Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

As Michael Löwy put it, this eco-socialist event is ‘historic’. “We can see that the axis of global eco-socialism is shifting from the centre to the periphery... because we are facing a very serious ecological crisis that is affecting the South more.”

We are currently experiencing this in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul region, where its capital, Porto Alegre, has been flooded killing hundreds, leaving many missing, and affecting millions. The disaster is strongly linked to deforestation in the Amazon (the Brazilian Amazon has lost 8712 square kilometres of forest between 2020 and 2021), which is at the root of global warming since the soil cannot absorb the sun’s rays. The problem is worsened in this region by the replacement of biodiversity with mega-soya crops and mega-cattle farming. All of this is promoted by the ruralist bench of the Federal Congress, known as the ’ox bench’, which intends to destroy ’environmental legislation’.

A host of issues were discussed during these intense and enthusiastic days. The initial panel “Histories of the International Eco-socialist Meetings” featured speakers from SolidaritéS (Switzerland), Climáximo (Portugal), EH Gune Ecosozialista (Basque Country), and ATTAC Argentina’s Vanesa Dourado as moderator. They emphasised the importance of ‘acting globally’, having a project for a society distinct from capitalism’, and that the transition of industry in Europe ’cannot be at the price of Latin America and the Caribbean’.

Several workshops were held concurrently, including one on extractivism in the Brazilian Cerrado and the restriction of water resources, and another on eco-marxist discussions with Facundo Nahuel Martín of CONICET Argentina and Iñaki Barcena of EH Gune Ecosozialista. Martina Eme Halpin of Poder Popular moderated.

Finally, at the same time, the Environmental Racism workshop was held with Brazilian comrades Natália Chaves, co-advisor of the Feminist Bank of São Pablo, PSOL, and Joziléia Kaingang, National Coordination of Indigenous Women, and Gregorio Mejía of the Workers‘ Union and the Unitary Workers’ Central of Colombia. Mejía criticised the impact of extractivism on people’s access to water and food, leading to increased drug trafficking. Cháves declared, “The revolution will be indigenous and black, or it will not be.”

Over lunch, the participants exchanged views and ideas that had emerged in the various workshops. One of them was from Evelyn Vallejos, from Catamarca, who declared that she had ‘come to contribute to the construction of a common programme and a global strategy with which we can confront the international right’.

The workshops resumed in the afternoon, one of them dealing with the reality of the situation in the face of dispossession: Spoliation of territories and bodies, in which Karina Navone of PSI (Argentina), Emilio Téllez of Sindicato Nacional del Bosque (Mexico), María Eva Koustsovits of ATE Nacional (Argentina), Iñigo Antepara of EH Gune Ekosozialista (Basque Country), Edid Escobar of Congreso de los Pueblos (Colombia) and the virtual participation of Rafaela Pimentel of Territorio Doméstico (Spain) took part.

At the same time, the workshop ‘Free trade and the environment: an insurmountable tension in capitalism?’ was held with Luciana Ghiotto from the Transnational Institute and ATTAC Argentina, Pablo Solón from the World Amazon Assembly (Bolivia), Julio Gambina from CPI/ATTAC Argentina and Francisca Fernández Droguett from the Movimiento por el Agua y los Territorios MAT and the Escuela Popular Campesina de Curaco de Vélez (Chile).

That same afternoon, the workshop on climate change and militarism took place, moderated by Juan Tortosa of SolidaritéS (Switzerland), with the participation of Elsa Bruzzone of CEMIDA (Argentina), Tárzia Madeiros of the Setorial Ecossocialista do PSOL (Brazil) and, Nick Buxton (virtually) of the Transnational Institute.

The workshops continued with a series of debates on climate, science and ecosocialism, with the participation of José Seoane from IEALC (UBA) in Argentina and João Camargo from Climáximo (Portugal), while Alexandre Araújo Costa from the Universidade Estadual do Ceará in Venezuela and Liliana Buitrago from the Observatorio de Ecologia Política in Venezuela took part virtually.

At the same time, a workshop on debt and the financialisation of nature was organised, led by María Elena Saludas of CADTM/ATTAC Argentina, with the participation of Fernanda Gadea of ATTAC Spain, Éric Toussaint, spokesperson for CADTM International and Beverly Keene, member of Dialogue 2000 and coordinator of Jubilé Amériques du Sud.

The workshop on rights and eco-socialist transition drew a large number of participants, including the PSOL Brazil MPs Renato Roseno from Ceará and Flavio Serafini from Rio de Janeiro, as well as Claudio Katz, an economist from the Argentine Left (EDI), and Joziléia Kaingang from the National Articulation of Indigenous Women (Brazil). Mr. Katz stated that ‘environmental disaster scenarios have no solution with capitalism’. It has been shown that it is impossible to humanise capitalism. In this sense, Roseno explained that ‘the logic of capital has always been irrational; socialism is the only possibility of survival’ and that, therefore, ‘we must recreate the political forms’. ‘One of the pillars of the right is the propaganda of conservative values under the idea of a better past’, he added, pointing out that ‘our defeat was ideological’. The marginalised youth of the periphery have been taught retrograde values. The counter-culture has been co-opted by the right. Mr. Serafini added another reflection on the scenario: ‘We cannot give in to the idea that Twitter is freedom, that it has an owner behind it, that it is right-wing, and that it intervenes in the political future of countries’.

In the afternoon, a workshop on territorial struggles and criminalisation was presented, moderated by Germán Bernasconi of Poder Popular and with the participation of Mariana Katz from the SERPAJ indigenous peoples team (Argentina), Enzo Brizuela from the Algarrobo Assembly (Andalgalá, Argentina), Silvina Álvarez from Mar Libre de Petroleras Red de Comunidades Costeras (Mar del Plata, Argentina), Evelyn Vallejos from the Unión de Trabajadores de la Economía Popular (UTEP) (Catamarca, Argentina), Matías Crespo from Marabunta (Chubut, Argentina), Mauricio Cornaglia from the Marcha de los Barbijos de Rosario (Argentina) and the Asamblea Popular por el Agua (Mendoza, Argentina).

The day ended with an invitation to watch the excellent documentary El Paraná: La Disputa por el Río at the Gaumont cinema. This film by Alejo di Rissio and Franco González, who ventured along the Paraná basin to explore the inner reality of the people living along its banks, talks about global export projects and the extent to which they affect fisherfolks, islanders and local communities. He emphasises the absolute loss of sovereignty.

The final day of this critical meeting was Saturday 11^th, with a live transmission of the ecosocialist debate featuring Suelma Ribeiro of the Rede Brasileira de Eccosocialistas (Brazil), Jawad Moustakbal of ATTAC CADTM Morocco, and Michael Lowy of the Fourth International. Arlindo Rodrigues of Rede Brasileira de Eccosocialistas (Brazil) moderated the conference. Mr. Lowy remarked that ’climate change is the most dramatic tip of the environmental problem, a menace unprecedented in human history’. He continued, “We are passengers on a suicidal train called modern capitalist industrial civilisation, and the urgent task is to stop it.” This is the revolution we have to bring about.

Then it was the turn of the COP 30 workshop: the first panel from the Latin America and Caribbean meeting, moderated by Júlia Câmara of Subverta PSOL (Brazil) and featuring the following speakers: Pablo Solón from the World Amazon Assembly (Bolivia), Alice Gato from Climáximo (Portugal), Arlindo Rodrigues from Rede Brasileira de Eccosocialistas (Brazil) and Eduardo Giesen from Grupo Iniciativa Ecosocialista (Chile). Solon said: ‘We have a consensus: nobody believes in COPs. So we have to come up with an agreement that is different from the Paris Agreement and move forward’. ‘We need to reach an agreement that is the outcome of a debate with communities and movements’, proposed Rodrigues. With this in mind, Lexe pointed out that ‘holding a counter-summit means taking advantage of the fact that the attention is there and that, as socialists, we have to put ourselves at the forefront’. ‘A counter-agreement is fundamental, but it must be backed up by an ecosocialist break. The COP must be prevented and broken," warned Mr. Gato.

In the post-lunch session, the Food Sovereignty: Agroecology as Political Practice workshop began, moderated by Fernando González Cantero of CONICET (Argentina), with the participation of Perla Britez of CONAMURI-Vía Campesina (Paraguay), the Rural Federation and Damian Verzeñassi of the Institute of Socio-Environmental Health. After the workshop, Ms Britez said: ‘In Via Campesina, we say that we need to globalise the struggle and hope, because resistance is territorial, but capitalism is global’. Yanina Settembrino added that in Argentina, ‘60% of what families consume today is produced by subsistent farming’.

At the same time, the Energy and Capitalism workshop took place under the direction of Carla Isarrualde, from the 19 de Diciembre organisation (Argentina). The participants were Melisa Argento from the Colectivo de Acción por la Justicia Ecosocial (CAJE) and the Asociación Argentina de Abogadxs Ambientalistas (Argentina), Nicolás Nuñez from Ambiente en Lucha and a member of the Coordinadora BFS (Argentina). Nuñez warned that “far from agreeing with the collapse hypothesis, the environmental crisis will not destroy capitalism but capitalism will collapse thanks to the political struggle of collective action”. Bertalot explained: ‘In a way, the history of capitalism is the history of fossil fuel consumption’.‘Renewable energies within capitalism are also produced under the extractivist rule of accumulation by dispossession’, he continued, adding that as well as alienating workers from what they produce, ‘we could also talk about alienating the energy flow of production through mechanisation’.

Two simultaneous workshops followed. One of these was Ecofeminisms, led by Paula Delfino from Marabunta (Argentina) and attended by Juana Antieco, who is Kimelfe (a traditional educator from the Mapuche Tehuelche Newentuaiñ Inchin community in Costa Lepa), Francisca Fernández Droguett from the Movimiento por el Agua y los Territorios MAT and the Escuela Popular Campesina de Curaco de Vélez (Chile), Natália Chaves, co-advisor of the Banca Feminista de São Pablo of the PSOL (Brazil), and Jessi Gentile of the Coordinadora de la Red Ecosocialista MST and member of the Coordinadora BFS (Argentina). Juana Antieco said, ‘It is essential to move on from resistance to political construction’. Droguett said, ‘Ecofeminism is for and by people, not just women. We start with our own experiences of oppression, but we fight for people.’
 
Analía Zárate from Observatorio Petrolero Sur-FFOL (Argentina), Ariel Moreno, a worker from Secco PTS (Argentina), and Luján Rodriguez from Marabunta (Argentina) took part in the workshop on class perspectives for the energy transition. It was moderated by Martín Álvarez of the Observatorio Petrolero Sur (Argentina). Mr. Zárate issued a warning: ‘We need to think about the energy transition in terms of the interests that will be at stake and how we are going to position ourselves. So far, there seems to be no alternative to extractivism’. Mr. Moreno said: ‘We are fighting for the transition to go hand in hand with the nationalisation of the energy companies so that they are under the control of the workers’.

After long and powerful debates, the final panel, entitled ‘Towards a major international eco-socialist movement’, took place. It was moderated by Juan Tortosa of SolidaritéS (Switzerland) and included Vanessa Dourado of ATTAC Argentina, Germán Bernasconi of Poder Popular Argentina, Felipe Gutiérrez Ríos of Marabunta and Observatorio Petrolero Sur Argentina, and Sébastien Brulez of Gauche Anticapitaliste Belgium, the latter representing the host of the next International Eco-socialist Meeting to be held in 2026.
 
In the closing panel, Gutiérrez Ríos explained that ‘capitalism has generated a concept of the environment that has no history. And this is the case. The Pehuén (sacred tree in Mapuche mythology) today is not the same as it was 500 years ago. We are part of this nature.’ ‘It makes no sense to be in the rear carriage of today’s progressivism because we know, and it has been demonstrated, that it does not serve to resolve the problem between capitalism and nature’, he warned. ‘Think of prefiguration as a space of power. Agroecology, not as a means of feeding my family, but as a means of feeding the whole population,“he predicted. Then it was the turn of Vanesa Dourado from ATTAC Argentina, who had this to say about the meeting: ‘It’s clear that we have differences on how socialism should be today. But we agree on the fact that we are breaking away and that we are anti-capitalist. There was agreement on the fact that the movements of struggle—the territorial movements—are the places of struggle. That’s where we can win,” he declared. Mr. Brulez warned that ‘the European Socialist Party has implemented the capitalist agenda with the right-wing’, so ‘it is necessary to reinvent hope’. This is the eco-socialist world. ‘Systemic change only happens with a mass movement; that’s how it is’, he concluded.
 
We parted with the words of Felipe Gutiérrez Ríos:
 
‘Now we’re going back to our lands, and we’re going to meet again; let’s come back with triumphs next time. Let’s make our organisations grow; let the capitalists beware because we’re going to meet again and we’re going to continue to fight wherever we are, on any continent.’