From: Hank Roth <pnews@igc.apc.org>
Subject: MARXISM in PERU
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 02:08:23 GMT

/* Written  5:10 pm  Jan 27, 1993 by pnews@igc.apc.org in igc:p.news */
/* ---------- "MARXISM in PERU" ---------- */
<<< via P_news/p.news >>>
{From BULLETIN IN DEFENSE OF MARXISM (BIDOM), Vol 10, #10, 
December 1992}
THE REVOLUTIONARY MARXIST MOVEMENT IN PERU
        BY David Trujillo
 
[This presentation was given to the final national conference of 
the Fourth Internationalist Tendency in September 1992]
 
In 1977 Peru was experiencing a military dictatorship. The 
workers movement put forward an economic-political initiative 
which forced the dictatorship to call for elections to a 
Constituent Assembly, which as we all know is a demand contained 
in the ortiginal text of the Transitional Program, applicable to 
countries where the struggle for democracy has a revolutionary 
dynamic. 
 
At that time those who called themselves Trotskyists in Peru were 
a mere handful, no more than a few dozen militants. Even those 
forces were scattered among Healyites, Lambertists, Posadistas, 
and Morenistas, as well as the nucleus of comrades of the PRT who 
belonged to the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. 
 
This division reflected the state of other left currents in Peru, 
which were ridiculously divided into about fifty parties. At that 
time we had an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the validity 
of our program. Along with Morenista and some Maoist currents, we 
put together a broad based, class struggle electoral front --- an 
action bloc --- known as the FOCEP. This alliance was greatly 
boosted by the historic popularity enjoyed by our comrad Hugo 
Blanco. It offered the left and the Peruvian proletariat the 
historic opportunity to beocme a real political force, capable of 
struggling for state power against the bourgeoisie. In the 1979 
elections the FOCEP won 32 percent of the national vote. 
 
As a result it was possible to exert an important degree of 
pressure from within the Constituent Assembly, despite the 
predominance of bourgeois forces. This fact was reflected in the 
Assembly's ratification of the right of the people to organize an 
insurrection against all forms of dictatorship and recognition of 
the idea that wealth must be the product of one's own labor. 
 
Following the Constituent Assembly, a new national election 
campaign began, which represented a new test for our forces. The 
left was divided into two blocs, between those willing to 
challenge the ruling class parties on their own terrain and those 
who rejected any possibility of electoral participation. This 
second position was adopted by the most sectarian Maoists 
currents from which Shining Path emerged.
 
Among those who favored participation there were a number of key 
differences. The reformist currents simply wished to adapt to the 
rules of the game set down by the bourgeois state. There were 
also revolutionaries, who came out of a broad spectrum of left 
currents. They shared a desire to search for the unity needed to 
seriously dispute state power.
 
Among the Trotskyist forces a debate emerged over whether we 
should simply unite ourselves, to defend the ideological purity 
of our own church, or seriously take up the challenge facing the 
revolutionary left as a whole. 
 
Our sectarianism carried the day and at a key conjuncture, when 
revolutionaries had a serious opportunity to take power, FOCEP 
fragmented. We ran separately in the elections with disastrous 
consequences and lost credibility before the masses. 
 
The end result was the emergence of Shining Parth and its 
terrorist war which has contributed to the death of 25,000 
people, including many honest left militants and leaders of the 
mass movement, over the last 12 years.
 
As a result, we of the PRT (Peruvian section of the Fourth 
International) which had until then seen its ranks grow, with 
thousands coming to our headquarters seeking direction --- 
quickly became a small handful of demoralized militants. 
 
In the following years we found ourselves between the rock of the 
Shining Path (which among other actions killed one of our key 
trade-union party leaders Roberto Charra) and the hard place of 
state repression. We took up a discussion seven years ago over 
whether to go into the PUM (United Mariateguist Party) or to 
remain a separate group. Theis discussion led to a split. A very 
small grouping around Hugo Blanco joined the PUM while another 
small nucleus contined to work as the PRT.
 
Our comrades inside the PUM continue to consider themselves 
Trotskyists and have managed to modestly boost their influence 
inside the PUM. Those who remained outside continue to exist as a 
small, ineffectual group. 
 
In these last seven years the mass movement has experienced 
setbacks and a deep ebb. The failure of the left to offer a 
viable united alternative at a decisive moment, as well as the 
collapse of the Soviet Union have contributed to a situation 
today in which many have developed illusions in bourgeois 
"liberalism" and the government of Alberto Fujimori. 
 
As we can see, the Peruvian "debacle" dates back to 1980 when a 
sectarian conception of defending Trotkyist programmatic clarity 
led us to miss the opportunity to achieve the unity of the 
revolutionary left, losing an historic opportunity that would not 
repeat itself and at the same time losing many comrades even to 
the ranks of the Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary 
Movement (MRTA).
 
As a result of this mistake our later participation in the PUM 
lacked any major significance; the same could be said of the work 
of the comrades who remained outside. 
 
The lesson we must draw is that when the masses begin to rebel it 
is necessary to work to achieve revolutionary left unity as part 
of the fight for power, for socialist democracy. We must avoid 
the trap, fueled by Stalinism, of the idea of the single, 
perfect, totalitarian party. 
 
It is my hope and I am confident that the experience undertaken 
by the FIT in joining Solidarity will contribute to the struggle 
of the working class for socialism. [Both organizations (FIT and 
SOLIDARITY just recently merged under the banner of Solidarity 
and BULLETIN IN DEFENSE OF MARXISM, the publication which was 
formerly the official journal of FIT became an independent 
socialist publication....SEE subsequent posting entitled: 
"REUNIFICATION"]. 
 
LONG LIVE THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL!
 
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<Hank Roth> 
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