The São Paulo Forum’s origin can be traced back to a call made by former presidents Lula and Fidel Castro to all leftist parties, movements and organizations in July 1990 to reflect upon the events in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall and upon alternative and autonomous paths from the standpoint of the Latin American and Caribbean left that would go beyond the traditional responses.

The first meeting was held in the city of São Paulo, in July 1990, and brought together 48 parties and organizations representing the multiple experiences from all across the Latin American and Caribbean political and ideological spectrum. From that meeting came the São Paulo Declaration (Declaration), a historical document that expresses the aspirations, principles, and goals of every party and movement present then. Highlights of the Declaration are the following goals:

“Push forward with consensus proposals for unity of action in the anti-imperialist and people’s struggle.

“We shall promote specialized exchanges focused on economic, political, social, and cultural issues

“[…] in opposition to the proposal for integration under imperialist domination, [ to define] the cornerstones for a new concept of continental unity and integration.

At the following meeting, held in Mexico City in 1991, the name “São Paulo Forum” was adopted, setting in motion a coordination of Latin American and Caribbean political parties and movements opposing neoliberalism and imperialism and committed to the regional integration, sovereignty, and self-determination of Latin America and the Caribbean and of our nations.

The following meetings reaffirmed the political will to continue on that path of dialogue and exchange among a number of political parties and movements of Latin America and the Caribbean. Year after year, political accomplishments showed the growing influence of the São Paulo Forum parties in the region. Throughout the 1990s those parties engaged in resistance against the orthodox policies of the neoliberal model and reached out to the social, trade union, and grassroots movements in the scope of the campaigns against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and for building the World Social Forum (WSF). Between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s, many of those parties reached for the first time the national governments of their countries with a series of landmark regional electoral victories.

At the Forum’s annual meetings, as well as at the subregional and sectoral meetings, were consolidated the anti-neoliberal platforms that would become the blueprint for the victorious tactical and electoral programs of leftist parties and progressive coalitions, allowing the São Paulo Forum to call for regional and international political backing for the Latin American and Caribbean progressive administrations.

In spite of each country’s social, economic, and political specificities, in broad lines and to various degrees, the new leftist, progressive, people-democratic governments managed to reduce the historical inequalities present in our continent by means of a range of public policies of an inclusive nature, and applied autonomous foreign policy and regional integration guidelines clearly expressed in, for instance, the political reorientation of the Common Market of the South (Mercosul), the creation of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the Union of South American Nations (UNASUL), and the Latin American and Caribbean Community of States (CELAC).

In a context of a strong neoliberal counteroffensive in the continent that began in 2015, the Working Group of the São Paulo Forum submitted, in January 2017, to the Forum’s member parties a new document – the Our America Consensus (Consensus) – analyzing our trajectory that far and proposing new debates and courses.

The Consensus also submits to debate its strategic orientations, premised on the idea that the transformations needed to change and develop Latin America and the Caribbean go beyond a national project and require the development of a regional community with general and common goals and principles, adopted in solidarity and conscious of national specificities.

Structure

The São Paulo Forum, as a coordination of Latin American and Caribbean political parties and movements, today counts 123 member parties from 27 countries that gather for an annual meeting, and a Working Group with representatives from 16 countries that meets periodically.

The São Paulo Forum has three regional departments: the Southern Cone department, headquartered in Uruguay; the Andean Amazonian department, temporarily based in Colombia; and the Mesoamerican and Caribbean department, headquartered in El Salvador.

Lastly, the São Paulo Forum has an Executive Secretariat, which is responsible for carrying out the decisions made at the annual plenary meetings and regional meetings, and by the Working Group, and is presently headquartered in São Paulo.

The annual meetings bring together, in addition to member parties, guests from social movements and political organizations from other continents. Among the activities carried out, we highlight the general plenary sessions; the sectoral meetings: Women, Youth, African Descendants, Original Peoples, the Foundations and Schools Network, among others; thematic workshops: Media, Anticolonial Fight, Seminar on Progressive Governments, among others; and the Training School.

The São Paulo Forum is in close and constant dialogue with representatives from the continent’s social movements and organizations for the purpose of building common agendas and actions, including among others, the World Day against Imperialism, the Hemispheric Day for Democracy and against Neoliberalism. The São Paulo Forum also has exchange and cooperation relations with political and social forces from other continents, having actively participated in several World Social Forum meetings, among other world and regional events.

The São Paulo Forum has political relations with other initiatives by Latin American and Caribbean political parties, like the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean (COPPPAL) and the Latin-American Socialist Coordination (CSL), as well as with organizations from other continents.

Announcements & Information

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