Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 12:47:11 -0800
Subject: M-G: Re: M-I: The MRTA holding of the Japanese ambassador house in




On Sun, 12 Jan 1997, jschulman-AT-juno.com (Jason A Schulman) wrote:
>Does your organization have connections with the Argentinian Poder Obero?
>What's your international tendency?

I think they have a tendency to spam.  I got at least 3 copies of
this same tired old shit dissing the stalinists and "sendero".  This is
an awful mailbombing of some filthy stinking trot-rot and it better not 
happen again.  -Jay / Detroit


>
>On Sun, 12 Jan 97 18:06:41     Poder Obrero Peru <pop-AT-mailhost.pi.net>
>writes:
>>The MRTA holding of the Japanese ambassador house in Lima and the tasks
>of
>>the working class.
>>
>>
>>On Tuesday 17 December at 8.20 pm, in a bold military action, a 
>>commando of the MRTA took around 500 hostages at a reception in the
>residence of 
>>the Japanese ambassador in Peru.  Among the hostages were more than a 
>>dozen ambassadors, various military figures involved in the  offensives 
>>against subversion, big businessmen, supreme judges and three ministers,
>
>>including the chancellor.
>>
>>This event has broken into an almost sepulchral peace that has seemed 
>>to characterise the political situation in Peru.  This peace has been
>broken
>>only by the machinations of the prudish opposition, against the amnesty
>with
>>the military assassins, the privatisation of the oil industry, the
>>re-election of Fujimori, and by the seizure and later release of 
>>General Robles. The working class and its organisations  - with some 
>>exceptions - have been in a retreat that has continued to  permit the
>political 
>>stability of this Bonapartist civic-military regime. 
>>
>>Peru has one of the highest levels of cost of living in the 
>>southern hemisphere, with average monthly wages not sufficient to cover
>a 
>>family's costs for more than a few days, and with 90% of the population 
>>unemployed or underemployed. While the people are ground down by the
>recession, 
>>the multinationals are favoured, with legislation such as the
>elimination 
>>of labour security, and privatisation. The links of Montesinos, 
>>(Fujimori's main collaborator and leader of the all-powerful National 
>>intelligence Service (SIN)), with the narco-traffic; the poor quality of
>new 
>>public buildings such as schools; the "Popular y Porvenir" financial 
>>scandal; these are some of the most notorious cases of recently exposed
>corruption 
>>which the regime and its servile parliament have tried to hide. Fujimori
>
>>continues to approve laws which are strengthen his authoritarian hold. 
>All 
>>these conditions contributed to massive decrease in the government's 
>>popularity, but without producing a solution of mass organisation.
>>
>>The occupation of the ambassador's house has destroyed the 
>>prevailing myth that the armed groups have been absolutely defeated.  
>>Nevertheless, it has also distracted the masses from their initial
>questioning of the 
>>regime's authoritarianism and policies of starvation and centralism,  
>>and has fuelled the repressive forces which aim to eradicate all popular
>and 
>>working class resistance. The bourgeois "opposition" started to defend
>the  
>>regime around the slogan for a "national unity", which actually aims 
>>to isolate and defeat the MRTA's putschist action and to maintain the 
>>political stability which Fujimori has achieved.  
>>
>>The government had secured this popular support largely through having 
>>supposedly managed to contain and defeat "terrorism".  The capture 
>>of the Japanese ambassador puts Peru at the centre of world news in
>spite 
>>of the censorship of the bourgeois press  and demonstrates that this 
>>country is still in internal conflict.
>>
>>The bourgeoisie have made a lot of fuss about this.  A large 
>>proportion of the Peruvian elite is being held hostage.  In spite of its
>massive 
>>patronage of the media,  progress towards peace has been slower than 
>>progress against an amnesty with the military assassins. The national
>flag 
>>is seen displayed on domestic houses in affluent areas but not, by and
>large, in 
>>zones inhabited by the poor, reflecting a social contrast which is also 
>>demonstrated in varying support for the action of the MRTA
>>
>>
>>The popular majority do not support the action of the MRTA, but nor do 
>>they feel solidarity with the wealthy hostages.   Calls for national 
>>unity have not gained support among the poor.   While the president's
>wife 
>>offers Christmas turkeys and other special foods to the embassy 
>>hostages, and the media are fulsome about her concern that the hostages
>have no water or 
>>electricity, the popular masses are conscious that they themselves 
>>survive from day to day in worse conditions than these.  Popular opinion
>
>>everywhere combines opposition to violence, with ironic comments about
>those 
>>who, for the first time, are having to endure the daily living
>conditions of the 
>>Peruvian masses/
>>
>>The working class does not identify with the MRTA.  It is a 
>>petty-bourgeois movement with the opportunistic methods appropriate to 
>>petty-bourgeois ambitions, laying claim to the struggle of the masses. 
>But it has 
>>raised  anti-imperialist demands and we must defend it against our
>common 
>>enemy, the bourgeois state.  This state and its government do not have
>the right 
>>to criticise the morals of the MRTA action, where this action is 
>>considerably less violent than the actions of the police; the death
>squad 'Grupo 
>>Colina', under the protection and support of the government, has 
>>committed far more bloody acts, legally sanctioned and rewarded.
>>
>>Workers should support all popular struggles for the release of 
>>political prisoners, but the correct method for this is through strikes
>and 
>>other direct mass action.  The seizure of the embassy was carried out by
>an 
>>elite who are completely divorced from  mass movements.  They do not 
>>call for the mobilisation of  workers, but merely struggle in defence of
>their own 
>>partisan interests (their own legalisation, release of prisoners,
>funds).
>>
>>The Peruvian working class has suffered massive defeats.  The 
>>parliamentarian stalinists (IU) and the militaristic stalinists (MRTA
>and Sendero 
>>Luminoso) have been largely responsible for these defeats.  Both 
>>variants of stalinism are ideologically based in a framework of the
>national 
>>bourgeois state and are opposed to the revolution of workers' and
>peasants' 
>>councils.
>>  The parliamentarist stalinists have supported privatisation and 
>>repression.  The equally repressive militaristic stalinists have also 
>>colluded in the demoralisation and fragmentation of the working class.
>>
>>The MRTA aims to demonstrate to the bourgeoisie that it is not as 
>>violent and bloody an organisation as the PCP/SL, and that it deserves
>to be 
>>legalised.  The reactionary media never tires of accusing the MRTA of
>the 
>>abduction and murder of various business figures.  The  workers do not 
>>by any means sympathise with these bourgeois victims.  But they must
>place their 
>>own class independence above these actions, which attempt to demonstrate
>
>>to the exploited that the road to victory is not through their own 
>>self-organisation but through relying on isolated and putschist
>'vanguards'.
>>
>>The MRTA does not defend workers' democracy.  We revolutionaries 
>>oppose the murder carried out by the MRTA on various of their
>dissidents.  But 
>>we cannot consign the MRTA militants to the mess of bourgeois justice 
>>because this state is not fit to stand in  judgment on them.  This state
>
>>which starves its masses to death, does not have the right to judge the
>action of 
>>the MRTA, whatever methods it uses.
>>
>>At first, the aim of the MRTA action was to seek the release of its 
>>imprisoned members, for which it initially raised progressive demands. 
>But 
>>currently it is apparently negotiating a "peace agreement".  If this 
>>is confirmed, all it will be possible to say is that the MRTA is seeking
>
>>a 'heroic' capitulation in order to distinguish itself from the shameful
>
>>capitulation of Gonzalo's PCP- Sendero Luminoso.
>>
>>Javier Diez Canseco (leader of the United Left) and the reformist left 
>>maintain that the government should come to an understanding with the 
>>MRTA and should be negotiable about the prisoners, in just the same way
>as 
>>it decreed an amnesty with the Grupo Colina.  The exploited could not 
>>make the same mistake of placing the state terrorists in the same bag
>with the 
>>petty-bourgeois rebels.  The workers' movement must fight for the 
>>unconditional release of the rebels, and for absolute condemnation of
>the state 
>>assassination squad. Only workers' tribunals have the right to judge 
>>POLITICALLY, the rebels who have attacked the workers' interests.
>>
>>Some of the released hostages have expressed conciliatory sentiments 
>>towards their former captors.  The President of the Association of 
>>Exporters has categorically denied that any of the hostages has been
>tortured.  
>>Toledo (the third most voted candidate in the last presidential
>elections) compared
>>the conditions in which the embassy hostages were kept, to those in 
>>which the MRTA prisoners live, where only one half hour visit is 
>>permitted per month, and where there is no access to television, radio
>or 
>>newspapers.  The Fujimori regime, which always put obstacles to the
>entrance of 
>>the International Red Cross into the prisons and that it could interview
>the 
>>prisoners, now have to use its services with the aim that it could daily
>
>>and person-by-person oversee the psychological and physical integrity of
>
>>the captured members of the government which ordered or supported
>tortures 
>>and massacres.
>>
>>The MRTA is trying to convince the Peruvian leading lights that it can 
>>be reintegrated into the system just has happened with its comrades in 
>>Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua and nowadays, Guatemala. 
>>"Expreso" newspaper and other reactionaries are arguing that the MRTA is
>in 
>>extinction and for that reasons is not worthily giving them the
>legalisation. 
>>Serpa, who is commanding the MRTA's operation, is the only member of the
>
>>national leadership who is free in Peru and it is clear that this is  a 
>>blatantly desperate call for attention.
>>
>>
>>At the moment the most likely outcome is a negotiated settlement.  A 
>>military solution is unlikely to arise.  The USA and other powers have 
>>sent special commandos, and Russia has proposed a multi-national rescue 
>>team. A military intervention could prove counter-productive to the 
>>bourgeoisie's project to attract foreign capital.  El MRTA does not take
>an
>>aggressive stance, and instead of radical  threats to kill hostages,
>releases the 
>>president's mother and tries to ingratiate itself with them.
>>
>>On Saturday 28 December the government envoy and the head of the MRTA 
>>met for talks for the first time.  In its ensuing communication the MRTA
>
>>still did not call for a change to economic policy or for the liberation
>
>>of all the hostages.  It is likely that the head of the MRTA will end up
>
>>releasing the hostages in exchange for his own safety, for perks for the
>
>>political prisoners, and for agreement to start talks towards
>legalisation of 
>>the MRTA.
>>
>>Revolutionary Marxists do not support this "guerillerist" strategy 
>>but neither do we call on the MRTA or the PCP/SL to give up their arms 
>>to the capitalist armed forces and the state.  We call on the fighters
>in 
>>both movements to give up their strategies and to dedicate their
>military 
>>forces to self-defence tasks defined by assemblies of workers and poor
>peasants.
>>
>>The CGTP and other popular and workers' organisations have lost the 
>>political initiative.  Their bureaucrats are conforming to a perfect 
>>neo-liberal model of demands for peace and negotiation.   We workers
>must 
>>struggle to revitalise our unions and to mobilise mass resistance to
>these 
>>bourgeois attacks.  Anti-imperialist and workers' organisations must
>seize this 
>>moment to organise events and to mobilise demands for the release of all
>
>>political prisoners, employment stability, full employment and defence
>of 
>>the social demands of the workers.  The state of emergency decreed by 
>>the government in Lima and Callao is aimed at stopping all mass
>organisation, and 
>>to ensure that the silent and growing discontent of the poor does not 
>>explode.  We must take advantage of the fact that the government is in a
>weak 
>>position and weaken it still further with greater force.  We do not 
>>accept the government's call for national unity.  We do not want unity
>with a 
>>government which weakens us with starvation wages and more unemployment.
> 
>>Now we call for an independent struggle, uniting all our struggles
>against 
>>the common enemy.
>>
>>We call for:
>>
>>Immediate increases in wages and salaries up to levels which cover the 
>>cost of living.
>>
>>Full employment.
>>
>>Foreign debts to be written off.
>>
>>Unite all union struggles; for a congress of elected and revokable 
>>delegatesto lead the workers' struggles.
>>
>>Freedom for all anti-imperialist prisoners.
>>
>>Down with the amnesty on state terrorism, and the state of emergency.
>>
>>
>>
>>Poder Obrero, Lima first week of January 1996     
>
>-- Jason
>______
>"The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of
>extremists we will be."   Martin Luther King, Jr.  "Letter from
>Birmingham Jail," in *Why We Can't Wait* (1963).
>
>
>
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