The hemisphere at the crossroads: Fourth Summit of the Peoples to meet in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in April 2009

David Abdulah, an economist, has served as chief education and research officer at the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union, Trinidad and Tobago, since 1978. He is president of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs (FITUN).

By David Abdulah

From April 16th to 18th, 2009 leaders and activists from social movements throughout our Americas will converge on Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago for the Fourth Summit of the Peoples. This major encounter brings together organizations of farmers, workers, youth, women, indigenous people, other social movements and the many networks that have been involved in struggles against free trade, for the cancellation of debt and against militarization, amongst others.

The 4th Summit of the Peoples coincides with the Fifth Summit of the Americas. The First Summit of the Americas had as its centre-piece the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). This neo-liberal plan was quickly identified by social movements as a grave threat to the well-being of the peoples of the hemisphere. They organised a broad, anti-neo liberal movement known as the Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA) and at each succeeding Summit of the Americas (Santiago, 1998; Quebec City, 2001; and Mar del Plata, 2005) the HSA hosted a powerful Summit of the Peoples. Through continuous mobilization, the HSA ensured the defeat of the FTAA. But even though this component of the neo-liberal agenda is dead and buried, other threats remain.

When in April 2009, the Fifth Summit of the Americas convenes in Port of Spain, however, the geo-political map of this hemisphere will look radically different from that of 1994 when the first Summit was held in Miami. Following the election of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in December 1998, we have seen progressive changes throughout Latin America. These changes – each of which has its own characteristics and contradictions – would not have happened without the direct actions of the social movements, most of which are part of the HSA.

Today governments in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Paraguay (and quite possibly El Salvador – at the time writing the Parliamentary elections had just been held) have been elected with parties and/or leaders that have at various times and to varying degrees taken positions against the Washington Consensus. The last two Summits also had the presence of the neo-con George W. Bush, whose agenda has been in part criticized by newly elected US President, Barack Obama.

The Fifth Summit will therefore take on the particular feature of a very different Latin America engaging a new US Administration. And the outcome of this engagement will critically depend on the agenda of the social movements. But this is just one reason why the Fourth Summit of the Peoples is of crucial importance.

We will be meeting in the context of the most severe crisis of capitalism since the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the ensuing Great Depression of the ‘30’s. It is very clear that the owners and managers of global capital are in deep trouble and seem not to have any solutions for the crisis that they created by massive speculation and greed, amongst other factors. The political representatives of this class and their agents in the International Financial Institutions are equally clueless. Each time a finger is placed in the leaking dyke, another larger, more problematic hole opens.

If the working people and poor of the hemisphere are to avoid having to bear the burden of this crisis they have to analyse the nature of the crisis and identify the way forward. Indeed, the crisis, while fraught with danger also presents a real opportunity to advance the struggle for “another world”. The 4th Peoples Summit presents a moment for this dialogue amongst social movements.

Being held for the first time in a Caribbean country, this Summit also creates a space for an invaluable interaction between the social movements of Latin America and the Caribbean together with the sharing of experiences of the movements in North America. Social movements in the Caribbean, and in particular the English speaking region, have generally not been an integral part of the HSA and the struggles against the FTAA.

Given the fact that the impact of the collapse of the neo-liberal model is being felt more and more acutely throughout the Caribbean the Summit of the Peoples will be a moment for Caribbean social movements to deepen their capacity for the struggles that are undoubtedly to come.

The Fourth Summit of the Peoples is being organized by the HSA, the Assembly of Caribbean People in conjunction with the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and  NGOs  (FITUN) of Trinidad and Tobago.

This piece first appeared in the March/April 2009 edition of NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America), and is reprinted here with the permission of the author.