Above photo: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during the Anti-Fascist Congress held in September 2024 in Caracas. Presidential Press.
As A Path Of Resistance Against Fascism In The Name Of Peace.
Undoubtedly the major conflicts underway in the world today, more often than not, can be viewed as expressions of ideologies—long thought to have been left behind in history—like fascism, nazism and zionism where imperialism and colonialism remain the underlying rationalisation for warmongers. If the warmonger were to be equated to a painter one could imagine different shades of fascism, nazism and zionism as splashes of colours on a canvas of imperialism-colonialism. The problem is that warmongers do not produce art, at odds with the title of the 2500-years-old book The Art of War by Sun Tzu. They produce repression, death, famine and destruction for the sole purpose of domination, exploitation and greed.
New labels such as neo-fascism and neo-nazism are used to essentially refer to the same old fascism and nazism. They suggest a renewal or rebirth of old ideologies that in reality were never dead. They were in a latent state waiting for the fertile soil to sprout again wielding new strategic weapons.
The resurgence of those evil -isms, rooted in extreme nationalism as author Yves Engler exemplifies in the case of Canada, suggests that a lot of unfinished work still remains to be done today to eventually remove those nefarious Eurocentric and Anglo-Saxon three-prong ideologies that are prominent in three major conflicts undergoing in three different geopolitical areas.
Russia is fighting a resurgent nazism in Ukraine whose regime has been intent since 2014 on violently eliminating the Russian population present in that country with full active endorsement of the United States and Europe.
Palestine has been resisting the European imposed and UN sanctioned occupation of their historical land by the Israeli entity since 1948 and is still resisting today. At the time of writing, Palestine and its supporters are suffering the devastation of the Gaza Strip and the killing of several thousands of Palestinians, mostly children, women and civilian population. This is the utmost act of genocide by the zionist regime of “Israel” with weapons, acquiescence and protection of the United States government despite the world popular rejection with massive protests.
Latin America is rejecting fascism forcefully implanted in the later part of the 20th century in Chile. Today, Chile is still not free of that ideology and Argentina is showing clear fascistic symptoms under the government of far-right president Javier Milei. The United States has not shown a sign of rejection of those governments and other similar ones in the region. On the contrary, it condones them and is taking full advantage of them in order to consolidate a firm imperial foot in Latin America with the still alive Monroe Doctrine. Europe is observing from a distance salivating at the prospects of the opportunity of the crumbs that the United States allows them to grab.
While Russia and Palestine are engaged in legitimate armed struggles, one country in Latin America has taken a path of resistance in the name of Peace with a long term strategic approach. This country is Venezuela that is actively preparing for the World Parliamentary Forum against Fascism to take place in November in Caracas.
In that same news report Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil “explained that the World Parliamentary Forum against Fascism, Neofascism and Similar Expressions will be a space where debates will be held to forge an offensive in favor of peace.” He also added that “this international meeting seeks to oppose fascist mechanisms, such as unilateral coercive measures.” Venezuelan parliamentarians “have pledged to maintain ongoing dialogue with their counterparts in more than 40 countries, nations on which the United States and the European Union have imposed restrictive measures.”
In fact last September, on the occasion of the 51st anniversary of the US-backed coup against Salvador Allende in Chile, Caracas was the venue of the first Congress Against Fascism, Neo-Fascism, and Similar Expressions with the participation of 1,200 delegates from 95 countries. President Nicolas Maduro expressed vividly the memory of that fascist coup by saying, “How much we miss a Salvador Allende today, 51 years later. The wound is still open in Chile.” Indeed, Latin America has still several wounds that make it necessary to heal by removing the ideological weapons that are causing them.
The final declaration of the congress identifies the neo-fascist character of the 21st century as a “digital fascism” based on the growing concentration of power in the hands of a financial and technological aristocracy that controls vast economic resources and dominates information and communication technologies. This neo-fascism differs from its previous stages in the centrality acquired by the control of advanced technologies, which are reshaping social, political and economic relations by spreading extremist ideologies, intolerance and disinformation in a true cognitive war.
The declaration also recognizes that neo-fascism is just the new flavour of colonialism and imperialism in different regions like the African continent, or wherever the NATO countries are present with their imperial threats, and where zionism is determined to carry out an ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the attacks directed against Venezuela, together with the recent coup attempts in Honduras, Colombia and Bolivia, also make evident the neo-fascist and neocolonial offensive in the region.
But most importantly, the final declaration of the congress that took place in Caracas suggests a mechanism for fighting back the devastating plague of fascism and “similar expressions” in the form of an Antifascist International to coordinate the efforts of social and political movements in defense of popular and protagonist democracy, social justice and human rights at a global level.
The Antifascist International is meant to be a space for articulating anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist, anti-patriarchal and anti-racist struggles. It is to consolidate and coordinated an offensive that promotes the values ​​of social justice, peace, sovereignty and self-determination of peoples.
The Antifascist International is committed to building a united front against neo-fascism, cyber-fascism and similar expressions and imperialism in all its manifestations, advocating the emancipation of oppressed peoples and the establishment of a world order based on social justice, equality and peace. This effort is interconnected with the need for the socialisation of technology, ensuring that scientific and digital advances are at the service of producing humanity and life, versus destruction and death.
In the spirit of the Antifascist International, Venezuela calls for the World Antifascist Parliamentary Forum organised by the National Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which will take place in Caracas on November 4 and 5, with the expectation of the presence of a total of 300 legislators from around the world. At the time of writing it is reported that 15 Latin American countries will participate in the Forum.
It was declared that “the main objective of the forum is to generate a broad international parliamentary debate on the protection of the sovereignty of nations and the construction of a more just and equitable world. Participants will work together to develop a concrete action plan to address current global challenges and defend the principles of democracy and human rights.”
Venezuela is at the vanguard among other nations in the promotion of shared values and envisioning a world free from capitalist exploitation and oppression, fascist violence and imperialist wars, where common goods and power are in the hands of communities and where popular, participatory and protagonist democracy is the basis of all decisions. Venezuela chooses the path of resistance against fascism in the name of peace.