On the last day of his tour of three Latin American countries, prior to his final public talk in the evening  in Sao Paulo [see Brazil: São Paulo Chemical Workers’ meeting with Alan Woods], Alan Woods visited the occupied factory of Flaskô where he was warmly received by the workers and residents of the Workers’ Housing Estate [Vila Operaria].

On Thursday, April 7, the very successful Latin American speaking tour of Alan Woods reached its climax with a meeting held in the central office of the Chemical Workers’ Union of São Paulo (Sindicato dos Trabalhadores na Industria Quimica Farmacêutica e Plástica de São Paulo), the biggest union in this sector in Brazil.

Nearly 200 people attended the public meeting with Alan Woods in the most important university of Brazil to debate the question of the revolution in the Arab world and the crisis of capitalism

Following with the activities of Alan Woods in Brazil, there was a public meeting at the Oil Workers’ Union (SindPetro) in Rio de Janeiro. The meeting was opened with greetings from the coordinator of the Union, Cancela.

Since the beginning of the year, comrades from around the world have contributed €2,268 to help our work in the Arab world. We are still have some way to reach our target and would ask comrades to consider making a contribution.

Report from the PCB website:The National Secretariat of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) received this morning (April 4th) the visit of British Marxist intelectual Alan Woods, who is in Brazil to participate in a number of public meetings and political activities. Woods was accompanied by his comrade Luiz Bicalho, from the International Marxist Tendency, organized in Brazil in the Marxist Left.

On a sweltering night with 33 degrees and humidity you could cut with a knife, the most successful meeting of Alan Woods Brazilian tour so far was held in Pernambuco in the north east of Brazil. It was also the biggest meeting ever held by the Marxist Tendency (Esquerda Marxista) in Pernambuco.

During his stay in Rio de Janeiro, Alan visited the national headquarters of the PCB (Brazilian Communist Party) for a three hour long discussion with the leadership of this party. In this discussion the Secretary General of the PCB, Ivan Pinheiro explained the struggle that his faction waged within the party since the end of the dictatorship to correct previous mistakes and build a truly communist party.

At four o clock on Saturday, April 2, over 200 people attended a public meeting in Joinville in the South of Brazil (in the state of Santa Catarina), the location of the famous CIPLA plant, which was occupied and run under workers’ control for five years. The local paper Primeira Pautahad published a full-page interview with Alan the same day and there was a lot of interest among left-wing activists, which was reflected in the excellent turnout.

About 55 comrades came together on Tuesday, March 29, at the Cooperation Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, to attend the meeting with Alan Woods. He was speaking on the current world situation and the prospects for the struggle for socialism internationally.

Following his recent visits to Bolivia and Argentina, Alan Woods began the third and final stage of his speaking tour of three Latin American countries with a highly successful meeting in the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianopolis, Brazil.

More than 60 people attended a meeting on Monday (March 28) with comrade Alan Woods in Rosario which was held in the office of the CTA trade union in the La Toma Cultural Centre – a building that used to be a supermarket but was then occupied by its workers and remains under workers’ control.

The conferences recently held by Alan Woods and organized by the Sociology Student Centres ay the USFXCh University in Sucre and the UAGRM University in Santa Cruz, in collaboration with the International Marxist Tendency, have been a resounding success, which we could even describe (without fear of exaggeration) as unprecedented, with around 800 taking part.

From 15 to 19 March the second Pan American School of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) was held in Florianópolis, Brazil. Amid the greatest economic, social and political instability of the world capitalist system in decades, the American Marxists have come together to participate in a series of discussions on topical issues on the class struggle and the socialist revolution internationally.

“There are so few moments of happiness in life. But I have felt happiness in this marvellous congress.” Comment on the congress of The Struggle from Karamat Ali, a veteran from the 1968 revolution.