Stalinism and Imperialism in Peru

[p048] STALINISM AND IMPERIALISM IN PERU OVER TWO-THIRDS of Latin Americans live under a military dictator- ship like the ones in Brazil, Argentine, Bolivia, Panama, and Peru. But the bourgeois and Stalin- ist press have consist- ently tried to present the Peruvian case as ‘unique’, as a ‘demo- cratic’, ‘anti - imperialist’, ‘radical’ government. Would you agree with this? Stalinism and Imperialism in Peru Certainly not. It is true that the Stalinists are quite pleased with the situation, and have gone so far as to say that ‘The Peru- vian Revolution has _ started’, ‘nothing will stop it’, ‘one can only be for or against The Revo- lution’, etc. So far as I am concerned there has been only one Revolution with capital letters in Peru —a defeated workers’ revolution in the 1930s that ended in the mass execution of over 6,000 workers, executions that were carried through by the mentors of the present government. But what the Stalinists say about the Peruvian’ military should not surprise anybody. I’m quite sure it has not surprised you. But after Mariategui’s death, when the Socialist Party became the Communist Party, a fully Stalinist party, its leaders aban- doned this and many other prin- cipled and _ scientifically based Policies. Stalinists have never hesitated to support ‘progressive’ govern- ments. Today they even accuse those who oppose the govern- ment as ‘counter-revolutionaries’! Over 40 years ago, a Peruvian Marxist, José Carlos Mariategui, founder of the Socialist Party, clearly said that there was no possibility of being anti- imperialist without being social- ist, and that there was no other anti-imperialist state but the workers’ state. Blindness To say that the Peruvian gov- ernment is anti-imperialist be- cause it has nationalized one oil firm, and because it has bought land and sheep from a _ huge copper mining concern, and be- cause it has limited foreign ownership of banks, is, to say the least, blindness and ignorance. Mariategui said it was impos- sible to be anti-imperialist with- out being socialist because the historic conditions did not allow it: the national capitalist class was too weak and dependent, imperialism was too strong, and the world market established a rigid division of labour where there was space only for a few powers. 25

[p049] Police fire at workers and peasants during an uprising in Juliaca, S Peru in 1968. Today the situation has not changed and has become even more tight, and all the best wishes of the Stalinists, and the best conceived plans of the Peru- vian generals, will not alter this fact. World finance capital can, at any moment, completely asphyx- iate the economy of any country which does not accept the ‘rules of the game’. Technological dependence has recently added a renewed and growing barrier to the host of problems that face any bloody- minded independent bourgeois government. I think that the Peruvian generals are more aware of this problem than the Peruvian Stalinists. They have _ stated clearly and repeatedly that they do not intend to hinder imperial- ist investments in Peru. They nationalized the IPC, a firm that has been denounced since the 1930s for exploiting Peruvian oil illegally, but they have generously opened the doors to the Belco Petroleum, Gulf and Texas Petroleum, not to mention the multi-million dollars agree- ment with the Southern Peru Copper Corporation. 26 Cut short Incidentally in the latter case the generals attempted to be more ‘anti-imperialist’ than they actually were in the end; they offered the Soviet bureaucracy the chance to enter a bid for the $340m Cuajones copper project. But their ‘anti-imperialism’ was cut short when the Russian bureaucrats offered much stiffer terms than the US-based Southern Peru Copper Corpora- tion. The much publicised expulsion of the US Military Aid ‘Mission’ in Peru contrasts with their quiet, almost unnoticed return. The ‘advisers’ who five years ago helped the generals to murder every single guerrilla or sus- picious peasants, that helped the ‘progressive’ military to burn entire villages, these ‘advisers’ are back, and increasing numbers of Peruvian officers are being sent again to US military bases and command schools for special training. If the Stalinists don’t believe this, they should read the ‘Wall Street Journal’, which knows it pretty well. It is not possible to be anti- imperialist without striking at the heart of world ‘capitalism, and this is a task that only the inter- national working class can achieve. The Peruvian generals, with their Stalinist supporters, may wish to play nationalistic, but as the generals (not the Stalinists) are aware, capital goods come from the imperialist metropoles, so does the finance capital that could make possible its importa- tion, and also imperialism con- trols the technical knowledge and skills that can make ‘indepen- dence’ possible. Imperialism controls the mar- ket for all our exportable pro- ducts, and they provide all of the most important inputs to our industries, including the inter- mediate inputs that become in- creasingly important and expen- sive as our industrialization develops. What can the Peruvian generals do about this? Nothing, abso- lutely nothing, and we are not misled by the demagogic state- ments. WHAT ABOUT other internal political mea- sures such as the agra- rian reform, or the recently decreed indus- trial law. Do you think that these reflect a ‘pro- gressive’ orientation? Would you say that a ‘bourgeois - democratic ’ revolution is taking place in Peru under the military regime? I don’t remember the exact words, but I think Marx once said that ‘history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce’. This is what is happening in Peru, and in many backward capitalist countries. History is repeating itself and we are in the second round. What was ‘progres- sive’ 40 or 50 years ago can only be considered a farce today. To say that the agrarian reform dictated by the generals is ‘pro- gressive’ is a mockery to those peasants who in the last 20 years have been struggling stubbornly for the right to own the land of Fourth International. Winter 1970/71

[p050] their grandparents and the right to enjoy the wealth produced with their own hands. And this struggle has been a bloody and bitter one. Hundreds of peasants have been killed, thousands injured, countless numbers jailed, tortured and The advantage that this brings to the agricultural workers is another matter. In the first weeks after the expropriation of the land the gov- ernment attempted to crush the well-established and traditionally militant union of agricultural and government supporters. Every year, without fail, the whole army officialdom pays tribute to its officers who are all buried in one cemetery. It is no coincidence that it was in the sugar plantations that the military began the agrarian re- One of the first demonstrations by students and workers resulted in brutal terrorized by the very same generals who today want to pose as benefactors. As a result of these struggles, the latifundia and landed aristo- cracy were considerably weak- ened and a considerable share of their land (over a third) occu- pied, virtually expropriated by the peasants. Now under the ‘progressive’ law, they are to pay for this land! BUT WHAT about the expropriation of the sugar plantations? These were not, according to the capitalist press, feudal or semi- feudal latifundia, they belonged to large firms, some American, directly linked with the world market and were a considerable source of income for the capital- ists, foreign or national. The sugar plantations were semifeudal estates, but not of the same kind. The change of owner- ship has certainly affected foreign and national interests, of the most traditional style. Stalinism and Imperialism in Peru clashes with ‘Assault’ police. workers. Only the determined opposition of the workers pre- vented them in carrying out their objective. Not everything is a ‘farce’ as you can see. There is quite a bit of tragedy lurking in the future of the Peruvian working class if there is not a clear awareness of the real implications of this new military government. The tragi-comedy is, particu- larly in the case of the sugar plantations, particularly morbid. It was in the sugar plantations that the most militant sections of the working class rose in open rebellion against the capitalist State and captured several im- portant towns, such as Trujillo, which they placed under their control. The revolution, betrayed by its leaders, was finally defeated after a fierce and heroic struggle. Over 6,000 workers, the majority sugar plantation workers were executed in a few days. This was ‘a long time ago’, 1932, the Stalinists may say, ‘it's all forgotten’. Hatred This is not the case, particu- larly not for the military, who have been consistently educated in hatred against the ‘mob’ who, in the heat of civil war, executed a few imprisoned army officers form, nor is it a coincidence that in applying the expropriation they also tried to disband the union organization, as if haunted by the possibility of being recog- nized, denounced, bitterly remembered in the eyes of the organized working class. THERE HAS been quite a bit of coverage in the international press about this new industrial law or industrial code decreed by the Peruvian military junta. What can you tell us about this? This is where I think that farce, tragi-comedy, ceases to be so. It becomes an obscure threat. It is presented, like other Measures, as a ‘modernization’ move, a ‘progressive’ and ‘radical’ policy. Let’s be clear, there is no doubt in my mind that what the Peruvian government is doing is bringing the Peruvian economy and legislation nearer to the ‘advanced’ countries of Latin America, such as Brazil, Argen- tina and Mexico. There is nothing very original in certain social legislation being introduced such as the protec- tion of domestic labourers. What we are saying is that certain policies, such as the agrarian reform law and_ the nationalization of oil industries, concern relatively old and, in the case of the agrarian reform, partially solved problems. It would have been impossible for any government in Peru to go on for long without legalizing in some way the de facto occupation of vast areas of land without extending the agrarian reform to the whole of agriculture, and without dealing in some way with the decades-old _ illicit exploitation of Peruvian oil by the International Petroleum Com- pany. José Carlos MARIATEGUI Peruvian Marxist founder of the Socialist Party said there was no possibility of being anti- imperialist without being socialist, and that there was no other anti- imperialist state but the workers’ state. 27

[p051] Other policies of the present government, such as the partial ‘Peruvianization’ of banks and the strengthening of the State Bank, the creation of a state monopoly of fish meal, commer- cialization, the promulgation of the recent industrial code, are more relevant and more dangerous. Behind them is being shaped the ‘new’ reorganized Peruvian capitalist state; they point to the ‘new path between capitalism and communism’, being followed now in Argentina, Brazil, Greece etc. Stalinists affirm that this ‘new path’ has opened an ‘irreversible process towards socialism’ that only ‘oligarchic and imperialist plots’ can stop. You know perfectly well that there is nothing ‘new’ about the creation of a powerful State Bank, or the creation of state monopolies over the commer- ‘Assault’ police shoot down peasant demonstrators in Colquimarca. cialization of certain products, or the ‘profit-sharing’ schemes for industrial concerns, or the growth of nationalized services such as telephone, transportation, energy, etc. In many semi-developed coun- tries, and in most advanced capitalist countries these policies are carried forward without creating the slightest ‘irreversi- bility’ towards socialism. Distributed The new industrial code, we are told, rules that 10 per cent of net profits are to be dis- tributed to the workers, 15 per cent at least put aside for re- investment or as shares to be divided among the employees and 2 per cent for industrial research and development. We are also informed that each industrial firm must have at least one representative of the ‘indus- trial community’ on its board of directors. 28 This is the Peruvian version of de Gaulle’s ‘participation’. The French Stalinists were compelled to reject it; we are waiting to hear the reaction of our local Stalinists. For the last two years, in par- ticular since the military take- over, wages have been kept down systematically, and there has even been wage-cutting. Only in the few cases, such as the miners in central Peru, when the working class went further than the Stalinist and right-wing union leaders thought ‘wise’, did wages actually rise. Depression The Peruvian bourgeoisie, before and after the coup d’etat, have been submerging the Peru- vian economy into a_ serious depression, resulting in unheard of unemployment levels and a decline of real wages. The military government has done nothing to change this trend, and has shown no inten- tion of doing so. Wages continued to stagnate and decline in real terms, and I should remind you that this is taking place in a country where 40 per cent of the working popu- lation earns less than £50 a year, and 90 per cent less than £300 per year! The total unemployment and under-employment in Peru esti- mated by the International Labour Organization (ILO). is over 2,000,000 workers. The total working population is about 3,000,000. This means a rate of un- employment and underemploy- ment of about 40 per cent; and each year over 200,000 workers enter hopelessly the ‘labour market’. ; This is the economic reality, this is the economic crime that the generals are asking us to ‘participate’ in, to share respon- sibility for! The working class has no responsibility whatsoever for the chaos that capitalism has brought to us. Wages have been kept down or lowered in the last years. Now this profit ‘share’ in the short term will probably mean an in- crease in the amount of money that workers will take home, which will certainly be a miser- able increase. This increase will be used ‘to sweeten the pill’. But soon it will be obvious that profits being very low or even non-existent due to the crisis and due to the fiddling of well-paid and faithful account- ants, any increase in profits to be ‘shared’ will clearly mean: redundancies, productivity deals, speed-up and ali the traditional methods of increasing exploita- tion. By making their wages depen-