WORLD WORLDWIDE URUGUAY News Journal Update - (en) Uruguay, fAu: Analysis of the Latin American situation - CALA (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On the international stage, we are going through important changes in

the correlations of power that did not begin now, but that have gained
greater intensity with the events of recent years. ---- After the end of
the Cold War and the defeat of the Real Socialism bloc, we began a phase
of what has conventionally been called a unipolar world, with the US
centralizing all power and influencing the rest of the world , without
much resistance, in a globalization dictated by the beacons of
transnationals and Western values (with military-ideological supporters
and political-economic protectorates as supporters) of much of Western
Europe, as well as Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
and the State of Israel, based on Zionism and racist apartheid.

On the other hand, since the 1970s and 1980s, the standards of living
achieved by these countries have been showing signs of significant
deterioration, something that was essential to keep the majority of
their oppressed classes under control and in line with their policies. .
We are now going through the heyday of neoliberal policy that was
created during the cold war and became the only truth accepted by
official economists and governments in most of the world; Decades of
this policy have seen society absorbed and precarious almost to the
point of exhaustion.
When this model fails, there are two possibilities: either a popular
revolt or the system needs to reinvent itself. What we are seeing is the
system reinventing itself.
In this new reorganization of the system we see the emergence of a new
sphere of international influence. Led by China, a new non-white and
non-Western power bloc begins to form, which begins to design a
multipolar world in which the hegemony of the Atlantic axis begins to
crack - all in the midst of an ambitious development project that has
lasted for decades. decades, based on centralized planning in the State,
the intensive exploitation of the working class, the elimination of
internal opposition and with well-marked stages of development. The
People's Republic of China is already the largest industrial power in
the world and little by little it will become the largest economic
power. If it is not yet compared to the military power of Russia and the
US, it has made significant investments in this sector in recent years.
In line with the above, China is transforming from a country with an
industry of cheap and second-rate industrial products, to a power with
cutting-edge technology, opening its market, but incorporating advanced
technologies and conditioning the development of its own technologies.
In this context, sectors of the left feed an illusory vision of "Chinese
socialism", which in reality is state capitalism, placing this country
at the forefront of an anti-imperialist struggle.
These are advances to confront the power of the United States, since at
the moment it is impossible to engage in war in the most classic forms
or to try to dominate other countries by force. With projects such as
the New Silk Road, which is celebrating its first decade, China aims to
integrate countries, especially from the Global South, into a complex
process that involves heavy investments in infrastructure and the
transfer of certain production to more than a hundred countries in the
world, especially in search of raw materials.
If decades ago it was enough to co-opt local elites by the North
American Empire and the total submission of nations to plundering
regimes dictated by international organizations (such as the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank), today capitalism needs
to reinvent itself. Without a doubt, at this stage of Chinese power
consolidation, "partnership" is more strategic than direct
subordination. Firstly, because he needs to face a power even greater
than his own; and second because the characteristic of Chinese
capitalism requires these new relationships. Without a doubt there are
advances in the purchasing power of the population in the scenario of
this new bloc, but in no way can we call it Socialism or we would be
using old concepts for new meanings.
If the People's Republic of China triumphs and the United States is
defeated (a situation that will not arise for a few decades, as most
forecasts agree), relations will adapt to a new scenario.
Another important issue is that the Empire will not see the collapse of
its influence without moving, which can generate attacks on countries
(including Latin America) that threaten to take sides or, at least,
leave the dollar in their international exchanges, for example .
The Ukrainian War is an important milestone of these changes in the
geopolitical order. The Russian invasion of Ukraine expresses deep
tensions between NATO led by the United States and the Russian
Federation and their traditional zones of influence. Precisely, Russia
is a country that, after the disastrous transition to the market in
1990, decided to leave the area of neoliberal influence of the United
States, seeking to invest in a recovery of its internal development,
while continuing to affirm its imperial influence in Eastern Europe.
East and the Caucasus as the second Chechen war showed in all brutality.
In Russia under the authoritarian government of Putin, which has lasted
for more than two decades, right-wing imperial nationalism is combined
with developmental aspects, seeking to overcome what it perceives as the
era of international humiliation embodied in the Yeltsin government (who
paradoxically designated Putin as his successor), with a strongly
authoritarian internal policy, contrary to national minorities,
anti-lgbt and anti-popular.
On the other hand, Ukraine deepened its international alignment with the
European Union and NATO, since the popular revolts of the Euromaiden of
2014 against the Yanukovych government, events in which the radical
right played a major role, and which led to the occupation. Russian
Crimea and the civil war in the east of the country. The internal war
generated a situation of right-wing and nationalist exacerbation, which
led to the participation in Ukraine of neo-Nazi groups in sectors of the
armed forces and the government, as well as pro-Russian neo-fascist
groups in the separatist sectors.

Europe assumes a position of total subordination to the interests of the
international policy of the United States in a way that becomes
humiliating, with work in the cultural field so intense that contrary
opinions, even in left-wing sectors, are quickly nullified.
Sustaining a war that implies an increase in the cost of living, with
inflation rates not seen for generations in Western Europe and the
threat of deindustrialization, in addition to the increase in the cost
of energy and basic goods, popular revolts are already perceived, common
in France, but not as common in England and Germany as those that have
not been seen in those countries for years.
This is where one of the great dangers we face not only in Europe, but
in other parts of the world, lies in the dispute for the hegemony of
international influence.
For some years now, the revolt against worsening living conditions has
been led by the extreme right, which in many places has managed to steal
the anti-system discourse of the left, a tactic that we also witness in
Brazil with some elements of propaganda. Bolsonaro, but also in the US
with Trump and Europe with Brexit, Afd and Le Pen, for example.
The scenario presents us with consolidated conservative,
ultranationalist and radical right-wing governments in Europe (such as
in Hungary, Poland and Italy), as well as a growing movement in France,
Spain, Portugal, among others. A true International of fascist
intentions is organized throughout Europe, with its feet planted in
several countries of the global south. Such parties and movements have
been more or less successful in elections, depending on national
contexts, but they are consolidating themselves as first-order political
forces and guide the discourse and co-opt parts of the oppressed classes
everywhere.
This whole situation adds to the oldest internationalist struggles, such
as the increase in persecution, criminalization and violence against
migrants, especially in Europe; invasions, murders and paramilitary
advances against Zapatista territories in Chiapas; the blockades against
Cuba and Venezuela; the systematic attacks on the glorious Rojava
revolution and the Kurdish territories by Turkey (a NATO member country,
by the way); in addition to the tireless resistance of the Palestinian
people against the apartheid regime, state terrorism and brutal
colonization, stronger and more violent every year, perpetrated by the
Zionist state with financial, logistical and institutional support from
the West.
They are all struggles and movements that we have to look at carefully
and move to understand their impacts. We stand in solidarity with the
people and position ourselves in the comings and goings of events,
attentive to the consequences for our territories and our ideology.
Our Latin America
Meanwhile, in Latin America, misery and poverty increase, at the same
rate as policies of resource extraction and plunder are deployed. We
have the problem of water in Uruguay, a country that does not naturally
lack water resources, but forestation, pulp plants and soy monoculture
are consuming drinking water. For more than two months there was no
drinking water in the metropolitan area, but rather water with high
levels of sodium and chloride. Clear example of a policy of looting, in
this stage where the capitalist is clearly ecocidal and genocidal. On
the other hand, the Uruguayan popular movement is preparing to start a
plebiscite campaign in defense of social security and retirements,
trying to maintain the retirement age within the previous limits and
eliminate private insurance companies.
In Argentina, the extraction and contamination of water, clearing,
predation of fauna, monoculture, megamining, burning,  frackingand the
use of agrochemicals are part of the actions that this system uses to
take over resources, progressively expelling the population from its
territory to the margins of large cities, promoting poverty,
unemployment and facilitating control and repression. Lithium appears as
a resource desired by large energy multinationals. It was one of the
reasons for the coup d'état in Bolivia in 2019, for the current Boularte
dictatorship in Peru and its brutal repression with more than 60 deaths,
the Morales "dictatorship" in Jujuy (Argentina) and its fierce
repression as well, with methods that recall dark periods in the history
of the continent.
After seeing popular uprisings that bordered on insurrection in some
places, they gave way to several leftist governments (or, more
precisely, mostly center-left alliances), governments that did not and
will not give the response that the population wanted. - but quite the
opposite, as in the Chilean case, in which the concertation that brought
Boric to the government now practices policies of austerity, increased
violence and militarization of indigenous territories, to give just one
example. In Argentina, today we are experiencing the consequences of
decades of co-optation and adaptation of social and union movements by
the self-proclaimed progressive governments after the outbreak of 2001.
The direction of parties to channel the struggle into electoral scams,
with the "not doing the I play to the right
This same population is courted by far-right movements that, as in other
places, have appropriated an anti-system discourse. The reformist left
tries to oppose it using the weapons it has been using in recent
decades: the legalistic discourse of respect for the Democratic State of
law and an abstract defense of democratic ideals, evoking a moral
discourse against fascism. In the case of Chile it is It is possible
that Kast (far-right candidate) wins the next elections and even the
much-talked-about constitutional reform that Boric wants to approve at
all costs is more reactionary than the current one prepared by the
Pinochet dictatorship.
In Colombia, where a center-left government has also been installed, the
fundamental axis is placed on reaching peace agreements with the
different guerrillas and timidly advancing in agrarian reform. The ELN
(National Liberation Army) has been critical of previous processes
(where there are thousands of deaths, including more than 350
signatories of the Peace Agreement and around 1,534 social leaders), and
intends to involve society as a whole in the debate , focusing on the
urgent social needs that have historically motivated violence in the
country. For their part, the paramilitary and drug trafficking groups
are not disarming nor are they going to surrender. The weight of
military aid from the United States is strong there(with not distant
antecedents in Plan Colombia since 2000) along with equipment, training
and coverage of anti-guerrilla and "dirty war" actions that resulted in
thousands of "false positives", that is, extrajudicial executions and
massacres of peasants and popular youth that the Colombian Army passed
off as confrontations with the guerrilla in its continuous campaign of
disinformation and terrorism. It remains to be seen how the situation
develops in Colombia, and especially what the right does in the face of
its past presidential defeat but gradual strengthening and activity in
recent months. The Colombian people have given a great lesson in dignity
and combativeness in the mobilizations of 2021 and in previous instances
as well (2019 and 2020). There are important reserves there to continue
building a strong town,
If we talk about Terrorism, Peru should take first place or one of the
first right now. The "terruqueo" that is done from the institutions is
constant. We already saw it in the electoral campaign and it continues
now before every popular mobilization. On July 19, the third march or
"taking" of Lima took place. The government and the press insisted that
Sendero Luminoso and the MRTA are active and generating
"destabilization"; that the protest is admitted, but within what is
permitted. Clearly, the guerrilla in Peru is not active. It has suffered
severe blows in the 90s, under the government of Fujimori, a sector that
today governs and is, in fact, in power. The campaign is strong and is
based on incredible lies. Castillo was positioned as "a communist" in
the electoral campaign and that is why he has not been allowed to govern
and the coup d'état has occurred. Castillo is far from being very
leftist, capitalism and the Peruvian ruling classes do not tolerate
anyone who is not reactionary. There is also a class and ethnic-racial
issue there. Those at the top in Peru do not tolerate someone who comes
from the social movement becoming president, nor do they tolerate
someone who is indigenous or mestizo. This would mean the social rise of
a fraction of the indigenous popular sectors (as has occurred in
Bolivia), which the Peruvian dominant classes - with a great colonial
heritage - are not willing to tolerate or accept. Nor do they tolerate
the mobilization of the popular sectors in protest of the Boluarte
dictatorship,
For its part, in Ecuador the situation remains tense, to which is added
the murder of a presidential candidate, presumably due to drug
trafficking. The peasant movement puts pressure on the government at the
negotiating table and mobilizes from time to time. We are talking about
countries where there were popular revolts. That is still present there.
We said in previous materials that on our continent we have been in a
cycle of protests and revolts that has been open since 2019 and that
this cycle has not yet closed. The people will continue to search in the
streets for solutions to distressing social problems and new political
alternatives with class independence. Of these revolts we can clearly
say that they have been of broad popular participation, true "villages",
where they have expressed themselves in the streets, fields and routes
the widest diversity of our people. A true Front of Oppressed Classes in
action, united by specific objectives and situations, articulated in
broad social spaces and coordination for the struggle. Much has been
done in recent years and this experience does not fall on deaf ears, it
will surely germinate with greater intensity.
We can say that the alternatives are there: popular mobilization for
solutions to social problems, against authoritarianism, in the key of
Resistance and against looting or the advancement of the most retrograde
conceptions, in some cases, purely fascist. We cannot deny that large
sectors of the population do not find a solution to their problems by
asking for respect for the system and many fall into the "siren song" of
fascism and the extreme right, which have ample means for their
dissemination, plus the clear support of USA, expressed clearly by the
Chief of the Southern Command. The influence of the extreme right varies
in Latin America, there are countries where the most liberal right still
has more influence, such as Uruguay, and others, such as Brazil, where
at least 20% of the population is highly influenced by fascist ideas.
The rates of development in each country of this phenomenon and others
vary and are different. But there is an advance of authoritarian ideas
that is undeniable in the region, as we pointed out, it occurs in Europe
and other parts of the planet. The right, the ruling classes and the
North American empire are not going to sit still and will continue
working to deepen their domination over the area and ideologically
control our people as well.
Although it is not the majority, it is undoubtedly a part of the
population that has mobilized in recent years in several countries,
including actions of vandalism, invasions and a discourse aligned with
radical appearance, promoted by extreme right-wing sectors. In this
scenario, we must be honest with ourselves: the influence of the
revolutionary left is minimal. On the other hand, the institutional
"left" and center-left do not confront nor do they want to confront the
fascist and reactionary sectors. They take care of their chance of being
a government by capturing the vote of the same social sectors. The case
of Brazil is clear: an important sector of the population voted for Lula
in the past, then for Bolsonaro, now again for Lula...But fascism and
coups d'état are not stopped at the polls,
Something similar happens in Argentina, in a context of poverty growing
to unsustainable levels (one in every two children is poor) and on the
verge of hyperinflation, the political scene is crossed by provincial
and national elections. Where the PASO (mandatory simultaneous open
primaries) placed right-wing candidates in first and second place, with
privatization proposals, labor flexibility and profound adjustments
added to a pro-"hard hand" discourse, denying the last dictatorship. In
third place is the candidate of the current government, who decided in
recent weeks to abruptly devalue the Argentine peso, accelerating
inflation and, thus, once again making those below pay the consequences
of the current economic and social situation. The surprise of the "Milei
phenomenon" among the political militancy and middle sectors is directly
proportional to the distance from the grassroots constructions of the
popular sectors. The passivity of numerous union leaders and social
movements also did their job. The "truce" offered to
Alberto-Cristina-Massa by these leaders ends up exposing a social
climate and discontent that was channeled by reactionary sectors, which
in turn compete to see who has the recipe to accelerate the adjustment
against the people. . Meanwhile, in each neighborhood, drug trafficking
and social violence advance, engulfing the lives of our kids, while the
fight between the poor against the poor deepens, well reflected in the
illuminating 2010 FAU document "Fragmentation and the new poverty."
At the same time in the workplace, in addition to the constant - and
exhausting - fight for the reopening of joint ventures, a scenario of
layoffs and suspensions is being foreseen, within the framework of an
adjustment demanded by the employers' chambers, which has as a corollary
a labor reform. All this problem must be raised by militancy. In
countries like Brazil, to take an example, 20% of the population
responds to fascist or reactionary conceptions, but on the other hand,
we cannot forget that 30% of the population (which would be influenced
by the progressive and leftist camp) It is not a small number, but a
policy of revolutionary intention needs to radicalize at least a part of
this population towards a left-wing anti-system discourse. Without false
modesty, anarchists have a role to play in that process. Not everything
depends on our efforts, but we have a lot to do and be able to better
take advantage of favorable situations of mobilization and people in the
streets. Regardless of the governments that rise and fall, it is
essential to redouble the militant efforts of the sectors or currents
that, One way or another we long for a society without oppressors and
oppressed. Energy must be put at the service of organized resistance.
Everything else is to continue avoiding the underlying problem and fall
into that "corral of branches" that are the elections, as old Mechoso
liked to call it. We must humbly realize that the only way out is to
strengthen popular organizations,
Therefore, it is essential to sustain the work of insertion in the
different social fronts, enhancing popular protagonism within the
framework of a strategy for building Popular Power in all its possible
forms. If the people are the protagonists of the struggles, it will be
more difficult for the "magical" proposals to appear from above and have
the centrality that the system grants them. A strong people is the
builder of its destiny, that is why our strategy is People's Power and
the Front of Oppressed Classes.

CONTINUE THE FIGHTS ON THE STREETS AND IN THE FIELDS, ON THE ROADS AND
IN THE FACTORIES, IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS AND IN THE STUDY CENTERS
TO RESIST THE ADVANCE OF THE RIGHT AND EXTREME RIGHT!!
FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF POPULAR POWER!!
VICTORY IS IN THE HAND OF THOSE WHO FIGHT!!
UP THOSE WHO FIGHT!!!
Latin American Anarchist Coordination (CALA)

Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU)

Anarchist Federation of Rosario (FAR, Argentina)

Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB)


Sister organizations:


Anarchist Organization of Tucumán (OAT, Argentina)

Anarchist Organization of Córdoba (OAC, Argentina)

Anarchist Organization of Santa Cruz (OASC, Argentina)

Libertarian Group Vía Libre (Colombia)

https://federacionanarquistauruguaya.uy/analisis-de-coyuntura-latinoamericana-cala/
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