Hello, good afternoon. My name is Luisa Martinez and I am extremely proud to be here representing my organisation, DSA.

I say I am proud for two reasons. On the one hand, because DSA is composed of more than 60,000 members who identify themselves as socialists. We are not part of the Democratic Party. So I can say with authority that socialism exists in America. We are also a youth-led organisation. I can say this because I'm thirty-seven years old and something of an old woman in DSA.

I have no words for the second, because I am Chilean and even though I was born here, this is the first time I have been back since I was 4 years old. I lived in the United States as an undocumented immigrant for 16 years. This, combined with a life of poverty, means that this is the first time I have the papers and enough money to come back. Even as I stand here, talking about how much Allende has meant to me and to the people who live in the US, I'm still processing it all. So, many thanks to the Communist Party of Chile, to Progressive International and to all the organisations that helped organise this event.

One thing I would like to discuss is somewhat anecdotal, there are no studies on this, but it's something I've heard a lot on the US left and others have agreed with me. The coup in Chile is one of the first things you hear about when you begin to understand imperialism as a leftist in the US. There are not a lot of Chileans in the US so immigration is not the reason for this. Many leftists and liberals who only care about domestic politics, know what the US did in Chile. They may not know anything about President Allende, Chile or Latin America, but at least they know about Nixon's and Kissinger's crimes in Chile.

There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that the US government didn't really even bother to cover its tracks that much. The documents are still being declassified but there has been a trail of evidence of US involvement for many years. Secondly because in many ways President Allende was a perfect victim as he chose the electoral path like many on the Latin American left today, although not in the same century. The coup created a simple binary morality for people to understand. President Allende is less complicated than someone like Comandante Fidel, because his vision of Chile was crushed by a republican president.

Unfortunately, the clarity with which Americans view President Allende does not immediately translate into support for the chosen direction in Latin America today. We see that in middle-class liberal media with President Maduro, with AMLO, Petro, even with Lula. It has something to do with the passing of time, maybe in 50 years time, middle class American liberals will start to reflect on demonising President Chavez. I will be dead by then but you get my point.

It is remarkable how Americans know who President Allende was even though there is no sign of him in the North. The first time I saw recognition of President Allende was in Venezuela. There are many murals and statues of President Allende there. I have done solidarity work with Venezuela for years and those who have visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs know that there is a giant statue of his broken glasses in the lobby, it is very hard to miss. Those glasses serve both as an honour to President Allende but also as a warning that this will not be allowed to happen again.

This brings me to my next point and it shows why it is so important to hold international events such as this one. In the eyes of the Americans, Chile is a victim and I don't think they see it as much more than that, even among the left. But the resistance Chileans showed under the dictatorship, against fascism, against the United States and the Western powers, that is also what it means to be Chilean and to be Latin American and to be from the Third World. That resistance was, and continues to be, inspired by the ideas of President Allende and the UP.

And I love to say it. I love to say that I am Chilean, that I am Latin American, from the Global South, from the Third World. I say it because I grew up poor and lived without papers for many years. I joke with my friends that we were poor in Chile and we are poor in the United States. No matter where we live in the world, under capitalism we will be poor. But when I say this, it is also a statement of resistance. It says that we exist, that we are here.

I always say to the left in the United States that we Chileans and Latin Americans and all the peoples of the Third World are not just victims. And that I, I am not a victim, I am a communist. And that is thanks to leaders like President Allende.

In spite of capitalism and imperialism, the Global South represents resistance and, politically speaking, will illuminate the future of the world.

And with that, I thank you all very much for your time.

Luisa Martínez: National Political Committee, DSA