Full support to Polish workers! SLL Central Committee statement

[p051] dent on profits, workers will be putting a rope around their necks. The nomination of a ‘com- munity (we are not clear what this means) delegate’ to the board of directors will not change matters. He will be loaded with figures that show how badly the firm is doing and will be used as an intermediary to tell the workers to work harder, to work longer hours, to reduce their numbers, etc. He will inevitably become an agent of the employers in the ranks of the working class. That ‘15 per cent to be dis- tributed to the employees in the form of shares’ if reinvestment is not thought convenient, is no less of a trick. Share distribution has long been known by the employers as a means of enforcing savings upon their employees for the benefit of the firm. Traditional, narrow-minded employers will no doubt feel quite uncomfortable at the beginning. But when they be- come aware of the advantages their attitudes will be quite different. We do not see anything ‘pro- gressive’ about the new indus- trial code. We see only a menace, a serious menace. The Peruvian working class has not yet reached the level of organization and class identity reached in other countries. Only a fraction of the working class is actually organized in the union structures. The Stalinists will, at the very best, offer weak and unwilling resistance. I would not be at all surprised if they welcome the scheme. The Peruvian working class could be forced to accept a de facto situation. Revolutionary Marxists should oppose the industrial code with all their strength. What concerns the working class is unemployment and starvation wages, not a share in capitalist failure, not another step towards the strengthening of a corporate state. WHAT HAS been the policy of the junta con- cerning the issue of wages and unemploy- ment? It has been the same as in any capitalist state: sanctioning mass lay-offs, wage freezing and even wage reductions. Stalinist trade unionists feel quite embarrassed about this sometimes. It was quite ironic to see in a demonstration in support of the five-week old strike of the workers of ‘Bata-Rima’ (a shoe manufacturer), where wages were actually reduced by 25 per cent, that Stalinist trade unionists were carrying placards saying ‘the employers are creating problems between us and the Revolu- tionary government’! The military junta’s record on wage claims and unemployment is quite impressive. The most seriously affected are workers in the fishing, construction, textiles and shoe manufacturing indus- tries. The story of the strikes and redundancies at ‘Ceramica del Pacifico’, ‘Lolas’, ‘Luxor’, ‘Coca- Cola’, Patamo, Calzado Durable, Eternit, Calzado el Aguila Ameri- cana, Pilas National, Texoro, Leonard, Banco Continental, Tejidos Union, Inca Cotton, Inca Extension, Victoria, Progreso, La Oroya y Cobriga, Tabacalera Nacional, Fundicion Callao, etc., to mention only few, can tell the truth. When working-class militancy has led to mass actions that threatened ‘law and order’, the ‘progressive’ military in Peru have answered in the language Fourth International. Winter 1970/71

[p052] they know best—bullets to sup- press the workers’ demands. It has violently suppressed the workers of Mala (a mining town in the south of Peru) and the workers of Atas factory in Lima. It has suppressed violently the demonstration of workers of the fishing industries of Chimbote and murdered dozens of peasants, students and workers in the towns of Mala, Colquimarca, Ayacucho and Huanta. In the two latter cases it was a vast popular mobilization of workers, students and peasants opposing a_ recently decreed abolition of free education. After the massacre the ‘Revo- lutionary’ government was forced to withdraw the decree. It was also forced to retreat by the 14,000 miners of central Peru employed by Cerro de Pasco Corporation. The strike over wages and working conditions, which was not backed by the corrupt union bureaucrats, led, two weeks after its commencement, to a march to Lima, 150 miles away, by workers and their families. Seven hundred ‘special forces’ violently suppressed the march, wounded many workers’ and arrested several hundred. But in the face of defiant workers, the government and the employers were forced to retreat. Violence against workers’ demands has continued and will continue. The militant revolutionary trade unionists are constantly imprisoned, harrassed and terror- ized by the employers and their agents and the police. In two years of power, the military junta has killed over 20 Stalinism and Imperialism in Peru workers, a rate of about one a month... How would you charac- terize the present mili- tary junta? What = are their aims in the long run? The military junta cannot be characterized without referring to the international context. It is clear that the government is aiming at ‘modernizing’ the Peruvian economy and legislation and this means, in many senses, a legalizing of already advanced processes, such as the disintegra- tion of the traditional land aris- tocracy due to peasant revolts and the development of industry due to imperialist penetration. This means to the Peruvian toiling masses unemployment, wage stagnation, growing un- certainties over their future and violent repression of their demands. And when analysing the com- plex policies that are re-shaping banking, trade, industry and educational systems, the future aims are more clear and more dangerous. The most likely outcome of this semi-Bonapartist regime is the growth of a corporate state. A clear indication of this is the new industrial code discussed in part 1. Workers are asked to form a ‘community of interests’, to share profits and ‘management’. This fairy tale has long been de- nounced by the international working class as a step towards corporatism. A miner from Mala in South Peru shows a wound inflicted by police when they ambushed 400 miners on a march to the capital. State unions The next step is the creation of state-controlled unions. The Minister of the Interior (chief of police) has declared recently that ‘no communist will enter the unions’. General Velazco, in his recent statement on the ‘Defence Com- mittees of the Revolution’, which are supported wholeheartedly by the Stalinists, made clear that he will have nothing to do with his supporters. But the right-wing union, the CTP, has been officially recog- nized. The Stalinist-controlled CGTP has not been recognized. It all points to increased pressures against the Stalinist bureaucracies which would prob- ably be led to dissolve the CGTP and integrate the state- controlled trade unions under the leadership of what General Velazco called ‘a new breed of non-partisan, nationalistic union leaders’. The ‘Defence Committees of the Revolution’ are another step in the direction of a corporate state. They amount to an un- declared political party (where the Stalinists are active sup- porters) dedicated to publicising the government and putting up smokescreens over its deeds. With this political party, plus the state-controlled unions and newspapers, plus ‘profit-sharing’, wage freeze and one delegate of the ‘community’ on the board of directors in every firm, we have a Peruvian version of the well- known corporate state, the old ‘new path between capitalism and communism’. Why has this occurred in Peru? What are the social forces behind this? It is certainly not a unique case. The Argentinian and Brazilian dictatorships show amazing similarities. Differences sometime appear more semantic than real. Not that semantic differences are not important! In the Argentine. for instance, the government has devoted itself to strengthening the ‘colaboracionista’ union, and has practically wiped out any legal existence for the left-wing unions. The ‘colaboracionista’ union has been called to support a state programme that will bring the state’s share of investments to nearly 40 per cent of all indus- try in the next few years. Formal democracy has been abolished as in Peru. The difference is apparent with regard to working-class opposition. The Argentinian working class _ is much stronger than the Peruvian. It has long’ since passed through the experience of Bona- partism and corporatism, and has revolted against the rulers in Cordoba and elsewhere. more the The military government in Bolivia expresses the same ten- dency. After unsuccessful attempts at crushing the resist- ance of the miners, it has fol- lowed the ‘progressive’ steps of the Peruvian military. The establishment of military or quasi-military governments in Latin America is a tendency that started some years ago. Only a few governments keep an appear- ance of democracy, such as the Venezuelan and Chilean govern- ments, but not without vast repressive Measures against the working class and the peasantry. This tendency reflects the impasse of world capitalism: it reflects the inability of capitalism to develop productive forces or to raise the standards of living of the masses. The stagnation of productive forces is being caused by the extension of monopoly capital’s grip into the industry, finance and trade of the backward capi- talist countries and this is result- ing in the stagnation of the living conditions of the masses or their actual deterioration as in Peru, growing unemployment and_ sky-rocketing living costs. These are all factors that co- exist with difficulty with formal democracy. Control Inevitably formal democracy, the rule by professional politi- cians of the bourgeoisie, becomes incompatible with the chaos, anarchy and crisis brought by monopoly capitalism. Direct con- trol over every single movement of the economy becomes a neces- sity. A strong government is indispensable. Strikes and breaches of law and order be- come more intolerable than ever. Whether the Bonapartists or semi-Bonapartists called to the fore define themselves as left wing or right wing is a semantic problem. Their policies against the working class and in support of capital are indistinguishable. The social basis of this kind of government is therefore mono- poly capital. Their agents are the weak and dependent sections of the national bourgeoisie, of the middle class, petty bourgeoisie, professionals, job-hunting bureau- crats, and, of course, the top military. It is within these ranks that the Communist Party 29

[p053] The Peruvian military iunta headed by General VELASCO prociaims ‘land-retorm’ law. bureaucracy expects to find its new jobs. When we say that the social basis of regimes like the Peruvian junta is monopoly capital, we do not mean to say, as one of the factions of the Peruvian Maoists say, that the present government is the result of a4 ‘fascist- imperialist plot’. Weak We only say that monopoly capital and the rulers of the world bourgeoisie, are the econo- mic and social basis of the world capitalist system of which Peru is nothing but a weak and highly- dependent part. Monopoly capital has closely determined the direction of the Peruvian economy, even in its most minor details. Monopoly capital has changed the _tradi- tional Peruvian oligarchy into a highly dependent and subservient bourgeoisie whose most dynamic and profitable activities pertain to industry and trade and not land. Monopoly capital has fashioned the Peruvian army, its values, its equipment, its training, its officers. Within this huge transformation a parasitic growth of the army, the bureaucracy, profes- sionals, petty bourgeois mer- chants and traders, as well as the concentration of wealth in the hands of the industrial bour- genisie has taken place. These are the agents of the kind of State <tructure that monopoly capital needs: a hourgenis cor- Porate State. 30 Inflation Not that these sections of the population are prosperous. They have gone and may go through periods of improvements in their conditions. But recently the characteristic has been inflation, low income and low profits. In times of crisis they also suffer, but infinitely less than workers and peasants. But these ups and downs are precisely one of the agents in determining their behaviour. The army, the bureaucracy, the petty bourgeoisie, the managers and industrialists, employed, hired, owned (partially or totally) and financed by monopoly capital know that their existence, their jobs, their income and_ their property depend on the health of the economy (i.e., monopoly profits). They also know that they are necessary tools of mono- poly capital and thus they can do a bargain for a better share in the pillage of Peruvian workers and peasants. Whether they are conscious of it or not, objectively this is their role. If one can learn from psycho- analysis that a neurotic may pro- fess to hate what he most loves, or to love what he most hates, one can without difficulty under- stand how this nationalistic ideology, this progressive rhetoric is nothing but a rationalization of an_ essentially reactionary, anti-working-class, anti-neasantry policy. Could you briefly tell us how the different sec- tions of the left have defined their policies with respect to the mili- tary junta? We shall exclude the Com- munist Party. We have men- tioned their position before and it is a left-wing party only be- cause of its historic roots and because of the presence in its ranks of honest revolutionary workers who have not yet rea- lized entirely the reactionary character of the leadership. The Maoists are split into five factions. Their best-known group, publishing the monthly ‘Bandera Roja’, defined the junta as ‘an imperialist plot’. But their ultra-left verbiage does not obscure the fact that they have consistently refused to have anything to do with the working class, which they describe as ‘aristocratic’, and have concentrated’ all their efforts on convincing the peasantry that they should join future guerrilla activities. Their presence and opinion is of little relevance. The revisionist pseudo- Trotskyists are also split. Posa- dists and Pabloites have endorsed the military government. The one time leader of the left, Ismael Frias, has endorsed the junta and is today a senior writer on the government-controlled newspaper, ‘Extra’, using its columns to praise the junta. Mountains of refuse provide a foundation for the Barriada dwellings in which half of Lima’s population lives. Fourth International. Winter 1970/71.

[p054] Bolivian miners militia. Hugo Blanco is in jail and you can imagine what his opinion of the junta is! He is not just a cadre of the left, he is a very well-known figure, an honest, dedicated revolutionary in spite of his mistakes. He has rebuffed the thesis of the revisionist United Secretariat in recent interviews and has not supported the government. Fidelists are in confusion. Their dismissal of the working class, their glorification of the peasantry, the support of Castro for the military regime, the agrarian reform, the fierce police repression, their imprisoned leaders, are together hopeless contradictions. In general they do not support the government and their im- portance is minimal. They have lived for long a semi-conspira- torial existence and have not attempted to build a party, only Stalinism and Imperialism in Peru an organization, a conspiratorial unit, to support, logistically and militarily the ‘focos’ of guerrillas, which, as you may imagine, are not the order of the day. The key organization of the working class is the Vanguardia Revolucioneria. Founded in 1965, it has established itself firmly in the working class and _ its organizations. This organization- can become the embryo of a revolutionary party provided the correct ,poli- cies are put forward by revolu- tionary Marxists in its ranks (today this can only mean Trot- skyists). The blackmail of Fidelism, the primitive egalitarianism of Maoism, the unclear ideological stand of some of its members of petty-bourgeois origin, have limited the evolution of its original political stand. Vanguardia Revolucionaria has nevertheless consistently followed a policy of political independence from bourgeois parties in the unions and has contributed to the creation of the CGTP, though never yielding to the Stalinist bureaucracy. Support should be given to these comrades who at present represent the only organized hope of the Peruvian working class. But much remains to be done in their ranks. What do- you _ think should be the main items of the revolutionary pro- gramme in Peru? The thesis and programme should be based on the Tran- sitional Programme of the Fourth International and should be com- bined with the best of the thesis of J. C. Mariatequi, the theo- retician of the Peruvian Socialist Party. It should demand a fight for the absolute independence, poli- tical and organizational, of the working class and its organiza- tions from bourgeois parties and from the bourgeois state. It should fight the corporate state. It should demand the refusal of the working class to collaborate and share responsibility for the failures of capitalism. It should refuse to share the profits of bankrupt capitalism. It should demand the distribution of land without compensating the landlords, and without making the peasants pay for the land. It should demand the expro- priation, without compensation, of all monopolies and the estab- lishment of workers’ control in industry, trade, education and services. It should establish as immedi- ate aims the strengthening of the working-class organizations, the satisfaction of their demands, the raising of the political level of the masses and the formation of the revolutionary workers party, as an integral part of the Fourth International. It must fight for the over- throw of the military regime and the establishment of the workers’ state based on soviets. These should be the aims of the revolutionary party in the present situation and the develop- ment of working-class con- sciousness will depend on the Strength and policies of its international vanguard. 31

[p055] SLL Central Committee statement (Poland). They strike. Gdansk, together with the neighbouring towns of Gdynia and Sopot, is com- pletely sealed off from the rest of the country by a cordon of police and troops. remain on All rail and = air com- munication is banned. Only police and army _ vehicles rumble in hundreds into the area. A complete curfew is in force between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m. Reports say that workers’ action in these Baltic towns has been followed by others in ‘Poznan and in the automobile plant at Zeran, outside War- saw. Ruthless Gomulka and the Stalinist bureaucracy will follow the deaths and hundreds of seri- ous injuries they have already inflicted with the most ruth- less repressions. These bureaucrats are fighting for their privileged caste existence. 32 Full support for Polish workers DEATH BY SHOOTING in the streets, tear-gas dropped from heli- copters, water-cannon turned on demonstrators, and tanks roaring through the town — these have proved unable to intimidate the shipyard workers of Gdansk They face a working class which refuses to be _ intimi- dated by the long years of betrayal and disaster to which they have been subjected by Stalinism. The official Stalinist news- paper ‘Trybuna Ludu’, appeal- ing to the shipyard workers to return to work, warned : ‘Those responsible for mur- ders, arson, and looting must suffer deserved punishment. The authorities . . . will react with full determination against all infringements of public order and against all anti- state actions.’ And the English bourgeois, in the shape of ‘The Guard- ian’s’ commentator Victor Zorza, expresses its hope that authority will prevail : ‘M emory ‘Perhaps most important of all, the memory of the punish- ment which the Poles have taken from both Germany and Russia is still so strong that a national rising is unlikely. The Poles have, presumably, learned the lesson of Czecho- slovakia.’ The immediate cause of the strikes and demonstrations was the announcement _ by- Gomulka’s government fast Sunday of steep increases in food prices. A virtual wage- freeze starts on January |}. fO71, Shipyard workers held a mass meeting, and decided on a demonstration. This was joined by thou- sands of housewives, youth and students. Once the police attacked, these workers fought back in every possible way. It is perfectly clear from even the official reports that the police and troops had no support from a_ single section of the people. The Polish Stalinists, in their account of how it hap- pened, resort to the cheapest anti-working-class slanders of the type used by the capitalist class. Reporting Monday's shipyard meeting, they com- ment : ‘Unfortunately instead of peaceful and businesslike dis- cussions . . . part of the workers heeded irresponsible calls, abandoned work, and went into the streets.’ Ready All the Stalinists’ talk about ‘anarchy’ and ‘hooli- gans’ cannot alter the fact that the E European working class is once again showing itself ready to fight for the political revolution, to over- throw the Stalinist bureau- cracy and place the national- ized industry under workers’ Management and a= govern- ment of workers’ councils. Only the revolutionary leadership is lacking. Behind the haste of the Russian and Polish bureau- crats to conclude a ‘European Security Pact’ and _ their treacherous assistance to the Franco regime against the Spanish miners, lies the great threat of the proletariat in their own countries. The bureaucratic privileges and the suppression of prole- tarian democracy in_ these countries make impossible the development of the planned economy in a way which meets the needs of the masses, and so the masses must suffer repression. Food increases are only the latest and most severe in a whole series of sharp rises over the last two years. The capitalist press be- moans the ‘bad timing’ of the announcement, but the fact is that this timing must have been forced on the bureau- cracy by the insolubility of their crisis. It is now clear why Gomulka flew last week to Katowice to promise in- creased meat rations to protesting miners. ‘Reform’ it must never be forgotten that Gomulka was welcomed as the ‘new’ type of Commun- ist Party leader who, after the 1956 uprising, would lead his country along peaceful and tolerant roads to ‘reform’ without the bloody conse- quences of a Hungary. The experience has proved conclusively that there is no reform of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The _ interests of the working class de- mand a political revolution to overthrow it. Instead of revolutionary solidarity with the struggles of the working class in the capitalist countries, the Stalin- ist bureaucrats prefer agree- ments with crisis-ridden capi- talist Europe and America. They stand in the way of the only course which could resolve Poland’s economic problems — the spread of the socialist revolution to the advanced countries. Every day the identity of interest of the workers in the capitalist countries with those in the countries ruled by the Stalinist bureaucracy becomes clearer. Fourth International. Winter 1970/71

[p056] SLL Central Committee statement DEATH BY SHOOTING Full support for Polish workers in the streets, tear-gas dropped from heli- copters, water-cannon turned on demonstrators, and tanks roaring through the town — these have proved unable to intimidate the shipyard workers of Gdansk (Poland). They strike. remain on Gdansk, together with the neighbouring towns of Gdynia and Sopot, is com- pletely sealed off from the rest of the country by a cordon of police and troops. All rail and air com- munication is banned. Only police and army _ vehicles rumble in hundreds into the area. A complete curfew is in ie force between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m. Reports say that workers’ action in these Baltic towns has been followed by others in Poznan and in the automobile plant at Zeran, outside War- saw. Ruthless Gomulka and the Stalinist bureaucracy will follow. the deaths and hundreds of seri- ous injuries they have already inflicted with the most ruth- less repressions. These bureaucrats are fighting for their privileged caste existence. They face a working class which refuses to be _ intimi- dated by the long years of betrayal and disaster to which théy have been subjected by Stalinism. The official Stalinist news- paper ‘Trybuna Ludu’, appeal- ing to the shipyard workers to return to work, warned : ‘Those responsible for mur- ders, arson, and looting must suffer deserved punishment. The authorities . . . will react with full determination against all infringements of public order and against all anti- State actions.’ And the English bourgeois, in the shape of ‘The Guard- ian’s’ commentator Victor Zorza, expresses its hope that authority will prevail : ‘M emory’ ‘Perhaps most important of all, the memory of the punish- ment which the Poles have taken from both Germany and Russia is still so strong that a national rising is unlikely. The Poles have, presumably, learned the lesson of Czecho- slovakia.” The immediate cause of the strikes and demonstrations was the announcement by Gomulka’s government _ last Sunday of steep increases in food prices. A virtual wage- freeze starts on January Il. 1971, Shipyard workers held a mass meeting, and decided on a demonstration. This was joined by thou- sands of housewives, youth and students. Once the police attacked, these workers fought back in every possible way. It is perfectly clear from even the official reports that the police and troops had no support from a single section of the people. The Polish Stalinists, in their account of how it hap- pened, resort to the cheapest anti-working-class slanders of the type used by the capitalist class. Reporting Monday's shipyard meeting, they com- ment : ‘Unfortunately instead of peaceful and businesslike dis- cussions . . . part of the workers heeded irresponsible calls, abandoned work, and went into the streets.’ Ready All the Stalinists’ talk about ‘anarchy’ and ‘hooli- gans’ cannot alter the fact that the E European working class is once again showing itself ready to fight for the political revolution, to over- throw the Stalinist bureau- cracy and place the national- ized industry under workers’ management and a_govern- ment of workers’ councils. Only the _ revolutionary leadership is lacking. Behind the haste of the Russian and Polish bureau- crats to conclude a ‘European Security Pact’ and_ their treacherous assistance to the Franco regime against the Spanish miners, lies the great threat of the proletariat in their own countries. The bureaucratic privileges and the suppression of prole- tarian democracy in_ these countries make impossible the development of the planned economy in a way which meets the needs of the masses, and so the masses must suffer repression. Food increases are only the latest and most severe in a whole series of sharp rises over the last two years. The capitalist press _be- moans the ‘bad timing’ of the announcement, but the fact is that this timing must have been forced on the bureau- cracy by the insolubility of their crisis. It is now clear why Gomulka flew last week to Katowice to promise in- creased meat rations to protesting miners. ‘Reform’ It must never be forgotten that Gomulka was welcomed as the ‘new’ type of Commun- ist Party leader who, after the 1956 uprising, would lead his country along peaceful and tolerant roads to ‘reform’ without the bloody conse- quences of a Hungary. The experience has proved conclusively that there is no reform of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The interests of the working class de- mand a political revolution to overthrow it. Instead of revolutionary solidarity with the struggles of the working class in the capitalist countries, the Stalin- ist bureaucrats prefer agree- ments with crisis-ridden capi- talist Europe and America. They stand in the way of the only course which could resolve Poland's economic problems —the spread of the socialist revolution to the advanced countries. Every day the identity of interest of the workers in the capitalist countries with those in the countries ruled by the Stalinist bureaucracy becomes clearer. Fourth International. Winter 1970/71

[p057] Heroic clearing out of the Stalinists. The counter - revolutionary @ For the political revo- By striking their heroic gM 4 which betrayed lution in E Europe and the blows against the bureaucracy, the Spanish miners now turns USSR, and the social revo- PP ald one the Polish workers join in the its guns on the Polish workers. lution _ in the capitalist here, the more we need the same international struggle. countries building of alternative revolu- @ Long live the working _ @ Down with the Stalin- @ Forward to the United tionary leadership and the class of Poland! ist bureaucracy Socialist States of Europe! MARXISM aati The death agony of The TRADE UNIONS Be capitalism vse adopted by the Founding Conference of the Fourth International with the Statutes of the Fourth International tasks of the 4th International A SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE PAMPHLET Available from New Park Publications Ltd., 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4. Price 3s. 6d. Full support to Polish workers 33

[p058] L clearing out of the Stalinists. heroic blows against the bureaucracy, the Polish workers join in the Heroic By striking their The more we mount the offensive against .the Tories here, the more we need the building of alternative revolu- tionary same international struggle. leadership and _ the class of Poland! MARXISM and the TRADE UNIONS Trade unions in the epoch of imperialist decay Communism und syndicalism Available from New Park Publications Ltd., 186a Clapham High Street, London, SW4. Price 3s. 6d. Full support to Polish workers @ Long live the working The counter - revolutionary bureaucracy which betrayed the Spanish miners now turns its guns on the Polish workers. @ For the political revo- lution in E Europe and the USSR, and the social revo- lution in the capitalist countries @ Forward to the United Socialist States of Europe @ Down with the Stalin- ist bureaucracy The death agony of and the Programme adopted by the Founding Conference of the Fourth tnternational with the Statutes of the Fourth International tasks of the 4th International A SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE PAMPHLET 33

[p059] Further comments on 34