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NEWS & LETTERS, September-October 2010
Forum of the Americas
Asunción, Paraguay--The Social Forum of the Americas (Foro Social Américas) in August, had as its theme Another America Is Possible. Much of the program was printed in Spanish and Guaraní--the indigenous language of the region. Several thousand participated from all parts of Latin America. Besides a major presence from Paraguay--students, intellectuals, women's activists and a large campesino-indigenous contingent--there were groups of Brazilians, Argentinians and Bolivians, as well as many from Ecuador, Colombia, and other countries throughout the Americas.
The major focus was self-created activities, primarily workshops, put on by the dozens upon dozens of different groups in attendance. The range of topics is too large to list, but included building a people-centered economy, issues of migrants, campesinos and agriculture, human rights, problems of women and of youth, original peoples of Paraguay, education questions, social protest analysis of transnationals, cooperatives, democracy--all told, close to two hundred workshops.
On top of these were cultural events of music, theater, films, and many, many informal moments, such as a wonderful band from Bolivia, a group of activist women doing political education through art on women's issues all over the conference grounds. A number of major panels had activist intellectuals as speakers--Raúl Zibechi of Uruguay, Anibal Quijano of Peru, and Raúl Prada of Bolivia--among others, on themes such as Latin America in Front of the Global Crisis, To Live Well, and The Rights of Mother Earth. There was as well the presence of the Presidents of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, and of Bolivia, Evo Morales.
Indeed, Paraguay as a country signifies the beginnings of Another America Is Possible, as does Bolivia. After some three decades of the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, and further right-wing manipulation, the theology of liberation priest, Lugo, was elected as president two years ago.
However, the real possibilities open for an "Otro America," could perhaps best be seen in smaller, informal ways. In walking through the large encampment of Indigenous Paraguayan campesinos one could see and hear the small circles of informal discussion and debate being carried out in Guaraní; or the interest shown in our literature table, with books of Marxist-Humanism attracting many young Paraguayan activists, as well as Indigenous from Bolivia and Ecuador, women and Black activists from Brazil, an Indigenous professor from the highlands of Guatemala--all interested in ideas of liberation, anxious for an interchange and the opportunity to study Marx and Marxist-Humanism.
Perhaps most significant, in terms of a passion for emancipatory ideas, was the fact that our workshop on Marx and Marxist-Humanism in Latin America drew close to 80, including young Black activists from São Paulo, whose fluency in Spanish was limited, but whose interest in Marx was vast. Spirited discussion took place, as it did in our other workshop on the Dialectic in Latin America, where a young teacher in rural Paraguay wanted to know how the dialectic could be taught to his students.
--Eugene Walker
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