América Latina

A Communication Forum for Integration, in progress

Osvaldo León

17/12/2013

Opinión

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If we start from the presumption that the quality of a society can be measured by the themes of its public agenda and the way that the society acts on this agenda, it then becomes easy to see that in the Latin American region there have been important changes in the past few years. Among others, two themes that have appeared on the agenda of various countries, with diverse degrees of intensity, are integration (1) and the democratization of communication.

In effect, the continent is now going through a resurgence of the historical option of regional integration, expressed in the creation of Alba (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America), UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) and CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States); these are projects that mark an unprecedented historic moment with respect to the traditional subordination of governments to the U.S.

Nevertheless, these processes are faced today with the complexity of unifying positions among the diversity of approaches to the road to follow, particularly as the northern neighbour, eight years after the defeat of ALCA, is pushing for a new realignment in the region by way of the Pacific Alliance, based on the free trade model.

Assuming that this is a question of "unconsolidated processes", the ex-president of Brazil Inacio Lula de Silva has raised the banner for the elaboration of a strategic vision of integration that would allow for the consolidation of positions achieved and to outline ways to move forward, underlining the fact that the ideas of integration are themselves in dispute.

At the present time, he underlines the fact that among knots to be untied, the processes of integration demand relations that are at once more egalitarian and based on greater solidarity, overcoming tensions and prejudices between countries, addressing existing limitations in institutional functioning and countering the impact caused by neo-liberalism in the areas of culture, education and social communication. And above all, to make more effective the participation of society and its organized expressions in the processes of integration, as an unavoidable condition for the re-launching of these projects.

In the area of social movements the challenge is that of a counter-hegemonic integration based on popular sovereignty in order to stand up against the projects of global capital. To this must be added the criterion that autonomous participation in the collective elaboration of strategic and political definitions is fundamental. To that end, there is a push for convergence and interlinking, so as to build common action and a permanent space for dialogue, in order to formulate proposals directed towards agreements with governments.

If indeed it is by fostering the will of the people to build integration, that it will be possible to overcome the limitations of initiatives circumscribed to governments, then that calls for taking on, among other things, the challenge of the democratization of culture, of education, of information and social communication as a basic foundation for the construction of participative democracies and the affirmation of social cohesion and social identities. This is an area that has seen openings and positive action in a number of countries of the region.

In this context, the Latin American Information Agency (ALAI) and the Latin American Association of Educational Radio (ALER) convened the Latin American encounter: “Democratizing communication in people’s integration” that took place in Quito from November 4th to 6th of 2013, aimed at establishing bases for common action (see the final declaration: http://alainet.org/active/68869). Alternative networks and community and popular media responded to the convocation along with social organizations and movements.

A common agenda

With the engagement to "prioritize the support, stimulus and dissemination of integration processes in the Latin American region in our work agendas, on the road towards the unity of our peoples," those taking part in the encounter resolved to establish a Communication Forum for the Integration of Our America as a space of convergence under construction, open to other actors that share the same principles and objectives.

Consequently, they agreed to develop initiatives to strengthen the integration of people’s organizations, indigenous peoples, alternative media and academic sectors to influence policies of regional integration. Here it is important to point out that the destruction of the social fabric and the logic of sauve qui peut established by neoliberal policies have left deep footprints that affect organizational dynamics and the possibility of intervention and political participation on the part of social organizations in decision-making bodies.

It was mentioned that Latin America has been moving from 500 years of resistance to a stage of construction, and we now need to take positive steps in practice, as well as build – together with academia – new theories that deal with our realities, our idiosyncrasies, our future. Because of this, communication and information constitute strategic elements for the processes of regional integration and for the political, cultural and ideological disputes that weigh on the process.

In the three days of interchange, debate and proposals, a common agenda was drawn up that looks to break the existing isolation and dispersion. This contemplates the creation of a platform reflecting the content of various alternative, popular and public service media, and a bank of content, to distribute information, which would be freely accessible in common languages, with alternative proposals to the hegemonic discourse and themes involving Latin American critical thought and common memory.

In addition, it proposes setting up content production centres, given that new media will not work without new formats, content, narratives and new ways of communicating, so that the media can become an effective way to empower communities, and that for this to work, it requires a training and communicative effort grounded from below. Along these lines there is also support for the establishment of systems of public media that make for a more pluralistic and diverse society.

Participants also agreed to encourage the creation of media watch groups, to promote the free reproduction of contents and technological sovereignty, in addition to ensuring that communication is on the agenda in all the different integration bodies. Moreover, following a space of joint reflection on new models of sustainable communication work, it was decided to work towards a popular economy of communication grounded in solidarity; this would incur the development of thinking, mechanisms and a culture along those lines.

(Translated for Alai by Jordan Bishop)

(1) NdT: The term integration, in this context, refers to the creation of regional bodies and mechanisms through which countries of the region work together, define common political, economic or social policy, etc.

* This text is part of the ALAI’s Spanish language magazine America Latina en Movimiento, 490-491 (November/December 2013), which gathers interventions and articles of the participants in the Latin American Encounter " Democratizing communication in people’s integration." http://alainet.org/publica/490.phtml

https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/81789