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LEFT victories in Latin America show us another world is possible, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the final rally at the Adelante! conference at the weekend.
Mr Corbyn and Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana described their experiences observing the Brazilian election that saw socialist Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva triumphantly returned to power after the rule of far-right Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula’s was “unapologetically a campaign of the poorest people in the poorest places,” Mr Corbyn said, “those in the favelas, the homeless people in the cities, the landless people in the countryside, the trade unions.
“The media were completely against Lula as they have been all along. But this campaign was one of putting out a clear message of what would be possible in Brazil — it wasn’t triangulation, he wasn’t meeting whatever demand the right-wing media were putting on him.”
In a speech addressing events right across the continent, the Islington North MP singled out socialist Cuba for special praise: “Cuba is an incredibly dangerous place. When people look to Cuba and see free education, free healthcare, somewhere to live and a job! That’s a really, really dangerous example to other countries in that region!”
The rally was also addressed by National Education Union joint general secretary Kevin Courtney, who received tumultuous applause as he revealed the union had seen 34,000 new members join since announcing its vote for national strike action.
Mr Courtney described his union’s efforts to circumvent the blockade to provide equipment such as braille machines to Cuban schools, and praised the country for “investing a greater proportion of its GDP in education than any other country in the world.
“I don’t like league tables — except that Cuba is top of the education league table for the whole of Latin America,” Mr Courtney said to cheers.
The all-day event was addressed by the Cuban and Venezuelan ambassadors on the impact of the US’s economic war against their countries, and saw break-out sessions discussing developments in individual Latin American countries, media misrepresentation of Latin America, race politics in the region, the continent’s place in Washington’s drive to war against China and many other themes.
