Correa, Lugo, Morales and Chavez at the WSF

Lula was not there to play hostess, but yet four Latin American Presidents of the Republic united their voices in a rally in Belém do Pará, outside the Word Social Forum. They asserted the importance of the WSF contributions to the socialist struggle and asked for the support of social movements all over the world. Previous to the meeting plenty of rumours regarding the time and location of the event, which took place under heavy police and army stakeout, prevented a mass audience and only a few hundreds of the 100 000 attending he forum were there.

Rafael Correa spoke first, and in twenty minutes he put forward a revolutionary program as such. Equator’s president began by criticizing the arrogance behind the «Washington consensus», shared by a minority of leaders only, and highlighted the «magic moment» taking place in Latin Americ’s politics – ten years ago no one could foresee that new left wing governments would be elected, expressing the will of the people and the results of the social movements’ struggle. An economist, graduated in Chicago, the main theoretical reference for neo-liberalism in the past decades, the «Chicago Boy who re-wrote the lesson», as Chavez would later say, defended a new definition for the role of the State and the need to rethink the idea of planning, for today «those who plan the most are the rich countries and the large multinational corporations.»

Correa called for a joint effort of national powers and collective action against today’s capitalism, which regards labour as a tool for capital and bases competition on jobs’ insecurity. He defended that new emphasis should be placed on use value instead of change value, and mentioned as an example the Amazonian Jungle, «the most precious of all humankind’s property.» He further argued that a new concept of development is needed, based on new regional forms and new collaborative processes between different regions. According to Correa, «socialism hasn’t challenged capitalism’s main objectives – mass consumption and the generation of more and more wealth – and only attempted to achieve them faster; therefore, socialism in the XXI Century should «evolve, adapt itself to each society’s needs, and be non-dogmatic and effective.»

Fernando Lugo, elected for the presidency of Uruguay one year ago, also pointed out that «the history of the nine World Social Forums runs parallel to a profound change in Latin America’s politics: the social movements’ struggles have been the pillar of change, built on the streets, under the trees, in many struggles and elections, with wins and losses.» «What we’ve achieved so far», he said, «was enough to defeat neoliberalism, but it takes much more to build the society Latin America deserves.»«it takes a lot of patience to sail in Amazonia, but in Latin America we can only build a new continent if we’re impatient. A new world is not only possible, it is becoming real», he concluded.

Evo Morales didn’t need all of his 20 minutes to claim the importance of «protecting the land», using the Amazon Rainforest and its peoples as example. «I don’t want to be invited, I want to be convened», elucidated the president of Bolivia, who demanded «justice and humanity instead of ambition» and asked the social movements not to forget about him, because «he might make some mistakes, but he never betrays his friends.»

Hugo Chavez was the last to speak, stressing the twenty minutes each of them had to speak as an instance of how socialism works. However, he spoke for almost fifty minutes, and spent most of them summoning Fidel Castro’s legacy and the meetings he had in the last twenty years with the Cuban leader. He saluted his companions and remembered Tupac Amaru, an Indian chef who, when about to be tore apart by four horses at the hands of Spanish colonisers, said with dignity: «I am going, but I shall be back, turned into millions of people.»

Chavez was the only one to mention the «murderer» living in the White House these past ten years, who «left through the backdoor, straight to history’s garbage bin.» He further challenged Barack Obama to give a sign of real change, giving Guantanamo back to Cuba and withdrawing the USA army from Ecuador. He pointed out, however, that his hopes aren’t «too high» and demanded only that «Venezuela’s sovereignty be respected.»

Venezuela’s president reminded the audience that 300 years of capitalism have brought about hunger, inequality, child labour and nature’s destruction and contamination, and that these problems were only made worse as global capitalism took hold. Thus he called for a new socialism as a common goal, shared with the social movements: «there’s no third way – it’s either capitalism or socialism!» As well as the other presidents, Chavez pointed out the importance of the social movements, because «a new world is possible, a new world is needed, a new world is being born.» The long speech – which caused a few people leave – ended with a cry of hope: «Motherland, Socialism or Death! We shall win!»

The meeting was supported by PSOL and promoted by MST (The Landless Workers Movement), who did not invite Lula da Silva. However, the Brazilian president joined the other four at a night rally focused on the opportunity to build a new development model and a new society. In this rally the new measures against the crisis being deployed in Latin America were put forward; they include a major increase in public investment, namely in housing and energy, and the foundation of a regional investment bank to help growth and development.