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Emancipatory Paradigms Workshop kicks off (+Photos)

The 12th International Emancipatory Paradigms Workshop “Berta Cáceres Vive” (Berta Cáceres lives) was inaugurated January 10

Author: | informacion@granma.cu

Author: | laura@granma.cu

The 12th International Workshop on Emancipatory Paradigms “Berta Cáceres Vive” (Berta Cáceres lives), aimed at stimulating debates on the new context of hegemonic struggles between emancipation and domination, began on January 10, in Havana’s Pabellón Cuba.

Speaking to Granma, Reverend Raúl Suárez, director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center said that the event aims to reflect on Latin America’s reality, where an offensive led by the United States and extreme right is currently underway.
“We social movements must have the insight to know exactly what steps must be taken to achieve unity, and to push toward alternatives for the future.
“The workshop is for Latin Americans and people from other regions, from Europe, to share, and discuss our alternatives to neoliberalism,” he noted.

This year the event is dedicated to the legacy of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro. In this regard Suárez stated that his death “was deeply felt by the Cuban people. We will constantly draw from Fidel’s thinking because it is very important to share the ethical, political, ideological, and moral legacy of Fidel Castro, as a man that saw unity as fundamental,” he stated.

Participants to the workshop will also discuss the work of Honduran activist, Berta Cáceres, murdered on March 3, 2016. One of her daughters, Laura, described to those present “how Berta was able to stand up to the injustices of the world. She understood that capitalism, patriarchy and racism are fought together.”

Evoking her mother in a spiritual act characteristic of her country’s indigenous cultures and people, she noted that “the river has told us, we will triumph.”

According to the event organizing committee, since it was launched in the early 1990s, the workshop has made a marked contribution to unifying forces; the result of the productive, diverse and respectful exchanges that take place within it.

The methodological and epistemological strategies used in the Emancipatory Paradigms Workshop differentiate the event from other academic encounters; by promoting ways of thinking, debating, discussing, and building solidary knowledge from a gender conscious and inclusive perspective, in order to concentrate the focus on the various scenarios in which our struggles are taking place.
Among groups participating in this edition of the Workshop are the Latin America, Social Philosophy and Axiology working group (GALFISA), affiliated with the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment’s Philosophy Institute; the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center; as well as organizations affiliated with the Cuban Chapter of the Continental Articulation of Social Movements Toward the Alba: including the Cuban Workers’ Federation, and Federation of Cuban Women, among others.