By Sacha Llorenti.on November 3, 2024
The world is undergoing a serious process of moral degradation. It is driven by those who wield global power and see their interests seriously threatened by the emergence of a world in which US hegemony is irretrievably breaking down.
Tragically, the moral framework of international relations, politics, the media, and the culture of this decadent hegemony are determined by the genocide against the Palestinian people; by the impunity and arrogance with which this attempt at extermination is perpetrated.
The word itself should revolt us: genocide is the crime of crimes, it is the consummation of failure as a species, of the absurd collection of international treaties and conventions that failed to prevent a single missile from falling on Gaza.
Not only did we all witness the genocide, we also witnessed who the necessary accomplices were, the apologists, those who sold weapons, those who provided diplomatic support to the perpetrators of genocide, and those who said “war” instead of “genocide.” We witnessed those who could have spoken out but remained silent.
This is the moral framework they seek to impose on the world. They want a world of silence, complicity, apologists, and unpunished crimes. That is why, now, the aggressions are expanding geographically and aiming their missiles of war, media, and culture at the coasts, not only of Venezuela, but of all Latin America and the Caribbean.
Faced with this concert of realities, what can be done? The answer lies once again in Gaza, the scene of the most macabre crimes broadcast live, in real time, and in 4K. Is it not also true that, at this very moment, a Palestinian mother is holding the hand of one of her children who survived the holocaust and, with him, is clearing the rubble of what until recently was her home? Is it not true that she heard the whizzing of missiles and the explosion of bombs? Is it not true that she heard the screams of those in agony, watched helplessly as her children took their last breath, and had to get up the next day to carry on? Is it not true that she carries the world, the whole world, on her weary shoulders?
So what right do we have not to continue, not to seek a way to change everything?
It is more than evident that a multipolar world is being born. That birth is not, nor will it be, free of contradictions and many difficulties. History shows that these kinds of realities were settled with bloody wars, with the violence of those who lost privileges and the violence of those who wanted them for themselves. Power was based on a zero-sum logic of subjugation and destruction.
We face the enormous challenge of preventing this history of blood and pain from repeating itself. The multipolarity that is emerging must be imbued with humanity, with the values that make us supportive of one another, and with the peace that can only come hand in hand with social justice.
Cuban historian René González, knowledgeable about the history of continental solidarity, writes about a moral pole whose core is the Cuban Revolution. He is not wrong. Cuba is the greatest example of the compatible relationship between interests and values, a real example of the duties we all have to humanity. Cuba has written many of the most wonderful pages in the history of solidarity.
News of the Network: Sacha Llorenti.
Multipolarity must be created within a new moral framework, one in which the values of humanity determine its outcome. We must consolidate this pole, which should not be restricted by geography, age, or gender; a pole of solidarity, a pole that is not even limited by time, in which we nourish and recognize the struggles of those who defended these values and preceded us. A pole of the peoples that definitively sets the tone for relations between states.
That pole is alive and growing in the demonstrations for Palestine, against environmental degradation, against privatization, hunger, and wars. You can see it growing in the streets, hear it in songs, poems, plays, movies, podcasts, reels, and posts.
Thus, we have many tasks ahead of us. The first is unity, avoiding the dispersion of efforts, which is a minimum agreement to fight for peace, social justice, and the self-determination of peoples.
We must join forces with the Network of Intellectuals, Artists, and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity and the Anti-Fascist International. We must multiply the Flotillas for peace, for freedom, and against war. We must reinstate the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunals as moral and popular spaces to put those who do not care about the survival of humanity in the dock. We must consolidate the creation of Networks of Lawyers, Environmentalists, and Pacifists in Defense of Humanity. We must join forces with all those who are engaged in the battle of ideas. We must fight the virtual battle, but that is no more important than human contact, shaking hands with our comrades, talking and building together.
Bolívar was not wrong in his struggle for the balance of the Universe. Martí was not wrong in his notion that the Fatherland is Humanity. Che was not wrong in saying that solidarity is the tenderness of the peoples. Fidel was not wrong in his tireless battle of ideas. Chávez was not wrong when he said that we will live and we will win.
Source: Network in Defense of Humanity translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English