The Inauguration of the 4th Assembly of Caribbean People
The 4th Assembly of Caribbean People was inaugurated under the central theme “The Caribbean: Diversity, Resistance, Solidarity and Alternative Integration” at the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp in Caminito, a town located some 50 kilometres from Havana. Fernando Remírez de Estenoz, head of the International Relations Department of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, welcomed the participants and gave the Assembly's opening speech.
Saludos y propuestas de la Alianza Internacional de Habitantes
Let us remember that the first ACP took place in Trinidad and Tobago in 1994, the second in the Dominican Republic in 2001, while the third was held in 2003 in the Haitian city of Cape Haitien, where the first slave revolution in our hemisphere took place, and eventually led to the independence of Haiti in 1804.
Over 160 representatives from different political, social, youth and feminist sectors of 17 countries attended this important meeting, as well as come special guests from networks and companies from the continent.
The purpose of this fourth edition of the ACP is to discuss the enormous challenges facing the region and the just causes of the Caribbean people. At the same time, it will enable the concentration of forces in the creation of a common struggle and coordination agenda .
Among the themes that will be discussed are the economic and social situation and other priority topics such as the problems of migration, identity, sovereignty, social movements and alternative integration projects in this region of the world.
We should remember that the ACP is a collective construction dynamic launched by social and political organisations, rural, religious, trade union, workers' movements, women's, students' , youth, artists and intellectual movements, as well as environmental, community-based, solidarity and Cuban non-governmental organisations. It is a place for dialogue on development and convergence on the Caribbean's struggles on defence of sovereignty and national independence, peace, sustainable development, social justice, equality and cultural identity.
On today's agenda, is the main conference on Latin American and Caribbean integration presented by Osvaldo Martínez, president of the Cuban Parliamentary Economic Commission, as well as a forum of of women's and youths' organisations of the Caribbean. A Poster exposition, in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the birth of Ernesto Che Guevarra, will also be inaugurated.
The International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI), an expanding worldwide network of social urban movements, greeted the delegations of the countries and islands meeting at the 4th ACP.
There are major exchange and solidarity relationships between both networks. Both the IAI and the ACP make up part of the International Council of the World Social Forum, that has created global days against international financial institutions.
Idania Trujillo
Minga Informativa de Movimientos Sociales
For more information: http://movimientos.org/apcaribe/