2nd Colloquium Patria: Notes from the Left

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 14 (ACN) The adoption of an action plan to counteract the conservative media machinery and the training of professionals committed to the values of popular transformation were the focus of debate in the last day of the 2nd International Colloquium Patria (Homeland).

María Fernanda Ruiz, director of digital communication of the Argentinean Ministry of Culture, stressed the need to build social consensus around popular and alternative projects, whereas Cuban journalist Iroel Sanchez referred to projects like University for All, a brainchild of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, and underscored the importance of training mass organizations, labor unions and the general public in order to raise awareness of the tools of disinformation.

Other Cuban and foreign participants pointed out the urgent need for dialogue and intergenerational learning opposed to neoliberal principles and urged to establish a scientific laboratory to study the social networks and the structure of right-wing political communication.

Patria’s final declaration condemned the U.S. blockade and anti-Cuban smear campaigns and urged media outlets, organizations, governments and companies to decry these criminal policies, intensified in recent years. It also announced the development of a research and political education program to better understand the complex situation the world is going through as a key step in the struggle against imperialism and the big media corporations.