(en) 10 Years of Building People?s Power in Latin America by Jonathan Payn - ZACF

A South African anarchist reports on the 10th annual Latin American Encounter of Popular 
Autonomous Organisations (ELAOPA) ---- From 25th to 27th January 2013, ELAOPA returned to
the city of its birth to commemorate ten years of the difficult but necessary journey to 
building people?s power in Latin America. It seeks to ?maintain its independence in the 
face of political parties, the state and its governments, NGOs, companies and all those 
that, with authoritarian structures distant from our realities, come to tell us what we 
have to do.? ---- ?Since the first encounter we have proposed to join our hands and forces 
to change the brutal and unjust reality of more than 500 years of oppression on our 
continent. In this Latin America that, at the end of the 20th century, was the target of 
the neoliberal policies and programme applied by the Washington Consensus ? promoter of 
free trade, privatisation, deregulation of the economy, tax reforms and the reduction of 
public spending.

In this context the threat came under the acronym of FTAA [1], but at the same time the 
struggles of resistance that imposed partial defeats through popular direct action, 
brought down governments, reverted privatisations and put state coups in check were 
various. Since then ELAOPA has served as a space for the accumulation of diverse 
organisational experiences, strengthening the fields of action in the popular, union, 
student, community, environmental, peasant etc. camps.?

- Encontro Latino Americano de Organiza??es Populares e Aut?nomas, ELAOPA [2]

ELAOPA: Class Independence, Solidarity and Popular Struggle

The first annual Latin American Encounter of Popular Autonomous Organisations (Encontro 
Latino Americano de Organiza??es Populares e Aut?nomas ? ELAOPA) took place in Porto 
Alegre, Brazil, in 2003. It ran alongside the first World Social Forum (WSF), also held in 
Porto Alegre, marking a counter-encounter of popular organisations and social movements 
characterised by class struggle and identification as original people of the South 
American continent. It sought an autonomous space independent of the involvement and 
interference of states, political parties and NGOs that characterised ? and continue to 
characterise ? the WSF.
Since the first encounter in 2003, ELAOPA has taken place annually in various countries 
across Latin America such as Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, ?always 
promoting and regulating its organisation under the principles of class independence, 
solidarity, popular struggle and grassroots democracy and having as its perspective the 
Latin American articulation and coordination of popular organisations, movements, spaces 
and identities of the various countries that have participated in the encounter for the 
construction of a power that is ours, a people?s power?.

From 25th to 27th January 2013, ELAOPA returned to the city of its birth to commemorate 
ten years of the difficult but necessary journey to building people?s power in Latin 
America. It seeks to ?maintain its independence in the face of political parties, the 
state and its governments, NGOs, companies and all those that, with authoritarian 
structures distant from our realities, come to tell us what we have to do.? Activists 
from, amongst others, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil participated; from libertarian
student movements, community-based organisations and trade unions, to recyclable waste 
collectors? and peasant and agricultural workers? movements.

As with previous ELAOPAs, it was structured into thematic commissions (union, student and
education, community, communication, peasant/agriculture, human rights, muralismo [3], 
gender/ethnicity and accessibility), various workshops and talks (photography, austerity 
and popular struggles in Europe, popular education, community radio, etc.) and a plenary 
with a transversal theme common to all participants; in this case the IIRSA Plan and 
building people?s power in Latin America.

In line with its political principles the encounter was completely self-managed, with the
participants of the various thematic commissions also being responsible for the practical
and logistical aspects of the encounter, such as preparing food for participants and 
cleaning the venue.

The 10th ELAOPA was dedicated to the memory of the life and struggle of Alberto ?Pocho? 
Mechoso, a founding member of the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU), unionist in the 
Meat Workers Federation and an active militant of the Organizaci?n Popular Revolucionario
Orientales-33 (OPR-33) ? the armed wing of the FAU. Arrested in Buenos Aires on September
26, 1976 as part of the Condor Plan, his body was found on May 23, 2012 with seven others
on the seabed, in barrels filled with cement..

Transversal Theme: IIRSA and People?s Power

In considering the current social, political and economic conjuncture in Latin America 
ELAOPA notes that, while important differences between the neoliberal governments of the 
past and the current so-called progressive governments exist, there are also structural 
similarities which present limits to and impede the true emancipation of the people.
One such example that demonstrates the continuity between the policies of previous 
neoliberal governments and the so-called progressive ones is former Brazilian President 
Lula da Silva?s about-face with regards to the development of a hydroelectric dam complex
in the Xingu river basin, in the heart of the Amazon. First conceived in the 1970s under 
the military dictatorship, Lula was severely critical of the project. The initiative was 
rejected by the Encounter of Indigenous People in 1989 and attracted international 
criticism for the threats it posed both in social and environmental terms. However, he 
changed his stance to that of defending the project as essential for progress shortly 
after he took office as president. Around the same time he and his Workers? Party (PT) 
were involved in convening the first WSF.

The economies of the so-called progressive governments of Latin America are based on an 
extractive capitalist model, primarily in the agro-mineral sector, driven by a local 
ruling elite. This elite is committed to giving concessions to the dominant energy and 
mining multinationals while at the same time trying to forge an alliance between the 
rulers and the ruled by means of a politics of class conciliation (for example, dialoguing 
through the WSF). It is this extractive capitalist model which stimulates economic growth
and the financing of a certain increase in social spending. This somewhat reduces the 
daily misery of the people, thus allowing for the re-election of these ?progressive? 
governments. At the same time, however, it reinforces the legacy of, and subjugation to, 
imperialism through an elite pact between local elites ? the IIRSA Plan ? designed to 
further open the continent to transnational plunder.

IIRSA is an agreement signed by the presidents of 12 South American countries in 2000 to 
facilitate the integration of the physical infrastructure of the region, prioritising the
strategic areas of transport, energy and telecommunications.

?Under the pretext of independent and sustainable development, socio-cultural integration
and modernisation IIRSA is consolidating a model of political and economic domination, 
enabling ? in the framework of the so-called progressive governments ? strategic projects
and actions for the opening of the territories of the different countries to the 
exploitation and profit of various transnationals. The guarantee of the free circulation 
of commodities and capital on the continent, territorial reorganisation on the basis of 
criteria of control and of commercialisation, and a so-called modernisation and 
actualisation of regulatory frameworks in the environmental and infrastructure areas are 
integral elements of the IIRSA Plan that have shown themselves to be one more initiative 
for the plunder, exploitation and domination of the Latin American territories and people.?
It is this continuity of neoliberal economic policies and the complicity of ?progressive?
governments in facilitating the ?plunder, exploitation and domination of the Latin 
American territories and people? ? from former President Lula in Brazil to Evo Morales in
Bolivia today ? that highlights the need for people?s struggle outside of and against the
state.Also it shows the need for spaces such as ELAOPA that are independent of state and 
party interference and co-option. The brutal state repression of indigenous peoples? 
struggles in Bolivia against the construction of IIRSA-related infrastructure in Bolivia,
such as the construction of a highway through protected indigenous territories and 
Morales? unilateral declaration in 2010 that, ?Whether you want it or not, we are going to 
build this road? give further testament to the affirmation at ELAOPA that;
?[...] for the emancipation of the oppressed Latin Americans, the path continues to be 
that of popular struggle. Co-option and clientelism are effective attempts that the system 
uses to fragment us, but they are not capable of suffocating the resistance. We continue 
firm in our tasks, organising ourselves, struggling and resisting at the local level, 
denouncing the projects of IIRSA and constituting a political and ideological 
counter-position to the system?s mechanisms of control throughout these five centuries of
domination on our continent. We advance spreading solidarity, building people?s power with 
class independence and promoting direct action against injustice. For the integration of 
those that struggle!?
The experience of ELAOPA and the process of building people?s power in Latin America 
should serve as an example for the dominated, exploited and oppressed the world over. The
way forward lies in building peoples? organisations, movements and struggles on the basis
of class independence, solidarity, popular struggle and grassroots democracy. These must 
be independent of political parties of all types, the state and government, NGOs, 
companies and ?all those that, with authoritarian structures distant from our realities, 
come to tell us what we have to do.? It is only through these organisations of 
counter-power that the path to true emancipation through the construction of people?s 
power can be found.
?Build People?s Power for the integration of those that struggle!?
Class Independence, Solidarity, Popular Struggle

Notes:
1. Free Trade Area of the Americas
2. All quotes from the newspaper issued by ELAOPA for its 10th annual encounter.
3. ?Muralismo? refers to the activist culture of mural painting in Latin America.
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