Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Afro-Descendents in the Americas Denounce Neo-Liberalism and Imperialism
Afro-Descendents at Sao Paulo Forum
14 Aug 2019
Afro-Descendents in the Americas Denounce Neo-Liberalism and Imperialism
Afro-Descendents in the Americas Denounce Neo-Liberalism and Imperialism

In Caracas, Venezuela, on July 28, 2019, Afro-Descended participants in the annual Sao Paulo Forum met to discuss the state of their various social movements. 

Final Declaration:

We, Afro-descendants of our America and the Caribbean, African women and men convened by the historical and ancestral becoming that contemplates the struggle for equality under the principles of solidarity, love, respect, recognition, sovereignty, independence and dignity, we positively value the realization of the AFRODESCENDENT MEETING OF OUR AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN within the framework of the XXV Meeting of the Forum of Sao Paulo.

Almost a third of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean is of African descent so it is right to recognize and make visible the Afro-descendant theme in this edition and should be made permanent in the next meetings. For this reason, we urge left-wing political parties to include on their agendas within the framework of the International Decade for People of African Descent and Reparations, considering that the eradication of racism is vital in the construction of Socialism.

We recognize, despite the invisibilization by patriarchal historiography, the political, social, cultural, spiritual, military and economic contributions that black and Afro-descendant women have made in the era of slavery, in the founding of cumbes, quilombos, palenques, candombes and maroons, in the wars of independence and in the various political processes in America and the Caribbean, and their constant prominence as active and leading participants in political processes and resistance against all kinds of oppression. We also reject the invisibilization of women as benchmarks of struggles and achievements of the Afro people.

“The eradication of racism is vital in the construction of Socialism.”

We also confirm our inescapable commitment to the struggle of Afro-descendant youth, a sector that receives mainly the onslaught of neoliberalism that seeks to leave it without historical memory.

We consider, that it is not enough to address the fight against imperialism only as a diaspora, a new international geopolitical strategy is strictly necessary that synergistically links us to the struggles that social movements and left-wing political parties are waging on the African continent for the emancipation of peoples. That is why we affirm that Revolutionary Pan-Africanism is a form of anti-imperialist struggle defined towards the political unity of Africa, South America and the Caribbean, a South-South unit, on which Commander Chávez noted: "In Africa, South America and the Caribbean there are the poles that will balance the universe."

We express as People and Communities of African Descent, our outrage at the international siege that the US government, led by its President Donald Trump and supported by the stateless opposition of imperialism, maintains against the Venezuelan people. We also reject the gringa's (US) interference committed to a change of government through continued coup d'état and foreign military intervention, using a contempted National Assembly, articulated by the wave of media lies spread by the owners of the major media, as a function of justifying to the world any action outside international law and the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We also reject the ethnic criminalization, persecution and extermination of social leaders in Haiti, Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, and among other African countries and their diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean.

“We reject the gringa's (US) interference committed to a change of government through continued coup d'état and foreign military intervention.”

The people of Venezuela are determined to defend their homeland against any enemy following the historical struggle of indigenous people, Africans and their descendants towards victory, expressed greatly in popular power, based on participatory democracy and leading the way in the spotlight.

That is why the Social Movements of African Descent gathered in this Forum,

 Agreed to:

1. Organize and conduct the Afro-Descendant meeting within the framework of the editions of the Forum of Sao Paulo.

2. To incorporate the Pan-Africanist perspective of South - South Unity, as a mechanism to combat imperialism, promoting the multipolar world underpinned by the Diplomacy of Peoples and inspired by the legacies of Bolivar, Chávez, Nkrumah, Garvey, among others and other pan-Africanists from Africa, Our America and the Caribbean.

3. We urge left-wing political parties to include in their program agendas of the Afro-descendant ethnic element and the pan-African perspective as a mechanism for integration among peoples, based on a strategy that facilitates the empowerment of countries that have suffered setbacks or veered toward neoliberalism. In this sense, we are committed to promoting strategic alliances with different social movements and left-wing parties in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean to halt the advancement of neoliberalism and imperialism.

4. We encourage social movements fighting imperialism to break down the language barriers that impede effective communication; as well as tackling media manipulation in order to consolidate and deepen the integration processes within the framework of Africa's political unity and its diaspora.

5. Consider incorporating Afro-descendant women with their own voice into the platform of the Forum of Sao Paulo in order to ensure gender balance in the editions of this event. And use this forum as a platform to demand justice in the case of leaders who, like Marielle Franco, have sacrificed their lives for justice and equality.

6. We form the Afro-Descendant Secretary of the Forum of Sao Paulo in order to follow up on the agreements and commitments made in each edition.

7. We reject the unilateral coercive measures and economic, financial and diplomatic blockade that the United States government, currently in the hands of Donald Trump, and the European Union are applying against the Venezuelan people, as they are actions of neo-slavery, neocolonialist, fascist and racist which must be condemned by international society as crimes against humanity.

8. We repudiated the terrorist acts fostered by the Venezuelan stateless opposition in May 2017 when various hate crimes were committed against people of African descent, including the young Orlando Figuera who was burned alive, in the midst of an opposition demonstration, a fact that must be condemned by the international community, a fact that was omitted by the UN High Commissioner for DD. HH in its July 2019 report.

9. Organize the Pan-Africanist Social Forum based on the Diplomacy of Peoples.

10. We reaffirm the inescapable commitment to defend until every last breath of our lives, the full development of peoples and the right to self-determination, we also alert the world to the imperial actions of the United States and the European Union since, among other evils, they endanger life on the planet.

Venceremos!!!  (We will conquer)

Translation by Djibo Sobukwe, a Black Alliance for Peace supporter.

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected]

Pan Africanism

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

MANIFESTO: The 1959 Pan Africanist Manifesto
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
MANIFESTO: The 1959 Pan Africanist Manifesto
26 January 2022
The Pan African Congress of Azania’s 1959 Manifesto provides a radical blueprint for African self-determination.
Frantz Fanon Lives! 60 Years After His Death, Fanon’s Ideas Remain the Weapons of the Oppressed
Danny Shaw
Frantz Fanon Lives! 60 Years After His Death, Fanon’s Ideas Remain the Weapons of the Oppressed
07 December 2021
The work of Frantz Fanon guides anti-imperialist thought and action 60 years after his death.
US Militarism Kills at Home and Abroad
Black Alliance For Peace
US Militarism Kills at Home and Abroad
23 June 2021
We regard militarism as the antithesis of revolutionary pan-African visions of Africa as a region freed from the destructive legacies of its patria
The USA – Immoral, Illegal, Irredeemable, and Irrelevantto Global Africa’s Liberation Struggle
Mark P. Fancher
The USA – Immoral, Illegal, Irredeemable, and Irrelevantto Global Africa’s Liberation Struggle
12 May 2021
The U.S. can never be reformed to render justice to its African residents.
BLACK CITIZENSHIP FORUM: The Roots of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa—A Pan African Response
Black Agenda Review Editors
BLACK CITIZENSHIP FORUM: The Roots of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa—A Pan African Response
24 February 2021
South Africa must dismantle and transcend the colonial nation-state through creation of a Pan-African federation that stretches across the Southern
Police Kill. We March. Why?
Mark P. Fancher
Police Kill. We March. Why?
02 September 2020
We must instead think creatively about how to either take total community control of law enforcement as an institution or to bring about an indepen
Beyoncé's "Black is King" and the  Pitfalls of African Consciousness
Russell Rickford
Beyoncé's "Black is King" and the Pitfalls of African Consciousness
19 August 2020
With Black is King, Beyoncé and Disney have combined to sell audiences a lavishly fabricated Africa—one that is entirely devoid of class c
Kamala Harris; Class Struggle and the Illusion of Identity in Capitalism / Photo: Kamala Harris with her Jamaican father, Prof. Donald Harris 
Ahjamu Umi
Kamala Harris; Class Struggle and the Illusion of Identity in Capitalism
19 August 2020
Some Africans in America identify with people like Harris because THEY see their class interests, as she does, as being intertwined with the intere
. Global Africa Must Defeat Global Imperialist Policing
Mark P. Fancher
Global Africa Must Defeat Global Imperialist Policing
10 June 2020
Africans have flooded into the streets of Britain, Germany, Brazil, France and many other countries, not only in solidarity, but also as part of th
Africans Solving African Problems: Bringing Peace to Sudan
Thomas C. Mountain
Africans Solving African Problems: Bringing Peace to Sudan
17 July 2019
The road to peace in the Horn of Africa once again ran through Eritrea, the socialist country the West loves to hate.

More Stories


  • African Liberation Day Special Issue
    BAR Editors
    African Liberation Day Special Issue
    25 May 2022
    The Black Agenda Report team gives special emphasis to African Liberation Day, which is celebrated on May 25.
  • Capitalism and Baby Formula
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Capitalism and Baby Formula
    25 May 2022
    The baby formula shortage is not a glitch in the system. It actually exemplifies everything that goes wrong when the profit motive rules. Capitalism can't ensure a food supply or anything else that…
  • African Liberation Day: Imamu Amiri Baraka, 1972
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    African Liberation Day: Imamu Amiri Baraka, 1972
    25 May 2022
    On this African Liberation Day, we revisit Amiri Baraka’s 1972 communiqué calling for Black people to struggle for Pan-African unity while also registering our anger at the “pathology and traitor…
  • US Threatens Ethiopia and Eritrea with Illegal “Legal Designation of Genocide”
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    US Threatens Ethiopia and Eritrea with Illegal “Legal Designation of Genocide”
    25 May 2022
    The US is falsely accusing Ethiopia and Eritrea of hindering food aid and committing genocides in the ongoing war in Tigray.
  • Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh Remind Us of the Roots of White Supremacy in the Aftermath of Buffalo Shooting
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh Remind Us of the Roots of White Supremacy in the Aftermath of Buffalo Shooting
    25 May 2022
    Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh shared a birthday. They also shared an internationalist ideology, a commitment to liberation for all people, and a deep understanding of how racist structures operated…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us