WSF for anti-neoliberal offensive

Belem, Brazil, (Prensa Latina)

The call by Latin American presidents to structure an anti-neoliberal ideological, political, and economic offensive stands Friday as the most relevant feature in the World Social Forum (WSF), after four days of debates.

“We come to speed up Latin American integration, the Forum must prepare to go to the offensive,” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez affirmed upon his arrival in the Brazilian city. He then mentioned the idea once again during a panel at the Para Federal University, also attended by his peers Evo Morales, Bolivia, Rafael Correa, Ecuador, and Fernando Lugo, Paraguay.

In the panel, Morales called for an international mobilization to end US-encouraged interventionism. There are over 700 US bases throughout America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, he remarked.

Meanwhile, Correa indicated that for the governments willing to channel social justice and the socialism of the 21st century, there are essential tasks like rescuing the State’s role. Were all those projects possible, Lugo noted, it would be thanks to the historic struggle of popular movements, which are the mainstays of the changing period Latin America is living. The four South American presidents also praised the Cuban Revolution on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.