By Roger D. Harris, Board Member TFA

The Workers’ Summit of the Americas in Tijuana was organized as an alternative to Biden’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles as a place where countries besieged by and barred from the US could participate. This Encuentro was held in cooperation with the Peoples Summit in Los Angeles.

The Tijuana encuentro called for the unity of grassroots working class, peasant, political, and social movements to create a permanent forum for solidarity and linking of progressive struggles. 

Organizers from workers, peace, human rights, and solidarity organizations from north of the Rio Grande included 1199 SEIU, Alliance for Global Justice, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, Fire This Time, Unión del Barrio, Troika Kollective, Black Lives Matter – OKC, and the Latino Community Service Organization (CSO) along with the Task Force on the Americas (TFA).

Mexican participation included Movimiento Social Por la Tierra, Sindicato Mexicano Electricista, and Frente Popular Revolucionario. Venezuelans included Plataforma de la Clase Obrera Antiimperialista (PCOA). Among the other participating organizations were Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo de Nicaragua (ATC), and the Haitian MOLEGHAF. 

Host Jesús Ruiz Barraza, rector of CUT-University of Tijuana, opened the encuentro on June 10. Former president of Ecuador Rafael Correa, and US political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal (both via recording) welcomed “the “delegates of the excluded.”

Nelson Herrera of PCOA, Rosario Rodríguez Remos of the Central Union of Cuba, and Fausto Torres Arauz of the ATC of Nicaragua spoke. Campesino leader Braulio Alvarez and unionist Jacobo Torres, both Venezuelans, addressed the meeting. 

The second day was devoted to movement building and featured workshops on solidarity with the countries excluded from the Biden summit: Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. 

TFA board member David Paul presented the Sanctions Kill report; I spoke on FreeAlexSaab; and Karl Kramer moved a resolution opposing US military aid to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Returning TFA board member and Green Party candidate Laura Wells reported on the Left Unity slate in the California primary election.

With flags and banners flapping in the sea breeze, the last day convened on the international border. The final declaration of the Workers Summit called for robust internationalism to promote solidarity with the sovereign nations and peoples suffering from sanctions imposed by the US and its allies. Latin America and the Caribbean were proclaimed a zone of peace.

 Source: Task Force on the Americas, 6/17/22