The validity and current relevance of the October Revolution of 1917 for the 21° century
Brussels, 4-6 May 2007
www.icsbrussels.org , ics[at]icsbrussels.org
Resolution on Latin America
Latin America is the scene of the development of a vibrant workers' and peoples' movement, fighting the age-old dominance of the oligarchies and the submission to and plunder by the imperialists, principally US imperialism.
As an answer to the deepening of the general crisis and the failure of neoliberalism that was imposed on the peoples of the region, the recovery of the working c1ass and its strike movement expresses itself, taking on its role of flagship of the people's struggle. Moreover, there are the large mobilisations of the peasants, demanding land and water and valiantly opposing the imposition of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (ALCA) and the Free Trade Agreements; the mobilisation and street battles of the high school and university students putting forward their social, democratic and anti-imperialist demands; the indigenous peoples coming to the fore as protagonists of their own liberation and as integral part of the revolutionary forces; the great popular uprisings that oppose, combat and defeat the neo-liberal governments: ail these are salient expressions of Latin America's people's movement.
This strong people's movement gains strength as it involves itself in the political struggle for the government, as it unites with the Left parties, as it feeds on the new revolutionary political formations, as it actively participates in the electoral processes and conquers important positions that change the correlation of forces in each country, and consequently in Latin America.
ln Venezuela, since the first electoral triumph of Hugo Chavez in 1998, a great Left and revolutionary social and political movement is taking shape, implicating millions and confronting imperialism and the domestic Right, while having defeated ail attempts to destroy it or to lead it astray. ln Bolivia, the indigenous peoples (Quechua, Aymara) and the people of mixed origin won the elections and chose the first indigenous president in the history of the Republic.1n Brazil and Uruguay, Left positions that had been struggling for decades won the general elections. ln Nicaragua the Sandinista Front returned to the presidency, and in Ecuador the patriotic, democratic and Left tendency won the November 2006 elections. The Peronist government of Argentina and the Concertation government in Chile take, to a certain degree, positions of defence of the national interest. To a minor degree, the government of Panama dares to put conditions to the US government. ln Colombia, Peru and Mexico, among other countries, the democratic and Left forces have made important advances on the electoral level. ln Colombia, notwithstanding the direct military intervention of the US, the revolutionary armed struggle continues to develop, dealing heavy blows to the reactionary forces.
Notwithstanding the blockade, and in the main advancing its revolution by counting on its own forces, Cuba maintains itself as a reference for the workers and the peoples of the world, particularly in Latin America. ln fact, this new political situation in Latin America is an important contribution to the Cuban revolution.
The workers and the peoples, the communist parties and other revolutionary political organisations task themselves with leading those struggles in order to overcome capitalism and establish socialism.
ln the heads of the workers and the peoples of Latin America, the ideals of socialism have been planted. This situation makes it c1ear that the reserves and the potential of the social revolution of the proletariat, of socialism and of communism are fresh and luxuriant, they are in plain development and are growing qualitatively.
On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the power of the reactionary bourgeoisies and the influence of the United States continue to be enormous. To the degree that the revolutionary processes advance, the reaction will also intensify its aggressive and repressive policies with the aim of suffocating those advances.
ln the international context of our time, Latin America represents a focal point of the fundamental contradictions of this epoch. ln the backyard of US imperialism, the workers and the peoples are fighting for national and social liberation, are winning important political victories on an organizational and institutional level, and even, in a few countries, the government.
This situation stimulates the working class and the proletarian revolutionaries of ail continents, and puts them before the necessity to recover these experiences as reference for their own struggles, and, more than anything, before the task to organize the international solidarity with the various processes that are developing in Latin America .