A group of Black activists with a global outlook on anti-Black racism have held urgent meetings in the past two weeks, convening twice across borders to confront what they say is a widening global assault on Black rights.
On July 21 in Bogotá, Colombia, the League of Popular Black Organizations of the Americas (LONPAC) and the Caribbean was launched at the headquarters of the Process of Black Communities/PCN.
LONPAC was created to serve as a networking hub for left and progressive Black activist groups from Alaska to South America’s Patagonia region. Founding participants from organizations like PCN of Colombia, DIAFAR from Argentina, Acción Negra and the Frente Negro Revolucionario of Brazil, as well as Afro-Bolivian leader Mónica Rey Gutiérrez, U.S.-based activist Juliana Góes, African American scholar James Early, and decolonial feminist Ochy Curiel, say they want to be able to share notes on political education and ways to fight racism and racial capitalism.
Those at the LONPAC meeting were in general agreement that the forces opposing Black rights and diversity in the U.S. are also active in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. The Argentina newspaper Página12 quotes Federico Pita, president of DIAFAR, as he stressed the significance of the launch and stated that “the organized movement and grassroots organizations are the main drivers and the only true guarantors of the autonomy and radical agenda for Black transformation and liberation.” LONPAC organizers said they want to create political groups that can quickly connect local struggles to larger pro-Black goals in other nations.
A week later, on July 28, the International Civil Society Working Group for the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (ICSWG-PFPAD) held an online town hall that brought together civil society groups to talk about the future of Black-led international groups that work with the United Nations and regional organizations.
ICSWG-PFPAD co-chair Sheldon Williams said the meeting was about “looking to ensure the continuation of PFPAD, and not just PFPAD, but all of the other mechanisms that pertain to people of African descent.” Dr. Amara Enyia, who led the meeting, added that “Because of some recent developments, we thought that it was very important to bring civil society together for this conversation.”
Desirée Cormier-Smith, co-founder of the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice and former U.S. Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, told meeting participants how the United States is “pursuing an aggressive strategy to export to the rest of the world its domestic culture wars against advances in racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights and gender equality, and anything else it deems ‘woke.’”
She said the U.S. has been pushing back against progressive moves at international organizations. At the Organization of American States (OAS), the U.S. used private pressure and allies to block the Declaration on the Rights of People of African Descent.
At the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the U.S. pushed to remove language on discrimination and reparations. At the International Labour Organization (ILO), the U.S. fought to change language on gender and intersectionality. Because the U.S. acted openly at the CSW and ILO, activists were able to organize and stop the changes. Cormier-Smith said the U.S. was able to succeed at the OAS by hiding its influence, making it hard to see their role.
“The quiet version of this strategy is the most dangerous one,” Cormier-Smith warned, urging civil society to protect exposed delegations from private pressure and to question claims that “more time” is needed after negotiations have already taken place on an issue.
Enyia ended the ICSWG-PFPAD meeting by emphasizing the importance of Black international organizing. “This meeting is … not just about protecting a U.N. mechanism; the Permanent Forum is a mechanism of the U.N.,” she said. “It is about protecting the infrastructure that we, as people of African descent globally, are using to advance our agenda, our organizing, our mobilizing, our power building.
“We have to protect the infrastructure that we are building,” Enyia continued. “This working group, for example, is not a U.N. mechanism. We built the working group specifically because we knew that we needed to have a platform that allows us to work with each other and build our strategies globally, and that, regardless of what is happening with the official mechanisms, we wanted to have a space for our people to be able to come together consistently. And that’s why we’re able to pull this meeting together.”
Activists say they are not waiting for anti-Black laws, diplomatic maneuvers, or budget decisions to define the future of Black liberation work. They are building their own transnational infrastructure now.
