10 points to understand the ALBA
CONSTRUCTING THE ALBA FROM WITHIN THE PEOPLES
By Fernando Bossi – Bolivarian Peoples’ Congress 

Speech by Fernando Ramon Bossi, Organizational Secretary to the Bolivarian Peoples’ Congress, given at the III Summit of the Peoples, Mar del Plata, Argentina, on 3rd November 2005.

Before starting my presentation, I would like to thank the organisers of this event for inviting me to participate and to share some thoughts with regards to the ALBA.

I must also express what an honour it is for me to share this platform with leaders of the stature of Jorge Ceballos, national coordinator of the Movement Barrios de Pie, and member of the political secretariat of the Bolivarian Peoples’ Congress. I am also honoured by the presence of Anibal Mellano, genuine representative of small and medium Argentinian companies, a man truly committed to the peoples’ cause.

It is a common occurrence that the ALBA is not discussed in conferences where the central topic is precisely the ALBA. What it is discussed is the ALCA (FTAA, Free Trade Agreement for the Americas). The FTAA is discussed, its disadvantages put forward, and then it is asserted that the ALBA is the alternative. At the most, some examples are briefly discussed, such as Petrosur, Telesur or Banco del Sur (Bank of the South). Very few times we have tried to explain in depth the Bolivarian proposal of integration, and at this point we must clarify that the ALBA is not just a response to the FTAA, but goes beyond it.

This is why, with the intention of not repeating the typical speech on the ALBA where only the FTAA is discussed, I have outlined ten key points that should help us understand better the ALBA and the role of the peoples in its construction.

Although it was born as an alternative proposal to the FTAA, the ALBA responds to an old and permanent confrontation between Latin American and Caribbean peoples and imperialism. Perhaps a better way of presenting the conflicting projects is by contrasting Monroism and Bolivarianism. Monroism, usually resumed as ‘America for the Americans’, is in reality ‘America for the North Americans’. This is the imperialist project, a project of looting and pillage. Bolivarianism is a proposal of unity between Latin American and Caribbean peoples, following the ideals of the Liberator, Simon Bolivar, who intended to create a Confederation of Republics. It was in sum, the opposition between an imperialist proposal and a proposal of liberation, an opposition today incarnated by the contrast between the FTAA and the ALBA.

We must therefore understand that the ALBA is founded on the precedent of an independentist struggle for unity.

Is in that struggle that the figure of the pioneer Francisco Miranda appears. He had a government plan for the region that he called Colombia, supported by the works and thought of the Liberator, Simon Bolivar. It is necessary to read, study and reflect on his ‘Jamaican Letter’, his speech at Angostura’s Congress, his letter to Martin de Puyrredon, his official announcement at the Panama Congress, the treaties of Mosquera-Monteagudo, Mosquera-O’Higgins and Santamaria-Alaman, and his correspondence with Jose de San Martin, amongst many other documents which preceded the ALBA.

We cannot overlook Sucre either, the announcements of Hidalgo and Morelos, the general San Martin, Artigas and his agrarian reform, the ‘Gaucho’ Law in Guemes, Mariano Moreno’s operational plan, the economic writings of Belgrano, the works of Simon Rodriguez, the Federative project of Bernardo Monteagudo, the works of Hondurean Cecilio del Valle and the struggle of Francisco Morazan’s Central American Confederation. During this period, lasting no more than 20 years, the revolutionary doctrine was generated through thoughts and actions, programmes, projects, various undertakings and laws leading to integration, independence and social justice. I believe this was one of the most brilliant periods in our history.

Following the defeat of the bolivarian project, the popular forces gathered together with the same objectives. Banners of unity were raised by Eloy Alfaro in Ecuador, Marti in Cuba, Ezequiel Zamora in Venezuela, Felipe Varela in Argentina and Ramon Emeterio Betances on Puerto Rico, to mention but a few.

Augusto Cesar Sandino, the great Nicaraguan patriot and revolutionary, the ‘general of free men’, developed his project of Latin American unity as a ‘plan for the realization of Bolivar’s supreme dream’. And these are only a few milestones in our history.

If we look into more recent times, we find Peron and Getulio Vargas with ABC, Salvador Allende and the Latin American University, Fidel Castro’s voice claiming: ‘there will only be salvation through unity’, Francisco Camano in Dominican Republic, Velasco Alvarado in Peru, Torres and Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz in Bolivia, Omar Torrijos in Panama, Carlos Fonseca in Nicaragua, Joao Goulart in Brazil, Gaitan in Colombia, the Che Guevara in every corner of the Americas...all together, voices and guidelines that point at the right direction towards unity and definitive independence.

This is the reason why the ALBA has glorious antecedents, because it comes from the deepest corners of the insurgent Americas, it has deep roots that convert it into a historical project for the construction of a great homeland.

As Peruvian Jose Carlos Mariategui rightly pointed, the revolution in this part of the world will be ‘a heroic creation, never a copy or an imitation’. ‘Either we invent or we fail’, said Simon Rodriguez. It then follows that the creation of the ALBA will not follow manuals nor magic formulas.

The example set by the European Union is not valid for us. The way in which the United States achieved its independence cannot help us either in our struggle. The latter only became united at the expense of extensive looting, invasions and genocide against the indigenous population. The European Union in turn, is united defensively, under the dictates of capitalism and only exists in order to compete against the United States and Japan. The European Union is a strategy initiated by a group of nations who framed it in the inter-capitalist and inter-imperialist struggle. None of these models of integration are valid to the Latin American and Caribbean peoples.

This is why the americans from the South will have to invent a new model, diving into our history and listening to the ‘voices of the past that point at the future’, as Eduardo Galeano said. The objective will be to create an endogenous regional model that leads to the kind of unity that covers our peoples’ needs and represents their interests.

Latin America and the Caribbean is one the world’s richest regions in terms of natural resources. The key to the development and well being of our peoples is to make the most of such potential.

What exactly conforms such potential, and how is it being used today? We will find enormous wealth wherever we look in the continent, but we will also find that such wealth is not being used to its maximum potential. As a result, there are millions of our brothers who paradoxically go hungry while living in the vast savannas, plains and pampas that conform a superb extension of agricultural land.

Moreover, our region is rich in energy sources and in minerals. Oil, gas, coal and electric energy are abundant. There is also plenty of iron, copper, tin, zinc, aluminium, gold, silver, cement and limestone. However, and as a result of the neoliberal policies imposed to the region and the subsequent process of de-industrialization, there is a lack of industry capable of taking advantage of the natural resources available.

We also have the planet’s largest reservoir of drinking water, a strategic resource that will become even more important in the coming years. Yet, despite this huge source of wealth, more than 30% of the 500.000 children who die each year in the region do so due to diarrhea, because of a lack of drinking water.

We are one of the world’s richest regions in terms of biodiversity. But we also are the region where more species are becoming extinct due to the irrational actions of multinational companies.

We have a millennial culture that has been systematically subdued by a foreign and elitist culture. It is now urgent that the contributions made by indigenous cultures, and their way of relating to nature are incorporated to our societies, as part of our struggle for a better coexistence between humans and the environment. Diversity and originality are the fundamental pillars of the Latin American and Caribbean cultures, which until today have been hijacked and subdued.

Our very history forms part of our potential. This is the history of a group of peoples who have never resigned to serfdom and submission. While the Europeans are proud of Alexander the Great, Cesar and Napoleon, we the Latin American and Caribbean people, can affirm with pride that ours is a land of liberators and never of conquerors.

In sum: fertile land, imposing rivers, biodiversity, energy, minerals, ancient culture and heroic history constitute the principal pillars of wealth upon which the ALBA is constructed.

Figuratively speaking, the ALBA is like a table whose four legs are alien to capitalist parameters. Its four ‘legs’ are:

We will explain the above with reference to some existing agreements.

The ALBA would be inconceivable without the participation the peoples that conform each nation. As Commander Chavez expressed, these peoples role is ‘vital, like oxygen is to human beings’.

Many years ago, general Peron expressed his views on this issue. He discussed the importance of peoples’ participation in the task of integration. The three-times president of Argentina said then, as Chavez does today, that the presence of the peoples in the struggle for Latin American and Caribbean unity is essential ‘because individuals pass away and governments come and go, but people remain’.

It is in that colossal task where peoples will define the direction of their future.

The task faced by the peoples of the region is huge, colossal, as a result of the challenges faced. To understand the extent of this task we should consider the following:

The main priority of this new proposal of integration is to break away from capitalist logic, the logic of profit and gain, the logic of competition, the logic of economics as the study of wealth. The ALBA must stem from the process of integration in all aspects of society, from the political to the social. This implies popular mobilization.

With regards to the social aspect, there are several projects already functioning, and others that will need to be undertaken with popular support. There are ongoing literacy and vaccination campaigns, new systems for medical attention, a network of public universities, professional colleges, an alternative network for media and communications, an association for Latin American and Caribbean workers, an association for America’s farmers, a network of defense for our natural resources, to name but a few, and many others that will appear in the hearts of the progressive citizens and leaders of our continent.

When it comes to political initiatives, we must encourage projects like the Network of MP’s for Integration, constituted in El Salvador by request of the FMLN, and the Bolivarian Peoples’ Congress. There are other projects intended to strengthen a powerful network of mayors and governors from the region, who should be able to propel mechanisms of integration from their local positions. We must also demonstrate our solidarity and permanent support to the progressive political forces that aspire to excellent results in the next elections: there we have Evo Morales, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Daniel Ortega, future presidents of Bolivia, Mexico and Nicaragua, respectively.

To sum up, it is imperative that the political and social forces of Latin America and the Caribbean work together and constitute a democratic, patriotic, anti-imperialist and revolutionary movement, able to act in coordination while leading the revolution in the Americas. This is the proposal made by the Bolivarian Peoples’ Congress.

The ALBA must be a political tool for liberation. Like any other tool, it must be efficient and flexible in the face of changing circumstances. Why do we mention this? We believe that the ALBA will have to act as a retaining wall against the new tactiques that imperialism will use to dominate us. For example, we have seen how many ‘little FTAAs’ appeared once the attempt to impose the FTAA failed, indirectly forcing the region to accept this commercial proposition.

The United States government hopes to take advantage of the slightest weakness shown by Latin Americans and Caribbeans. If they sense dissension, they will try to put us against each other to later defeat us.

We, the peoples of the ALBA, the peoples of the Americas, supported by our progressive governments and popular organizations, will refuse to accept the new colonialist imposition -one or many ‘little FTAAs’. On the contrary, they will be faced with our ALBA and ‘little ALBAs’. Every one of the agreements signed within the framework of the ALBA will be like a solid brick that will help construct a Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Republics. This is the current responsibility of the popular forces of integration.

The peoples of America have entered a new stage. We must go from the protest stage (without leaving it aside altogether) to the stage of proposals. Resistance is necessary, but it is time to take action.

To this end, ALBA’s programme must be constructed with the peoples of the region and must be disseminated among them. The three typical stages of a revolution must also be followed in the construction of the ALBA:

Like the Venezuelan Chancellor Ali Rodriguez said, ‘it is necessary that people feel the benefits of integration’. The task of the popular forces is therefore to campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of integration.

I suggest that we read the pamphlet ‘Constructing the ALBA from within the peoples’, a truly revolutionary programme of integration, which appeared as a result of the efforts and proposals made by various Latin American popular organizations. The content of the pamphlet is by no means definitive; rather it adapts itself to the many challenges, experiences, contributions and research that result from the work of the artisans of this integration project.

The ALBA is already here, whether the imperialist and the oligarchs like it or not. Its speedy advance will depend on us. The ALBA is blessed with a fundamental mechanism that can ensure its victory:

Because of this, today the alternative is no longer ‘to win or to die’. What is is required from us today is more demanding, more tremendous and it entails a bigger degree of responsibility. Like Venezuelan patriot Jose Felix Ribas said ‘it is necessary to be victorious’.

Thank you.

Translated for alternativabolivariana.org by Damaris Garzón.

Copyright © por ALBA .:Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América:. Derechos Reservados.

Publicado en: 2009-04-29 (1501 Lecturas)