Following its cancellation due to the floods in Porto Alegre in May 2024, the 1st International Antifascist Conference will take place next year in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul. This delay was a result of the climate crisis, with effects on the host city so severe that, even to this day, the Porto Alegre airport remains closed. The impact was tremendous, causing losses of lives, homes, jobs, memories, and belongings. While this tragedy has forced us to postpone the Conference, it makes its realization even more necessary to combat one of the major expressions of today’s far-right: climate denialism.
In May of next year, we will be fully prepared to welcome delegations from around the world who had already confirmed their participation, many of whom have already purchased tickets and made arrangements to make Porto Alegre once again a hub of resistance and alternatives. Therefore, we are sending the original call with the new date so that we can build the 1st International Antifascist Conference together in unity, from May 15 to 18, 2025.
There is an intense dispute over the societal project currently in progress. Brazilian people have lived through the tragedy of the Bolsonaro government and have drawn their conclusions about this genocidal and authoritarian project. We were able, through much social and political struggle, to defeat him in the elections, but “bolsonarismo,” as we call it, still maintains a daily presence in society, both institutionally and regionally.
Through this traumatic yet revealing experience, we have learned about the resilience and coordination of far-right movements in their efforts to uphold capitalism. This dimension resonates with international neo-fascists and far-right movements that are organizing themselves to compete on a global scale. Trump is eligible to run for the US presidency with real chances of winning; Netanyahu is promoting a genocide recognized by the international community against the Palestinians; and in our neighboring Argentina, Milei is creating a veritable “laboratory” to develop a war plan against the working class, popular sectors, and youth, working to dismantle historical achievements and rights, both social and democratic.
In Porto Alegre, the capital of important traditions and democratic aspirations, we seek to create an experience of unity among social and political movements that have a militant presence and relevance in society, in the electoral segment, and in the broader ideological and political landscape. We indicate the struggle against the far right on multiple fronts as a priority, based on important agreements, while obviously respecting our differences.
From the initiative of PSOL and PT from Rio Grande do Sul, we call on international anti-fascist movements to open a dialogue that can confront the destruction that is being carried out by the heralds of conservative ultra-liberalism, prioritizing unity on the streets against the far right. Porto Alegre was the center of popular resistance that defeated a coup in 1961, and it was the home of the World Social Forum in the beginning of this century, which brought together thousands who participated in the construction of another global project.
Setting aside the different views about that experience, we now want to take a step forward, a necessary step. The mobilizations and significant social struggles against the far right and their plans are the other side of the coin on the international scale. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets against the neo-Nazi party in Germany, and did the same in defense of the Palestinian people on five continents, as well as in Argentina with massive resistance from the working class and popular segments against Milei. The first general strike of the year, in January, led to a massive national mobilization that went beyond the unions, bringing together a diverse range of workers’ sectors, neighborhoods, popular assembly groups, cultural entities, media, youth, and workers in general, all of whom, more radicalized to the left, unified in the mobilization, forming a true united front to defeat Milei. This mobilization changed the scenario, and finally, the reactionary bills that Milei sought to impose were defeated in Congress.
It is from these struggles that we want to coordinate and gather in May in Porto Alegre, to organize and discuss how to carry out, in the streets and in different spaces, a struggle capable of defeating expressions of extreme right and fascism, paving the way for solidarity among people in struggle, defending social and economic rights and freedoms, the environment, science and art, and against all forms of exploitation, xenophobia, or any other type of oppression.
We appeal to all organizations, personalities, movements, and political actors who wish to join, to be part of this space and this initiative!
Laura Sito – President of PT of Porto Alegre
Roberto Robaina – President of PSOL of Porto Alegre