Lu Xinyu, director of the Global South Academic Forum, visited Brazil this year and highlighted the integration between intellectuals and the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) as a model worth studying for building a shared knowledge community in the Global South.
A professor at Fudan University, Lu spoke with BdF during the forum’s annual meeting, held in Shanghai on November 13–14. She emphasized the example of the Florestan Fernandes National School (ENFF).
According to Lu, the history of the MST echoes aspects of China’s own rural development trajectory, especially in Rongjiang, an experimental socialist region exploring rural modernization with Chinese characteristics. “In the history of the MST, I saw China’s own history. And MST comrades also recognized their own story in China’s,” she said. This year’s forum gathered 258 intellectuals from 31 countries across Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
The meeting, themed “The Victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and the Post-War International Order: Past and Future,” marks the 80th anniversary of the defeat of fascism and the founding of the United Nations. For Lu, reconstructing the historical perspective on World War II is essential for breaking with Cold War–era narratives that minimized the contributions of the Eastern Front, China, and the Soviet Union to the antifascist victory.
She also links China’s modernization of its defense forces to the safeguarding of world peace and argues that dialectical and historical materialism, applied to the concrete realities of the Global South through a continuous process between theory and practice, is fundamental to opening new paths in the 21st century and building a truly people-centered knowledge system.
Read below the full interview:
- BdF: Professor Lu, what motivated the Global South Academic Forum to place at the center the theme of the 80th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi-fascist forces in World War II?
Lu Xinyu: This year, the theme of our Global South Academic Forum is the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and the 80th anniversary of the War of Resistance in the Eastern Main Theatre. Why is this important? Because this year marks one of the most intense periods of unprecedented global change in a century. We need to reestablish both a worldview and a historical perspective, since a worldview is built upon one’s understanding of history. Reconstructing a new worldview, one capable of breaking free from the narrative of the Cold War victors, is therefore essential.
As Professor Li Shiming also noted, we remain in a process akin to a new Cold War; the Cold War did not end. This is particularly evident in hegemonic discourse, especially regarding how World War II and the antifascist victory are interpreted. Breaking this narrative hegemony, removing the war from the Cold War victors’ framing and allowing the Eastern Main Theatre, China, and the Soviet Union to have their immense contributions properly reassessed, is essential for global peace and development.
This is the meaning of our forum this year, grounded in peace, development, and the safeguarding of both. We aim to reaffirm our shared belief that justice will prevail, the people will prevail, and peace will prevail. This belief helps rebuild a worldview capable of reconstructing world history and breaking with Cold War–era narratives.
Within the Cold War victors’ narrative, socialism and communism are placed on the opposing side, suppressed by hegemonic discourse. This is also reflected in global media and discursive dominance. Therefore, to promote the development of a new information and communication order in the 21st century, we must also reconstruct world history, a global worldview, and a global historical perspective. This is the task of our forum.
- How does the modernization of China’s defense forces relate to the forum’s objectives?
As Professor Li also mentioned, China is the only major rising socialist power. We are engaged in a significant struggle against US imperial hegemony. We firmly believe that a new global history, a new historical perspective, and a new worldview must be built on a world history in which the people are the central subject. Peace and development reflect the interests of the vast majority of humanity.
The Communist Party of China and all socialist parties around the world represent progressive, popular interests; they oppose war and defend peace. Through its own efforts and struggles, China has achieved the historic mission of modernizing its national defense forces, a mission that was extremely difficult to accomplish. We hope this modernized socialist military power will genuinely safeguard world peace. Socialist military modernization is undoubtedly a guardian of global peace.
With this foundation, we are confident that China’s development and its comprehensive modernization, in military, industrial, and agricultural fields, represent the path of peace and global development. It is also the strongest and most effective force enabling China and the Global South to jointly resist the resurgence of fascism and imperialist hegemony today.
- As part of this process of rapprochement and dialogue among Global South countries, you recently visited Brazil. Could you tell us about your experience there and what you highlight from your exchanges in the country?
Many friends in China and across the Global South have waged major struggles against imperialism and colonialism. These experiences can be mutually learned from. For example, this year I went to Brazil. We visited the MST headquarters and encampments. We visited ENFF. I found that the MST’s struggle contains many elements worth studying, especially its way of integrating intellectuals with the peasant movement and the experience of ENFF. These are particularly valuable for us.
I was deeply inspired. In the history of the MST, I saw China’s own history. And MST comrades also recognized their own history reflected in China’s. I believe this is a necessary process for building a true knowledge community of the Global South.
Just like our recent trip to Rongjiang, an experimental socialist region exploring Chinese-style rural modernization—the challenges we face there, and the ones the MST faces in its land struggles, allow us to learn from each other. Through living socialist practice, we can collectively build our own knowledge production systems. We can construct an autonomous knowledge framework for the Global South.
This is not a closed system, but one open to the entire Global South and the whole world. But it must be a knowledge system centered on the people, rooted in social practice. Only this way can we truly build the new worldview and new historical perspective we mentioned earlier.
This is a fundamental principle of Marxism: social practice is the source of all knowledge. As we enter a century of great struggle, truly popular knowledge and people-centered intellectual work will emerge alongside the breaking of discursive and media hegemony in the Global North. This is what we are fighting for together.
This is also why Rongjiang is so important for us: its mass-line approach broke the monopoly of a single platform and allowed structures to truly serve the people. In this sense, people making history is the essence of Marxism, a history that must be told through the process of practice.
- What is the role of Marxism in building this new perspective of the Global South?
Today, we must return to a central cornerstone of Marxist theory: dialectical and historical materialism. This framework helps prevent us from losing direction amid today’s highly complex global landscape. The challenge is integrating dialectical and historical materialism with the specific historical struggles of China and the Global South.
China continues to explore this path. China constantly emphasizes innovation and reform. Innovation and reform mean maintaining the application of Marxist dialectical and historical materialism, because it is not dogma. If we treated it as dogma, we would not need innovation, practice, or learning from the people.
Precisely because Marxism is not dogmatic, it requires forging new paths through historical development and through the practical struggles of the masses. We must continuously move from Marxist theory to practice, and from practice back to Marxist theory. Only through this cyclical and iterative process can Marxism truly open new paths in the 21st century.
Edited by: Nathallia Fonseca
Translated by: Giovana Guedes