Unity & Struggle No 06

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UNITY & STRUGGLE

no.6

August 1999


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Workers of all countries, unite!

Unity & Struggle

Organ of the International Conference of

Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations


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Unity & Struggle

Journal of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations.Published in English, Spanish, Turkish and Portuguese

in the responsibility of the Coordinating Committee of the International Conference.

Any opinions expressed in this journal belong to the contributors.


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This version was created in August 2009 by the Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 1918-

55 with use of the texts found in the web page of TDKP (Revolutionary Communist Party of

Turkey).


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UNITY & STRUGGLE AUGUST 1999

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CONTENTS

CHILE

Reformism: the gateway to fascismCommunist Party of Chile (Proletarian Action)

COLOMBIA

On dialogues and negotiations for peace for the ColombiansCommunist Party of Colombia (M-L)

ECUADOR

The importance of the Communist Manifesto for the struggle of the Latin American workers andpeoples

M-L Communist Party of Ecuador (PCMLE)

GERMANYNew revelations about the activities and destruction of the GDR section of the Communist Party ofGermany M-L (KPD/ML)Communist Party of Germany (KPD)

IRAN

On the situation of the regime and the tasks of all progressive and democratic forcesLabour Party of Iran (Toufan)

MEXICO

The epoch of imperialism and globalisationCommunist Party of Mexico (M-L)

SPAIN

The anti-communist campaign, distortion and falsification of historyCommunist Organisation October of Spain

TUNISIA

The role of culture in the struggle against dictatorshipWorkers Communist Party of Tunisia (PCOT)

TURKEY

On commodity production, the law of value, market and planningRevolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP)

BURKINA FASOThe programme of structural adjustment, an arm of the struggle of the bourgeoisie against socialismand communism

Revolutionary Communist Party of Volta (PCRV)


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CHILE

REFORMISM: THE GATEWAY TO FASCISM

Some factors to explain the defeat of September 11, 1973, and to advance towards victory

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the fascist military coup of September 11, every social class,even some class sectors. through their organizations, ranging from the bourgeois Armed Forces tothe political parties, including our Communist Party (Proletarian Action) [PC(AP)], as well aschurches, express their evaluations, draw their conclusions and point out the paths forward accordingto their own class interests.

The fascist military coup that took place in Chile in 1973 was not just one more of the countless onesin the history of Latin America and the world. It has special significance, not only for its greatbrutality but also for the long duration of fascist rule and the characteristic reordering of capitalistoppression and exploitation in Chile, at the demand of yankee imperialism and its local partners. For

us, and this is the goal of the present paper, this holds many vivid lessons for the workers andpopular movement and the outcome of their struggle, depending on the ideas that guide theirpractice.

Given the low level of the existing ideological debate, we do not want to be misunderstood or toconfuse anyone about the truly proletarian and revolutionary character of our analysis. As has beenproven by our tireless practice, we want to first express a well-deserved tribute to all the victims offascism, to all the fighters who fell in the defense or construction of their trade unions, popularorganizations, on the neighborhood barricades, in the armed confrontation, to all those who foughtresolutely against the coup itself as well as against the fascist dictatorship. In honoring them, nomatter how hard it might be for some to admit the communist truth, we cannot stop putting forth

widely our Marxist-Leninist opinion on the main, i.e. the internal factor (the popular movement),that led the working class and the people to the defeat, to the massacre, to confront the reactionariesunarmed ideologically, politically and materially. We do this to break with the opportunist attitude ofrevisionism which, in order to avoid its criminal responsibility, focuses only on the external factor,on the reactionary behavior of imperialism and local capitalism, of ITT, on the "wickedness andtreachery" of Pinochet, etc. One could not expect them to behave differently, due to their reactionarynature.

The ideological and political confusion about the Popular Unity (UP), Salvador Allende and all ofthose who considered themselves the "vanguard", or at least "leftist," in the period prior to thefascist coup, has not diminished. On the contrary, it is on the rise, and it has reached such a level thatthose who stand for the "path of Allende and the UP" are treated as "ultra-leftist." Moreover, someyoung people who have recently joined the social struggle, seeking a means to expose so muchtreason and opportunism, try to find a revolutionary alternative in the praiseworthy and courageousattitude of Salvador Allende, who in the last moments of his life picked up a machine gun in order toresist the fascists hordes attacking the Moneda (the government palace). They uphold the slogan:"He did not surrender, he fought with a rifle!" What is important here is that the youths areexpressing their desire for a revolutionary change. The confusion is being cunningly used byopportunism to divert the struggle and again lead the workers and popular movement along the pathof defeat. It is mainly revisionism and its social-democratic partner who are in charge of this.

There is no doubt that from the point of view of the masses, in regard to bourgeois democraticliberties and the space gained in which to express the desire for revolutionary change in society,there has not been in the history of Chile and maybe of all of Latin America a more favorable period


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than the experience of the UP. This is something that was not only experienced by the people, butwas also observed and acted upon by reaction and yankee imperialism.

The fervor of the masses was an important ingredient during the whole period of Allende'sgovernment. The masses mobilized not only against imperialism and reaction, against the sabotageof production and the black market, as the revisionists argue, but also to advance towards the seizureof power, despite the policies and actions of the UP itself. A proof of this was the fact that theUnified Confederation of Workers (CUT), led by the "C"P and the "S"P, was overtaken by theformation of the Industrial Belts. These organizations, even though they still displayed someconfusion in their objectives and demands due to the negative influence of some opportunist petty-bourgeois ideas, together with the Community Commandos and other new forms of Popularorganization, had the great merit of pointing to the fundamental problem of the whole class struggle,the conquest of political power. This latter, in fact, was precisely what precipitated the fascist coup:imperialism and the bourgeoisie could not allow the workers and the rest of the popular masses, whowere seizing lands and industries, maintaining productivity, managing distribution, etc, to make clearin practice that the capitalists were no longer needed.

As we shall see further on, "Popular Unity," UP, was the result of a long work of reformism andrevisionism, which found strong international support in the revisionist policies of the former SovietUnion after the death of comrade Joseph Stalin and the triumph of the Khrushchevite coup in theformer Soviet Union. We must stress the role played then and now by the experience of the UP inthe ideological and political debate that was developed and is still developing between Marxism-leninism and revisionism, in our country and internationally.

It is necessary to bear in mind that the experience of the UP aroused many illusions at that time invarious countries, especially in the so-called "third world," whose peoples struggled and are stillstruggling to overcome the yoke of imperialism, to achieve progress and social justice. In whatever

manner, the "UP" was presented by international revisionism as the confirmation of the thesis of"peaceful transition" or the "peaceful path" to socialism, adopted by the congress of infamy, theXXth Congress of the CPSU in opposition to the Marxist-Leninist teaching of the revolutionaryseizure of political power, as defended in the time of Lenin and Stalin.

The "peaceful path" of opportunism was a slogan and permanent practice directed at the workersmovement and the popular masses, a slogan that denied the revolutionary truth of the inevitability ofarmed confrontation, when the class struggle reaches a higher stage and the question of power comesto the forefront. This was especially true in Brezhnev's time, when the inter-imperialist confrontationbetween the USA and the revisionist Soviet leadership had sharpened. However, and here theCONSCIOUS BETRAYAL of revisionism was shown, when it became clear that a material (armed)

force was needed to prevent the "reactionary uprising," the revisionists spoke to us of so-called"patriotic officers," of "maintaining the constitutional character of the Armed Forces," of"integrating our Armed Forces into the change." They popularized demobilizing and defeatistslogans like "friend soldier, the people are with you" and "the Armed Forces are the people inuniform," or as Luis Corvalan maintained in December of 1970 (International Journal), "one canASSERT that the people of Chile and the Armed Forces of the country shall resolutely rise incombat in the defense of the sovereignty of their motherland." In consequence of this view, thewhole parliament, with the exception of Senator Raul Silva Ulloa, during the government ofSalvador Allende, adopted the "law of arms control" which gave the bourgeois Armed Forces theright to gain access to and break into any place suspected of storing weapons. This was a great helpto the fascists in preparation for the 1973 coup; months, days before the coup, the bourgeois ArmedForces, using the law voted for by the whole UP together with the Christian Democrats and fascistmummies, broke into industrial establishments, intimidated workers and confiscated some old


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senators appointed for life, with Pinochet himself. Their ministers, like Ricardo Lagos, are receivedwith honors by the representatives of yankee imperialism, the local capitalist bosses express theirpublic approval, even "if one of them were one day to become President of the Republic."

The "S"P leaders have been put in charge of the dirty work of the reactionary Chilean State. The"socialist" Marcelo Schilling, a member of the Central Committee, was the founder of the sinister"Office of Investigations" of the government of reconciliation, whose objective has not been thedismantling of the fascist legacy but, on the contrary, to infiltrate, provoke and destroy therevolutionary organizations of the people and even in some cases to assassinate their members. TheGendarmerie of Chile is in charge of keeping behind bars and annihilating psychologically andphysically dozens of social fighters in "high security jails," while hosting in a "five star hotel" acouple of symbolic military fascist criminals, and it has been and is led now by top "socialist"leaders.

The "S"P was born ideologically, politically and organizationally as a clearly social-democratic,opportunist, anti-communist formation, something which it was never able to overcome. The left-

wing positions that it has adopted at times were due to their exclusion from the bourgeoisgovernment in office or to tactics tending to resolve the problems of hegemony in relation to otherbourgeois political formations, such as revisionism, for example.

Another feature of the "S"P of Chile is that of being a shelter for various opportunist positions andfigures that call themselves "leftists," that have attacked or attack Marxism-Leninism. Trotskyites,Titoites and their anti-communist embryo of self-management, the phony arm-chair guerrillas havefound shelter or rather a hide-out there; in these years of "reconciliation," a large number of formerMIR, former FPMR and former CP members have joined them. Those who tired of fighting have

joined with fascist militarism in the administration of the bourgeois State, profiting from theexploitation of the workers and viciously fighting those who have not leaped with them into the

marsh of betrayal.

The social-democrats of the "S"P have always found their brothers in the leadership of the "C"P, thetireless peddlers of unity of both organizations and positions. Before the formation of the "UP" theGeneral Secretary of the "C"P reiterated again and again that "we will keep insisting that that whichunites the socialists and communists is much stronger [than that which divides them]" (LuisCorvalan, Fighting in Broad Daylight).

Today, 25 years after the coup, the leadership of the "C"P persists in its efforts of "unity" with the"S"P. In this respect Jorge Insunza, in a lengthy interview in "El Siglo" (Number 890, August 6,1998) regarding the proposals made to the "S"P for joint tributes to Salvador Allende, complained

about the failure of his initiative and confessed with a bitterness worthy of better lovers: "Frankly,we did not achieve the success we had hoped for. This week, after more than two months ofdedication, we received the answer from the leadership of the Socialist Party that they will not honorthe commitment that they had made to us to form a broad national committee in which they wouldparticipate."

The "Communist" Party of Chile ("C"P)

For a variety of ideological and political reasons, both national and international, the revisionist"C"P was the main force that defined the thought and practice that gave birth to the experience of theUP. This can not be understood without understanding the long work carried out by the leadership ofthe revisionist "C"P in this respect. One can have an almost complete global picture of theideological and political support that made the UP government possible and that led the workers andthe people into the arms of the fascist massacre of September 11, 1973, only by following the


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all other means fail." (Document of the Leadership of the "C"P in the first year of the government ofIbanez).

The opportunist line of the leadership of the revisionist "C"P found support in the revisionistleadership of N. Khrushchev, whom they blindly followed. Despite the foolish attempt of therevisionist leaders, who tried to present themselves as "independent" and "original," it is good toremember the actions of Volodia T., Mr. T. He exuberantly tried to be more Catholic than the Pope,going around telling whoever would listen, the bourgeois press, that the "C"P was for perestroikabefore Gorbachev launched his perestroika. This was no "return to Leninism," as the Trotksyites andrevisionists claimed.

The devious attitude (see the interview published in El Siglo N. 890) of the "C"P is today focused onusing the "experience of the UP" to attack and slander the proletarian socialism constructed in thetimes of Lenin and Stalin, in the times of the dictatorship of the proletariat. See how Jorge Insunzaattacks socialism: "In many respects, the program of Allende meant completely distancing oneselffrom that model." (...) To retake the experience of the Popular Unity and its government is to show

the people that we do not bow to models which were actually opposed to what we wanted to put intoeffect." It is a fact that the UP did not have anything to do with the proletarian socialism that makesthe opportunists so uncomfortable. But Mr. Insunza, let us remind you that, in the time ofKhrushchevite revisionism, the leadership of your party here in Chile sneezed when your "elderbrother" in Moscow caught a cold.

The tailism of local revisionism in relation to Soviet revisionism had its highest and most grotesqueexpression in the hasty convocation of the Xth Congress of the "C"P of Chile, barely two monthsafter the XXth Congress of the CPSU, in which the "peaceful path to power" was "discovered." Issue#35 of the journal "Principios" (Principles), referring to the "peaceful path," argued that "thisquestion has been put forward from the high tribune of the XXth Congress of the CPSU." After this,

the deceptive efforts to claim "originality" and "ones own elaboration" seem ridiculous. Corvalanmade his "contribution" to the "creative development" of Marxism in the same way that Khrushchevpresented his bourgeois poison, saying that "to tell the truth, it (the peaceful path) had already beenput forward by life itself. In many countries revolutionary changes have taken place through newpaths that cannot be considered as insurrectional.

"In Chile itself, the possibility of utilizing the parliamentary road to achieve power by the popularforces had already been shown. But this question was not sufficiently clear for us" (Luis Corvalan,"Our revolutionary path"). And, to leave no room for doubt as to the "contributions" that revisionismis so proud of and which have done so much harm to the workers' and popular struggle, Corvalanreminds us that: "we pointed out the necessity to make in it (the program of the "C"P) a more

complete and richer analysis of the peaceful road. We said that it should be clearly established thatthis path only excludes civil war and armed insurrection."

The whole period prior to the fascist military coup of 1973, from Ibanez to S. Allende, including thetime of Alessandri and Frei Montalba and their "revolution in liberty," which followed the guidelinesand demands of the "Alliance for Progress," was for local revisionism a period for giving proof of itsgood behavior to the bourgeoisie and imperialism. At the 24th plenary session of the C.C. held in1957, the revisionist leadership of the "C"P made very clear their counterrevolutionary politicalobjectives: "We want and demand our freedom. And we solemnly proclaim that, being free to takepart again in political life, we will not constitute a threat to any respectable interest. We stand for thedemocratic resolution of all questions according to the will of the majority of the country within theframework of the free play of all parties and political currents. Today we do not aim to replace theproperty of the Chilean capitalists with collective property. And if tomorrow it should be necessaryto advance along this path, we believe that this should be done according to the will of the majority


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of the Chileans, through the peaceful road and by guaranteeing the well-being and the rights of thecapitalists, that is by compensating them properly."

Special attention should be paid to the "constructive" attitude of the revisionist leadership of the"C"P towards the "pro-development" or bourgeois reformist government of Eduardo Frei Montalbawho, consistent with his class character, had not the least hesitation in suppressing and murderingworkers, peasants, the indigenous Mapuches, students and neighborhood residents, who werefighting for their economic and political demands (who does not remember, for example, themassacre of residents of Puerto Montt).

From the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies the "C"P and the "S"P voted for the most diverseprojects of Frei's government. The peasants who seized lands, the students who radicalized thestruggle for university reform, the workers and union leaders who opposed and ignored the"agreement" between the C.U.T. and the government that restricted the workers demands, those whofrom revolutionary positions called for the armed struggle and the road of mass insurrection, allthese were denounced as ultra-leftists in the pages of Siglo, the organ of the "C"P.

As their Italian brothers in opportunism, the revisionist leadership of the "C"P never, even in theperiod of the UP stopped trying to form their boasted-of "Historic Compromise" with the ChristianDemocrats.

In December of 1970, Salvador Allende had already been elected President of the Republic. LuisCorvalan (International Journal, December 1970) rendered an early homage to the thesis of theelectoral way or the "peaceful road" of revisionism, of N. Khrushchev and his successors. "The'Chilean example' will show that the ways and methods of the revolutionary process have their ownpeculiarities in each country, and proves that the thesis of the XXth Congress of the CPSU in not soabsurd." Two and a half years after Corvalan, leading the Volodias, Millas and Marin, etc., rejoiced

at the alleged "triumph" of the Khrushchevite thesis, in September of 1973 not only the absurdity ofthe thesis proclaimed by the XXth Congress of the Russian revisionist party was proven, but itscriminal and treacherous character was exposed. The shamelessness of Corvalan has no limits: a fewyears before the election of Allende, in Indonesia, the absurdity of the "peaceful path" had beenproven once again, when more than 500,000 communists and patriots were murdered by the fascistcoup carried out by the bourgeois army of general Suharto against the "constitutional" President andfather of the motherland SUKARNO.

The anti-reformist "left"

From the "left," that is those sectors who took up the struggle against the "peaceful path" or the

"electoral road," great efforts were made to oppose bourgeois reformism, the "peaceful path" andclass conciliation imposed by the so-called "traditional Left." A large number of comrades whobelonged to the "revolutionary left," the MIR (Movement of the Revolutionary Left), PCR(Revolutionary Communist Party) and other smaller groups, were examples of courage inconfronting the fascist dictatorship. Although the revisionists claimed that they were responsible forprovoking the coup, in fact, apart from their ideological and political mistakes, it is in these groupsthat one can find the most consistent search for a revolutionary way out of the crisis of the bourgeoisdemocratic form of capitalist exploitation that existed in Chile before September 11, 1973.

In one way or another the experience of the UP caused different reactions within the "revolutionaryleft." For example the Marxist Revolutionary Vanguard, which to a certain extent struggled againstKhrushchevite revisionism at that time, was paralyzed and self-destructed. Most of its membersopportunistically joined the "S"P and some the "C"P, swelling their most "left" wings and, curiouslyenough, became the most fervent defenders of the UP government, formed on the basis of the so-


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called "peaceful path to socialism" that they had formerly fought. In the end it became clear thattheir break with revisionism never went beyond tactical contradictions, the supposed contradiction ofsimple paths, that is the armed path versus the "peaceful path." With the electoral "victory" of theUP, the contradiction that initially motivated their difference with the latter ceased to exist. Theynever understood that the electoral victory of the UP would prove the non-existence of the "peacefulpath." Those who did not join the UP maintained certain organizational links and mostly diedfighting the fascist coup.

With respect to the Revolutionary Communist Party, one should acknowledge that the process ofcooptation and destruction caused by the electoral "victory" of the UP and its "peaceful path" alsoweakened it greatly and caused it great internal divisions, leaving it with little influence among thepopular masses and almost isolated from the great fervor and the existing class confrontation. Thiswas just at the time when two highly explosive elements began to combine: the generaldissatisfaction of the workers and the people with the vacillation, paralysis and legalism of theleadership of the UP and the open sabotage of the reactionaries and fascists under the shelter andorders of yankee imperialism.

In order to wage political struggle and preserve themselves, the Revolutionary Communist Partymechanically transplanted the international position of the C.P. of China, which led them to seriousmistakes in characterizing the main imperialist enemy of the Chilean revolution. They attackedequally and sometimes more forcefully Russian social-imperialism than yankee imperialism,ignoring the fact that, although both imperialisms were equally dangerous for the peoples in general,yankee imperialism was dominant in Chile. In any case, an important merits of the PCR was that itkept alive the anti-imperialist debate, and did not confine it almost exclusively to the level ofpropaganda. With the inevitability of the confrontation that the social conditions gave rise to, by theend of 1979, and after having promoted and participated in the resistance to the fascist militarydictatorship, both factions into which the PCR had split ceased to exist as a party and some of their

rank-and-file, of those who stayed in Chile, continued the struggle for the Popular Revolution andSocialism.

An organization that stood out for uniting important sectors in disagreement with the bourgeoisreformism of the leadership of the UP, was the Movement of the Revolutionary Left, MIR. Thismovement was made up mainly of radical students strongly influenced by the Cuban experience andthe figure of the guerrilla fighter Ernesto Che Guevara. They raised slogans for the armed strugglebased on the theory of the "guerrilla foco," of "going to the mountains." The MIR in those yearsdeveloped various experiences working with the masses in specific fronts, which led them to becomethe largest of the organizations of the "ultra-left," as the revisionists of the UP used to call them.Politically, the MIR developed a sort of critical support of the government of Salvador Allende.

They took certain actions for the seizure of small agricultural and industrial properties, as well aslarge and monopolistic ones, which they regarded as being the same or almost the same. This helpedto increase the confusion as to who were the main and the secondary enemies of the Chileanrevolution.

Outstanding figures of the old MIR were men such as Miguel Henriquez, who took up withexemplary courage the commitment to the revolutionary struggle. On the other hand, others todayare a slap in the face of the former; they not only retreated to the extent of turning the MIR intosmall remnants, but even renounced all revolutionary ideas and transformed themselves intospokespersons of capitalist exploitation, joining the "S"P or the PPD or even the ChristianDemocrats.

An example of individual anti-reformist struggle, isolated from the masses, reached its clearestexpression in the Organized Vanguard of the People, VOP. Faced with police persecution and as a


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way to "wake up" the masses from the illusion of the UP, its members turned themselves into"Living Bombs" and exploded themselves in front of the general headquarters of the Investigationpolice, where all their members and some policemen died.

Coming from organized Trotskyism, and only to add humor to this paper, it is good to remember thevicious attacks of one of their leading figures, who today seeks to "save Marxism with Christianethics." Luis Vitales, not satisfied with his membership in a large number of small petty-bourgeoisgroups, pretended to be a historian and attacked Bernardo O'Higgins and other independence fightersof the Spanish colonial period for not having fought for the Socialist Revolution.

Another fact that, were it not for the confusion and desperate search by the masses for aRevolutionary alternative to the UP, would only serve to calm our nerves, was the TrotskyiteRevolutionary Workers Party, which was divided into little groups. During the UP, its newspapercalled for a National Strike in support of Allende; 15 days later, having failed in realizing a nationalstrike, it called for a Continental Strike, and without expecting any kind of sympathy for their call,15 days later it called for a "World Strike in support of Allende and against the imperialist attack."

All the various groups of the left, apart from the Trotskyites who are brothers in treason withrevisionism, sought for a revolutionary way out of the crisis of the bourgeois democratic systemexisting in Chile until September 11, 1973. They made great efforts, among which were examples ofheroism. No one can conclude that their defeats were due to a lack of "will" or courage; on thecontrary they had plenty of that. The explanation for their defeats must be sought in the ideas thatguided their practice, in their eclectic thinking, which was far from the proletarian revolutionaryunderstanding, from the Marxist-Leninist ideology, from the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin andStalin applied to the reality of Chile.

Once more, at the expense of the blood of the workers and people, of the lives of honest and militant

fighters, the class struggle reminded us that the working class and the peoples have no future, noperspective for genuine social change, for socialism, if they do not have a genuine Proletarian Party,tempered in the class struggle and formed on the basis of the communist ideology, Marxism-Leninism.

On the 25th Anniversary of the fascist military coup, the working class and the people of Chile donot only have defeats to show, but mainly a treasure of valuable lessons learned through blood and18 years of ideological, political and organizational efforts for the construction of a genuine Marxist-Leninist Party. These efforts have been crowned with success in the Chilean Communist Party(Proletarian Action) PC(AP). This party has no commitment other than that which emanates fromrevolutionary consistency, from Marxism-Leninism, from the Revolutionary interests of the working

class and the peoples of Chile. It has been able to and can provide, unlike any other organization thatcalls itself left or revolutionary, the elements that allow us to expose the true causes of the pastevents, to face with success the present revolutionary struggle and point out its perspectives.

To conclude, let us present the following excerpt from the Programmatic Thesis of the PC(AP)published in June of 1995:

"The heroic days of struggle that preceded us should be summed up from an open, scientific point ofview, leaving aside the dogmatist, idealist and essentially religious conduct that deprive them of anyrevolutionary essence, presenting them (the days of struggle. Note of translator) as somethingalready concluded, not subject to an analysis that might expose their successes and shortcomings, thepositive and negative lessons that emanate from them. Those who today proceed in that way disguisetheir ideological and intellectual inability, or even worse, persist in past errors that will lead to newdefeats for the people.


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"From a sound and correct point of view, both the objective and the subjective conditions that havedetermined all past struggle should be studied, in order to draw revolutionary scientific rigor correctlessons that will enable us to accomplish the historic demand of Popular Democracy and Socialismthat our country requires today.

"Based on the understanding that the objective conditions (national and social oppression andexploitation) for a revolutionary change in a country like ours have always been present, it is aboveall necessary to analyze more profoundly the politics that were in control of past struggles.

"Without a doubt, the quality of the subjective factor is always of primary importance, and theoutcome of the struggle, its victory or defeat, depends fundamentally upon this. The failure of paststruggles are not a result of the absence or weakness of the objective factor, of historical fatalism, orbetrayal by this one or that, and still less of the lack of commitment of our unselfish people. On thecontrary, our people have filled thousands of pages with their heroism that would move anyone totears.

"The resistance to and rejection of imperialism and reaction in the past, particularly in the republicanperiod, could not rely on programs with a genuine revolutionary class alternative, for the destructionof the existing bourgeois power and the construction of a new one, of socialism. On the contrary,these alternatives had been based on progressive reforms, on 'broadening democracy,' on trying togradually 'take over' the Capitalist State dependent on imperialism, seeking the 'transformation' ofthe latter to put it into the 'service' of the people and the workers. Based on this erroneous ideologicaland programmatic foundation of the former leaders of the Popular Movement, forms of struggleswere developed that did not have the perspective of placing the seizure of power, that is the socialrevolution, on the order of the day. A good example of this is the parliamentary road, the 'peacefulpath,' chosen by the Popular Unity, with the whole tragedy that this meant for the Chilean Workersand Popular Movement. This can also be seen in the anti-fascist resistance itself which, although it

engaged in open and mass combat, even armed combat, was always carried out under the banner ofthe restoration of the bourgeois democracy that existed before September 11, 1973.

"In this trend the National and Social Liberation, the Popular Democratic and Socialist revolutionwas absent.

"The subjective factor, the political leadership and its ideas is therefore the determining element onwhich the workers and popular struggles depend. The collapse of the former USSR and of thecountries of Eastern Europe are the Universal proof of our statement, that what happened there wasnot the failure of Socialism, still less of communist ideology, but was, on the contrary, aconsequence of their desertion and betrayal. Today this is clear even to the ultra-blind idealists, to

those who did not want to see the revisionist and anti-communist reality of the leaderships of thoseParties and those former States."National and international reaction have muddied the waters for a short historical period, some self-proclaimed leftist and revolutionaries have abandoned the trenches of struggle and have openly

joined reaction, others still vacillate and in an opportunistic manner try to serve reaction andimperialism, using 'progressive,' social-democratic phrases."The masses, although temporarily confused, seek a way out of the crisis of capitalist super-exploitation, the workers and popular movements follow one another. In general, it can be stated thatin Chile, as in the rest of the world, a new wave of revolutionary struggle of the workers and peoplesis taking shape. This should be greeted with a revolutionary class ideology and politics, of a highercaliber than those in the past, which will really allow us to reach the objectives put forward for thepresent period and will assure the socialist perspective of the process."

Communist Party of Chile (Proletarian Action)


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COLOMBIA

ON DIALOGUES AND NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE FOR

THE COLOMBIANS

With its base in the interests of North American imperialism and of the local bourgeoisie, for morethan a decade we have seen the development of the theme of dialogue and negotiation with theorganisations which are the driving force of the revolutionary war in Latin America. This is a policywhich is essentially concerned with liquidating the revolutionary movement or at least preventing itfrom achieving a level of development which could put in danger the stability of the state and ofcapitalist society, with all its harrowing consequences.

In Latin America this policy is part of the strategy of Santa Fe II and of the processes ofmodernisation being undertaken by the Pentagon. Among other things one of the wings of thisstrategy is the ideological, political and military adjustment in relation to conflicts of low intensity,

like the tactic of "total war or complete war", alongside the need to shape the counter-guerrillaforces, a fundamental part of the state armed forces, and the creation and development ofparamilitary armed forces organised, led, financed and protected by the state. In Colombia, thesefascist elements have undergone a dangerous development, corresponding to the level of aggressionfrom the state; one of these groupings is the so-called Co-operative CONVIVIR, institutionalised bythe state.

This policy of so-called dialogue and negotiation coincides with the more intense application of theneoliberal economic model and the rightward shift of the US and of the bourgeois political parties,with their frequent fascistic expressions, which have made more extreme the usual repressivebehaviour of the US. The basis of this policy comes from a series of arguments which claim to

demonstrate the definite "triumph" of capitalism across the world, due to the collapse of the USSRand of Eastern Europe, the ending of Marxism-Leninism as an ideological and political guide for thestruggle of the people and for the armed revolutionary struggle, and its collapse also as anindispensable instrument for the triumph of revolution and the taking of political power by thepeople.

In general, this idea has joined the international bourgeoisie and the countries where there is anational liberation movement. At the same time there have been identified more stubborn fascistsectors, who reject the instrument of dialogue. These and other reactionaries prioritised theintensification of counter-guerrilla war, which means war against the people, more murders,massacres, forced removals, tortures, to sum up a virtual holocaust is what attracts them.

The application of this strategy brings with it the activation on the part of imperialism of socialdemocratic currents as a means of expanding their domination over the people; and putting into playtheir double policy of combining repression with demagogy, which has been successful for them inmany cases.

With this strategy we see put into action some "new" aspects concerning peace and the so-callednational consensus:

- There is an accent on the presumed pacifist nature of the bourgeoisie "a party to world peace and aforce for peace in countries with internal armed conflicts";

- We see reactivated the theme of Humanisation of War, naturally enough it being the insurgentmovement of whom it is demanded that they meet the requirements of the declaration of


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International Human Rights; and they seek to bring on board humanitarian organisations such as theInternational Red Cross, Amnesty International, America's Watch, etc.;

- In many countries the bourgeoisie is putting into action the policies of social contract, with the aimof co-opting for their counter insurgent aims, the struggles and social protests of the workers;

- The slogans and rhetoric of peace persistently repeated, in every tone and in every context,accompanied by insistence on the search for negotiated settlement for all political, economic, socialand military conflicts, have managed to convince some democratic and even revolutionary sectors ofthe need to stop revolutionary war and to take part in the "peace" process, and by this route toconquer power for the people.

- In some cases, such as in Central America and regions of the South, there have developed socialdemocratic tendencies inside the anti-imperialist forces and they have succeeded in re-directing thestruggle into openly treacherous negotiations. This has been done through the conception that richand poor, bourgeoisie and proletariat, imperialists and peoples have all now arrived at a communion

of interests, and that this makes it unnecessary to fall back on one method.- We see revived the thesis of the impossibility of the triumph of revolution, only through which itcould truly be possible to seek negotiated solutions for conflict, to arrive at agreements and to throwsome crumbs to the people. Although they do not say as much, this means the renunciation ofrevolution.

- They pick up and retouch the idea according to which the bourgeoisie might be disposed to makefundamental changes in favour of the people, to establish a democratic state with full political libertywhich would make viable the seizure of power through the electoral road. Some among the anti-imperialist fighters, product of political softening, are exchanging revolutionary aims for second rate

reforms and are submitting themselves to the pacifist campaign helping to give credibility toimperialist domination and bourgeois repression and exploitation through the means of pacts andagreements.

Dialogues in Colombia

Colombia has been one of the most important arenas for the launching of this bourgeois-imperialistpolicy. Since the government of Belisario Betancurt, in this new stage this policy has been practisedbut with little success. Imperialism and the bourgeoisie have not completely given up the possibilityof inflicting military defeat on the insurgent movements, but among the reasons why they are nowproposing the tactic of finding political solutions to conflict in Colombia, at least in words, are the

following:

- It is now more than 35 years since the launching of the armed conflict for the revolutionary seizureof power by the people and throughout this time the movement has suffered many increasingcampaigns of extermination, co-ordinated through the permanent deployment of dirty war and blackpropaganda. In these campaigns the whole range of tactics has been utilised, including the taking ofhostages and assassinations among the mass of the civil population, claiming by this to be "takingthe water away from the fish". It cannot be forgotten that the doctrine of National Security definesthe people as "the enemy within" which, logically, it must be necessary to exterminate. The bestialactivities of today's paramilitaries is the practical application of this policy of the state which iscombined with the criminal business of drug trafficking, and which has turned itself into a mightyand diabolical arm to massacre the civil population in various regions of the country.


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- The revolutionary movement particularly the insurgent movement has acquired a level ofdevelopment and a significance such that it has become a factor that must be taken into account inrelation to the implementation of any government plans. That is to say in Colombia the insurgentmovement is a force which seriously influences in important aspects of national life. This movementhas the support of growing sections of the people which gives it the perspective of still furtherdevelopment and strength.

- Even though the geographical location of this movement is mainly rural, its urban presence andinfluence is becoming ever greater. Many of these forces are located in areas which because of theireconomic production have strategic importance. For this reason, the movement has become animportant factor in the economic life of the nation; and from the political point of view its decisionsand actions have serious repercussions in national life, and up to a certain point, in the internationallife of our country.

- Given this preceding reasons the status of the insurgent forces is more evident everyday.

- The bourgeoisie is aware that while on the one hand, the rhythm of revolutionary forces is one ofdevelopment and accumulation, on the other hand, their own forces are going through a situation ofserious crisis, which has exposed contradictions with an unanticipated level of seriousness; thedeepest that has been experienced in any of the last few decades. In passing we should note that thishas something to do with Washington's decision to "recognise", (however conditional this may be,nevertheless it is still recognition) the government of Samper, even though this is in its decline. Thistells us very clearly of the great merrymaking which was awakened in all the political and economicsectors united in any way with the establishment and its interests.

- The armed actions of the guerrilla movement against La Fuerza Publica (State Forces) in the lasttwo years have become real defeats for the national army and police. The battles of Las Delicias,

Patascoy, San Vicente del Caguan, La Carpa, el Billar and the latest ones until now, Miraflores, LaUribe and others, among them the defeat of Number Three Brigade, the most highly qualified of allthe elite troops, all these show, on the one hand, the weak state of the army and the police, and onthe other, the grand development and quality of the guerrilla movement. According to thedeclarations of the present of the republic, ministers of the state and leaders of the bourgeois partiesthis has really been a catastrophe, described as the worst in the last 30 years. Among the generals arethose with the highest of ranks; never before, that anyone can remember has there been such ahumiliation for these superb emissaries of the establishment.

In the months of July and August and in the last days of Samper's presidency - as if to render evengreater his helplessness and loss of prestige - that guerrilla movement launched a political-military

campaign, which has shaken the state already riddled with the generalised corruption and immoralityof a government in agony and a dominant class which is blind and dim-witted in its pride.

These circumstances which should be matters of urgency for a state in a tight spot, have not howeverchanged in any way the behaviour of the government, which has shown itself in every way unable torise to the challenges posed by reality. These tremendous lessens from life may perhaps be of someuse to the present president Pastrana, who has began by showing that his peace policy is different;and as if to gain credibility he went to the mountains to talk to two of the top leaders of the FARC-EP, commanders Marulanda and Mono Briceo, and he has made many promises about changingtraditional policies, by pretending to submit to the guerrilla forces with the trap of a false dialogue orthrough force of arms.


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The fact is that independently of whatever may make up the essence of the peace policy of Pastrana,the forcefulness of the facts of the war of recent times are forcing the government to give them theirproper importance in the new circumstances.

- The evolution of the all of the aforementioned in the different spheres of national life and in manydifficult ways , and particularly in what concerns the climate of peace and tranquillity required forthe development of the country, these developments are going further and further away from thedirection hoped for by the establishment. Throughout the government of Samper the country becameless and less governable and he was unable to provide the necessary bold solutions to confront theenormous complexities becoming more serious everyday.

- The peace policy of Samper, which was a continuation of that of his predecessor, demonstrated itscomplete bankruptcy; it was always undermined by having deep contradictions with the reality of thecountry. They talked about peace while intensifying war, and they did not want to recognise theexistence of internal war, while the deficit in the national budget was caused by the excessiveexpense of the war. In the middle of this conflict the state always prioritised solutions by force, with

the hope of liquidating the guerrilla movement in the field of battle at the same time as they paintedmany doves of peace.

- Samper, Gavaria and those who went before them always used the language of "peace and civilconcord" but only as a dream; they were never sincere or honourable, neither with the Colombiansnor with the international community, who they filled with lies. The collapse of the Sampergovernment is a proof of our assertion. Our history is full of lessons which should be learnt bygovernments if they wish to be right in their actions.

It is the people who are the makers of history. It is they who generate wealth and constitute the mostprogressive force of society. For this reason, we understand dialogue as an instrument for political

argument with the dominant class and its state, when it is concerned with the political project ofrevolution, and its proposals for change to meet the needs of popular and national interests in so faras on the one hand revolutionary and progressive organisations are involved, and on the other, arethe various proposals from the bourgeois and pro-imperialist state.

Nothing and no one can be substituted for the people in this undertaking; it is the people with theirdetermined participation who constitute the guarantee that the right road will be kept to, that theywill not be deterred by their own pain or anguish, and that they will defend their interests withcomplete determination. It is obvious that we are not talking about making the revolution at thenegotiation table; however, there are social and military policies which could allow the greatmajority the space to gain material and spiritual benefits to enable them to go forward with sufficient

independence and political freedom, and which could make possible the full deployment of thepeople's capacity for struggle on behalf of the construction of the new society and new human being.We are talking about the creation of a New Colombia, different from that which came out of thedefeat of the generals over the land, the property of the Indians, different from the Colombia whichcame out of the confrontation between the "godos" (conservatives) and "cachiporros" (liberals);different from the country bathed in blood and surrounded by the misery of her children, which hasbeen left to us by the Liberal and Conservative parties, which are still in power today, lining up oncemore, hoping to gain power in the presidential elections, and who went along with the recent triumphof the candidate for North American imperialism and for the right wing sectors whether liberal orconservative, inheritors of the throne of Gaviria.

In this, as in the following experiences of dialogue, we must take into account the teachings ofhistory, however not very encouraging: the faithful antecedents of the betrayal of Obispo-VirreyCaballero and Gongora in the agreements with the communards in 1789 and the hideous crimes, the


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most horrible of all committed against Jose Antonio Galan; the dark experience of the agreement ofRojas Pinilla and the liberal guerrilla fighters murdered in the decade of the 50s; the murder ofCarlos Pizarro after the signing of the Negotiations Virgilio Barco; the number of commanders andfighters murdered after the peace agreements in the present decade, and the policy of murder andassassination of revolutionaries, fighters for the people, defenders of human rights, trade unionists,workers and people, victims of militarism and paramilitarism who continue to make bloodyColombian soil.

As the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Colombia and as the Popular Army of Liberation(EPL), we are ready to undertake, alongside the people and the guerrilla movement, the SimonBolivar Guerrilla Coordination, this new experience of dialogue with the state, if the policy ofDialogue of Peace of President Pastrana makes it possible.

The theme of dialogue and of peace today constitutes a wide political scene, where we find verydiverse currents of political-economic and social thought in the country, including different religiousand ethnic groupings, women, youth, workers, professionals and intellectuals, educators and

educated, employed and unemployed. However, the participation of the people in this dialogue doesnot yet have the force necessary to ensure that the many heavy obstacles, many of them dating backinto the past, can be removed. As yet, there does not exist the right atmosphere to ensure that thishuman torrent can say what it wants to, without fear, in every possible scenario.

This is because dialogues of this kind of breath and depth, which should take place in the capitalcity as well as in the provinces, in the city and in the small town, in the city district and in thecounty, in urban areas and rural ones, require democratic freedoms and security, the absence ofsoldiers and police, detectives, paramilitaries and informers and all others whose job it is to arrest,isolate, torture, assassinate or massacre. Within these limitations and facing these risks no dialoguecan reach the required political level. This being the case proper dialogue cannot take place, instead

of this we see only meetings of a few individuals, almost always same people undertaking the samediscussions. The fact is that a state policy o dialogue and peace, which is demanded by the presentconditions of national conflict, must offer a wide, free an secure atmosphere; and only the state -if itreally wants peace- can guarantee this.

The people must be able to express the truth, communists and other revolutionaries must be able tosay what they are thinking and what they want for the people; the guerrilla fighters must be enabledto explain their projects for their homeland, and their spokespersons must have security that they willnot be assassinated as happened to Oscar William Calvo, spokesperson for the EPL who was riddledwith bullets in 1985, for the "offence" of having signed some agreements concerning truce andNational Dialogue.

Now, there must be real and deep changes in the policy of Dialogue and Peace, or otherwise theywill be something other than real dialogues. This has its difficulties. The state forces, including thosewhich declare themselves to be NGOs, are undertaking an intense political labour and have put intoaction various initiatives in the search for a wide consensus of the people against the revolutionaryguerrilla movement and for the strengthening of the institutions of the state, including fascisticorganisations, as a guarantee that an "official peace", whose application -we should remember- hasalready produced hundreds of thousands of assassinated and massacred people. These postures,basically of a social democratic nature, unify a range of organisations which have in common abourgeois conception of so-called "civil society", which they include all the social classes of thenation, because, according to them, their interests are similar, and above them stand the sacredinterests of the homeland, and those interests represent a single interest. Another central idea is thatmaking peace is mainly a question of will, and that it has not been achieved until now becausedialogues have not taken place in the context of "civil society", in its spirit of harmonising views


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with the perspective of the higher interest; but rather dialogues so far have put in place of toleranceand the spirit of conciliation confrontation between sectors of society divided by differences of class.This view blames "the lack of culture and of education", and according to this notion, "the absenceof peace has its origin in the formation of a culture of violence and intransigence", other causes inorder of least importance are considered to be social inequalities, and the deficiencies of democracyand of Human Rights.

An important part of this current of thought is based on the principle plank of its political campaign(openly or covertly) towards the war undertaken by the revolutionary movement; every effort ismade to demonstrate that this is not a just war, that it does not make sense, that it cannot lead tosocial change, and that the persistence of this war has its cause in the violent nature of the guerrillafighters.

Not withstanding the multiplicity of currents and tendencies, this whole complex system of positionscan be summed up in two grand conceptions about the world: On the one hand a metaphysical andidealistic conception; and on the other a dialectical materialist conception of history and society.

The former look for idealist and psychological reasons to explain the absence of peace and thetendency to violent action; they speak of the culture of violence, of generosity, of solidarity and oftolerance. With this vision of the architecture of history and of the construction of society they areunable to understand that social phenomena are eminently material facts, that they have their roots incomplex objective processes subject to laws which determine the course of events in the society;they do not understand the determining role of the economic and material base of the existence ofclasses and the interests of classes clashing with the world of consciousness, with the various aspectsof the juridical and political superstructure.

Our party has emphasised that "every situation for dialogue requires a particular tactic, an

appropriate agenda, coherent foundations, favourable settings and the means to develop it (...) Wetherefore propose a revolutionary manoeuvre to win this space for dialogue, to create new politicalscenarios, to widen the acceptance of our policy, to promote the organisation and mobilisation of thepeople; in order to contest the bourgeoisie on our own terms, to promote our conception of peace,social justice, democracy and political freedoms (...) This political manoeuvre must be linked withthe dynamic of the movement of workers in order to develop its agitation around its own politicalproposals and its own demands, and so that it develops its mobilisation and wins in disputes face toface with the bourgeoisie."

These dialogues for peace and social justice have a fundamental beneficiary: Colombia and theColombian people.

They can open up a new period of our history, in that the realisation of the hopes of humankind mustbe based on meeting the needs and wishes of the workers both of city and of countryside within acertain framework. This framework must include:

- The humanisation of war, so that International Human Rights are no longer a dead letter for thestate committed to its people and to the international community for its implementation.

- Human Rights as a harmonious body of achievements meant to serve the people on every terrain:economic, political, social, cultural, in terms of security, etc.

- En economic model which must make a 180 degree change in the distribution of goods andservices, and put an end to the unjustified privileges of those who have been the lords of capital andof the land.


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- Democratic freedoms so that the citizen can have restored to him/her the well being and dignitywhich belongs to his/her present and future.

- National sovereignty without which we cannot have a free and prosperous homeland such as wewish to construct.

This would be the nucleus of the great gains which through many actions the people must achievethrough a programme of changes with a democratic and anti-imperialist government which couldopen a wide road towards a future governed by the people themselves.

Communist Party of Colombia (ML)


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ECUADOR

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO

FOR THE STRUGGLE OF THE LATIN AMERICAN WORKERS AND PEOPLES

Introduction

The people of Latin America have a strong tradition of struggle. This tradition manifested itself firstin the struggle against Spanish colonialism, then became generalised with independence movements.Since the beginning of this century, it has become more intensified as an anti-oligarchic, anti-imperialist and democratic struggle, and has shaken the hegemony of the bourgeoisie and monopolistcapital in the region.

Class contradictions have found their most apparent expressions in the struggles of the LatinAmerican workers and peoples. These struggles have written the history of our continent, full ofheroism and determination. They have been the continuous source of the main contradictions which

have upset the world especially in this century.

From Mexico to the Caribbean and Central America, from Panama to Patagonia our peoples havemanifested an inexorable struggle against foreign hegemony and the yoke of exploitation. In thisprocess the working class, with its parties and political organisations, has played a significant role inthe raising of the consciousness of the working people and the popular masses in general, and insocial struggle, democratic gains and political rights. It has also profoundly influenced socialistthought, social sciences, biology, law and other scientific fields of research.

In the formation and development of this democratic, progressive, anti-imperialist, anti-oligarchicand revolutionary thought of the Latin American peoples, Marxist-Leninist socialist ideology,

especially the Communist Manifesto, which is one its principal works, written by Marx and Engelsin 1848 on behalf of the International Working Men's Association, has had an unquestionable effect.

Scientific socialist ideology, which has played a significant role in the formation of the progressiveconsciousness of the working class in the region, has been an inspiration to working class struggle,and it has led most of the revolutionary struggles against the bourgeoisie and imperialism in theAmerican countries. These revolutionary movements, with ebbs and flows and with victories andtemporary defeats at different times, have faced the ideological, political, cultural and militaryrepression of the enemies of progress, and caused them to experience shameful defeats.

Today the Marxist-Leninist ideology and movement, the leftist and revolutionary consciousness

which continue to exist amongst the working people and in the progressive sections of society arefighting against the attacks conducted by finance capital. These attacks are an assault on our peoples'right to existence, targeting nations' independence and sovereignty, and manifested in neoliberalpolicies with all their destructive effects.

Another manifestation of these attacks is the new anti-communist campaign, which, with a uniqueferocity, is designed to eradicate the signs of the revolutionary left and the ideals of socialism byblackening them, sowing seeds of scepticism with regards to the validity and effectiveness of theirstruggle, and imposing social reconciliation on peoples as an alternative in order to save capitalism.

However, we have no doubt that our principles which have become stronger, renewed and improvedout of these harsh struggles will continue to be the guide for building a new life, the inalienable aimof the working class and the peoples.


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Devotion to revolutionary theory, the process of formation and consolidation of left forces,accumulation of experience, correcting mistakes and utilising unrealised possibilities, all this createsthe possibility for peoples' struggles, which are -even though slow- on a new rise, to guarantee thefuture of the anti-imperialist and anti-oligarchic struggles whose ultimate aim is to seize power.

This new process of development gives new responsibilities to the left forces in terms ofcontributing to revolutionary science and defending it. This requires them to make new attempts andnew efforts. This is how peoples' consciousness can be influenced, thus ensuring that it becomes asolid guide of our struggle. Also, the general situation requires us to be in the forefront of thestruggle for power, to lead our peoples, and to open the path to freedom and democracy.

Spread of Marxism and the influence of the "Manifesto" in Latin America

The independence of the Spanish colonies in America was achieved as a result of the influence ofthe bourgeoisie utilising the instability of colonial economy. These independence movements were,in a way, politically inspired by the 1789 French Revolution and the thoughts of the Age of

Enlightenment, and they sought to develop the capitalist features of those countries in order toestablish modern national states governed by representative bourgeois democracies.

In our continent the working class began to take shape in the last years of the last century, but thisdevelopment has not been at the same pace and with the same intensity in every country of thecontinent.

The nucleus of the working class emerged as a result of the capitalist mode of production becomingdominant with the production and export of agricultural products such as coffee, cacao, cotton, sugarcane, banana and mines such as copper, gold, silver, tin, carbon and potassium nitrate, etc.

Furthermore, the monopolist capital -European or US originated- which entered the continent, hasbenefited from the local bourgeoisie and big land owners who were concerned about their classinterests and undertook an important role with the bourgeoisie in the formation of the new AmericanRepublics, accepting the imperialist hegemony without objection. The economies of these newcountries have been run under the hegemony of big land owners and the bourgeoisie together withforeign capital, maintaining the remnants of semi-feudal structure.

All these factors have a determining character on the slow and deformed capitalist developmentprocess, and they define most of the problems of underdevelopment and dependence.

The existence of foreign capital is a determining factor in the higher level of capitalist development

in some of the American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia.Although a similar process has been undergone in the other countries of the region, development ofthese countries has been limited.

It is without doubt that since its formation the working class of Latin America has been faced with aharsh and cruel oppression and exploitation. At that early time working people laboured in unhealthyworkplaces under inhuman conditions and without any holidays and restricted working hours.

The workers who were not protected against any work accidents were faced with constant penalties,even physical punishments. Their already low wages were eroded through payments for the highprice goods usually bought from the shops connected to their workplaces.

The working people whose consciousness had risen began to fight against these living conditionsand sought for ways of improving them. However, these individual and spontaneous uprisings were


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suppressed with arms. Later, having gained experience and realised the power of their unity, theyformed the first workers' associations, unions and political organisations.

Workers movements in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay where the level of capitalistdevelopment was high, were influenced especially by the political ideas of the working people whohad migrated from Europe where there had been big workers movements. Anarchism which wasdominant in the Spanish section of the International was the first current of idea in which theworking people of our continent were interested, and it found a suitable environment to spread inLatin America.

Later, scientific socialist ideas of the International founded by Marx and Engels came to thecontinent as an ideological centre, a political movement and organic link. The CommunistManifesto, which had been circulated clandestinely in many Latin American countries, reached theworkers through the intellectuals who adopted the Marxist ideology. As far as is known theManifesto was first published in 1888 in Mexico.

In 1896, "O Socialista", the first socialist journal in Brazil, was published. The slogan under the titleof the journal was the slogan of the Communist Manifesto: "Workers of all countries, unite!" A yearlater "El Proletario" in Chile took over the defence of Marxism. It was followed by "El Obrero"which was published in 1890 in Argentina. The representatives of this journal participated in theSocialist Congress held in Paris in 1898.

As a result of the conflict in Uruguay, the anarchist currents lost power vis-a-vis Marxist ideologywhose principles were accepted by the majority of the workers' organisations. Jose Marti in Cubaexpressed his admiration for Karl Marx publicly in 1883.

Although Montalvo could not understand fully the fundamentals of scientific socialism, the

credibilitiy of Marxist ideology and of the International led him to introduce this organisation in theEcuador of his time.

When Marcos Alfero, the brother of the liberal "caudillo" Eloy Alfaro, publicly declared hisaffiliation to this international organisation, the church and the conservatives did not wait a minute toattack him.

Luis de Tola, the Portoviejo Bishop, called on everyone to fight against those who were planning tobring into the country "the devilish social system which makes every family and property ownertremble, in the name of the International which is the summit of modern rottenness."

A piece of paper going around from hand to hand in Quito in 1876 read as follows: "TheInternational infiltrated in our ranks has been declared through a society gathered in Quito throughthe effort of Juan Montalvo... This is an ultimately atheist current. The International means handingover the wealth gained with honour to those who will never know how to work. This is in favour ofthose who usurp the labour of the hard working people with deceitful excuses such as theorganisation of labour and fair wages. Down with the pro-Internationalists!"

The Socialist October Revolution in Russia, led by the Bolshevik Party, Lenin and Stalin, wasanother phenomenon which had a great influence on the workers and peoples of Latin America.Despite geographical distance and the efforts of the bourgeoisie, state officials and the police not tolet people learn of this development, news about the changes in the lives of the working people as aresult of their coming to power reached the region. The people of Latin America realise howdeterminedly the workers and peasants built the socialist regime, and how the peoples who were


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victims of oppression and exploitation were trying to build a society without exploiters andexploited.

The socialist nucleus occurred through the contribution of some intellectuals and self-employedpeople who, during the November 1922 workers uprising, had been the supporters and participantsof the workers Councils which had been held back until then. The first of these councils was set upin Quito in 1909, and the second in Guayaquil in 1920.

In this period, the socialist press had a great effect on the spread of proletarian views. The firstsocialist newspaper "Bandera Roja" reflected its views around socialist and anarchist concepts. Thiswas followed by "El Proletario" , "Alba Roja", "Luz y Accion" and "La Antorcha".

Also, we should not forget the significant political contribution to the November 1922 uprisingof theGuayaquil Women's Centre which was named after Rosa Luxemburg, the well-known leader of theworkers' movement in Germany and Poland, and the founder of the Communist Party of Germany.

These women excited and inspired the strikers with their speeches, chanted the slogans of thestruggle, took part in big street demonstrations, and some of these heroic women lost their lives inthe bloody repression by the liberal government of Jose Lui Tamayo against the workers who calledfor a general strike.

Among the later formations were "Grupo Socialista" in Quito, "La Reforma" in Tulcan, "PartidoSocialista Democratico" in Riobamba, "Grupo del Azuay" in Cuenda, "La Vanguardia" in Loja,"Centro Socialista Doctrinario" in Guayaquil, and "Nucleo Revolucionario de Manabi" in Portovijo.

All these formations are examples of the role of revolutionary Marxist ideas in the struggle andorganisation of the working people of Ecuador.

The blood of the workers shed in the massacre of the 15 November 1922 led to new progress in theeducation, organisation and struggle instead of intimidating the workers. For example, "EcuadorRepublic Lenin Communist Propaganda and Action Section" founded in 1925 inspired by theMexican communist Rafael Ramos Pedruza, applied to the Third International in Moscow, with theslogan "Workers of the world, unite!"

All these efforts would lead to the formation of, first, the Socialist Party of Ecuador in May 1926,and then the Communist Party of Ecuador as a section of the Third International in January 1930.

The influence and the thesis of the "Manifesto"

The Communist Manifesto came to being as a result of the necessity of explaining to the world whatand who the communists are. It is a principal work which was designed as a tool of the foundation ofa genuine revolutionary party which is the highest form of organisation of the proletarian class.

In order for the proletariat to come victoriously out of its struggle against capital, the Manifestoemphasises the need for a political party which can analyse their interests, educate and organisethem, and lead the struggle for power and for the building of a new world.

The Manifesto also aimed to bring an objective and real interpretation for the working people andthe oppressed in order to change the world in accordance with their interests, and has succeeded indoing this.


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This short work has not only met the then existing situation's requirements, but it also challenged theperiod with its appropriate and wide scale programmes, and it has maintained its validity up untiltoday.

The most important theory of the Manifesto is the one which has shown that the history of societyconsists of contradictions and class struggles, and which has rejected "social conciliation", consensusand other methods presented by the bourgeoisie and the revisionists in order to slow down and divertthe struggle of the proletariat and the peoples. This theory suggests that the final aim of classstruggle is to destroy the capitalist system based on oppression and exploitation and to establish thehegemony of the proletariat.

This form of power, which is different from the capitalist repressive regime, promises freedom, realsocial justice, welfare and culture to the working people.

The Communist Manifesto expresses the inevitability of the collapse of capitalism in its dialecticalprocess of development. With their application of the historical laws of development to society,

Marx and Engels pointed to the fact that the capitalist system can be overthrown with a revolutionthrough which socialism can be established.

Socialism which has objectively existed in this century was a result of the efforts of working peopleand freedom-loving men and women. It has been developed by revolutionaries and communists.During its implementation in the USSR and other countries it has proved its ability to bring solutionto the main problems of the working people and poor people. It put an end to the chaos caused bycapitalism, provided freedom, jobs and justice to the peoples, and given them back their honour.This was the case until the betrayal of the revisionists such as Khrushchev, Gorbachev and Yeltsinwho diverted its aims.

However, despite this historical junction and grave betrayal, the working class and the peoples of theworld are accumulating their forces and energy which will give a new revolutionary mobilisation tothe struggle for a life style different from the one presented by capitalism and its collaborators.

The Manifesto and the theory of socialism place the social movement of the working class at thecentre of the changes in the present world, and consider it the determining factor in these changes.

The political aims of the workers' movement manifesting its social importance in different periods ofthe history of our countries, the changes in the revolutionary movement, fierce attacks of the rulingclasses and imperialism, the bloody suppression of the struggle of the workers and the peoples...Although all this has not yet been concretised in the face of the mistakes made during the struggle

and in the conditions of the ideological, political and organisational campaign designed to divert theworking class from its targets, this does not mean the denial of the role of the working people inchanging the world. The fact that this important role of the international workers' movement, whichis experiencing a new awakening despite the deep wounds it has suffered, is on the agenda againproves that the objective laws of social development expressed by the founders of scientificsocialism in the Manifesto are inevitable.

There is no doubt that the struggles of the Latin American workers and peoples are mainly inspiredby the fundamentals of Marxism expressed in the Manifesto and other works. The universallyvaluable content of these works is of great importance in analysing the historical framework ofcapitalist development in our continent and the historical roots of our peoples and their development,thus in determining the foundations of the struggle of the oppressed.


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Marxism-Leninism has had an undeniable influence on many revolutionary processes which havenot been victorious, such as the ones in Brazil, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Chile. Althoughrevolutionary doctrine had an important effect on many of these revolutionary attempts, theoreticallyand organisationally it was not able to establish itself as the main base of these processes, and thusthere were grave mistakes.

The revolutionary theory of the workers had a role in the process of Cuban revolution; it gavedirection to that struggle, and served as the basis for the main actions in combat against the tyrannyof Batista, for the establishment of popular power, and for the initial steps in the construction ofsocialism; this was before the position which was taken in relation to the USSR caused errors in theforward march of socialist construction. The present "rectification movement" creates new prospectsfor the development of revolutionary movement, correcting some mistakes.

Just the same as the Manifesto pointed to the fact that socialist consciousness and its politicalextension should be the only basis for the fight against the diversions from revolutionary thought, theMarxist ideology in Latin America had to fight against those currents which attempted to destroy

and distort it and give concessions on its main principles.As indicated above, Marxism first fought against the anarchist and anarco-syndicalist currents, thenagainst the nationalism of ARPA in Peru, the Peronist "justicism" in Argentina, and the populist"Vargism" in Brazil.

Marxism-Leninism waged a harsh fight against social democrats, bourgeois populism, and the rightwing forces who did not hesitate to establish fascism in order to block revolutionary struggle.

Another important ideological fight conducted by Marxism-Leninism has been against the harmfulinfluence of revisionism which is an ideological and political bourgeois concept designed to divert

the struggle for revolution and socialism.

Thanks to this life and death struggle Marxism has maintained its existence without dilution and hasnot been dissolved despite the fact that it has not yet recorded any big achievements in our region.

Reformist and revisionist diversions have spread amongst the working class which is faced with thecontinuous attacks of bourgeois governments and capitalist bosses. Anti-communist attack haschosen the working class as its target because of its characteristics and historical role.

As a result, the revolutionary left in our continent is faced with an important task: to spread ourproposals for change within the framework of Marxism-Leninism and the scientific theory of

revolution, responding to the problems of the period we live in, to work non-stop in order to improvethe level of consciousness of the working people, thus directing our action towards the necessarychanges to deal with the present problems, and to enable us to reach towards the future.

The principal doctrine of the Manifesto and the tasks of the left

As the revolutionary left of the continent the principal question we have to answer in our work isthis: Is the principal doctrine of the Communist Manifesto and the Marxist-Leninist theory still validin order to achieve the necessary changes in our region, or have their analyses and proposals losttheir historical validity and can they no longer be implemented in solving our problems?

We believe that they are still valid; but also it is our task to study them in the light of the newhistorical circumstances. Such a study does not destroy their revolutionary character, on the contraryit proves their validity and it is a requirement of dialectical change.


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The question is whether we can reach a solution for these problems which require a revolution in ourcountries, basing ourselves on these revolutionary principles of our theory, and whether we canachieve the process of change in our continent. In order to cope with the fierce attacks ofimperialism and the international bourgeoisie, and to be the chosen vehicle for taking our peoplestowards the changes we want, our parties and organisations have to be stronger on the ideologicalplane, in their political action and organisational structure, and more influential in our countries.

First of all, we need to take a strong ideological, political and organisational initiative in the eyes ofour peoples in order to explain our proposals, who we are, what we want, and what we want to do inour respective countries. This is the only way of getting the support of the working masses for ourproposals.

We believe that our proposals must be based on the necessity of the improvement of the daily livesof our peoples, and of the organisation of revolutionary struggle as the only path for achievingemancipation. The ruling classes and imperialism try to eliminate social struggle in order to present"consensus" and "social reconciliation" as an alternative solution to poverty and underdevelopment.

We must develop social struggle, being in the forefront for peoples' demands, aspirations, needs andrights. We must spread the proposals of revolutionaries and the idea of necessity and the urgency ofsocial change and revolution. This is how we can give a socialist consciousness to the struggle of themasses, and increase the influence of our political organisations.

In order to put an end to the unjust and irrational political system, the democracy of the richdominated by the bourgeoisie and monopolies, people should have the consciousness to reject theexisting society because of its inhuman character. With their tradition of struggle and hard-workingcharacter our people cannot continue to live in the same way as they have lived; an alternative mustbe found to this disgusting system.

The left must help people to understand the necessity of seizing power; because the working peoplecan meet their needs fully, as is said in the Communist Manifesto, only when they come to power.

The alternative which we have to support and to spread unconditionally is socialism, a regime basedon real social equality and on the emancipation of the working people, a regime where there is nooppression and oppressed. The implementation of socialism before it suffered that historical betrayalhas proved that it can provide welfare, decent jobs, educational, health and cultural services topeoples.

The reality of Latin America, the changes we are undergoing, the state of social struggle in the

continent, the opposition supporting change, different forms of struggle against the enemy, thepossibilities of social movement... Revolutionaries must understand all this well. They must learnrevolutionary theory, master Marxism-Leninism, and fulfil their tasks in the struggle of our peoples.

All forms of struggle should be learnt and put in service with the aim of seizing power. As is statedin the Manifesto, our peoples can win their freedom only through revolutionary violence, and armedstruggle against capital.

Strengthening unity and solidarity between the revolutionary, left, progressive and democraticorganisations in the continent and in the world is an present day necessity for all the forces aimingfor change, struggling against imperialism and the bourgeoisie, and, with us aiming for revolutionand socialism. Our aim is known. Let us now unite our fists and wills to achieve this aim withhonour.


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The statement presented by the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador to the Second

International Seminar on "The Questions of Revolution in Latin America".

July 1998

M-L Communist Party of Ecuador


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(Operativer Vorgang - OV - 'Sektion'). These central plans of disintegration and liquidation are notfound in the individual StaSi dossiers. Tobias Wunschik's work is a "treasure chest" of extensivequotations from sources.

As an expression of his basic bourgeois attitude, Wunschik's political assessments may, for themoment, be left aside.

Tobias Wunschik's comments are supplemented by information, documents and MfS documents onthe "Magdeburg" and "Weisswasser" cells of the GDR Section.

The Formation of the GDR Section

At the end of 1975 and beginning of 1976, the foundation by the KPD/ML of its own section in theGDR was made public. The corresponding declaration was published in (the Party's central organ)Roter Morgen of February 7, 1976.

While the KPD/ML had already been formed in 1968 in the FRG, the nucleus of the GDR Sectionemerged within the GDR itself.

In the beginning of the 1970s, some students in the eleventh and twelfth grades at an ExtendedSecondary School (Erweiterte Oberschule; EOS) in Berlin got together to study the texts of theclassical authors of Marxism-Leninism independently of the official version propagated by the SED(Socialist Unity Party of Germany, state party of the GDR). They were not the only ones in the GDRd

Unity & Struggle No 06

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