The Working Group "Afro-descendants and counter-hegemonic proposals", of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences [CLACSO], reaches its sixth year and continues to meet the pioneering challenge it assumed [1]:

(,,,) it is necessary that Latin American and Caribbean critical thought continue its work: deconstruct myths of conquest, make voices visible, challenge and reconfigure public policies; creating new spaces for South-South dialogues oriented towards social transformation. This perspective frames the central purpose of this Working Group's proposal. (Working Group, 2016, p.16).

The centrality of the Afro-descendant issue, stemming from the promotion of counter-hegemonic proposals, implies valuing the concept of hegemony developed primarily by Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937). According to Gramsci (2004), the modern state creates the conditions for a social class—based on sex-gender, racial, cultural, political, and economic hierarchies—to maintain its dominance over other groups, not only through an organic structure that boasts the use of force and economic power, but also because it is capable of transcending its class and corporate interests to impose political, moral, and intellectual leadership. The state establishes links with a variety of allies who unite at the micro, meso, and macro levels to influence society, and especially to target subaltern groups.

In the consolidation of these types of states, counter-hegemonic struggle is the alternative for civil society to act, in order to occupy a place both in the ideological arena and in the direct confrontation undertaken by the popular classes against a Eurocentric and colonizing universal “civilizational” model (Quijano, 2000). It is a struggle for the recognition of human rights seen in their entirety and in favor of equality. This requires facing the challenge of constructing a profound reform of theoretical production, methods, and forms of knowledge, in order to overcome political and intellectual visions based on a restricted, unilateral, patriarchal, white, and Western subject, which seeks to deprive society of the richness that comes from encountering other subjects.

Among the emerging emancipatory movements within civil society, Afro-descendant communities and women's movements stand out for their counter-hegemonic struggles, agency, and mobilization capacity to confront phenomena such as the genocide of peoples of African descent, sexism, xenophobia, and classism. As the Action Plan for the Decade for People of African Descent in the Americas (2016-2025) points out:

Afro-descendants are among the most vulnerable groups in the hemisphere as a result of poverty, underdevelopment, social exclusion, economic inequalities, and these are closely linked to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related practices of intolerance (UN, 2016, p. 2).

In Latin America and the Caribbean, viewed in relation to global dynamics, the issue is reinforced by the International Decade for People of African Descent proclaimed by the United Nations (UN, 2013) for the period 2015-2024. Our Working Group maintains that a Decade is not enough. The question arises: Why? The immediate answer is that the Decade is only a starting point, not an end point, as it poses new challenges. Going beyond the Decade implies challenges in public policies to confront the strategies of invisibility and distortion of the racial issue (Campoalegre, 2017, pp. 36-37).

Putting the Decade into context involves evaluating the rhetoric of political discourse, given the trend toward a “slowdown in the agenda of change initiated in Santiago” (Campos, Campoalegre, Valero, and Hernández, 2018). A single Decade is insufficient to overcome the systemic, structural, institutional, and epistemic racism that limits the rights and well-being of Afro-descendant peoples. The crucial task is to develop counter-hegemonic policies and proposals that radically transform the matrix of ethnic and racial inequality and the culture of privilege in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In this regard, a study by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (2020) confirms that:

It is not possible to overcome the major challenges facing the region, profoundly exacerbated in the context of the pandemic, and to advance towards equality on the path of inclusive development as a fundamental pillar of a new model of sustainable development, without undertaking decisive actions to advance the recognition, protection, and guarantee of the rights of the Afro-descendant population. To this end, it is also necessary to consider the multiple and simultaneous forms of inequality, discrimination, and exclusion suffered by Afro-descendant women (?). (p.9).

The region finds itself in a controversial context of change that reveals both the conditions of inequality and their intersections, as well as the resistance and re-existence of forces in the face of domination. From our Working Group, we have assessed this context as a crossroads between the Decade and the Pandemics. An International Decade in arrears due to the failure to meet its goals—Recognition, Justice, and Development—converges with pandemics that are far from being merely a health crisis. These are pandemics in the plural: racialized, feminized, and Afrocidal, in which Afro-descendants are among the main victims, but which also mark the alternative toward other possible worlds (Campoalegre, 2020).

Regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the three-year period that is ending, the Working Group has focused its research on: the conceptualization/diagnosis/evaluation of racialized pandemics (Campoalegre, 2020) and the situation of Afro-descendant women (Campoalegre, Ocoró, Miranda, and Martelo, 2022). There is a context of tension between the neoliberal policies undertaken by governments centered on necropolitics (Mbembe, 2018), as a way of managing the crisis, and the expansion of social movements, particularly those of Afro-descendant and Indigenous peoples, against:

The setbacks in social progress achieved and the persistence of inequalities, which make Latin America and the Caribbean the most unequal region in the world (Oxfam, 2019).

The critical economic scenario predicted by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC, 2022).

The high heterogeneity of social movements, the expansion and diversification of the Afro-descendant political field, versus the need for political articulation and analysis from intersectionality.

The resurgence of right-wing forces. The rise of these forces in some countries of the region brings with it the implementation of a neoliberal agenda:

"(...) are we facing a new scenario where conservative actors, elites, the right wing, but also sectors of civil society, who support these consensuses, participate in the construction of new political and cultural meanings, trying to impose their own interpretation of society and to build cultural hegemony? (Ocoró, 2018, p. 282).

The level of violence and insecurity faced by Afro-descendant people is increasing. Some relevant trends include: the criminalization of Afro-descendant leadership, youth murder, femicides, and growing impunity.

The historical oppression of Afro-descendants is deepened through racist and sexist prejudices and stereotypes; reproduced intergenerationally, with emphasis on Afro-descendant women (ECLAC, 2018) and non-hegemonic sexualities marked by the coloniality of gender (Lugones, 2008; Segato, 2020).

Addressing "The challenges of anti-racist academic work" (viveros, 2020, p.19) and its articulation with the Afro-descendant movement will define the imprint of this GT.

The theoretical relevance of the topic within the analyzed context constitutes one of the essential foundations for presenting this renewed proposal from the Working Group. This proposal is grounded in knowledge situated within the complexity at the national, regional, and global levels in which Afro-descendant communities, their struggles, and their unique reflection in the social sciences develop. The problems affecting Afro-descendant peoples have little space within the academic field. The invisibility of Afro-descendant thought and political action is a powerful mechanism of domination and epistemic racism (Ocoró, 2022). This situation is further compounded by the politicization of academic research and Afro-descendant demands (Miranda, 2017), in the face of a new reconfiguration of racism (Campoalegre, 2022).

While racism has different manifestations, for the purposes of this working group, it is essential to revisit structural-systemic racism and institutional racism. According to Segato (2017), “Structural racism accounts for ‘all the factors, values, and practices that contribute to the reproduction of the statistically significant association between race and class (…), that is, everything that contributes to the confinement of non-white people to positions of lower prestige and authority, and to lower-paying professions.’” Along the same lines, he argues that institutional racism refers to “the institutional practices that lead to the reproduction of the disadvantages of the non-white population” (p. 47).

Afro-diasporic struggles have intensified, achieving articulation with other collective social dynamics. In this regard, the Third United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Forms of Discrimination (UN, 2002), held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, is relevant. More than 20 years after Durban, we reclaim its legacy as one of the most powerful programs in the fight against racism to this day: “Durban ratifies the concept of Afro-descendant as a basis for the construction of public policies, creating new spaces for political action and other supports for the protection of the rights of Afro-descendant peoples.” (Campoalegre, 2017, p. 30). The epistemic and political positioning of this Working Group on Afro-descendants rests on the following theses:

First, it is important to highlight the plural form of Afro-descendants, given the historical, socio-structural, contextual, cultural, and political diversity. There is intense debate surrounding this concept. In this regard, the Working Group (2016) defines Afro-descendants from a multidimensional perspective as follows:

· Socio-structural component, made up of the impact of the African diaspora and its transformation in different countries.

· Counter-hegemonic social movement that is among the strategic actors of development.

· Place of enunciation of our struggles and daily life.

• Current events and ancestral cultural legacy that builds knowledge and transformative political action.

Secondly, the collaboration between academia and the Afro-descendant social movement defines our position. This shapes our work strategy and the expanded composition of the Working Group, which now includes researchers, educators, activists, artists, and public policy leaders in the Afro-descendant field. This collaboration is structured around cross-cutting thematic areas for the production and dissemination of knowledge. These areas are as follows:

Afro-epistemologies and Maroon Pedagogies: From the perspective of Maroon thought, which emerges from community dynamics, this work explores alternative paths to advocate for the expansion of Afro-descendant narratives. It debates the epistemic routes that shape the development of this field of study and political action. It deconstructs conceptualizations of "race," Blackness, Afro-descendants, and power, and promotes Afrocentric experiences and education, as well as networking.

Afrofeminisms: An analysis of Black feminisms, their narratives, articulations, tensions, and alternatives. It examines the struggle of racialized bodies against the coloniality of power, knowledge, and gender. It establishes dialogues from an intersectional perspective, dismantling multiple oppressions and providing tools to uncover voices, silences, and resistance from Afro-descendant communities.

Public Policies: This project deconstructs the myths and resistance surrounding the controversial and strategic relationship between public policy, culture, and racialization. It initiates a debate about why the challenge lies beyond the Decade, and why current pandemics are racialized, feminized, and Afrocidal. All of this is geared towards strategies for research and transformation of public policies focused on race, recognizing the structural and structuring nature of race, as highlighted by Nilma Gomez (2020) in the thematic series "Racialized Pandemic," developed by our Working Group. We also promote the training of public policy implementers for Afro-descendants.

This GT proposal continues the foundational path established in 2016, in three key dimensions: theoretical/methodological, political, and organizational. The theoretical-methodological dimension stands out, prioritizing the development of Black/Afro-diasporic thought as a tool for emancipation. Under this dimension, it contributes to the construction of anti-racist theoretical and socio-political alternatives to confront the barriers that have historically marked the lives and access to opportunities of Afro-descendant peoples. And here, the intersectional perspective (Crenshaw, 1991; Viveros, 2016) is another central idea. Also crucial is rereading Aníbal Quijano:

The coloniality of power makes Latin America a stage for dis/encounters between our experience, our knowledge, and our historical memory. It is not surprising, therefore, that our history has not been able to have an autonomous and coherent movement, and has instead been configured as a long and tortuous labyrinth where our unresolved problems inhabit us like historical ghosts. And it would not be possible to recognize and understand this labyrinth—that is, to debate our history and identify our problems—if we did not first manage to identify our ghosts, summon them, and contend with them. (2006, p. 5).

Emerging is the creation of alternative paths for anti-racist research and struggle, to advance towards more equitable and pluralistic societies, with different perspectives on the issue of race. In this direction, our proposal challenges the inertia of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) (UN, 2016, p. 7), surpassing it by proposing the imperative to de/construct the post-pandemic regional anti-racist agenda, strategically adopting Leila Gonzales's prescient thesis:

As for us blacks, how can we achieve an effective awareness of ourselves as descendants of Africans if we remain prisoners, "trapped in racist language"? (?), I propose Amefricans to designate us all.

Beyond its purely geographical character, the category of Africanness incorporates a whole historical process of intense cultural dynamics (adaptation, resistance, reinterpretation and creation of new forms) that is Afrocentric. (2021, p.140).

This Working Group aims to contribute to the generation of situated knowledge within Afro-descendant resistance/re-existence. It seeks to deconstruct imaginaries and political practices of racialization, promoting alternatives of self-recognition, social and epistemic justice, to reclaim the essential contribution of Afro-descendant peoples. Comparative studies in our countries will be promoted. Our proposal: to continue thinking and transforming in "Ladino America."