Ollantay Itzamná
Moment of the spiritual invocation. International Encounter Abya Yala Sovereign Abya Yala from the Social Movements
It was clear that the plurinational State is not enough, it is also necessary to transform the cultural imaginary of the citizens through educational processes that aim to create a conscious subject, capable of fighting for the transformation of their country.
– Cony Morales
The wind was blowing with all its force in the facilities where the International Meeting Abya Yala Soberana from the Social Movements was taking place on December 1 and 2, 2021, in Guatemala City. The room was attended by young people and adults from more than 15 Latin American countries who were going to share experiences of articulation of different social movements from the popular sectors.
Abya Yala Soberana 2021 was the meeting between leaders of popular movements from different Latin American countries fighting against governments that oppress them. The neoliberal current was one of the topics of discussion, it was referred to as an economic current that promotes the non-involvement of the state in economic policies, privatization of public-state services, among others.
Event room Abya Yala Sovereign Abya Yala from the perspective of the Social Movements
It was also emphasized that in order for neoliberalism to operate freely in these Latin American countries the State must be weakened, this is achieved through budget cuts in social programs, social ministries, ministries of health, ministries of education and others.
The experience expressed by the popular leaders is that the neoliberal system represents great consequences for the entire population since, in those countries where the system operates with total freedom, there are high rates of poverty, migration, corruption, child malnutrition, poor access to health, education, and a transformation in the way of life of the people to such an extent that the popular customs and traditions are being weakened.
Cony Morales. Member of the support team of the Abya Yala Soberana Encounter.
The conclusions on this topic focused on the urgent need to carry out political training programs that contribute to awaken the conscience of the people, so that they understand how the dominant system works, how it uses the popular masses to enrich itself, in exchange for the impoverishment of the majority.
The conceptual debate generated around the conceptualization of old social movement and new social movement was interesting. They alluded to the fact that the old social movement has strong bases, seeks to change structures and survives for years. While the new social movement has weak bases because many of them cohere through social networks, which is why they come to life very quickly, but in the same way they disappear, many of their leaders lack commitment and many of them are located in urban sectors. It should be clarified that, according to the theory of social movements, all those coming from the popular sector are chronologically new social movements, but in practice they are old social movements, since they seek to change the system and the economic structure of their countries. Their policies are totally anti-system and they function as auditors of public entities.
One of the tables made up of representatives from the South of Abya Yala.
Now, when questioned as to why a genuine cohesion has not been achieved among the Latin American popular sectors? It was answered that one of the causes is the cultural hegemony that exists in our peoples imposed by the conquerors, so we have Nation-States with a territorial, political and economic order that responds to the interests of the dominant group of each country. In addition, borders were invented to divide us, so that the hegemonic structure has greater control over its population. The participants agreed that the dominant ideology has the popular sectors under control, studies them and then creates mechanisms to divide them, that is to say that the plan of fragmentation of the popular sector executed by the dominant structure is a success.
Some relevant conclusions of the event were focused on the need to promote the continental union of the popular sector. This sector must create political instruments to reach power which will allow it to start working on political, economic and cultural agendas for the transformation of a traditional-western State to a Plurinational State. It was clear that the Plurinational State is not enough; the cultural imaginary of citizens must also be transformed through educational processes aimed at creating a conscious subject, capable of fighting for the transformation of their country.
Guatemala, December 7, 2021
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 