Argentina:
didate had a chance of beating Tatchell.
This provoked wide-spread tactical voting, with a large percentage of the traditional a battered working class
Conservative vote being mobilised behind the SDP-Liberals to "keep Tatchell out'.
Throughout the campaign the daily begins to raise press conducted one of the most extraordinary campaigns of modern times.
London's only evening paper The Stanits head again dard carried front page attacks on Tatchell virtually every day, while Britain's popular daily press (which is rivalled only by the more sordid publications of the Springer press in Germany) published millions of words
No candidate in post-war Britain has had to face such a campaign.
In the latter stages of the campaign,
Michael Foot went out of his way to associate himself with Tatchell, the person he had denounced 15 months before in parliament. In this way he made the campaign an issue of the credibility of his leadership of the party. The result
Jean Pierre BEAUVAIS BUENOS AIRES - "The military, they they're already threatening to come back." He spoke in a low voice. Was it out of fear of being
On his tired face, you could read a succession of fear and hatred, resed 43 hours per week. Now he has to work 53 hours. defeat, of the depression," Juan said.
"The automotive industry was one of the key sectors of the Argentine economy. It was in the hands of foreign cap-
The market and production were divided up among Ford, Motors, Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, Volksis a stinging rebuff the strong mobilisation of
Labour activists to help the campaign, person. He was a survivor. In this ruined
Tatchell's tacties created major prob-
In the face of the press hysteria, he chose to de-emphasise political issues,
But Juan was virtually a privileged country, bled white and beaten to its knees by seven years of dictatorship, he
He had not been through wagen, and Mercedes.
"At the time of the big mobilizations in 1969 and 1974-75, the auto workers and our union, SMATA, played a militant, leading role.
Under the dictatorand waged a battle on the basis of class the concentration camps or been torturloyalty, stressing his loyalty to local ed. He even had a job.
working people and their immediate
It is nonetheless true that the automotive industry. In 1974, he was the most examplary campaign would have been defeated by the extraordinary mobilisation of the bourgeoisie
For fifteen years, Juan has worked in in the Renault factories in Cordoba, when the 8,000 workers there waged an exemplary struggle that lasted for months to defend their buying power and force the ship, we became one of the main targets of the repression. At the same time, the hand to restructure their operations to adjust to the economic crisis.
"Some of them moved out of the country, almost overnight. what General Motors and Citroen did,
The defeat is a bitter one for the release of their imprisoned trade-union
It appears leaders.
to disprove the contention that Labour's shop steward.
left-wing policies have mass
John after the military took power, everybody
Leading right-wing witch-hunter
Golding - nicknamed 'Labour's Jaruzelski' by the left — immediately declared the conflict — several hundred people - that it is not the real Labour Party that has lost in Bermondsey'
The efforts of the right wing will now be redoubled to remove Foot and re-
At the time, he was elected a years later, in 1977, a year who had held a position of leadership in were without a job.
prison or 'missing.' "
Later, Juan found a new job in the
Volkswagen factories in Monte Chingolo earns the equivalent of 5/0
Others reconsolidated. Fiat and Peugeot, for example. years, five of the big factories shut down, and two thirds of the workers in the industry were left without jobs. working today, productivity has been increased two or three times, wages have dropped about 70%"
Juan could have added that his wages are now less than half those of a Volkswagen worker in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ten years ago, this relationship was exactly the reverse. He could have added, too, that his buying power, which in 1974 was
jected payments - 200 francs (18 US dol- stant challenge to which the dictatorship wagen worker in Germany, is not a tenth of that today. The relationship between the buying power of Renault workers in thought that he might benefit from this, he will soon be disillusioned.
lars) a month will only go, under certain years on the Plaza de Mayo in front of the president's palace has become a con-
Argentina and in France is about the
To say that Juan was optimistic would jobs in 1982! That represents about 10% to 30 the day-to-day struggle for existence, he atmosphere at the Monte Chingolo factory was dominated by fear. Fear of repression, fear of being laid off, fear of hunger...For some months now, it has been different. We are discussing again among ourselves.
And in response to new threats of layoffs bandied about by the management, we even organized a march in the neighborhood near the factory. That was on December 7. At the time, I could hardly believe it..."
Aldo enjoyed none of the privileges Juan did. He is married, with two children. He is a plasterer, and for close to two years he has been without a job. Being without a job for him means being without any resources whatsoever. There are no unemployment benefits for the two million unemployed in Argentina (about 20% of the economically active population). The story of Aldo's life is the history of the country's descent into
This has meant absolute poverty in a country that is being deindustrial-
It was only the support of his family, the spontaneous solidarity in the neighborhood of Pompeya where he lives, and above all the soup kitchens run by the parish that enabled Aldo, his wife, and children to survive. Aldo remembers vividly the hardest times. For example: "When the teacher came to the house last winter. The price of food had gone up again. She could not longer divide the food in the school cafeteria between those children who could pay and those to workers who lost their of those presently unemployed. owing to the government's lack of credit, the application of this measure has been however, that the annual cost of these unemployment benefits amounts to barely 2% of the interest on the short-term credits granted in recent weeks by the banks of the imperialist powers. These credits have been allocated primarily for replacing the military materiel destroyed during
The stories of these two, Aldo the unemployed plasterer; Juan, the automobile worker, show better than any statistics could the nature and extent of the economic crisis in Argentina. The effects and manifestations of this crisis are all the more striking in a country that, even though it remained economically dependent, had nonetheless undergone a certain industrial development. Moreover, the Argentine working class also - long the largest and most concentrated proletariat in Latin America - has strong traditions of struggle and organization that go back
One indication of the impact of the crisis is that grim and unsanitary shantytowns are mushrooming around Buenos Aires, and they look very much like those cities. But the men and women crowded into them are not uprooted people coming from poor and overpopulated areas. Such people scarcely exist in Argentina.
### Argentine shantytown are former blue- and white-collar workers who are now unemployed.
Rejected from their factories,
Where are they? Where are these 25 ians? They army still has secret detention centers. How many have died under torture in the marine mechanics school near the River stadium, where the big football matches are held? How many have perished a few steps away in the basement of the central police depart-
Whose bodies lie in the special areas of the cemetaries under lines of grim crosses marked "N.N." for "No
A few of the "missing" have reappeaed in recent months — mutilated, broken people, full of fear and guilt. They are obsessed by one question: "Why did I
Why not the others? Did I collaborate?"
"We have to kill as many people as necessary to restore peace," the former head of the junta, General Videla, said. One of his aides, General Saint-Just, who was governor of Buenos Aires Province,
"In the first place, we are going to kill all the subversives, then their accomplices, then those who remain passive, and
"heyday" of
Today, when the hatred and isolated regime is at the end of its rope, when the government is supposed to be returned to civilian hands late this year, the time is no longer favorable for such speeches. The military would like that sort of thing to be forgotten. So, history is being re-
Excesses may have been committed, they say. But these were individual cases in the framework of a "war"
"subversion" abroad, against terrorism.
who could not."
What was his greatest fear? "Sickness. A lot of the people in the neighborhood who are working can no longer pay to go to the doctor. Besides, the doctor moved casts from
For a while, two voluntary nurses maintained a church-supported clinic. But the health services said that that was illegal, so they had to stop."
Polio has reappeared in the working-class suburbs of Buenos Aires. Aldo's neighborhood the priest ran a free vaccination campaign.
What can a building worker approaching middle age like Aldo hope for? The building industry is one of the hardest hit by the economic crisis. It is functioning at about 30% of capacity, according to the bosses own statistics. buildings, deserted building sites abound in Buenos Aires.
A few months ago. on the recommendation of experts sent by the International Monetary Fund, who were anxious to see that the situation did not go over "the threshold of the unbearable," the military government announced that the payment of unemployment benefits ejected from their homes because they could no longer pay the rent, and forced out of their neighborhoods, where the price of food was too high. They are outthe city, outcasts from ment, and sickness are growing rapidly.
Other, better off layers, are also being
A large number of professionals, technicians, architects, and doctors have had to leave the country because they could not make a living there, and they have gone to swell the ranks of the hundreds of thousands of exiles scattered in Latin America, the United States, and in Europe. Among those who have stayed, there is no telling how many are eking our a living in marginal jobs. Thousands of trained professionals are earning their living today as taxi drivers in the capital city.
"The cost of the depression, the cost of the defeat," Aldo said. also has other faces, other voices. The most moving, the most courageous are those of the mothers who have devoted their lives to searching for their "missing" children. The demonstration they have held every Thursday afternoon for
The military hope to whitewash and salvage their institutions, to get people to forget against whom and at whose expense they waged their "war on the home
But the reality is there to be seen, naked, grotesque.
"subversives." masses of workers, the working class, its trade-union activists, its politically aware activists. It is these workers who make up the great majority of the dead, the "missing," the prisoners, and the victims of the economic pillage that accompanied this "war."
And the people who directed this war are those who have accumulated and are accumulating fabulous fortunes. They are the bosses of the multinationals sitting in their glass and steel towers. They are the inhabitants of the gilded ghettos, who live in a luxury by no means inferior to their counterparts in Paris, London, or New
Since 1976, these people have stashed 6 billion dollars in Switzerland, according to a recent study by the Swiss Socialist deputy Jean Ziegler. amounts to 15% of Argentina's enormous foreign debt.
The repressive course of to big capital. Finally, they have decreed The national electricity company not exempt from this policy
Is: to get agribusiness transferred into private hands. To this end, the co-operative organisations at all levels are being destroyed, and their property being to the big landowners (latiwhose expansion the government supports.
the Belaunde Terry regime in Peru
As for imports, the way is open for foreign goods to flood the market and to destroy industry
Exports are becoming more and more concentrated into the hands of private
The state companies for internal trade are equally has serious consequences for the poorest layers of the population.
Since December 1982 the front pages of the Peruvian daily newspapers have been preoccupied with the activities of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas, in the remote Ayacucho province.
The fight to combat the guerrillas has become the number one priority of the Belaunde Terry government. One of the events which has caused the biggest stir was the killing of eight Peruvian journalists in the area on January
The media claimed that the local peasant population had killed them, believing them to be Senderista guerrillas. peasants state that they were carrying out the orders of the government to kill any strangers in their area.
To combat the guerrillas the government has declared a state of emergency in the province, and sent the army to allegedly 'reassure the population and protect the forces of law and order' (Liberation, Paris, January 25, 1983).
Sendero Luminoso has support among the local peasant population, and to an extent reflects the justified discontent, particularly of the young peasants, under the present government.
When he ran for president in May 1980, Belaunde Terry played heavily on the fact that he was ousted from the presidency by the so-called military coup for reform of October 3, But throughout the past three years his Accion Popular government has followed a more and more repressive course. stage is his sending the army to stamp out the 'guerrilla war' in Ayacucho.
This repressive course has gone hand in hand with an economic policy openly favouring imperialist investors, which has led to the reprivatization of many sec-
Belaunde Terry's regime has shown no evidence of a desire to solve any of the fundamental problems, such as unemployment, malnutrition, infant mortality, and illiteracy.
More and more, the direction of the Belaunde Terry regime is symbolized by the Peruvian army commandos who have been scouring the streets of Ayacucho, knives in hand, chanting "Terrorists, tonight we're coming into your house, and we're going to eat your guts and blow off your head.'
The fight against the guerrillas of Sendero Lúminoso in the Cuzco area is going to be used as a pretext for stepping up the militarization of social and political life of the country. After all, did not the minister of war, Luis Cisnero Vizquerra, recently call for the support 'of all good Peruvians, in or out uniform' against Sendero Luminoso (La Republica, Lima, December 29,
In the May 1980 general elections Hugo Blanco was elected to parliament representing the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (Peruvian section
In this interview he explains the context in which Sendero Luminoso have been able to gain support through making a balance sheet of the first three years of the Belaunde Terry government, and explains the action perspectives and orientation of his party.
How does the PRT assess the Belaunde Terry government?(1)
Fundamentally, this government represents the interests of the imperialists. In this period, when the system is in crisis, if it is to defend these interests, it can only do so by plunging the great majority of the population hunger and poverty. Let's look at some central aspects of its economic policy.
What has marked this administration Facilities are being given to private enterprises, most of which are imperia-
The co-operatives and co-operative centres are being weakened or dissolved. fragmented, they will fall easy prey
But according to further reports the a gradual privatisation of the public
We can give some examples of this are given to the imperialist oil com-
At the same time the state oil company, Petroperu, is being run
Measures are favour of the imcerialist mining companies, and the state mining sector is contracting, particularly of marketing.
on the point of sinking, salvaged by North American, Japanese and other imperialist companies. Fishing is another sector where the state company is being rundown in favour of capitalists.
education, housing, and other things that are really necessary for the population, are being
The constant and more and drastic devaluation of the national currency, the sol (2), is rapidly worsening the poverty of wage earners. As for the peasants, their loans are given in dollars!
the galloping inflation, after a period, they have to pay back in soles twice what they received, plus the in-
Certain diseases, belonged to history, have reappeared in Peru; malaria, rabies, etc. Infant mortality is increasing. Two children have to share the same cot in hospital, two women in labour have to share the same bed, children are being born in hospital
And in a country where the health service is so precarious, and getting worse, the private clinics and laboratories are getting richer. A United Nations study showed was overcharging of 400 per cent on medical imports.
What is the present state of mass activity, and what role does the PRT
The pro-imperialist policy of the regime that is taking the bread out of people's mouths has hit hard against all sections of the population.
have responded by
The workers in the companies in privatisation have acted to defend the nationalised sector. In candidate of Accion Popular (AP) in elections in May 1980. formation won 43% of the vote, on the basis of quite demagogic propaganda contradicted by the subsequent repressive policy of the regime.
organisation APRA which won whole, which got 15 to 20%. mally took office, July 28, 1980, the US dol
In July 1982 the exchange currency of almost 150%
The economic policy of the regime,
However, it is notable that, despite all several enterprises, they have fought to defend their standard of living. In others, they are fighting against the illegal closure of the enterprises in question and against lay-offs. The peas- tive by mounting an effective struggle is ants have had the first national general strike in their history, against governmental policy towards them. The cooperators are defending their co-operatives. The university students are defending the universities which are being stripped of resources. The neglected regions of the country are struggling to draw attention to their specific frequent forms of strug gle are region-wide of activity at a regional level for one, marches that have involved like the mineworkers of Canarias who, with their families, including the children, covered more than 700 kilometres. During this march 5 children died, as well as a woman who had just given birth, and a worker. The peasants block the roads, taking the land to build huts in which to live. This happened at El Palomar, where the police killed five inhabitants. Hunger strikes, and workplace occupations have also taken
Unhappily, these struggles have not been co-ordinated, which has considerably lessened their effectiveness.
of the workers confederations did not fulfil their duty to co-
General Workers Confederation of Peru (CGTP), led by the Peruvian Communist Party (PCP), would have been did not want to. Neither did the United Left (Izquierda Unida - IV), a coalition of most of the left, want to initiate a centralised strug-
The PRT is in favour of co-ordinating and centralising the struggles of workers and the exploited as much as possible. We consider that to be our fundamental task today. Unfortunately, our organisational weakness does not allow us to do this on a large scale.
Q. What is the meaning, and the real impact, of the Ayacucho guerrilla struggle? What does 'Sendero Luminoso' (Shining Path) represent?
A. Sendero Luminoso is a Maoist group with some very sectarian aspects. It considers that all those who do not support it are reactionaries who have to be eliminated.
It rejects participation in elections and devotes itself to guerrilla warfare. Cleverly, its activists began by preparing their troops for war through minor sabotage actions, and then soon took up guerrilla warfare. Their stronghold is the mountainous region of Ayacucho, one of the poorest and most remote regions, where there is strong religious feeling. This makes it easier to push such articles of faith as, "The thought of comrade Gonzalo (the leader) guides the world revolution'. 10 which cuts so brutally against the interests of the population, and the failure of the mass leaderships to offer an alternato an increase in the actions influence of Sendero Luminoso.
H
PRT BLANCO
GO
Fundamentally, the government has responded by repression.
'antiterrorist' law - imprisoning torraping, and assassinating Senderistas, peasant leaders, and other
But this has not enabled it to crush Sendero Luminoso, people in the area, amongst them the most powerful local ambushes against the of repression, coupling these with new acts of sabotage.
Finally, the government has sent the army into the Ayacucho region, where it has inflicted even greater repression. It has carried out house to house searches, and given orders to shoot suspects on sight. This has not been very effective against Sendero Luminoso, which was able to call a strike against repression in the town of Ayacucho that mobilised 90 per cent of the population.
Other sabotage operations are being carried out in other areas of the country, including Lima. Unfortunately, the victims include peasant leaders of other sections of the left, members of peasant cooperatives, and leaders of organisations in non-Senderista areas.
negative factors, Sendero Luminothese so, rather than being crushed by repression, is growing. This shows that the economic situation of the population is desperate, and that there are always more disappointed people, disappointed not only by the bourgeois politica machines, but also by the mass organisa tions and the left parties.
The PRT is presently discussing these recent events.
In recent months the conflicts in the countryside have worsened, which has lead to serious confrontations between the peasants and the government's
Whilst Sendero Lumiquestion of seems to be concerned with the next elec-
What is the political position of the PRT on armed self-defence, on peasants self-defence patrols (rondas campesinas) (3), etc?
During its last conference, the Confederacion de los Campesinos de Peru (CCP) (4) approved the proposal, has been put forward several times by the PRT, of setting up a Self-defence Secretariat, to encourage and organise the peasants armed struggle repression of the not enough, and that it will be necessary, on the basis of this agreement, push forward the organisation of self-defence in the country areas. understood, too, that this has to be done in line with the specific local conditions, without falling into adventhe past, we have taken part in these type of actions. Nowadays we can see the embryo of armed self-defence in what are called the rondas campesinas (peasants patrols) in the Cajamarca province, where the peasants have organised themselves to protect their cattle against thieves. This armed vigilance has already led to minor confrontations, with the police, who aid and abet the 3. The 'peasant patrols' are a form of peasant self-organisation cattle thieves. But most of the time, the pol- 8220C the exactions of the ice being associated with this activity, the 'peasant patrols' constitute peasant self-defence from the repression or passivity of representatives of the bourgeois state. These forms of organisation are an elementary stage of the mass self-defence process in the peasant community.
The Sixth National Congress of the CCP took place in Lima on 16-21 July, 1982. In the issue of Combate Socialista (paper of the PRT) for the first fortnight of October 1982. Hugo Blanco who was re-elected a member of the National Executive Committee and secretary for human rights of the CCP - made a first assessment of the congress.
Among its positive aspects. he emphasised the attendance of 1.201 delegates and guests, the degree of rank-and-file involvement in the discussion, the comradely spirit of the debates, the points of agreement that came out, and the 'vigorous intervention of peasant women, demanding their rights and combatting machismo'.
The PRT, for the first time, had a political intervention in this congress as a member organisation of the Confederation. It presented PRT took part in the debates and commissions. documents. and peasant members of the
alliance between APRA and IU - the difficulties which arise because of the thieves.
We consider that this is an example of armed action organised by the masses, even if it is still only emsectarianism that has traditionally marked these organisations, sectarianism towards bryonic.
If the peasants continue these strike system. This helps to deceive the starving cated.
actions, ( including blocking the roads, governmental repression directed the mass organisations in the countryside will force them to defend themselves with arms.
During the national civic strikes, the
ONCHALALLA.
urban population began to gain experience in confronting armed repression.
We think that the masses organised in the towns will also begin to develop armed self defence.
UNODS VENTEREMOS
The 1983 municipal elections are approaching; there's already a pre-electhe PRT on these elections? Do you have *Gramorone a policy of making electoral alliances? and, on that question, what is the balance sheet you make of the alliances you made in the past, FOCEP, ARI etc? What does the PRT think about the possibility of an electoral alliance between the APRA and the United Left?
Let's start on the balance sheet. The big discussions on this and the rapid development of the dynamic of the class struggle, have prevented the PRT from making a common balance sheet of the experiences of these fronts up till now.
My opinion is that the weight of sectarianism among the majority of Peruvian Trotskyists prevented, on both these occasions, our movement finding itself at the head of broad mass revolutionary fronts. Our weakness allowed the reformists, through the creation of the United Left (IU), to take advantage of the desire for unity among the masses. The reformist leadership of the latter front prevents it becoming an instrument
It serves to put a brake on it, and channel the masses towards electoralist illusions.
The PRT has still not decided on its for the municipal elections in Personally, I think that these elections will have less importance for the masses than the previous ones. A large part of them have lost any illusion that they can do very much to improve their situation through municipal elec-
Moreover, apart from a few ceptions, the left mayors and municipal councillors have been absorbed into the system, and do not try to use their posts as an organising centre to support masses, when what they need is to turn toward self-organisation of their own struggles, independent from all the exploiters.
But, unfortunately for IU, it seems that APRA is declining its company this time.
Q. With reference to the other groups that claim to be Trotskyist, what relations does the PRT have with them at the moment? Are there possibilities for joint work? Is there any possibility of unifica-
The PRT was created through the fusion of Trotskyist groups. We had the illusion that it would be possible to form
As for the possibility of unification, we think it is difficult at the moment for the reason I have just mentioned, and because of the lack of internal democracy in these parties, and because of their
They do not set their course in accordance with the needs of the class struggle in this country, but follow the orders they get from Nahuel Moreno or Pierre Lambert.
Naturally, the PRT wants to combine its efforts with all revolutionaries, through common work and fronts. programmatic and political homogeneity makes unification possible, so much the better. We hope that the revolutionary process will lead to a convergence of the struggles of the people against the a single party with the PST and POMR.
There are several possibilities for the exploited in a dishonest way by the com-
PRT's
- launching can- rades from the other groups.
participation didates of mass organisations; candidates of the PRT itself, either alone or as a member of one or several fronts; critical support for the IU candidates.
Given the character of the municipal elections, and the differences in political reality in various regions, it is most probable that these three different types of participation will be combined.
As for the possibility of an electoral
But our efforts were in vain, and were
At the present time we have undertaken to co-ordinate with the POMR-PST (that is the PST and a part of the POMR for certain common activities, formation of the Socialist forward in this direction, as far as pos-
We will make the same effort with the POMR.
However, we are conscious of the many organisations. 5. In September 15, 1982. meeting, the parliamentary representatives of the PRT and the POMR-PST (unified party) decided to form a Parliamentary Socialist Bloc. This Bloc made its first intervention in parliament when the government of Premier Manuel Ulloa was called to give an account of its policies in September. The APRA voted with the opposition against the government. provoking a Cabinet reshuffle. In a declaration adopted on December 16, 1982, the Bloc pledged to 'make the voices of the exploited heard in parliament, and 'from this position to give impetus the revolutionary mobilisation of the masses'.
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PRT thinks it is a shameful betrayal for the IU to ally itself with a party of the right, which is involved in the repressive the rest of the left, which is then recipro-