The 3rd CSP-Conlutas National Congress is scheduled from October 12th to 15th. A privileged moment for the workers, youth, popular movements, and all those who struggle against oppressions to meet and discuss the policies of the Federation for the next period, and to evaluate the leadership since the previous Congress.
The Federation’s National Coordination has approved its internal statute, program, and participation requirements. Soon, we will disseminate more information and launch the Congress’ host site. Wait for it!
The National Congress Launching Manifesto
The 3rd CSP-Conlutas National Congress is coming:
11 years strengthening the popular and Union-trade, classist, and independent unity.
The CSP-Conlutas (Popular and Union Federation) will carry out, from October 12 to the 15th, its 3rd National Congress. Over 10 years have passed since the beginning of what we call the new re-organization process of the Brazilian popular and union movement. This is the 7th congress in the building and affirmation of an alternative leadership for the mass movement in the country. More than preparing ourselves for the immediate struggles, this congress will take place in the 100-year celebration of the Russian Revolution, one of the greatest and most important events in human History, where workers and the poor people seized the power.
For 500 years, injustice, inequality, oppression, and exploitation have made the achievement of a dignified life impossible for most of the population in the country. The poor and workers permanently needed bold answers to survive so many difficulties and precariousness in living conditions. We must fight for the right to a job, often informal or outsourced, and we still have to struggle against extremely low wages and very high rent prices and costs of living. Besides, every day we have to face different types of violence, like the genocide of the Black youth in the periphery, and a wide range of evils generated by the system and the so called “democracy,” which only protects the rich. But our people have struggled, throughout History. From the natives’ resistance to the slave quarters and Maroons. From strikes with our immigrants and regional uprisings to the struggle against dictatorship. From struggles against the cut of rights imposed by the previous governments to the uprising of Jirau and Santo Antonio, in the North of the country. Now, since 2013, we saw the struggle take the streets with the explosion of accumulated frustration, as not seen in years.
From then on, the streets, factories, schools, occupations, and neighborhoods have not stopped struggling!
Nowadays, our country faces a political and economic crisis. Before this, capitalism leaves millions of workers in unemployment and violently attacks the already meager rights of our class. Consequently, our people resist and struggle in what it is one of the greatest ascents in our History. For the class to win this battle, our Federation, the CSP-Conlutas, must continue oriented by the criteria of organization and mobilization as its main method of combat, and by the intransigent defense of the principle of CLASS INDEPENDENCE. This is an indispensable condition for us to achieve political analysis and deliberations in our 3rd Congress that allow a daring struggle plan to face this reality, and with our class put an end to this history of exploitation.
We are before the retake of the historical role of the working class, in the lead and as an active part of the general strikes, stopping the production in the entire country, demonstrating its strength. The popular movement also joined the organization of struggle in the territory, blocking highways and avenues, participating in the factory picket lines, mobilizing in the neighborhoods, buses, trains, and metro stations. The strength of working women has stood out with the burst of world protests on last March 8, showing their determination and decisive action in each class action. This process verifies that us, laborers, with the workers in the lead, can take our destiny into our own hands and control the country. Without a doubt, mobilization and direct action are the way to reach this. Through mechanisms like street occupations and General Strikes, we will prepare conditions to free ourselves from our condition of exploited and oppressed in this society, which has lasted more than five centuries. Our victory is possible and necessary. Our 3rd Congress will take place in service of strengthening this transforming strategy.
Those who defend the substitution of capitalism with socialism are found within the CSP-Conlutas. The [current] system only favors the wealthy. It has led millions of our class to agonize in migrations, in scourge, starvation, and death all over the world. One must dare to understand that our class, its struggles, dreams, and achievements have an International dimension. No unity is possible with our class enemies to solve our problems, whether they are bankers, landowners, multinationals, or corporations; they always move to increase their profit at the expense of those who work. The history of our country is marked by submission to the imperialist interests. To free ourselves from this burden, we must condemn the path of class conciliation, the illusions in electoral regimes, and focus our strength on our direct and independent action.
With this understanding and strategic orientation, we confronted the PT administrations for over 10 years. It is with this same conviction that we struggle in defense of our labor and pension rights, and in open opposition to all the attacks from the Temer administration, just as we are set to overthrow him. In our 3rd Congress, we must reaffirm and raise all our demands in defense of the Brazilian working-class interests and intensify our search for the broadest unity in action, so we can defeat capitalism and its agents. This way, we could finally rule the country. Only following this strategy we can answer the needs of those who produce and reverse the chaos capitalism imposes on us every day.
To fight unemployment we demand an immediate Emergency Public Work Plan, the reduction of work-shifts to 36 h without reduction of salaries, work stability for everyone, and decriminalization of informal workers, like street vendors. Against corruption, we defend the imprisonment and the seizing of goods of corrupt and corrupting ones, as well as the nationalization of all companies involved in these scandals.
We are against the bills of Pensions and Labor, just as we defend the revoking of the reforms by the previous administrations, both PSDB and PT, as well as the “Outsourcing Bill”. We defend the extinction of the Social Security Factor and the DRU (Unbinding of Union Revenues), which bleeds up to 30% of the Social Security resources to give it to national and international bankers. We defend the respect, valorization, and widening of public services and employees as a way to improve the living conditions of our people. Thus, more public tenders and hiring processes will be necessary for the three levels of public administration. To have money to invest in health, education, transport, and housing we defend the immediate suspension of the public debt payment, which takes half the budget of the country every year just to pay taxes and services of the debt to usurers and banks!
In order to have these measures applied in our country, we need a different kind of government. A government of workers only supported in its rank and file organisms, in neighborhoods, work places, and places of study. We fight, and we can achieve historical demands of the movement and our class. We can and must repair the losses, pain, and deaths of our black people, subdued for more than 300 years of slavery and prejudice. We can and must defend and repair the pain and suffering of our native people, natives, and maroons, that even today continue to be exterminated by landowners’ bullets. We can and must put an end to sexist violence, rapes, beatings, sexual exploitation, and murders of women and LGBTs. We can guarantee a real urban reform to grant housing, socializing and reconquest of the territory by poor and working people. In our ground, extent and fertile, we can carry out the much hoped for agrarian reform, without compensation to rich landowners and agribusiness owners, to grant land to whom works it. We intransigently defend our forests and biodiversity. It is possible to conquer the right to work, equality of conditions and salary, living and culture, and a dignified life to all.
The 3rd CSP-Conlutas National Congress should give even more substance to the union and popular character of our Federation. This allows gathering all the layers of laboring wage earners, youth and poor people of our country in a single organization. This unity allows us to give our objective struggles the common and strategic political sense to our liberation and put an end to the exploitation and all the forms of oppression and intolerance. There is no possibility of ending male-chauvinism or xenophobia, racism or LGBTphobia, without burying capitalism. At the same time, it is not possible to achieve our project without permanently struggling against the prejudices that divide our class, because the future we want cannot be built based on the oppression of any segment of our class. It is necessary to incorporate the art into the every-day of our Federation, as a crucial tool for the dispute we want to make, in order to create our own symbols for us to tell and represent our history and our struggle. Along these demands, we add the defense of an infinity of demands and democratic achievements, like the right to struggle; the right to health and labor security (whose greatest victims are the outsourced); the end of criminalization of movements and struggles; the end of the war to drugs – an instrument of genocide in the ghettos of our country; the demarcation of native lands and titration of Maroon lands; the rescue and maintenance of native people’s culture; the end of the control over use and occupation of the land, and of the control of rent values by speculators and real estate market; the defense and preservation of forests; and the right of self-defense by the people, among others.
With those goals and understanding, we must strengthen our Federation, the CSP-Conlutas, and seek to deepen class independence as the pillar of our organization. Mobilization as the main way to combat, unionized and popular nature as a way to express class reality, and in this sense, as ordaining way able to unify broadly our class, being able to embrace the most varied ways of struggle in course. Also, the mutual support and active solidarity among employed and unemployed workers and with all the members of our class. The active international solidarity as a strategic need for our victory. Finally, we must guarantee the autonomy of our Federation before parties and political organizations, and continue laying our trust in the future of the Federation through the method of worker’s democracy as a principle to exercise in our struggles, demands, and challenges.
We believe that in Brazil, in a generalized way, the red flags of liberty will flutter. Men, women, and young people of our class will wield these flags in every corner of our continent, which will be felt dancing with the strength and teachings of the October Revolution. We built the CSP-Conlutas in little more than 10 years. The wind of this centenary has guided our dreams, moved our actions, and kept us courageous in the class struggle trenches. Let us continue this way, until victory.
Long live the 3rd CSP-Conlutas Congress!
Long live the 100 years of Russian Revolution!
11 years of CSP-Conlutas
STREGHNING THE UNION AND POPULAR UNITY, CLASSIST AND INDEPENDENT!
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Translation: Eduardo Correia Neto.
Manifesto: The 3rd CSP-Conlutas National Congress is Coming, in October 12th to 15th
