Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Mariátegui. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Mariátegui. Sort by date Show all posts

Thursday, April 21, 2011

To Understand Mariátegui by Chairman Gonzalo


José Carlos Mariátegui La Chira (14 June 1894– 16 April 1930) 
was a Peruvian journalist, political philosopher, and activist. A prolific writer before his early death at age 35, he is considered one of the most influential Latin American socialists of the 20th century. Mariátegui's most famous work, Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality (1928), is still widely read in South America. An avowed, self-taught Marxist, he insisted that a socialist revolution should evolve organically in Latin America on the basis of local conditions and practices, not the result of mechanically applying a European formula



It has been a little more than three years since we had the occasion to talk from this place. At the time, we spoke about the problem of education and shared our thoughts on this important issue. It was a wonderful opportunity to talk with you. Today, once again, we have the opportunity to speak with you, but the circumstances are somewhat different.

We are going to speak about José Carlos Mariátegui, of the actuality of his thought, and this task which I have been assigned to address, is not in itself an easy task, at least not to me. First of all, we believe that Mariategui must be approached with respect, and secondly, we must approach him from a clear and precise position, because otherwise it is not possible in any way to understand the actuality and richness of his thought.

Of course, Mariátegui has been physically dead for many years, but his thought is still profoundly alive, just as it was in the 1930s. It is still vibrant, still current and still a perspective for Perú, while other thoughts of people who are still alive are truly dead.

It is difficult in an hour more or less, to talk on all Mariátegui's thought, so for this reason we want to focus on a few concrete problems and emphasize on what should do facing the image of this great Peruvian. First, we uphold the figure of Mariátegui as a proletarian intellectual. We will not get into detailed dates or other matters which are not of interest now. We will get into central problems set forth by the actuality of the thought of José Carlos Mariátegui.

TO UNDERSTAND MARIÁTEGUI

After having tried to bury him in silence, much has been written about Mariátegui. Of course, we also see Mariátegui as very highly spoken of, so as to mystify him, to systematically try to twist him, to try to "better" him with senseless pedantry. It has been said in the first place about Mariátegui that he was not a convicted and confessed Marxist and whose thought was not sustained by Marxism-Leninism.

Mariátegui said it himself. He was a convicted and confessed Marxist, fearless, neat and precise. What does that mean? It means that Mariátegui had a proletarian class position. He was plainly and simply on the side of the exploited. Mariátegui felt in his own flesh what the exploited masses of our country felt and during his time, unfortunately for us, a very short life, he translated into deeds what he felt and put in practice written word. Mariátegui had a conception of the world. He had an ideology, and he said many times that his ideology was Marxism-Leninism. He conceived and upheld it, and he based his thesis on the contemporary world. It is not possible to understand things, and it is not possible to understand society and the world, unless we view them from the ideological conception of the proletariat.

Mariátegui was a Marxist-Leninist. If we review his works, Mariátegui tells us that in the current century (he spoke around the 1920's) Leninism was the new form, the highest Marxism acquired at the time. Mariátegui then found his affiliation with Marx and Lenin and that is why he called himself a convicted and confessed Marxist-Leninist. In the third place, Mariátegui had a working method, a method of analysis, an irreplaceable method to understand anything. Mariategui based himself on dialectical materialism, and his works are convincing proof of that. The first question, we said, which must be very clear, is the proletarian position of Mariátegui, the Marxist-Leninist ideology nourishing him and the dialectical materialistic method guiding him.

On these three bases it is feasible to understand the figure of José Carlos Mariátegui, but whoever cannot understand Marxism-Leninism, will not be able to understand Mariátegui, and it is not for a lack of enlightening or of intelligence that she or he cannot understand him, but because he is not on the same side, nor has the same light in the brain, nor uses the same method. That must be very clear.
We must base ourselves on facts, start from the class position of Mariátegui, start from his Marxist-Leninist ideology and one must also start, therefore, from his dialectical materialist method. Whoever does not focus on Mariategui with those three viewpoints indicated above, cannot understand his thought and will twist it in many cases in good faith or in the majority of cases, like the feathery hacks, in very bad faith.

Mariategui was a great Latin American Marxist-Leninist and we must be very proud of that fact. There is not in all of Latin America another Marxist-Leninist comparable to him in any way; truly José Carlos Mariátegui is a summit of Latin-American Marxism thought and a greater summit as time goes on.

José Carlos Mariátegui is better appreciated outside our borders. Here in our country he is less wanted, less respected, and even very little known, which is a shame. Mariátegui then is a great Marxist-Leninist, who honors our country and the exploited among our people, but not others, for the others he is a knife sunk in their hearts, which they cannot manage to take it out neither will they are able to take it out.

Mariátegui was not a mere repeater, who simply knew four or five formulas, but he is much more, something more profound, more Marxist. He takes Marxism-Leninism and introduces and fuses it with our reality, he gets it into our country, incarnates it in our soil, and upon incarnating it, introducing it, penetrating it in our country with Marxism-Leninism, he Illuminates us with a thought which is still current. The interpretation Mariátegui wrote of our country, in his famous "Seven Interpretative Essays on Peruvian Reality," (Siete Ensayos de Interpretacion de la Realidad Peruana) is still an unshakable document.

In Mariátegui we see the grip he had, the Marxist and genial grip of being able to fuse the universal reality of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete actuality of our revolutionary prophet. Very few persons have this quality and Mariátegui had it in excess and grandeur, and we must recognize it. Whoever does not understand the development of Marxist ideas in our country; cannot understand what is happening in Peru, and evens less, of course, can he call himself a revolutionary?

Unfortunately there many revolutionaries out there who know Mariategui's thought and still fear it, a justified fear, because it is a good touching stone to find out who are genuine revolutionaries and who are not. That's the reason why they fear Mariátegui. Mariategui's Seven Essays are still a fundamental part of Peruvian thought.

Mariategui developed seven masterful interpretations for us from the Marxist viewpoint, and from the one and only correct viewpoint of our Peruvian reality. Many talented and well-versed scholars with a contrary viewpoint have tried to discredit that little book, from the reactionary position of Don Victor Andres Belaunde (TNF: Bourgeois Peruvian Historian), but their efforts have failed.

THE IMMORTAL BOOK

Mariategui's little book "Seven Interpretative Essays on Peruvian Reality" is still very much alive, while that of Don Victor Andres Belaunde has been read only by very few (mostly for historical curiosity.) We must start from this, what Mariategui is telling us in that little book, in this small volume which constitutes a vision of the People's War in our country. Mariategui does an analysis of our economy, which is a vital and fundamental issue. It is impossible to understand a society if we don't understand its economic structure, unless we understand the social relations of exploitation which are the social economy, the political economy. All else are fabrications (TNF: Spanish word "engendros"). What does he tell us about Perú? He characterized it very concretely; Peru is a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. He shows and proves it in his scheme of the economic process of our country. Mariátegui also develops an outline of social classes in Perú and their historical development, and he states, with other words, of what today is the Marxist thought in Perú being developed under Mao Tsetung's thought.

Mariategui not only develops an outline of the relations of exploitation in our country, not just an outline of the social classes, he also makes a schematic that describes the evolution of ideas in Perú. He speaks, for instance, of the literary problem, something we must study sufficiently to realize how literature has evolved in Perú, and how it has had a clear class character. Mariátegui makes a fusion of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete reality of our country, and as a result, the best, the most profound meaning of that reality emerges. This analysis of the Peruvian reality is the basis to continue advancing theoretically what he masterfully began. No one was able to seriously refute the theoretical thesis of Mariátegui, the most they could do, is to come up with superficial outlines, but they could not make the building that he designed and built so quickly and at such a young age.

Much has been said that the "Seven Essays," was simply journalistic work, putting them down as only the work of a newspaperman. There is even a certain individual --the mere saying of his name, Ravines [TNF: usurped the Party's leadership after Mariátegui's dead], pollutes the air around us-- he claiming things like this: "what can one think about Mariátegui, why so much noise about Mariátegui if he was only a frivolous journalist." That person did not understand a bit about Mariategui; of course, how could he understand anything about Mariátegui, when he was one of those who deviated from Mariátegui's road (just like a player of a team who takes off his shirt and goes over to help the other side.) Because they lack the proletarian conception and the method of Mariategui, that shirt will not help them. With time and exposure to the sunlight, things lose their color and become yellowish.

For this reason, the problem is not external, but three little things, three basic things about Mariátegui: his class position, his ideology and his method. Whoever is on the side of the proletariat, of the peasantry and of the exploited classes in our country is in a position to understand Mariátegui; whoever does not assume this attitude, this class position, whoever has one foot on the side of the exploited, and the other foot on the side of the exploiters, whoever cautiously sides with the exploited, but at heart is with the exploiters, is not able to understand Mariátegui; that's why we see so many salivating varmints out there. However, their spit will never reach the height of the steps reached by Mariategui more than 30 years ago.

MARIATEGUI WAS A FIGHTER FOR THE PROLETARIAT

We would like to go on to another point which cannot be unlinked from the one above. These are tied like the two sides of a sheet of paper, inseparably linked. I am referring to Mariategui as a proletarian fighter, a great figure, an extraordinary thinker and also an extraordinary organizer, and the first militant Marxist fighter of our country. We must also put that out very clearly.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Mariátegui, the Comintern and Indigenous Peoples by Marc Becker


 
 
José Carlos Mariátegui La Chira (14 June 1894– 16 April 1930)
was a Peruvian journalist, political philosopher, and activist. A prolific writer before his early death at age 35, he is considered one of the most influential Latin American socialists of the 20th century. Mariátegui's most famous work, Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality (1928), is still widely read in South America. An avowed, self-taught Marxist, he insisted that a socialist revolution should evolve organically in Latin America on the basis of local conditions and practices, not the result of mechanically applying a European formula
 
 
 Democracy and Class Struggle is publishing an extract from a study by Marc Becker on Mariategui on Indigenous People's and the Comintern.This article shows how Mariategui was extending the Comintern discussion on the National Question to Indigenous People's in Latin America in the late 1920's.The full article appeared in Science and Society in 2006.


 
If the 1928 Sixth Congress led the Comintern to "discover" Latin America, the 1929 Buenos Aires conference led Latin Americans to "discover" the Indian (Gamma, 1997, 53). The proposal to establish an Indian Republic in South America originated in one of the most hotly disputed issues to emerge out of the Comintern’s Sixth Congress concerning the role of racial and ethnic minorities within a country’s larger revolutionary struggle. The Comintern determined that Blacks in both South Africa and the United States comprised subject nations, and instructed local communists to build alliances with these groups with the goal of organizing revolutionary national movements to fight for their self-determination. "One of the most important tasks of the Communist Party," the Comintern’s congress concluded, "consists in the struggle for a complete and real equality of the negroes, for the abolition of all kinds of racial, social and political inequalities." Delegates recognized "the right of all nations, regardless of race, to complete self-determination, i.e., going as far as political secession" (Communist International, 1929, 57; Degras, 1956, Vol. 1, 497). Application of this policy was as controversial and complicated in South Africa and the United States, with some white radicals replicating the dominant society’s racist attitudes, as it later would be in South America (for example, see Barry Carr, 1998, 238).
 
The original impetus for engaging the "Negro Question" came not from the Comintern, but from Black activists in local communist parties. Four years before the Comintern’s historic Sixth Congress, the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) began actively to recruit Black members, and by 1928 a vast majority of its members were Black and the Party published material in African languages. Their success led to the discussion of this topic at the Sixth Congress in Moscow, including the drafting of slogans for independent Black and native republics in the Americas. In the adopted Theses on the Revolutionary Movement in Colonial and Semi-Colonial Countries, the Comintern applauded the CPSA’s "successes among the negro proletariat," urged them to continue the struggle for racial equality. The Comintern also encouraged the establishment of an "independent native republic," a demand that extended somewhat beyond the CPSA’s previous activities (Communist International, 1929, 57–58; ES, 1992, 14; Solomon, 1998, 79–80). Following South Africa’s lead, the Sixth Congress instructed the CPUSA to fight for the "right of self-determination for Negroes" (Communist International, 1929, 57). African–American activist Harry Haywood (1978) played a central role in these debates in Moscow, and was key in implementing this policy in the United States. Reflecting a greatly increased consciousness of racial oppression, in 1931 the CPUSA came to the defense of nine young Black men charged with rape in Alabama in the famed "Scottsboro Case." Subsequent attacks against "white chauvinism" within the CPUSA were rigorous, probably far surpassing that of communist parties in South Africa or South America (MPR, 2001, 395; Solomon, 1998; Berland, 2000). In turn, engaging racial issues forced white communists to come to a deeper understanding of United States realities (Zumoff, 2003, 342).
 
Emerging out of these pivotal debates on the Negro Question at the Sixth Congress in Moscow, race became one of the most contentious and widely debated topics the following year in Buenos Aires. The complicated ramifications of building alliances across racial and class divides and problems with "white chauvinism" were similar in South America to those militants encountered in South Africa and the United States, and raise similar issues of the construction of eth- nic and national identities. Even the process through which this topic came to be raised at the Buenos Aires conference indicates the marginalized nature of discussions of race among communists in Latin America. Although the original agenda that Codovilla published in La Correspondencia Sudamericana (December 15, 1928, 45) included the "Cuestión campesina" ("peasant question"), there was no mention of engaging the issues of race or Latin America’s Indigenous peoples.

According to Jürgen Mothes (1992, 157), Jules Humbert- Droz, a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI), insisted that Codovilla include a discussion of race on the meeting’s agenda. As head of the Latin Secretariat, Humbert- Droz presented a report on Latin America to the Sixth Congress and was largely responsible for bringing the region to the Comintern’s attention (Degras, 1956, Vol. 2, 448, 567; Barbé, 1966, 226, 30). As a result, in April, only two months before the conference, Codovilla added a debate on "The Problem of Race in Latin America," with a Peruvian, Brazilian, and Cuban presenting theses on the subject. In a March 29, 1929 letter, Codovilla specifically requested that Mariátegui prepare a document on the Indians’ struggle for emancipation from their current state of slavery for the meeting. Codovilla noted that he was requesting that Mariátegui, who was already well known for his defense of Peru’s marginalized rural Indigenous peoples, address this subject because of his "profound knowledge" of the problem, his "serious studies" on the topic, and because he was the only person who could provide a solid base on which the Comintern could build its strategies (Mothes, 1996, 95).

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Maoism by Harsh Thakor


Democracy and Class Struggle publish this personal appreciation of Marxism Leninism Maoism in short Maoism by Harsh Thakor as a contribution to discussion of the appreciation of Maoist thought in developing revolutionary struggle in the 21st Century.We are pleased that Harsh Thakor now upholds Maoism and not Mao Zedong Thought.

Today on the 26th December we commemorate the birthday of the Immortal Revolutionary,Com.Mao Tse Tung.His contribution to mankind is indescribable in spheres of both theory and practice when leading the Long March, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution or developing his theories on politics and philosophy.

Mao Tse Tung propounded the theory of the continuous revolution sunder the dictatorship of the proletariat by discovering that even Socialist Societies had antagonistic classes.In the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China some of the most innovative developments were made in the history of mankind .

There was a debate in the Communist Movement about the replacement of Maoism with Mao Tse Tung Thought.

Earlier this same author defended Mao Thought against ism but after re-consideration has come to recognize Maoism as correct.

If we study the experience of the International Communist Movement , major peoples wars after the Chinese Revolution were all inspired by Maoism, particularly that of the Peruvian Communist Party Com.Gonzalo in fact stated in his interview how Maoism was the Marxism of the era when it came to aspects of philosophy, theory on peoples war, theory of continuous revolutions under proletarian dictatorship and on Imperialism.

The understanding and implementation of Maoism enabled the PCP lead the greatest of peoples wars since the Chinese Revolution, in light of the mass line. A major rectification campaign took place in 1979.

In the 1970´ s mass work was set up and painstaking work was done in setting up people´s mass organizations. People´s schools were also set up. After a meticulous education campaign in the villages´ peoples War was launched in 1980.The Peruvian Communist Party established bases of revolutionary people´s power through the People´s Guerilla Army. Revolutionary Peoples Committees were formed in villages consisting of 5 members. They represented the broad masses.



Saturday, April 1, 2017

The April Thesis 1917 Revisited ( The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution) by Comrade Lenin



The April Theses first read at the Finland train station in Petrograd on the 4th of April 1917 to a crowd of enthusiastic workers, peasants, and soldiers by Lenin. 

First published 7th of April 1917 in Pravda..

Although 100 years late the Trotskyist revisionist misinterpretation of Leninism and the April Theses promulgated by Trotsky in his Lessons of October  and refuted by Krupskaya Lenin's Wife has finally died in an article by Eric Blanc in Historical Materialism.

http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/blog/revolutionary-line-march-old-bolshevism-early-1917-re-examined


The historical damage inflicted on the revolutionary movement by Trotskyism is slowly being overcome in the West but even Eric Blanc's Article fails to understand how the setback of the revolution in Western Europe opened up new vista's for national and social revolution in the East - the Eurocentric revolution under the leadership of  the Comintern and Communist Party of the Soviet Union became a Global revolution - Eric Blanc's dishonest portrayal of a post 1924 darkness was in fact a global ray of light and hope.

Ir was indeed the Shining Path spoken of by Comrade Mariátegui in Peru.

The Communist that summed up this period after 1924 best from a revolutionary strategic point of view did so from inside an Italian Prison 

Gramsci describes the class struggle as a war. 

He says that the transition from war of maneuver (and from the frontal attack) to the war of position occurs also in the political field and criticizes Trotsky who, in one way or another, can be considered the political theorist of the frontal attack in a period in which it is only cause of defeat. 


With the war of maneuver or of movement Gramsci means the war of those who consider the attack as a quick and conclusive operation, as a people’s uprising in which the Communist Party took the lead. 

It’s a war doomed to failure in the face of an enemy which in turn carries out a planned war, with all the political and military means at its disposal in  large quantities

Since, in the middle of the nineteenth century, in Europe the conditions for the abolition of classes became ripe, the bourgeoisie has fielded political and military means to prevent this from happening. In the regimes of preventive counter revolution they are mainly political instruments.

The more the crisis progresses and the pillars of preventive counter revolution crumble, the more the class struggle openly expresses his character of class warfare and the clearer becomes the inconsistency of movementism.

Here, says Gramsci , we pass to siege, compressed, difficult, warfare, in which exceptional qualities of patience and inventive spirit are needed.

The siege war, or war of position is the Protracted Revolutionary People's War against the imperialist bourgeoisie, and the Communist Party that leads it must have patience, strategic firmness facing any enemy attack and ability to fight for as long as necessary, and inventive spirit, tactical flexibility and innovative capacity which is necessary for those who go in unexplored land, 

Gramsci and Protracted Revolutionary War by Comrade Folco R in La Voce of PCI(n)





Gramsci says that society has become a very complex structure resistant to catastrophic "raids" of the immediate economic element (crises, depressions); the superstructures of civil society are similar to the system of trenches in modern war ... nor the assaulting troops, due to the crisis, organize themselves in a flash in time and space, much less they get an aggressive spirit. 

Gramsci recommends to study the October Revolution in the light of the theory of Protracted Revolutionary People's War

To this we can add that after the victory of the October Revolution the imperialist bourgeoisie has taken all countermeasures it can take to avoid to be caught by surprise by any insurrection .





From Lenin to Mariategui to Gramsci to Mao Zedong and Protracted People's War the line from April 1917 is clear and the mists and fog of revisionism are clearing in the 21st Century and revolutionary clarity is reconstructed.

Long Live Marxism Leninism Maoism




Further Study :

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/the-lessons-of-october-by-nadezhda-k.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/nadezhda-konstantinovna-nadya-krupskaya.html

Finnish Bolshevik on Trotsky's lies about "German October"

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/a-misleading-description-of-german.html


Video refuting German October


http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/remembering-1917-misleading-description.html


Kostas Mavrakis on Permanent Revolution  or Uninterrupted Revolution by Stages ?

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/permanent-revolution-or-uninterrupted_22.html

Finnish Bolshevik On Permanent Revolution and April Theses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G6In1KbdaE&t=109s

Friday, October 13, 2017

As maoístas e a autodeterminación catalá - Comité de Construcion do Partido Comunista maoísta da Galiza




As maoístas e a autodeterminación catalá

Quedan 80 anos para o 1 de Outubro do ano 2017, e fronte aos Lerroux e tantos outros “defensores da unidade de España”, a Internacional Comunista resolve respecto á súa sección española a reivindicación de independencia de Cataluña. O dirixente comunista catalán Hilari Arlandis será exemplo heroico desta loita ata a súa morte en 1939 durante un bombardeo das forzas franquistas. A base para esta posición era, en síntese, o debilitamento do réxime oligárquico español que suporía a independencia da nación catalá.

Corenta anos despois de ditadura fascista sostida coa complicidade das chamadas “democracias occidentais”, certos sectores da burguesía monopolista española impulsan unha serie de reformas do réxime franquista que o homologarán con outros estados de Europa occidental na chamada Transición. Fascistas e revisionistas sentan á mesa e establecen unha serie de acordos que apuntalan o dominio centralista burgués sobre o Estado, para o que é condición indispensable a negación do dereito de autodeterminación das nacionalidades. O PCE-PSUC asume agora a indivisibilidade do Estado español con dirixentes coma Jordi Solé Tura, un dos pais da Constitución do 78, na liña das teses da “reconciliación nacional” que arrastraba dende décadas atrás.

Hoxe, no ano 2017, a situación concreta é dende logo distinta en varios aspectos importantes. O Estado español logrou formar parte integral do bloque imperialista da Unión Europea, mentres que o movemento comunista neste vive unha situación xeral de repregamento na súa influencia e recoñecemento entre as masas oprimidas. O actual status das autonomías imposto trala Transición evidénciase a todas luces como un fracaso por parte do Estado de resolver a contradición interna do seu carácter plurinacional.

Non é casual que na Galiza, Euskadi ou Cataluña persista un movemento popular de masas, de menor ou maior hexemonía, que reclama o dereito dos seus pobos a decidir libremente a súa relación coa nación española. Non é casual a existencia dun movemento político, social e armado contra un réxime que trala máscara “democrática” leva reprimindo politicamente, asasinando e torturando a quen cuestiona a unidade do Estado. As maoístas cremos firmemente en que é xusto rebelarse e saudamos a loita histórica do independentismo contra o Estado español, que é o inimigo común que temos o proletariado catalán, galego, vasco ou español. Agora mesmo en Cataluña hai unha crise política que está sacudindo un dos piares do Estado, e entorno á cal ven xirando a política deste nos últimos anos. A poucos días do referendo de independencia do 1-O, as diferentes clases da realidade social do Estado español mediante as súas expresións políticas proclaman as súas diversas posicións, e o movemento comunista non é unha excepción. Sumarse ou non a esta sacudida?

“A tenrura dos pobos”.

Nas últimas semanas puidemos ler a posición dos diferentes destacamentos comunistas tanto exclusivamente nacionais, como daqueles que se organizan a nivel de Estado. Baixo unha declaración unánime de defensa do dereito de autodeterminación dos pobos, o movemento comunista no Estado español divídese actualmente entre aqueles destacamentos que apoian o referendo de independencia do 1 de Outubro e aqueles contrarios a este. Entre mutuas acusacións de nacionalismo, 80 anos de derrota ideolóxica pesan como unha lousa tamén na cuestión nacional, e non cabe falar hoxe de internacionalismo mais que de xeito abstracto.

Na situación actual cremos que, independentemente do número da súa militancia, o importante é que as diferentes organizacións comunistas do Estado español expresen dun modo xusto as ideas e a política do proletariado revolucionario. Así, ante o asunto que nos ocupa, o esencial non é que estas fagan proclamas baleiras de “internacionalismo”, de defensa do “dereito á autodeterminación”; senón que saiban facer efectiva esa defensa, seren internacionalistas nos feitos mesmo nos momentos máis difíciles. Cando o anti-independentismo uniu a fascistas, reaccionarios, socialdemócratas, revisionistas e oportunistas dunha maneira inédita ata agora, as marxistas revolucionarias debéramos ter máis claro que nunca que a propaganda xeral dos principios democráticos en torno a problemática nacional pode ser dende logo necesaria, pero indubidablemente insuficiente.

De novo, a cuestión aquí non é citar axeitadamente a Stalin ou Lenin (Mariátegui ou Kaypakkaya) nos seus textos clásicos sobre o dereito das nacións á súa independencia e a posición concreta das revolucionarias ante este en diferentes contextos históricos. Non é isto o que se discute, e non debera sorprender a ninguén tampouco o uso como argumento de autoridade de citas das obras de revolucionarios sobre o tema, nas que tan habitualmente se petisca para xustificar liñas políticas oportunistas e revisionistas.

Cómpre, por suposto, estudiarmos atentamente e asimilar as leccións universais do marxismo sobre cuestión nacional; e neste sentido é prioritario para as comunistas revolucionarias voltarmos aos libros. O que non podemos pretender é separarnos da situación real escudándonos en citas de Lenin para seguir na práctica os ditames do inimigo capitalista. Debemos tomar partido nas loitas reais, non enfrontarnos ao mundo doutrinariamente cos nosos principios abstractos de “emancipación de clase” ou “internacionalismo”. Ante o que está acontecendo agora mesmo en Cataluña, o que pode aportar o marxismo é evidenciar a necesaria historicidade máis aló da pouco iluminada identificación de Cataluña como unha nación oprimida pola nación opresora española (conclusión á que nin chega boa parte do movemento comunista no Estado). A análise do desenrolo da contradición nacional que atravesa a historia real da loita de clases no Estado español que sente as bases para un verdadeiro movemento internacional do proletariado.

Afirmar a existencia dunha única clase obreira multinacional que é dividida por maquinacións políticas alleas e ideoloxía burguesa, ignora as moi reais contradicións que existen dentro da propia clase obreira. Teorías como a nacionalista pódense permitir permanecer nun nivel de aparencia, pero reducirse a espetar categorías materialistas vulgares como a de “clase obreira” agardando pasar por riba desta ou calquera outra contradición está ao mesmo nivel. Tal discurso, non importa o ben intencionado que se pretenda, ten un claro fin: asediar a resistencia da nación oprimida en favor da opresora.

Non nos imos deter en dar unha detallada descrición neste documento de como se desprega a opresión nacional dentro dos lindes dun estado do centro imperialista, que cremos á vez non identificable co espolio dos países oprimidos de fóra das súas fronteiras que implica o imperialismo. Isto, dende logo, é unha das tarefas pendentes dun movemento comunista no que mesmo atopamos sectores que asumen a defensa chauvinista dunha única “nación política española” seguindo o romanticismo co que a burguesía sanciona a súa fragmentación estatal (negando así a posibilidade de calquera contradición nacional non resolta), ou por outra banda, organizacións que dende o nacionalismo da nación oprimida renegan da categoría científica de imperialismo equiparándoo á opresión nacional de España sobre o resto de nacións que integran o Estado (chegando, como acontece nunha parte importante do movemento en Galiza, a falar da nación oprimida como unha “colonia”); mais excede a nosa pretensión de darmos agora mesmo dende o maoísmo unha resposta clara e contundente empurradas pola urxencia da situación política actual en Cataluña.

Ocorre hoxe coma onte co oportunismo do noso movemento, que en morte dos grandes revolucionarios faise deles unha icona inofensiva, rebáixase a súa teoría para facela aceptable para a burguesía: acéptase con Lenin o dereito dunha nación á súa independencia política, á súa libre separación respecto a nación que a oprime; e ate a solución do problema mediante un referendo na nación que se separa. O que lle parece inaceptable (co propio Lenin ou Joan Comorera, asegura) é o referendo de independencia catalán do 1-O porque “non o dirixe a clase obreira”, “divide á mesma”, “non ten garantías” e “só reforza a bandeira allea do independentismo”; e por iso chama ao boicot a este.

Vendéndose como unha falsa equidistancia entre “independentistas e constitucionalistas”, procuran reducir a un problema interburgués o que é un problema nacional, que afecta a varias clases, centrándose na dirección de tal capa da burguesía sobre a reivindicación do dereito á autodeterminación sen deterse a analizar o papel democrático xeral e de oposición ao Estado español desta. Un reducionismo que o único que consegue é precisamente seguirlle o xogo ao Estado, que difunde unha narrativa do “procés” como a manipulación dos Puigdemont, Junqueras, Baños, etc. ao pobo catalán ao crear un problema onde non o había para o seu beneficio político particular. A gran miseria do oportunismo aquí, é pór ao mesmo nivel españolismo e independentismo catalán mentres se produce unha represión mediática, política, xurídica e policial ao segundo dende o Estado; a miseria dunha verdadeira “esquerda tricorne”. A súa covardía, non recoñecer abertamente que pide boicotear un referendo de independencia contra os desexos da inmensa maioría do pobo catalán; dar o seu “apoio táctico” (concedamos) ao unionismo que defende a burguesía monopolista española e catalá.

Podemos estar dacordo en que non é tarefa do proletariado revolucionario, subscribir proxecto nacional burgués ningún e o nacionalismo que implica, mais mentres que exista un movemento nacional de masas na nación oprimida, inda encabezado por parte da burguesía (que como non pode ser doutro xeito, emprega este para os seus intereses económicos), teremos que operar neste se pretendemos facer efectivo o noso imperativo categórico internacionalista. A realidade nunca se presenta clara e pura: dende logo que no movemento nacional catalán hai unha burguesía á que tamén debemos enfrontar como a española. Do que se trata agora para as comunistas, é de saber operar neste marco de contradicións para resolver se a independencia de Cataluña responde aos intereses da clase obreira catalá e do resto de pobos do Estado. Todo o demais, fume.

Fronte ao unionismo, afirmamos que non existe entre a clase obreira española e catalá ningunha unidade que romper, senón que construír mediante a práctica do dereito de autodeterminación. O auténtico internacionalismo dunha solidariedade combativa, a hexemonía política revolucionaria, non vai caer do ceo: construirémola as comunistas da man das masas. Quen quere os fins, debe pór os medios. E se do mesmo xeito que para a desaparición das clases sociais cómpre a mediación dun período de ditadura da clase oprimida, a fusión e desaparición das nacións terá que vir mediada pola liberdade de separación das nacións oprimidas. Unha vangarda que, lonxe de promover entre as masas a superación do celo nacional e o desprezo pola legalidade burguesa e as súas fronteiras, chama a asumir a represión españolista e postergar o problema ata o socialismo, está destinada a rematar no contedor de lixo da historia. Trala bandeira da república federal española (tricor ou vermella coa fouce e o martelo), proclama convencida a unidade proletaria dos distintos pobos do Estado nunha futura revolución descontaminada de nacionalismo que hoxe non fai por organizar, espantada de que un destes decida “antes de tempo” a súa independencia nacional.

Por vermello que se vista, este chauvinismo non engana a ninguén. Pregoar que o “procés” diríxeno a mediana e pequena burguesía catalás non descobre nada novo a ninguén. Moito menos ao pobo catalán. O que o movemento popular en Cataluña ofrécenos ás comunistas, é unha lectura na que non se está caendo: sabe perfectamente todo o que se lle achaca (dende que non conta con aliados internacionais que garantan a súa independencia, ata o carácter burgués de quen encabeza o proceso). O que está dicindo non é só que o sabe de sobra, senón que inda con iso e co que sexa, quere a independencia. E estao a demostrar enchendo as rúas e defendendo con uñas e dentes o referendo do 1-O e o seu resultado.

Esta identidade como nación oprimida é froito dunha madurez política que cómpre valorar, non enfrontar. Os pretendidos equidistantes que consideran do mesmo xeito o nacionalismo de nación opresora e oprimida, que non ven o contido democrático xeral contra a opresión do segundo, están en realidade imbuídos no primeiro. Indignados de toparse cunhas masas que se recoñecen no nacionalismo (ás que sempre abandonaron na súa loita pola liberación nacional pese á represión continuada do Estado), ignoran o máis elemental: que foron os nacionalistas españois os que levaron ao pobo catalán a ser nacionalista para seguir sendo catalán. Non nos atoparán dende logo ás maoístas na súa trincheira contra o independentismo, que non caiba dúbida. O importante para nós non é por onde pasa a fronteira do Estado, senón forxar e manter a alianza das traballadoras de todas as nacións para loitar contra a burguesía calquera que for a súa nación; mais lembrámoslle aos unionistas do noso movemento, os cregos da “república federal española” nas súas diversas variantes, que se pretenden por principio frear e debilitar as tendencias á separación das nacións oprimidas, só cabe percorrer o camiño único de asegurar precisamente a liberdade de separación nun marco común de convivencia entre nacións en igualdade real.

A trampa disto, claro está, é que tal alternativa non existe hoxe, e que polo tanto resta tomar partido agora mesmo entre o apoio ao proceso de independencia dunha República Catalá, ou a manter as fronteiras do Reino de España. Quen dende o marxismo asume a segunda opción escudándose na súa covardía ao fascismo, a lidar cunhas masas imbuídas de nacionalismo españolista que non queren oír falar de dereito de autodeterminación ningún, é un oportunista de manual (e isto cando non asume directamente os dogmas do españolismo sumándose ás filas da reacción fascista). Unha vez máis, non hai posibilidade de ter as mans limpas: todo espectador é un covarde ou un traidor.

O referendo do 1-O, abofé, está “rompendo España”. Mais non aínda pola independencia catalá, senón pola clara delimitación (coa forza que só teñen os feitos) no resto do Estado entre internacionalistas e “constitucionalistas” (nas súas diversas pelaxes de “constitucionalismo” máis ou menos aberto). Velaí o grandísimo valor do referendo. O apoio trala represión política e a solidariedade coas vítimas da violencia policial é hipócrita cando se pretendeu antes pasar por riba da contradición cos “nin co independentismo nin co españolismo”, “non hai garantías” ou “o procés está destinado ao fracaso”. A morneza dos que xa non se lles agarda, dos que nada aportan tralo regueiro de sangue dunha ocupación policial: o puro oportunismo de quen pretende enganar a catro incautas condenando coa boca pequena a violencia contra o pobo. Á zaga da represión do Estado tras condenar o referendo. Hai algunha diferencia nesta actitude coa socialdemocracia dos Pablo Iglesias ou Alberto Garzón? Debemos crer tamén ao “camarada” Pedro Sánchez cando expresa o seu “desacordo coas cargas policiais” e “lamenta feridos”?

Mal que lles pese, o pobo non é idiota e dende logo non esquece. Son os mesmos rapidamente retiran o seu apoio suíño cando non hai unha portada sensacionalista dos xornais de Madrid con multitudes protexendo colexios electorais fronte ao asedio policial. Vímolo durante décadas co movemento de liberación nacional vasco, contra o que a guerra sucia prolongada do Estado nunca mereceu a atención destes destacamentos. Tamén na Galiza ignorando ás presas políticas independentistas e a súa dispersión. Mentres caen máscaras, o pobo responde e aperta, e organiza nestes intres unha folga xeral política en Cataluña. As comunistas temos que puxar con el e sermos as máis resoltas na loita e as mellor organizadas, porque esta non vai rematar con referendo ou folga xeral ningunha: haberá que puxar máis e máis, illar ao inimigo, xuntar moitas mans e avanzarmos firmes cara a guerra popular revolucionaria. Neste camiño atoparémonos todas as que nos situamos nun comunismo da revolución, e non nos cabe dúbida, a loita de dúas liñas esclarecerá máis pronto que tarde a moitas camaradas sobre o carácter oportunista da súa organización, para pasar a ampliar as filas do proletariado en armas contra o capital.

En defensa do “Si” á independencia

Fronte a todas estas difusas declaracións xerais que criticamos de apoio ao dereito de autodeterminación de boa parte do movemento comunista no Estado español, desprovistas as máis das veces de calquera contido concreto e emprazando á Historia “ao socialismo”; as maoístas cremos que o movemento nacional catalán ten dereito aquí e agora a establecer un estado de seu por capitalista que for. A defensa internacionalista deste dereito é unha cuestión de principio para nós, e apoiamos sen ningún tipo de titubeo o referendo de independencia deste 1 de Outubro. A nosa posición ante este é, ademais, a favor do “Si” da independencia de Cataluña e de todo método de loita encamiñado a facer esta efectiva.

Somos favorables a esta independencia non dende logo por ningún tipo de principio reitor nacionalista. Tampouco é un apoio es resposta negativa (por xusta que fora) á defensa do proxecto unionista do españolismo que apoian a grande burguesía monopolista española e catalá (interesada en manterse dentro do marco imperialista do Estado español), a Comisión Europea ou a Casa Branca. O marxismo analiza a realidade segundo os intereses lexítimos da clase obreira, non en reacción ao que decide o inimigo. Minte quen predique que o apoio á separación política de Cataluña equivale a asumir o nacionalismo burgués de quen dirixe o proceso de independencia, a unha sorte de “apoio cego á burguesía catalá” renunciando a manter unha independencia ideolóxica propia dende o proletariado. Isto non é senón, como queda máis que demostrado, a autoxustificación de quen pretendendo manter unha falsa neutralidade nesta disputa, ponse de feito do lado da nación opresora. Dende logo, moito máis sinxelo e cómodo escribir catro liñas obvias sobre o liderazgo do PDCat no “procés”, que organizar á clase obreira para a súa autodeterminación política.

A nosa intención non é outra que opornos á opresión dunhas características nacionais por outras, loitar por unha igualdade real nos dereitos de toda nación como mediación necesaria para evitar a estreiteza nacional na nosa clase, a desconfianza e choque entre as proletarias do mundo que permita unha unión internacional efectiva. Superar a separación á que se ven forzadas pola cartografía capitalista. A nosa posición, tan só a manifestación concreta e consecuente no contexto actual da loita de clases no Estado español, contra toda opresión nacional. Mesmo se esta supón enfrontarmos a postura de quen compartindo a bandeira vermella coa fouce e o martelo, fabula sobre hipotéticos escenarios alternativos ao actual movemento democrático catalán no que a contradición resólvese soa; provocarmos unha nova escisión no noso movemento político.

Apoiamos a independencia de Cataluña e asumimos como internacionalistas esta loita como propia dende fóra das súas fronteiras, entanto que entendemos que esta resolverá o conflito nacional actual ao garantir, por unha banda, unha equidade real con España dos seus dereitos como nación pola vía máis radical ao dispor dunha soberanía plena como novo estado; e impedindo, por outra, á reacción española e catalá seguir agochándose trala bandeira nacional para pacificar e controlar a loita de clases (como acontece hoxe por hoxe). A unidade ou non do actual Estado debera xurdir no curso da loita mesma contra as súas institucións, o seu imperialismo, os grandes monopolistas. Unha conciencia de unidade ao servizo da revolución, non de ningún xeito precociñada e imposta por vías abstractas ás masas por “republicana” e “solidaria” que se pretenda. Hoxe, no 2017, Cataluña ábrese paso sen permiso á independencia, e nós non podemos máis que celebrar a derrota práctica deste discurso de “soñada unidade” coa lucidez de quen non quere quedarse atrás na Historia. O enterro do podre proxecto chauvinista español para o que cavamos gostosas o sepulcro.

O exercicio do dereito de independencia permite que o proletariado catalán vexa máis claramente que o problema no fondo non é tanto “España” en abstracto e o seu pobo, senón precisamente a burguesía sexa española ou catalá. Educa, e quizais sexa isto o máis importante, ao proletariado da nación opresora no internacionalismo precisamente nun contexto no que o revisionismo hexemónico no noso movemento é (e foi sempre) chauvinista españolista. É dende a igualdade nacional que proletarias españolas e catalás (e do resto de nacións oprimidas) comprenderán quen son as súas verdadeiras irmás e quen os seus inimigos irreconciliables. Comprender isto é o fundamental da cuestión.
A estes motivos, engádeselle o feito obxectivo de que a independencia de Cataluña debilita ao Estado español a dúas bandas: na súa posición na cadea imperialista da UE (mesmo no caso hipotético dunha Cataluña membro, ao restarlle un peso económico importante), e a nivel interno político ao dotarlle ás masas dunha lección práctica con cada porrazo da Garda Civil e Policía Nacional sobre o abismo entre o que é xusto para elas e a “legalidade democrática” da burguesía, sumado a isto o xa mencionado conflito na propia burguesía entre unionistas e independentistas cataláns. Precisamente, afirmamos que é desta contradición entre o destino ideal do Estado (“democracia”) e os seus supostos reais (represión), que se pode deducir a verdade social (necesidade da revolución violenta). Con cada paso na escalada de violencia do Estado contra o pobo catalán, coinciden cada vez máis aparencia e esencia, e as comunistas non nos podemos permitir deixar pasar de largo un momento histórico coma o presente.

Perdemos o dereito ao fracaso en 1939.

Agudizar esta crise política non vai dende logo traer unha revolución proletaria pola que queda un traballo inmenso que realizarmos, pero si nos dota en calquera caso dun marco xeral de acción máis favorable para a loita de clases co noso inimigo dividido. Agora mesmo hai un desafío ao Estado, e en momentos de debilidade as organizacións obreiras deberan lanzarse á ofensiva. Quen dende o marxismo está chamando mentres a tirar “bandeiras alleas” e voltar á rutina corporativista do sindicato para impedir unha declaración de independencia que “só busca dividir á nosa clase”, presenta tan só unha variante retórica da mesma política do reformismo de Podemos, IU e as diversas Mareas: a chamada ao “diálogo entre ambas partes” e a manter a confianza nas institucións do Estado capitalista “fronte a tolemia do goberno actual”. A promesa hipócrita de pórlle freo a toda a represión do Estado sobre o pobo catalán (e mesmo permitir un novo referendo) a cambio da renuncia á DUI referendada o 1-O, que no fondo aplauden revisionistas e oportunistas.

“O Estado e o seu Dereito ante todo! Mesmo se preferimos falar de III República ou Socialismo”. “Avante co españolismo anti-independentista! Mesmo se nos decantamos pola apoloxía a un patriotismo da Xente, ou facer chamados ao nihilismo nacional intrafronteiras”. Un cinismo tal que chega, mesmo definíndose independentista na súa terra (como acontece no caso galego), a soster estes días pancartas e consignas de apoio á DUI de Cataluña, para nuns meses seguir pedindo o voto que o leve a ter un ministerio nun goberno conxunto cun PSOE que pide abertamente impedir por calquera medio esa declaración de independencia. A quen cren que enganan con tal mostra de adanismo político? Sabemos moi ben do curto percorrido deste carreiro tantas veces transitado antes, e que as aparentes “traizóns” responden en realidade a un substrato material de clase do que non cabe agardar outra cousa. Pero sabemos tamén, e quizais mellor, que recollermos dende o maoísmo a testemuña revolucionaria hoxe implica, ante todo, non crernos inmaculadas agochadas tras uns papeis, e traer a escena unha liña política que transforme esa realidade.

Non imos ser nós quen oculte nada ou minta ás masas. Non imos tapar nunca as dificultades, os erros e fracasos das loitas do pobo; pero moito menos abandonalo á súa sorte, facendo de quinta columna que disolva as súas lexítimas reivindicacións baixo o paraugas do sindicalismo e do parlamentarismo, so pretexto da forza militar do inimigo. Quen sitúa o dereito de autodeterminación, a toma de armas polas masas, ou a revolución socialista nun horizonte difuso para o que non hai mapa concreto, di en realidade dúas cousas: que non ten necesidade nin interese sincero en chegar. É por iso que pode prometer vías legais e “sensatas” (a candidatura electoral, a negociación dun convenio laboral coa patronal, a manifestación en defensa do “Público”, etc.) para unha viaxe tranquila e sen sobresaltos, fronte ao “esquerdismo e aventurismo” de quen non agardamos á Historia.

Mentres o revisionismo esixe ter asegurada a vitoria como condición para (sequera considerar) unirse á loita, as revolucionarias atrévense a loitar, a acadar vitorias. Non lles paraliza o temor ao fracaso. Se a burguesía conta cun Estado de seu no que articula múltiples institucións coercitivas, o proletariado haberase procurar dun Partido Comunista maoísta militarizado. Se a burguesía envía aos seu exército de mercenarios, recibirá por resposta un Exército Popular cunhas filas cada vez máis grandes. Que esteamos aínda moitos pasos por detrás da plasmación destes instrumentos, non quita neste momento que a vangarda comunista debamos posicionarnos co máis avanzado do pobo sen cederlle ao revisionismo e oportunismo do noso movemento ningunha trincheira.

A ilusión polo diálogo, pola “saída política” dun proceso constituínte, deixámoslla a quen pode permitirse o idealismo de que a realidade capitalista responde a un papel (Constitución ou Dereito Internacional), e non a relacións sociais obxectivas garantidas pola violencia policial que lle horroriza ver no seu televisor á noite. A represión é a resposta lóxica do Estado cando algo váiselle das mans, e mostra a verdadeira función deste aparello tralo fetiche. Tal é a razón do ridículo de pedirlle diálogo ao goberno central. A tarefa revolucionaria prioritaria é, precisamente, derrubar esta mitoloxía toda. Cando as maoístas falamos de empregar simultaneamente medios legais e ilegais segundo a súa utilidade momentánea (a renuncia a calquera principio táctico para negar por principio a validez da orde xurídica burguesa na nosa práctica), non é senón para revelar ante as masas o aparello de coacción salvaxe ao servizo da opresión capitalista. Cremos que tal debe ser a actitude das revolucionarias respecto do Dereito e o Estado burgueses.

Se non se evita a desviación de priorizar e facer predominante un tipo de medios sobre outro, e cáese xa que logo no legalismo ou no conspiracionismo (sendo a principal tendencia, como é natural, a legalista), permíteselle de facto á burguesía manter a súa orde xurídica na conciencia das masas oprimidas. Pola contra, a actividade subversiva comunista é precisamente obrigar ao goberno do seu estado a violar o seu propio Dereito, e aos traidores do pobo a apoiar abertamente esta violación. En certos casos (e a situación presente que nos ocupa apunta a que nos atopamos nun destes casos), cando os prexuízos chauvinistas escurecen a mirada do proletariado, dita “violación do dereito” pode resultar ventaxosa para o goberno capitalista nun primeiro momento; pero será unha ameaza cada vez máis perigosa para el na medida en que o proletariado revolucionario comece a autoorganizarse para a súa guerra de clase. Velaquí a explicación (e non outra) de que o Estado español priorice, dende o primeiro momento, a “vía xudicial” ante o proceso de independencia catalán, e que basee a súa represión máis evidente na “necesidade do respecto á legalidade vixente”.

Desta prudencia reflexiva dos opresores nacen as perniciosas ilusións revisionistas sobre a democracia e o tránsito pacífico ao socialismo. Estas mesmas ilusións, son fortalecidas á vez polo legalismo a toda costa dos oportunistas que, á inversa, permite precisamente á clase dominante adoptar unha actitude temporal de prudencia e relativo acougo. Fronte a isto, as maoístas debemos sinalar que a persecución política que sofre Cataluña é exemplo claro do que é un estado capitalista: represión por riba das súas propias leis; e xunto a isto, darmos merecida resposta profundando a fenda aberta polo pobo catalán.

Loitamos convosco. Loitamos por vós.

O Estado español prepara xa unha nova ofensiva e descoida cada vez máis a súa liturxia. O poder xudicial fala xa abertamente de excepcionalidade ou procedementos arbitrarios, admitindo a súa dependencia da iniciativa do Goberno (coma demostran as actuacións da Fiscalía Xeral coas alcaldías catalás que permitiron o referendo do 1-O) e polo tanto, a ausencia real de división de poderes. O monarca Felipe VI non dubida en facer chamados políticos por televisión contra o separatismo pese a que a propia Constitución prohíbello expresamente. Os medios de telecomunicación centran a súa programación en maratonianas mesas de debate entre politólogos e xornalistas que intentan explicarse “como se chegou a toda esta loucura” tras 7 anos de “procés” desapercibidos para a maioría deles; mentres que pola súa parte, organizacións fascistas gañan a cada día que pasa máis terreo, logrando mobilizar a sectores cada vez máis numerosos das masas españolas, e servindo de vangarda civil ás forzas policiais en impunes “cazas de independentistas” polas rúas de Barcelona.
Rajoy apraza todo o posible unha suspensión da Autonomía e encarceramento da práctica totalidade do Parlament para as que ten o terreo preparado dende hai meses, consciente de que unha vez aplique o infame artigo 155 da Constitución con todas as súas consecuencias (algo para o que conta cun declarado apoio da gran maioría da “oposición” do Congreso e do Senado) ábrese a porta á implantación dunha zona militarizada permanente en territorio catalán, que admitiría a todas luces a situación de “excepcionalidade” do Estado (xerando así un problema político moito maior do que ten, que sen dúbida hipotecaría o futuro do seu partido). A esquerda parlamentaria súmase á defensa do Estado do que dependen os seus ingresos, e completa o discurso ideolóxico pola Unidade ao tempo que calcula expectante o seu salto ao hemiciclo do goberno: ben dende a condescendencia comedida en oposición ao apoio decidido de Ciudadanos (PSOE), ben dende a disensión aparente que chama á “sensatez común entre partes” dunha España plural (IU-Podemos).

Como vimos dicindo ao longo do texto, erra senón minte, quen vexa en todo isto nada máis que unha rifa entre partidos políticos. Isto non é “golpe de Estado” ningún, non é dende logo “fascismo” nin un “Estado de excepción”. Non alomenos polo do momento dende a nosa perspectiva. Cremos importante sinalar que é o normal desenrolo dun Estado burgués democrático, precisamente para non pór ilusión algunha nas masas na Democracia capitalista. Quen afirma que isto soluciónase cunha moción de censura a Rajoy, quizais debera cuestionarse seriamente antes sobre como actuaría o seu candidato ante unha sentencia “legal e democrática” do TC en contra dun prometido “referendo pactado de independencia” en campaña, e ante os disturbios populares ilegais consecuentes.
Ante este desolador panorama xeral, que se ve agravado para as masas catalás pola imposibilidade de confiar a defensa do resultado do pasado 1-O a uns PDCat e ERC máis que dispostos “ao diálogo” con España, ou a unha CUP que fala de defender a independencia con sorrisos, resistencia pasiva e cazaroladas fronte a militares armados; as maoístas lembramos unha vez máis que o factor decisivo sempre é a forza, e que polo tanto, só cabe unha defensa efectiva da independencia de Cataluña polas armas. Non nos cabe dúbida, o pobo catalán chegará máis cedo que tarde a esta mesma conclusión, e non lle caiba dúbida tampouco, poderá seguir contando coa nosa combatividade solidaria chegado ese momento. Hoxe como hai 80 anos, a causa do pobo catalán pola súa independencia é tamén a nosa e a de todas as revolucionarias do mundo. Ante este novo camiño que se nos abre, organicemos as nosas forzas e non nos deteñamos ata acadar os nosos obxectivos.

Galiza, outubro do 2017
Comité de Construcion do Partido Comunista maoísta da Galiz

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

25 Years after his arrest we look at contribution of Chairman Gonzalo - view of Harsh Thakor





Democracy and Class Struggle says Marx  wrote in 18th Brumaire

 "Proletarian revolutions, like those of the nineteenth century, constantly criticize themselves, constantly interrupt themselves in their own course, return to the apparently accomplished, in order to begin anew; they deride with cruel thoroughness the half-measures, weaknesses, and paltriness of their first attempts seem to throw down their opponents only so the latter may draw new strength from the earth and rise before them again more gigantic than ever, recoil constantly from the indefinite colossalness of their own goals – until a situation is created which makes all turning back impossible, and the conditions themselves call out"

With this in view Democracy and Class Struggle will be publishing critical appraisals of Proletarian Revolutions not over the last century but in the last decades.

We begin with this contribution by Harsh Thakor on People's War in Peru. This article represents the personal views of Harsh Thakor and are not the views of  Democracy and Class Struggle.

Publishing materials of the  Organization of the Workers of Afghanistan (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, principally Maoist) does not mean we agree with them, because we do not.

Democracy and Class Struggle's position is that until we hear directly from Chairman Gonzalo outside of prison we do not accept he is the author of the peace accords any more than he was author of  letter supporting Nepalese neo-revisionist leadership here


Democracy and Class Struggle call for the immediate release of Chairman Gonzalo

We will publish other evaluations of People's War in Peru we judge helpful in furthering the spirit of Marx in the above quotation on Proletarian Revolutions. 

33rd anniversary of peoples war in Peru

From 1980 to 1992 the PCP led the greatest peoples war after the Chinese Communist Party.

Whatever be the errors in theory and practice the peoples war was a lesson to all the proletarian revolutionaries worldwide.

No protracted War resembled the Chinese revolution led by Com Mao as the Sendero Luminoso and it will be written in red letters in the annals of history.

It was remarkable the way the P.C.P’s army could engulf the cities from the countryside and resist the enemy forces.

It’s achievement in that period was comparable to that of the Vietnamese against the Americans.

Imagine fighting when being on the border of a great military superpower and with support of no Socialist Country.

Com Gonzalo made some outstanding contributions towards developing MaoTse Tung’s military theories and combining them with the massline.

In the 1988 plenum he demonstrated his mastery of Maoist theory not only in the military line but also on the question of party building. Revolutionary forces demarcated this movement as the outstanding revolutionary war in the World.

Without hesition the author calls Com Gonzalo as the greatest Marxist leader after Comrade Mao.

He brilliantly innovated de-centralisation in the military strategy. Quoting Bhavin in June 2003 of the C.P.I(M.L.) Naxalbari “After the Chinese revolution led by CPC under the leadership of Mao, it is only in Peru and Nepal that we see the concrete application of strategic planning and that too in a creative manner.

Based on this understanding PCP Chairman Gonzalo established the axes, sub-axes, and the directions and lines of movement, so as to maintain the strategic direction of war.

This was done after a thorough study of history of social relations,  wars, political, military and economic conditions, terrain etc.

Next on the basis of this National Military Plan was formulated, which was strategically centralised and tactically decentralised guided by the Maoist understanding of linking strategy and tactics, strategic operational plans were formulated.

Every committee below it formulated their own strategic operational plans based on the strategic operational plan followed by the entire party.

All military plans are based on thorough reconnaissance and careful study of the situation of the enemy and our forces, and are guided by the political strategy and the military strategy. (From PCP Base Document,p 43)

The strategic centralisation and tactical decentralisation gives full play to the lower committees to decide specific struggles to be carried out in their area, based on the guidelines.”


One of the most significant aspects of the peoples war was the preparatory stages initiated to build it.


From 1970 to 1979 no armed action was launched but the peoples preparatory schools were launched to prepare for the peoples War.

An Important contribution of Gonzalo is also the 2 line struggle to re-organize the party in 1965. With remarkable skill the PCP combined the armed struggle with the mass movements, forming people’s mass organizations.

The peoples Guerilla Army formed in 1983 had remarakable similarity with that of the Chinese Red Army in the 1930’s.

The village committees formed displayed great democratic functioning.

Some of the most heroic armed actions were launched implementing Com Mao’s theory of protracted Peoples War.

The PCP led P.G.A would comeback facing any setback like launching daylight in the most hazardous of storms .

Although Peru had several neo-colonial features one of the most remarkable aspects was the way the P.C.P carried out the peoples war in spite of such a high urban population the War actually gave credit to Mao’s theory of protracted peoples war in semi-colonial countries.

I recommend readers to read the article ‘Red Flag flying in Peru ‘ in the 1990 edition of a ‘World to win’

It brilliantly summarizes the military actions in ambushing military patrols and in creating revolutionary power in the countryside.

Peasant committees were formed in late 1982 where land was seized from landlords and distributed to poor peasants,relying on the massline.

From building peasant committees guerilla Zones were built into base areas.

A superb action was launched in 1982 on the prison of Ayacucho after which Edith Lagos was martyred.

In 1986 the peoples war entered the phase of building base areas.

New revolutionary political power was created.

Peoples Commitees were established taking into account the subjective forces.

The Commitees comprised 5 members-called commissioners.They were chosen by representatives of the village mass organzaitions of poor peasants, labourers,women,intellectuals,youth and children.

The secretary represented the party and the proletariat.The commissioner,also a party member was in charge of the defence of the political power,by the local organized people,into militias. Finally the commissioner of production and economy organizes the new production relations,supervising the dividing of the land.

He also organizes the production directly owned by the committee.The security commissioner was in charge of police functions The job of the committee was to creat a new politics, new economy ,new culture in the countryside, as part of preparing to be able to do so on a countrywide scale.
 

In 1983 the PCP had formed the Organizing Committee for a New Democratic Peoples Republic. In the cities ,with the situation different from the villages a Revolutionary Peoples Defence Movement was created “ with the goal of mobilizing the masses to resist and to raise their struggles to a higher level-peopes war .

Shanty town dwellers were mobilized .The Revolutionary Peoples Defence Movement called for armed shutdowns in Ayacucho lasting 3 days in 1988.

The armed shutdowns later rocked Lima and the capital was shaken in November 1989 and March 1990.

On the eve of the November strike,the traditional day of the dead’ about 3000 families of the prisoners of war marched into Lima in honour of the fallen heroes of the peoples war.

On 21st August another shutdown was launched following Fujimori’s price hikes with leafleting at markets, factories, schools. etc.

The documents of the PCP had remarkable similarities with those of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930’s.


Where the P.C.P showed weaknesses was their formulation of the Peoples Guerilla Army doing the mass work in the cities and weakness in developing urban work.

Pre-revolutionary China did not face the onslaught of neo-colonialism or multi-nationals like Peru which had stronger impact of Capitalism.

Com Mao had a more analytical understanding of work in the towns which is revealed in the writings of the C.C.P.on work in the yellow Unions.

There is also an overemphasis of Com Gonzalo on the military aspect in his writings as against the overall question of the mass line and the proletarian party.

A term like ‘militarization of the party’ was used which is erroneous to me as the party is not a military organization. He also stated that it is the stage of ‘principally Maoism’ which is an error as it underestimates Com Lenin’s definition of era of Imperialism and Proletarian Revolution.

A kind of Personality cult was formed around Com Gonzalo and the introduction of Gonzalo Thought is questionable.

Another error is stating that ‘boycott of parliamemtray elections’ is the strategic path of Revolution and that extra-parliamentary tactics can never be deployed.

This is counter to the views of Lenin or Mao. However the author assesses a lineage in Gonzalo thought although in the end its form was distorted from the mass line. In the period of Gonzalo itself there was an attempt to copy the Chinese party experience in toto.

There was also over –emphasis on bureaucrat-capitalism. Although there was a preparatory state and adequate base of revolutionary mass organization or movement was not created.

There was also an under-estiimation of the strength of the enemy forces.

After the arrest of Gonzalo the movement received a setback but the documents of the P.C.P. revealed there was virtually no setback to the peoples War Sympathisers upto 2001 felt that the War was winning. However morally there was great setback and conflict had seriously abrupted within the forces of the CORIM and the M.P.P. Strangely it was the MPP that supported negotiations.



In this work I am compiling some of the best writings and achievements of the P.C.P. as well as reflections of errors. In the end the peoples war tragically lost and the party got divided into factions and splinter groups.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

33 Years Anniversary of People's war in Peru by Harsh Thakor - Defend the Life Of Chairman Gonzalo





Marx  wrote in 18th Brumaire

 "Proletarian revolutions, like those of the nineteenth century, constantly criticize themselves, constantly interrupt themselves in their own course, return to the apparently accomplished, in order to begin anew; they deride with cruel thoroughness the half-measures, weaknesses, and paltriness of their first attempts seem to throw down their opponents only so the latter may draw new strength from the earth and rise before them again more gigantic than ever, recoil constantly from the indefinite colossalness of their own goals – until a situation is created which makes all turning back impossible, and the conditions themselves call out"

With this in view Democracy and Class Struggle will be publishing critical appraisals of Proletarian Revolutions not over the last century but in the last decades.

We begin with this contribution by Harsh Thakor on People's War in Peru. This article represents the personal views of Harsh Thakor and are not the views of  Democracy and Class Struggle.

Publishing materials of the  Organization of the Workers of Afghanistan (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, principally Maoist) does not mean we agree with them, because we do not.

Democracy and Class Struggle's position is that until we hear directly from Chairman Gonzalo outside of prison we do not accept he is the author of the peace accords any more than he was author of  letter supporting Nepalese neo-revisionist leadership here

Defend the Life of Chairman Gonzalo!

On June 24 , the head of Peru's National Penitentiary Institute (INPE), Guadalupe Perez told Canal N referring to President Gonzalo, said:

"We can not guarantee the health of a person of 80 years, and that must be left clear."

Democracy and Class Struggle call for the immediate release of Chairman Gonzalo in view of such disturbing statements by the Peruvian regime.

We will publish other evaluations of People's War in Peru we judge helpful in furthering the spirit of Marx in the above quotation on Proletarian Revolutions. 

33rd anniversary of peoples war in Peru

From 1980 to 1992 the PCP led the greatest peoples war after the Chinese Communist Party.

Whatever be the errors in theory and practice the peoples war was a lesson to all the proletarian revolutionaries worldwide.

No protracted War resembled the Chinese revolution led by Com Mao as the Sendero Luminoso and it will be written in red letters in the annals of history.

It was remarkable the way the P.C.P’s army could engulf the cities from the countryside and resist the enemy forces.

It’s achievement in that period was comparable to that of the Vietnamese against the Americans.

Imagine fighting when being on the border of a great military superpower and with support of no Socialist Country.

Com Gonzalo made some outstanding contributions towards developing MaoTse Tung’s military theories and combining them with the massline.

In the 1988 plenum he demonstrated his mastery of Maoist theory not only in the military line but also on the question of party building. Revolutionary forces demarcated this movement as the outstanding revolutionary war in the World.

Without hesition the author calls Com Gonzalo as the greatest Marxist leader after Comrade Mao.

He brilliantly innovated de-centralisation in the military strategy. Quoting Bhavin in June 2003 of the C.P.I(M.L.) Naxalbari “After the Chinese revolution led by CPC under the leadership of Mao, it is only in Peru and Nepal that we see the concrete application of strategic planning and that too in a creative manner.

Based on this understanding PCP Chairman Gonzalo established the axes, sub-axes, and the directions and lines of movement, so as to maintain the strategic direction of war.

This was done after a thorough study of history of social relations,  wars, political, military and economic conditions, terrain etc.

Next on the basis of this National Military Plan was formulated, which was strategically centralised and tactically decentralised guided by the Maoist understanding of linking strategy and tactics, strategic operational plans were formulated.

Every committee below it formulated their own strategic operational plans based on the strategic operational plan followed by the entire party.

All military plans are based on thorough reconnaissance and careful study of the situation of the enemy and our forces, and are guided by the political strategy and the military strategy. (From PCP Base Document,p 43)

The strategic centralisation and tactical decentralisation gives full play to the lower committees to decide specific struggles to be carried out in their area, based on the guidelines.”


One of the most significant aspects of the peoples war was the preparatory stages initiated to build it.


From 1970 to 1979 no armed action was launched but the peoples preparatory schools were launched to prepare for the peoples War.

An Important contribution of Gonzalo is also the 2 line struggle to re-organize the party in 1965. With remarkable skill the PCP combined the armed struggle with the mass movements, forming people’s mass organizations.

The peoples Guerilla Army formed in 1983 had remarakable similarity with that of the Chinese Red Army in the 1930’s.

The village committees formed displayed great democratic functioning.

Some of the most heroic armed actions were launched implementing Com Mao’s theory of protracted Peoples War.

The PCP led P.G.A would comeback facing any setback like launching daylight in the most hazardous of storms .

Although Peru had several neo-colonial features one of the most remarkable aspects was the way the P.C.P carried out the peoples war in spite of such a high urban population the War actually gave credit to Mao’s theory of protracted peoples war in semi-colonial countries.

I recommend readers to read the article ‘Red Flag flying in Peru ‘ in the 1990 edition of a ‘World to win’

It brilliantly summarizes the military actions in ambushing military patrols and in creating revolutionary power in the countryside.

Peasant committees were formed in late 1982 where land was seized from landlords and distributed to poor peasants,relying on the massline.

From building peasant committees guerilla Zones were built into base areas.

A superb action was launched in 1982 on the prison of Ayacucho after which Edith Lagos was martyred.

In 1986 the peoples war entered the phase of building base areas.

New revolutionary political power was created.

Peoples Commitees were established taking into account the subjective forces.

The Commitees comprised 5 members-called commissioners.They were chosen by representatives of the village mass organzaitions of poor peasants, labourers,women,intellectuals,youth and children.

The secretary represented the party and the proletariat.The commissioner,also a party member was in charge of the defence of the political power,by the local organized people,into militias. Finally the commissioner of production and economy organizes the new production relations,supervising the dividing of the land.

He also organizes the production directly owned by the committee.The security commissioner was in charge of police functions The job of the committee was to creat a new politics, new economy ,new culture in the countryside, as part of preparing to be able to do so on a countrywide scale.
 

In 1983 the PCP had formed the Organizing Committee for a New Democratic Peoples Republic. In the cities ,with the situation different from the villages a Revolutionary Peoples Defence Movement was created “ with the goal of mobilizing the masses to resist and to raise their struggles to a higher level-peopes war .

Shanty town dwellers were mobilized .The Revolutionary Peoples Defence Movement called for armed shutdowns in Ayacucho lasting 3 days in 1988.

The armed shutdowns later rocked Lima and the capital was shaken in November 1989 and March 1990.

On the eve of the November strike,the traditional day of the dead’ about 3000 families of the prisoners of war marched into Lima in honour of the fallen heroes of the peoples war.

On 21st August another shutdown was launched following Fujimori’s price hikes with leafleting at markets, factories, schools. etc.

The documents of the PCP had remarkable similarities with those of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930’s.


Where the P.C.P showed weaknesses was their formulation of the Peoples Guerilla Army doing the mass work in the cities and weakness in developing urban work.

Pre-revolutionary China did not face the onslaught of neo-colonialism or multi-nationals like Peru which had stronger impact of Capitalism.

Com Mao had a more analytical understanding of work in the towns which is revealed in the writings of the C.C.P.on work in the yellow Unions.

There is also an overemphasis of Com Gonzalo on the military aspect in his writings as against the overall question of the mass line and the proletarian party.

A term like ‘militarization of the party’ was used which is erroneous to me as the party is not a military organization. He also stated that it is the stage of ‘principally Maoism’ which is an error as it underestimates Com Lenin’s definition of era of Imperialism and Proletarian Revolution.

A kind of Personality cult was formed around Com Gonzalo and the introduction of Gonzalo Thought is questionable.

Another error is stating that ‘boycott of parliamemtray elections’ is the strategic path of Revolution and that extra-parliamentary tactics can never be deployed.

This is counter to the views of Lenin or Mao. However the author assesses a lineage in Gonzalo thought although in the end its form was distorted from the mass line. In the period of Gonzalo itself there was an attempt to copy the Chinese party experience in toto.

There was also over –emphasis on bureaucrat-capitalism. Although there was a preparatory state and adequate base of revolutionary mass organization or movement was not created.

There was also an under-estiimation of the strength of the enemy forces.

After the arrest of Gonzalo the movement received a setback but the documents of the P.C.P. revealed there was virtually no setback to the peoples War Sympathisers upto 2001 felt that the War was winning. However morally there was great setback and conflict had seriously abrupted within the forces of the CORIM and the M.P.P. Strangely it was the MPP that supported negotiations.



In this work I am compiling some of the best writings and achievements of the P.C.P. as well as reflections of errors. In the end the peoples war tragically lost and the party got divided into factions and splinter groups.