“Around the world socialist, anti-imperialist, black liberation struggles show us the power of solidarity and internationalism. They illustrate why we must not despair even though imperialism is aiming to drive us back.”
By Fiona Sim
Around the world, we are seeing the rise in populism, in far-right rhetoric that favours alignment with US hegemony and the reign of free markets over popular mass support and freedom from the chains of imperialism.
Latin America has long been thought of derogatively as the backyard of the US, which seems to think it has a right to Latin America’s resources and to pick who its leaders should be.
In Argentina, we are seeing the spectre of Bolsonaro rising again. Their newly elected President Milei is a media personality turned president who has championed the interests of US imperialism, capitalism, and foreign intervention.
The largest federation of trade unions called for a general strike and on Wednesday 24th January, millions of workers took to the streets to protest against the whittling away of their democratic and human rights. Protesters are demanding the overturn of the DNU (the presidential “Decree of Necessity Urgency”) and pushing back on what has been coined as Argentina’s Omnibus Bill which threatens to privatise over 40 state-owned companies.
Indigenous groups have vocalised their concerns that Milei will only intensify the pre-existing crackdowns and persecution of land protectors. On the back of this, the new president has announced unprecedented access to lithium extraction and allowing the burning of land for productive use aka for profit. Within the first 30 days of his presidency, President Milei has passed over 300 legislative attacks on workers, indigenous people, and even the right to protest.
This is the playbook of Western imperialism, played out many times over decades and centuries in Latin America, with imperialism taking goods and resources and when people dare to demand a better life, it will take away representative leaders and install a repressive right-wing government of its choosing. And we know this is the same experience of imperialism globally – in African, Arab, Asian and Caribbean nations.
Amidst all of this, we see the power, the beauty, the hope that Black Liberation movements bring to every single corner of the world.
Who are the protectors of the Amazon rainforests? Indigenous peoples who manage about 30% of the Amazon – the lungs of the planet – and protect these lands from deforestation and environmental ruin.
Which countries have backed South Africa’s charges of genocide by Israel at the International Court of Justice? Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia. It is Latin American countries that have consistently shown up for Palestine on the world stage. On Thursday, Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil denounced the genocide in during the meeting of foreign ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Kampala, Uganda and correctly identified the country responsible for the barbarity.
“This is the result of the impunity with which the U.S. has been protecting the Israeli regime, even within the United Nations Security Council. This has led them to defy international law,” Gil said.
South Africa has spoken for much of the global South when the West has backed Israel’s brutal attack, and now the tide of history is with the Palestinians, its allies in the black nations, and we should see this as an embodiment of the power of black solidarity and black unity. The votes in the UN back this up. Those who voted against imperialism and for a ceasefire are on the right side of history. The British government and the so-called opposition have instead sided with Israel or abstained.
It is no coincidence that the countries on the side of justice for Palestine are some of the same countries with progressive governments. These are governments that have been elected to safeguard their people’s interests against the torrent of imperialist meddling and divide and conquer tactics. The politicians putting forward some of the most progressive constitutions and policies ever seen are from places where the black liberation movements are flourishing. Black communities – whether Indigenous, Afro-descendant, or otherwise – are creating the momentum for these advances.
The new pink tide could not be seen without the black liberation struggle. Because black liberation and self-determination for countries in Latin America go hand in hand. One cannot exist without the other. Not when they are bound together by one common thread: imperialism.
And imperialism, much like termites, has a way of burrowing deep into the foundations of a society and hollowing it from the inside out until worker’s rights and oppressed communities have been decimated.
No state, no country is perfect… and no country in the world can be, when the boot of US imperialism is kicking apart a country’s economy and decimating its’ society. Especially when the consequences of former colonial rule already run so deep in the fabric of a society. Whether it’s the ongoing blockade on Cuba or the coup that ousted Peru’s Castillo just months after Peruvians celebrated the break from decades of far-right governance, a country cannot be expected to thrive or progress when it is not being allowed the freedom to do so. Western Imperialism has history of threat of sanction, invasion, and more.
Despite the sanctions, the last decade has seen advances for African descent communities in Venezuela. This shows that anti-racism and equality are not disposable at the first sign of economic turmoil or foreign intervention.
The Black Liberation Alliance was privileged to host Fravia V Marquez Silva, the Executive Director for the International Summit for Anti-imperialist Africans and Afro Descendants at one of our forums on the advances made under the Chavez and Maduro led governments.
In 2019 Venezuela was the venue for the First International Conference of Afro-descendants with reps from 43 countries (more than 100 delegates) that discussed racism and discrimination against African-descendant women and the struggle against neoliberalism by African-descendants in Latin America, Africa, and the Western world. In Feb 2023 they hosted the Third Afro-Venezuelan National Conference aimed at “dismantling 530 years of colonialism, slavery, racism and discrimination.”
We must stand in solidarity with Venezuela and against the brutal sanctions which impact on the lives of ordinary Venezuelans. Sanctions have impacted harder on the African descent population, who have been historically more likely to be socially excluded and the poorest, whom the sanctions hit the hardest. The Centre for Economic and Policy Research calculated that sanctions have led to more than 40,000 deaths in 2017-18 alone.
This is why the anti-colonial, anti-imperialist resistance movements and revolutions across the continent have been so important in paving the way for a new dawn of worker’s rights. It is through connecting these movements and learning from revolutions past that real progress can be made in improving the quality of life.
Kerala — a state in India I had the privilege of visiting recently, boasts a 94% literacy rate – is the only state in India to have a rate higher than 90%. Palestine has an impressive literacy rate of 97.7%, higher than many boroughs of the UK. In the face of Israeli aggression and occupation, the resilience of Palestinians has overcome barriers that not even the wealthy west can accomplish. For Kerala, in the face of a far right Modi government, its left-unity government are working to uplift those at the bottom of the caste system and bolster education for its young people. And there are wider examples of the rising global south’s multilateral co-operation which is choosing working together over the bullish wars of the west. Because as we know, Cuba’s literacy rates stands in the Top 25 countries of the world at an impressive 99.7% — higher than the United Kingdom, United States, or France.
The leftist governments of Latin America — Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil — also understand the importance of South-South cooperation. South South cooperation looks like Cuba donating their own vaccines to Haiti to combat vaccine apartheid or sending Covid-19 health specialists to support their brothers and sisters in South Africa. It looks like Bolivia is collaborating with China on the Belt and Road Initiative to connect the Global South via mass infrastructure projects including the flagship highway El Espino. It is the BRICS countries inaugurating new BRICS plus members from across the Global South that are ultimately accelerating the de-dollarisation of the global finance system. The challenge to the petrodollar seems to finally be on the horizon.
Ultimately, it is understood that we are stronger together than we are apart.
Around the world socialist, anti-imperialist, black liberation struggles show us the power of solidarity and internationalism. They illustrate why we must not despair even though imperialism is aiming to drive us back. The global south is rising. Western imperialism knows the multipolar world will mean giving up its centuries-old monopoly on power and resources. Imperialism will use its military might, lawfare, coups and economic warfare to maintain dominance.
That is why we take inspiration from the beacon of light being carried around the global South and come together to organise against imperialism. Our solidarity is our way of aiding our counterparts on the frontline in this struggle for a better world.
Thanks to them, there is always hope, and we must meet this with revolutionary optimism.
Adelante!
- Fiona Sim is an organiser with the Black Liberation Alliance. You can follow the Black Liberation Alliance on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.
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