Last week, the Council of the Progressive International convened in São Paulo for its first in-person meeting in our organization’s short history — a milestone many years in the making.
Here in Brazil, delegates from over 40 countries — from Spain’s Alberto Garzón to Brazil’s Gleisi Hoffman to the Philippine’s Walden Bello to Chile’s Karol Cariola — gathered to deliberate the present world conjuncture and the plans of the Progressive International to transform it.
The Progressive International was founded in May 2020 with a simple mission: To make solidarity more than a slogan. With COVID-19 rampaging across the world, that mission acquired burning urgency. As Samir Amin set out in his prescient call for a new International, our conjuncture is defined by three awful trends: the destruction of democracy by a consolidated oligarchy; the persistence of imperial relations across the world system; and the “extreme fragmentation” of progressive forces despite the increasing coordination of their reactionary opponents. The intersection of these trends propelled the formation of the Progressive International.
Despite its urgency, the means to achieve our mission were modest. To preserve the independence and integrity of its internationalist project, the Progressive International has relied on members, subscribers, and partner organizations to power its operations.
Now, as we enter our fifth year — feeling the violent tremors from the tectonic shifts in the world order, from the genocide in Gaza to the rising tensions on the South China Sea — the Progressive International must once again define the strategic priorities that will guide its activities for the year to come: How can our International play a positive, constructive, and decisive role in the reconstruction of a new order based on the peaceful coexistence of all peoples?
In this conjuncture, the Progressive International met in São Paulo with pride, gratitude, and firm self-criticism. Over the past three years, the International has advanced institutionalization: building a global team and welcoming over 100 members representing millions of people across all inhabited continents. The PI has driven interconnection: forming coalitions, building trust, and uniting a vast global network in defense of its founding Declaration. And the International has created a laboratory for experimentation: launching campaigns, dispatching delegations, and demonstrating the substantive meaning of international solidarity.
But to fulfill its core mission, the second mandate of the Progressive International must now broaden and deepen the work of its first.
In Brazil, the Progressive International Council convened to do just that — deliberating and debating the meaning of internationalism, the role of the left in the coming multipolar world, and the road ahead for our progressive front. Throughout, we were accompanied by friends and members on the ground, including the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST), the Workers Party (PT), the Landless Workers Movement (MST), the CUT Brasil, the Petrolworkers Union of Brazil (FUP), and the Party of Socialism of Liberation (PSOL).
In the coming weeks and months, we will continue to share with you the fruits of this historic meeting. Until then, we recall the words of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire: “The greatest humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves.”
The Palestinian Youth Movement launched the new international arms embargo campaign, Mask Off Maersk, targeting Maersk, the world’s largest integrated logistics and shipping company. We aim to end Maersk’s pervasive role in the transportation and supply of weapons and weapons components used by Israel in its genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Read the PYM statement to learn more about the campaign and how you can get involved.
In Kenya, President William Ruto has launched a war on his people.
At the behest of the IMF, he is pushing through a Finance Bill that would impose a 16% tax on consumption, pushing up the prices of bread, diapers, sanitary towels and even cancer treatment.
PI member the Mathare Social Justice Centre, together with the Communist Party of Kenya and other movements, has taken part in a major wave of protests to oppose the measure and demand Ruto’s resignation.
The government had been cracking down on the peaceful protests. By 18 June, the MSJC estimated that over 200 people had been detained at police stations across Nairobi.
Art of the Week: Design by PI Art Director Gabriel Silveira for the Progressive International Symposium in Brazil.