Progressivism in its labyrinth

                       Progressism is humanity! | Puebla Group |

 Aram Aharonian; The Puebla Group was born to bring together progressive leaders at the time of the ebb of the "first wave" while some right-wing governments (Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia) destroyed the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the foundations of regional integration. Perhaps the most interesting thing since its creation in 2019 is that it awoke the phobia of the Latin American and Spanish far right.

Capitalism with a human face? Of the bad, the less bad? A third way, a new social democracy? In A solidarity development model, built on six axes, he proposes overcoming social inequality, the search for value, a new economic policy, ecological transition, integration as a construction of the region and a new democratic institutionality,, a role State asset, tax reforms, universal health and the fight against global warming: progressivism in its labyrinth - By Aram Aharonian - NODAL

The Biarritz Forum, started in 2000 by the Social Democratic mayoralty of that French city, was considered at the beginning of the century as the indispensable crossroads of exchanges between Europe and Latin America. A platform for debates, reflection and analysis of common problems, the Biarritz Forum, led by the Escenarios Corporation led by former Colombian president Ernesto Samper, brought together political and economic leaders from both continents every year.

 Samper is the main promoter of the Puebla Group. Beyond the nostalgia for better times, it is time for self-criticism that does not appear. It is necessary to thoroughly analyze what happened in our countries in the last three decades, where progressive governments tried to put the most humble as subjects (and not mere objects) of politics, putting ideas of participatory democracy, dignity and social inclusion, sovereignty and Regional integration. 

Today, in the midst of an in-depth offensive by the more reactionary and dependent right, progressivism, the left, does not come out of its labyrinth, incapable of redesigning its discourses and its forms of action. Some of those progressive governments were more dedicated to defending what they had achieved than to deepening the changes. Today the right is imposing a cultural change, which breaks the progressive values ​​and the solidarity ties that had been woven.

 "Progressive" governments have resulted in a political regression | Servindi - Intercultural Communication Services Representative democracy, private property, Eurocentric culture, suffragism and political parties are some of the revealed truths that organize our institutional life, our declarative democracies since the 19th century. The depth of the current crisis questions to modernity and capitalism. It should no longer be a matter of simply reforming the State but rather of changing the paradigms that make its validity, existence, constitution and organization.

 In the last decades of the last century (not so long ago), the theory of the two demons was imposed, equating the acts of genocide, violence and terrorism perpetrated by dictatorships and civic-military governments in the Southern Cone with the actions of the guerrilla organizations that fought against them. The curious thing was that some "men of the left" endorsed the theory that it had in the circuits of European social democracy to its most enthusiastic propagators. 

Four decades later, some "progressive" intellectuals point out -to our amazement- that there were no progressive governments in the region, and that the struggle is being settled today between two right-wing, one modernizing or developmentalist and the other oligarchic. They speak of a transgenic neoliberalism, from progressive academic and / or social democratic spheres, with the support, generally, of European NGOs and foundations. 

 It is sad to see indigenous people and workers induced to vote for the right or the extreme right so that from the “resistance” the movements of the left can be re-founded and from there seek transitions. One of the great Ecuador.- CONAIE warns Lasso that "it will harm" the dialogue if it spreads & quot; lies & quot; about the protests of 2019 weaknesses of Latin American progressivism and something that explains its partial defeats is the lack of a left-wing, alternative and radiant popular culture, with new axes of organization of daily life, affirms Álvaro García Linera. 

 23 years ago, on December 8, 1998, Hugo Chávez won the presidential elections in Venezuela. Perhaps it was the beginning of a new history in Latin America and the Caribbean.

 Institutionalized progressivism 

 The implosion of the “first” progressive wave of the first three decades of the millennium unleashed a regional counteroffensive of the right at the political, medical, cultural and economic levels, which has already explored various modalities and even passed through the long period of the pandemic.   

 The implosion of the “first” progressive wave of the first three decades of the millennium unleashed a regional counteroffensive of the right at the political, medical, cultural and economic levels, which has already explored various modalities and even passed through the long period of the pandemic. 

 Nothing excludes that the movements that originated can be remade, nor that other left-wing options emerge that also win elections in these formal democracies that we tend to respect too much, and that are often corsets that prevent us from imagining, dreaming, new paths.

 What is Progressism? Progressivism has a broad spectrum, but it shares common things, says former Bolivian vice president Álvaro García Linera. The first is that they are new political forces that burst onto the political scene, in criticism of the old traditional political system, which had been bolted to state structures for 40 years, and in other countries 50 or 70 years. The second is a vindication of the popular, of their presence, of their rights.

 “From that you have, from more moderate views that meet this lowest common denominator and stay there, to more radical progressivisms, which pose you the productive role of the State, through nationalizations of certain strategic sectors of the economy. And mobilization, as a way of managing the State administration ”, adds the Bolivian intellectual and politician.

 In some cases it is the continuation of the national-popular of the 50s, with middle-class elites committed to the popular who make certain decisions, as happened in the 40s, 50s and part of the 60s in Latin America. But in other cases it is a substantial rupture: the presence of Indians ruling, in the case of Bolivia, breaks any continuity. “There is a change in the class composition. It is the servant becoming the master. There you have a 180 degree turn in the composition of the State, ”says García Linera. Although that is the Bolivian case, it is not repeated in any other country.

 Today it is significant, the exclusion of Cubans and Venezuelans in the founding list of the Puebla Group, unlike the Socialist International, a group that recognizes the coup leader Juan Guaidó as "interim president" of Venezuela. They say that you cannot be right with God and the devil, but the social democracy of Felipe González and Carlos Andrés Pérez have already shown that this is possible. 

 The Argentine sociologist Pedro Brieger, director of Nodal, believes that “beyond the importance of bringing together progressive personalities there is a novel fact for Latin American history: for the first time, former presidents, former foreign ministers and leaders who have had government management meet, they can look back and exchange ideas about their experiences leading a state.

 They are those who participated in that "first progressive wave" at the beginning of the century with the governments of Hugo Chávez, Néstor Kirchner -then Cristina Fernández-, Lula da Silva -then Dilma Rousseff-, Rafael Correa, Evo Morales, Tabaré Vázquez -followed by Pepe Mujica-, and Fernando Lugo, who knew how to build concrete regional integration policies such as the creation of UNASUR. 

 All share the criticism of neoliberal policies and some, now, with a more radical tone than the one they had when leading their countries. While conservative forces can use judicial powers to prosecute, they cannot resolve the dispute between progressives and conservatives in Latin America with coups as in the last century. The existence of the Puebla Group is the best proof.

 Brieger asserts that they are far from being "broken bats" as they say in the Caribbean - using baseball jargon - to leaders who no longer have anything to contribute and have remained in the archives of history. Furthermore, some may return to power to give force to a “progressive second wave”; like Lula, who is already preparing for that goal ”

. The proposal is interesting, but to think that the change may be in the "historical" figures of Pepe Mujica, Lula da Silva, Fernando Lugo, Rafael Correa or Cristina Kirchner, is to bet on the past (hence the broken bats). Beyond the achievements in their governments, they were unable to create the generational change and adapt the proposals to a world that has mutated and that will continue to change when we wake up from the nightmare of the pandemic.

 Do you have something to offer the new generations? Citizenship was not sown. It was not possible to convert the citizen into a political subject (I'm not sure that was in the plans of many either). Yes, beneficiaries of inclusion and income distribution policies were obtained, but these beneficiaries tend to emigrate with those who offer them the most hope and change.

 The point of seeking state power is to use it to defeat the ruling class, not to sleep with it. Developing a revolutionary process implies transforming social outrages into political movements, which implies the formation of new contingents of cadres, leaving aside the “modern” facility of resorting to image makers to win an election: the problem is knowing what you want to do to win.

 The new roadmap

 The New Latin American Progressism - CELAG The current roadmap proposes the definitive abandonment of the anachronistic neoliberal model, with an extractivist vocation, (although it never speaks of capitalism) that has left effects that are difficult to reverse on the environment, has meant alarming levels of concentration of wealth that They make us the most unequal area on the planet and have stunted the circuits of redistribution. 

 It is a "model" of very good intentions, but it should be made clear: a) how these proposals are carried out, b) who represents the forces of change and c) where the resistance is located. A roadmap that lacks even appointments to the power of the transnationals, the military, financial and digital industrial complex, what those on the left call imperialism. Is there any shame in making it explicit?

 Its members, individually (they do not represent parties or mass organizations) have been or are presidents of governments, heads of state, leaders of political parties, ministers, ambassadors. Those characters that the media and people talk about believe that their statements have any weight in their own countries and / or in the international context.

 Brieger points out that “the participants admit that for now it is a meeting place and a place for debate. But also of concrete intervention, as was demonstrated with the rescue operation of Evo Morales, which was articulated in the corridors of the face-to-face meeting in Buenos Aires in 2019.

 It is difficult to know what the future of the Puebla Group will be, but the hope of those who support it is that it can contribute to the socialization of the experiences of the progressive "first wave" of three decades ago so that a "second wave" of governments with strong popular support and willing to advance in the profound structural transformations that Latin America and the Caribbean need. Amen.

 For the Chilean Marcos Roitman, the progressivism of the Puebla Group ends up revamping capitalism and points out that it suffers from a certain unease and perpejlidad, when the founders are reviewed. "Their diversity could be a plus, but when both are at the opposite end, doubt opens its way (...) The list of neoliberal converts is large and generates unease," he adds.

 Among others is the Chilean José Miguel Insulza, former secretary general of the OAS, who fought and declared war on Venezuela and his president Hugo Chávez, who opposed the extradition of Pinochet to Spain, endorsed US policies for Latin America and As Minister of the Interior of the Ricardo Lagos government, he applied the dictatorship's anti-terrorist law to repress the Mapuche people, he recalls. 

On the list is the monarchist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who, being president of the Spanish government, agreed in 2011 to reform article 135 of the Constitution to limit social spending to budget stability, a true judicial coup or lawfare. He was also the architect of the agreement for the installation in Spain of the anti-missile shield and the flights to Guantánamo.

 In my 2017 book - Progressivism in its labyrinth, from access to government to the seizure of power (Editorial Ciccus, El Progresismo En Su Laberinto Aram Aharonian | MercadoLibre2017) - I suggested that to end the large estates, with exploitation, the first that we must democratize and citizenize is our own head, reformat our hard drive. The first territory to be liberated is the 1,400 cubic centimeters of our brains. We must learn to unlearn, to begin reconstruction from there. Not repeating old and outdated analyzes, old slogans.

 The Spanish poet León Felipe used to say: Who reads ten centuries in history and does not close it / when seeing the same things always with a different date? / The same men, the same wars, the same tyrants, / the same chains, the same phonies,the same sects ... / and the same, the same poets! same way!!

 * Uruguayan journalist and communication scientist. Master in Integration. Creator and founder of Telesur. He chairs the Foundation for Latin American Integration (FILA) and directs the Latin American Center for Strategic Analysis (CLAE)