The event at the Unione Benevolenza hall in Buenos Aires on 1 December was a day worthy to be written in the history book. “This a traditional Argentine working class area” said Alicia Sagra, Argentine trotskyist leader who led the commemoration.
After showing a video on the history of the IWL and its parties, sections from across Latin America entered including Argentines, Brazilians, Chileans, and Colombians.
A Palestinian activist living in Brazil, Soraya Misleh, spoke first and announced her affiliation to the PSTU and IWL. She spoke of the Palestinian struggle, “The future of Palestine lies in the hands of the youth, but there remains a lack of a revolutionary leadership”. She also spoke about the Arab revolutions, the main hub of which today is the Syrian revolution. “The route for the liberation of Palestine goes through the Arab revolution and the downfall of Bashar Al Assad will be a great step towards this goal”.
{module Propaganda 30 anos – MORAL}Eduardo Almeida, from the leadership of the PSTU Brazil, recalled another time, also in Buenos Aires, 25 years ago, when Nahuel Moreno died and the crisis that shook the IWL. “We were saddened, but today we are in Buenos Aires again and we are delighted.” He talked of the process strengthening the IWL and its expandion in European countries such as Portugal, Italy and Spain amidst the current process of mobilisation against austerity plans.
Eduardo also talked about the importance of the heritage and the principles of Marxism that the IWL fights for at a time when much of the Left has abandoned the perspective of the socialist revolution.
“This is the main tribute we can offer to Nahuel Moreno’s memory”, said Eduardo Barragan, from the leadership of the PSTU Argentine. Barragan described the current struggles of European workers and the North African revolutions, which today show more than ever the need for internationalism and revolutionary leadership.
Vera Lucia from the PSTU in Aracaju, Sergipe State, Brazil, moved everyone when she talked about the need to fight against oppression, emphasising the overexploitation that women in general, black women and lesbians in particular, are subjected to. At the end of her speech, everyone chanted: “Our fight is every day against sexism, racism and homophobia”.
Angel Luis Parras from the leadership of Corriente Roja, Spain and IWL spoke at the end. “The current situation is very complex, but very enthralling”, he said. “We have witnessed the explosion of the revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East as a result of the economic crisis and the popular upsurge, but also as a result of the end of the Stalinist apparatus. After misery and dictatorship these peoples have broken on to the political scene”.
He attacked the position of most of the Left and Castro-Chavism, who support Assad in Syria. “They say that there is a unity of action between the rebels and imperialism. Of course there, it is a kind of unity equal to that between the allies and the partisans, when the allies landed in Normandy against Mussolini”.
“We hereby, want to send a salutation to our detractors: keep calling demonstrations in defence of Assad because we, from the IWL, will continue in the resistance”.
