AROUND THE WORLD
The letter of Commandante Marcial
Before putting an end to his life (see International Viewpoint, No 30, May 16, 1983), Commandante Marcial, chief commander of the People's Liberation Forces (FPL) Farabundo Marti, a member organisation of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) wrote a letter addressed to The heroic people of El Salvador, my dearly-loved working class, and the glorious FPL-Farabundo Marti. This letter, dated April 12, 1983, whose authenticy is unchallenged, has only reached us recently. It has not, to our knowledge, been published in English, and it is for this reason that we publish it here. The translation is by IV.
In all the difficult moments of my life, in the struggle against the internal reactionary and exploiting classes and against Yankee imperialism, the people and the working class that I belong to have been and are the major sources of my inspiration, and my main objective has been the fight for their interests.
I have been attacked, persecuted, calumnied, hurt and repressed a thousand times by these brutal enemies of the people. But I have willingly suffered and overcome all this for the sake of the workers, the peasants and the people. Everything that I have done has been and is within this framework, in the framework of these fundamental concerns, particularly in the last years of struggle, of stepping up of the people's struggle for liberation, this phase of intensification of proletariat and peasants in the revolution, and to thus eliminate politically or physically the organisations that represent a real guarantee for proletarian interests.
But what hurts, and cannot be borne, is that revolutionary brothers are being fooled and accept as true these calumnies and perfidious inventions against a revolutionary who has been tested a thousand times in the people's struggle. By accepting them, not only do they contribute to damaging my reputation as a tried and tested revolutionary, but they also attack the ranks of my beloved organisation by considering all its members and contacts as potential enemy infiltrators.
I cannot stand by powerless while my beloved organisation, the underpinning of the revolutionary people's struggle and the unity that flows from that, is treated in this way, nor accept that its bodies, its contacts, its members and its collaborators are submitted to a hasty and prejudged enquiry. I cannot let my name be dragged through the mud, not let pass the infamous, though indirect, suggestion or implication that my name is associated in the sad case of the terrible loss of our comrade Ana Maria.
I reject this infamous slander even if my brothers are repeating it. But the injustice is even greater when it comes from brothers than when it comes from enemies. The truth will inevitably come out one day. For the time being, the whole responsibility for the personal decision I am now taking falls on those who, while brothers, have acted in this way, attempting to unjustly soil my revolutionary conduct.
I know that my people will win soon, that the working class will be able to defend its right to lead the revolutionary process in my country, that while suffering these violent blows, the FPL will be able to come forward as the authentic expression of the proletariat and the people. I know that it will be able to have a positive effect on the necessary unity of the people and, together with our beloved FAPL [People's Armed Liberation Forces, military wing of the FPL], will play a decisive role in final victory and in the stages that will bring them to create the conditions for passing to socialism.
I am encouraged by the idea that my modest contribution to this success -guided at every moment, in every act, of my life by the interests of the proletariat and the people - has promoted and will promote, to a certain extent, the real interests of the people in their happy future.
Revolution or death! The armed people will win!
Marcial, first leader of the FPL-Farabundo Marti and commander of the FAPL, member of the general command of the FMLN April 12, 1983 the military and Solidarity with Syrian Communist Action Party sives towards taking power, based on an alliance of the workers and peasants and their interests.
As the people's war has intensified, so has the activity of the imperialists on all fronts, their conspiracies, their plots and plans. I am ready to fight against all these evil plans until final victory.
However, it is one thing to fight against the imperialists and their intrigues. It is another to face injustice, calumny and infamy from one's own brothers. A black conspiracy to stain my life as a revolutionary and do much harm to the FPL is developing and reaching its culmination. I do not know whence these defamatory plots come, this conspiracy against my revolutionary life. The only thing I can say is that, as the taking of power approaches, the national and international bourgeoisie will do all that they can to weaken the hegemony of the 26
The Ba'athist party dictatorship in Syria has launehed a mjaor repressive operation against our comrades of the Communist Action Party during the last few months. Several dozen comrades have been arrested, in Damascus in particular; taking the number of imprisoned members to No 33, June 27, 1983). This blow is that much more severe in that the dictatorship has been able to put its hands on the majority of the leading members of the party, and particularly on most of the delegates to the founding conference of the CAP, which took place in Lebanon in 1981.
As is customary for the Syrian regime, the arrested comrades have been submitted to various tortures. In fact, it seems, according to reliable sources, that the new wave of arrests directed at the CAP are in response to directives from the head of the dictatorship, Hafez El-Assad himself, who wants to eliminate the only revolutionary organisation in Syria. And for very good reason: the CAP is the only expression of radical opposition to the Ba'athist regime, in Syria, since the regime succeeded in eliminating the far-right Muslim Brotherhood.
Despite the repression that has harrassed it for three years, the CAP has continued to be consistently active. It is continuing to produce and clandestinely distribute its entire system of press: the People's Appeal, an agitational periodical distributed in several thousand copies; the Red Flag, the bi-monthly
International Viewpoint October 15, 1984
political journal of the party; The Communist, theoretical review; and The Proletarian, an internal discussion bulletin, open to contributions from all party members.
The CAP, which has fraternal relations with the Fourth International through the Lebanese section which aids it with all the means at its disposal, is not a 'Trotskyist' organisation. It is the product of a fusion between several Marxist groupings that existed in Syria at the beginning of the 1970s. The fusion took place in 1976, following three years of extensive discussions. The new organisation was named the Communist Action Alliance, a name that was changed at the 1981 conference to mark the political and organisational maturation that followed five years of existence and struggle.
The CAP defines itself as a revolutionary Marxist organisation. It categoricaltion in stages and emphasises the need to build a mass revolutionary international, in which it thinks the Fourth International will be one component. continuing discussion within the organisation on different programmatic questions, to which our Lebanese comrades are contributing, at the request of the CAP leadership.
As today the Syrian regime has decided to suppress this organisation, it is the duty of all revolutionary Marxists in the imperialist countries as well as the dependent capitalist countries, to undertake solidarity activity with the comrades of the CAP. Public expressions of solidarity (petitions in newspapers, etc.) are particularly necessary. It should be noted that launched a campaign for the release of the CAP prisoners.
Our campaign can only be the more
PST-U fights for legalisation Following its recent conference the Socialist Workers Party of Uruguay (PST-U) decided to act openly in trade-union struggles and popular and democratic actions, and attempt to regain legal status. And the end of July the military regime agreed to legalise the Frente Amplio by repealing the ban on two of its components, the Christian Democracy and the Socialis Party, as well as on ly rejects the Stalinist theory of revolu- useful.
other smaller forces. But the Communist
Party, the PST and other parties remain illegal.
The restrictions on democratic rights,
Meeting of leaderships of European sections of Fourth International As in preceding years, the political bureaus of the European sections of the Fourth International held a working meeting during the last week of August. Delegations were present from Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ire land, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Spanish state, Sweden, Switzerland and West Germany. Representatives of the Socialist Workers Party of the United States and Lutte Ouvriere from France were invited as observers.
The meeting concentrated on three questions:
- the question of activity and orientation in the anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons movement;
workers' resistance to austerity policies in Europe and political developments within the workers movement;
the situation in Central America and the organisation of solidarity campaigns with the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran revolutions.
The discussions and workshop meetings also took up the questions relating to the growth and implantation of the organisations, particularly building youth organisations, implantation in industry and proletarianisation, and radicalisation and work among women. International Viewpoint October 15, 1984
A whole day was given over to reports and discussion on the situation in Central America and the Caribbean, led off by reports from Silvio Prado, a member of the commission for international tions (DRI) of the FSLN in Nicaragua, and a comrade from the Dominican Republic, representing the Bloque Socialista. A second day concentrated on the evolution of the situation in El Salvador and the debates movement there, and the preparation of solidarity autumn.
The main reports on workers' resistance to austerity concerned a balance sheet of the struggles that have taken place in Belgium, a balance sheet of the campaign for the 35-hour week in West Germany, the situation in France after three years of the left government, and, in particular, the British miners' strike. Proposals and plans were made to ensure that active solidarity with the miners' strike would be a main feature of the activity of the European sections during the autumn.
Discussions on the anti-war movement covered the theoretical and strategical questions posed by the arms race as well as perspectives for the peace movements in the years ahead. These discusssions will form the basis of articles to appear in the press of the International. • only a few months before the elections set for November 25, are still very wide-ranging. General Liber Seregni, for example, the Frente Amplio presidential candidate in 1971, cannot stand in the next elections. In addition, the military judiciary is demanding from him, as from all political prisoners because of 'expenditure made by the state' during their imprisonment, the sum of 1,200 US
On the basis of an analysis of the national situation which emphasises the movement's own against the restrictions on democratic rights still in force, the PST decided to begin to challenge the other legalised political forces for the new possibilities of public activity. During the big demonplace in recent months, the PST organised its own contingents with its own banners. But the main initiative in this field was the participation by a leader of the organisation, a political prisoner recently released after serving a sentence of three years, in a hunger strike in solidarity with Adolfo Wosen.
Wosen, who has been in prison for twelve years, is one of the nine leaders of the Tupamaros imprisoned without trial as a hostage of the military regime. Suffering from cancer, and with only a few months to live, Wosen decided to go on hunger strike on July 30, for the demand for a total amnesty. Representatives of the National Party, the Frente Amplio, the PST and other human rights organisations decided to undertake a 10day hungerstrike in solidarity with his action. This action was commented on daily by the press, and the participation of a still illegal party in this public action was widely noted.
The effect of this action was very positive, indicating that it is both possible and necessary to push back the frontiers of the legal system, which are presently being discussed by the military and bourgeois leaders.
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