Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 13:57:53 -0400
From: hariette-AT-easynet.co.uk (Hariette Spierings)
Subject: M-G: Armed Revisionism in Latin America - EDI Number 40


The following is another article in the English translation of El Diario
International Number 40.  

Committee Sol Peru - London
Press Commission

Revisionist guerillas: Revolution or counterrevolution?.

Armed revisionism is not a phenomena occurring only in Peru.  This is an
issue having deep roots in the countries of Latin America. Its origins,
development and decay have ideological-political connotations. It relates to
the contention between revolution and counter-revolution and manifests the
struggle between Marxism and the various bourgeois ideas that develop within
the ranks of the people. 

In this brief article we attempt an introduction - with the MRTA as an
example - to the phenomena of the armed struggles led by revisionists and
bogus Marxists. We consider that we should delve deeper into this subject in
the future and thoroughly elucidate the various elements that paved the road
for the trickery played on millions of oppressed by bogus armed struggles. 

We shall never cease to underline that for a person or political group to be
regarded as revolutionary it is not sufficient to be involved in armed
struggle. 
As we have said in several opportunities, a "phenomena of armed struggle may
be regarded as revolutionary, progressive, nationalist, pro-imperialist,
fascist and counterrevolutionary, depending on its class stand and its
strategic objectives". 

We insist again that in order to "determine the genuine character and
political content of any armed struggle it is necessary to analyze
rigorously three fundamental questions: 1) What is the ideological basis of
the organization leading the process; 2) What are its political objectives
and; 3) What class does it serve and represent?".  

The clarity and understanding we may have regarding these 3 elements would
determine the correctness of the analysis of a process of armed struggle.
Contrariwise, lack of clarity on these three issues, would lead to serious
errors and a false identification of any armed phenomena. 

Moreover, we should stress that Marxist theory and praxis teaches that the
struggle for power demands that the proletariat be equipped with its own
vanguard organization, i.e., its communist party. In his time Lenin said:
"The proletariat in its struggle for power has no other weapon but
organization". We must emphasizes that any armed movement, without a genuine
party to serve it as an advanced detachment, is condemned to failure. 

In Latin America we have many examples of armed struggles led by multi-class
fronts that have led the working class and the rest of the oppressed into
serious defeats. 

Latin America is a good laboratory to test diverse guerilla organizations
who hiding behind a high-sounding phraseology pretend to disguise their
revisionist and counter-revolutionary nature. One of these is the so called
Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA) that proclaims itself as
"marxist-leninist".  
However, its military and political practice has shown it to be an
organization that is closely linked to the most objectionable political
forces in Peru. 

The true face of the MRTA can be seen in its repeated demands for "peace
dialogues". In its conciliating with the various regimes of the day, the
MRTA entered into an arrangement with Alan Garcia in 1985, and later offered
"peace" to Fujimori in 1990.  

We can see the real face of the MRTA in its calls for unity with the
"healthy and democratic sectors" of the armed forces, the police, the right
wing parties, and the church. In their close links with the legal left in
Peru, their equivocal position regarding the electoral processes, and above
all, in their active participation in organizing para-military bands to
fight against the Maoist guerillas led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). 

No one would ever be able to find in the MRTA any genuine marxist-leninist
ideological basis. This organism is nothing but a grotesque caricature of a
Marxist organization. And what can be said of its political objectives?. 

Facts show that its main aims can be summarized in seeking negotiations with
the Peruvian regime.  A negotiation that would mean the last sketch in a
travesty aimed at a complete and direct capitulation before the regime and
US imperialism. In Peru - or anywhere else in the world -  negotiating away
the armed struggle ("peace dialogues") can only serve to consolidate the
regimes of repression, and to sustain the states of oppression. 

The MRTA is not an isolated case in Latin America.  Armed struggles led by
bogus Marxists are a phenomena linked to basic ideological and political
problems, both national as well as international. 

On the theme of the international aspects we shall mention the fact that
various armed movements in Latin America arise linked to the strategic plans
of modern revisionism in power in the former Soviet Union from 1953.  In the
sixties, the Soviet Union led by Nikita S. Khrushchev began to promote and
support a number of armed movements, not with the aim of overthrowing states
and systems of oppression, but in order to improve its own position and
score points in its contention vis-a-vis other imperialists powers,
principally the USA. 

In the internal aspect, armed revisionism in our region relates directly to
the petty bourgeois essence of the Latin American intelligentsia. It
likewise relates to the late development of the working class and its delay
in being capable of equiping itself with its own communist party. 

In connection with these two aspects, non-Marxist positions develop
entailing a high degree of danger and causing great harm to the future of
the struggle for socialism. One of these thesis is that deniying the need
for the proletarian Party as the key element in initiating any victorious
process of armed struggle. A part of this same phenomena is the so called
thesis of the "foco of insurrection", a thesis that shows a clearly petty
bourgeois and anti-Marxist content. 

The phenomena of bogus armed struggles is a problem connected with the forms
that revisionism assumes in order to continue to parasite and deceive the
oppressed masses.  In Latin American countries it is common to find
typically revisionist organisms that parade themselves under the label of
"marxist-leninism" and that partake in armed movements, while at the same
time seeking to involve themselves in the electoral processes of reaction. 

It is also common to see armed groups dissolve themselves in order to become
an "integral" part of official politics and to present their candidates for
election. 

Latin America is plagued by examples of the road that armed revisionism
follows from its beginnings to its capitulation.  One such is the Colombian
M-19 that surrendered its weapons to the government in March 1990 and became
"integrated" into the political (electoral) life of Colombia. 

The MRTA, the M-19 and Ecuador's "Alfaro Vive" linked by the same umbilical
cord of revisionism, once set-up the "America Battalion" with which they
tried to make a clumsy parody of the liberation army led by Simon Bolivar
last century. 

Another example of revisionist, capitulationist, and counter-revolutionary
guerillas is that provided by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front
(FMLN) in El Salvador, that in January 1992 signed-up for a "peace
agreement" with the pro-imperialist regime in that country. The FMLN
capitulated and the first thing they did was to present candidates for El
Salvador's presidential elections. 

Another example is the Revolutionary National Union of Guatemala (UNRG) that
on December 29, 1996 signed up for a "peace agreement" and surrendered its
weapons. Now the former-guerilla fighters of the UNRG serve as decoration
for the official political set-up of Guatemala. 

Going back somewhat in time, we should also mention the Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN), whose armed struggle ended up in an open betrayal
of the Nicaraguan people. After the victory against the Somoza dictatorship,
the FSLN gave birth to the National Reconstruction Government of Nicaragua,
which served merely to deliver the country to the representatives of US
imperialism. 

During the last 17 years the armed movements that have betrayed and
surrendered their weapons to the enemies of the people are not few. From the
Sandinistas to the Guatemalan guerillas (these being the last in
capitulating) there is a short jump showing that the capitulationist process
of revisionism has accelerated and that its disappearance is something
inevitable. 

This capitulation begins irreversibly with dialogues and "peace agreements"
that - as we all know - correspond with the US plans for "pacifying" the
region. 

An example of this phenomena is provided by the behavior of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This group has been carrying
out armed actions for the last 33 years while never tiring of proclaiming
their search for a peace agreement with the Colombian regime. If they have
not capitulated yet, the reason is - as one of their leaders admits -
because the regime has not shown sufficient willingness. 

Recently, one of their commanders, Raul Reyes, has pointed out quite
directly that FARC "is an ideological guerilla, and thus permanently
presents proposals leading to the search for peace, seeking solutions other
than war.  However, the political class in Colombia does not have an
inclination to find any kind of understanding, any kind of formula, except
that of war". (Interview published by Resumen Latinoamericano, July-August,
1997). 

But the proposal for capitulation is not merely coming from FARC. The same
proposals for peace agreements "other than war" are also put forward by the
leaders of other guerilla movements. In Colombia itself, the commander of
the National Liberation Army (ELN), the priest Manuel Perez, has declared:
"That an arrangement may be arrived at would depend solely of the
consciousness of people in setting in motion transformative processes in the
political, economical and social regime". (Resumen Latinoamericano,
July-August, 1997). 

On this same theme, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in Mexico,
who initiated their activities amidst spectacular publicity, has ended up by
transforming this movement into a circus serving exclusively to provide copy
for the big bourgeois media. 

The EZNL, by means of their dialogues for "peace and reconciliation" and
their demands for "inaugurating a democratic, plural and multi-ethnical
Mexico", demonstrates that this group is nearer to a definitive capitulation
than to a true revolutionary enterprise. 

										



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