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EDITOR: How many Caribbean island ALBA leaders have published this document?

They are frightened of the reaction of their Caribbean people because we are not like South Americans.

We are gradually being taken deeper and deeper in the Marxist do-do:

XI Summit – Caracas, Venezuela – February 04 and 05, 2012

Statement of the 1st Meeting of the ALBA-TCP Political Parties, Progressive and Revolutionary Movements

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The political parties, progressive and revolutionary movements of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), gathered in Caracas, capital of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, on February 3, 2012, within the framework of the 11TH SUMMIT OF THE BOLIVARIAN ALLIANCE FOR THE PEOPLES OF OUR AMERICA, state:-

The 1st Meeting of the ALBA-TCP Political Parties, Progressive and Revolutionary Movements is taking place amidst a complex world situation, characterized by the worsening of the capitalism structural crisis and the deepening of global geopolitical changes. Both capitalist contradictions and the aggressive policies of imperialism are endangering the existence of humankind and leading to instability and wars. Simultaneously, they ignite upheavals and demonstrations by people outraged by injustice. As a response, patriotic, progressive and revolutionary alternatives have emerged to stand up to neoliberalism.

Integration and Unity: The Peoples’ Project

At the beginning of the 21st Century, Latin America and the Caribbean continue to successfully overcome the economically, politically and socially harmful neoliberal impositions, which took root in the mindset of the Enlightenment in institutions and governments of our America in the last two decades of the 20th Century.

The victories of the popular, democratic, nationalist and left-wing forces led to changes in the correlation of forces in Latin America. From this new standpoint of political power, we have set the goal to dismantle the neoliberal model and build an alternative model that meets the immediate and historical demands of our peoples, as well as those of our partners in South-South cooperation mechanisms. We advocate income redistribution, democratization of communications, strengthening of the democratic rights to participation and social inclusion, the fight for equity and gender equality, with particular attention to female heads of households, the empowerment of the youth for they to exercise their full right to education and work, environmental protection, defence of national sovereignty, and unity and integration of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as peace in the region.

We do believe that integration is now much more than a mere dealer’s agreement. It is rather the Latin American dream of full development to overcome the widespread poverty and social exclusion that are afflicting more than 200 million women and men in the Great Fatherland. Integration is the possibility of a new financial architecture of our own, leaving aside the old plundering mechanisms of financing of our economies advanced by the International monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). Integration is the widespread belief that substantive democracy depends on building fair, equitable and sustainable societies that are free of any form of xenophobia, racism, colonialism, exploitation and any signs of discrimination and injustice. Our societies should be deeply human, and this is the only way for the South to be heard and fully exist in the concert of nations.

Integration is the challenge to deal with trans-national corporations seeking opportunities for hoarding and profiteering, regardless of the progressive destruction of Mother Earth, which has put mankind on the brink of a crisis that threatens its existence on this planet as a civilization.

The integration and unity of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples can be cemented only by living with the diversity and plurality of our peoples and leaders, and with citizens’ full participation. This is the way we define, embrace and disseminate integration in the practice. Thus, we are moving forward amidst struggles and victories.

The deepening of the crisis facing the global capitalist system makes both the global reactionary forces and the imperialism act in an increasingly aggressive way. Therefore, the integration processes are becoming increasingly necessary, as they are one of the guarantees for our continent to have an identity, strength, specific weight and capacity for influencing the current world.

The first major historical step in the direction of an era of integration and unity was taken by our leaders, governments, political parties, and social, progressive and revolutionary movements in the meeting held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 2005, when they defeated the U.S. proposal (made by then President George W. Bush) of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Since then, Latin America and the Caribbean are living a transition toward political and economic unity. The integration and cooperation efforts undertaken by bodies such as MERCOSUR, ALBA-TCP and UNASUR are milestones in the process of continental unity.

Noteworthy is the decision made by the Latin American and Caribbean governments to create their own organization of Nation States in Latin America and the Caribbean, based on a view that opposes to Pan-Americanism, that is to say, collaboration with U.S. imperialism, which marked the history of the OAS.

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CLACS), created in Caracas on December 2-3, 2011, is another major historical step towards the challenging endeavour of regional integration and unity.

The ALBA-TCP Political Parties, Progressive and Revolutionary Movements welcome wholeheartedly and undertake this important effort for the lives of our Latin American and Caribbean peoples. The ideal of unity of our liberators in the 19th Century and the international solidarity of our peoples during the fights for justice, freedom, equality and internationalism, complementarities and development are gaining unprecedented strength at this historical time. A change of time appears at the dawn of the continent.

The ALBA-TCP and the actions of its political parties

The ALBA-TCP has shown that it can fulfil a process of political, economic, social and cultural integration based on the guiding principles of cooperation, production complementary and solidarity. In this sense, one can say that ALBA-TCP is the spearhead of future development of the regional unity project. The Alliance is a new model of integration, and goes beyond the international recognition it enjoys. ALBA-TCP has the potential to condition and galvanize the passage towards the irreversible consolidation of Latin American and Caribbean unity.

Political parties in Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Dominica, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda and Venezuela support this process of unity and integration. We attest to the need to coordinate efforts, articulate common policies, and exchange experiences. Thus, we shall prepare a joint Work Plan of militant struggle to achieve the strategic objective of the consolidation and projection of ALBA-TCP and the political, progressive and revolutionary forces comprising the Alliance.

In order to move in that direction, we agree to submit to the consideration of our national party leaderships the following resolutions to be endorsed and implemented in the short term:

1. Create an ALBA-TCP COORDINATING BODY OF POLITICAL PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS. This would be a Work Group composed of two representatives from each political party and movement, and would meet at least twice a year. It would be responsible for implementing and monitoring the joint Work Plan annually approved.

Every country should hold the coordination annually. Coordinating bodies of the ALBA-TCP political parties and progressive and revolutionary movements will be implemented in each country.

2. The priority in the joint Work Plan is to establish a mechanism for exchanging partisan experiences.

3. Encourage the creation of an ALBA Parliamentary Body for the parliamentarians of our political parties and movements to meet and assess their legislative experiences, and agree on joint struggles on various issues of their competence.

4. Coordinate the actions and presence of our political parties and movements in international parliamentary political foray, such as the Latin American Parliament, the Amazonian Parliament, the Indigenous Parliament, the Andean Parliament, the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, and the Sao Paulo Forum.

5. Joint publication of books or magazines on themes related to integration, the social projects we are advancing in our countries, the analysis of the global capitalist crisis and the rights of our native peoples, among others.

6. Hold international seminars/foray in various capital cities of the ALBA-TCP countries on THE CAPITALIST WORLD CRISIS AND LATIN AMERICA CHALLENGES.

7. Contribute to the success of the 13th Meeting of the Forum of Sao Paulo, to be held in Caracas on July 4-6 of this year. This meeting should be a major world gathering of progressive, nationalist, left-wing and socialist personalities and political parties and movements to express our solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution and its leader President Commander Hugo Chávez Frías.

Solidarity

The organizations attending this Meeting of the ALBA-TCP Political Parties, Progressive and Revolutionary Movements reaffirm their commitment and support to the cause of the people of Puerto Rico in their struggle for self-determination and independence.

We reaffirm our support to the people and government of Argentina in their just claims and peaceful struggle for the decolonization of the Malvinas Islands. We voice our solidarity with the MERCOSUR and UNASUR decision not to allow vessels flying the flag of Malvinas Islands to dock in their ports.

We reassert our solidarity to the Cuban people in their struggle against the U.S. economic blockade and with the cause of the release of the five heroes unlawfully arrested in that country.

We propose the extension of the supportive efforts in Haiti, for purposes of strengthening Haiti’s national sovereignty, as well as cooperation for economic and social development of this sister nation.

We adamantly support the entry of the Palestinian State -with the borders set on June 4, 1967- to the UN as full member. We also condemn all the illegal settlements on the Palestinian territory, the Wall of Shame on the West Bank and Israeli national and international companies involved in their construction.

We express our solidarity with the efforts of the People and the Government of the Plural-national State of Bolivia in search of a just and equitable solution that gives Bolivia a useful and sovereign access to the sea, through peaceful means and diplomatic and integrationist understanding, for purposes of overcoming its historic dispute with Chile.

We honour the life and work of General Eloy Alfaro Delgado, the great leader of the Citizen’s Revolution of Ecuador, on the 100th anniversary of his murder.

We reaffirm our support for the revolutionary process led by Comrade President Rafael Correa Delgado, and reject all acts of destabilization of the Ecuadorian democracy, as well as the coup attempt of September 30, 2010.

We declare our solidarity with the Legislative Assembly of Curacao, which has denounced attempts of re-colonization by the Netherlands, a situation that is also affecting the peoples of Aruba and Bonaire.

We condemn the actions of warmongering intervention and interference of the U.S. imperialism and the NATO against the peoples of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Syrian Arab Republic, as they are likely to put the world on the brink of a new world war.

We express our solidarity with the struggle of the workers in Europe and the United States, as well as the migrants, who are currently suffering the devastating effects of neoliberal policies reflected in high unemployment rates, and reduced wages and social security benefits. Likewise, we express our solidarity with the “indignados” movement, social movements, and progressive and left-wing political parties that fight capitalism in those countries.

We are deeply pleased with the recovery of President Commander of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Hugo Chávez Frías. We want to express our strong support to his leadership of the peoples struggling for equality and independence.

In the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the homeland of the great Simón Bolívar, the proponent of Latin American unity and integration, the 1stMeeting of the ALBA-TCP Political Parties, Progressive and Revolutionary Movements states its unyielding support to this model of integration and unity.

In Caracas, on February 3rd, 2012. On the 217th anniversary of the birth of Antonio José de Sucre, Grand Marshall of Ayacucho.

“FOR US, FATHERLAND MEANS AMERICA”

Simón Bolívar

For GOD’s sake, wake up.

Peter Binose

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