Between December 8 and 10, in the city of São Paulo, we held our 8th National Conference of the Socialist Left Movement (MES) with 73 delegates representing 21 states, as well as observers and national and international guests.

The debates focused on the international situation, trade union struggles, PSOL and the political situation, women and feminism, Black movement and anti-racism, as well as the political orientation, debrief and the election of the new leadership. The complex national political situation following Lula’s election, which combined the need for unity in the resistance against the extreme right with the task of independence in the face of the current government’s neoliberal attacks on the working class, was present in all the points.

We had the presence of important guests who are now with us in this trench, such as Heloísa Helena (Rede), João Machado (Rebelião Ecossocialista), the historic IV International leaders José Correia and Ana Cristina Carvalhaes, as well as Everton Vieira and Guilherme Prado, leaders of Fortalecer o PSOL, and members of the Ubuntu collective.

In the international delegation, we also had a significant representation of youth and trade unionists from the USA through Bread & Roses/DSA representing the strong independent trade union struggles in the heart of imperialism, as well as the Panamanian MAS sharing the recent and victorious popular struggle against the mining industry in that country. From Puerto Rico, the DS/MVC representation demonstrated the strength of the radical left on the island, followed by the Mexican MSP and its example of struggle in the popular and feminist movement. From Venezuela, our comrade from LUCHAS spoke not only about their national situation, but also about the need for a broad international movement for education, and from distant Australia we received a representative from the Socialist Alliance, which has long maintained solidarity relations with the MES. The international delegation also welcomed representatives of the Palestinian community facing Zionism in Brazil and the Nicaraguan Solidarity Committee, two spaces with which we have established deep ties of solidarity and common militancy. Greetings were also read out from Bureau of the IV International, the leadership of the French NPA, La Aurora (Spanish State), Súmate (Peru), as well as two video appearances by Eric Toussaint and the comrades from Marabunta in Argentina.

At the opening of the proceedings, we paid tribute to two greats of the Trotskyist movement whom we have lost this year, Esteban Volkov and Hugo Blanco, comrades with whom we have established close relations, and we also remembered Diego Bomfim, the brother of our comrade Sâmia Bomfim who was brutally murdered in Rio de Janeiro, paying tribute to the strength of Sâmia and her family in their return to the struggles.

Organizing our tasks

The expansion of our propaganda efforts, materialized mainly in the construction of Movimento magazine, was a central part of the debates throughout the Conference. In all the debates on our fronts of action, the need to advance in theoretical training and in the quality of our propaganda was made clear, deepening the ideological struggle as a key part of our action in a transitional political moment, characterized by confusion and capitulation. Monthly subscriptions to the magazine, the expansion of our website, social networks and other similar instruments are now the central responsibility of all our militants.

The international topic was quite diverse, pointing to the need to continue discussing the multidimensional crisis, accelerated by the issues of growing socio-environmental collapse, as well as the urgency of ecosocialism. Support for the Palestinian struggle played a central role as the main anti-imperialist struggle in the world today, pointing to the resumption of the anti-colonial struggle against the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Netanyahu’s Zionism. We also raised the issue of Argentina, with the first attacks by the ultra-rightist Milei and the need for resistance in Latin America as a whole, as well as preparations for COP30 in Belém in 2025 and the International Meeting Against Neoliberalism in Education, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro in 2024.

On the trade union issue, the rich discussion highlighted the current difficulties of the trade union movement, with some sectors very bureaucratized and others being coopted, in which fragmentation prevails without a coherent core, much due to the influence of the retreat of both CSP Conlutas and the two Intersindicais. We voted on the need to strengthen the TLS as a trade union tool of the MES and the need to boost the major struggles in which we are engaged, such as those in education, transport and health. To this end, it is strategic to develop grassroots work in the sectors in which we operate, with training actions and regular ongoing monitoring.

The new situation in the relationship with PSOL was also discussed. With the party congress consolidating a reformist majority and electoral pressures pointing towards greater accommodation, we discussed continuing to bet on and dispute the PSOL, but strengthening the MES in dialogue with critical sectors of the Left in the country, in order to dispute an independent, ecosocialist alternative. Adaptation, whose opportunist reflexes can be seen at various levels in both the party and the movements, requires a deepening of the strategic debate together with all radical political sectors.

On the last day of the conference, we had three central points of discussion: the question of feminism and the struggle of women; blackness and the anti-racist struggle; and the organization’s debrief. On the feminist agenda, the members of Juntas! presented the progress of this front of struggle in the midst of the complex situation of the women’s movement, affirming the need for a popular feminism that focuses on the main tasks facing us today, related to confronting the issues of social reproduction and the challenges of articulating the feminist movement today. The issue of reproductive rights was also at the center, affirming the need to defend them even in a conservative scenario, and pointing to the creation of new, broader spaces for debate with society as a whole.

The debate on Black movement was another central theme of the Conference, built on the collective theoretical accumulation that was materialized in the new edition of Movimento magazine. With a mosaic of actions both in the anti-racist movement and in the national self-organization of black men and women in the organization, it demonstrated the consolidation of an important process of progress that is being built in a unitary and multifaceted way throughout the country, reflecting the experiences of the struggles on the outskirts of the big cities, of the quilombolas and landless workers in the countryside, of the river communities and Amazonian communities, among many other examples, building the identity of a majority struggle, structurally classist, against the permanent racist attacks of capital and opportunist attempts at co-optation.

Unity in diversity

Our last face-to-face conference took place in 2018, in Praia Grande in São Paulo. We held a national act of 20 years of the MES in 2019; and a conference in virtual format at the end of 2021. There has been a great expansion of the MES over this period, we have built new regionals, fronts and spaces for self-organization. The greatest achievement was the consolidation of the mergers, with political groupings coming closer and incorporating themselves into the MES.

We consider the experience that led us to incorporate the following groups into the MES to be very rich: Coletivo Paulo Romão, Barulho, Anticapitalistas, 1 de Maio, TLS and now a series of comrades from the quartista tradition in Espírito Santo, where deputy Camila Valadão is one of the main references for the entire left.

Today we have responsibility and a presence in various movements and spaces: we have the presidency of the PSOL in RS, RN, DF and TO and the treasury in RJ, PR, PB, RO and MS, two federal deputies, five state deputies, dozens of councillors; we are the largest youth force in the PSOL and the second in the opposition of UNE and UBES, with leaders in various central DCEs.

With the centrality of the trade union agenda, the challenge of moving towards greater organicity is intense: today we have a presence – we are the largest force on the left – in the two largest education unions in the country, APEOESP and SEPE, as well as being located with leaders in ANDES, Fasubra, and unions linked to the health, education and transportation areas, especially in Rio Grande do Sul.

The activity linked to the struggle for land is one of the biggest novelties in the last period. The Conference discussed the need to move towards greater harmony in the different movements where the MES is active, in the agrarian and popular movement, with the MPL, MNT, FNL, MLST, FSRU, among others, in a very harmonious dialogue with the MST, where in Maranhão, the leader Reynaldo of the MES is a leader of the MST and recently elected state president of the PSOL.

Based on these advances, we are betting on a concentrated action to intervene in reality, seeking a new leap in our propaganda work, facing the battle of ideas through more and more Movimento magazine as a common organizational tool, a central organ for the dissemination of our politics, thus acting to reinforce our positions.

Conclusions

The MES is maturing, the conference expressed the combativeness and enthusiasm that exists from the organization and for building the organization. The level of politics and elaboration presented on the whole issue of Black movement and racism was an illustration of this development.

The National Coordination and the National Executive were elected at the end, based on gender parity and a composition of Black women and men well above the 30% voted for. A series of important resolutions were also voted on: adoption of the IV International resolution on the climate question, Ukraine and Palestine; the TLS trade union program letter; continuing the campaign in defense of the lives of the quilombolas of Maranhão; building the call for a broad anti-fascist conference, based on the fight against the extreme right, especially in Milei’s Argentina; participating in and building the meeting against educational neoliberalism in the second half of 2024 in Rio; and intense preparation for the left-wing discussion at COP30 in Belém.

Our militancy will face ever greater challenges against the backdrop of multiple crises that we face on the horizon, but the working class will continue to fight and open gaps of resistance against the system that exploits it. We will be in the first trenches of this struggle and our conference was an important step towards building it. Let’s go for more!