Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET)

In 2002 the first Latin American and Asia Pacific Solidarity Gathering was a great success. The Gathering was organised by the Chilean Popular and Indigenous Solidarity Network alongside the Support Group of the Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo, Argentina. The organisers managed to bring to Australia Hebe de Bonafini, who in those years was fighting against the impunity in his country Argentina and was a great example of the people who were struggling for human rights on the continent. Participating in this first Gathering alongside Hebe, which had as its heart themes on the struggles of the social movements and indigenous peoples, were representatives of the autonomous movement of Chile, a representative of the Mapuche Nation and a leader of the trade union of the food industry of Colombia. The participation of this Union leader was a key to the beginnings of our campaign against Coca-Cola and to the Colombia Demands Justice Campaign in Australia.
From this Gathering it became clear of the importance of the grassroots social movements and the struggles of the Indigenous peoples of Latin America struggles against Capitalism around the globe.

After two years of building links and active solidarity with social movements from Latin America and other parts of the world alongside various Australian and Latin-American comrades we decided in 2004 to establish La Red de Solidaridad con Los Pueblos Latinoamericanos, in English Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET). This Network brought together the resolutions, ideas and future work proposals left by the committee of the first Gathering in 2002. These collective decisions provided the platform for LASNET’s future direction.

With this spirit of construction and with many difficulties, principally economic, we decided to organise the second Solidarity Gathering with the objective of building bridges and links between the poor/popular grassroots social movements and the Indigenous communities of the regions of Latin America and the Asia Pacific. We resolved to hold the second Latin American and Asia Pacific Solidarity Gathering during October, 2006. This was a great opportunity to bring together representatives and leaders from varied social and Indigenous movements such as the Tuhoe Nation from New Zealand, the MST of Brazil, the Zapatista Movement in Mexico, the social movements in struggle for Water from Bolivia, the Mapuche Nation of Chile – Argentina who struggle for self-determination, its culture and its land and finally the people of Fiji. These people shared their hopes, struggles and resistances together with activists and workers from Australia; all in search for answers and alternatives to the global neoliberal agenda. The Solidarity Gathering interlinked several struggles and gave birth to a united expression of Solidarity to these communities. The Gathering strengthened the principles on which LASNET was founded and continued the support for popular grassroots organizations and indigenous peoples in Latin America and the Asia Pacific.

From 2006 onwards we concentrated our work on specific projects of solidarity. Projects such as strengthening our ties to various Mapuche organizations in Chile and Argentina; trade union organisations, the Minga (community Collective movement) and Indigenous peoples in Colombia; to the MST (workers landless movement) of Brazil; joining the call made by the EZLN(Zapatista National Liberation Army) of Mexico and The Other Campaign; our show of solidarity with the grassroots committees in struggle for water base in Bolivia and our support and commitment with the CONAIE (Council of indigenous grassroots national organisation) of Ecuador. In general LASNET supports most grassroots social movements and indigenous struggles that are autonomous, independent and are antagonistic to the advance of the neoliberal project of Global Capitalism.

For all of these efforts, we have advanced but a small, but we believe that there is still a long way to go for the construction of a real movement of solidarity with the struggles and resistances of Latin American and the Asia Pacific. We think that there is still a lot to learn and propose, especially in the areas of relationships between activists and of unity in the struggle and the collective efforts of different groups and people that are interested in and engaged with Latin America, the Asia Pacific and the social movements in Australia. The key themes for these groups and communities involve a myriad of topics, such as the climate change crisis and how it is approached; the struggles of Indigenous communities; the workers struggles; the discrimination that is faced by women, sexual minorities and those that are homeless. These groups and communities confront a common foe, that being Global Capitalism. For now more than ever the desire to protect our planet and the defence of ours communities has become a common goal.

With this goal we are now calling out to all groups that share this desire to attend the Third Latin American and Asia Pacific Solidarity Gathering. We make the call out to all groups, communities and peoples to continue the journey of searching for alternatives and proposals that confront the struggles faced by our comrades around the world. The long struggles against injustices, inhumane conditions and discrimination. The never ending struggles to resist the capitalist neoliberal hegemony that we face in our daily lives.

More Info please call Lucho Riquelme land line (03) 9481 2273 or 0400 914 944, Rodrigo Rojas 0414 970 418, Canopy 0448 712 420 or
Juliet Armatolos 0423 911 338.

Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET),
lasnet@latinlasnet.org, www.latinamericansoldaritynetwork.org
Building Solidarity with Latin America
Building Bridges… Organising Globally… The Power of Grassroots/Community Organisations