# The Decisive Way

## Juan Marí-Brás

The new political organization, called the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP), was constituted during the Eighth Assembly of the MPI held in November of 1971, and proclaimed to the whole world the right of the Puerto Rican people to their full independence and sovereignty, the complete recuperation of their national patrimony, the progressive socialization of the means of production and the utilization of all forms of struggle including revolutionary violence.

In the current document, the Secretary-General of the PSP, Juan Marí-Brás, explains for Telecinéaval the development of the revolutionary struggle since the upsurge of the MPI and the determining factors that led to the creation of a new party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology whose fundamental objective is "the transformation of the capitalist colonial structure now existing in Puerto Rico for a socialist and democratic republic of Puerto Rican workers."

IN RECENT MONTHS our vanguard has succeeded in increasing considerably the number of militants participating in leadership tasks. More than 40 persons, most of whom devote their full time to working in the movement in various specialized areas, now make up the central nucleus of the executive leadership. They include members of the Political Commission, secretaries of organizing zones, and their full-time officials, the Secretary of Workers' Affairs, personnel in the central offices, Claridad, the bookstore, and the national leadership of the Federation of Pro-Independence University Students (FUPI) and the Pro-Independence Students' Federation (FEPI).

The Political Commission deems it just and proper to share with this central leadership nucleus the task of developing the work plan for the Assembly, which is to be presented to the National Committee. This is the reason we have come together in this seminar which establishes a precedent in our organizational operation, and which for lack of a specific name to define the body that is meeting here, we have called the Enlarged Political Commission.

The first thing we must determine in considering the organiza-

tion of the Eighth Assembly is what its political objectives are to be. The last Assembly the MPI held was in April 1968, more than three years ago. Since that last Assembly, which marked an important advance in the ideological development of our collectivity, we have been oriented toward an organizing policy aimed at the revolutionary development of the vanguard. It can be said that this orientation has been important since MPI's first political thesis although it was the Seventh Assembly that posed it as an immediate objective.

In the first political thesis, The Hour of Independence, we state (p. 118) that "the independence struggle replaces the interests of the bourgeoisie with the interests of the workers." This conclusion is supported by all the theory reflected in the thesis. In accordance with this and as the first point proposed in the movement's objectives on the organizational level (on p. 123), "the organic consolidation of a patriotic vanguard with complete understanding of reality and a high level of politicalization articulated by a group with a common ideology, applying proper strategy and tactics and under a collective leadership."

We proposed an organized minority which could be called a patriotic vanguard. But, what is an organized minority? Lenin answers the question as follows: "If this organized minority is truly aware, if it knows how to bring the masses along with it, if it is capable of answering each one of the questions raised by daily circumstances, then this minority is, in essence, the party."

This new type party in formation, which the MPI has been, has proven its effectiveness in practice. The fruits of a struggle are measured by its failures and accomplishments. Despite the many errors we have committed over the past decade, as in any human enterprise, the results are evident since the founding of the MPI and up until today, the struggle for independence has passed from a state of internal crisis to a high point of activity. There are more independence supporters than ever before and the level of consciousness of the vanguard has risen to the point of a socialist ideology.

And in the Seventh Assembly and the second political thesis, which arises out of it, the need to know Marxist-Leninist science and adapt it as a guide to action was established, and a retrospective analysis of the path followed by the movement was made and it was concluded that this path is marked by three "more or less defined stages: The first period in which it is conceived as a broad united front grouping; the second, in which it is defined as the patriotic vanguard; and the third in which it becomes conscious of the necessity for evolving toward a revolutionary vanguard."

¹ V. I. Lenin: Concerning the New Type Revolutionary Proletarian Party, Pe-king, 1960, p. 80.

² Presente y futuro de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico. Present and Future), 1969, pp. 55-58.

The new thesis immediately pointed out that it is not an evolution simply on the basis of more organizational structures. Each period represents a specific ideological level."³

At the ideological level reached during the Seventh Assembly, our people are very clear that the revolutionary vanguard means the party of the working class.

A working class party is organized when there is the understanding that the working class has a vanguard role within existing social classes. The MPI has held this conviction since the time of the first thesis. It presumes the fulfillment of two basic requisites:

1) to arm its members with the profound knowledge of working class ideology, namely scientific socialism, and

2) to incorporate into the organization the most aware sectors of the working class.

The transformation we seek is nothing easy. Leon pointed out that

... the transformation of the old type European parliamentarian party, which is reformist by definition and only slightly tinted with revolutionary colors, into a new type of party, into a genuinely revolutionary, a genuinely communist party, is an extremely difficult matter. To transform the party's day to day work, to transform ordinary daily work in such a way that the party is converted into the vanguard of the revolutionary proletariat, without allowing it to separate itself from the masses but on the contrary, to link itself closer and closer to them, imbuing them with revolutionary consciousness and preparing them for the revolutionary struggle, is a very difficult but important task.⁴

And he warned the European communists that if they do not take advantage of the (probably very brief) intervals between periods of particularly sharp revolutionary battles such as those that took place in many capitalist countries of Europe and America in 1921 and the beginning of 1922, for the purpose of effecting this profound internal basic reconstruction of the entire structure and of all the work of their parties, they will be committing a horrendous crime.⁵

The MPI's thesis of 1969 recognizes the difficulty of this process of development in the present phase of the movement. It points out that

... the MPI is still far from being the revolutionary vanguard party required for the struggle against imperialism. But it is firmly on the road to this goal. There are obvious gaps between its theory and its organizational practice as a result of the weight

of old customs and throwbacks to the past. But all this yields to the thrust of positive experiences that have given deeper and broader dimension to the independence struggle.

Conscious of the need to move forward to fulfill the two basic requisites for the organization of the working class revolutionary party, we proposed the following in our report on organizational policy at the Sixth National Leadership Seminar held in Isabela in January 1969.

If the transformation of the Puerto Rican man must be at the same time the cause and the effect of the revolutionary process we aspire to develop, and if the main function of the vanguard is to educate by example, the MPI will achieve the position of revolutionary vanguard to the degree that it achieves the revolutionary transformation of its militants and affiliates, and to the degree that it fulfills its vanguard function it will achieve the transformation of the Puerto Rican man. Here then, is our first organizational objective, in the light of the line put forward by the Seventh National Assembly.

This is why the attention, the qualification and the development of youth and its promotion at all levels of leadership of the movement must be the central purpose of our organizational policy.

Further along in the same report we said that,

... if the social base of the new struggle for independence must be sought among the working classes and the students, we should direct our work concretely to politicizing and organizing centers of struggle within these classes. [...]

It is not a question of going out and organizing workers' unions, which presupposes the dedication of great efforts to sterile bureaucratic procedures. Our vanguard function means we should go directly into politicalization, penetrating whatever unions there are with the presence and influence of our cadres, militants and affiliates; for they must be clear concerning their basic task which is not to dilute their forces inside the trade union bureaucracy, but to raise the combative level of union members, and to force the union to become an accelerating agent instead of a brake on the class struggle.

At this Sixth National Seminar, the MPI began to propose seriously that the orientations of the Seventh Assembly be concretized. To the degree that the new organizational policy was being put into practice, an evident contradiction between theory and practice at the leadership level became more evident.

The key to the projected evolution lay in intensifying revolutionary work which required the complete dedication of a significant portion of the leadership to movement tasks on the one hand and on the other, increasing exposure to the risks and sacrifices of this struggle at all levels.

In mid-1970 when the leadership crisis arose within the move-

³ Ibid.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Ibid., p. 73.

⁶ Ibid., p. 56.

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ment, at the bottom of the problems and differences expressed, this
was precisely where the disunity lay: whether the organization
would continue moving along slowly, as it has been conditioned
to do by ideological, class, generational and even the physical con-
ditions of its leadership, or whether it would take the leap neces-
sary to reach its goals.

Fortunately the MPI militants had undergone a much more rapid
change than had the leadership. And the new political and 'or-
ganizational orientation had been assimilated at the base with
greater vitality than within the national leadership. Basically, this
was the reason for the leadership crisis.

In our report to the National Committee with respect to this
leadership crisis, we emphasized the following:

It is the basic law of the revolutionary process, fully demon-
strated in every situation, that without revolutionary theory and
without revolutionary organization, the revolution cannot be
stimulated. The words have a specific meaning in the political
context in which we have been using them. When we speak of
the revolutionary vanguard we are not giving birth to a new
phrase. We are accepting the Leninist definition of what the
revolutionary vanguard is, because it was Lenin who insisted
that this concept be concretized in theory and practice.

Here we reached the first point of controversy within the MPI
leadership. We maintain that the orientation adopted by the
Seventh Assembly to move toward the transformation of the move-
ment into a revolutionary vanguard means that MPI must become
a more cohesive political entity, ideologically homogenous and
organizationally monolithic. We believe this is not contrary to, that
indeed it is indispensable to the objective of continuing to broaden
the struggle of the masses for the independence of Puerto Rico.
Thus, just as the transformation of the movement into a patriotic
vanguard stimulated a stronger patriotic unity, so too the transfor-
mation now into a revolutionary vanguard will result in the broader
revolutionary activity that is indispensable to precipitating the
colonial crisis. At that time we also said:

When we speak of moving toward the transformation of MPI
into the revolutionary vanguard, we are not pretending that this
is accomplished overnight by fiat or decree. But we are seriously
proposing the need for continuous individual and collective
growth, for increasing discipline, for greater dedication to all
the tasks of the movement and for a firm decision to push the
struggle toward higher levels of combativity each day.

Following approval of this report by the overwhelming majority
of the National Committee and the subsequent reorganization of
the Political Commission, firm steps were again taken toward this
transformation.

Scarcely a year after the resolution of the crisis, we believe we
are firmly on the road to the desired objective. Two thirds of the
Political Commission are working full-time for the movement. This

has made it possible to provide more effective leadership. We also
have full-time cadres working in complete coordination in workers'
affairs, finance, organization, Claridad, the student movement and
international relations. Moreover, there is at least one full-time
cadre in each organizational zone in the country.

We have succeeded in making the start toward converting the
movement into a revolutionary party. We are engaged in an intense
work of political qualification at every level. Some 200 cadre can-
didates are receiving an intense course in a five-seminar cycle being
given simultaneously in six distinct regions: San Juan, Bayamón,
Aguada, Ponce, Caguas and New York. We also have publications
directed toward political qualification of the militants, such as the
magazine Nueva Lucha, the bulletin Chispa, published by the
Secretary for Workers' Affairs, Carta Semanal, which has had a
notable transformation in content and purpose, and many others
published in other areas. We've begun to put into practice special-
ization of tasks. Internal discipline is stricter and the readiness
for struggle on the part of the militants is growing constantly.

On the other hand, we have seriously begun our work with the
working class and the results are really impressive. The Secretariat
for Workers' Affairs has been surpassing its own goals and is
achieving a solid bond between the vanguard and significant sectors
of the workers' movement and the working class in general.

It is because of this level of success that we are now proposing
as the objective of the Eighth Assembly, the founding of the Puerto
Rican Socialist Party.

We still do not have the optimal conditions for the development
of a revolutionary party, but revolutionaries can't wait until such
conditions exist before they dig into that task. We have to work
with existing conditions, we have to sweat things out and conquer
the situation by redoubling our own efforts. We understand that
the minimal conditions for taking this step exist. Quantitatively
as well as qualitatively, the movement is certainly as close to a
revolutionary party as there has ever been in the history of Puerto
Rico. We are certain, moreover, that very few existing revolution-
ary parties in Latin America compare favorably with the MPI in
organization, combativity, links with the masses, political strength
and ideological development.

It is clear that we still have much to do, that we must work
more intensively between now and November than we have worked
to date, following the plan that comes out of this seminar in order
to guarantee from its beginnings, the indestructible birth of the
party.

The program the party is to present to the Eighth Assembly has
to be worked out. It must make very clear what we mean by
"socialism." The word "socialism" is becoming fashionable again
in Puerto Rico. There are as many variations and tendencies within
it as there are any place else in the world. For us, "socialism"
is the political-economic system through which the working class,

in alliance with all other exploited classes, exercises power, destroys the bourgeoisie and obtains complete control of all the means of production in order to organize and develop the economic growth of the country and redistribute the wealth on the basis of "to each according to his work."

In Puerto Rico's case, the road to socialism is independence. In our country, structural transformation is inconceivable unless we first win independence. The function of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party is not to try to eliminate the stage of independence. But by founding itself on reality, with the objectives of independence and socialism as goals that respond to the interests of the same social classes in Puerto Rico today, independence becomes a tactical objective within the strategy for achieving socialism.

The practical result of this development will be to shorten the road to independence and the road to socialism. That is what happened in China, Korea and Viet Nam, where the anticolonial struggle was led by vanguards with a socialist ideology.

Our party will have to adopt dialectical materialism as the analytical method and historical materialism as the form for examining social processes. Class struggle must therefore be the motor by which our entire strategy is mounted. But we must specify with certainty the distinction between primary and secondary contradictions. In our case there is no doubt that the main contradiction through which the class struggle manifests itself is that which exists between our country's exploited classes and Yankee imperialism. Since here, the classes exploited by imperialism represent the immense and overwhelming majority of the people — excluding only the importing intermediary and bureaucratic bourgeoisie — it can be said that the fundamental contradiction is between imperialism and Puerto Rican nationality. But in addition, the bourgeoisie, because of its dependence on imperialism, has objectively ceased to be a part of that nationality. For that reason it is sell-out, annexationist and renegade.

Thus, in order to trace the line of demarcation between friends and enemies in our struggle for socialism at least in the present phase the only enemies of socialism are imperialism and its objective allies within our country, the importing, intermediary and bureaucratic bourgeoisie.

The party must define its position concerning relations with other revolutionary parties and the world anti-imperialist movement. We believe in proletarian internationalism and we are ready for reciprocal solidarity with the entire vast socialist camp and with the Third World. Nationally, we will apply socialist ideology in all its dimensions and purity, but we will not take part in disputes for power within the socialist camp or the Third World. Nor will we accept tutelage nor recognize hegemonic centers that dictate terms to our party. We are open to the enrichment of our doctrine, taking advantage of all currents of thought and the revolutionary ideas of the entire world but we will filter them through the

light of the specific realities of sovereign Puerto Rico, as we understand them.

The party must be original in the application of ideological as well as organizational socialist concepts. The theory that many call Marxist-Leninist is continuously being enriched by the present world. There is no doubt that Marx, Engels and Lenin were exceptionally distinguished creators of scientific socialism, and that the latter was the organizer of the first great practical victory. The general lines of his thinking have universal application and must be guarded from reformist detours that seek to cut off Marxism-Leninism's revolutionary flight and falsify it with respectable bourgeois ribbons. But it must also be understood that fundamental contributions to socialist thinking have been made and put into practice by a constellation of great figures in the contemporary world, such as Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh and Ernesto Guevara. The liberation movement in the Third World, and theoreticians within it such as Frantz Fanon, have given a new dimension to Marxism that is especially interesting for those of us who are a part of the colonial world.

Assembling all this wealth and channeling it through the most complete understanding of our own national problem, we have succeeded in developing the doctrine of the new independence struggle. This doctrine represents our greatest theoretical fund. The party will not have to begin by searching out an interpretation of national reality as has been the case with so many parties throughout the world. We already have this interpretation in our two political theses and their supplements and in the rich experience of more than 12 years of uninterrupted strife.

We have to develop a plan of rules and regulations for the party. By applying the Leninist concept of the organization of the revolutionary working class party with originality, we will achieve a harmony between our immediate possibilities and necessities in this realm.

It is understood that a Leninist party is selective, because it is made up of vanguard workers and those adequately armed with proletarian ideology and ready to set examples in dedication, combativity and discipline as qualifications for membership. But this is not incompatible with being a mass organization within itself. This is achieved by having distinct categories of functioning members: on the one hand the cadres and militants who make up the nucleus of the vanguard of the party, and on the other hand the affiliates and sympathizers who are the first level of influence for the vanguard operating among the masses and who, moreover, become a part of the vanguard within the national context. This combination of rigidity in discipline and flexibility in extending the organizational range is what has permitted the development of Marxist parties into great mass movements as has been the case with the socialist and communist parties of Chile and the communist parties of Western Europe.

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But the vanguard party does not depend only on its own numerical expansion in organizing the masses. Diverse organizations and fronts have to be mobilized and through them a vanguard influence projected, multiplying support for its positions.

In our case too, we already have an accumulation of rich experience in unfolding this unity effort, especially in the patriotic field. Now we have added to our plans organizational work in the trade unions.

The unifying party work on these two levels must have as goals the organization and development of the United Independence Front in the first place and of the Central Union of Workers in the second place.

Let us consider for a moment the significance of the United Independence Front. The creation of this broad organizational federation of parties, groups and base sectors around the central objective of independence is the essential corollary to the organization of the party within MPI's strategic scheme for the conquest of independence. Moreover, it is equally as important as the founding and development of the party. Let us see why.

As has been said many times, when MPI began, we hoped that it would be a patriotic front in which all independence sectors would converge. We were convinced that this was not possible at that time. Not that we considered it to be unnecessary. But we realized that where there is no organized vanguard to spark the struggle, the unity of disparate sectors cannot be achieved. We went on to establish the bases for the organization of this vanguard and from 1961 up to the present, through an entire decade, we devoted ourselves to creating this vanguard, but without ever abandoning the search for unity. Simultaneously with the development of the vanguard, we continued to establish the bases for unity. The opening of broad fronts of struggle such as the Committee of Resistance Against Obligatory Military Service, the transformation of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) into a more dynamic and modern party than the old "Pipiolismo," the development of great campaigns on a unified basis, such as that against the plebiscite in 1967, and the holding of massive equally unified events such as the anniversary of Grito de Lares and the marches against Obligatory Military Service (SMO) are landmarks that help make irreversible the road of patriotic unity. Here we have begun to see in practice how the development of the vanguard permits the simultaneous development of unity.

Now, when the vanguard is consolidated and is capable of transforming itself into a revolutionary party, because it is truly consolidated, the result must be consolidation of the united front. And so the historic cycle would repeat itself, but on a higher level, and we would be seeing the practical application of the dialectical principle of development by leaps and spiral growth. This is the fulfillment of MPI's original objective of creating a patriotic united front, but on a much greater dimension than in 1959-60.

On the other hand, if we forget the objective of the United Independence Front, the end result of our evolution into a socialist party would be to throw to the winds and to the edge of the mainstream of the independence struggle all the sectors that have supported the MPI in its independence campaigns but which because they have not had our ideological development, would not follow us in the struggle for socialism, at least right away.

In other words: if the struggle with socialism as a goal opens a broad potential beyond that which a strictly independent ideology is able to move, principally among the working class and youth, it is also true that many other sectors, chiefly the so-called middle classes and the older generations, will always be mobilized through the stimulus of the independence ideal without greater understanding of the basis of the social problem.

Thus, to reach a united front there is no easy or direct road and possibly it can't be very fast either. Taking this as one of the cardinal objectives of organizational strategy, it is necessary to single out the cadres that must work for this. And we have to work on different fronts simultaneously. The founding of unifying organizations must be stimulated among students, workers, professionals, peasants, community groups, small businessmen, intellectuals and others. By the same token, there must be unity of action leading to united campaigns and the creation of united fronts around specific slogans such as the SMO, which already exists, the mines, Culebra, etc. Thus the moment will come in which the united front will be a practical reality; those for independence will be struggling together, each in a number of diverse organizations, and it is then that the creation of the united front for independence will be feasible and anyone who opposes it will remain isolated from the struggle.

Another important aspect of party work for unity will be its relationship to other independent parties and organizations. The principle on which it is based must be the principle we have followed up to now, of a united struggle, a united ideology. This requires a great tactical flexibility for which we have to throw aside all dogmatic tendencies or sectarian positions that lead us into a dead end.

In these times the two most discussed controversial points among those seeking independence, especially between MPI and PIP, are violence and armed struggle on the one hand and the electoral question on the other.

Our position cannot depart from a revolutionary framework by taking refuge in flexibility. And to adopt after consideration a position which is incorrect from a revolutionary point of view, means giving in to the inflexibility of others: No revolutionary will ever accept renunciation of the use of violence and the right to armed struggle, still less in a colony that is struggling for its independence. Moreover, in our objective reality today, revolutionary violence and the present manifestations of armed struggle are

present and irreversible factors in the independence struggle which represent a contribution to its expansion and development. The necessary flexibility as far as this is concerned lies in recognizing the diversity of forms of struggle and the right of every organization to determine the forms suitable to its situation.

As far as the electoral question is concerned, it has been under discussion withing the movement for the past few months and will be taken up in the Assembly. If present indications do not change radically, I would propose that the party establish the flexible tactical principle of deciding what course to follow with respect to each election, while making clear its position that the polls cannot be the principal means of struggle in colonial Puerto Rico, given the innocuous character of the elections that are held here.

Finally, the party will have to take the initiative to propose and aid in developing the broadest possible solidarity with all revolutionary and anti-imperialist forces in Latin America.

On the basis that we have proposed for the party's international policy, namely, that of nonalignment and absolute independence, there is a vast camp for the mutual exercise of solidarity among the parties and movements of Latin America. Not only is this essential to strengthening the struggle nationally in various countries, but it can also represent an important push to the general struggle.

Because of the prestige the MPI has achieved in Latin-American revolutionary circles due to its constant and absolute independence and because of our greater necessity for attaining this Latin-American unity, our party will have to insert among its priorities an active international policy which will distinguish it in new developments that Latin-American solidarity is achieving.

In summary, MPI has proposed from the time of its first political thesis, as the cardinal points of organizational strategy for a new independence struggle, the following:

1) consolidation of the vanguard;

2) development of national unity; and

3) international solidarity.

To elevate the first objective by means of a qualitative leap, we are going to organize and develop the Puerto Rican Socialist Party; to achieve an equally important goal in relation to the second point, we proposed to work for the integration of the united front for independence and, on the third point as well as with respect to everything concerning regard for bilateral relations with all groups, parties and governments that offer solidarity to our struggle, we propose that the eventual creation of a socialist international and of a national liberation movement on a Latin-American scale be considered.

It is the purpose of this seminar to concretize this entire group of aspirations, injecting them as points in the organizational plan of the Eighth Assembly to the degree to which they meet with your consensus, and enriched by the interventions and the discussion that will take place during these three days.