The Pink Galaxy and Socialism of the 21st Century

By: Hugo Marcelo Balderrama - 23/06/2024

Guest columnist.
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If you had the possibility of flying over the world you would realize many evils that threaten us. In Latin America we are trapped in networks of crime and drug trafficking. Europeans are losing their countries by leaps and bounds, mainly to Muslims. The United States, the hegemonic power of the West, suffers the invasion, especially along its border with Mexico, of all kinds of gang members, hitmen, drug traffickers and terrorists.

For their part, universities, specifically, Social Sciences majors, under the umbrella of Human Rights, democracy and tolerance, justify all of the above. Thousands of dollars are awarded as prizes or scholarships for those students who write and publish "research" on the contributions of Islam to the West, the economic "miracle" of Bolivia or the "advances" of Castro's Cuba.

All in all, there is a question: why do academia, culture, the press and politics seem to be linked, uncompromisingly, to the left in any of its aspects?

Sebastián Grundberger, Director of the Regional Program Political Parties and Democracy in Latin America, explains that the entire network of support and financing that populist and authoritarian groups in Latin America, Europe and the United States receive comes from a structure known as The Pink Galaxy.

CLACSO is one of the most active "academic" centers of the aforementioned structure, since from its beginnings the organization tried to show the Cuban dictatorship as a great producer of knowledge, art, culture and science. That's right, the narratives around Cuban health and education have been manufactured by "intellectuals" assigned to the institution.

The last four executive directors of CLACSO – Atilio Borón (Argentina, 1997-2006), Emir Sader (Brazil, 2006-2012), Pablo Gentili (Argentina, 2012-2018) and, since 2018, Karina Batthyány (Uruguay) – share positions ideological lines aligned with the authoritarian populisms of the region. In fact, Borón remains one of the most notorious defenders of the Cuban dictatorship in the academic field. In turn, Gentili, who today occupies a management position in the CAF, worked as an advisor to Pablo Iglesias, in addition, in a very loose way, he described Evo Morales, Lula Da Silva, Hugo Chávez and other members of the Sao Paulo Forum as giants that illuminate the future of their countries.

However, what is really worrying is the level of influence that CLACSO has in practically the entire formal educational system of the region, since there is not a single career in the Social Sciences that does not have at least one teacher trained in one of them. their programs. Nor is there any where some of its themes are not studied, for example, indigenism, feminism and, the ever-present, anti-capitalism.

According to its own information, CLACSO brings together more than 883 research centers in the field of Social Sciences and has a presence in 56 countries (America, Europe and Africa). Particularly noteworthy is the fact that all CLACSO-affiliated institutions must pay their dues, with the exception of Cuba, however, the Caribbean dictatorship can make decisions on key board positions. In this regard, Sebastián Grundberger, in his book: Pink Galaxy, states:

In its current form, CLACSO is a political player, at least at the leadership level, and serves as a refuge for left-wing authoritarian thinkers and politicians who want to put an academic spin on their positions. Given CLACSO's constant and obvious legitimization of authoritarian regimes, it is surprising how much financial support it is able to get from European democracies in particular and how many serious think tanks maintain their membership in the organization.

In particular, contrary to what Grundberger stated, I am not surprised by the support of professors and intellectuals for the Castro regime, since it is something that I noticed during my university years, precisely, receiving classes from several teachers from the CLACSO programs. Their documents, although they were presented as progressive proposals, were apologies for theft and terrorism, even justifying the vandalism of Felipe Quispe and Evo Morales.

In conclusion, CLACSO is responsible for having lied about the criminal nature of the characters of the Sao Paulo Forum, among them, Evo Morales and Hugo Chávez. However, his worst action was dirtying the heads of millions of young people with ideas contrary to freedom, entrepreneurship, private property and civilization. How long are we going to tolerate their misdeeds?

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».