British MP and Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana and other international progressive political figures will participate in the upcoming 1st International Anti-fascist Conference in Porto Alegre, Brazil, from March 26–29.
Described on its website as “an urgent political act of collective resistance against the global rise of the far right and the authoritarian escalation that threatens rights and democracy”, the conference will feature protests, panel discussions and “self-organised activities that empower social movements, youth, and popular militancy in building concrete alternatives of international solidarity and the fight against fascism”.
The international organising committee, made up of activists from more than 60 countries, met for the third time last month to finalise the conference program.
The initial sponsors list, which included the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) — the initiator of the conference — the Workers’ Party of Brazil, Communist Party of Brazil and the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) has grown to dozens of trade unions, women’s organisations, student unions, left groups and human rights organisations.
Israel Dutra, PSOL’s Secretary for Social Movements and a member of the conference organising committee, told Green Left last year: “We chose Porto Alegre for its history.”
“It had a strong leftist presence, which won the mayoralty, and large grassroots movements in the 1980s.
“Between 2001 and 2005, it was the international capital of the World Social Forum, which was important in the framework of the anti-globalisation and alter-globalisation movement that initially succeeded in bringing together various social movements.”
An international appeal, circulated last month in support of the conference by Eric Toussaint from the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt, was signed by more than 230 left and progressive figures from several continents, including Sultana, Gilbert Achcar, Jeremy Corbyn, Michael Roberts, Tithi Bhattacharya, Nancy Fraser, Neal Meyer, Bhaskar Sunkara, Suzi Weissman, Trevor Ngwane, Patrick Bond, Yanis Varoufakis, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Rima Hassan and many others.
The conference will take place as Russia continues its bombardment of Ukraine, the United States strengthens its blockade on Cuba and flexes its muscle following its military attack on Venezuela, and as Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza continues.
Meanwhile, as the appeal noted, “The extreme right and neo-fascist forces are advancing on every continent.”
“While the threat manifests itself in different ways depending on the country or region,” the appeal noted, “its common elements are readily identifiable”.
These include: eliminating labour rights and protections; suppressing workers’ organisations; dismantling social security and imposing precarity on workers; privatising public services; denying climate change; intensifying austerity policies; dispossessing communities to make way for agribusiness; displacing indigenous peoples to promote unbridled extractivism; tightening inhumane migration policies; and increasing military spending.
“Enforcing these policies requires restrictions on the right to strike, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly; the silencing of the press and of critical voices in schools and universities; denying scientific findings that contradict these policies; and strengthening of the structures and mechanisms of repression and surveillance.
“The extreme right is co-opting discontent with the disastrous consequences of neoliberalism to accelerate these policies,” the appeal explains. “To achieve this, like classical fascism, it seeks to direct this discontent against oppressed and dispossessed groups.”
“National chauvinism, racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, incitement to hatred, and the normalisation of cruelty accompany the advance of the radical right at every step.
“The desire to accumulate wealth in the hands of capital and the relentless pursuit of maximum profit that underpins far-right policies are also manifested by the intensification of imperialist aggressions aimed at seizing resources and exploiting populations.
This phenomenon is intertwined with colonialism, the appeal says, exemplified in the case of Israel’s genocide in Palestine with the complicity of its imperialist allies.
“Beyond its complicity with the Netanyahu government, the far right is forging international ties: congresses, think tanks, joint declarations, mutual support in electoral processes, collaboration among podcasters, propagandists and specialists in disinformation.
The appeal urges the advance of an internationalist struggle against the right and imperialist aggression.
“The forces fighting against the rise of the far right, fascism, and imperialist aggression are neither monolithic nor homogeneous, nor have they ever been,” the appeal notes. “They are diverse, and there are significant differences in analysis, strategy and tactics, programs, and alliance policy, as well as sensibilities and priorities.
“Experience teaches us that while it is important to recognise these differences, coordinating the struggle against increasingly menacing enemies is essential … It is urgent that we share analyses, strengthen ties, and agree on concrete actions.”
“The Porto Alegre conference is an important step on a much longer path.”
[For more information about the conference, visit: antifas2026.org.]