Invitation:

Edinburgh University Socialist Society Presents

Latin America
The Eco Socialist Alternative

With
Hugo Blanco

Speakers and Workshops from

Scottish Socialist Party

Green Left (England & Wales)

Venezuelan Solidarity Campaign

Cuban Solidarity Campaign

Scottish Socialist Youth
Saturday 16^th October 2010

10:30 – 13:00

The Dining Room           

Teviot House

 Bristo Square

A Word About Hugo Blanco        

Hugo Blanco is a historic leader of the Peruvian peasant movement who has been politically active since the 1950s.  In the 1960s he played a central part in the ‘Land or Death’ peasant uprising in the southern highlands of Peru. He was captured, and sentenced to 25 years. He wrote the book “Land or Death: the peasant struggle in Peru” during one of his many periods in prison. In 1976 he was released and deported to Sweden. On returning to Peru in 1978, he was elected to parliament. He was a member of the Peruvian Senate until 1992, when he was forced to seek political asylum in Mexico following Alberto Fujimori’s “self-coup”. 

Hugo Blanco has been at the forefront of a huge struggle in the Peruvian Amazon where the government has sold off the rain forests to the oil corporations and the indigenous people are resisting the devastation this brings. He is working on the newspaper “Lucha Indigena” (Indigenous Struggle). The struggle in Latin America today is an international beacon of hope for all socialists including Eco socialists.

The people’s summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2010 showed an alternative to the total failure of the world’s governments – especially those of the US and the European Union – to meet the challenge of climate change. In a world where profit is the motor force rather than human need, it has been an inspiration that social movements in Latin America have won important victories. Indigenous peoples have been key to the strength and success of those movements. Hugo argues that indigenous peoples across the planet are in the forefront of fighting climate change and conserving the local environment. This is true of those struggling to preserve the lungs of the world in the Amazon, to defend the rainforests in Borneo or against the uranium mine in the Grand Canyon.

Schedule for the Day

10:45              Introduction to the day’s events from Cat Grant

10:50              Opening address from Hugo Blanco

11:10              Workshops Round One

11:50              Workshops Round Two

12:30              Report back from workshops

12:50              Closing address and summary from Hugo Blanco

Workshops Round One: The Bolivarian Revolutionary Process - Ewan Robertson (SSP); Young People and the Climate Camp - Jack Ferguson (SSY); Saving Our Land in Scotland - Cat Grant (SSP); and Eco Socialism or Barbarism - Liam Young (SSP).

Workshops Round Two: Building Solidarity with Venezuela - Venezuelan Solidarity Campaign
Building Social Forums in Latin America and Britain - Keith Baker (Green Left England & Wales); Cuba: The Green Island – Brian Pollitt (Cuban Solidarity Campaign) and Uruguay: After the Dictatorship - Patrick O'Hare (SSY).

For more information: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=146635088705507 or email thefiinscotland@live.co.uk.