About Dilemmas
A broad process for the transformation of society and revolutionary change amid the urgent need to overcome capitalism and to build socialism. Together, we renew our hope in people’s organizations, justice, solidarity, and equality.
What are the central challenges facing humanity today? What are the major crises of capitalism? What role does U.S. imperialism play in social, political, economic, and cultural conflicts across the world?
These are the key questions that global activists, organizations and intellectuals of the left have grappled with for centuries, as they seek to decipher, explain, and critique the ever-developing system of capitalism. However, merely exposing and denouncing capitalism and imperialism is not enough. We must ask, and answer, other questions, such as: How do we overcome capitalism? What does a post-capitalist future look like?
Dilemmas of Humanity is a space to address these questions, a space for debate and development of concrete proposals for constructing socialism—the only possible and feasible path to guaranteeing a future for the peoples of the world. As this process focuses on mass struggles and concrete initiatives for constructing socialism, we as the International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA) are uniting militants, activists, intellectuals, artists, and diverse sectors of our societies to collectively forge the answers and actions that we need and want so much.
What are some of the major challenges that we must confront politically, organizationally, culturally, socially and economically to overcome capitalism? What experiences and projects are being developed to overcome capitalism and build socialism? What major lessons have we learned regarding the process of building socialism? These are some of the questions that guide us in this process of local, national, regional and international debate, cultural production and conferences.
In October 2023, in Johannesburg, South Africa, the III International Dilemmas of Humanity Conference was held. Over the course of four days, delegates from around the world gathered to deepen the discussion on these key questions and build consensus, culminating in a common platform for reflection and action. The main debates were streamed online so that global progressives could engage in this crucial process. Regional conferences also took place in preparation for the international conference, addressing these broad questions at the local level and informing the international conference discussions.
In 2025, we are holding the IV International Dilemmas of Humanity Conference: Perspectives for Social Transformation from April 7 to 10 in São Paulo, Brazil. The goal of this gathering is to discuss and propose concrete economic and social solutions to the various crises caused by capitalism and neoliberalism worldwide, including actions to combat hunger, social inequality, and the environmental crisis.
History
The Dilemmas of Humanity process started as a meeting between popular movements and organizations, parties, and intellectuals to discuss the challenges we face internationally and to develop concrete proposals to overcome capitalism. We are developing a space for collective reflection that can advance coordination, formulation, and joint actions. In this way, the Dilemmas of Humanity process is more than just an activity; it is a space for dialogue in constant construction with the objective of consolidating political unity and a shared vision toward socialism.
The Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) has convened two major conferences in Brazil that were the first to address the Dilemmas of Humanity internationally. The first one took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2004, called “Dilemmas of Humanity: Dialogues across Civilizations Seminar”. The Second Seminar of the Dilemmas of Humanity was held in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2015, envisioned as an international framework for defining common strategies raised by popular movements and political organizations around the globe.
As a process led by people’s movements and political organizations to confront the crises of humanity with concrete alternatives and solutions, Dilemmas of Humanity moves forward based on the conviction that overcoming capitalism and imperialism requires a popular and alternative project, led by the peoples of the world in struggle. This was the mission of the III International Conference in 2023.
Organizers joining together in song.
Central themes
Key themes guiding the debates of the Dilemmas of Humanity process must be continuously developed. Local, national, and regional realities are expressed based on what is relevant in the analysis of the crises of capitalism and its overcoming in each territory, alongside political and cultural proposals. At the same time, we must move in a unified direction at the international level. In this sense, we highlight four central themes that represent fundamental currents in the construction of any project built to overcome capitalism:
Anti-imperialism and national sovereignty
As imperialism, capitalism, and its crises are advancing in an offensive against humanity and nature, we must fight for the sovereignty and self-determination of our peoples in constructing their own destiny.
Organizing the working class
Constant societal transformation forces us to permanently formulate new organizational proposals for new expressions of class, since without an organized working class it is impossible to advance on any front.
Popular Democracy
To confront the advance of anti-democratic, fascist and authoritarian forces, we must elaborate an alternative model of popular and participatory democracy that goes beyond the limits of bourgeois democracy, and that prioritizes justice and freedom.
Construction of Socialism and Utopia
Each country, starting from the organization of its working class and its reality, has to build the necessary road to accumulate strength and secure victories for a true social transformation and overcoming capitalism, while maintaining a horizon of utopia.
Transversal axes
The issues of racial, gender, and class inequalities, as well as Art and Culture, appear in all the topics to be addressed.
Who we are
The 2015 Dilemmas of Humanity Conference was the space which led to the creation of what is today known as the International Peoples' Assembly (IPA). In its third edition in 2023, the IPA organized the International Conference together with regional bodies formed by political organizations.
The IPA is a dynamic process of people’s organizations, social movements, political parties, and trade unions that builds unity around anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism, the defense of nature, feminism and solidarity among peoples. We are more than 200 organizations, popular movements, trade unions and left-wing parties from all over the world. We have found common ground through collective action: mobilization, political training, social research and media in the battle of ideas.