neo-liberalism • agrarian reform and resistance to neo-liberalism • culture • democratising the media • small and medium enterprises • the role of Members of Parliament in the construction of alternative politics • women and economic policy • Christians, and youth.
The workshop on women was particularly well prepared and well attended. It challenged the parties present to explain the limited recognition of gender questions in 14 International Viewpoint #292 their programmes and practical activities.
The strategic questions facing the left were discussed very unevenly. Obviously, with the recent electoral successes in a number of countries, there was much discussion on the experiences of the continent's larger progressive parties in their management of cities like Montevideo, San Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Belem and Porto Alegre. Delegates also discussed the challenges facing C. Cárdenas, the new PRD mayor
Unfortunately, the idea that the left can govern responsibly, without financial disaster or a political dead-end, and continue gaining electoral support, tended to confuse the debate on the strategic perspective for taking power. Though, obviously, experiences like Porto Alegre show ways of accumulating forces and experience, within an explicitly socialist perspective, disputing hegemony in all areas of the political confrontation, and maintaining a process of popular participation which goes beyond the institutional mechanisms, and ultimately questions the legitimacy of neo-liberal policies.
Two major currents of the left were present in the conference: those who call for activity, accepting the framework of globalisation, and restricting themselves to reforms, and those organisations which have kept their socialist orientation and class independence, refuse to renounce revolution, but accept the possibility of participation in institutional politics, in an attempt to link the political and social struggles, in a process of accumulation of forces which will make it possible to modify the international A radical upturn
The current period is characterised by a growing number of workers struggles: the general strike in Ecuador, the teachers strike in Colombia, land occupations by the landless and roofless of Brazil's MST, the upsurge in Argentina, the student strikes in Nicaragua, guerrilla action in Colombia, the marches of the Paraguayan campesinos Cuban resistance to the yanqui blockade, to say nothing of the general strike in Korea and the war of liberation in Zaire. All these struggles show the increasing resistance of the peoples to neo-liberal policies.
This being so, the documents elaborated by the Forum's Working Group, made up of the largest parties, failed to capture the dynamic of popular and democratic alternatives to neo-liberalism, and the significance of these struggles in the socialist perspective. The Working Group documents certainly contain important reflections on diverse aspects of the social, political and economic situation which we are living in Latin America, but their extreme generality was frustrating for most of the parties present.
The São Paulo Forum does not consider itself to be a "New International," with a high level of political and ideological agreement. Nevertheless, the range of references and perspectives is wider each year. And this is making it increasingly difficult to reach agreement, and even more difficult to pass any kind of resolution by consensus.
Despite the growing contradictions within the Forum, it again showed itself to be a plural, open space, allowing reflection on our diverse political situations, and encouraging exchange, contacts and co-operation. In the country where the Forum is held, this cooperation obviously goes beyond the narrow circles of full-time party workers, involving militants in each host country. This has been particularly true in El Salvador (1996) and Porto Alegre. It will surely be true in Mexico City, which is preparing to host the 8th Forum in the summer of 1998. The left is a minority
In other words, the São Paulo Forum has a contradictory character. It is a tool forged by the co-operation of diverse and unequal forces, linked by their democratic and popular struggle. But clearly socialist forces do not have a majority in the Forum today. Still, the debates between left and right in the forum are often similar to those inside the larger parties, like Mexico's PRD, Uruguay's Frente Amplio, and Brazil's PT.
The documents produced by this 7th Forum are a reference, but by no means are they binding on the participating organisations. On a number of themes, the final document will only be issued at the end of the year, after further consultations between a number of parties.
The final declaration was successfully amended from the floor to include references to the socialist perspective, anti-imperialist struggle, the gender question, and the diversity of forms of struggle and resistance to neo-liberalism. The document stresses the need to "create conditions for universalising the struggles of the excluded in a system which advances through the globalisation of the power of the powerful... Our goal is an alternative globalisation from that of those 'above.' A globalisation by and for those "from below,' which will give us the energy, the echo, the flexibility and the intelligence necessary to overcome completely the affront which neo-liberalism represents for our
The declaration covers in 136 points themes on which there is no consensus in the Forum. Themes like the role of the state: socialisation and control over national wealth; the role of new technologies; foreign investment; macro-economic stability; strengthening national currencies and economic
During the debate, the declaration was
amended to incorporate passages on new social movements; the emergence of indige-. nous struggles and excluded sectors; the role and weight of the foreign and domestic debt and the importance of campaigns against its repayment; the need for the Forum to assume a co-ordinating role in continental campaigns against repression, militarisation, for political prisoners, and concerning the thousands of "disappeared."
The sharpest debates came at the end of the Forum, and concerned those organisations which have opted for armed struggle. But a serious discussion of institutional violence, and the various forms of resistance which peoples who reject the legalism of the powerful can take was avoided. Mexico's PRD vetoed the invitation of the Basque group Herr Batasuna as an observer to the Forum, following the murder of a Basque town councillor for Spain's ruling conservative party by ETA. The forum finally condemned the Peruvian regime's armed assault on the Japanese embassy, but still refused to accept the Tupac Amaru movement (MRTA) into the Forum. This, together with the refusal to admit the Argentine group Todos por la Patria, illustrates the contradiction within the Forum. The formal organisation can veto the admission of group from the country is used to discussion in open plenary, in which the Forum as a whole could decide to accept the organisation in question.
While more and more obstacles to prevent participation of guer-:!!government, have faithfu neo-liberal medicine re more guarded, uncritical treatment from the Forum's most influential members, in the Working Group. This was demonstrated this year in the Forum's treatment of the Partido de Liberación Dominicana, Panama's PRD, Venezuela's MAS and Chile's Socialist Party (PS). Conclusion
The 7th Forum revealed the bright lights and the dark shadows of the Latin American left. In this epoch of regroupment and reorganisation of anti-capitalist forces. this pluralist international space has a progressive role to play. It is clearly in the interest of revolutionary Marxist forces to maintain a forum where we can meet with other democratic and popular forces, and discuss and exchange experience in a pluralist environment.
But it is also necessary to encourage a greater convergence between those organisations which might see themselves as the left wing of the Forum. Not just so that we can present ourselves in a more coherent way, but
Latin America * so that we can encourage greater political activity in the struggles which are developing across the continent.
Like a number of international meetings which have taken place in recent months, the São Paulo Forum shows the contradictory progression of a left which, with errors and doubts, is starting to re-accumulate experiences which can help us reorganise our forces at the international level.*