Version imprimableThe Congress activities began on Friday, 21 March, with the forum “Trumpism in Puerto Rico: a gender perspective on building resistance”. According to Jorge Lefevre Tavárez, spokesperson for the organization, “the event was attended by Enid Marie Pérez Rodríguez, executive director of the Puerto Rican Association for the Wellbeing of Families, Profamilias; Pedro Julio Serrano, renowned human rights activist, president and founder of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico; and Romelinda Grullón Miguel, founder and executive director of the Dominican Women’s Centre”. The presentation, which was open to the public, “became a space for discussion, exchange and coordination,” said Lefevre Tavárez.
Manuel Rodríguez Banchs, also a spokesperson for the organization, pointed out that “the re-election of Donald Trump as president of the United States presents new challenges and ushers in a new, more turbulent, dangerous and unpredictable phase in the global situation. Since taking office, Trump has announced his government’s offensive against LGBTTQi+ communities, particularly the trans community, against workers, particularly those employed by the federal government, against the environment, or rather, in favour of the destruction of our environment through the exploitation of fossil fuels, against migrant communities, and against democratic rights and freedoms.”
According to Lefevre Tavárez, the second Congress of the organization included an evaluation of the tasks and fulfilment of the objectives set at its first Congress, held in August 2022. “The first Congress of Socialist Democracy approved an ambitious work plan to address the situation we find ourselves in. We can say that we have fulfilled the tasks we undertook. This first period, full of challenges and uncertainty, ended on a positive note,” he said, referring to the tasks of socialists in the workers’ and trade union struggles, the feminist movement, the LGBTTQi+ community, the ecological and environmental movement, and electoral political work.
As part of its work, the organization analysed the international situation, preceded by a report by Rodríguez Banchs. According the speaker, the international situation is marked by the election of Donald Trump for a second term as president of the United States. “The Donald Trump administration intends to counteract the relative decline of US hegemony experienced in recent decades with a supremacist, expansionist, recolonising, predatory and annexationist project at the global level,” said Rodríguez Banchs, adding that “Trump has declared almost the whole world to be his enemy. First China and Russia. But also the United Nations and all the institutions of the world order of the last 80 years, such as the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization and UNESCO. Even the institutions of liberal democracy in the United States are under attack, on which he intends to impose unprecedented changes. A project for global change of this magnitude and with such aggression cannot be imposed without generating significant resistance. Our central task for this period is to collaborate in building the emergency brake that humanity needs at this crucial moment.”
In addition to the international situation, the second Congress analysed the current situation in Puerto Rico, framed by the challenges that Trump’s presidency presents for the struggles for decolonization and for a more just society in Puerto Rico and in the world. Lefevre Tavárez presented the report that preceded the analysis of the national situation, reiterating the structural nature of Puerto Rico’s deep economic crisis and identifying the economic and geopolitical interests that benefit from the country’s colonial subordination. Lefevre Tavárez’s report also included contributions from Félix Córdova Iturregui, Neftalí García and Iyari Ríos.
The Second Congress elected a new Political Commission composed of Anneliesse Sánchez, Gabriela Flores, Frederick Thon, Cristina Pérez, Jorge Lefevre Tavárez, and Manuel Rodríguez Banchs.
1 April 2025
Translated by International Viewpoint from Semanario Visión.
